By CHUCK OFFENBURGER JEFFERSON, Iowa, Sept. 13, 2023 — On a chilly but sunny late-fall morning two years ago, I walked into Greene Bean Coffee in Jefferson just as Debi Durham, the state’s economic development director since 2011, was walking out. She was wearing some kind of trench coat and sunglasses and carrying her cup…
By DOUGLAS T. BATES III (Editor’s note: The author has been a friend of our Chuck Offenburger since the two were freshmen at Vanderbilt University in Nashville.) CENTERVILLE, Tenn., Sept. 4, 2023 — Donald Kenneth Sundquist died on August 27,2023. He was the two-term 47th Governor of Tennessee. Before that he served 12 years in…
By CHUCK OFFENBURGER JEFFERSON, Iowa, Sept. 1, 2023 – Oh my goodness, it is working! Diversifying and growing our workforce and population is triggering economic growth here in Greene County, exactly like we were told and shown it would do. And exactly like we’ve been telling our good people that it would do. In fact, just announcing…
By MARY RICHE OMAHA, Neb., August 25, 2023 – “I’m an old rocker, as in rock ’s’ roll,” I told my husband Chuck Offenburger shortly after we got involved. After learning he had never heard of P!NK, my favorite rock star, I warned him, “I’m probably too much of a rocker for you to handle.”…
By CHUCK OFFENBURGER DES MOINES, Iowa, Aug. 21, 2023 – A funny thing happened on my heralded return to the Iowa State Fair as the Czar of Cinnamon Rolls – I got scooped! I just hope I didn’t get COVID. My step-daughter Janae Jaynes, from Scottsdale, Ariz., arrived Friday evening for a visit. She’d just…
By CHUCK OFFENBURGER DES MOINES, Iowa, Aug. 13, 2023 – On Saturday, I got both the 2023 Iowa State Fair and the 2024 U.S. presidential election started up – or at least my own participation in both. And as I did so, it occurred to me this is my 50th state fair, or close to that, and…
By CHUCK OFFENBURGER DES MOINES, Iowa, Aug. 1, 2023 — When Theresa Knight, a producer & director at Iowa PBS television, called me last fall and said she wanted to interview me for a new documentary on the Iowa State Fair, I asked her, “What part of it? What’s going to be your focus?” Her answer:…
By CHUCK OFFENBURGER DES MOINES, Iowa, July 29, 2023 – Jamie Buelt, owner of the public relations and marketing agency “en Q strategies” in Des Moines, has been involved in some of the biggest business, political and community campaigns around Iowa over recent decades. But her husband Gary Buelt, their kids, and a few of…
By CHUCK OFFENBURGER DES MOINES, Iowa, July 22, 2023– In recent days, I finally have accepted reality and given up trying to make happen what would probably have been my last big reporting project – experiencing and writing about baseball in Cuba. Yes, I’m pouting about it. As I told you early this year in…
By CHUCK OFFENBURGER JEFFERSON, Iowa, July 24, 2023 – There were a lot of younger people scrambling around the courthouse square here on Monday – lining up outdoor toilets, erecting traffic barriers, putting up large canvass shade canopies, hoisting huge promotional signs, helping local groups start setting up their food stands, and more. RAGBRAI L…
