Events

In the throes of unprecedented challenges to privacy, truth, and personal expression, Aguila Theatre brings 1984, George Orwell’s cautionary novel, to the Lied stage.  As our modern world grapples with the threats and benefits of technological integration, Orwell’s prescient story resonates around the globe as individuals, systems, and governments clash against political repression.  “Big Brother” is always watching.

Exclusive to F&F customers, purchase a copy of 1984 and receive a code for $19 tickets to the Aquila Theatre’s production of 1984 at the Lied Center, February 18th, 2020.

From Democratic Party rising star Jane Kleeb, an urgent and stirring road map showing how the Democratic Party can, and should, engage rural America

The Democratic Party has lost an entire generation of rural voters. By focusing the majority of their message and resources on urban and coastal voters, Democrats have sacrificed entire regions of the country where there is more common ground and shared values than what appears on the surface.

In Harvest the Vote, Jane Kleeb, chair of Nebraska’s Democratic Party and founder of Bold Nebraska, brings us a lively and sweeping argument for why the Democrats shouldn’t turn away from rural America. As a party leader and longtime activist, Kleeb speaks from experience. She’s been fighting the national party for more resources and building a grassroots movement to flex the power of a voting bloc that has long been ignored and forgotten.

Kleeb persuasively argues that the hottest issues of the day can be solved hand in hand with rural people. On climate change, Kleeb shows that the vast spaces of rural America can be used to enact clean energy innovations. And issues of eminent domain and corporate overreach will galvanize unlikely alliances of family farmers, ranchers, small business owners, progressives, and tribal leaders, much as they did when she helped fight the Keystone XL pipeline. The hot-button issues of guns and abortion that the Republican Party uses to wedge voters against one another can be bridged by putting a megaphone next to issues critical to rural communities.

Written with a fiery voice and commonsense solutions, Harvest the Vote is both a call to action and a much-needed balm for a highly divided nation.

Books available for purchase and Jane will sign them.

Meet author and artist Linda Stephen and join in the celebration of the release of her charming new children’s book.

The picture book The Day We Went to the Park takes the reader on a walk around Holmes Park and Lake – exploring all there is to see, do and hear. Through playful rhyming verses and brilliant origami illustrations, the story invites readers to observe, imagine and interact with some of the nature at the park including squirrels, ladybugs, pine trees, prairie flowers and a painted turtle.

Books available for purchase and Linda will sign them!

John Stevens Berry, author of The Twelfth Victim will present his insights into the true story of how a fourteen-year-old Nebraska girl was denied justice in a murder case that stunned the nation.

In 1958, nineteen-year-old Charles Starkweather gained notoriety as one of the nation’s first spree killers. He murdered eleven people in Nebraska and Wyoming. After a week on the run, he was arrested, later convicted, and sentenced to die in the electric chair. Starkweather’s girlfriend, Caril Fugate, fourteen, was with him throughout the murder spree. Was she his hostage or a willing participant in the murders that included her parents and three-year-old sister? This question still stirs debate more than fifty years later. Fugate claims she was too terrified to attempt escape-Starkweather had told her he would make a phone call and have her family killed if she disobeyed him. Unbeknownst to her, he had already murdered her family. A jury found her guilty of being an accessory to first degree murder. She was sentenced to life in prison; however, in 1976 she was paroled. Now, in The Twelfth Victim, attorneys Linda M. Battisti and John S. Berry, Sr. pull together years of research to tell how Fugate was a victim of both Charles Starkweather and the Nebraska justice system. Their book tells how the teenager was grilled by prosecuting attorneys for hours before ever being told she had a right to an attorney. The book details how Starkweather, who gave nine versions of how the murders occurred and had already been sentenced to death, became the chief witness against Caril at her trial. The authors also expose how Starkweather was coached for days by prosecutors on how to testify at Fugate’s trial-including not telling the jury that he had planned to kill Caril on three separate occasions. It is a shocking story that has never been told.

Books available for purchase and author will sign them.

Meet Tim McDermott, author of Deadly Propensity.

Tim McDermott is a product of Nebraska. Born and raised in Grand Island as ‘the middle child’ in an Irish Catholic family of 14 children, he was educated at the University of Nebraska where he secured both his undergraduate and law degrees. Having practiced complex litigation for over 44 years, the last 32 of which were in sunny Florida, and drawing upon the colorful and dynamic experiences and personalities he has enjoyed or encountered during that time, he has penned a legal thriller novel in the genre of John Grisham. Interwoven with the fast-acting plot is a behind-the-scenes interesting peek at how the game of high stakes products liability litigation is often actually played out across this country, complete with sharp elbows, cunning strategy and artful maneuvers employed by the competing lawyers, parties and their experts. It is a view of the hard-fought litigation process in this country that is typically either not seen or appreciated by the public.

From start to finish, “Deadly Propensity,” with its colorful characters, will take you for an exciting and entertaining ride into that world.

Tim lives in Jacksonville, Florida. Having very recently retired from the practice of law as a Board-Certified lawyer, with many awards and recognitions from his peers received along the way, he is now engaged full time as a mediator of litigation disputes. His mediation website can be found at https://www.uww-adr.com/Timothy-J–McDermott-10-263914.html

Books available for purchase and author will sign them!