It was bound to happen. We were going to write and publish a story about my hometown, Red Cloud, where both yours truly and a slightly more famed writer named Willa Cather graduated high school. But I’m glad it was this story, about a woman named Antonette Turner who died this year at age 101. I didn’t know much about Toni until I edited this story, which comes courtesy of our new freelancer and fellow 1998 RCHS graduate Jarrod McCartney. Even though I hail from Red Cloud, a place steeped in history, it’s still stunning to remember how close we are to our pioneer past. How a woman like Antonette Turner bridges the gap between her famous grandma — the real life “My Antonia” — Cather herself, and present-day Nebraskans like us.
Anyway, you will undoubtedly see a few more stories about Red Cloud in the years to come. Maybe, if I’m feeling super nice, we will even publish a story about our no-good neighbors to the north, the archrival Blue Hill Bobcats. But probably not.
It’s working, public payroll edition: It is always so gratifying, especially in our first months of existence, to build a thing and then actually watch as it works as intended. Which is why we want to shout out World-Herald reporter Sara Gentzler, who while writing a story about the new warden at the overcrowded and understaffed state prison in Tecumseh, used our public payroll database to report the new warden’s salary, the highest in the prison system. She also credited FFP, which we appreciate. The public payroll database has consistently been one of our most-used features since we launched it a few weeks ago. Check it out if you haven’t yet. We hope to add a campaign finance database and other important databases in the months ahead, with the same goal: Making public information easily accessible to the public.
See you soon, McCook: We will spend part of next week hanging out in southwest Nebraska as our listening tour across the state continues. The occasion is the Nebraska Community Foundation’s annual celebration, held this year in the fine city of McCook. NCF is our current fiscal sponsor, and they have provided much expertise on small-town Nebraska as we work to build FFP as a truly statewide organization. It’s also our first chance to take our brand-new reporters Natalia Alamdari and Yanqi Xu on a Cornhusker road trip. Yanqi and Natalia are both neck-deep in the reporting of their first stories. We’ll buy ‘em a Sehnert’s Bakery bierock to keep their protein levels high.
One last thing: Remember that these stories are your stories, and the Flatwater Free Press could always use your help. Do you know of a story that needs to be told? Send us your news tips using this form or via [email protected].
Sincerely,
—Matthew Hansen, Executive Editor
Here’s what we’re into this week: News from around Nebraska
Every week we like to share great Nebraska journalism, no matter who made it. Here’s what caught our eye this week:
- The known death toll of Native children who died at Genoa Indian School continues to go up, and Nebraska Public Media reporter Jackie Ourada continues to report on this important story.
- A bipartisan group of Nebraska state senators is climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro — a climb that is starting to attract national attention — and The DonFather of Nebraska media, Don Walton, is writing about their progress and their struggles.
- We are contractually obligated to share this story from the World-Herald’s unstoppable Cindy Gonzalez, because Millwork Commons is the FFP home! See you in the park, at Archetype Coffee or, after hours, at Kros Strain.
Support us through our fiscal sponsor, the Nebraska Community Foundation:
