At the tail-end of a long and winding week, I have a simple message to share: I’m proud to be the editor of the Flatwater Free Press.
I’m proud to work at a news organization that stood up for our reporter — and for an ideal bigger than any of us — following Gov. Pillen’s comments about FFP investigative reporter extraordinaire Yanqi Xu. Read the column from executive director Matt Wynn, listen to Pillen’s own words and judge for yourself.
I’m so proud of Yanqi. She handled a deluge of local and national media requests with professionalism, with humanity, with poise. Just like Yanqi Xu would. (It’s pronounced “Yen-chee Shoe” — I have a feeling all of Nebraska will know it before Yanqi is done.) Read stories written by the New York Times, CNN, the Associated Press, and local ones by the Nebraska Examiner, The World-Herald, KETV Channel 7 and WOWT Channel 6, which was the first media outlet to report on the story.
And I’m so proud of the rest of the staff, which has supported Yanqi like the impressive co-workers and stellar humans they are while simultaneously moving the ball forward on their own good stories.
Speaking of writing: Yesterday, Yanqi told me she’s done doing interviews. Why? Because she has an important story to write. She has a deadline. She wants to get back to work.
In a word: Proud.
The governor responds: Today was the first time Nebraska reporters had access to Gov. Jim Pillen. They asked him many questions about his comments and the resulting criticism. Nebraska Examiner’s Zach Wendling was there, and captured the audio.
Listen to audio of the exchange here.
Brother can you spare $58 mil?: With declining enrollments and less state support than it had requested, the University of Nebraska system faces a massive, $58 million hole in its budget. This week, Greater Nebraska Reporter Natalia Alamdari and Evelyn Mejia, our UNL Rural Fellow, examined how the budget woes are affecting UNK, the campus that educates a whole bunch of small-town Nebraska students.
They found that, like is happening around the country, the arts and humanities are taking a bruising. And some small-town kids who care about programs like theater and modern languages are asking: What about me?
Wanna wrassle? Not the grappling variety, but the fly off the top rope and maybe hit your opponent with a chair while the referee is distracted kind of wrestling.
A brand-new freelancer for us, Brady Oltmans, wrote a really nice feature story we published today about local, small-time “pro” wrestling. About its blood-spattering popularity. But also about insurance agents and band instructors and teachers who become part of this community I didn’t know existed.
Thank you, friends:
Thank you so, so very much for following along, for subscribing to this newsletter and for your messages of support to Yanqi Xu this week. It’s important to never, ever forget: Nebraskans are incredible.
—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:
- Nebraskans and Nebraska organizations, including this one, are increasingly suing the state to gain access to public records. Lori Pilger of the Lincoln Journal Star with this interesting story about the trend.
- KETV with a story on how less than half of Omaha Public Schools freshmen are currently on track to graduate.
- The Washington Post had a wild story about a UNL student that has done something truly extraordinary…he used artificial intelligence to decipher an…ancient Roman scroll?
- NBC News with this story about transgender adults fearing for the next generation amid increasing vitriol. The story leads with a farmer from Malvo, Nebraska.
- A fight at a local NRD is resulting in legal action. The Nebraska Examiner’s Aaron Sanderford with the story about how the censure of a board member may be settled in a courtroom.
- And finally, something fun we can fight about: Where is the Midwest?
A research group did a massive survey. And NPR does a fun story about the results, which of course includes Nebraska, which may be in the Midwest and may not be, depending on whom you ask.
