By CHUCK OFFENBURGER SHENANDOAH, Iowa, Aug. 2, 2020 – Well, I’ll be damned. You’re telling me a business operates for 132 years in a solid, people-serving, community-building way in my hometown – including making the best malts on Earth at its classic soda fountain – and it’s now going belly-up? Not on my watch, brothers…
By CARLA OFFENBURGER COOPER, Iowa, July 30, 2020 — Throughout my adult life, gardening has been a real joy for me. Ever since I’ve had my own yard, I’ve been digging in the dirt, planting seeds and watching things grow. And I’ve been fairly successful at perennials, annuals and vegetables. I’m just getting started with…
By JIM ROSS LIGHTFOOT WHITE OAK, Texas, June 15, 2020 — My voice has been silent for quite some time. However, I am moved to comment on our current situation in this country we all love. Quite frankly, I am irritated, a bit confused, very tired of corona virus lockdown, appalled and, quite honestly, a…
By CHUCK OFFENBURGER COOPER, Iowa, July 4, 2020 — As we were taking our traditional measure of the corn crop and the general health of agriculture on the eve of this Independence Day, our friend and neighbor Karen Lawton hit upon what may be the happiest thing you can say about it right now: “The farm…
By CHUCK OFFENBURGER JEFFERSON, Iowa, April 30, 2020 — When the advance agenda for this week’s Jefferson City Council meeting reported that one of Iowa’s greatest wrestlers, T.J. Sebolt, would present an economic development proposal, I immediately reserved a chair at the media table — although that really turned out to be a spot on…