Hello! It’s Editor Matthew Hansen, back from vacation, rested, tanned (OK, one shade less pale) and ready to share all the news that’s fit to newsletter on this beautiful Nebraska spring Friday.
One of the privileges we have at Flatwater Free Press is the time to occasionally take a step back, survey the landscape, notice an important story hiding in plain sight and make sure we write it so you can read it.
Such it is with a story FFP senior reporter Yanqi Xu wrote this week. She noticed, amid the blizzard of bills and flurry of activity in the Nebraska Legislature, that Gov. Jim Pillen had testified for and publicly championed a bill that would seem to benefit the largest pork producer in Nebraska — a company founded and owned by Jim Pillen.
She dug deeper. She did a public records request and received emails that showed that Gov. Pillen’s aide and top livestock industry groups had in fact written this bill, which would make it easier to build new hog farms and feedlots and chicken farms in small-town Nebraska. Put another way: It would make it harder for small-town Nebraskans to stop the construction of new operations like these built near their homes or communities.
Here’s her story, which shines light on a situation that had previously existed mostly in the dark.
Now, I should note: The governor’s spokesperson, livestock group leaders and others quoted in the story think this bill is a good idea, good for agriculture and for business and fairer to the companies trying to build and expand. Others quoted in the story, including Gage County residents who halted the construction of a Summit Pork hog farm last year, think it’s bad because it takes power from local residents. That it’s “bullying” as one testified to a legislative committee.
No matter what you think, we think it’s important that you know this is happening.
Nebraskans remember: You probably know that, during World War II, the United States government rounded up and imprisoned 120,000 Japanese-Americans, simply because they were Japanese-Americans. It’s a horrifying chapter of American history.
What you may not know is that some of those imprisoned had deep family ties to Scottsbluff, Chadron and the surrounding areas.
Freelancer Lori Potter tells the story of some of those families, now featured in a new museum exhibit as Gering prepares to reopen a historic Japanese Hall now meant to preserve the history of Western Nebraska’s Japanese immigrants.
This work builds on a story we published in 2022, which explains how a group of Japanese immigrants came to settle in and around Scottsbluff.
Mark it on your calendar: Our listening tour around the Omaha metro area continues May 7, when myself and a few Flatwater reporters will appear at the Elkhorn Public Library. The topic this time is one that I think is vitally important to Nebraska’s present and future: child care.
If you’re in the area that afternoon, save that date and come talk to us about child care or anything else. I will have more info as it gets closer.
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].
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:
- I usually put heartwarming stories last in the news from around Nebraska section, but I’m switching it up this week because I loved this story from the OWH’s Emily Nitcher so, so much. She did the Mr. Rogers thing, and looked for the helpers. If you have an OWH subscription, or if you haven’t yet hit the paywall, give it a read.
- A terrible story about an environmental disaster in Iowa, co-written by the New York Times’ Mitch Smith, a UNL graduate.
- Teachers are fleeing Schuyler, and school leaders and the community are grappling with the departures while battling about the reasons behind these departures. A really important one from the Journal Star’s Jenna Ebbers.
- In case you were blessedly sleeping under a rock these past few days, right-wing media celebrity Charlie Kirk decided to make the way Nebraska awards presidential electoral votes a big deal a few days ago. The idea to make Nebraska a winner-take-all state — only Nebraska and Maine award electoral votes by congressional district — is as old as time, but Kirk’s advocacy drew new attention to it, and predictable fury flying in all directions. Gov. Jim Pillen chimed in support of winner-take-all, as did former President Donald Trump, who lost the Omaha-area congressional district’s one electoral vote to President Joe Biden in 2020. National media-ish types, including many who don’t know that Nebraska has a Legislature, got all in a lather, especially when Sen. Mike McDonnell switched his party registration to Republican this week.
A few problems with this idea. The Legislature is days from adjourning. McDonnell said repeatedly, flat out, he opposes changing the current way we award electoral votes. And the bill’s sponsor said over and over that he didn’t have the needed 33 votes to pass “winner take all” into law. Then a last-ditch Hail Mary effort failed.
The idea appeared dead by Friday morning. At least until the next time Charlie Kirk decides Nebraska is important. - I pay attention to arena funding stories, and there’s a doozy going on in Kansas City, where voters soundly rejected a bond issue to fund a new Royals stadium and improvements to the Chiefs’ stadium. It’s unclear whether either team will move just across the Missouri/Kansas border, stay put, or other.
