Discovery student aces geography bee

Columbia Way — To visit the ruins of Persepolis, an ancient ceremonial capital of Persia, you would have to travel to what present-day country? This is the kind of question that Nicholas Helmer, an eighth-grader at Discovery Middle School, aced to win the National Geographic Washington State Geography Bee on March 30 at Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma. Nicholas, 14, will compete at the National Geography Bee on May 22-24 in Washington, D.C. He is the son of Chad Helmer. The geography answer? Iran.