Alex Milan Tracy for Underscore
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The dozens of independent, nonprofit and nonpartisan news organizations that make up the Rural News Network are developing the broadest news alliance reporting on rural America. These newsrooms are pursuing coverage that provides a more complete picture of what it means to live and work in these communities.
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LATEST NEWS FROM THE NETWORK
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Diamond in the Sandhills: In baseball’s golden age, an elite ballpark drew MLB clubs to Nebraska
March 25, 2026
Modisett Ball Park helped put Rushville on the map for aspiring ballplayers and sparked pride among the town’s residents.
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Nebraska seeks to end retroactive Medicaid coverage. Hospital leaders say it will have a ‘disastrous’ impact.
March 23, 2026
State officials say the move would save the state millions of dollars and incentivize hospitals to enroll low-income Nebraskans sooner.
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He moved from Comoros to Grand Island with a dream. His vanilla business is flourishing — and helping farmers back home.
March 11, 2026
An immigrant entrepreneur in Nebraska is building a bridge between rural America and the Indian Ocean, creating a business that supports small-town growth while boosting vanilla farmers in his homeland.
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New prosecutor gives new hope for answers in teen’s mysterious death at Pillen Family Farms
January 30, 2026
In a reversal, the new Boone County attorney agreed to allow independent lab tests that could help explain what killed Zach Panther at a hog farm owned by the family of Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen.
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The mysterious death of a teen at Pillen Family Farms
December 19, 2025
A 17-year-old worker died at a Nebraska hog farm run by the governor’s family. Two investigations later, the boy’s mother is still searching for answers.
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Nebraskans throw tons of glass into landfills each year. Some are trying to change that.
May 07, 2025
Nebraska City is one of roughly two dozen towns and cities in the state that now offer glass recycling — a practice that comes with environmental, and sometimes economic benefits. But difficulties transporting it have forced some rural communities to scrap glass recycling, advocates say.
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In rural Nebraska, it’s hard to find an attorney. It’s going to get much harder.
April 25, 2025
About a third of Nebraska’s 93 counties have three or fewer active attorneys residing and practicing in them. Twelve counties don’t have a single one.
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To serve and protect? Police chief fired after allegedly terrorizing woman
April 11, 2025
The protection order, requested by the 24-year-old woman and granted by a judge, came after the Mitchell police chief allegedly sent her many lewd photos on Snapchat, repeatedly drove by her home and let her know that he knew when she was home alone.
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At Nebraska’s Native American boarding school, location of child graves and closure prove elusive
April 04, 2025
State officials remain hopeful in ongoing search as Interior Department reviews Biden-era initiative examining history of U.S. Native American boarding schools.
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Roadblocked: A Nebraska county and its road workers have been stuck bargaining for years. It’s costing thousands.
March 21, 2025
A $5 an hour raise for 14 employees would equal about $145,600 in a year – just shy of what the county has spent on attorney fees since 2022.
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‘This is wild’: Emails show Trump funding freeze sparked concern in Nebraska state agencies
February 28, 2025
Records obtained by Flatwater Free Press reveal Nebraska officials worried about far-reaching fallout from the Trump administration’s directive, from disaster recovery to aid for mothers and infants.
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No raids, many rumors: In Nebraska immigrant communities, fear and lack of ICE info fuel fake news
February 18, 2025
Nebraska immigration detentions appear to be up slightly. But advocates for immigrants and law enforcement officials alike say the rumors are far outpacing the reality.
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Many Nebraskans still under threat of high nitrate in drinking water, report finds
February 14, 2025
In 2022, the Flatwater Free Press spent months examining the scope and history of nitrate contamination, a byproduct of decades of nitrogen fertilizer excessively applied to corn. And rural Nebraska’s nitrate problem doesn’t appear to be getting any better.
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Where’s the beef? Not all Nebraska producers on board with Pillen’s proposed ‘lab-grown meat’ ban
February 07, 2025
The governor, who founded one of the largest hog enterprises in the country, said the state needed to protect its farmers and ranchers, a critical piece of Nebraska’s economy and identity.
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Nebraska companies, strapped for workers, face ‘mild concern to abject terror’ as immigration crackdown begins
January 24, 2025
An unlikely coalition of pro-business groups and activists see a solution to Nebraska’s workforce shortage: More immigration. Now they’re watching the crackdown, wondering how it will impact foreign-born workers and their employers.
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