What’s happening, Oklahoma? It is Friday, June 13, and we’re spending our last night Paris. Our Thursday was filled with more sights, sounds, food (eclair au chocolat) and a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to perform at L’Eglise de la Madeleine with the Oklahoma Ambassadors of Music.

First, here’s a close-up look at the Eiffel Tower. Unlike the Mona Lisa, the Eiffel Tower over-indexes on the hype-to-reality scale. It’s an awesome feat of architecture.

Here’s a look at the choir from Thursday afternoon, below. When I tell you that getting to perform in this space was special, I feel like I’m understating it. We have more beautiful, sacred venues at which to perform — so I won’t say yet that it’s the best of the bunch. However, the collective experience of getting to do all of this, at these places, is something I will appreciate and remember well into my old(er) age.

For more photos (and videos) from the trip, follow me @ryanweltondigital on Instagram and @ryanisthatdude on YouTube.

On to the Friday newsletter, which will be super abbreviated tonight. We have a very early wake-up call Friday to board a bus to Switzerland. If you’re enjoying the inclusion of this Europe content, I’d love to hear from you! ([email protected]) If you have ideas for how I could include local content like this from Oklahoma when I get back, I’m all ears.

Remember that the Oklahoma City Thunder are in Indianapolis for Game 4, which tips off at a little past 7:30 p.m. It’s not a must-win game mathematically, but my gut says otherwise. You can do it, Thunder!

Also, the deadCenter Film Festival is under way, and this event is a big, big deal for Oklahoma. I ran into a filmmaker in London (don’t think it was anybody too famous yet), and I told him all about Oklahoma’s efforts in this space. Supporting this event would go a long way to getting that word out! Check out this article from Oklahoma City Free Press on some “must-sees” at the festival. And here’s a full schedule for the event.

Don’t forget to support local journalism wherever you can, if you’re able. For journalism to thrive, it’s important that journalists be supported.

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Weather Update 🌤️

Slight rain and storm chances overnight lead in to a partly cloudy end of the week.

🌡️ Friday’s high in OKC 87°
🌡️ Friday’s high in Tulsa 82°

Oklahoma executes George Hanson after Trump officials expedite transfer

By Sierra Pfeiffer, KOSU
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George John Hanson was executed in McAlester, Oklahoma Thursday morning, following his recent transfer to the state by the Trump administration.

Hanson, also referred to John Fitzgerald Hanson in some court documents, died by lethal injection at 10:11 am, according to prison officials. He was sentenced to death for the 1999 murder of 77-year-old Mary Bowles.

“Peace to everyone,” Hanson, 61, said in his final moments, according to media witnesses.

Prosecutors say Hanson and his accomplice, Victor Cornell Miller, carjacked and kidnapped Bowles in Tulsa. Then, the two took Bowles to a dirt site near Owasso where Hanson shot and killed her. A bystander who witnessed the crime, Jerald Max Thurman, was killed by Hanson’s accomplice.

When he was convicted for Bowles' death, Hanson was already incarcerated in a federal prison in Louisiana for a series of armed robberies he committed in northeast Oklahoma.

He was brought back to Oklahoma in early March at the request of Attorney General Gentner Drummond, who petitioned for his return in a letter to the U.S. Department of Justice days after President Donald Trump issued an executive order calling for the restoration of the death penalty. United States Attorney General Pam Bondi agreed to the request, which had been previously blocked by her predecessor, who said the transfer was not in the public interest.

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The Oklahoma Rundown 📰

A hand-curated list of the best journalism from across the state:

• SGA on NBA Finals Game 4: 'You’ve got to suck it up and get it done' (News 9)

• Tulsa protestors gather today, promote “No Kings” events during DC parade this weekend (Tulsa World)

• A Tulsa political operative used his grandmother’s name to set up political action committees (The Frontier)

• Hurdles on the horizon as wind industry eyes eastern Oklahoma expansion (KOSU)

• Oklahoma City seeks artists to create sculpture for Route 66’s centennial (KGOU)

• Stitt signs bills to open state tuition scholarship program to teachers' children, expand step raises (KOSU)

• Jury finds Charles Bishop III guilty in Canadian County obstruction trial (NonDoc)

• Federal Lawmakers are Steering Clear of State Politics When It Comes to the Gubernatorial Race (Oklahoma Watch)

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