I’m just gonna be honest here. I’m running on E. It’s the Friday before Labor Day weekend, I am staring at this blank screen and just briefly considered chucking my computer out the window, an idea which I abandoned only after admitting to myself that I don’t know how to open our office windows.
I’m weary because it’s been a week. It’s been a very long and very good week. Let’s get into the journalistic particulars, shall we?
On Thursday, we released the first story of “Pigs and Power,” our series focused on Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen. This story, “Pillen’s Rise” is focused on how he went from a small Nebraska hog farmer to one of the biggest pork producers in the world. It’s a helluva success story.
The story, which FFP investigative reporter Yanxi Xu double-teamed with the uber-talented Investigate Midwest’s Sky Chadde, also grapples with an obvious question: What happens when a governor runs a state whose agencies are meant to oversee and regulate the ag empire owned by the governor?
Future stories, to be published yet this summer and fall, will focus on answering questions like: How are Pillen-owned hog operations potentially impacting our drinking water? And what are all the things that happen when one of these big operations opens up or expands next to where you live?
Why are we doing this series, you may wonder?
A) Being the governor of Nebraska is an important job.
B) It strikes us that the residents of Nebraska don’t know all that much about our governor.
C) These are important questions, and Nebraska media outlets like ours should be striving to answer them.
Our executive director Matt Wynn has a better answer. (Hint: It’s not the “R” behind Pillen’s name.) Read his thoughtful column on why we are launching “Pigs and Power.”
An OPS conflict of interest?
Speaking of politics … Our new-ish Omaha reporter Jeremy Turley spent the week reporting a story that’s guaranteed to make people on every side of this fight over public/private school funding big mad.
The president of the Omaha Public Schools board voted along with his colleagues to oppose a bill — now a law — in the Nebraska Legislature that delivers tax breaks to donors who fund private school scholarships. Proponents say it gives kids from low-income families the chance to go to private schools. Opponents say it’s a way to divert public money to private schools.
The story isn’t about that debate. It’s focused on the fact that the company the board president runs was being paid to help the pro-private schools side as this hot button issue moved from the Legislature to petition drive and now likely toward the ballot box.
Matthew Hansen’s nightmare fuel: Why, that’s our third story this week, a story that pretty much needs to be read to be believed.
In summation: A new tick moved to Nebraska. This tick will bite you, as ticks are known to do. And then you might become allergic to … all forms of red meat.
I hate you, tick.
I do not hate the story though, from freelancer Michael Wunder.
Final FlatFest countdown: We have like 25 tickets left of 350 to the Flatwater Free Press Festival, codename FlatFest. If you are like me and do things last minute … this is your time to shine, fellow procrastinators.
Learn more about the media heavyweights we are bringing in, the cool barn where we are holding FlatFest and the conversation that our (soon-to-be-sold out) crowd of 350 will have about the present and future of Nebraska and U.S. journalism. And then buy your tickets, bub, or face the prospect of serious FOMO come Sept. 14.
How ‘bout that Yanqi Xu?!
She recently won a big national word — an INNY! — given by the Institute for Nonprofit News. She won it for her reporting of “Our Dirty Water,” our 2022 series that focused on Nebraska’s growing problem with nitrate in our groundwater and drinking water.
It’s the most gratifying of honors, methinks, because Yanqi (pronounced Yen-chee) busted her a$$ on this project and let thousands and thousands of Nebraskans know about how and why nitrate is leaching into some drinking water — and what they could do to protect themselves.
Congratulations, Yanqi!
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? Complete this form or reach our newsroom at [email protected].
Hey, lookee there, my screen isn’t blank anymore. Have a great Labor Day weekend, everyone.
—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:
- This is incredible interactive journalism. In many places in the United States — including in many places near Nebraska — our water is simply running out.
As Nebraskans, we are very, very lucky to have the most bountiful part of the Ogallala Aquifer beneath our feet. But this journalism is also a warning. Groundwater is ultimately finite. How we use it, and treat it, will ultimately determine how much is left for new generations of Nebraskans when all of us are six feet underground. - Several of you have emailed me and asked me questions about that police raid of a small-town Kansas newspaper. Those questions boiled down to … what the heck just happened? This story, from the Washington Post, did as good and thorough a job as I have seen of explaining what led up to that raid.
- Lincoln Journal Star reporter Chris Dunker has this good and crucial story on what happened to the state inspectors meant to offer oversight of various parts of Nebraska’s government following a recent AG’s decision.
- The Nebraska Examiner’s Paul Hammel followed another important story: The site of Nebraska’s new prison was moved this week, following much criticism.
- An effort to ban books in various Nebraska schools and libraries continues. Those efforts aren’t always successful. The OWH’s Lauren Wagner on one such failed effort in Papillion-La Vista.
- Far less important, but incredibly entertaining, is the journalism that spun out of the most viral traffic warning of the week — when a police officer in Norfolk pulled over a man driving with a full-grown bull in his passenger seat.
Here’s a story from the New York Times. (I am not kidding, the New York Times wrote a story about this.)
And here’s a story from News Channel Nebraska, which interviewed the most important person in this whole saga. Rhonda. The driver’s wife.
