Flatwater Free Press

We’re hiring! The Flatwater Free Press, in partnership with Grist, is seeking a reporter to cover climate change in Nebraska. Learn more: buff.ly/g8va2D3

Breaking news: Yanqi Xu, FFP senior reporter, is a fellow in the New York Times’ Local Investigations Fellowship. Led by former NYT editor Dean Baquet, the year-long program helps journalists produce investigative work in their state. Let’s hear it for Yanqi!

What is a Runza? 76 years ago, Lincolnite Sally Everett turned her family recipe into a Nebraska restaurant behemoth. But where does its beloved signature menu item come from? Flatwater explains. 🔗 buff.ly/oV5boL3

In case you missed it: A nonprofit hospital located in Norfolk paid a doctor nearly $5 million. Some of that pay came from bonuses and incentives, a commonly-used physician pay structure criticized because it rewards doing as many medical procedures as possible. Read more 🔗 buff.ly/ye9rqCz

Most American trolley systems died as commuters turned to cars and buses. But Lincoln’s streetcar and dozens of others were extinguished as part of a corporate conspiracy to prop up auto, oil and rubber interests. Read about the far-reaching scheme behind the move 🔗 buff.ly/fgGwxew

Your FFP weekend read: For decades, Keith Jacobshagen has been one of Nebraska’s best-known artists. Now 84 years old and in the beginning stages of Alzheimer’s disease, Jacobshagen is facing the reality that his painting days are largely behind him. Read more 🔗 buff.ly/aHdeRVp

The highest-paid employee at a Nebraska nonprofit wasn’t the head of the state’s largest hospital or the Creighton men’s basketball coach. It was a doctor in Norfolk. Read more 🔗 buff.ly/ye9rqCz

Flatwater Free Press reporter Jeremy Turley and @the74.bsky.social reporter Lauren Wagner took home a top education reporting prize this week. Read the award-winning story 🔗 www.the74million.org/article/desp...

New at Flatwater: A transit company run by Nebraska-born businessmen bought Lincoln’s trolleys and replaced them with buses to prop up auto, oil and rubber interests. Years later, a federal court case revealed the far-reaching scheme behind the move. 🔗 buff.ly/fgGwxew

Nebraska Public Power District selected four potential locations to build a new nuclear power plant. Flatwater spoke with leaders in all four communities to see if nuclear might generate the same backlash wind and solar have faced. Read more 🔗 buff.ly/Jwb0N4a

Lake Minatare School in rural Scottsbluff survived for decades after lawmakers required schools like it to consolidate. Then, last month, a new state law forced it to close, devastating generations of students who had fought to keep it open. Read more 🔗 buff.ly/P7Gu8PY

Keith Jacobshagen has devoted his life to depicting what much of America calls flyover country: cornfields, grain elevators and vast Nebraska skies. Now in early Alzheimer’s, the famed painter looks back on his career on the prairie. Read more 🔗 buff.ly/aHdeRVp

Changing one-way streets to two-ways, more bike lanes, replacing parking lots with apartments and business spaces: Could the modern streetcar change downtown? City planners and walkability advocates hope so. Read more 🔗 buff.ly/3tnwj1c