The top local stories this evening from KERA News:
Lockheed Martin’s Fort Worth factory has been on a hiring binge over the last few years, and the aerospace giant held a hiring fair on Monday to add up to 400 new workers.
Those new workers will help build the F-35, Lockheed’s next-generation stealth fighter jet.
Inside a hotel conference room, a couple dozen staffers spent the day interviewing droves of applicants, offering the best candidates a letter of intent and putting them on track for a job building brand new fighter jets.
“If you are inspired by engineering or mechanics or electronics, this aviation is always just going to twist your head up,” said Isiah Williams of Fort Worth, who received a letter.
Lockheed Martin already has the third-biggest workforce in Fort Worth, with over 15,000 employees, who mostly work on the F-35 program. This is the fifth hiring fair in a year, as production ramps up.
Kenneth Ross, a company spokesman, said last year the company built 66 airplanes, and it is on track to build 91 this year.
“Next year, we’ll be in the 120’s range, and we’re going to keep going up and with that we’re building out the production line in Fort Worth,” said Ross.
Other stories this evening:
- In 2014, news organizations flocked to Ferguson, Missouri, after Michael Brown was shot and killed by police officer Darren Wilson. But it wasn't just the news cameras that captured what happened. Many Ferguson residents documented the events on their own cameras. Sabaah Foloyan used that footage in her documentary "Whose Streets" to show the Ferguson uprising from the perspective of the people who live there. Today on Think, she talked with Krys Boyd about why residents decided to create their own record.
- Last Friday, the board of the Teacher Retirement System, which operates a $147 billion fund, voted to lower the expected rate of return on investments. That means Texas is predicting it will earn less money to use for retiree benefits. Tim Lee, executive director of the Texas Retired Teachers Association, talked with Laura Rice with public radio's Texas Standard and explained what that vote means.
You can listen to North Texas stories weekdays at 8:22 a.m. and 6:20 p.m. on KERA 90.1 FM.
