The Elbert Files

Sports betting, like cancer rates and bad water, is a growing problem in Iowa.

There’s a relatively simple solution – limiting advertising – which I’ll get to in a minute. But first, some background.

Sports …

What’s happened to Iowa?

I’ve been asked many versions of that question in recent months. Typically, but not exclusively, by Democrats who can’t understand how a middle-of-the-road state like Iowa could, almost overnight, become a …

It was a bright winter day when I saw my friend K.C. deep in thought at the John and Mary Pappajohn Sculpture Park. He was looking at Dutch artist Willem de Kooning’s “Reclining Figure” sculpture.…

It has become fashionable to denigrate old people, or at least old politicians.

Before Sen. Dianne Feinstein, a Democrat, died last fall at age 90, her apparent dementia had become a punchline for comedians and …

Like most historic events, it will take years, maybe decades, to truly appreciate what happened at this month’s Iowa Republican caucuses. But here are some takeaways from ground zero.

This year’s winners include:

Iowa’s economy improved in 2023 but not as much as the rest of the country.

Iowa’s 2.1% increase in personal income during the third quarter – the most recent period for data – was the …

In 2023, I met Edith Wilson, Sarah Polk, Jennie Jerome Churchill and Sara Delano Roosevelt courtesy of their biographers Rebecca Boggs Roberts, Amy S. Greenberg and Charlotte Gray.

Women have written books as far back …

The late Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor encouraged people to “solve relevant problems,” as her son recently reminded us.

It’s a timely message, and one Iowa lawmakers should take to heart, given the amount …

“Do you read the fine print?” asked my friend K.C., when I saw him standing inside Jaume Plensa’s “Nomade” sculpture in the John and Mary Pappajohn Sculpture Park.

It seemed an odd question, given that …