Sometimes we need a little Friday afternoon palate cleanser as we head into a scorching Nebraska summer weekend.
Sometimes, amid the tumult of our times — amidst the rancor, the divisiveness and the assault on reality uncovered in our story about “Mind Polluters” last week — we need to take a deep, cleansing breath and look for something that may restore our faith in humanity a bit.
What I’m trying to say is this: Sometimes we all need to read a story about a tiny horse.
Meet Jet, who is 30 inches tall, is a licensed therapy miniature horse, once successfully completed a doggie obedience class and now stands tall in central Nebraska. All across the state, he meets Nebraskans young and elderly. He makes their days just a little bit brighter. Let Jet do the same for you, in this lovely little story by our faithful central Nebraska correspondent Lori Potter.
The Kool-Aid tastes great: Boss man Matt Wynn and I spent two days in Hastings, the birthplace of Kool-Aid, this week. There, we somehow managed to take zero photographs as we talked to close to 100 people about the present and future of journalism, and how Flatwater Free Press fits into that.
At one event, we literally received a basket filled with dozens of story ideas…and most of them were good!
Thank you to the Hastings Tribune for hosting us, to the faithful donors and subscribers who invited us into their homes and showed up at events. Listening sessions like this invariably amp my already sky-high desire to build and grow Flatwater Free Press. (More on this next week.)
Want to host FFP in your town? Hit us up by emailing Matt Wynn, the Batman to my Robin, at [email protected].
Questions wanted: Some of our best story ideas come from readers, and they typically start with a burning question that just cries out for an answer. Have a question that our reporters need to look into? Complete this form or reach our newsroom at [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:
- We do several interviews with our wonderful partners at News Channel Nebraska each month. Here’s our latest, with me talking to NCN’s fabulous host Eric McKay about our recent story on “The Mind Polluters”.
- The World-Herald’s Nancy Gaarder with the incredible story of the trials and tribulations of a group of Nebraska women who simply wanted to play college softball…and did so at an incredibly high level.
- We don’t usually publish things that aren’t published in Nebraska media outlets. This one is too good, and too important, for me to care. Here is former OWH sportswriter and now University of Kansas journalism professor Chris Heady on his baby daughter’s damaged and lovely heart.
- And finally…It’s not often that a state senator who resigned after taking close-up photos of a young staffer, captioned them with sexually suggestive language and then saved them on his work computer compares himself to Jesus Christ. But Jesus is exactly who former Sen. Mike Groene compared himself to this week. The Nebraska Examiner’s Aaron Sanderford with the eyebrow-raising story.
