Months before Gov. Jim Pillen recommended her for a $2.5 million no-bid consulting contract that Nebraska’s auditor later said “smacks of favoritism,” Julie Bushell was lobbying state officials for another deal.
She seemed poised to get it, despite skepticism from the state’s top environmental administrator. In emails obtained by the Flatwater Free Press, he called the technology she was selling “developing and aspiring at best.”
That warning, sent to Pillen’s chief of staff, wasn’t shared with the lawmaker advocating for the money.
Within months, the state had set aside $1 million to fund the kind of technology Bushell’s company was selling. She had also been installed in regular meetings at Nebraska’s Department of Environment and Energy, where a deputy director appeared to be working with Bushell on a plan to spend the taxpayer dollars with her company, emails show.
“We didn’t know what her role was, who was paying her … or what her goal was,” said Kara Valentine, the department’s former interim director. “She was pretty close-lipped about that. It was clear to us that she knew what direction the governor wanted to go on things, especially when (Pillen’s policy adviser) didn’t.”
Valentine’s account and dozens of emails obtained by Flatwater through public records requests raise questions about Bushell’s role and influence inside state government before and after Pillen recommended her for the $208,333-a-month, no-bid contract.
In May 2024, the state signed the contract with Bushell, a lobbyist who had traveled overseas with Pillen as part of a state delegation. It drew scrutiny earlier this year when State Auditor Mike Foley said the state had broken the law by not identifying what emergency justified the no-bid contract.
Lincoln police have been investigating the contract since March. A spokeswoman told Flatwater that the investigation is ongoing. Lawmakers in April changed state law to strengthen oversight of no-bid contracts.
Months before her no-bid contract was awarded, Bushell lobbied lawmakers to set aside money for real-time nitrate sensors like the ones manufactured by her Lincoln-based tech company Ethos Connected.
The promise of the sensors was twofold: If farmers knew the nitrate level in their irrigation water, they could reduce the amount of nitrogen fertilizer applied to their crops and save money while also decreasing the amount of the harmful contaminant that can seep into drinking water.
But state scientists weren’t sold. Jim Macy, then director of Nebraska’s Department of Environment and Energy, sent Pillen’s chief of staff a memo as lawmakers considered earmarking funds for the sensors. The memo raised concerns that “some in the industry are providing hopeful Information rather than proven fact.”
“None of my scientific team can point to any proven current technology that meets a basic benchmark,” Macy wrote in the January 2024 memo.
The lawmaker advocating for the money says no one from the Pillen administration ever shared it with him. “I have no recollection of it,” said Sen. Eliot Bostar of Lincoln, a Democrat.
By June, the state had set aside money for real-time nitrate sensors in wells statewide. Macy had resigned from Pillen’s cabinet. And a deputy director who remained at the department was scheduling a meeting with Bushell about “what could work with the program dollars,” emails obtained by Flatwater show.
By September, Valentine was questioning why Bushell had a standing invitation to department meetings on the rollout of a $307 million federal grant. Pillen’s office later said she helped secure it from the Environmental Protection Agency.
But Valentine, who oversaw the grant application, said it was never clear to her what Bushell had done to help the state secure the money. The application for the grant was submitted a month before Bushell signed her contract with the state.
Statement from governor’s spokeswoman
Here is the full statement from Laura Strimple, Gov. Jim Pillen’s spokeswoman, in response to questions sent to the Governor’s Office for this story:
“It’s political silly season, so this latest angle is no surprise. Now even on the nitrates issue — which everyone agrees is a problem and required all options on the table to address — you are second-guessing the Legislature’s passage of one of three bills to address the nitrate issue, which zero money was even granted out. The premises of your questions cherry-pick quotes from disgruntled bureaucrats while ignoring subject-matter experts’ contrary opinions.
“Given the critical flaws in your main questions regarding this nitrate management initiative, we see no need to engage on your other questions, most of which the Governor has already addressed on record extensively. To be sure, the impact of the $307 million EPA grant to Nebraska overwhelmingly speaks for itself, as evidenced by the investment of those resources into Nebraska communities and water infrastructure right now. Just today, the Governor rolled out more than half of those investments while at Husker Harvest Days in Grand Island, will be in Norfolk next week announcing a major sub-grant into that community’s water system, with much more to come to protect and enhance Nebraska’s vital water resources.
“The success of that $307 million initiative may not fit your narrative, but it is nevertheless quite real and will help real Nebraska communities.”
A policy adviser to Pillen did make one thing clear, Valentine recalled: Bushell spoke for the governor.
“But then Julie disappeared just as quickly as she arrived,” she said.
The state ended Bushell’s contract early in February 2025, a month after the auditor’s office launched its probe into the deal. Pillen’s office told the Nebraska Examiner that President Donald Trump’s return meant that Pillen had a direct relationship with the White House and no longer needed Bushell’s firm. She sold her Lincoln home in July.
Bushell declined to be interviewed or answer emailed questions. In a statement, she noted that the tech company ultimately didn’t receive the state funds for nitrate sensors. And, in fact, the state never spent the money earmarked to purchase nitrate sensors.
Bushell said she delivered for the state a return on investment that “dwarfed other state contracts” and said the “suggestion that I used my position to direct public funding to a separate company, Ethos Connected, is false.”
“Nebraska cannot build an innovation economy by attacking the very people who innovate,” she said. “Those who reward contribution with suspicion and repay risk-taking with reputational attacks do not simply punish one person. Instead, they send a warning signal to every talented leader considering whether to invest their energy here.”
Pillen’s office declined to make the governor available for an interview or answer specific questions. In a statement, Pillen’s spokeswoman said: “It’s political silly season, so this latest angle is no surprise.
“Now even on the nitrates issue — which everyone agrees is a problem and required all options on the table to address — you are second-guessing the Legislature’s passage of one of three bills to address the nitrate issue, which zero money was even granted out,” the spokeswoman, Laura Strimple, said. “The premises of your questions cherry-pick quotes from disgruntled bureaucrats while ignoring subject-matter experts’ contrary opinions.”
***
Bushell’s company started 2024 with momentum. It had a new name, Ethos Connected. It had a new “state-of-the-art sensor production facility” in Lincoln’s Haymarket, unveiled in January.
It had a lobbyist working to get taxpayer dollars set aside for its technology.
And it appeared to have an ally in the Governor’s Mansion. Pillen spoke at the facility’s opening.
Early that year, Bostar introduced a bill seeking to address the problem of nitrate contamination. The bill would help rural Nebraskans with nitrate-laced drinking water to pay for water filtration systems. And it set aside up to $10 million to install real-time nitrate sensors in monitoring wells statewide.
The lobbying group Husch Blackwell Strategies had put the proposal in his hands, Bostar said in an interview this year. State reports show Bushell’s company paid the firm $39,000 to lobby in 2024, including on the real-time sensor bill.
The technology would save farmers money and help keep Nebraska’s groundwater clean, Bostar said at the bill’s public hearing.
But in public documents, state scientists harbored doubts. The bill’s fiscal note – a state agency memo estimating the cost of the law – mentioned that the Department of Environment and Energy was “not aware of current technology to obtain real-time quality data.”
Bushell testified at the February 2024 hearing and pushed back. “That is false,” she said. “Our company makes nitrogen sensors right here in Lincoln, Nebraska.” Ethos already had one client, the Twin Platte Natural Resource District, piloting its nitrate sensors. The district’s general manager told state groundwater experts that the real-time data gathered by the company’s sensors seemed accurate in early testing. He hoped to install the probes across the district.
At the state level, the effort to sell officials on the sensors reached the environmental agency’s headquarters in Lincoln, records show.
Four days after Macy sent his memo casting doubt on the sensors to Pillen’s office, a deputy director at the Department of Natural Resources sent Macy a copy of the specifications for Ethos Connected’s nitrate sensor “in case you guys have an interest.” In another email weeks later, one state groundwater specialist told another there were “documents on desk from Ethos for you to review.”
Macy, who left Pillen’s cabinet in April 2024 and joined the EPA in February 2025, declined to comment for this story.
The month he left his state environmental post, lawmakers set aside $1 million for the sensors. The new bill’s fiscal note – rewritten by state agency leaders and approved by Pillen’s policy adviser, emails show – no longer referenced doubts about the technology.
Pillen mentioned the nitrate sensor funding in his farewell address to lawmakers that month. Weeks later, an NDEE deputy director emailed Bushell, initiating plans to spend the funds. The deputy, Andrew Dunkley, invited Bushell to meet Macy’s interim replacement, Thad Fineran, in a May 2024 email obtained by Flawater.
“This is absolutely incredible! Did you read my mind?!” Bushell wrote back. “I JUST said I needed to reach out and see if there was any chance Thad would be available for a quick meet tomorrow.”
Dunkley suggested they meet in Ogallala in the coming weeks if his schedule permitted. “Regardless, we’d love to chat on the sensors and what could work with the program dollars,” Dunkley wrote.
The next day, in a separate email to Fineran, Dunkley suggested Fineran talk to Dave Lopez, Pillen’s chief of staff, about the money earmarked for nitrate sensors.
Dunkley said the governor’s policy adviser “mentioned the need to probably go through a bid process for the real-time nitrate sensors project.” And he suggested the governor himself was directing the funds.
“We’ll want to discuss strategic direction with (the Governor’s Office) throughout the process as we receive direction from the Governor,” Dunkley wrote.
Dunkley, who was laid off by the state last summer, declined to comment. Fineran, who served as the interim agency director for six months in 2024, did not return phone calls seeking comment.
***
By August 2024, Bushell, now a high-paid state contractor, was installed in biweekly meetings on the $307 million EPA grant “to help inform the team on BioEconomic efforts, how (the grant) plays into it, and how we stay aligned with the Governor’s intent,” Dunkley wrote in an email to Valentine.
Pillen’s office later called Bushell “instrumental” in securing it and other federal grants “through extensive engagement with federal officials.” Bushell’s invoices to the state listed only three actions tied to the EPA grant, including a pair of meetings with a deputy EPA administrator in June and July 2024, the Examiner reported.
The emails obtained by Flatwater show that, independent of Bushell, EPA leaders reached out to the Governor’s Office, contacting Chief of Staff Lopez to initiate a July call and “provide an update to the governor in follow up to their previous conversation.”
Bushell was added to the call list at Lopez’s request, according to the emails. Pillen participated in both calls.
Pillen’s office did not answer questions about whether Bushell had prior meetings with the EPA. Strimple, the governor’s spokeswoman, said Pillen’s office saw “no need to engage” with Flatwater’s questions given “the critical flaws in your main questions regarding this nitrate management initiative.”
“The success of that $307 million initiative may not fit your narrative, but it is nevertheless quite real and will help real Nebraska communities.”
As she became a frequent visitor to the state’s Fallbrook office building as a consultant through one of her firms, Bushell lobbied environmental agency officials on behalf of the other, the emails show.
In August, she emailed Dunkley, offering to bring a sensor and an Ethos engineer in for a visit. Dunkley declined, telling her the state was still considering seeking competitive bids for the dollars, “so we are not meeting with any companies yet.”
“But if we get to a point where we can start those types of discussions, I will let you know!” Dunkley wrote.
The state never sought bids for the program.
Instead, Dunkley sent Pillen’s policy adviser a memo in October indicating the department would allow “area specific bids where existing infrastructure is in place” in a plan that appeared to favor the Twin Platte NRD, where Ethos equipment had already been installed, according to emails.
In the end, the state never spent the money – with Ethos Connected or anyone else, according to the Legislature’s Fiscal Office.
That was news to Bostar, the lawmaker who ushered the money from proposal to law.
“I’m disappointed it wasn’t spent,” he said. “The purpose of those provisions, I believe, was important.”
33 Comments
Ah yes, it’s only 45 days until the election, so it’s time for another article bashing a Republican governor.
If Flatwater had posted an article like this in January 2024, when the governor and a bunch of political lobbyists were first caught throwing their backing behind a local company, we could all nod along and say, “yeah, thats kind of shady. Whats he up to?”
But when we cross the invisible 60 day threshold before an election, and suddenly every other article Flatwater publishes is attacking the same guy, over and over, and over again… It’s getting tiresome at this point, guys.
At best it seems like you sat on this in your archives until the most politically advantageous moment to launch it, or at worst it seems like you weren’t even aware of the problem when it first became a problem and only retroactively discovered it now that you are engaging in election season muckraking. And in either case, the only people who will be convinced by this argument are the ones who were already on your side in the first place.
Are you saying nobody should know? It sounds like you are.
Thats what we call a strawman: Rather than addressing what I actually said or providing a meaningful rebuttal, you leap to an assumption about something you think I might have said that would be easier for you to attack.
I believe from my post that it was clear what I actually meant. The problem here is that Flatwater has produced a very large volume of attacks on one person, all of these attacks have been fired off in rapid succession, the attacks are all coming right before the person in question will be up for election in less than 2 months, and the attacks themselves often have serious plot holes that undermine the argument being made.
All of which is in addition to all the other problems that are common to all Flatwater articles, even when there isn’t an election going on. Too much reliance on long anecdotal story telling, blatantly obvious political bias right from the title, intellectually shallow analysis of the facts, and the giant gaping plot holes that often not only undermine the thesis, but actually turn the thesis completely on it’s head! With every article posted, Flatwater takes another giant leap toward being the worst news source in Nebraska.
Let me try explaining it to you by doing a direct comparison to another local news source, the Nebraska Examiner. Because the funny thing is, both newspapers often cover the same topics but the Examiner does it better every single time. You can take articles each one wrote about the same topic, compare them side-by-side, and Flatwater will lose that contest over and over again. Because unlike Flatwater, the Examiner actually writes articles that are news, focused on facts, and makes at least some effort to conceal their political bias. And yes, the Examiner is politically biased too, but doing a better job of hiding the bias is another thing they are more competent at than Flatwater!
Take for example the grocery store being built by Heart Ministry Center in Omaha. Flatwater and the Examiner both wrote articles about this, so we can compare them.
The Examiner article was written in the format of a traditional news article, covering the groundbreaking ceremony in a seemingly neutral manner, but still quietly lending support to the concept by not reporting any contradictory facts and assenting to the claim that the store will allegedly be the “key to restoring dignity and economic vitality to one of Nebraska’s most distressed areas.” In order to see any flaw with what the Examiner wrote you would already need to know something about the topic, which most readers will not. By keeping it short, sweet and to the point, the Examiner scores an ideological touchdown that keeps their bias in even selecting the topic of the article well hidden from the audience.
Now compare that easy win against the Flatwater article covering the same topic. Much like Anthony Fauci, Flatwater takes too much pride in it’s elaborate exposition and display of alleged expertise, and in so doing reveals too much information that allows any reasonably alert reader to immediately spot the plot holes. In addition to completely needless anecdotal story telling that adds nothing to the body of facts, Flatwater spends most of the article bemoaning one important detail that the Examiner avoided entirely: The core claim being used to justify the grocery store is that they believe you need to be within a half-mile or less of a grocery store or it’s too far. By revealing this claim, almost every marginally competent reader is immediately put on alert. They likely drive farther than that to get to their grocery store, so whats the deal here? One quick google search to find out what the actual average distance to a grocery store is and the reader discovers the whole story is a sham. By the definition of Heart Ministry Center, the overwhelming majority of the planet earth is too far from a grocery store, but somehow only inner-city Omaha sees this as a problem in need of a solution from a Catholic political activist group.
The Heart Ministry Center story is one of the most recent egregious examples, but we can even find examples in articles about Pillen too. Because yes, the Examiner is not only better at reporting actual news, they are even more competent when it comes to election season mudslinging. The examiner has posted several articles talking about how the Governor and his political appointees have sabotaged the Department of Economic Development. Not only do they cite strong arguments and have legitimate data to back up their claims, but by pointing this out they also undermine one of Pillen’s key claims that he wants to run government like a business. Yet many of the ways he destroyed a key government agency were very much the opposite of what he would have done if he were running it like a business, and adding to the irony is that the agency he destroyed is one that was meant to help businesses!
You see, I have no problem with attacking Pillen… IF you can do it competently. Flatwater’s problem is that their attacks don’t qualify as competent and yet they still feel determined to launch every possible attack they can on one guy, whom they clearly have a grudge against. And on the rare occasion when they aren’t attacking Pillen, their articles devolve to the level of Reader’s Digest: Omaha Edition.
This is why every attempt to refute my point eventually resorts to insults, internet trolling and demands that I give my name. If Flatwater were actually good, you would just prove it and move on. But you can’t prove it, because Flatwater isn’t good. It’s awful!
Nebraska Examiner wrote their own articles – OK then, read those instead? The rest of your monologue sounds like a bunch of declarative opinions with little substance to back up whatever incoherency you’re defending.
Referring to my statement as “declarative opinions” is also an opinion. And one with no substance at all, for that matter.
As usual, nobody can refute what I have said without resorting to insults and diversionary hand waving.
All you’ve done is claim Flatwater is bad, because you dislike what they say and how they say it. I’m not convinced that’s a legitimate argument, nor is anyone else no matter how obstinate you choose to remain about it.
And all you have done is state your opinion that you don’t like my opinion. That isn’t an argument at all. It’s nothing. You have literally said nothing.
I guess that makes your opinion of my opinion of your opinion an opinion, and so on and so on, so I guess here you are upset that you’re contradicted or whatever but you still said nothing convincing in your flailing monologue about Flatwater.
You have a valid point to the extent that any further attempt to explain my completely valid arguments would be a waste of time.
But thank you again for demonstrating that your only rebuttal to my argument is to resort to childish name calling. That act says everything which needs to be communicated, including that Flatwater has no intention of upholding the alleged rules of this comment section.
Found Pillens burner account.
Also FFP posted on this before and this is a follow up lol
The more exposure to Pillan’s corruption, the better.
Election Season Fatigue, that is an absurd response. What a pitiful attempt to attack good journalism, while you refuse to make the attack with your name attached.
Why does my name need to be attached to prove my point?
Do you also think the above response that I received from “Joe Biden” was legitimate? Did the elderly ex-president who is currently dying from cancer actually respond to a comment on an obscure Nebraska website to say “lol”?
If you have a problem with the names people use on this site, you need to take that up with Flatwater themselves. Their own website is designed so that any person can enter any name they want, which is why people often enter obviously false names. And the fact that this comment section so frequently descends into an internet trolling free-for-all is all the more reason to question the legitimacy of this alleged “newsroom” and their dubious reporting.
Actually, if you did a little research, you would learn that flatwater free press.org actually began reporting on this on February 5, 2026. Well outside your 60 day window.
When corruption at the national level is transparent and unstopped it clearly sends a message to state governments that business as usual means illegal and underhanded actions. I hold hope that on the state level our judiciary and media still function as independent agents free from the savage neck twists rampant in the federal systems. Seek out corruption and do your jobs!! Thanks to all our free journalists and independent law enforcement and judiciary!
This is what competent, robust investigative journalism looks like. Congratulations to Mr. Wegley and Flatwater Free Press for doing the job right, thoroughly and impartially.
” Flatwater Free Press for doing the job right, thoroughly and impartially.”
Are you serious, or is this a Babylon Bee copy & paste?
Governor Pillen claims he wants to lower property taxes, but Nebraska is facing a real budget deficit under his watch.
If he’s following his hero Trump’s playbook, why not just slap a 10% tariff on goods coming from our neighboring states, 20% on other red states, and 30% on blue states? Since broad protectionist tariffs are being sold as the ultimate fix-all solution for national revenue, why shouldn’t Nebraska try it?
Nebraskans don’t need economic gimmicks or shifting promises. We need real fiscal responsibility, honest budgeting, and actual property tax relief that doesn’t just shuffle the bill onto working families.
He can’t place tariffs on other states. It’s literally in the U.S. Constitution that the power of interstate commerce is regulated at the federal level, not by individual states. And thats not even in the bill of rights or any other amendments, it’s part of the original body of the constitution itself, meaning it was one of the very first things our founding fathers put in place, even before the right to free speech or to bear arms.
Like, literally, what you are suggesting is the most unconstitutional thing possible. I know you are being facetious, but your argument is impossible to take seriously when it has such an obvious reason why it could never happen.
Also, I challenge you that I don’t believe “gdisis” is your real name. Show me some ID.
Thank you, Andrew, for your outstanding reporting on this complex story. Your perseverance illustrates why the work of you and your Flatwater colleagues matters.
It never ceases to amaze me when public officials seem to forget they are working for the public…that means all of us taxpayers who are entitled to open, transparent decision-making when it comes to determining how to spend our tax dollars. Officials who dismissively refuse to engage with reporters’ legitimate questions are demonstrating an arrogance unbecoming to public servants.
“And it appeared to have an ally in the Governor’s Mansion. Pillen spoke at the facility’s opening.”
Yep, that’s 100% proof. When the guv speaks at an opening, he’s doing so for one of his cronies.
That’s 100% proof.
““None of my scientific team can point to any proven current technology that meets a basic benchmark,” Macy wrote in the January 2024 memo.’
Oh wow. Someone (aka a self-appointed “expert”) disagreed with the nitrate sensor program. So I guess we were all supposed to go with that view.
Gee, we should go along with unelected bureaucrats. Thanks FFP.
Let’s see: the Lancaster County Treasurer admits to misappropriating nearly a BILLION dollars in tax money in the past 6 years, and FFP has yet to do a story on her?
But here we see another BadBadPillen story on a $2.5 million dollar contract that was quickly cancelled?
Gee, could it be that the Lancaster County Treasurer is a Democrat?
Nah!!!!!!!
The $1B “misappropriation” was an accounting error. Even 10/11 (who regularly glaze Foley to give Lincoln poor P.R.) admitted nothing was missing besides $100-200k paid to the Airport Authority twice from another government entity, and they started cleaning up once the audit picked this up.
A county treasurer in a Nebraska county who wrongly distributed nearly ONE BILLION taxpayer dollars to the wrong entities is not an “accounting error”–it’s criminal. A single Nebraska county treasurer!
It is the primary job of a county treasurer is to collect and distribute tax dollars–she failed bigly! It is 100% criminal.
But the point remains–not one story from FFP on this incompetent Democrat. Why is that?
Losing track of a million dollars, even if just for an “accounting error,” or making incorrect payments of a hundred thousand or more, are a big deal in local government. You might bury that as a small mistake in federal government, but a million dollars represents a lot of money in Lancaster county, Nebraska.
I would trust the auditor of public accounts to be telling the truth about this issue far more than any claim from Flatwater.
Oh, and I see you didn’t attach your real name to this comment. Some people around here seem to feel that disqualifies your opinion entirely, for some reason I can’t fathom.
Attempting to paint what happened as fraudulent or a theft of any sort is purely defamatory at this point, and meant to carry water for the GOP this November. The Treasurer’s office have not only owned up to what amounts to errors in paperwork, but money isn’t missing in actuality.
If you think it’s “defamatory” then sue the person who said it.
Good luck beating the state auditor in court. I’m going to get some popcorn to watch that showdown.
The only ones who wish to “bury” anything regarding accounting errors are the GOP trying to bury the truth by claiming money has been misspent or “appropriated” elsewhere. Pony up a lead to where it went before making the inference.
“The only ones who wish to “bury” anything regarding accounting errors are the GOP trying to bury the truth by claiming money has been misspent or “appropriated” elsewhere.”
Well, the Lancaster County Treasurer admitted to the BILLION dollar misappropriations, and she’s a Democrat.
How does that fit into your screed?
Mike Foley may be a Ricketts lackey, but he never claimed funds were missing or embezzled. Saying he has is political spin and he’d have your hind quarters in court for twisting his words.
Oh really? Well I welcome his lawsuit then. He knows where to find me since I’ve personally spoken to him a number of times in the past. But is he suing me, the treasurer, Flatwater, or any of the anonymous sources in these comments?
Because you may want to take note that I’m not the one trying to “spin” what he said. He wrote a report saying that the Lancaster county treasurer made serious errors. It’s people trying to defend her in these comments who want to “spin” what they allege “actually” happened to suggest it can be safely ignored. I never said what happened, I just said I believe the state auditor and his report.
It’s honestly pretty funny how everyone in this comment section is threatening lawsuits that other people will supposedly file to satisfy the amusement of an internet comment section. In the last 30 years I can’t keep count of the number of internet lawsuits I’ve seen people try to threaten. Only one guy ever even attempted to go through with those kinds of threats, and all he accomplished was serving a lame subpoena on an obscure website before they carted him off to the mental hospital to stop his ravings.
Great article by one of the few news organizations actually serving the public interest