By CHUCK OFFENBURGER COOPER, Iowa, Nov. 30, 2016 – Bob Cox, my high school classmate, lifelong friend and something of a hero to me, has died. He was one of the best and brightest that our hometown of Shenandoah, Iowa, ever produced. Let me tell you about Robert Earl Cox. There was a special bond…
See the end of this story for a post-election update. By CHUCK OFFENBURGER JEFFERSON, Iowa, Nov. 8, 2016 — One problem with small towns and small counties in rural Iowa, I’ve often observed, is that life can be so good out here that it’s too easy to start thinking small. That hasn’t been a problem…
IDA GROVE, Iowa, Jan. 10, 2017 — There are lots of big, loud, bad things that happen around us and command the attention of all of us. Then every once in a while, you run across a small, quiet, good thing that’s been happening for years but it’s a complete surprise to you. And when you figure out…
By CHUCK OFFENBURGER WEST DES MOINES, Iowa, July 6, 2016 — When an editor from the New York Times news bureau in Washington, D.C., spends four years interviewing, researching and writing a book on a baseball story in Iowa, you can pretty well figure it’s a story worth telling — and reading. “The Baseball Whisperer: A Small-Town…
IDA GROVE, Iowa, Jan. 3, 2017 — Photographer Don Poggensee, who lives here in northwest Iowa, decided he wanted to close out 2016 and start 2017 “with some iconic images of Iowa.” He thought about it and decided on old wood barns. Why? “What could be more typical of rural Iowa?” he reasoned. And this…