By CHUCK OFFENBURGER BALLTOWN, Iowa, March 7, 2016 — Mike Breitbach pointed at me from another customer’s table the other day and told him, “That guy over there and I have been friends for 40 years.”  No way, I first thought. But I quickly did the math, and, yep.  The first time I came to Breitbach’s Country…

CHUCK OFFENBURGER COOPER, Iowa, June 4, 2016 – I’ve got three strong feelings about the race in Iowa for the U.S. Senate as we come to Tuesday’s primary election.  First, Rob Hogg, 49, of Cedar Rapids, is the best Democrat to come down the road in Iowa since Tom Vilsack, he is ready to serve…

By CHUCK OFFENBURGER DES MOINES, Iowa, June 15, 2016 — My fellow Vanderbilt University alumnus  Andrew Maraniss, of Nashville, who has quickly become one of the best new sports authors working in the U.S., speaks Sunday late afternoon at the fourth “Wonder of Words” literary festival at the Western Gateway Park downtown in Iowa’s capital city. …

By CHUCK OFFENBURGER JEFFERSON, Iowa, May 5, 2016 – The Republican Party here in Greene County apparently is not acknowledging that there is a GOP primary race for the 4th district seat in the U.S. Congress. In early April, Greene County Republicans held their annual “spring rally,” and incumbent U.S. Rep. Steve King was invited…

By CHUCK OFFENBURGER This weekend of June 10-12 in our county seat town of Jefferson, Iowa, our annual Bell Tower Festival is celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Mahanay Memorial Carillon Tower. It made me think back to a column I wrote 30 years ago right now for the Des Moines Register, telling the story…