What a week! Flatwater reporters committed some serious acts of journalism these past few days.
We’re gonna start with Yanqi’s story, the story that’s the talk of the state, the story that laid bare that Gov. Jim Pillen’s company has long employed undocumented workers, even as the governor backed the ICE crackdown and used hardline rhetoric of “criminal illegal aliens” who have “invaded our country.”
Yanqi Xu (that’s pronounced “Yen-chee Shoe”) has done some incredible work during her five years at Flatwater. This is yet another tour de force, an investigation with The New York Times that involves 40 interviews, including two dozen with former and current Pillen Family Farms employees. Read it.
Yanqi on stage: Would you like to come hear Yanqi talk more about this story? Well, good, because on Sunday, Sept. 20 at 5:30 p.m., she is appearing at our free Flatwater Forum in Lincoln. Register for free here.
Key programming note: This event will now be held at Morrill Hall on the University of Nebraska-Lincoln campus. That’s right … on Sunday night, you can see both Yanqi and Archie, the world’s largest mammoth skeleton!
Morrill will be a great setting, and Yanqi’s conversation with our investigative editor, Natalia Alamdari, is just one of several fantastic ones we are having that night. I will interview UNL grad Jenna Johnson, a senior editor at The Atlantic who covered the first Trump campaign. She now sits at the intersection of modern D.C. politics and modern journalism.
Read a Q&A we did with Jenna this week and register to attend the free event, as it fills up fast.
While you are at it, check out the details on all Five Days of Flatwater, the five parties we are throwing over five days to celebrate our fifth birthday … including FlatFest, our big annual event on Sept. 23 that we’re holding at a badass barn right outside Lincoln.
Fewer than 50 tickets are available to FlatFest! Support nonprofit news and Flatwater by learning more at that link and buying yours today.
Center of the storm: Sara Gentzler’s reporting on the abuse scandal at a state-run youth center in Kearney has been inspired and inspiring. She has exposed deep problems. Her work has already caused change and will undoubtedly cause more.
And her diligence has earned the trust of the families affected. Today, for the first time, she brings us the story of the boys caught at the scandal’s center. She shows us what this looks like from a teenager’s point of view.
We have collected all her exemplary stories on the YRTC scandal in one spot. Find ’em here.
Bird, plane or drone delivering my allergy medicine? I loved reading this story from Flatwater Omaha reporters Chris Bowling and Jeremy Turley, a story on the thousands of suburban Omahans now receiving their Amazon deliveries via drone.
Some are amused. Some are bemused. Some see issues and wonder what on earth we’re doing. But it sure seems like this future is here.
Kearney goes all in on data centers: Many Nebraska counties are putting the brakes on data centers. Kearney, fascinatingly, is going in the other direction. This week, we had a good story from Pierce Gentry on why, what restrictions Kearney is putting in — and the massive data center that will likely be coming to that city soon.
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? Reach our newsroom at [email protected].
See you next week,
Matthew Hansen, Executive Editor
Thanks to this week’s sponsor
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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 our eye this week:
- Yanqi and yours truly appeared on the Dan Parsons Show this week to talk about Yanqi’s Pillen immigration story. Dan did a really good job with the interview. Watch it here or listen to it here.
- I really liked this follow-up story on the Pillen immigration story — and attempts to speak to the governor about it — from the Omaha World-Herald’s Aaron Sanderford. Plus this photo of Yanqi and the governor is worth 1,000 words.
- Really important story out of Lincoln. The city has been working for years, in fits and starts, to build a convention center. But now the university and the athletic department may have edged their way into this competition. Good story by the Journal Star’s Chris Dunker. (You may need LJS subscriber access to view this story.)
- Eric Schlosser wrote “Fast Food Nation,” kind of the seminal book on modern food production. This week, he wrote a piece for The New York Times on the Trump administration’s effort idea to import beef.
- Erin Bamer of the Nebraska Examiner with an eye-opening story on the employees leaving the Nebraska Department of Economic Development.
- Finally, it’s the 25th anniversary of Sept. 11. On this day, I always return to a few stories. If you are so inclined today, join me in reading Tom Junod’s absolutely incredible story, “The Falling Man.”
