Cydney Franklin and Nancy Williams Share Their Vision for the Greenhouse at the Highlander
Two organizations led by Black women have come together to activate a major resource for the North Omaha community. Cydny Franklin, CEO of 75 North Revitalization Corp. and Nancy Williams, CEO of No More Empty Pots sat down with Leo Adam Biga to share their big plans for the greenhouse at the Highlander Accelerator, including a 1,000 sq. foot commercial kitchen, a culinary certificate program, an on-site science lab for creating lotions and botanicals and a micro food market. Stay tuned for some community engagement programs this summer while work gets underway for a Sept. 2023 opening.
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Greater Omaha Chamber Selects New Leader
The Greater Omaha Chamber Friday announced its new president and CEO is Veta Jeffery, who previously managed the State of Missouri’s community and economic development services. Jeffery replaces David Brown, who earlier announced his retirement after 20 years.
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After Failure of LB 28, How Can the Wrongful Conviction of Earnest Jackson Be Reversed?
Over two decades ago, a jury found Earnest Jackson guilty for the death of Larry Perry — a crime that someone else later confessed to and was acquitted for, based on self-defense. Jackson initially received a life sentence and remains in prison 22 years later, in spite of his acknowledged actual innocence. What kind of justice system is unable to free an innocent man? NOISE is featuring an article by a leader in the campaign to Send Earnest Home explaining the torturous route that Jackson has been on, trying to get out of prison.
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Lincoln City Council Approves Half Million Dollar Settlement with Injured Protester
From the ACLU of Nebraska: The Lincoln City Council approved a $497,500 settlement agreement with a Lincoln woman who was severely injured by a law enforcement officer during a 2020 protest against the murder of George Floyd by a police office in Minneapolis. When officers used impact munitions and chemical agents on people gathered in civil disobedience of a curfew, one of the projectiles struck Poole and severed her nose from her face.
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Google Announces Nebraska Growth Plan that Includes New Northwest Omaha Data Center
From Nebraska Examiner: Tech giant Google announced plans Thursday to invest at least $750 million more in Nebraska. This latest financial infusion, along with $600 million in 2019, will put the company’s investment into operations in the Husker state at more than $1 billion. The new facility will be in northwest Omaha near the intersection of Blair High Rd. and State St.
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Candidate Forums: What Happened This Past Week. What’s Happening This Weekend.
If you missed the chance to hear 14 candidates running for office in Nebraska at a Fabric Lab forum, you can catch this weekend’s debate between two Democratic candidates running for U.S. Representative in CD-2, looking to unseat Republican incumbent Don Bacon. Alisha Shelton and Tony Vargas will be at Culxr House, 3014 N. 24th St. on Saturday, Apr. 23 from 1 - 3 p.m. NOISE has complied a list of instructions with deadlines to register to vote, return your vote-by-mail ballot or find your polling place. It might have changed.
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NOISE Launches Omaha Journalism Project with AIM Institute Leading Tech Training
AIM Institute, a nonprofit committed to growing a strong and diverse tech community, has allocated dedicated space at its downtown Omaha headquarters at 1911 Harney St. to NOISE for the Omaha Journalism Project. The program will help ensure that journalists have shared access to a podcast recording studio, green screen for film projects, and computer lab for training and workshops. A community space for town hall meetings is also available for rent.
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Black Parents of Autistic Children Create Resources for Each Other
April is Autism Acceptance Month, but raising awareness in the Black community may be the first step toward acceptance. NOISE contributor Elle Love, who has autism, shares stories from Black mothers of autistic children about how they found resources for their children in Omaha— or created their own.
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Yates Illuminates Awarded $1 Million in ARPA Funding
The grassroots effort, now branded Yates Illuminates, to save the former Yates Elementary School in Gifford Park has been awarded $1 million in ARPA funding. The money will go directly toward renovation of the project site to provide social and mental health services geared towards the immigrant and refugee communities.
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Known to be Toxic for a Century, Lead Still Poisons Thousands of Midwestern Kids
Over the next few months, The Missouri Independent and NPR’s Midwest Newsroom are collaborating to investigate high levels of lead in children of Iowa, Kansas, Missouri and Nebraska. By analyzing scientific research, delving into state and local data and interviewing parents, experts and advocates from across the country, the project will shed light on a public health disaster that continues to poison children every year. NOISE is republishing this first installment which appeared in the Nebraska Examiner.
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Criminal Justice Reform Bill Goes Down in Flames after Lengthy Debate
From the Nebraska Examiner: On Wednesday, a filibuster blocked a bill enacting criminal justice reforms developed after a months-long study in conjunction with the Crime and Justice Institute. The death of Legislative Bill 920, which recommended 21 steps to reduce the state’s nation-leading prison overcrowding, came after debate spread over three days and after hours of negotiating a compromise that never materialized.
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Bill to Name Benson Post Office After WWII Hero Charles Jackson French Advances to Voice Vote in Senate
The Senate bill to rename the Benson branch post office after World War II hero Charles Jackson French cleared a key committee vote Wednesday and appears headed to passage as early as next week.
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Two Hour Town Hall With Law Enforcement Puts Spotlight on Progress and Problems
A town hall at the Fabric Lab on Mar. 22 turned into an evening of activism when community members shared their negative experiences with law enforcement in Omaha. On Mar. 22, Preston Love moderated a community meeting with Omaha Police Chief Todd Schmaderer and Chief Deputy Sheriff Wayne Hudson. While the topic for the evening was policy and practice regarding “no-knock” warrants in Omaha and Douglas County, it expanded to a wide-ranging discussion of community problems and concerns.
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Prison Leaders Wrote a Bill to Release Prisoners Earlier. They’re Applying the Law in a Way That Doesn’t.
From Flatwater Free Press, a story about one reason Nebraska’s prisons are overcrowded. In 2011, the Nebraska Department of Correctional Services wrote a bill that would allow well-behaved prisoners the chance to shorten their time behind bars. Eleven years later: Thousands of prisoners sentenced under the law have potentially stayed in prison days, weeks or months longer than the law’s authors intended. What happened?
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Nebraska Agrochemical Contamination Throws Families, Communities, Water Providers into Turmoil
NOISE is republishing the second of a two-part series by Circle of Blue about the high rates of pediatric cancer in Nebraska which are more common here than anywhere in the United States outside of the Northeast. The state’s pediatric cancer rate is seventh-highest in the country. High numbers of pediatric cancer cases, especially central nervous system tumors, leukemia, and lymphoma, are associated with Nebraska watersheds that have high levels of nitrate (a fertilizer) or atrazine (a weed killer) in surface and groundwater, according to a University of Nebraska Medical Center research team.
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Is Agrochemical Contamination Killing Nebraska’s Children?
NOISE is republishing the first of a two-part series by Circle of Blue about the high rates of pediatric cancer in Nebraska which are more common here than anywhere in the United States outside of the Northeast. The state’s pediatric cancer rate is seventh-highest in the country. High numbers of pediatric cancer cases, especially central nervous system tumors, leukemia, and lymphoma, are associated with Nebraska watersheds that have high levels of nitrate (a fertilizer) or atrazine (a weed killer) in surface and groundwater, according to a University of Nebraska Medical Center research team. Part two will be republished by NOISE on Thursday.
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Meet the New Executive Director of the Malcolm X Memorial Foundation: JoAnna LeFlore-Ejike
It is fitting during Women’s History Month, that NOISE is profiling an up and coming leader in North Omaha, JoAnna LeFlore-Ejike, the newly appointed full-time executive director of the Malcolm X Memorial Foundation. LeFlore-Ejike brings a wealth of nonprofit experience to MXMF, having worked for Filmstreams, the Bemis Center for Contemporary Art and the Greater Omaha Chamber of Commerce. Standing on the shoulders of founder Rowena Moore, she wants the public to know “There’s a woman in leadership who wants to empower the entire community, the entire village.”
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City Bus Planners Seek Your Input. Tell Them Where You Want Metro to Go Next
Omaha’s bus system, Metro, is seeking public comment on MetroNEXT, its year-long initiative to improve transit in Omaha and the surrounding region. Based on rider input, Metro staff developed three scenarios for the next 5 to 10 years and now they want the public’s feedback again.
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The Future Ernie Chambers Museum and the Lost City of Saratoga
Gayla Lee Chambers, daughter of Nebraska’s longest serving state senator, plans to create a museum to commemorate her father’s legacy in a part of North Omaha that was once a frontier town called Saratoga. She was joined by her father, former Sen. Ernie Chambers, and architectural historian Melissa Dirr Gengler at the Fabric Lab on Feb. 17 to share the history of Saratoga and favorite stories from the life of the self-described “God of the legislature.”
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After Second Pedestrian Death on N. 30th St., OTOC Pleads With City, Again
In spite of safety improvements at a dangerous North Omaha intersection on N. 30th St. at Miller Park, another pedestrian fatality occurred at this location in January. Sheryl Bringleson of Omaha was fatally struck by a vehicle as she attempted to cross 30th St. at the south end of Miller Park, in spite of new signage instructing people to walk up to the traffic light at Curtis St. After two fatalities near the same spot, OTOC thinks it’s time for a stoplight on 30th St.
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