The Elbert Files

Growing up in Iowa gave me a false sense of agriculture.

I didn’t grow up on a farm, but I thought a lifetime of listening to cash-grain and feeder-cattle reports gave me an innate …

“It’s all about the numbers,” my friend K.C. said when I caught up with him at the John and Mary Pappajohn Sculpture Park.

He was looking at “Thinker on a Rock,” the whimsical sculpture …

It’s time to move on. 

The Iowa caucuses didn’t help or prevent Joe Biden from being nominated and elected in 2020. They also did not prevent the nomination of Donald Trump or help him in …

If you don’t have enough to worry about with climate change, the pandemic and war in Eastern Europe, here’s one more thing to consider: Artificial intelligence is language aware.

Not like Siri or Alexa; this …

I bought “On the Trail of the Jackalope” because, like author Michael P. Branch, I’ve been intrigued by the idea of a mythological horned rabbit for much of my life.

Although I purchased the …

Efforts to create whitewater rafting, zip lining and other amusements along the downtown riverfront suffered a setback recently when the sole bid for an initial phase of work was $73 million, nearly double the estimated …

Water is one of those commodities, like dirt, that we Iowans have always had, but until relatively recently, we rarely questioned.

We treat it like air and expect every tap to provide clean water, in …

Iowa State University is sending mixed messages.

At a time when ISU’s major-sport athletic teams have shown they can play at the highest levels, its academics appear to be sinking. 

The contrast was obvious in …

Mariann Clark accomplished a lot in her 93 years as a nurse, executive, mentor, mother, wife and shoe model.  

Four years ago when she retired from Iowa Methodist Medical Center, “it took about five people …