Last year, the small-town mom of a 17-year-old boy who died mysteriously at a Pillen Family Farms operation made a request to her county attorney.
She wanted access to Zach’s body. Specifically, she wanted a sample of his tissue to be sent to an independent lab to try to solve the mystery of why Zach died.
The official investigations into the boy’s death were complete. They were inconclusive and marred by missteps and missed opportunities, the New York Times and the Flatwater Free Press previously reported.
It seemed like a glaringly obvious point at which to let Mom continue her search — continue to try to figure out why her son died. To get closure.
Except the county attorney said no. Not only did he say no, but he did so without explanation, leaving the mother, Justy Riggs-Panther, dangling as the months passed.
“My son is dead,” she told the New York Times in a story published in December in both the NYT and Flatwater. “There ought to be answers.”
T.O.’s state-funded Teammates: Like most every Nebraska boy who grew up in the 1980s, I have long admired both Tom Osborne and his nonprofit org Teammates.
None of that changed when I read Sara Gentzler’s story this week.
But I did read with interest the story showing that a state government program championed by Gov. Jim Pillen (who famously played for Osborne) that was meant to help mentorship funnels the vast majority of its taxpayer money to Teammates.
It also suggests that Teammates now appears to be something close to fully funded by state money.
Coal, good for you? I’m trolling you here, because the answer according to a coal mountain of evidence is no. Coal is bad for your health.
But you wouldn’t know that from reading a report commissioned last year by the Omaha Public Power District — a health assessment that concluded the coal plant that has been pumping coal dust and smoke into northeast Omaha for generations has no additional significant contribution to “negative impact on the health of people in the vicinity.”
Know Good is good: Sarah Baker Hansen’s latest review is of a new breakfast spot in an east-central Omaha neighborhood “that just feels so remarkably right.”
Good coffee. Good, creative breakfast sandwiches. Affordable prices.
It’s no wonder that when we went on a recent Sunday morning, we waited in a line that stretched to the door. (Don’t worry, it moved speedily.)
Here is SBH’s review of Know Good, the new restaurant owned by the woman who already brings Omaha fantastic sweet treats at Sweet Magnolia’s bakery.
Help us make Flatwater better! As we approach our fifth anniversary — crazy, I know — we want to hear from you about what we can do better to support you.
We’re opening our FFP readership survey to new and longtime readers alike. It’s a four-question anonymous survey that will help guide us for the next five years and beyond.
The key question: How could the Flatwater Free Press be improved?
Want more live events? Think something is missing in our coverage? Whatever it is, your feedback will help the Flatwater Free Press serve Nebraskans better. Take the survey here. Thanks!
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
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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 my eye this week.
- JJ Harder was back on Tony Bock’s podcast this week talking chili and cinnamon rolls after his recent Flatwater story on the beloved Nebraska food pairing. This week, he and Tony talk about the different ways that people consume their chili and cinnamon rolls. JJ identified seven distinct ways to eat your chili with your roll.
- The Nebraska Examiner’s Aaron Sanderford has another scoop on the case of a Gov. Pillen-pushed no-bid $2.5 million contract that now has the administration crosswise with State Auditor Mike Foley. It continues to be stellar work by the Examiner editor. Hooray, nonprofit news!
- Terrible story out of Fremont, where the driver of a vehicle flying a Trump flag appeared to accelerate and strike a high schooler and injure her during an ICE protest outside Fremont High School. The Fremont police now know the identity of the driver, the Examiner’s Cindy Gonzalez reports, as Nebraska political leaders weighed in.
- Here is video of the moment, from two angles, courtesy of News Channel Nebraska. The driver then fled.
- My mom was a special education teacher and administrator when I was growing up. My brother and I got in big, big trouble whenever we used any variant of the “r word.” So I’m not going to repeat it here. But Gov. Jim Pillen continues to deal with the fallout from his repeated use of a variant of that word on a tele-town hall. Here’s WOWT video of him not answering reporter questions about it.
And here is Pillen’s statement on the controversy, courtesy of KETV, where he explained further but did not apologize. - Missed this one last week, but it’s an important one. Here’s a look at rising nitrate levels in north-central Nebraska groundwater from News Channel Nebraska. In case you haven’t seen it, here is the first story in our very first Flatwater project — an award-winner on nitrate in drinking water from Yanqi Xu.
- I haven’t watched this yet, but you better believe I’m gonna sit inside during this cold, cold weekend and devour the “No Laying Up” episode during which “the Schuster brothers embark on a road trip exploring the golf landscape of Western and Central Nebraska.”
Inject it right into my ice-cold veins! - And finally … it’s almost crane season, everyone. I swear. Here’s a cool update on a popular Platte River bridge for crane viewers that’s about to reopen. It’s by Mary Jane Skala from the Kearney Hub, republished here in the Omaha World-Herald. (You may need OWH subscriber access to view this story.)
