Nothing pleases an editor more than when a reporter tells you your story idea is crappy … and then comes up with a far better one.
Hello, it’s FFP Editor Matthew Hansen here, back from a 10th anniversary vacation with Sarah Baker Hansen that finally took place over our 14th anniversary because, as you may have noticed, some stuff has happened in the past few years. It was fantastic, but I am very excited to be home as we head into the home stretch of 2023 — it’s gonna be an action-packed couple of months for the journalists of the Flatwater Free Press.
But back to that reporter: I assigned Destiny Herbers, who is with us for a year as a post-graduate fellow from the Howard Center for Investigative Journalism, a story involving farmers of color in Nebraska. I thought my idea was solid. She did a few days of reporting and told me it was as shaky as a shoddily built house during a Nebraska windstorm.
Then, she did more digging, analyzing land sale data first compiled by a University of Nebraska-Lincoln journalism class, and discovered something fascinating: Three Native tribes are buying farmland in Nebraska.
This is fascinating because these tribes, and many others, have bled land for the past 150 years. Now they are rebuying it. And it ain’t cheap.
Read Destiny’s very good story, from her very good idea, that I had nothing to do with.
Also…how about those photos from freelance northeast Nebraska photog Jerry Mennenga? Really, really cool stuff.
Big journalism announcement time: We’re launching a new investigative series called, tentatively, “Who Owns Nebraska?”
(Maybe “Buying Nebraska” or “Buying Up Nebraska” or something like that. Still workshopping over here.)
The aforementioned Herbers, investigative ace Yanqi Xu and UNL fellow extraordinaire Evelyn Mejia are as we speak slicing and dicing land sale data in various ways. We’re going to answer the question forever asked by farm families, directly address the rumors you hear in small towns and in the halls of the Nebraska Legislature.
Who is buying what? And why?
It’s so fun to get some big ambitious brains in a room and give them an assignment like this. I’m so excited to share the journalistic fruits of their labor soon.
Child care in crisis: You already know this if you are a parent of young children, or a child care provider, or a boss who employs parents of young children. But we all need to know this: Child care is in serious trouble in Nebraska and across the country.
It breaks family budgets. It simultaneously doesn’t pay enough to keep child care providers in business. And it’s costing the Nebraska economy dearly as parents leave the workforce when they can’t afford quality child care for their kids.
Some Nebraska companies are stepping into this crisis, trying to do something about it. Our story today is written by Silicon Prairie News Editor Stefanie Monge and published first in SPN, our sister publication.
As a brief aside, before I move on: Any child care expert will tell you that this action isn’t enough. They say we need to get serious about fixing child care, because the current broken situation is harming our kids, our parents, our country.
You need a red sweatshirt that screams “Football!” and also “Journalism!”:
You simply do. I’m gonna give the first person I see at Memorial Stadium in October wearing some red Flatwater Free Press gear a gigantic high five, and maybe a hug.
Check out all our new merch here, including blue and gray options for those who don’t like red and/or the smart people who have chosen to be Creighton basketball fans.
An update on an important story: In 2021, one of our first stories was a great one from Chris Bowling, who profiled a Lakota family in the Sandhills who was distraught, and outraged, after a school employee cut their kids’ hair in violation of the tribe’s religion, customs and history.
This week, Bowling reported that the school district has agreed to pay the family $227k in damages and also start teaching its staff about Native American culture.
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].
See you same time, same place, next week.
—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:
- For years, an insurance company owned by Mutual of Omaha denied claims on a technicality — a move that left families who thought their loved ones had life insurance hung out to dry. Paul Hammel of the Nebraska Examiner with this important story.
- Lauren Wagner at the OWH has been all over the continuing shortage of special education staff members in the Omaha Public Schools. Here’s her latest, on a new plan to get more special ed paras into Omaha classrooms.
- Nebraska Public Media and reporter Fred Knapp are starting a four-part series on Nebraska’s plan to build a canal near the Colorado border. Really crucial stuff here — this is far from the last time states will battle over diminishing water resources.
- Gigantic news from the NU Regents Meeting. No, not on Memorial Stadium. The Med Center is moving ahead with a multi-billion-dollar (that’s “b” and is “billion”) expansion plan, which is also a big play to make the med center and the hospital even more of a national leader in several areas. Story from OWH reporter Julie Anderson, seen here in the Lincoln Journal Star.
- A state senator is hearing from Nebraska parents who say their kids are being denied gender-affirming medicines — despite the fact that these transgender kids are supposed to be grandfathered in under a new state law. Story from Margery Beck at the Associated Press.
