IDA GROVE, Iowa, Sept. 17, 2018 — Photographer Don Poggensee says in his observations of birds in Iowa, he notices that the hummingbirds are usually the first to start moving south, “as early as the end of August or the start of September.” So he took a few photos of ruby-throated hummingbirds, “our most common…
By CHUCK OFFENBURGER COOPER, Iowa, Aug. 19, 2018 – I’ve long said that one of the things I like most about being a Catholic is that the church is slow to bend to the social whims of the moment, including my own. That has probably helped Catholicism survive for centuries in the many very different…
By CHUCK OFFENBURGER JEFFERSON, Iowa, Aug. 21, 2018 — In late summer about five years ago, Scott Shriver and his crew from Shriver Farms had most of us in Greene County stumped about what the “new” crop was that they had coming up in a very visible field along Iowa Highway 4. First there were…
By CHUCK OFFENBURGER COOPER, Iowa, Aug. 13, 2018 – Inspired by a Smithsonian Institution exhibit examining the impact of sports on American culture – which is now on display at the Greene County Historical Museum in Jefferson – I have been diving into the history of sports in our little town of Cooper here in…
By CHUCK OFFENBURGER STORM LAKE, Iowa, Aug. 5, 2018 — The second season of the summertime Pioneer Collegiate Baseball League came to a crazy end — a crazy-fun end — here Friday night. Albert Lea’s Lakers clinched the championship with a 12-11 victory over defending champion Storm Lake’s Whitecaps. It was a storybook worst-to-first reversal…