Evelyn Mejia

I'm a budding journalist based in Manassas, Virginia. 

Flatwater Free Press •

Ted Turner, longtime Nebraska land baron, still buying as next chapter nears

Long before anyone talked about China, Bill Gates or multinational corporations buying up Nebraska land, another name was spoken, with curiosity and frustration, on farms and ranches from Ord to Ogallala.

Ted Turner, they said. Ted Turner is buying everything.

The media mogul’s back-to-back Nebraska land purchases in the late 1990s made him the single largest landowner in the state while sparking speculation and concern.

Small-town residents worried the billionaire’s land buys – at his peak,
Flatwater Free Press •

Surge of book removal requests turning Nebraska libraries into cultural battlegrounds

Christine Knust planned to continue growing the journalism and yearbook program at Plattsmouth High School this year.

In her two years as the school’s librarian, Knust had nurtured the program from six students to 37. She also had grown and diversified the school library, adding titles by LGBTQ authors and writers from different ethnic backgrounds, she said.

Knust, who taught English for nearly 30 years in several districts, believed she’d retire at Plattsmouth Community Schools. Instead, she
Flatwater Free Press •

UNK budget woes have small-town students asking: What about me?

When Laura Rozema decided to go back to college, the University of Nebraska at Kearney felt like the right fit.

Her reasoning: Her hometown school seemed more personal, much smaller than the 30,000-student campus she had started college at outside Nebraska. And she wanted to learn, and to act, inside UNK’s theater program – a program the Kearney native had grown up around.

Rozema, now a senior, was doing just that, rehearsing on stage for the department’s performance of “The Tempest” when she
Flatwater Free Press •

Two health clinics are set to close in rural Nebraska. Others could follow.

For the past month, Phyllis and Chris Hammack have been crunching numbers and adjusting their budget to accommodate more frequent trips to Scottsbluff, a two-hour drive from their home in Chappell.

They don’t have much of a choice, said 55-year-old Phyllis Hammack. The medical clinic that Chris, 57, a diabetic, relied on is set to close, leaving him and others in this Panhandle town of 850 people without a local doctor’s office.

Regional West Health Services notified its Sidney and Chappell pa
Latino Reporter •

NAHJ members leave 2023 conference with unanswered questions, calls for transparency

After days of speculation over the sudden resignation of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists’ top executive and the motivations for withdrawing from a 2024 joint conference with its Black journalist counterpart, NABJ, members of the Latino journalism group confronted board members on Saturday with a litany of questions.

They left with few answers and mounting frustrations.

David Peña, NAHJ’s executive director until July 28, resigned 12 days before the start of the NAHJ 2023 confe
Latino Reporter •

Once ignored, Mexican-Americans commemorate their contributions in Nebraska

LINCOLN, Neb. — Marty Ramirez is no longer reluctant to talk about his service in Vietnam.

The 77-year-old now wears a gray shirt that reads, ‘Vietnam,’ and a black, Purple Heart cap.

The historical discrimination against Mexicans didn’t allow Ramirez to open up about his time in Vietnam upon his return home in 1969.

“When we were in the uniform, we almost felt like when do things change? Will they ever change? Is it always going to be the color of your skin?,” Ramirez said.

Two months ago m
Flatwater Free Press •

Nebraska renewable energy programs struggle to recruit students amid worker shortage

Every Tuesday and Thursday in the fall, Taylor Schneider and his students start class by gathering their equipment and stretching. The 15 minutes of stretching is essential for their trips up a 400-foot wind turbine.

These climbs up the turbine are part of Central Community College’s effort to lessen the shortage of workers in the renewable energy industry. The college offers wind, solar energy and battery storage accreditation — a rare combination that Schneider said has allowed him to teach s
Flatwater Free Press •

Norfolk’s buses stopped running after $1 million went missing. The main suspect is still on the run.

NORFOLK – One of the last bus drivers in Norfolk begins his day by taking Nancy Stehlik to work.

Wrapped in a purple coat and earmuffs, Stehlik inches her walker onto the small bus’s wheelchair lift.

Driver Neil Schlecht pushes a button and the lift whirs down, placing Stehlik outside of Walmart, where she works as a cashier.

Schlecht spends the rest of his shift on a recent Monday crisscrossing Norfolk – a pick up at Odd Fellow Rebekah Manor, an assisted living facility. A drop off at Walmar
JournalStar.com •

Nebraska foster child advocacy pioneer remembered for courage and compassion

But the Foster Care Review Board was dogged by controversy during Stitt's tenure involving alleged conflicts of interest and politics. That came to a head in 2012, when Stitt was fired. The Legislature later dissolved the board and moved the work under its own purview.

When her youngest daughter Katie was in high school, Stitt learned that Katie's friend wasn't able to afford lunches and she enrolled them in the backpack program. In the meantime, she would send Katie to school with an extra lun
JournalStar.com •

Lincoln asks courts to take lead in reviewing Wilderness Park development appeals

City leaders are asking the Lancaster County District Court, not its own Board of Zoning Appeals, to take the lead in determining if plans for the Wilderness Crossing housing development will go forward.

The city's complaint, filed last week, names the Indian Center LLC, along with Kevin Abourezk, Renee Sans Souci, Erin Poor and Kathleen Danker. The defendants have led opposition to the private development adjacent to Wilderness Park and Lincoln's oldest sweat lodge that sparked controversy.

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