The Elbert Files

Many of us have stories about things we’ve seen or heard in Des Moines’ skywalks.  

My story happened 20 years ago when I was business editor of the Des Moines Register and took a job …

From half a block away I could tell something was bothering my friend K.C. The closer he came, the more animated he got.

“What are they thinking?” he asked when we met in front of …

Farming and insurance are at opposite ends of the risk-taking spectrum, which makes it interesting that Iowa’s status as an insurance capital is rooted in the state’s agricultural heritage.  

Farming is, and always has been, …

The House impeachment hearings a week ago contained several unexpected twists, including the fact that three key witnesses were first-generation immigrants.

All were career government officers: Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch, born in Canada to parents who …

Modern agriculture has bred so much nutrition out of fruits and vegetables that “we are left in the bizarre and paradoxical situation that we are essentially the world’s most overfed nation but also one of …

It’s easy to see unethical behavior in the past, Stanford University’s Martin Hellman will argue next week when he delivers the Robert Stewart Distinguished Lecture at Iowa State University. Slavery was wrong, as was denying …

I’ve spent a good part of my career covering Des Moines’ transformation from a down-in-the-mouth community in the early 1970s into a 21st-century model of urban design.

When I arrived here in 1975, there were …

Mike Templeton, owner of the Hobby Shop, the second-oldest business on Main Street in Ames, knows a lot about model airplanes, cars and trains.

He should. The 63-year-old has been roaming the aisles of one …

The pending merger of Gannett and GateHouse Media could be both a boon and a curse for newspaper readers in Ames, Burlington, Boone, Perry, Nevada, Adel and Hamburg.

All of those towns are served by …