Five stories that have North Texas talking: George W. Bush sends a nice note to a college football player; the Texas Rangers’ lead radio announcer gets a big honor; a Plano orchestra teacher gets an honor, too, and more:

• Jo Wallace-Abbie, the Plano West Senior High orchestra director, is a finalist for the Grammy Foundation’s first Musical Educator Award. The foundation selects a winner next month, who gets $10,000 and a trip to the Grammy awards in Los Angeles. “It’s like the longest beauty pageant in the world or something like that,” Wallace-Abbie told KERA. “It’s just gone on and on for months as they’ve culled through some really impressive people. I’ve looked some of them up and I’m very impressed.” Read more on KERA’s Class of ‘17 education blog.

• “The Rise and Fall of the KKK” is the subject of a lecture tonight at 6:30 at the Dallas Holocaust Museum. Natalie Ring, associate professor of history at the University of Texas at Dallas, will be speaking about the Ku Klux Klan’s “intermittent resurgence and why there is potential for its demise.” She teaches courses on the history of the New South, the early years of Jim Crow, the Global South, and the Ku Klux Klan. She is the author of The Problem South: Region, Empire and the New Liberal State, 1880-1930. Admission is free. RSVP to [email protected] or call 214-741-7500.

• Eric Nadel, the Texas Rangers’ lead radio announcer, has been named the recipient of the 2014 Ford C. Frick Award. The award is one of broadcasting’s most prestigious awards and is presented annually for excellence in baseball broadcasting by the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum. There were 160 broadcasters eligible for the honor in 2014. From the Rangers: “The 2013 season marked Nadel’s 35th year broadcasting Rangers baseball, the longest tenure of any announcer in the history of the franchise. He has spent the last 19 years as the club’s lead play-by-play voice. Among his most memorable calls are Nolan Ryan’s 5,000th career strikeout, the Rangers’ Major League record 30-run outburst on August 22, 2007, and the final outs of Game 6 of the 2010 and 2011 American League Championship Series which sent the franchise to its first two World Series appearances.” Nadel will receive the honor July 26 during Hall of Fame Weekend in Cooperstown, N.Y.

• Alabama kicker Cade Foster got blasted after missing three field goals and losing to Auburn last month. The loss ended the Crimson Tide’s undefeated season and knocked them out of SEC and BCS championship hunts, ESPN reports. But Foster recently received something that cheered him up – a letter from former President George W. Bush. On Wednesday, Foster posted a picture of the note on Twitter: “Dear Cade (#43), Life has its setbacks. I know! However, you will be a stronger human with time. I wish you all the best. Sincerely – Another 43. George W. Bush.” (Bush was the 43rd president of the United States.)

• Speaking of the Bush family and Twitter, former President George H.W. Bush posted his first note on Twitter this week. On Monday, the 89-year-old wrote: “Barbara and I wish we could have joined the U.S. delegation honoring President Mandela today. He, and his countrymen, are in our prayers.” President Bush has only posted one note on Twitter, but he already has more than 70,000 followers. Read the Twitter message here.