
Bill Zeeble
Senior ReporterBill Zeeble has been a full-time reporter at KERA since 1992, covering everything from medicine to the Mavericks and education to environmental issues.
He’s won numerous awards over the years, with top honors from the Dallas Press Club, Texas Medical Association, the Dallas and Texas Bar Associations, the American Diabetes Association and a national health reporting grant from the Kaiser Family Foundation.
Zeeble was born in Philadelphia, Pa. and grew up in the nearby suburb of Cherry Hill, NJ, where he became an accomplished timpanist and drummer. Heading to college near Chicago on a scholarship, he fell in love with public radio, working at the college classical/NPR station, and he has pursued public radio ever since.
His first real radio gig was with a classical station in Corpus Christi, where the new Texan was dubbed “Billy Ted”; he was also a manager at WNO-FM in New Orleans.
Several stories he covered on television for KERA 13 helped homeowners avoid losing their homes.
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The Dallas Independent School District’s former superintendent, 65 year-old Michael Hinojosa, served in the top job for thirteen years, spread over two tenures, before announcing his departure early this year. Former Austin ISD superintendent Stephanie Elizalde is now at the helm of Dallas ISD.
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Dallas College will take the lead in training people for good paying, biotech jobs. The catalyst is a grant from the U.S. Economic Development Administration. Public and private sector partners will join in the training that’s expected to deliver 1,100 much-needed workers in a matter of months.
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Travis Nolan attends Southern Methodist University and ranked 5th in the world last year after taking gold in the IOIO, the International Origami Internet Olympiad. He’s a 20-year-old paleontology student who’s been into dinosaurs since the time he could talk.
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In big cities across the country, teachers are almost always in demand. And amid the so-called “Great Resignation,” that may be truer now than ever. Until school starts in August, it’s impossible to know exactly how many teachers Texas will be in need. But some Dallas instructors suspect a higher-than-typical number of their colleagues won’t return to class this fall.
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Just because shelter is offered from the killer heat doesn’t mean those without shelter will take itTemperatures have been and will remain about 100 degrees or hotter across North Texas. That can be risky if not deadly to those living outside. OurCalling, a faith-based nonprofit organization in Dallas, offers shelter. But almost none on the streets ever takes it.
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Every Van Cliburn International Piano competition features a new work designed to challenge and display the skills of each pianist. Past composers have included classical music icons Aaron Copland and Leonard Bernstein. This year, newly knighted Sir Stephen Hough, winner of the MacArthur “genius” grant, wrote the work.
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Six finalists competed in the competition in Fort Worth, Texas, including two from Russia and one from Ukraine. An 18-year-old South Korean was the youngest to win in the contest's 60-year history.
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At the 16th Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in Fort Worth, an 18-year-old South Korean won the gold medal, the youngest person to win in the contest’s 60-year history. There was another first in this competition. As a war rages between Ukraine and Russia, pianists from both nations also competed, and both earned medals. It was reminiscent of Van Cliburn winning the Tchaikovsky competition in1958, during the height of the cold war.
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Once every four years, in this case five because of the pandemic, people from all over, who hire classical music pianists, head to Fort Worth during the Cliburn International Piano competition. They’re listening to up-and-coming artists who might fit into their organization’s future concert schedules.
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Over the past year, Collin College has generated publicity for firing some professors who then sued the school for alleged free speech violations. Instructors have spoken about their circumstances and school administrators have released statements.
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Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra welcomed the delivery of baby formula into DFW Airport Thursday afternoon.
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The Van Cliburn International Piano competition began at Texas Christian University in 1962. It left for Fort Worth’s Bass Hall downtown in 2001. But now the contest is back at TCU. It was lured in part by a brand-new hall promising superior acoustics.