Nebraska will stun you, if you let it.
Like this: Did you know that this country’s first-ever Native medical doctor was a woman who, when she graduated, turned down fancy East Coast job offers and took the train home, where she spent the rest of her life delivering babies and tending to the sick by driving a horse-pulled buggy around the sprawling Omaha Reservation in northeast Nebraska?
Did you know that this woman, known to her patients as Doctor Susan, built the first-ever hospital constructed on a Native reservation — and she did it in little Walthill?
And did you know that, for the past few years, a group of Nebraskans — doctors, architects, descendants of Dr. Susan La Flesche Picotte, tribal members, and at least one person born at her hospital — have been channeling the sheer willpower of the long-gone doctor, raising money and making plans to give this incredible story another incredible chapter?
Our Seacrest Greater Nebraska Reporter Natalia Alamdari with the story of the famed hospital reborn, a famed doctor’s legacy celebrated and the incredible fact that, some 112 years after it was built, that white building in the photo above will again tend to the sick and wounded.
Raids and rumors: Our staff sprang into action on Tuesday with the first solid evidence that ICE was raiding an Omaha meatpacking plant.
Alamdari, Jeremy Turley and Joshua Shimkus raced to the scene. Chris Bowling and Sara Gentzler worked the phones. Emily Wolf and Shelby Rickert pitched in from Lincoln. Our newest employee — skilled veteran Omaha reporter and editor Bob Glissmann — manned the rewrite desk, taking updates sent in from the field and getting them up online. He also called Glenn Valley Foods, and the company president picked up and did a fascinating interview.
Our social media intern Evie Storjohann — in her third week! — fired out social posts that you were reacting to by the thousands on Facebook, Instagram, X and Bluesky.
By midday, our staff’s stellar work was being cited and linked by the New York Times. A video shot by Turley, showing protesters and law enforcement clashing, has appeared on news networks across the world.
And here’s what I’m most proud of: The staff of the Flatwater Free Press worked doggedly to get you “inside” the meatpacking plant, talking to the company president, employees who were trudging away from the plant and the loved ones of detained family members in addition to the usual political and advocacy voices.
You can and should judge for yourself, but from my vantage point, what the FFP journalists delivered to readers was breaking news coverage with depth and heart.
If you haven’t seen the story yet, here it is.
We’re working on follow-ups as I type.
Journalism on stage: Thursday night, in a full auditorium at Westside Community Schools, we gathered to talk about mental health. It was our “journalism on stage” event in partnership with the Omaha Community Foundation. I’m so happy that we’re able to team up with OCF to make this discussion, and a few others coming this year, reality.
Chris Bowling, who has written extensively about the issue, including this story we published this week on issues with Omaha’s mental health safety net, led the panel.
The resulting conversation, with the panel of experts, family members and the audience, was fascinating. Where is Nebraska falling short as it attempts to care for those with mental illness? How does mental illness impact homelessness and violence? How can we move away from treating mental illness as a crime? What’s improving? How can we make it better?
I was glad to be there. I hope those of you in attendance were, too.
And our next event: On June 26, we will be in York to do yet more journalism on stage. This time we’re discussing the future of Nebraska media. It’s at the Kilgore Memorial Library at 12:30 p.m. that day. Afterward, we will be hanging around, and would love to hear from you about stories in the York area you think are being ignored and/or need to be covered.
Ribeye, coming through: Sometimes, I need to admit that Sarah Baker Hansen has better words than I do. For example, her first sentence on her latest dispatch for Steak Town USA, her yearlong series on Omaha and Nebraska steakhouses.
Read her latest story, on fancy downtown Omaha joint 801 Chophouse, the local outpost of a high-end Midwestern chain, which she points out is pricey but also filled with delights. (Including a dessert that you have to order at the beginning of the meal, and a 1-pound baked potato.)
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:
- Don Bacon is emerging as one of Donald Trump’s only Republican critics in the U.S. House of Representatives, the New York Times reports in a long piece about the Omaha-area congressman. What this means for his political future, he won’t say.
- An interesting exit interview with outgoing, longtime Mayor Jean Stothert, by World-Herald stalwart Henry Cordes. (You may need an OWH subscription to read this story.)
- Rep. Mike Flood, congressmen for Lincoln and surrounding areas, has a bill that would protect the National Weather Service from deep cuts, Nebraska Public Media’s Molly Ashford reports.
- This is developing news, just broke actually — ICE has arrested several protesters who were present during Tuesday’s immigration raid. KETV with the initial story.
- The University of Nebraska is considering hiking tuition by 5% next year to help close a budget gap caused by increased operational costs and limited growth to their state aid, reports the Journal Star’s Chris Dunker. This 10/11 News Now story on the same topic and other proposed cuts at NU. (You may need Journal Star subscriber info to read the Journal Star story.)
- The State of Nebraska has received several bids to build a new prison in Lincoln. It won’t say how much those bids were for. Important one from Nebraska Public Media’s Fred Knapp.
- The U.S. House narrowly voted to strip funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which could have significant consequences for Nebraska Public Media, reports the Nebraska Examiner’s Juan Salinas II. Despite previously saying he was a “no” on the matter, Congressman Bacon ultimately voted “yes,” along with Nebraska’s other two House members.
