The Elbert Files

Inflation was a hot topic even before the consumer price index hit a 40-year high of 6.8% in November. 

“The speed of inflation in moving from zero to almost 7 percent is shocking and unsettling,” …

The copper-plated windows of the downtown library reflected the image of my friend K.C. It was a bright, cold day and his hooded figure was facing east as I approached.

“This will be interesting,” …

The last day of 2021 is a good time to dig into my ideas file and pull out a couple of Cliffs Notes versions.

One story I’ve wanted to write for some time is …

Next Tuesday, Dec. 28, is the 175th anniversary of President James K. Polk’s approval of statehood for Iowa, while noting in his diary “nothing of much interest occurred today.”

Polk’s 1846 diary entry is puzzling …

Hallways in the upper floors of the newly renovated Hotel Fort Des Moines are finished with a unique carpet that lists 10 events from the 102-year-old building’s history.

My favorite: “1939 – Police liquor squad …

Alexander Hamilton believed in government intervention.

His 1791 “Report on the Subject of Manufactures” was a 32,000-word argument for state-led economic planning, according to the 2020 book “Radical Hamilton; Economic Lessons from a Misunderstood Founder” …

I admired Alexander Hamilton long before biographer Ron Chernow and Broadway playwright Lin-Manuel Miranda made our flawed founding father into a 21st-century icon. 

As Aaron Burr sings at the opening of Miranda’s “Hamilton”: 

“How does …

A Hollywood actress, working on location for a major motion picture in a small Iowa town, is bludgeoned to death with a golf club for no apparent reason.

The trail of clues left by the …

Neil Harl, who died Nov. 4 at age 88, was quite possibly the smartest person I ever interviewed and definitely the fastest talker.

Harl knew all there was to know about agriculture and finance. 

He …

“They finally did it,” my old friend K.C. said when I caught up with him on the Grand Avenue bridge over Martin Luther King Jr. Parkway.

“Did what?” I asked. “Passed a reapportionment plan? 

“They …