Cindy Lange-Kubick is back in the Flatwater Free Press this week. As an editor, a reader and a longtime fan of her work, it’s so great to have her back.
Her newest story, which we published today, is vintage CLK, the latest proof that she can take a story that in another’s hands may feel cliche, superficial, and peel back that story’s layers until she finds the humanity at its core.
Today she introduces us to a Husker Super Fan, a red-wigged fanatic who is at darn near every NU home game.
I’m a Husker basketball fanatic and longtime season ticket holder myself, a fandom that I admit often feels like a curse. (I live a block from where perennial powerhouse Creighton plays their home games. On many a frigid winter’s night, as I have made the late hour-long drive back to Omaha after a Nebrasketball loss, I have spent ample time considering the error of my ways.)
So I have watched this Super Fan for years, watched him bring energy and enthusiasm to depressed crowds, watched as he injected relentless positivity into the most desultory of circumstances.
So I knew Super Fan. But I didn’t know Kevin. Not until Cindy introduced us to him — all the parts of him — today.
An update from Lincoln: On Valentine’s Day, we published a story from reporter Jeremy Turley. Turley, while looking statewide into the debt collection practices of school districts, learned that Lincoln Public Schools turned over 1,700 school lunch debts to a private debt collector last year. That debt collector was chasing nearly 1,000 different Lincoln families over small unpaid debts accrued when their children ate school lunch.
The average school meal debt: $67.
Earlier this week, days after the FFP story was published and then ran in other media outlets like the Lincoln Journal Star and 10/11 News, Lincoln Public Schools leaders suspended the practice of sending families to private debt collectors over unpaid school lunch bills. School district leaders told the Journal Star they were already reviewing the policy, but sped the change after learning in our story that only four of the state’s largest 20 school districts use the debt collection practice.
The Lincoln Board of Education will consider the revised policy at its meeting next week.
Speaking of debt collection: That same Jeremy Turley wrote a story we published yesterday about the Omaha Housing Authority evicting public housing tenants, many of whom have little to no money, and then sending debt collectors after unpaid bills. That debt collection is rarely successful. It also makes it even harder for low-income Omahans to find any kind of housing, advocates say.
Power play: FFP reporter Destiny Herbers had a smart story this week, a story that matters a lot in the Sandhills but also should matter to any Nebraskan who likes to flip on a light switch.
The R-Project transmission line was first proposed in 2012, meant to run through the Sandhills and make our power grid stronger. But 12 years later, not a single mile of the line has been built, stopped by an array of foes including environmental groups, conservative state senators, Native tribes and ranchers worried about their land.
It strikes me, especially after I read last week’s FFP story on increasing opposition to wind and solar projects, that we’re refusing to grapple with the idea that energy demand, in Nebraska and elsewhere, continues to go up, even as supplying that energy, even in cleaner forms, continues to grow more controversial and thus more difficult.
It’s a new twist on an age-old problem so well known that it’s an acronym. NIMBY: Not In My Backyard.
I have a sneaking sense that many Omahans would flip out if someone tried to put a wind turbine in Memorial Park or cover suburbia in solar panels. I also have a sneaking sense that some foes of wind, solar and this transmission line haven’t considered, or don’t care, that a coal plant continues to billow toxicity into North Omaha, as it has for generations.
In any event: How we produce energy, and how we use it, will continue to be a topic that Flatwater Free Press pays close attention to.
The Intersection of Faith and Climate Change: I’m thrilled to tell you that FFP is co-hosting a “journalism on stage” event with Omaha’s Tri-Faith Initiative — and you’re invited, for free.
The panel, to be held March 12, will feature the former state climatologist, a Muslim leader who is a chemical engineer focused on the environment, an Omaha Public Power District executive and the director of Nebraska Interfaith Power & Light. The discussion is sponsored by Humanities Nebraska, which has done a bunch of cool programming around these topics in recent years.
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:
- The New York Times had a story this week on an unconventional Senate candidate in Nebraska.
- A former Nebraska women’s basketball player is suing the athletic department and the program while alleging she was groomed and pursued sexually by an assistant coach. Story by KETV.
- Roughly 7 in 10 Nebraskans polled want to legalize medical marijuana in the state. Story in Nebraska Public Media, originally published by the Nebraska Examiner’s Paul Hammel.
- A devastating story, and a fitting tribute, to a Bloomfield bowling alley owner and small-town mainstay shot to death on Tuesday. Story by The World-Herald’s Dan Crisler.
- A University of Nebraska-Lincoln robot goes to space! Story by NPM’s Brian Beach.
- Some serious sparks flew at a recent meeting over a proposed $90 million business park that may displace some Omaha residents. Story by the Examiner’s Cindy Gonzalez.
- It’s a rite of spring in Nebraska, except this time it’s happening in February. The Sandhill cranes are already showing up. The OWH’s Marjie Ducey with the story.
Today’s newsletter is sponsored by:
Planning + Outcome Perfected
