We’re working on stories about the consequences of prison overcrowding, about the difficulty (and sometimes the danger) of having a baby in small-town Nebraska, about the dirty water many of us drink and about rising absenteeism in our schools.
I say this is all to preface what I’m about to say next. Today, our top story is about Omaha’s only rock-and-roll groupie-turned author-turned beloved steakhouse waitress, who at various points in her life has gone by Rita Kucirek, Rockin’ Rita and Rita Rae Roxx.
A Pulitzer Prize-worthy investigation, it is not. A really good story? Yes. Yes it is. One of our summer interns, Emma Schartz, told us about Rita in the FFP office earlier this summer. She has known Rita for years, and kept casually mentioning insane details of Rockin’ Rita’s life. I couldn’t resist. I told Emma she had to write it. And what she came back with is wild, and revealing and fun and kind and oh-so-human.
Names mentioned in said story: Prince, Ozzy, Tommy Lee, David Lee Roth, Steven Tyler, Suge Knight, MC Hammer and — perhaps most weirdly — Warren Buffett.
But it’s Rita Kucirek’s story, through and through, and I’m glad we published it.
Now, ahem, back to overcrowded prisons, unsafe drinking water and our teetering education system.
Big-time news: Here’s an announcement I have been dying to make for weeks.
We’re growing.
This week, we posted a new FFP reporter job. We’re hiring a state government watchdog reporter, someone who will hold Nebraska’s state leaders to account and someone who will focus on how decisions made in the halls of power affect Nebraskans like you and me.
This position will be supported by Arnold Ventures, a group that supports the very best nonprofit journalism in America, the cream of the crop: ProPublica, Kaiser Health News, the Marshall Project, the Texas Tribune.
It’s thrilling and humbling to be put on a list with those giants. We’re only 10 months old!
And here’s another thing that is both thrilling and humbling: We simply couldn’t be growing without you.
Almost 1,000 of you have donated to Flatwater Free Press, to support our nonprofit mission to grow and support journalism in Nebraska. This includes foundations — our newest foundational supporter is the Cooper Foundation of Lincoln — and so, so many of you giving a few bucks of your hard-earned money each month.
Almost 6,000 subscribe to this here free newsletter. (Tell your friends!) And each week, thanks to strong and trusting relationships we have built with Nebraska’s media outlets, roughly 350,000 Nebraskans interact with a Flatwater Free Press story.
It’s simply incredible.
I am very hopeful that we will have more news on the “FFP is getting bigger” front very soon.
And I am more certain by the day that the sky is the limit for Flatwater Free Press. We’re doing something unlikely, something that a few short years ago would have been unthinkable. It’s working because we are doing it together. Thank you.
The future of journalism (cont.): On Thursday night, I watched as the first graduating class of the Omaha News Academy stood up and said a few words to a crowd that included big Omaha employers, representatives from four different Nebraska media outlets and the dean of University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s journalism college.
I watched and thought: Hell yes.
The News Academy is a partnership of Flatwater Free Press’ parent organization, the Nebraska Journalism Trust, and NOISE Omaha, Omaha’s original nonprofit journalism source.
It’s the brainchild of Mr. Matt Wynn, the executive director of Nebraska Journalism Trust, my boss and my partner in nonprofit journalism crime, a sad-sack of a Philadelphia Phillies fan and a Nebraskan who understands we can’t sit back and hope for more diversity in our newsrooms. If we’re gonna write a new and more inclusive chapter in Nebraska journalism, we’re gonna have to write that sucker ourselves.
This spring and summer, a trio of talented instructors — Creighton University Professor Carol Zuegner, longtime Omaha Westside journalism teacher Rod Howe and one-time World-Herald sportswriter and now p.r. pro Jon Nyatawa — selflessly gave their time and expertise to a group of young adult students of all races, colors, creeds, sexualities and belief systems.
They talked about how to write a lede. They pondered: What’s a nut graf?
And they debated journalism ethics, how to get more diversity into newsrooms and news coverage, and the future of this profession that I love.
Now these impressive graduates are more equipped to write for media outlets. (I guarantee you will see some stories from them in the Flatwater Free Press.) They’re more prepared to work for pr agencies. And this young, diverse group of graduates are now more connected to Omaha leaders and Nebraska institutions — more able to grab the opportunities, the jobs and the experiences they so obviously deserve.
Hell yes, indeed.
We’re doing it Nebraska. We really are.
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:
- The Washington Post came to Nebraska and dug deep into the conspiracy theory that has shaken the very foundation of Nebraska’s educational system in the past year.
- Did you get a COVID test from Nebraska-based GS Labs at any point during the pandemic? The company is in serious hot water in Minnesota after costly tests, serious delays on test results and several investigations now underway, reports Minnesota Public Radio.
- The Columbus Telegram reports a sobering story, with the photos to match. The Platte River is running dry.
