Five stories that have North Texas talking: Texas currently leads the U.S. in hot car deaths; Kellogg awarded about $24 million to U.S. cities, including Dallas, to fight racism; African Film Fest; and more.

Seven children have died trapped in hot cars in Texas so far this year. According to data from San Jose University, Texas leads the country in the number of hot car deaths in 2017.

A device called “Oasis” would detect if a child has been left inside a car, notify parents and authorities and blow cool air on the child until help arrived. The life-saving invention, which would attach to a car seat, comes from the mind of an 11-year-old boy from McKinney.

Bishop Curry V was inspired to create the device when a 6-month-old girl died in a hot van last June outside a home in nearby Melissa. The baby’s father was charged with manslaughter, according to the Dallas Morning News.

Credit GoFundMe Campaign Bishop Curry V is an 11-year-old from McKinney. He's invented a device that could prevent kids from dying in hot vehicles.

Curry has an intellectual patent on the device and may soon get a formal patent to start prototype production. Curry’s father works at Toyota in Plano, and the family traveled to Michigan to present the idea at an auto safety conference, KXAS reported in the spring.

The family also completed a successful GoFundMe campaign, raising over $31,000 to fund production. Curry hopes to have a product available by 2018, according to the Morning News. [KXAS, The Dallas Morning News]

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