You may have heard that Nebraska is on the precipice of de facto banning or not banning abortion. It behooves a journalistic outfit to pay attention to that story, and we plan to take several looks at what may be the most consequential thing the Nebraska Legislature does this year, decade or generation.
This week’s story is about the group of eight women you see above. All are doctors. All provide reproductive care. And, just in the past nine months — roughly the time it takes for a baby to be born, according to my junior high science teacher — these eight women have become a force in Nebraska abortion politics.
Today, our correspondent Roseann Moring has the story of the Gang Of Eight, who are working to keep abortion legal in Nebraska. You may applaud this. You may despise it. But there’s no denying that, in the past nine months, the so-called Campaign for a Healthy Nebraska has begun to have an impact on the future of our state’s abortion laws.
Talkin’ nitrate: I’m happy to announce our next “journalism on stage” event, this one about a health issue facing large swaths of Nebraska. On March 14 in Norfolk, we will convene a panel of experts — farmers, doctors, NRD leaders, and more — to talk about the nitrate showing up in many Nebraskans’ drinking water.
FFP reporter Yanqi Xu will also be there, showcasing her data and investigative work that unearthed these sobering facts: The statewide median nitrate level in our groundwater has doubled since 1978. Fifty-nine different community water supplies have violated the EPA’s safe drinking water limit on nitrate in the past dozen years. And Nebraska has the highest rate of pediatric cancer of any state west of Pennsylvania — which public health officials believe is linked to nitrate.
If you haven’t yet, read Yanqi’s fine work on why Nebraska’s nitrate problem matters, how lax regulation contributes to the problem, how much this is costing communities and some potential solutions.
We’ll have more info for you on the time and place of our nitrate in water event as it nears.
Thanks to our sponsor: This week I have the pleasure of thanking Ho-Chunk, Inc., the Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska’s economic development company and the state’s largest minority-owned business. We take reporting on Native issues seriously at FFP, and we are so glad that Ho-Chunk supports the mission of Nebraska nonprofit journalism.
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:
- Some Grade A journalism this week from Molly Ashford and Chris Burbach in the Omaha World-Herald. They laid out clearly why the Legacy Crossing Apartments were closed in Omaha just before Christmas, leaving hundreds of people displaced. They showed the steps, and inaction, that led to this decision. And they let us see and feel the toll it took on the Nebraskans who lived there. Really nice work from Molly and Chris.
- You know I’m gonna read any story concerning that antiquated system where we “spring” our clocks forward in the spring and then fall ‘em back in the fall, sentencing ourselves to pitch black darkness at roughly 2:37 p.m. each frigid January afternoon. (Not that I have strong feelings about this.) Anyway, here’s a story from Nebraska Examiner’s Aaron Sanderford that suggests Nebraska may eventually move away from this clock switching.
- A stunning 79 nursing homes and assisted living facilities have closed in Nebraska since 2015 — most in smaller towns. And those closures will continue unless we do something, says this story from News Channel Nebraska.
- The man who entered a West Omaha Target with an AR-15 rifle in January and started shooting — luckily harming no one before police killed him — had a history of mental illness. This Associated Press story does a good job of showing how the authorities knew this, and also why it didn’t keep him from buying guns.
