Reliable, Trustworthy Reporting, Capturing The Heartbeat Of Our Community
Reliable, Trustworthy Reporting, Capturing The Heartbeat Of Our Community
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Do you remember what it was like to not be able to get the answer to an elusive question as soon as you asked it? Like how long sea turtles live? Or how far away is the sun? Or the name of that actor from that one movie? Before the omni-present Google and smartphone, these answers were likely missing (or required a lot of work to find). So when these questions came up in the past, conversation would stop. That's because the language of America is our common understanding of the facts of the...
Interesting question our office has received on more than one occasion: Why does SAM sometimes run articles from other areas of Nebraska? The answer is relatively simple. We are Nebraska. I like to think our readers want to learn more about this place we call home. When we share articles from Flatwater Free Press or Nebraska Examiner or Nebraska News Service, our goal is to offer coverage that is not only interesting, but may have an impact on our lives. For example, on Page 3 in this week’s edi...
ZACH WENDLING Nebraska News Service Ed. note: This piece is included in UNL's Democracy Day project, a national intiative where more than 300 news outlets published stories about democracy in the United States. In just a little over a year, Nebraska's media landscape has expanded to uncover and shed light on more undercovered stories with the addition of two new publications. The Flatwater Free Press, which published its first stories on Sept. 3, 2021, preceded the launch of the Nebraska...
Kylie Adolf knows what it takes to run a successful second-grade classroom. She needs jump ropes. Tissues. Colorful paper. Puzzles. A princess puzzle is always a good idea. But the Omaha second-grade teacher can't request those supplies from her school and expect to find them in her supply closet the next week. There are no funds in the budget for that. Instead, she spends her own money out of her teacher's paycheck. Instead, she posts to Facebook and asks friends and strangers for help. "My...
Jasmine Gutschow felt nauseous when she woke up a few days before Thanksgiving last year. She brushed it off as typical pregnancy symptoms. She told her fiance he should head into work – the baby, not due for six more weeks, wouldn't be coming anytime soon. Three hours later, after her contractions started, after they sped for the hospital, after their 2003 Chevy Tahoe broke down, after her contractions quickened to every two minutes and Gutschow's fiance frantically dialed 911, it had become c...
Google and Facebook have enormous economic and political power in society – especially over the news industry. Many ask if they have played a role in the misinformation that erodes our free press and plagues our democracy. Google and Facebook have a duopoly of the distribution of digital news content, which drives people to their platforms where they make money. The platforms hoard critical data and use clever tactics, like reframing stories in rich previews, to keep users on their sites – sip...
Growing up on a hill overlooking North Omaha during World War II, Mary Carpenter remembers the numerous vegetable plots, called victory gardens, that dotted her Florence neighborhood. “Everybody had one,” said Carpenter, the reporter’s mother-in-law. “We grew everything - asparagus, potatoes, tomatoes, black raspberries, pears, even grapes. That’s what fed us and supplemented our food.” Over the ensuing decades, many of those gardens disappeared as grocery stores started carrying seasonal produce year round. Yet 80 years later, everything...
NFPW Communicator of Achievement director Karen Stensrud and NPW COA director Ruth Brown contributed to this article. LuAnn Schindler of Clearwater received the 2022 Communicator of Achievement Award from the National Federation of Press Women. This prestigious award has been given for 65 years. Schindler received the honor during a celebration at the organization's annual conference, held June 23 to 25, in Fargo, North Dakota. Now in its 85th year, NFPW is a nationwide organization of... Full story
As we gather to celebrate Independence Day, it's a good time to reflect on how our most fundamental freedoms have served this nation well. It's an even better time to think about what would happen if those liberties were taken away. Sadly, the latter doesn't take much imagination in 2022. Your closest video screen will show you scenes of Russian troops pummeling Ukraine with the support of a majority of the Russian people. The Russian public has been told that their country is doing noble work...
ADDIE COSTELLO Flatwater Free Press Mary Terry, the longtime village clerk in Cedar Creek, shook her head no whenever Steve Sharp told her she deserved a raise. "Her answer was always the same. It was always, 'You can't afford to give me a raise,'" said Sharp, elected chairperson of the village board in 2010. What Sharp didn't know: Terry, the clerk and treasurer, was giving herself unauthorized raises. She padded her paycheck with more than $75,000 in stolen village funds over six years while...
WARSAW, Poland – The 3-year-old was too sick to leave his hotel room. He has had congenital heart disease since he was born. A second surgery was already planned for when he turned three. Then the war started. Now, as the young Ukrainian lay in his hotel bed 500 miles from home, his oxygen levels dipped dangerously low. His pulse raced. He'd spent the night feverish and throwing up. His lips and fingertips had turned purple. Downstairs, a volunteer doctor hustled from patient to patient in the h...
Many years ago (the exact number will remain a mystery), the very first food section I put together for the daily newspaper I was working for was all about strawberries. It was just about this time of year as May is National Strawberry Month, and I wanted to highlight one of my favorite berries. While a lot has changed over those years, one thing hasn't: I still love strawberries. Standing alone as the only fruit to wear its seeds on the outside, strawberries are loaded with nutrients. According... Full story
LEO ADAM BIGA Flatwater Free Press University of Nebraska volleyball coach John Cook entered the 2009 season having won 281 of his first 300 games – a ridiculous .937 winning percentage. At age 52, he had already won two national titles. But, inside, Cook didn't feel like how you are supposed to feel when you reach the summit. Instead, even as his squad went 31-3 and reached the Final Four that year, Cook felt empty. Lost. He felt like a failure. "I thought I had it figured out and then it a...
Six-year-old Elijah Wastell started feeling anxious last fall. It came hard for the Omaha kindergartener at bedtime. His parents tried breathing exercises. They attempted to build his confidence. The anxiety got worse. It got to the point where "he wanted to be in bed with a blanket over his head before the sun went down, which can be tricky in September," said mother Anna Wastell. Elijah himself didn't tie his newfound anxiety to the pandemic that has altered the lives of everyone – i...
There is a crisis at our southern border and President Biden is only making it worse. At the end of March, U.S. Customs and Border Protection announced it was on track to surpass one million encounters with immigrants illegally crossing our borders over the last six months. CBP data show there were 164,973 migrant encounters at our southern border in February, up 7% from January and 63% from February of last year. These staggering numbers do not include the number of illegal migrants who eluded...
In 2011, the Nebraska Department of Correctional Services wrote a bill that would allow well-behaved prisoners the chance to shorten their time behind bars. Eleven years later, that same department is applying the resulting law in a way neither the state senator who sponsored the bill nor the then-director of Nebraska’s prisons intended. Prison officials now shorten a prisoner’s final release date, but never change the day that prisoner becomes eligible for parole. The result: Thousands of prisoners sentenced under the law have potentially sta...
A few weeks ago, I read somewhere that March is National Peanut Butter Month. "Aha!" I thought. "Perfect topic for a column sometime soon." But when I began doing research, I discovered that whoever wrote that was wrong. As far as I can tell, there is no actual National Peanut Butter Month, although November is recognized as National Peanut Butter Lovers Month. So while peanut butter doesn't get it's own month, people who love peanut butter do. They also get their own day with National Peanut... Full story
It’s 7:30 p.m. on a wintry Friday night and the parking lot outside Johnny’s Cafe, a South Omaha landmark, is jammed. The scent of seared steak wafts out the heavy, faux-bronze doors as they swing outward, and diners walk into a glowing, ruby-hued time capsule of Nebraska food history. To the left is the massive dining room, still crowded on weekends with silver-haired men in sportcoats and women in their best blouses being served by staff who have worked here for decades. To the right is the da...
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The Nebraska Press Association has launched a new public website to provide greater public access and notification to the workings of all government entities and courts in Nebraska. The website – www.nepublicnotices.com – is a cooperative effort of all Nebraska newspapers and is managed through the NPA. The free-access website was initiated in June 2021. Currently, more than 90,000 notices are on the site and more are posted each day. Notices are fully searchable by keyword, type of notice, by...
LEO ADAM BIGA FLATWATER FREE PRESS As fighters went through their paces one recent night at B&B Sports Academy, its co-owner, world welterweight boxing champion Terence "Bud" Crawford, got right in the mix, interacting with pros and amateurs alike. He coached boxers at the North Omaha gym, teased them, cajoled them, encouraged them. He occasionally glanced over at 11-year-old Reno Busby, a nationally ranked USA Boxing bantamweight. Busby's coaches – and Crawford himself – believe the Davis Mid...
There is a reason dips are a favorite when it comes to party food. More than one reason, actually. And with New Year's gatherings and bowl games on the calendar, this is the time to add a couple of new ideas to your recipe box. Dips are easy to prepare in advance, leaving the host free to spend time with guests. In fact, most dips (except for ones served hot), benefit from a day in the refrigerator, which gives the flavors time to develop. This is especially true if your dips involve any... Full story
Forgive George Barnes if he looks a little grim. That day in 1887, ol’ George had ample reason to mean-mug photographer Solomon Butcher, and homesteader life in general. The night before the family photo, it had rained. Hard. The rain had soaked the roof of their soddie. The decaying pole holding the roof had snapped. The whole thing had come down on itself, like a bad metaphor, ruining everything the family owned. The year before, George Barnes’ wife had died of an unknown illness. Barnes was raising three children by himself while he tri...
When my writing career started more than 30 years ago, I spent months establishing a freelance career. After long days of teaching and coaching, I stayed up late at night, crafting query letters and sending them via snail mail, hoping to get a bite from local publications ... or a big break with a national news outlet. It seems amazing, considering it was in the dark ages - er, I mean pre-internet times. It was hard work, but I was determined to form partnerships with trusted publications and...
JARROD McCARTNEY RED CLOUD - It's not unusual to catch sight of a celebrity in Red Cloud, population 962, especially during the annual Willa Cather conference. First Lady Laura Bush has appeared here. So has writer Maya Angelou, Golden Globe-winning actor Paul Giamatti and a drumbeat of talk show hosts, TV stars, novelists and artists. And yet a tiny, energetic, elderly woman often stole the celebrity spotlight, holding court about the life and times of Nebraska's famed novelist. Antonette...
