Payne’s back; Bison up close; More firepower

I fed a bison a few weeks ago. More accurately, I was goaded by our reporters Natalia Alamdari and Destiny Herbers into trying to feed a bison.

Don’t worry, Mom. We were up on a protected trailer, safe from the beasts that can quite accidentally gore you simply by moving their massive heads.

And we were with Carl and Vicki Simmons, Sandhills ranchers who had agreed to show us their bison herd, and their new bison-based tourism business — the subject of Alamdari’s Flatwater Free Press story this week.

So we were safe. And I was fine. Until the hungry bison, seeing the pellet of cake in my hand, stuck out its tongue. In my memory, the tongue was like three feet long and slick with bison slobber and headed right … for … my … hand.

I may or may not have gotten scared and dropped the pellet, oh, a few times before giving up. My epic fail, which Destiny and Natalia understandably thought was hilarious, was but one notable moment during a two-hour tour that blew this Nebraska farm boy away. (I may have to turn in my farm boy card after this story, though.)

Natalia does a really lovely job of capturing the bison tour — and the history, context and importance of the bison’s resurgence — in her story.

Don’t call it a comeback: I have loved Alexander Payne movies since “Election.” And I am so excited to see if the Omaha filmmaker’s latest movie, “The Holdovers” — his first in six years — can break through in a Hollywood increasingly defined by superhero movies and film franchises that I can’t stand.

Leo Adam Biga talked to Payne for our story today. It does a nice job of cataloging the last six years of Payne’s life, and a nice job capturing his shifting position in Hollywood as streaming services, a global pandemic and moviegoers’ habits alter the moviemaking game.

Payne himself doesn’t think “The Holdovers” is a potential comeback story, after his last movie, the bigger-budget “Downsizing” disappointed at the box office.

But I hope it is a comeback for movies like this one — for the type of movies that I think so many of us want to see on the big screen.

More power: I’m so excited to say that Chris Bowling, formerly the editor of the Reader, is the newest Flatwater Free Press reporter. Bowling is a talented young journalist who has developed deep sources in Omaha in just a few years. He’s gonna make FFP better.

The Reader closed in September, a blow for Nebraska journalism. Thanks to readers and donors like you, Flatwater’s parent nonprofit, Nebraska Journalism Trust, was able to scoop up Bowling and Karlha Velásquez Rivas, formerly the editor of the also-shuttered El Perico. (Karlha is now the multimedia producer for Silicon Prairie News, our sister org that skillfully covers Nebraska’s startup scene.)

It’s a very obvious representation of what we’re trying to do — what we’re doing — at Flatwater Free Press.

We want to build upon what’s already built in Nebraska journalism. We want to preserve what’s being lost as various parts of the media industry shrink, struggle and morph. We want to help write the next chapter in Nebraska journalism. Talented journalists like Chris Bowling and Karlha Velásquez Rivas are helping us to do just that.

If you want to read more about how and why we’re growing, here’s a column Executive Director Matt Wynn pounded out between meetings this week.

OK, I need to finish this email, as I have a sudden, uncontrollable urge to finish work so I can watch “Sideways” for the 47th time. See you next week!

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:

• Water is disappearing in parts of the Ogallala Aquifer. It’s not happening in Nebraska, thank gosh, at least not yet. But this is still a story that could matter very much inside our state in the medium term. I’m so glad that Harvest Public Media wrote this story, which appeared in and on Nebraska Public Media.
• Why are Nebraskans leaving Nebraska? A new UNO study suggests that it’s … housing. That result shocked the researchers leading the study. Story by the Nebraska Examiner’s Cindy Gonzalez.
• My gosh, I think World-Herald education reporter Lauren Wagner gets a spot in this newsletter each and every week. This week, she did a story about a controversial Papillion La Vista school board member who quit. It’s important, I think, because it’s a window into the battles we’re now having over public education — what it should teach, what values it should espouse and the banning of books, or not, inside its libraries.
• Speaking of public schools … gigantic news in Nebraska this week. The Secretary of State’s Office announced that a petition drive seeking to repeal a new state law providing tax incentives for donors to scholarship funds for private schools had easily gotten enough signatures to force the issue onto the November 2024 ballot. Story by the Journal Star’s Andrew Wegley.
  
  This will be far from the last time you hear about this one — both sides in this fight are well-funded and are gonna battle for voters’ hearts and minds ‘til Election Day 2024.
• A singular, $325 million beef plant in North Platte is taking shape. NTV’s Steve White with this story that’s an important one in central Nebraska and in Nebraska agriculture.
• And one other one from NTV, the ABC affiliate in Kearney, before I go. Students are protesting the potential dismissal of a Gothenburg teacher.