The Flatwater Free Press

The Flatwater Free Press is the first independent and nonprofit news organization in Nebraska, dedicated to producing important investigative reports and compelling feature articles.

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From foster care to Snoop Dogg: ‘Huge life-changing trauma’ couldn’t kill Omaha singer Dreion’s dreams

1 week ago | flatwaterfreepress.org | Leo Biga

In moments alone as a kid in his bedroom, Da’Dreion Murrell envisioned himself singing before thousands of fans. His young dreams of stardom weren’t silly childhood fantasies. They gave him a brief escape from an upbringing marred by abuse and neglect, as he bounced between the foster care system and an unstable home life in North Omaha. And those dreams, of a life a world away from his own, pushed him as a performer.
Honoring Doc Susan: First Native hospital, built by nation's first Native doctor, to again care for Nebraskans

2 weeks ago | flatwaterfreepress.org | Matthew Hansen

The ask was simple. Will you donate $132 to honor your fellow physician, Dr. Susan La Flesche Picotte? The Nebraska Medical Association put the word out to its members in 2021. Who’s that? Nebraska doctors asked. After they learned her story, $600,000 in donations poured in. In 1889 — 132 years before the ask — La Flesche made American history when she became the first Native American to earn a medical degree.
Steak Town USA: 801 checks every classic steakhouse box, then checks a few more

2 weeks ago | flatwaterfreepress.org | Sarah Baker Hansen

When a waiter dressed in a smartly pressed, forest green workwear coat heads toward you pushing a cart overflowing with steaks, you know you’ve got it good. Downtown Omaha’s 801 Chophouse offers diners several such moments, like when you’re able to select a bone-in prime filet right off that cart of meat. Or choose your dessert at the beginning of the meal because it’s made to order and takes at least a half hour to bake. Or order a one-pound loaded baked potato.
ICE raids hit Omaha meatpacking plants

2 weeks ago | flatwaterfreepress.org | Natalia Alamdari

Federal immigration agents on Tuesday morning conducted one of the largest immigration raids they have carried out in Omaha, detaining workers in at least three south Omaha production plants. Reports of raids at Omaha meatpacking plants began to appear on social media early in the morning. Douglas County Commissioner Roger Garcia, whose district includes South Omaha, confirmed that raids were occurring in at least three locations.
'Just broke': Omaha-area safety net failing mentally ill amid rising demand, families say

2 weeks ago | flatwaterfreepress.org | Chris Bowling

At 20 years old, he was no longer the popular high school wrestler and football player in suburban Omaha. He was lost inside paranoia and violence. A doctor gave him a name for it: schizoaffective disorder. When he was arrested in March 2019, Jacque Palczynski begged to get her son out of the Douglas County Jail. An employee gave her a form. “She gave me hope that he would be able to go to a hospital,” Palczynski said.
‘I know I have a dust problem’: ADM repeatedly failed to prevent potentially deadly grain explosions

4 weeks ago | flatwaterfreepress.org | Sky Chadde

Around 6:30 p.m. on Christmas Eve in 2022, flames ripped through the bowels of an industrial facility in Fremont, Nebraska. Elevators were scorched. Conveyor belts collapsed. Metal doors melted. As smoke filled the sky, employees scrambled to escape. One dialed 911. “The plant’s on fire,” he hurriedly breathed. “Is everybody out of there?” the dispatcher asked. “Working on it.”Local fire crews extinguished the blaze at the Archer Daniels Midland plant about three hours later.
The Flying Nun: Sister Stephanie, 81, rappels down Omaha building as she lifts up city's neediest

1 month ago | flatwaterfreepress.org | Christopher Burbach

The people waiting their turn to rappel down the 17-story Highline Apartments building had strict instructions: Don’t come up to the roof until we come get you. Most of the group, assembled there for a fundraiser, seemed content to hang back in the designated waiting area half a flight of stairs below the roof, where they’d eventually step over the edge into the blue sky high above downtown Omaha. All but one person, actually. Sister Stephanie Matcha, age 81.
As Nebraska reports first measles case in 8 years, state contends with rising religious vaccine exemptions

1 month ago | flatwaterfreepress.org | Emily Wolf

As he tracked the growing measles outbreak in Texas, watching with dread as it crossed state lines, Bob Rauner knew there was no time to waste. Fearful the once common — and life-threatening — virus would eventually reach Nebraska, the physician and Lincoln Public Schools board president began publicly sounding the alarm. “Nebraska’s vaccination rates mirror those of Texas,” Rauner said during an April school board meeting. “We have similar holes, just like Texas does.
Desperate for teachers, Nebraska schools turn abroad — to the Philippines - Flatwater Free Press

1 month ago | flatwaterfreepress.org | Natalia Alamdari

SCHUYLER — In a classroom 7,903 miles from home, Dorina Ramos counts down from five. “Five,” Ramos says in her clear and practiced English, as a teenager passing around handfuls of chips sits back at his desk. “Four.” A lingering high schooler stores his school-issued iPad away in a classroom cabinet. “Three.” Another teenager wanders from the pencil sharpener back to her seat. “Two.” The Spanish chatter of Ramos’ class of immigrant high schoolers falls to a hush.
The SBH Review: Cattle Call has those dumplings — and much more - Flatwater Free Press

1 month ago | flatwaterfreepress.org | Sarah Baker Hansen

“Fusion” has become a bit of a dirty word in the restaurant world, or at least something that has gone out of fashion. Cattle Call, on the corner of 16th and Farnam streets, is doing its part to bring fusion into 2025. And it’s doing so in an interesting way, serving chef-driven, higher-end cuisine in a casual, comfortable spot on 16th Street. It’s affordable, at least relatively speaking. It’s open late, giving downtown Omaha a late-night option it desperately needs.