Yes, I used our photo of the adorable baby to force you to open this email. Her name is Aoife (pronounced ee-fa) Dempsey, she’s healthy and happy, and she was born after her mom, Paige, waged a scary month-long fight against COVID-19 before vaccines were available.
Way too many pregnant women remain unvaccinated more than a year after vaccines became available, frustrated doctors told our freelancer Roseann Moring. Often they are being led astray by misinformation on social media. The vaccine is safe, docs say. But having a baby after fighting COVID-19 during pregnancy carries risk for both mother and child.
Time to party, journalism style: You are all cordially invited to attend the first ever Flatwater Free Press public event. We’re going to discuss the future of journalism and Nebraska journalism with a serious panel of local and national experts. Why is preserving journalism important? Who is doing this right in other places? And what should Nebraska news look like in a year, or 5, or 10? I’m going to be moderating this panel, asking questions from the audience and some zingers I cook up all by myself. The hour-long event is set for Feb. 23, 5:30 p.m. at the newly renovated (and gorgeous) Ashton building at 1229 Millwork Ave. in Omaha. You can join us in person — hurry to sign up, space is limited — or you can tune in virtually. A serious shoutout to Humanities Nebraska and the Nebraska Cultural Endowment, co-sponsors of the event.
Rumor has it that we may hand you a free beer or glass of wine afterward if Matt Wynn can figure out how to obtain a temporary liquor license. And never fear, non-Omahans: We plan to do public events around the state this year.
What we’re cooking: In the next few weeks, we have stories coming on rural housing, the state’s overcrowded prison system, a small-town success, a Nebraska man who tried to build a utopian community in Texas and a story that’s 100% about steak. Steak! Cripes, now I’m hungry. If somebody could be so kind as to immediately deliver a T-Bone to the Flatwater Free Press offices, I would forever appreciate it. Medium rare, please, as I’m not one of those sociopaths who prefer their steak burnt.
Until next Friday,
—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. I’m going to do something a little different this week, and urge you to read one story about Nebraska, even though it wasn’t written by a Nebraska reporter. The story made me, an adult proud to have grown up on a Nebraska farm, a little uncomfortable and a tad angry in places. It also made me think. FFP’s motto is Important Stories, Well Told. Well, what could be more important than the water we drink?
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