LINCOLN- On Wednesday, Gov. Pillen sidestepped a question about whether or not he planned to apologize to an Omaha-based investigative reporter, Yanqi Xu, for saying that her work should be disregarded because she grew up "in Communist China." Pillen's comments came in response to an article Xu had written for the Flatwater Free Press, which concerned groundwater pollution linked to Pillen Family Farms' hog-confinement sites.

The story cited data collected by the state about nitrate levels in groundwater, and revealed that such levels were five times higher than considered safe for pregnant mothers to drink at 16 of Pillen's hog farms. Flatwater's executive director offered Pillen an opportunity to apologize last week, describing his comments as embarrassing and "dead working," and chiding the governor's unwillingness to respond "to the facts" present in Xu's story.

Xu was born in China but left the country in 2017 to pursue journalism in the United States, and has won national acclaim for her series on nitrate pollution in Nebraska's groundwater, titled "Our Dirty Water." Following a tour of a Lincoln manufacturing company, Pillen, when asked about his comments, said he's "100% focused on all the extraordinary opportunities that we have in Nebraska," ignoring the question entirely.

For the full article click HERE