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Top Stories: Making Sense Of Flu Related Death Totals; Texas Foster Care System Is Still Broken

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The top local stories this evening from KERA News:

Denton County reported a third flu related death on Friday. That takes the total in North Texas to at least 52 this flu season, and 40 of those have been in Dallas County. Collin County has six and three in Tarrant. 

Nationally, the flu outbreak is being categorized as "moderately severe." KERA's Gus Contreras reports on the challenge that presents for health officials.

Other stories the evening:  

  • A judge has ordered Texas to make sweeping changes to its foster care system two years after she found it was unconstitutionally broken. The judge on Friday issued her final order in the case regarding people in long-term foster care. She told the state an overhaul must include improvements in record-keeping, caseworker visits and where children are placed. The state says it plans to appeal.

  • The average K-12 teacher in the U.S. earns about $55,000 a year. Preschool teachers, though, often make only half that - with the lowest earners usually serving low-income communities. Today on Think, Krys Boyd talked with journalist Jeneen Interlandi about the preschool pay gap. 

  • The Dallas Museum of Arts's exhibition "Truth: 24 Frames Per Second" touches on everything from 16 millimeter film to virtual worlds. Art&Seek's Jerome Weeks will lead a State of the Arts conversation about the exhibition next Thursday. He sat down with Anne Bothwell, KERA's Vice President of Arts, to talk about how new media can reveal new truths.   

You can listen to North Texas stories weekdays at 8:22 a.m. and 6:20 p.m. on KERA 90.1 FM.

Gus Contreras is a digital producer and reporter at KERA News. Gus produces the local All Things Considered segment and reports on a variety of topics from, sports to immigration. He was an intern and production assistant for All Things Considered in Washington D.C.