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Matthew Hansen

@matthewhansen.bsky.social
572 followers 256 following 128 posts

Editor of the Flatwater Free Press. Scribe from Red Cloud. Champion eater of ice cream.

PostsRepliesMedia
Reposted by Matthew Hansen
Flatwater Free Press @flatwaterfreep.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
Gov. Jim Pillen has aligned himself with President Trump’s anti-immigrant agenda. But for more than a decade, his hog business has employed undocumented laborers, The @nytimes.com and Flatwater Free Press found. Read more 🔗 buff.ly/rOH1O9Q
Title card that reads "As Gov. Pillen backs ICE crackdown, his family business employs undocumented workers"
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Reposted by Matthew Hansen
Flatwater Free Press @flatwaterfreep.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
The Flatwater Free Press is throwing another barn party, and you're invited. On September 23rd, we're celebrating our fifth anniversary at Roca Berry Farm with food, drinks, and a Q&A with legendary journalist George Packer from The Atlantic. Get tickets now 🔗 buff.ly/lD1kyxB
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Matthew Hansen @matthewhansen.bsky.social · 12/05/2026
If you needed a reminder about the flawed but undeniable powerhouse that is American govt funding, top US research universities and cutting-edge private companies. www.nytimes.com/2026/05/12/h...
nytimes.com
How an ‘Impossible’ Idea Led to a Pancreatic Cancer Breakthrough
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Matthew Hansen @matthewhansen.bsky.social · 14/01/2026
On the origins of, and Nebraska’s undying love for, pairing chili with a cinnamon roll.
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Matthew Hansen @matthewhansen.bsky.social · 21/12/2025
Really proud of this work from Yanqi, and thrilled with the @flatwaterfreep.bsky.social collab with the @nytimes.com to tell an important Nebraska story.
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Reposted by Matthew Hansen
Flatwater Free Press @flatwaterfreep.bsky.social · 19/12/2025
New at Flatwater: The investigation of a teen’s death at Pillen Family Farms was marred by missteps, The New York Times and the Flatwater Free Press found. Said Dr. Erin Linde, who did the autopsy: “The type of investigation that really should have been done wasn’t done.” 🔗 buff.ly/oy9OswZ
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Charles Ornstein @charlesornstein.bsky.social · 11/12/2025
Did you know: Omaha, Nebraska, has the largest residential lead cleanup site in the U.S. BUT... this year, the Trump admin tripled the amount of lead that had to be in the soil to warrant a potential cleanup, meaning many families may be out of luck. @chrisbowling.bsky.social
propublica.org
The EPA Was Considering a Massive Lead Cleanup in Omaha. Then Trump Shifted Guidance.
The Trump administration says it will speed cleanups, but residents of the largest residential lead Superfund site worry fewer properties will be remediated.
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Matthew Hansen @matthewhansen.bsky.social · 11/12/2025
Such a crucial and well-written story on how decisions made in DC can greatly affect the lives — and the health of kids — in neighborhoods in faraway Omaha.
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Matthew Hansen @matthewhansen.bsky.social · 27/11/2025
My brother coaxed the recipe out of an Indianapolis bartender like 12 years ago!
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Matthew Hansen @matthewhansen.bsky.social · 14/11/2025
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...
nytimes.com
Trump Administration Prepares Tariff Exemptions in Bid to Lower Food Prices
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Reposted by Matthew Hansen
Flatwater Free Press @flatwaterfreep.bsky.social · 13/11/2025
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
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Matthew Hansen @matthewhansen.bsky.social · 12/11/2025
Our little baby is getting so grown up
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Reposted by Matthew Hansen
Flatwater Free Press @flatwaterfreep.bsky.social · 17/10/2025
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
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Matthew Hansen @matthewhansen.bsky.social · 16/10/2025
“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.”
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Matthew Hansen @matthewhansen.bsky.social · 14/10/2025
He could be the most inept human who ever lived. I’m not sure how that changes my point: All media should say no to this kind of government control and censorship, no matter what.
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Matthew Hansen @matthewhansen.bsky.social · 14/10/2025
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.
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Matthew Hansen @matthewhansen.bsky.social · 01/10/2025
Important, heartbreaking story. www.washingtonpost.com/investigatio...
washingtonpost.com
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...
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Matthew Hansen @matthewhansen.bsky.social · 16/09/2025
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...
nytimes.com
He Fled Putin’s War. The U.S. Deported Him to a Russian Jail.
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Matthew Hansen @matthewhansen.bsky.social · 10/09/2025
I can’t find a single word about Putin, Poland and NATO on the Fox News homepage. The third story is about Joe Biden’s mental acuity. The NYT’s top 3 stories are about the Russian incursion into Polish airspace. First non-Poland item: RFK Jr.
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Matthew Hansen @matthewhansen.bsky.social · 10/09/2025
A tale of two media ecosystems.
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Matthew Hansen @matthewhansen.bsky.social · 04/09/2025
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...
flatwaterfreepress.org
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
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Matthew Hansen @matthewhansen.bsky.social · 14/08/2025
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...
flatwaterfreepress.org
Flatwater Festival 2025 - Flatwater Free Press
September 17, 2025 Kiewit Luminarium and Creighton University We’re thrilled to present the third annual Flatwater Free Press Festival, an afternoon and
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Matthew Hansen @matthewhansen.bsky.social · 07/08/2025
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.
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Matthew Hansen @matthewhansen.bsky.social · 30/07/2025
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.
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Reposted by Matthew Hansen
Flatwater Free Press @flatwaterfreep.bsky.social · 28/07/2025
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
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Flatwater Free Press @flatwaterfreep.bsky.social · 25/07/2025
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
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Reposted by Matthew Hansen
Flatwater Free Press @flatwaterfreep.bsky.social · 16/07/2025
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
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Matthew Hansen @matthewhansen.bsky.social · 11/07/2025
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.
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Matthew Hansen @matthewhansen.bsky.social · 03/07/2025
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.
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Matthew Hansen @matthewhansen.bsky.social · 27/06/2025
I’m definitely going back to see the artwork!
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Matthew Hansen @matthewhansen.bsky.social · 27/06/2025
The first time I went to Carhenge I got there and stood there for 45 seconds and said “this is it?”
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Matthew Hansen @matthewhansen.bsky.social · 27/06/2025
Not cool: My screen cap and photo editing skills
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Matthew Hansen @matthewhansen.bsky.social · 27/06/2025
Attention everyone: I think Carhenge, the weirdest tourism site in Nebraska, might be actually cool now? journalstar.com/life-enterta...
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Matthew Hansen @matthewhansen.bsky.social · 09/06/2025
Sure sign of middle age: I have watched CBS Sunday Morning AND 60 Minutes today. It’s the 20th Century Daily Double!
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Matthew Hansen @matthewhansen.bsky.social · 05/06/2025
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.
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Matthew Hansen @matthewhansen.bsky.social · 30/05/2025
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.
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Matthew Hansen @matthewhansen.bsky.social · 29/05/2025
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.
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Matthew Hansen @matthewhansen.bsky.social · 24/05/2025
Pondering Brooklyn.
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Matthew Hansen @matthewhansen.bsky.social · 24/05/2025
At least 8 Nebraska school districts are hiring teachers from the Philippines. Fascinating story by @flatwaterfreep.bsky.social Greater Nebraska reporter Natalia Alamdari.
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Reposted by Matthew Hansen
Tracy Ensor @sciencetracy.bsky.social · 19/05/2025
This sounds super shady, Nebraskans. But also another example of the excellent investigative reporting from FFP this year.
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Matthew Hansen @matthewhansen.bsky.social · 18/05/2025
The Nebraska Public Power District just bought land for $5 million, double the appraisal. They bought it from two of their own executives, including one whose job title is chief ethics officer. Important one from @flatwaterfreep.bsky.social Destiny Herbers. flatwaterfreepress.org/nebraska-pub...
flatwaterfreepress.org
Nebraska Public Power District bought land for $5 million — from NPPD executives - Flatwater Free Press
The February purchase, which came after little public discussion and no public input, dismayed a legal expert, who said he's never seen anything like it. NPPD leaders defended the land buy, saying it ...
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Matthew Hansen @matthewhansen.bsky.social · 14/05/2025
nebraskaexaminer.com/2025/05/13/e...
nebraskaexaminer.com
Ewing sends Stothert packing, gives heart of ‘blue dot’ a Democratic mayor • Nebraska Examiner
Voters elected Douglas County Treasurer John Ewing Jr., the Democrat in charge of the offices where people annually pay their car taxes.
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Matthew Hansen @matthewhansen.bsky.social · 14/05/2025
Here are a couple good stories on the results. Among the reasons for the result: National political mood in a Dem-majority city that had previously been content to elect a Republican mayor; Desire for change after 12 years in office; Perceived infrastructure woes. omaha.com/news/local/g...
omaha.com
John Ewing wins decisive victory over Jean Stothert in race for Omaha mayor
In an election both history-making and stunning, John Ewing knocked off three-term incumbent Jean Stothert on Tuesday to become Omaha’s first elected Black mayor.
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Matthew Hansen @matthewhansen.bsky.social · 14/05/2025
If you would have told me yesterday at this time that John Ewing would win by 12%, I woulda looked at you funny.
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Matthew Hansen @matthewhansen.bsky.social · 14/05/2025
John Ewing was badly outspent and hit with attack ads while challenging 3-term incumbent Jean Stothert, who had absolutely wiped the floor with her most recent opponent. Tonight he’s the mayor of Omaha, and he’s winning by a whole bunch of votes. www.ketv.com/article/omah...
ketv.com
John Ewing Jr. makes history by winning Omaha’s mayoral election
At her Election Night event, Stothert said she called Ewing and conceded in the race.
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Matthew Hansen @matthewhansen.bsky.social · 11/05/2025
The president of the United States is taking a $400 million plane from the ruling family of Qatar — one he will likely use personally for the rest of his life — and there’s nothing to worry about because there are for sure, 100% no strings attached.
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Matthew Hansen @matthewhansen.bsky.social · 04/05/2025
Journalism finished second. Which doesn’t mean anything, it’s important not to read into this
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Matthew Hansen @matthewhansen.bsky.social · 03/05/2025
We are at the Kentucky Derby and just bet all the money on the horse named JOURNALISM. Because…yeah.
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Matthew Hansen @matthewhansen.bsky.social · 02/05/2025
Some of the Americans most at risk to severe Covid cases aren’t gonna love this. www.nytimes.com/2025/05/01/u...
nytimes.com
Kennedy Issues Demands for Vaccine Approvals That Could Affect Fall Covid Boosters
The plans amount to an extraordinary flex of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s power as health secretary to make decisions ordinarily left to career scientists at the Food and Drug Administration.
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Matthew Hansen @matthewhansen.bsky.social · 01/05/2025
@saragentzler.bsky.social with the scoop. Planned Parenthood in Nebraska is in disarray, employees say, has lost all its nurses and is now rarely performing surgical abortions. It’s the last place in Nebraska where surgical abortions are performed.
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