Nebraska’s state government is up for a Very Big Award. But I promise you that it’s an award that Nebraskans should hate to win.
Investigative Reporters and Editors has named its finalists for the 2023 Golden Padlock Award, which honors “the most secretive public agency or official in the U.S.”
And look at one of the four national finalists … why, it’s the Nebraska Department of Environment and Energy, for trying to charge the Flatwater Free Press a staggering $44,000 — roughly the price of a lower-level BMW — for a straightforward request for agency emails that contain the word “nitrate.”
The Golden Padlock is a tongue-in-cheek award granted to public agencies who prove most adept at keeping public information from you, the public.
“Reaching the highest levels of government secrecy requires fearlessness in doing whatever it takes to keep citizens in the dark,” said chair Robert Cribb. “These elite-level players have distinguished themselves through extraordinary commitment to information suppression.”
So it’s funny. It’s also, from my vantage point, well earned.
FFP, as you surely remember, has been doing serious reporting on a deadly serious issue — dangerous nitrate and also uranium leaching into the drinking water in small towns and rural areas across the state.
It’s entirely reasonable to ask for public agency emails related to that reporting, which reporter Yanqi Xu did roughly a year ago. But we still haven’t received them. Instead, we were forced to sue the state. We won. Rather than giving us the emails, the state appealed. The state (and our attorney) are working on their briefs now.
That’s right, Nebraskans. Your state government continues to fight the release of public emails written by public employees regarding a serious public health issue facing our state — and they are doing so by spending taxpayer money, your money, to do so.
Seems worthy of a Golden Padlock to me.
How to fight loneliness: The United States faces an epidemic of loneliness, an epidemic that the U.S. Surgeon General himself raised publicly earlier this year. It’s harming our health, studies show. It’s shortening our lives. And thus, we darn well better pay attention to it.
Which is why I was so glad that FFP’s Lincoln reporter found Brad Anderson, a Nebraska man who has faced loneliness like so many of us — and who has also faced it down, beat it back, triumphed.
Such a lovely, important story from Ryan Hoffman. Our thanks and gratitude to Brad for sharing. Check it out.
Alpha Beta Gamma Yowza: Fraternity and sorority houses at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln got a real surprise this year courtesy of the Lancaster County assessor. After some investigation, the county quadrupled or quintupled many of the houses’ assessed values. As you may imagine, this didn’t go over well. This story came to us courtesy of Kloee Sander of the Nebraska News Service, a publication connected to UNL’s journalism school. As a proud alum of a co-ed fraternity known as the Daily Nebraskan — OK, it was UNL’s student newspaper — I’m both fascinated by the story and proud of a UNL student for reporting it. Nice work, Kloee!
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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:
- First, a brief note about a big loss in Nebraska’s news media. Reader publisher John Heaston announced this week that his longtime publications, the Reader and El Perico, are ceasing publication this September.
The Reader has been a go-to spot for arts and culture news in Nebraska for decades. (Look, this week, a story about Lincoln’s Zoo Bar turning 50! ) Recently, under the leadership of Chris Bowling, it has become a go-to spot for Omaha investigative and in-depth news, too. We have worked with Bowling on a few of these important stories.
And El Perico valuably serves the Spanish-speaking population of Omaha.
Both The Reader and El Perico are so essential to Nebraska journalism. I’m sad to see them go. - The World-Herald’s Molly Ashford is tracking the eye-opening story of prison staff shooting more than 100 pepper balls and rubber bullets at a mentally ill inmate. Worth a read as Nebraska continues to grapple with its wildly overcrowded prisons, and as some attempts at reform are made in the Nebraska Legislature.
- Some Nebraska women seeking abortions are already being transferred out of state, Lincoln’s KLKN TV reports.
- A bunch of Nebraska churches have left the United Methodist Church. Why? The church’s continued openness to LGBTQ members.
Story by the Midwest Newsroom’s Holly Edgell, which was then run by Nebraska Public Media. - $400 million in pandemic-era funds is headed toward North and South Omaha. The Nebraska Examiner’s Cindy Gonzalez with an update on this story.
