Latest news with #Vaught
Yahoo
14-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
National Music Museum hopes to start renovations soon
VERMILLION, S.D. (KELO) – The National Music Museum is looking forward to start renovations on the second floor as soon as possible. However, that's not until it gets more funding for the project. 'We'd like to start tomorrow as a matter of fact, but we're not quite ready for that because we need you to have a few more donations in the bank to make sure that we can have pretty good faith that the next year we can pay for the rest of it,' Director of the National Music Museum, Dwight Vaught said. Rural SD hit hard by Noem's cut to FEMA grants In 2023, the museum debuted its newly renovated first floor. Now, about $4 million is needed to start renovations on the upper level. 'When we got the gift from Sanford of $1 million, it was a real catalyst to say, 'yes, we're going to do this.' And it's an incentive for other donors that to come forward and say, 'yes, we want to be a part of this,' and we want to help the museum to complete the second floor,' Vaught says each instrument on display tells a story, as the museum would like to continue that work with new exhibits. Upstairs blueprints currently line the hallway with what will come. 'The Italian strings gallery will be up there. Some of the brass collection will be up there,' Vaught said. 'Instruments as innovation where we're talking about some of the experimental or testing that they did for musical instruments and which ones caught on and which ones didn't.'One piece that was on display for a short time earlier this year was this gourd fiddle from the 1860s that symbolizes the Underground Railroad. It's instruments with a rich background that attracted graduate student Adele Benoit. 'I really love being around these instruments that have stories. I swear they have souls. And it's really wonderful to to be able to engage with the instruments, to play them a little bit,' Benoit said. 'One of the things that I love about this museum is that it started off as a private collection. And so I think it's really a wonderful thing that kind of connects this museum to the community.'Currently the museum's conservator, along with grad students, are working to repair this keyboard. 'Every single instrument is going on display has to go through my hands, because obviously people who come to the museum, we want the instruments to look as nice as they can for the people who are going to come to it,' NMM conservator and coordinator of graduate studies Darryl Martin said. 'It's very nice to get the opportunity to repair old instruments, to get to know them, learn how the inside looks like, what's the whole construction of the instrument is like to have more knowledge in the building of new instruments,' graduate student, Gijs Clement said. As the museum also allows students to explore the anatomy of many different pieces. 'The instruments are amazing. Like you have something made out of wood or any other material, which, in the hands of a musician, comes to life and tells a story which is a great thing to witness,' Clement said. As the love for music is what brings people to see what's inside.'Everyone is going to find something if they're interested in the instrument that appeals to them. My personal favorite instrument is one of the jazz guitars. There's something special about it. There's a photograph of the person who originally played it behind the instrument and so on. But everyone, I think, can find something about an instrument that attracts them in a way that they probably can't explain,' Martin said. The gourd fiddle is also featured in the United States 250 historic objects from across the country. The items chosen for this collection are ones that tell the story of America. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
01-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Aviation STEM career day opens doors for students of color in Detroit
The Brief A career day was held today in Aviation STEM at the Tuskegee Museum at Detroit City Airport. The event encourages careers in STEM in the aviation field that some students of color may never have considered. DETROIT (FOX 2) - This week, hundreds of students across Metro Detroit are preparing for their future at a career day held at Detroit City Airport. They're learning about careers in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics and organizers believe an early introduction to these career paths can be a game-changer for students. Dig deeper "I just knew at that moment i was supposed to fly that plane," said Krystall Okebilu. Although she had received a degree in education, she was drawn to a career shift in aviation. "When I did fly, I didn't see anyone who looks like me, so I didn't think it was a possibility," she said. Now she is working to make sure Metro Detroit children realize they can, too with Aviation S.T.E.M. career day at Detroit City Airport. "I was only thinking about being a doctor," said Madyson Hamilton, a student at Detroit Public Safety Academy. "But now this has opened my eyes a little bit wider and now I may want to be part of the Air Force." The career day was hosted by Detroit's Tuskegee Airmen National Museum. "We have our ground school which will prepare them for their private pilot's license," Okebilu said. "We have our drone pilot's license, we have our general aircraft mechanics. We also have robotics." "It will be something interesting to do and go over, especially as a kid," said Hamilton. First Officer Mark Vaught said he understands the importance of the career day "I'm doing this event because this is where I started," he said. "I started flying when I was 16 years old and i got my first flight here. It was with an original Tuskegee Airman. His name was Ralph Mason." Vaught is a pilot for a commercial airlines and much more. "Twenty-five years in, I've worked with the Michigan Air National Guard," he said. "I got to fly three aircraft." And organizers say programs like this allow more students of color to see themselves in aviation. "African Americans are only 3 percent of the industry in military and commercial aviation," Vaught said. "That's what I want these kids to understand. I want them to have that option, to know that they can do that." To learn how you can enroll your child in pilot training, drone classes and much more HERE.
Yahoo
27-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Divided Rutherford school board reinstates meeting prayer 'for some divine guidance'
The Rutherford County Board of Education will start meetings with prayer instead of moments of silence, the majority recently decided. Board member Caleb Tidwell called for the 5-2 vote March 20 to allow for a short prayer and "ask for some divine guidance at the beginning," which was practiced at meetings in prior decades by elected school officials. Board member Stan Vaught opposed Tidwell's motion, which was proposed near the end of the meeting and excluded from the agenda. Vaught said he was concerned the district could face expensive First Amendment challenges for bringing back prayer at board meetings, "if it went all the way to the Supreme Court. "You're asking for trouble," he told Tidwell and the others in the majority. "You're asking for the taxpayers of this county to bail us out." TN ACLU attorney: Lawsuit coming soon for Rutherford Schools 'appetite for banning books' Prior to the March 20 vote, Board attorney Jeff Reed estimated that school officials could spend more than $1 million in legal costs to defend a lawsuit all the way through to the nation's top court. In 1962, the U.S. Supreme Court in Engel v. Vital ruled that public school prayers provided to all students in a classroom or campus violated the establishment clauses of the First Amendment, according to a webpage from the national Free Speech Center based at Middle Tennessee State University. Reed previously told The Daily News Journal that school board meetings are expected to follow the same public school requirements by offering no official prayers, based on a ruling from the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati, which has jurisdiction over parts of Tennessee, including Rutherford County. "Given recent Supreme Court rulings, the courts could view the case different than previously," Reed said. Courts have permitted legislative bodies such as the state legislature and Rutherford County Commission to open meetings with prayer, Reed said. Meeting prayer in 2018: Buddhist monk served as Rutherford County Commission's guest chaplain Tidwell's motion for prayer had support from Butch Vaughn, Katie Darby, Tammy Sharp and vice chairwoman Frances Rosales. Chairwoman Claire Maxwell joined Vaught in opposing. Vaughn, who seconded the motion to approve, suggested there are "lots of kids who want to pray with us." He also asked why the school board had to give up prayer at meetings in the first place. "I'm ready to fight," he said. "The structure of our country is based on that. I'd just like to get it back myself." 'I will do my very best': New Rutherford school board chairwoman Claire Maxwell faces challenges As part of his argument, Vaught said he'd rather observe moments of silence so each board member, district employee, person in the sometimes 150-plus strong audience and everyone watching the video-recorded meetings can send up his or her own prayer. "You're infringing on other people's liberty by doing this," Vaught told the majority. "I don't know if you're thinking about that or not, but we have to protect everybody's liberty: right, wrong, black, white, pink, purple, polka dot, Jew, Christian, Muslim, Hindu." Vaught also pointed out how the district has 52 different languages spoken by students and employees at Smyrna High School, alone. He noted that Rutherford County Schools is home to several different religions observed among its 52,000 students and 7,000 employees. Before the board's vote, Darby convinced a majority to amend the motion to include a statement making it clear that elected school officials are "not asking anyone to pray with us" and that audience members can step out of the meeting room if they "don't want to join in prayer." School board politics: Rutherford school board Zone 2 race gets divisive with RINO insult to GOP officials After the meeting, Vaught told The Daily News Journal he'd received praise for his stance on the prayer issue from Nashville's Rae Levine. "As a Jew in TN and especially, a retired MNPS (Metro Nashville Public Schools) teacher, reading Stan's words, renews my faith and hope for Tennessee," Levine said in a letter to the editor in The Tennessean. "Our Constitution, the supreme law of the land, is being trampled upon by Trump and his legion, by Governor Lee, and TN GOP legislators, by school board members all over our state, as separation of church and state has become a 'woke' thing, which is unfathomable." Prior to the meeting and subsequent prayer vote, Vaught, who attends First Baptist Church on East Main Street in downtown Murfreesboro, offered to meet in prayer with elected school officials. "We can pray right there, right then, before the meeting starts," he said. 'We are banished': Rutherford schools book banning upsets free speech advocates Reach reporter Scott Broden with news tips or questions by emailing him at sbroden@ To support his work with The Daily News Journal, sign up for a digital subscription. This article originally appeared on Murfreesboro Daily News Journal: Tennessee school board to reinstate meeting prayers after split vote
Yahoo
21-03-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
RaDonda Vaught's bid to reinstate nursing license denied by Tennessee Court of Appeals
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — RaDonda Vaught's nursing license will remain revoked, following an order from the Tennessee Court of Appeals. In an opinion released Thursday, March 20, Judge Thomas R. Frierson II said Vaught waived certain affirmative defenses in her initial administrative proceeding and affirmed the revocation of her nursing license. At issue is the decision of the Tennessee Board of Nursing's decision to revoke Vaught's license in 2021. Vaught sought a judicial review of the Board's decision, raising the issue of the doctrines of res judicata and collateral estoppel—legal terms that mean a case can't be re-litigated—as affirmative defenses. Vaught claimed a letter from a doctor who testified both at the administrative proceeding and her criminal case should be considered as evidence in her favor. The trial court agreed that Vaught hadn't waived the affirmative defenses in her initial administrative proceeding but declined to overturn the Board's decision to revoke her license. Vaught then appealed the trial court's opinion on keeping her license revoked. RELATED: Letters of support, blame for RaDonda Vaught released 'Upon review, we determine that the nurse waived the affirmative defenses of res judicata and collateral estoppel because she failed to present those doctrines during the administrative proceedings,' the Court said. 'Accordingly, we reverse the trial court's determination concerning waiver of those defenses. In all other respects, we affirm.' The decision means Vaught will continue to be barred from working as a practicing nurse in the state of Tennessee. Vaught gained national attention in 2022 when she faced trial on two charges related to administering the wrong medication to 75-year-old Charlene Murphey in 2017. She was convicted of criminally negligent homicide and abuse of an impaired adult and ultimately sentenced to three years of supervised probation for the medication error that led to Murphy's death. Two years ago, Vaught began fighting to improve the healthcare system and began appealing the revocation of her nursing license. However, at that time she told News 2 her goal was not to be able to practice nursing again; rather, she wanted to highlight some of the issues surrounding the Board's action. Initially, the Board elected not to take any disciplinary action against her. In the opinion, the Court detailed how there was an initial complaint logged against her in 2018, but an initial internal investigation by the Tennessee Department of Health determined the matter 'did not merit further action.' RaDonda Vaught: Ex-Vanderbilt nurse hopes to see change in industry But two months later, in December 2018, the Department reopened its investigation after receiving a new complaint related to the same case, which culminated in her conviction. In its opinion, the Appeals Court said the evidence reviewed in the case leaned in favor of the Board's decision to revoke her nursing license. 'We determine that Ms. Vaught waived the affirmative defenses of res judicata and collateral estoppel through her failure to raise those doctrines before the Board in the first instance,' Frierson's opinion states. 'We accordingly reverse the trial court's determination relative to that issue. In all other respects, we affirm the trial court's November 27, 2023 order upholding the Board's decision to revoke Ms. Vaught's nursing license.' All court costs were assessed to Vaught, as well. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
