Honor roll: English teacher Kimberly Eckert from Brusly High School in West Baton Rouge Parish is one of five American teachers to have been included in the top 50 shortlist for the Varkey Foundation Global Teacher Prize 2020 in partnership with UNESCO, the foundation announced. The $1 million award is the largest prize of its kind. Eckert and four other American teachers made the shortlist out of 12,000 nominations and applications from over 140 countries.
Lease sale: Bidding on federal oil and gas leases in the Gulf of Mexico on Wednesday was the lowest since Gulf-wide sales began in August 2017—and lower than any sale since 1993 for the productive central Gulf. Twenty-two companies made $93 million in high bids on 71 tracts, according to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, which conducts the sales. Read the full story.
Ingenuity: In the past few weeks, hand sanitizer has become a valuable commodity. Sugarfield Spirits, a Gonzales-based distillery and bar, used a sanitizer recipe provided by the World Health Organization to create its own hand sanitizer, WBRZ-TV reports. It’s providing the product for free and invites anyone to drop in with their own spray bottle to collect a sample. Read the full story.
