Matthew Hansen
@matthewhansen.bsky.social
Editor of the Flatwater Free Press.
Scribe from Red Cloud.
Champion eater of ice cream.
Scribe from Red Cloud.
Champion eater of ice cream.
Interesting story to read minutes after I paid $42 for two pounds of coffee beans. (Up roughly 20% at my local coffeeshop this year.) www.nytimes.com/2025/11/13/u...
Trump Administration Prepares Tariff Exemptions in Bid to Lower Food Prices
www.nytimes.com
November 14, 2025 at 2:00 PM
Interesting story to read minutes after I paid $42 for two pounds of coffee beans. (Up roughly 20% at my local coffeeshop this year.) www.nytimes.com/2025/11/13/u...
Reposted by Matthew Hansen
New at FFP It’s 103 years old. It ages its steaks, stirs strong cocktails, makes its carrot cake from scratch and serves maybe the best onion rings in Omaha. It’s Johnny’s. And it’s surviving and thriving, reports Sarah Baker Hansen 🔗 buff.ly/3QHCslI
November 13, 2025 at 4:30 PM
New at FFP It’s 103 years old. It ages its steaks, stirs strong cocktails, makes its carrot cake from scratch and serves maybe the best onion rings in Omaha. It’s Johnny’s. And it’s surviving and thriving, reports Sarah Baker Hansen 🔗 buff.ly/3QHCslI
Our little baby is getting so grown up
New at Flatwater: Breaking news…we’re getting bigger! Executive director Matt Wynn announces a trio of new reporters and other promotions as Flatwater continues to grow in its fifth year. 🔗 buff.ly/wKuvx9e
November 12, 2025 at 10:34 PM
Our little baby is getting so grown up
Reposted by Matthew Hansen
New at FFP: UNL’s Statistics Department is 1 of 6 programs set to close under proposed budget cuts. But stats professors say there’s a glaring problem: UNL used flawed data to determine which departments to slash. 🔗 buff.ly/o6onFrl
October 17, 2025 at 4:02 PM
New at FFP: UNL’s Statistics Department is 1 of 6 programs set to close under proposed budget cuts. But stats professors say there’s a glaring problem: UNL used flawed data to determine which departments to slash. 🔗 buff.ly/o6onFrl
“In both cases, YRTC leaders learned of the alleged misconduct months earlier, but the state didn’t disclose it to probation officials, the boys’ attorneys or the judge.”
New at FFP: Two staff members at a state-run center for troubled kids have resigned following allegations that they had sexual contact with teens in their custody. Another is on leave, and one woman has been criminally charged. 🔗 buff.ly/MYjkh5X
October 16, 2025 at 2:29 AM
“In both cases, YRTC leaders learned of the alleged misconduct months earlier, but the state didn’t disclose it to probation officials, the boys’ attorneys or the judge.”
Left, right, middle, up, down, sideways…there’s only one thing for actual honest to goodness media to do here, and I don’t give a good goddamn who the president is.
The answer, always: No.
The answer, always: No.
Two conservative newsrooms — Newsmax and the Washington Times — so far have joined a slew of national news organizations in refusing to sign an agreement with the Pentagon that could limit journalists' rights to gather or report information not officially authorized for release.
News outlets broadly reject Pentagon's new press rules
The Pentagon said reporters would need to sign a pledge committing to its rules in order to maintain their press credentials.
www.axios.com
October 14, 2025 at 1:34 AM
Left, right, middle, up, down, sideways…there’s only one thing for actual honest to goodness media to do here, and I don’t give a good goddamn who the president is.
The answer, always: No.
The answer, always: No.
Important, heartbreaking story.
www.washingtonpost.com/investigatio...
www.washingtonpost.com/investigatio...
Trump’s USAID pause stranded lifesaving drugs. Children died waiting.
USAID antimalarial and HIV supplies valued at nearly $140 million were delayed in the first half of the year or not delivered at all due to the Trump administration’s foreign aid pause, The Post found...
www.washingtonpost.com
October 1, 2025 at 11:25 AM
Important, heartbreaking story.
www.washingtonpost.com/investigatio...
www.washingtonpost.com/investigatio...
We deported a Russian who stood against Putin and his invasion in Ukraine back to Russia, where he’s now imprisoned. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/16/w...
He Fled Putin’s War. The U.S. Deported Him to a Russian Jail.
www.nytimes.com
September 16, 2025 at 2:34 PM
We deported a Russian who stood against Putin and his invasion in Ukraine back to Russia, where he’s now imprisoned. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/16/w...
A tale of two media ecosystems.
September 10, 2025 at 2:25 PM
A tale of two media ecosystems.
A Venezuelan man in Nebraska awaiting an asylum case helped the U.S. government bust up a giant human trafficking ring.
They arrested him anyway. Now he’s likely to be deported.
@flatwaterfreep.bsky.social story from Jeremy Turkey and Emily Wolf.
flatwaterfreepress.org/he-aided-a-h...
They arrested him anyway. Now he’s likely to be deported.
@flatwaterfreep.bsky.social story from Jeremy Turkey and Emily Wolf.
flatwaterfreepress.org/he-aided-a-h...
He aided a human trafficking investigation in Omaha. Now, he’s facing deportation. - Flatwater Free Press
Two weeks before police and federal agents streamed into the New Victorian Inn and Suites to bust an alleged human trafficking ring, Eudis Cuéllar
flatwaterfreepress.org
September 4, 2025 at 2:03 PM
A Venezuelan man in Nebraska awaiting an asylum case helped the U.S. government bust up a giant human trafficking ring.
They arrested him anyway. Now he’s likely to be deported.
@flatwaterfreep.bsky.social story from Jeremy Turkey and Emily Wolf.
flatwaterfreepress.org/he-aided-a-h...
They arrested him anyway. Now he’s likely to be deported.
@flatwaterfreep.bsky.social story from Jeremy Turkey and Emily Wolf.
flatwaterfreepress.org/he-aided-a-h...
I’m interviewing Dean Baquet onstage on Sept 27 during FlatFest, the best journalism party in the Great Plains. We are 3/4 sold out…grab your tickets today, support the mission of nonprofit news and join the fun. flatwaterfreepress.org/events/flatw...
August 14, 2025 at 4:41 PM
I’m interviewing Dean Baquet onstage on Sept 27 during FlatFest, the best journalism party in the Great Plains. We are 3/4 sold out…grab your tickets today, support the mission of nonprofit news and join the fun. flatwaterfreepress.org/events/flatw...
Arts organizations across Nebraska are feeling the DOGE cuts. New one from our newest correspondent Tynan Stewart, who did really nice work on this one.
New at FFP: Federal funding cuts earlier this year landed like a half-million-dollar gut punch at Humanities Nebraska — one of at least a dozen arts and cultural organizations facing financial uncertainty in the state. 🔗 buff.ly/tzLIOHK
Story by Tynan Stewart.
Story by Tynan Stewart.
August 7, 2025 at 2:26 PM
Arts organizations across Nebraska are feeling the DOGE cuts. New one from our newest correspondent Tynan Stewart, who did really nice work on this one.
Valley is using public tax $ to build new neighborhoods with multi-million dollar homes & private lakes off limit to the city’s other residents.
It may have fueled growth in one of Nebraska’s fastest growing cities. But state leaders and experts think this use of tax increment financing looks fishy.
It may have fueled growth in one of Nebraska’s fastest growing cities. But state leaders and experts think this use of tax increment financing looks fishy.
New at FFP: They were “blighted” pits or open fields. Now they’re lakefront neighborhoods attracting new residents and supercharging property values in Valley. Millions in tax breaks made it happen. Years later, some wonder: was it a fair deal? 🔗 buff.ly/su8AiNs
July 30, 2025 at 3:22 PM
Valley is using public tax $ to build new neighborhoods with multi-million dollar homes & private lakes off limit to the city’s other residents.
It may have fueled growth in one of Nebraska’s fastest growing cities. But state leaders and experts think this use of tax increment financing looks fishy.
It may have fueled growth in one of Nebraska’s fastest growing cities. But state leaders and experts think this use of tax increment financing looks fishy.
Reposted by Matthew Hansen
It’s time for Nebraska’s best journalism party. It’s the 3rd annual FlatFest, a Sept. 17 afternoon and evening where we put journalism on stage – and give you the mic. Learn more, buy tickets and register here. 🔗 buff.ly/gtCb0nV
July 28, 2025 at 3:00 PM
It’s time for Nebraska’s best journalism party. It’s the 3rd annual FlatFest, a Sept. 17 afternoon and evening where we put journalism on stage – and give you the mic. Learn more, buy tickets and register here. 🔗 buff.ly/gtCb0nV
Reposted by Matthew Hansen
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
July 25, 2025 at 8:00 PM
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
Reposted by Matthew Hansen
What’s a Runza? Why do Nebraskans call it that? The answer goes back a few hundred years and thousands of miles from the first Lincoln restaurant. FFP reporter Natalia Alamdari explains our beloved pocket o’ meat. 🔗 buff.ly/oV5boL3
July 16, 2025 at 2:30 PM
What’s a Runza? Why do Nebraskans call it that? The answer goes back a few hundred years and thousands of miles from the first Lincoln restaurant. FFP reporter Natalia Alamdari explains our beloved pocket o’ meat. 🔗 buff.ly/oV5boL3
In the year 2000, there were exactly zero Dollar Generals in small town Nebraska. (Or really in any small town anywhere, I suspect.)
Today: There are 115 in small-town Nebraska alone.
Today: There are 115 in small-town Nebraska alone.
New at FFP: 25 years ago, you couldn’t find a Dollar General outside of Omaha and Lincoln. Now, they’re a fixture of small-town Nebraska — as local grocery stores continue to disappear. 🔗 buff.ly/XL9g8eU
July 11, 2025 at 5:26 PM
In the year 2000, there were exactly zero Dollar Generals in small town Nebraska. (Or really in any small town anywhere, I suspect.)
Today: There are 115 in small-town Nebraska alone.
Today: There are 115 in small-town Nebraska alone.
Bananas story out of Sarpy County, where the county attorney has filed a lawsuit against the county board — the board thar controls the county attorney’s purse strings.
The Sarpy County Board of Commissioners wanted him fired. His boss, the county attorney, refused. Seven months later, a top prosecutor accused of misconduct is being paid not to work as a legal fight continues, costing taxpayers at least $300,000. 🔗 buff.ly/Ai8phOO
July 3, 2025 at 3:16 PM
Bananas story out of Sarpy County, where the county attorney has filed a lawsuit against the county board — the board thar controls the county attorney’s purse strings.
Attention everyone: I think Carhenge, the weirdest tourism site in Nebraska, might be actually cool now? journalstar.com/life-enterta...
June 26, 2025 at 11:28 PM
Attention everyone: I think Carhenge, the weirdest tourism site in Nebraska, might be actually cool now? journalstar.com/life-enterta...
Sure sign of middle age: I have watched CBS Sunday Morning AND 60 Minutes today.
It’s the 20th Century Daily Double!
It’s the 20th Century Daily Double!
June 8, 2025 at 11:47 PM
Sure sign of middle age: I have watched CBS Sunday Morning AND 60 Minutes today.
It’s the 20th Century Daily Double!
It’s the 20th Century Daily Double!
In Nebraska, you can usually transfer your kid to a nearby public school.
Unless your kid has a disability.
Then the school’s answer is often no.
Important story from @flatwaterfreep.bsky.social and @the74.bsky.social, as reporters Jeremy Turley and Lauren Wagner team up.
Unless your kid has a disability.
Then the school’s answer is often no.
Important story from @flatwaterfreep.bsky.social and @the74.bsky.social, as reporters Jeremy Turley and Lauren Wagner team up.
For years, Angela Gleason has tried to get her son Teddy into a suburban Omaha district to better accommodate his special needs. Each time she applied for a transfer, she got the same answer: Denied. This report was produced in collaboration with @the74.bsky.social 🔗 buff.ly/QEKe7Ow
June 5, 2025 at 2:59 PM
In Nebraska, you can usually transfer your kid to a nearby public school.
Unless your kid has a disability.
Then the school’s answer is often no.
Important story from @flatwaterfreep.bsky.social and @the74.bsky.social, as reporters Jeremy Turley and Lauren Wagner team up.
Unless your kid has a disability.
Then the school’s answer is often no.
Important story from @flatwaterfreep.bsky.social and @the74.bsky.social, as reporters Jeremy Turley and Lauren Wagner team up.
Proud of Natalia. Proud of her hard, skilled work. Proud we have built a little nonprofit newsroom where skilled, hardworking journalists can tell these stories.
FFP senior reporter Natalia Alamdari, and Marco, are national award winners. "Marco's Journey" won the National Award for Education Reporting. Read "Marco's Journey," Alamdari's national award winner, here 🔗 buff.ly/Hs4aobS
Congratulations, Natalia!
Congratulations, Natalia!
May 30, 2025 at 4:07 AM
Proud of Natalia. Proud of her hard, skilled work. Proud we have built a little nonprofit newsroom where skilled, hardworking journalists can tell these stories.
Fewer Nebraska kids are vaccinated and protected against measles than at any point in many years on the day that the first measles case since 2017 was reported in Nebraska.
Why?
Story by @flatwaterfreep.bsky.social’s newest reporter, Emily Wolf.
Why?
Story by @flatwaterfreep.bsky.social’s newest reporter, Emily Wolf.
New at FFP: As the measles outbreak reaches Nebraska, a new FFP analysis shows that fewer of our state’s children are getting vaccinated against the dangerous virus. Their parents are opting out, citing a religious exemption. 🔗 buff.ly/NIMMc8d
May 29, 2025 at 12:46 AM
Fewer Nebraska kids are vaccinated and protected against measles than at any point in many years on the day that the first measles case since 2017 was reported in Nebraska.
Why?
Story by @flatwaterfreep.bsky.social’s newest reporter, Emily Wolf.
Why?
Story by @flatwaterfreep.bsky.social’s newest reporter, Emily Wolf.
Pondering Brooklyn.
May 24, 2025 at 6:26 PM
Pondering Brooklyn.
At least 8 Nebraska school districts are hiring teachers from the Philippines.
Fascinating story by @flatwaterfreep.bsky.social Greater Nebraska reporter Natalia Alamdari.
Fascinating story by @flatwaterfreep.bsky.social Greater Nebraska reporter Natalia Alamdari.
New at FFP: Nebraska schools struggle to hire teachers. Nebraska schools had nearly 700 unfilled positions this past school year. Some districts are widening their search for teachers — by about 8,000 miles. 🔗https://buff.ly/k7bxC3J
May 24, 2025 at 2:05 PM
At least 8 Nebraska school districts are hiring teachers from the Philippines.
Fascinating story by @flatwaterfreep.bsky.social Greater Nebraska reporter Natalia Alamdari.
Fascinating story by @flatwaterfreep.bsky.social Greater Nebraska reporter Natalia Alamdari.