Viewed one way, they’re just buildings. Four walls. A roof. Some office carpet.
As Jeremy Turley reports today, the Elon Musk-led DOGE effort has reportedly canceled leases on at least five buildings housing federal workers across Nebraska. It also has suggested it may sell the Zorinsky federal building in Omaha, though that move — and, honestly, much about DOGE — it still wildly chaotic and opaque.
But the loss of these buildings may also impact Nebraskans, Turley reports. Farmers visit a south Lincoln office building to discuss conservation projects with federal experts. People get tax help at an office in western Nebraska. And tourists to Valentine learn about the Niobrara River.
What will happen here? That seems likely to be decided in D.C. and in the courts. But I’m glad Turley and other reporters here continue to tell stories about how actions in our nation’s capital are affecting Nebraska higher education, agriculture, business and more.
Family split: Sometimes, as a reader and a human being, it helps to boil down a giant story to a smaller one that illustrates it. To see an immense tale through a single set of human eyes. To turn a story about an event into a story about one family.
It’s the way we have been telling each other stories since the dawn of storytelling.
And it’s the way FFP senior reporter Natalia Alamdari told an important story this week. “Refugee ban” is just a phrase. And it’s hard to get your head around the idea that some 10,000 people all over the globe, refugees who had their visas approved and their flights booked, got those flights abruptly canceled in late January after the Trump administration reinstated this ban.
Natalia tells us the story of a single Syrian family. How they survived a brutal civil war. How one branch got to Nebraska, and how and why their loved ones are now stuck in the Middle East.
Omaha voters’ guide (and Lincoln coming soon):
We did a voters’ guide for the statewide elections last year, and it proved so successful, so well-used, that we decided to do it again, this time for a couple of city elections.
Omaha’s primary election is coming up quick, on April 1. It’s hard to resist the urge to think up 14 different April Fools’ Day jokes here, but I’m resisting.
Anyway, early voting starts Monday! Want to learn more about the mayoral and city council candidates and where they stand on the issues? CLICK HERE FRIENDS.
We are doing the same for Lincoln city elections, which are also coming quick. The Lincoln election guide will be ready in the coming days.
Big announcement time: We have a new Lincoln reporter. Her name is Emily Wolf. She is our seventh full-time reporter. She’s going to be a great addition to the FFP crew.
Emily comes to us from Fort Worth, where she did incredible work for the (really good) nonprofit newsroom there, the Fort Worth Report. She also used to work in Kansas City, at the Beacon, the (really good) nonprofit newsroom there.
At both places, she focused on accountability coverage of local government — skills that will serve her well as she transitions to covering Lincoln and all that’s important in it.
She told us that when she’s not attending local government meetings or filing public records requests, she’s busy planning her future goat farm.
Having been kicked by at least one goat, I do not share her passion for that enterprise.
But I’m wildly excited about this: Emily beat out the most talented crew of journalists ever to apply for an FFP job. She’s going to cover Lincoln well, and we’re so happy to have her. She starts next week.
Questions wanted: Have Lincoln ideas for Emily? Have Nebraska ideas for any of our other reporters? Some of our best story ideas come from readers, and they typically start with a question crying 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:
- It’s been 16 months since Tyler Goodrich left his Lincoln home, went out for a jog and disappeared. Goodrich’s body was discovered last weekend, bringing some closure to his family. But questions also remain. Chiefly: What happened?
Stories by 10/11 News Now and the Journal Star. (You may need to be a Journal Star subscriber to read its story.) - Omaha is officially a metro area of a million people, and also bigger than New Orleans, reports the OWH’s Henry Cordes.
And the Nebraska Examiner’s Cindy Gonzalez reports that other spots in Nebraska are growing, too, according to new census figures, with much of this growth tied to immigration.
(You may need OWH subscriber access to read the World-Herald story.) - “I think every day that goes by, quite frankly, it feels closer and closer to a trade war versus just potentially disruption,” Nebraska Farm Bureau President Mark McHargue told the LJS on Wednesday. “It just feels like everyday there’s something going on. And it’s hard to know what to do.”
More tariffs equals more trouble for agriculture, the president of the Nebraska Farm Bureau tells the Journal Star’s Andrew Wegley. (May need LJS subscriber access to read.) - A Lincoln priest is suspended and police are investigating after he self-reported sexual misconduct. Story by Jake Lawson at 10/11 News Now.
- It’s not a Friday newsletter without a story from NTV’s Steve White. This week, White told an interesting story about how the town of Ord — a town that’s transformed itself in the past quarter century — is now attacking its housing problem.
- The small town of Butte is about to lose its nursing home. But why? The Nebraska Examiner’s allegedly semi-retired Paul Hammel has the story from a legislative hearing.
- The USDA is ending a program that provided Nebraska school kids food from local farms, reports the OWH’s Josh Reyes. (You may need OWH subscriber access to view this story.)
- School bond issue votes continue to be contentious when put before some school districts’ voters.
On its third try, the Bennington Public Schools finally passed a bond issue to build a new high school in that quickly growing Omaha suburb. Meanwhile, voters in the Freeman school district soundly defeated a bond issue for $30 million in expansion and improvements to its school in Adams. Stories by KETV, the Omaha World-Herald and News Channel Nebraska. - Michael Lewis, who basically has no parallel in American nonfiction at this point, continues a (somehow) fascinating series on hidden heroes deep inside the federal bureaucracy. I haven’t read this yet, but it is my rule to read everything that Lewis writes.
- And finally, John Feinstein died this week. The longtime Washington Post sportswriter and author was one of the first writers who taught me that sports could be about more than the final score. His book about Bobby Knight, “A Season on the Brink,” remains an absolute classic. And do yourself a favor and buy a used copy of “A Good Walk Spoiled,” about life on the PGA Tour.
