Howdy, Omaha – it’s Jeremy.
I’ve spent much of the last few weeks doing a familiar task: talking to aggrieved public housing tenants and staff. Since arriving here in 2023, I’ve reported on the Omaha Housing Authority’s eviction practices, shifting property portfolio and bed bug infestations.
But what current and former employees told me — and what internal emails revealed — about recent safety issues felt different from anything I had investigated.
In messages to upper management, staff members reported allegations of problematic tenants dealing drugs, engaging in sex work and beating up their neighbors. In one incident, a tenant assaulted a maintenance man and resisted arrest when police arrived.
None of those cases resulted in eviction.
OHA has opted to stop filing evictions as it fights a lawsuit over a new state requirement that the agency pay for its tenants’ lawyers in eviction court. That decision and a change in security providers, staff say, has created an unsafe environment and set a dangerous precedent.
You can read my story here (or click the photo above).
In these newsy times, we have two stories for you this week! If you’re like me, you’ve read about the UNMC-Nebraska Medicine drama and wondered what’s behind it all and what it means for the two intertwined institutions.
FFP reporter Destiny Herbers has got you covered there. She zoomed out on the plan for UNMC (NU’s medical school) to acquire complete ownership of Nebraska Medicine (the state’s largest hospital system) and found that the deal aligns with a national trend: University hospital systems are expanding fast.
Read Destiny’s story to understand the mechanics of the deal, why some weren’t happy about it and how similar acquisitions have gone down.
— Jeremy Turley, Flatwater Free Press
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Happy February, art lovers! This month, our creative community celebrates local educators, Black History Month, an Omaha print legacy and the region’s arts award ceremony of the year.
Hard Lessons in Light
We start our month with Lisa Brown, an international multidisciplinary artist and advocate. This photographic exhibition centers on the struggles, lived experience and community care provided every day by Omaha’s Black female educators. This exhibit asks us to think about education in our community in an era of inequity and possibility.
– When: Opening reception: Friday, Feb. 6, 5-8 p.m. Gallery hours: Tuesday-Thursday, 1-8 p.m., Friday-Saturday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. On view until April 11.
– Where: The Union for Contemporary Art, 2423 N. 24th St.
UNO Print Workshop 50th Anniversary Exhibition
Since 1976, the University of Nebraska at Omaha’s Print Workshop has brought in national and international visual artists to collaborate with students to produce an amazing collection of editioned prints. Come see and celebrate this 50-year Omaha legacy of art-making and see prints by 50 different artists.
– When: Reception open house: Friday, Feb. 6, 5-7 p.m. Gallery hours: Monday-Friday, 10 a.m.-4 p.m., until Feb. 13.
– Where: UNO Art Gallery, Weber Fine Arts Building, UNO campus, 6505 University Drive S., Omaha
Silenced: your comfortability is not our reality
In honor of Black History Month, visual artist and curator Jada Messick has organized an exhibition of 20 African American artists to raise the voices and stories of Black art and culture in an era where Black histories are being systematically erased. Don’t miss this powerful exhibit.
– When: Opening reception: Friday, Feb. 13, 6-9 p.m. Gallery hours: Monday-Friday, 10 a.m.-6 p.m., Saturday-Sunday, 11 a.m.-5 p.m. On view until Feb. 28.
– Where: Hot Shops Art Center, 1301 Nicholas St.
ENiGMA
Lincoln-based photographer and painter Merrill Peterson asks us to look through his eyes in his latest exhibition ENiGMA. Peterson’s photographic work contemplates visual anomalies, spatial contradictions and ambiguity in the taken-for-granted, everyday world around us.
– When: Gallery hours: Tuesday-Saturday, noon-8 p.m., Sunday, noon-6 p.m. On view until Feb. 15.
– Where: The Garden of the Zodiac, 1042 Howard St.
20th Annual Omaha Entertainment & Art Awards
For 20 years, the Omaha Entertainment and Arts Awards has honored and showcased the region’s most influential visual, musical and theatrical artists. This year, we return to The Admiral to spend one of the most unique nights of the year in a gathering of the most amazing culture makers the area has to offer. I’ll see you at the OEAA’s!
– When: Sunday, Feb. 15, 6:30 p.m.-end of ceremony
– Where: The Admiral, 2234 S. 13th St.
The Creighton University Studio Arts Faculty Exhibition
This one is a special treat. The Lied Art Gallery exhibits paintings, drawings, prints, photographs, ceramics and sculpture by 10 of our community’s most distinguished artists and educators. Don’t miss the works of some of my favorite visual arts faculty in Omaha.
– When: Gallery hours: Monday-Friday, 8 a.m.-8 p.m., Saturday-Sunday, 10 a.m.-4 p.m., until March 1.
– Where: Lied Art Gallery, Lied Education Center for the Arts, Creighton University, 2500 California Plaza #101
— Bart Vargas is a visual artist, educator and advocate based in Omaha, Nebraska. He publishes a weekly list of local arts, culture and entertainment events on social media and operates an international studio with his wife, Bekah Jerde.
The Omaha City Council opened its meeting by honoring longtime barber and business owner Daniel Goodwin Sr., proclaiming Jan. 27, 2026, as a day in his memory, before approving a series of routine liquor, zoning and development items. Council members advanced planning measures, fire code updates and redevelopment actions. The council voted to send a contractor’s bid appeal back to the Public Works Department for rebidding after certification issues led to all project bids being rejected. Read the full summary here and the full meeting notes on the Documenters website.
Want to help inform your community and create better journalism while getting paid? Become a Documenter today.
CORRECTION: The Jan. 29 Documenters summary listed the wrong first name of the chairman of Metro Transit’s board. His name is Curt Simon.
— Leah Wambui Keinama, Nebraska Journalism Trust
I may have an art problem. Or, more specifically, an art-collecting problem. Or, if we really want to get technical, a “buy art and then forget to hang it for months and months until inevitably I move apartments and am forced to reckon with my crimes” problem.
But that teensy little character flaw has never stopped me from continuing to gather good work from local artists, and it sure hasn’t dulled my enthusiasm for traipsing through lines of crowded booths to gaze admiringly at pieces far outside of my price range.
So, it should come as no surprise that I’m making the trek from Lincoln to attend Benson First Friday this week. I’ve been there once before, and I was blown away by the variety of art on display and the warm, welcoming atmosphere. I even managed to snag a gift for my mom back home in Texas.
This time, I’m also bringing my boyfriend along, who occasionally tables at similar art events in Lincoln. So while I’m on the prowl for my next cross-stitch, sculpture or acrylic masterpiece, he’ll be peering at table setups and plotting how to improve his own. The joy we get might even make us forget how much gas it took to get us there.
— Emily Wolf, Flatwater Free Press
A decade after killing driver Sarah Root while drunkenly street racing, Eswin Mejia was sentenced to 20-22 years behind bars, WOWT reported. The undocumented Honduran man fled to his home country in 2016 after a relative posted his bail. Mejia finally was extradited back to the U.S. last year. The case prompted a federal law change, known as Sarah’s Law, which requires ICE to detain undocumented immigrants charged with causing death or serious injury.
The City of Omaha claimed in a new lawsuit filing that the company behind the disputed development of the old civic center tried to grow hay on the downtown lot. The company, owned by White Lotus Group, applied for a special valuation to grow alfalfa, which would have brought the land’s value from nearly $1 million to $3,000 an acre, Molly Hudson at KMTV reports. While legal, the city said growing hay would have deviated from the agreed-upon redevelopment plan.
Gov. Jim Pillen appointed Joel Makovicka, a physical therapy business owner and former Husker fullback, to the vacant Omaha-area seat on the University of Nebraska Board of Regents. Elizabeth O’Connor announced she would resign from the position last year after she was charged with a felony after she was accused of driving while intoxicated and causing a crash that left a woman with serious injuries, Scott Koperski at Nebraska Public Media reports.
A juvenile was cited on suspicion of leaving the scene of an injury accident after a driver hit a person with a car during a protest of federal immigration enforcement at Fremont High School last week, News Channel Nebraska reports. Police say five juveniles and one adult were cited from the event. The person hit by the car went to the hospital, but News Channel Nebraska did not have an update on their condition.
The home where entertainer Fred Astaire was born once faced the prospect of demolition but has now been cleared of city code violations, KETV’s Aaron Hegarty reported. A nonprofit led by City Councilman Ron Hug refurbished the 1880 house in South Omaha and wants to ensure it doesn’t become a rental property again.
Former Omaha World-Herald editorial cartoonist Ed Fischer died in his native Minnesota at 88, leaving behind an indelible mark on his craft in Omaha, The World-Herald reported. Fischer’s one-time pupil Jeff Koterba, himself a 31-year World Herald veteran, said he learned everything from the elder cartoonist. Fischer worked in newspapers for nearly 50 years, becoming syndicated in more than 100 publications. (You may need a subscription to read this story.)
Nebraska Public Media announced it will buy Omaha radio station KOOO-FM (101.9) and convert it into their own platform for daytime news and talk programming and nighttime music programming. The current station owner, NRG Media, is selling the rest of its local stations to Usher Media.
The Flatwater Free Press is published by the Nebraska Journalism Trust, a 501(c)(3) public charity