内容摘要：The first bee was held in 1925, when the Louisville Courier-Journal invited other newspapers to host spelling bees and send their champions to Washington. The bee is now held just outside the nation’s capital, at a convention center on the banks of the Potomac River. It started Tuesday and concludes Thursday night.

The first bee was held in 1925, when the Louisville Courier-Journal invited other newspapers to host spelling bees and send their champions to Washington. The bee is now held just outside the nation’s capital, at a convention center on the banks of the Potomac River. It started Tuesday and concludes Thursday night.

Aurora Ottilie Spisak, 14, of Dayton, Ohio, front right, stretches during a commercial break in the first preliminary round of the Scripps National Spelling Bee, Tuesday, May 27, 2025, in Oxon Hill, Md. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)for a quarter-century. Since 1999, 29 of 35 winners have been Indian American, including

The bee is broadcast and streamed on channels and platforms owned by Scripps, a Cincinnati-based media company.— Thursday, May 29: Finals broadcast on ION from 8-10 p.m.Leah Marie Rini, 13, of Plattsburgh, N.Y., competes in the first preliminary round of the Scripps National Spelling Bee, Tuesday, May 27, 2025, in Oxon Hill, Md. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

Leah Marie Rini, 13, of Plattsburgh, N.Y., competes in the first preliminary round of the Scripps National Spelling Bee, Tuesday, May 27, 2025, in Oxon Hill, Md. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)The bee features 243 spellers, with at least one from each of the 50 states and the District of Columbia; as well as spellers from U.S. territories Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands and the Northern Mariana Islands; and from Canada, the Bahamas, Germany, Ghana, Kuwait and Nigeria.

Sixty spellers were eliminated in Tuesday’s preliminary spelling and vocabulary rounds, leaving 183 to take a written spelling and vocabulary test ahead of Wednesday’s quarterfinals. An additional 84 were eliminated by the test, leaving 99 quarterfinalists on the stage Wednesday morning. Three quarterfinal rounds narrowed the field to 57 semifinalists, and nine spellers made the finals after four semifinal rounds.

Faizan Zaki, last year’s runner-up, is back in the finals afterBen Nuckols has covered the Scripps National Spelling Bee since 2012. Follow his work

DETROIT (AP) — The Michigan Supreme Court on Wednesday dismissed appeals by families of studentsin 2021, ending efforts to hold employees partly responsible for the mass shooting.

Under Michigan law, immunity is a high hurdle to overcome in lawsuits against a government body, including public school staff. Lawyers typically have to show that gross negligence occurred.The court, in a two-sentence order, said it would not take the case. The decision means a 3-0 Court of Appeals decision in favor of school employees will stand.