By Reagan Wall
In local news, Boone’s Ryan Kirby has been selected as the 2023 featured artist for the Southeastern Wildlife Exposition. Every year around 100 wildlife artists from around the globe come to the Charleston Place Hotel Ballroom to display their work and have it juried. Kirby has participated in it for eight years and this is the first time he has been selected as the featured artist. According to the Watauga Democrat, Kirby moved to Boone in 2013 after starting his solo career out of his spare bedroom and marrying his wife Kim. As of now he is a strict Wildlife artist but is continually trying to add new things to his portfolio.
In state news, Burke County Public Schools are seeing increased signs of success for its dual language program. With the Global Immersion Academy (GIA) inaugural class entering fourth grade, data is showing that the GIA students are outperforming their peers and matching the levels at some of the highest performing schools in the district. They are outperforming others by 11 points in math and 25 points in reading. According to WRAL News, research is showing that the benefits are translating across cultural, racial and economic barriers which also shows that quality dual language programs can be one of the best ways to erase the achievement gap.
In national news, Alex Jones will pay $965 million to the families of 8 Sandy Hook victims. Jones, a conspiracy theorist, has been spreading lies about the 2012 Sandy Hook massacre and was told by a jury the amount of money he will pay to families and an FBI agent for the harm he has done to them. Jones was already found liable by a judge because he refused to hand over critical evidence before the trial began, and the jury was only asked to decide how much Jones should pay. According to NBC News, Jones was already ordered by a Texas jury to pay $50 million dollars to the parents of a victim.
Today's weather is brought to you by booneweather.com. We will have some light showers today with cooler nighttime temperatures. Today's high is 65 with a low of 39.