The top local stories this evening from KERA News:
The runoff election for several municipal races across North Texas is Saturday. There are three city council seats to decide in Dallas: in District 6 in West Dallas, Omar Narvaez faces incumbent Monica Alonzo.
The two other Dallas City Council runoffs are in the city's southern sector: District 7 features incumbent Tiffinni Young and Kevin Felder, and in District 8, incumbent Erik Wilson faces Tennell Atkins, who is his predecessor on the council.
In Fort Worth, voters on the Northside will decide who replaces retiring City Councilman Sal Espino in District 2. That runoff pits aerospace engineer Carlos Flores against retired firefighter Steve Thornton.
Polls open at 7 a.m.
Other stories this evening:
- The world's best younger classical pianists are in Fort Worth for the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, which ends tomorrow. For the first time in its history, final concerts and the winners' ceremony will stream live on movie screens nationwide. KERA's Bill Zeeble reports on the effort to spread the local brand – and the risk involved.
- Van Cliburn is the Texas musician who received worldwide recognition after winning the first International Tchaikovsky Piano Competition in Moscow during the height of the Cold War. KERA’s Krys Boyd talked about the victory with pianist Stuart Isacoff, author of "When the World Stopped to Listen: Van Cliburn's Cold War Triumph, and Its Aftermath." Isacoff says Cliburn became an instant celebrity – in Moscow and back in the United States.
- The Tony Award is theater's big prize, and Sunday evening at Radio City Music Hall in New York, the Dallas Theater Center will accept the regional theater Tony Award. In this week's State of the Arts, Art&Seek's Anne Bothwell and Jerome Weeks discussed what such a prize means to the 58-year-old company. The Tony Awards will be telecast live Sunday starting at 7 p.m. on CBS.
You can listen to North Texas stories weekdays at 8:22 a.m. and 6:20 p.m. on KERA 90.1 FM.
