This week, Omaha City Council approved the Forever North development plan and a redevelopment plan for an area surrounding 24th and Lake Streets. A representative from the city’s planning department said Omaha was “getting out of the business of owning property in North Omaha” to allow for private development.
Read MoreAmir Locke, 22, was killed by Minneapolis Police during a no-knock raid two weeks ago. His funeral on Thurs. Feb. 17 will be live streamed at 11 a.m. on the Shiloh Temple International Ministries Facebook page. His parents say he was executed and they want the officer who killed him to be fired and charged.
Read MoreThe Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) was passed in 2003 to end sexual violence within the prison system. Alongside providing resources for incarcerated individuals, PREA collects data and intends to prevent, detect, and respond to investigations and cases of sexual assault, sexual abuse, and sexual harassment within state facilities.
Read MoreDana Swope was one of many residents forced to leave an apartment complex in midtown deemed unlivable by the City of Omaha in late January 2022. Reader reporter Chris Bowling sat down with her for Reader Radio in Swope’s former home on the third floor of the Flora apartments at 2577 Jones Street on January 25 to learn about how she ended up paying $700 a month in a cramped studio apartment with mold, no heat and mice. Click here to listen to the podcast interview and read the article from The Reader. Image Credit: The Reader
Read MoreNebraska’s prison system has for years faced interlocked twin crises: Too many prisoners, and not enough employees to guard them.
Designed to hold 160 people, the Lincoln prison where new prisoners start their sentences has been stretched to more than triple its design capacity. It now houses some 500 men. Those who can’t fit in cells are kept in large rooms, sleeping on toboggan-like plastic cots — essentially bins on the ground with a thin mat inside. Cots even fill the prison gym.
The prison population has been over capacity since 1982, according to department data. By September 2021, the average number of prisoners reached 149.8% of the system’s design capacity. It’s projected to continue growing.
Read MoreDocuments from a Saint Francis investigation show Smith invested $11 million in a friend’s business for software that crashed and destroyed the organization’s financial records. Saint Francis spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in a program led by Smith’s wife to harvest a “miracle” food in El Salvador, where staff asked for and received Visa credit cards for the purpose of getting cash to bribe local officials. Smith repeatedly was warned about the financial perils of entering a contract to provide services in Nebraska, where Saint Francis is projected to lose $27 million in the current fiscal year, before Smith signed the deal.
Read MoreThe state of Nebraska is cutting short Saint Francis Ministries’ nearly $150 million dollar child welfare contract. Today, (Tuesday, Dec. 14) the CEOs of the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) and Saint Francis Ministries (SFM) announced, in their words, “a mutual agreement” to end their case management contract more than a year early. This marks the end of an emergency contract signed in January 2021, originally intended to extend to February 2023, a month Governor Ricketts leaves office.
This announcement comes one day before the Nebraska legislative Investigative and Oversight Committee is set to release its recommendations on how the state should proceed with Saint Francis Ministries. It also comes one day after the Episcopal Church of Chicago announced it will discipline the former leader of SFM, Father Bobby for what it calls his “poor judgment”.
Today, (Dec. 13) the ACLU of Nebraska released an update to its 2017 “Nebraska’s Statehouse-to-Prison Pipeline” report. The 2021 report examined legislation over the past five years finding the legislature created new crimes and broadened existing crimes which contributed to the overcrowding crisis in Nebraska’s prisons.
The problem that needs to be solved is without dispute: Nebraska’s prison population has grown 21% between 2011 and 2020, “leaving nearly every Nebraska Department of Correctional Services (NDCS) facility operating above capacity,” according to the report.
The ACLU advocates ending mass incarceration in Nebraska through changing state policies without building a new $230 million prison. But, Gov. Ricketts and Director of Corrections Scott Frakes are lobbying hard for construction of a new prison.
Read MoreDecember 9th Sen McKinney hosted a town hall in North Omaha addressing possible federal dollars coming to North O and the prison overcrowding crisis, which he says can only be fixed by addressing the root problems of the criminal justice, and not the by building a new prison.
McKinney shared fact sheets with the audience outlining issues like the length of prison sentences for minor crimes. But the town hall also offered a space to discuss how two major buckets of federal dollars could be spent in North Omaha. This money will be coming from the American Rescue Plan Act and a federal infrastructure bill.
Read MoreNebraska State Senators Terrell McKinney (LD 11), Justin Wayne (LD 13), and Carol Blood (LD 3) held a community town hall at Clair Memorial United Methodist Church with its Pastor Portia Cavitt to discuss the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding in North Omaha and how the funding could address issues such as criminal justice reform and affordable housing.
Sen. McKinney added that addressing the root of criminal justice by investing in the community could decrease the need for a new prison.
Read MoreFrom Flatwater Free Press - Mayor Jean Stothert announced the main W. Dale Clark library will move to a smaller location at 1401 Jones. A new main library is expected to go between 72nd and 90th Streets. The library approved a partnership with stakeholders including Heritage Services, a nonprofit that has taken charge of planning, fundraising and developing a series of local civic capital projects.
Mayor Jean Stothert said, “We're not relying on philanthropic dollars to fund the library.”
Rachel Jacobson, president of Heritage Services, said the organization is interested in developing the building and donating it to the city.
“Historically the library has been funded primarily by taxpayers,” Jacobson said. “We're not suggesting that change at all, although obviously it hasn't been able to have the kind of investment that it needs to get to the next level.”
Read MoreBillions of dollars will soon flow into Nebraska through the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA). On Nov. 21, Sens. Michaela Cavanaugh (LD-06) and Terrell McKinney (LD-11) met with a small but vocal group of citizens in the gym of the Adams Park Community Center. They asked the senators questions about the ARPA process and shared suggestions for how the funds should be spent. Three central priorities emerged: mental health, economic growth and affordable housing.
Both the City of Omaha and Douglas County have identified the expansion of mental health services as a top priority. The county board voted in early November to approve over $727,000for various mental health programs, funded mostly by ARPA.
Read MoreAn event last month entitled "The Missing Piece" covered the basics of what autism is and some of the challenges it can bring for autistic people.
The event also highlighted the new University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC) clinic for toddlers at 5050 Ames Ave. The clinic serves children under the age of five and their caregivers, with an emphasis on caregiver training. Therapists support children with functional skills such as communication, basic school readiness, and self-care. In order to overcome some of the challenges obtaining care faced by people of color with autism, the clinic hires from within the community it serves and requires focused cultural competency training for all staff members.
The first obstacle to care for people of color with autism is often just getting a diagnosis. According to a study by the Center for Autism and Developmental Disabilities Research and Epidemiology at the University of Pennsylvania, Black children with autism are 5.1 times more likely to be misdiagnosed with a conduct disorder.
Read MoreMalcolm X and Betty Shabazz's daughter Malikah, 56, was found unresponsive by her daughter in her Brooklyn apartment on Nov. 22. The following is a statement from the Malcom X Memorial Foundation after her passing.
Read MoreNebraska’s Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) is reminding Nebraskans about a state program intended to help SNAP benefit recipients find long-term employment. This program, called SNAP Next Step Employment & Training (E&T) offers one-on-one assistance with steps to finding employment. To be eligible for SNAP Next Step Employment E&T, the individual must be receiving SNAP benefits, not be receiving Aid to Dependent Children (ADC), be work eligible, and reside in or around the service area.
Read MoreDirector of Corrections Scott Frakes ditched his prepared remarks and answered questions from the audience at a North Omaha town hall on Tuesday Nov. 2 about the stat of Nebraska's prisons.
Read MoreWhile there are some guidelines on how states must use the American Rescue Act Funds, states are given substantial flexibility in how to invest the money. State Senators Terrell McKinney (LD-11) and Justin Wayne (LD-13) held a town hall with constituents and community leaders to discuss how ARPA funding can be used to improve North Omaha.
Read MoreThis past week, (Oct. 27) the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis conducted a hearing about the failure of the meatpacking industry to protect its workers throughout the ongoing pandemic. Among those who testified in Washington D.C was Rose Godinez, a civil rights attorney for the ACLU of Nebraska and the daughter of meatpacking plant workers in Lexington, Nebraska. Reporting from Nebraska, Emily Chen-Newton spoke to Rose Godinez after the hearing about the safety standards she hopes Congress will push the Biden Administration and OSHA to implement.
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