Been a while, again

The floodgates have opened, and I'm now backlogged with about 60,000 story ideas -- about 1 percent of which I'll ever write.

One of the unlikely-to-ever-be-written stories: prison visits.

From March 2009 to 2010, 2,948 Nebraska prison inmates had visitors. That means about a third (1,434) of the state's 4,382 inmates didn't get a single visit during those 12 months. Pretty depressing.

The number might appear more extreme than it actually is, though, since many of those inmates were likely released or placed in custody towards the beginning or end of that period, meaning they didn't necessarily actually go a whole year without a visit.

Had the pleasure of talking to a Seward County Sheriff's deputy this week who saved three guys from a fire.

His name: Randy Muhm. Here's a slightly outdated photo:

And here's the story:

Seward deputy saves Utica men from fire (02/25/2010)

Thanks to Deputy Muhm, who more than deserves his moment in the sun.

Industrial Arts Building

So far, I've written a pair of stories about the controversy over what to do with this building:

The University of Nebraska-Lincoln wants to demolish it to make room for its Innovation Campus. The building was part of the former Nebraska State Fairgrounds, and people with an interest in its history are fighting to stop the university from bringing in the bulldozers.

You can read my story about the "Save the Industrial Arts Building" effort here:

Group fighting to save Industrial Arts Building (02/22/2010)

As well as the university's response to the effort, covered in this story:

UNL challenges Industrial Arts Building supporters (02/24/2010)

The university plans to bring its proposal for the building before the NU Board of Regents on March 5.

Been a while

It's been three weeks since my last post. Got a new job, and working on a long-term project about this guy:

His name is Jeremy Herman, and he's an inmate at the Tecumseh State Penitentiary. I'll have more information for you later.

In the meantime, here are a few stories I've written in the past couple weeks.

Cheers, hugs greet reservists' return home (02/14/2010)

About 150 troops who were serving in Iraq returned to Lincoln the day before Valentine's Day, including Sgt. Keith Knoop, who I'll be following up with over the coming months.

98 days, 98 years (02/11/2010)

A Lincoln teacher brings her 98-year-old dad to speak to her students on their 98th day of school. Pretty sweet.

Parents of four children killed in crash, family hopes to adopt (02/06/2010)

The Aldava children were left without their parents after a crash near Hastings. Good thing they have a wonderful aunt and uncle who hope to adopt them.

Haitian orphans

The situation for orphans in Haiti post-earthquake is pretty miserable. Here in Lincoln and around southeast Nebraska, hundreds families have come forward with interest in adopting, but are finding it essentially impossible to do so.

Here's a story I wrote about the issue:

Local families hit Haiti adoption wall

And here's another, the story of what might be the area's only adoption success story since the earthquake:

Haiti orphans come home to Nebraska

Helping Haitians

A group of Lincoln Haitians - including Junior Jacques, who I wrote about before - organized a benefit for the Red Cross's efforts in Haiti. Here's a piece I wrote on the event, as well as a few follow-up links from other things I've covered:

Gathering shows support for those still suffering after quake

Dozens of people gathered at Marz Bar, 1140 O St., for a relief benefit hosted by the Cornhusker Chapter of the American Red Cross.

Other links:

Union College team in Haiti

Ben Larson, former Lincoln seminarian who died in the earthquake

It's Time to Party

Andrew W.K. would be disappointed. Lincoln Police Chief Tom Casady told me last week that us college-age Lincolnites have been partying less and less hard since 2005. Here's the story, which ran on page 1A in today's paper:

Police use landlords in battle against loud parties

More news from Haiti

I wrote two more Haiti-related stories this weekend. One is about a group of college students with rescue and relief training who left for Haiti on Sunday. For the other, I spoke to Junior and Stanley Jacques - brothers who lost their uncle and grandmother in the earthquake - while they were on their way to Omaha to pick up their mom, who escaped.


The Jacques family, with mom Florence at top left. (Courtesy of Junior)

Union College group to leave for Haiti
Saturday, four students and a staff member from Union College were scrambling to prepare for a last-minute relief trip to Haiti. (01/17/2010)

Haitian mom returns to family in Lincoln
Danel "Junior" Jacques heard his uncle was OK Tuesday night - but the next morning, Junior found out the uncle was dead, buried in the rubble of his house in Port au Prince, Haiti. (01/18/2010)

Expect more on both of these stories, as well as the HLMS (see previous post) in the coming week.

In the nick of time

I spoke with the executive director of the Haiti Lutheran Mission Society today. The HLMS is a national organization headquartered in Lincoln, and its director, Dick Buethe, returned from Haiti the same day as the earthquake. Here's what he had to say:

Back from Haiti, Lincoln mission director's thoughts remain
Since Dick Buethe returned from Haiti on Tuesday, he's been flooded with calls. Unfortunately, none came from his friends and employees on the island, which was rocked by a 7.0 magnitude earthquake just hours after Buethe's plane departed Tuesday. (01/13/2010)



Also, check out this story by my fellow reporter Cory Matteson:
Nebraskans with ties to Haiti hold breath on news of earthquake

Be careful out there

Saturday was a pretty nasty day for car crashes. There were 62 of them - 11 of them with injuries - in Lincoln, quite a few compared to most Saturdays, even in the middle of a major storm.

One of my roommates, Kaity, was in one of the injury crashes. She doesn't remember much about the crash, but lucky for all of us (especially her) she got home safe after spending a short time in the hospital. Her car, on the other hand, didn't quite make it:

Snowy Lincoln

It's been crazy in the Lincoln/Omaha area these past couple weeks. About 30 inches of snow have fallen so far this winter, most of that coming in two consecutive storms. Coupled with wind chills in the negative 30s, it makes for a wonderful 2-mile walk to work.

Here are some stories and a photo from after my white Christmas. They seem to be centered around transportation issues, mostly for emergency workers.



Snow leaves tight squeeze for fire engines, buses
Lincoln Public Schools and Lincoln Fire & Rescue have each had three vehicles involved in crashes since the recent holiday storm, fire and schools spokespeople said. (01/05/2010)

Snow or shine, sickness still happens
Rescue workers and emergency volunteers drove doubletime over the weekend, picking up overdue dialysis patients, hospital workers and other unable to overcome mountainous snowdrifts in Lincoln. (12/27/2009)

Storm leaves behind ice, tickets and towing
After seven people died in the early stages of Nebraska's holiday snowstorm, authorities remain worried about the storm's lingering dangers. (12/27/2009)

Moldy memories

A water main broke at a museum near Beatrice over the weekend, flooding a climate-controlled room filled with priceless artifacts. Here are two stories (the original and a follow-up brief) I wrote about the incident:

Water damages Homestead Monument artifacts
A Gage County Sheriff's deputy and park superintendent Mark Engler discovered the flood just after 5 p.m. Friday, after being called there because of a motion-detector alarm. (01/02/2010)

Heritage Center books, saddle now safe
Homestead National Monument superintendent Mark Engler sounded positive Sunday about the condition of hundreds of books damaged in a water leak. (01/03/2010)

I'm also going to take this opportunity to post a photo of two outstanding works of sure-to-be-historical-someday art. My teenage brother gave me a second clay pot this Christmas, adding to my already wicked collection Leo Pluhacek creations.