Flatwater Free PressNatalia Alamdari has worked at newspapers throughout the country. Her reporting has taken her to small town shooting ranges in Missouri, contentious school board meetings in Delaware, and aquariums in Texas. Working at the Flatwater Free Press is a return to Nebraska — in college, she spent a summer interning at the Omaha World-Herald. She is a graduate of the University of Missouri-Columbia and native Texan. When she’s not reporting, you can probably find her baking, petting her cat, or trying out a new crafty hobby.
Curtis is the largest town in politically ruby-red Frontier County, a county where, on Election Night 2020, 85% of voters cast their ballots for Donald Trump. But last…
Crescent Tucker pushes wheelchairs at the Nebraska State Penitentiary. He pushes prisoners older than him through the yard during their time outdoors. He helps them get to the…
For three weeks this July, Pastor Bill Forbes left his house around 5 p.m. and didn’t return until sundown. The Lutheran pastor went door to door his western…
NEAR HARRISBURG–In bone-dry Banner County, clouds of dirt drift into the sky as rumbling tractors till the sun-baked soil. In some fields, the ground is still too dry…
MITCHELL – The long flat shapes of hot air balloons lay stretched out on the field. As the sun starts to rise, the balloons rise too, blasts of…
Hailey Christiansen believed in second chances. The 29-year-old raised two pitbulls, Comrad and Thor, gentle giants her young son Hazen rode like horses. She had once considered becoming…
As twin tornadoes barreled toward the village of Pilger, Gene Willers hurried his employees into the bank vault. The bank president knew the wind speed and suction of…
In December, a group of Ukrainian farmers gathered for a graduation ceremony. They exchanged certificates, tossed graduation caps, danced – celebrating the completion of a course through Kultivariy,…
Don Hutchens is a farmer, just like his father and his father’s father. He wears an “I stand with Ukraine” button on his chest and a red University…
Kerry and Vicky Blacketer have lived in their North Omaha home for nearly 16 years. Their children graduated high school while living here. Their grandchildren play house in…