Since Matt Wynn and I started this crazy thing we called the Flatwater Free Press, we have told you that we’re gonna do investigations that matter — watchdog stories that take time and serious know-how and simply don’t get done enough these days.
Enough talking. Here’s proof. Uber-talented reporter Yanqi Xu spent months requesting public records, analyzing giant reams of data, and doing good, ol’ fashioned shoe leather reporting.
What she learned, simply put, is that Nebraska parole board members don’t always show up for parole board hearings. In fact, the full board only shows up and votes together a jaw-dropping 37 percent of the time.
What she learned, from her data analysis and from parolees who have gone through the system, is that these absences matter. The parole rate declines when less than the full board votes at a hearing. Parolees are frustrated, because they spend more time in prison. Family members are angry. And taxpayers were, until today, none the wiser…I haven’t yet mentioned that the parole board is a full-time gig, appointed by the governor, that pays $85,000 a year. The chairperson makes $93,000.
This is one reason the Flatwater Free Press exists. Exhibit A, if you well.
Exhibit B: The lovely story written for us today by a writer so special she can go by three initials. CLK. Cindy Lange-Kubick. The retired (sorta retired?) Lincoln Journal Star columnist does a story each month for us. Today she tells the tale of two Lincoln pastors and a First-Plymouth congregation that was looking for a new way to help their neighbors. They stumbled onto something gigantic — America’s broken health care system, which leaves many people bankrupt or worse after a costly illness they can’t afford.
So they decided to do something about it. It’s a beautiful story that proves we can band together and put a dent in a problem, even if we can’t solve it.
In our office, we think of these kind of tales as “stories that bring the state together.” Stories that showcase Nebraskans’ humanity. That showcase the best of us.
To recap: An important investigation that wouldn’t have happened without the Flatwater Free Press’ Yanqi Xu. A Nebraska feature story that matters told by one of the state’s most skilled writers, FFP freelancer Cindy Lange-Kubick.
It’s a fantastic day to be editor of this thing.
Good follow-up on “good time” law: Last week our OTHER uber-talented reporter Natalia Alamdari broke an important prison story of her own. Current prison leaders aren’t applying a 2011 law as the law’s authors — the prison leaders of 2011! — intended. The result: Thousands of well-behaved prisoners are potentially staying behind bars days, weeks or months longer despite the fact our prison system is infamously overcrowded.
This week she talked to experts from all sides of the political spectrum. An expert called applying the law as its authors intended “a no-brainer” if we actually want to shrink our prison population. But, he asks: Do we?
Want to support this kind of work? If so, there’s a super-easy way to do it. Just click this link and help us do more investigations and feature stories that matter in this state we call home.
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:
- Unless you have been living under a Nebraska rock, by now you have heard that Rep. Jeff Fortenberry is now the highest-ranking Nebraska politician to be convicted of a felony. From LA, the OWH’s Todd Cooper with the reaction following the verdict. And, from Nebraska, the Nebraska Examiner’s Aaron Sanderford with the news that congressional leaders, including the head of Fortenberry’s own party, are calling on him to resign.
- Let’s end today with an incredibly important story from up-and-comer Bridget Fogarty, a Report for America fellow for the Omaha Reader. Omaha’s public schools enrollment is dropping, and it’s largely because white families pulled their students out of public schools in droves during the first year of COVID-19.
