Stephen J. Lyons

Something truly fascinating is afoot in a region of the Upper Midwest commonly known as the Driftless that runs counter to many of the trends in the rest of the nation and just might be blueprint for the future of a downsized United States. Covering parts of four states—Illinois, Iowa, Wisconsin,...

When the Mississippi River crested 30 feet above its banks in June 2008, tens of thousands of Midwesterners lost their homes, their crops and all their possessions; The flood was especially hard on Cedar Rapids, Iowa, where journalist Stephen Lyons describes a city caught between resilience and g...