Our story today is an action-packed, tick-tick-tick tale about a terrible night inside a Nebraska prison. It’s the story of a cascading series of mistakes made during the smoke-filled confusion of that night.
And it’s a powerful collaboration that involved Flatwater Free Press reporter Sara Gentzler, the Lincoln Journal Star’s Andrew Wegley and longtime Nebraska illustrator Matt Haney. Together, with the skilled editing of FFP Managing Editor Ryan Hoffman, they created a journalism tour de force that was this morning published simultaneously on both our website and the Lincoln Journal Star’s. (Check out the Journal Star’s Sunday paper for a print version.)
Flatwater Free Press exists to do ambitious journalism. We exist to strengthen Nebraska journalism. I believe we did both today.
Here’s “The Smoke from Cell B6: Chaos, Death and Blame in a Nebraska Prison.”
Note: If you’re reading on a laptop, make sure to scroll through the words and images at the top of the story.
Have you ever wondered … why there’s a state prison in Tecumseh, pop. 1,697, in the first place? Sara Gentzler is here to explain in our latest Flatwater Explains.
Last chance: I’m a habitually late guy, constantly running 5 minutes behind schedule, so I’m not here to judge. In fact, I’m here to help my chronically tardy to the party brothers and sisters: As of noon Friday, we have exactly 20 tickets left to FlatFest, our big annual festival.
Dean Baquet, former New York Times editor and legendary journalist, will be onstage, being grilled by me. We’ll have good music and food and drink and journalists, too! And you can and should explore the incredible Kiewit Luminarium, as we have the run of the place on FlatFest night.
Buy your ticket today and you get entry into the sold-out afternoon FlatFest event, focused on the future of Nebraska, as well. Late bird gets the worm!
Questions for Dean: Each year at FlatFest, I ask a few questions from the audience. Are you attending? Do you have a question about the past, present or future of news or a question about the times in which we live? Fire me an email at [email protected] with the subject line “Dean Question.”
Lincoln v. Omaha, Chapter 1: If it seems like Lincoln and Omaha have been fighting forever, it’s because they have. Don’t believe me? In the 1850s, state senators actually got into fistfights on the floor of the Nebraska Legislature.
First of all, I would have loved to have seen that. Secondly: Nebraska wasn’t even a state yet!
So what were they fighting about? Where to put Nebraska’s capital city, which was then in Omaha. That’s right: Omaha, not Lincoln, was our original seat of government. So how did it get to Lincoln? And how did Lincoln get named Lincoln, anyway?
Honestly, the truth is kind of shocking. FFP’s Lincoln reporter Emily Wolf explains in her latest Flatwater Explains.
Naughty Lady: People donate in all sorts of ways to Flatwater Free Press, gifts of cash, stock, other assets. One donor even gave us his old Honda Civic, which supported our newsroom to the tune of $760 after I lost my battle to turn it into the company car.
But Mary King of Lincoln has just surpassed the former owner of that sweet Civic for the most … well, I will let Mary say it. “Unusual gift,” she wrote in the subject line of an email. We’re in downsizing mode, Mary wrote, and have a small bronze statue that needs a new home.
“We call the item ‘naughty lady.’”
It turns out that this bronze statue is a nude sculpted by renowned Mexican-American artist Robert Graham, who sculpted the ceremonial gates of the 1984 Olympic Games and did many other monumental things. And the Naughty Lady is on sale now at Gallery 1516 in Omaha during its “Downsizing Art Auction and Exhibition,” which runs through Sept. 21. If the sculpture sells, all proceeds go to the Flatwater Free Press! And there’s nothing naughty about that.
Thank you, Mary.
Small but mighty: Omaha has a small but mighty Black theater community, one that has produced a fair number of up-and-coming Broadway actors and other stars. But that pipeline is now under new pressure amid a backlash to diversity initiatives and federal funding cuts that target the arts. Correspondent Leo Adam Biga with the story of this community, and how they’re trying to move ahead in 2025.
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].
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:
- On Sept. 3, 1855, the U.S. Army massacred nearly 100 Lakota, mostly women and children, near Lewellen. The Lakotas’ plundered belongings have finally been returned to Nebraska. An eye-opening story from Nebraska Public Media’s Jessica Wade.
- The White House was set to talk this week with Nebraska state leaders about potentially doing one of those mid-decade redistricting moves that the Trump administration is attempting throughout the country to try to solidify a few more Republican House seats in the 2026 midterm election. But then they didn’t? Story by Juan Salinas Jr. of the Nebraska Examiner.
- Want to know more about that water fight between Colorado and Nebraska? Veteran journalist Todd von Kampen wrote a two-part series for the North Platte Telegraph, which ran this week in the Lincoln Journal Star.
Here is Part 1. And Part 2. (You may need LJS subscriber access to read these stories.) - Another good one from Andrew Wegley of the LJS. Nebraska Secretary of State Bob Evnen signed a rogue deal with the Kenyan government, and it has angered both the trucking influencers and Gov. Jim Pillen. (You may need LJS subscriber access to read this story.)
- McCook is in the news because of the planned new ICE detention center. It should also be in the news because it’s having an honest-to-goodness art renaissance. That’s in large part thanks to Chad Graff and Joann Falkenburg, who have opened multiple (incredible) galleries and other art spaces in town.
Here’s a new interview with Chad, which appeared last week in a Chicago gallery publication and updates the work being done in McCook. And here’s our 2022 FFP story on the first stage of that renaissance, “Sixth Floor Surprise.” - Cases of Parkinson’s disease have exploded in the U.S. in recent decades. There’s growing evidence linking it to certain industrial chemicals and pesticides, including the herbicide paraquat, writes Nicholas Kristof at the New York Times. Paraquat is still commonly used in Nebraska.
