I had never given the trees a second thought, and I bet you haven’t, either. Today, these tall, skinny fellas stand ramrod-straight in suburban Omaha yards and in village parks in the most remote parts of the Sandhills. They stand on the grounds of Hastings College and Yanney Park in Kearney. For decades, they have dotted the State Capitol grounds in Lincoln.
And it turns out that this tree is as Nebraska as Val’s pizza at a football game. An incredible cast of Nebraskans, including a Sandhills rancher, a curious Columbus landscaper, state arborists, a small-town science teacher and others popularized it, saved it from near-irrelevance, nurtured it into tree stardom.
Freelancer Carson Vaughan tells this tale that begins with a lone tree one mile outside the town of Taylor, Nebraska, pop. 140, and then expands to prairie wildfire and a genetic mystery. A Broken Bow kid, Carson has grown up to write for the New Yorker, the New York Times and the Atlantic Monthly. So it’s only right that he also writes for the Flatwater Free Press, which is fast becoming as Nebraska as a slice of Val’s pizza at a Husker game.
Read Carson’s latest story for FFP, and then buy his book, which I read a few years ago while occasionally yelling, “You gotta be #$!#$%!%!! kidding me!”
Turn on the lights, Lincoln: Because FFP’s screaming into town on two wheels to do some live journalism on stage. On Wednesday afternoon, we’re hosting the latest Flatwater Free Forum, a panel discussion on the present and future of our overcrowded and troubled prison system. Moderated by FFP reporter Natalia Alamdari, the panel of former corrections officials, former prisoners, state lawmakers and others will discuss why and how overcrowded prisons matter to all Nebraskans. They’ll give us a sense of what life is like inside Nebraska prisons for guards and prisoners alike. And they will debate what, if anything, needs to change.
Join us and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s College of Journalism and Mass Communications for free, and in person, at UNL’s City Campus Union (Swanson Auditorium) at 4:30 p.m. Or livestream the event from the comfort of your living room by clicking here or going to our website.
Put on the coffee, Mildred: Next week is one of those weeks that gets me absolutely wired about our journalism, and also terrified that we’ll run out of coffee I’m gonna need to stay conscious.
Yanqi Xu has her second crucial story coming on the nitrates polluting our water. (Here’s a quick-hit summary of her first.) Alamdari has a follow-up on small Nebraska towns attempting to ban abortion. And Mike’l Severe is back with a video interview of one of Nebraska’s most enduring politicians.
Thanks, Alpaca: We have sponsors. One of them is Alpaca. Alpaca connects parents who want to help teachers and schools with teachers who want or need the help. That seems pretty great, doesn’t it? To learn more, head over to Alpaca’s website.
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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:
- As I mentioned in last week’s newsletter, the future of abortion in Nebraska was on the ballot Tuesday, albeit in a roundabout way. The state’s voters went to the ballot box to decide the balance of power in the Nebraska Legislature. It now looks like Nebraska banning abortion could come down to…a couple dozen voters in west-central Omaha?
Here’s a Paul Hammel story from the Nebraska Examiner that touches on this idea.
Now, I’m being a bit dramatic in my phrasing here. Still, if 33 Republicans are elected, and they stick together, they can defeat any filibuster attempt in the Legislature — making some sort of abortion ban more likely. If 32 are elected, and the Democrats stick together, a filibuster has a much greater chance of success, and abortion has a greater chance of remaining legal in Nebraska.
As of today, the Republicans have 32. They are leading by 100-odd votes in the 33rd race — a purple legislative district that runs roughly from Aksarben to 144th Street along Omaha’s Center and Pacific Street corridor.
The remaining votes to be counted are early votes, which seem likely to help the Democrat, at least a bit, in that race.
So yeah, as I previously said on Twitter, the balance of power in Nebraska might shift on a vote margin that’s smaller than the number of people you can fit into Twisted Cork Bistro, a restaurant inside the legislative district that’s still up in the air.
In summary: Don’t let anyone ever tell you that your vote doesn’t matter.
There will be more info on this race this afternoon, it appears. - The World-Herald’s Martha Stoddard had one heck of a week.
She wrote a story about the dire situation for abused and neglected children in Omaha — a situation that somehow got far worse after the state ended its troubled deal with a Kansas contractor. - And then Stoddard also broke the news that the state is now sitting on an incredible $131 million in unused money that’s specifically earmarked for Nebraska families in poverty.
Oh, and she also covered the election. All hail Martha Stoddard.
