Deportations are happening in Oklahoma — Willie Nelson, Bob Dylan concert canceled due to storm damage
This is your 5-minute round-up of Oklahoma news for July 1, 2025
What’s happening, Oklahoma? It is Tuesday, July 1, and I feel really bad for everybody who had tickets to see Willie Nelson and Bob Dylan tonight in El Reno.
Seems severe weather in Missouri on June 29 damaged some of the festival’s and the musicians’ equipment. The Outlaw Music Festival is having to take a couple of days off to regroup.
Everybody loves Willie, and I’m a big fan of Bob Dylan — but The Mavericks were also going to play. My mother loved to listen to lead singer Raul Malo’s solo work, which wasn’t very country if I recall.
What a crying shame…
Watching closely 👀
Speaking of severe weather, hearing rumblings online that the National Severe Storms Laboratory (NSSL) may again be on the chopping block. Hope that’s not the case, and there are no confirmed, vetted reports as of yet. However, having worked in local TV news for the better part of 20 years, I have several meteorologist friends — so I’m hearing things.
Stay tuned.
Attention, Tulsa-area pet owners!
Thanks to a generous donation from Best Friends Animal Society, every Tulsa Fire Department station is now equipped with a microchip scanner, giving residents a quick and easy way to check for a microchip on a found pet. So, if you find a lost animal, take it to your nearby Tulsa Fire station, and they can read the animal’s microchip if they have one.
Important note: fire stations aren’t a place to drop off animals.
If you’d like to get your pet chipped, there will be a pop-up clinic on Wednesday, July 2.
To further help prevent lost pets from entering the shelter system, Tulsa Animal Services will host a pop-up microchip clinic on Wednesday, July 2, where 50 pets will receive free microchips, courtesy of the Humane Society of Tulsa.
When: Wednesday, July 2, from 9 a.m. to Noon
Where: Tulsa Animal Services | 3031 N. Erie Ave.
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Fourth of July-related events
For a full list of Oklahoma events for this Fourth of July Independence Day week and weekend, click here for Monday’s ‘Memo.’
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Weather Update ☁️
Cloudy for your Tuesday, and under 90. It’s really hard to complain about that to start July in Oklahoma!
🌡️ Tuesday's high in OKC 87°
🌡️ Tuesday’s high in Tulsa 87°
Federal deportation efforts are underway in Oklahoma as state, local agencies help
By Lionel Ramos, KOSU
Click to read the story.
Donate to KOSU.
Born in Guatemala and brought to the state at 16 to reunite with his parents, Cesar Reyes has studied and worked in Oklahoma City since, learning to call it home.
By his late twenties, he found himself advising Gov. Kevin Stitt as part of an ad hoc Hispanic Advisory Council the governor had assembled following his 2022 reelection.
Reyes said he used to take off work as a local hotel manager to attend some of those Council meetings.
“There was an agenda that they needed to pass – the grocery taxes bill,” Reyes explained. “I also remember school choice. And so we were, in a sense, a bridge to the Hispanic community whenever it came to our local government.”
He and Stitt took a selfie together when the council first met last year, which Reyes posted on Facebook, celebrating Latinos’ increased influence in the governor’s policy agenda.
“He basically said that we share the same values,” Reyes said. “And that he needed to be reelected again to protect those values of hard-working families... Of God-fearing people. And so we were there for him when he wanted our vote.”
Halfway through the 2024 legislative session, Stitt signed House Bill 4156, criminalizing anyone in the state without legal immigration status. And while the new law has been blocked in federal court before it could be fully enforced, twice, Stitt’s affirmation of it has been a blow to the trust of Latinos in the state who supported the governor.
By November, Reyes was urging Latinos on Facebook to keep calm amidst the launch of Stitt’s initiative called Operation Guardian, which focuses on deporting unauthorized immigrants already in Oklahoma’s corrections system.
This February, Reyes was deported back to Guatemala. He has no criminal record.
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The Oklahoma Rundown 📰
A hand-curated list of the best journalism from across the state:
• Bethany murder-suicide leaves community, police shaken (KOCO)
• Street racing in southeast OKC proves fatal, kills one man, sends father, daughter to hospital (News 9)
• 1 dead in Logan County plane crash (KOCO)
• Possible human remains found in Delaware County (News On 6)
• Tulsa doctor charged in nationwide healthcare fraud sting (2 News Oklahoma)
• Tulsa Police: 2 injured in shooting near 11th and Utica (Fox 23)
• Norman police investigating death of 61-year-old man after he died in custody (The Oklahoman)
• Police release identity of man who drowned in Lake Arcadia this weekend (KOCO)
• Hartshorne man arrested after explosives investigation (McAlester News-Capital)
• Kiefer man arrested at TeePee Drive-In after leading police on a chase (Sapulpa Times)
• Calera man arrested, accused of trying to run motorcyclist off the road (KXII)
• Under fire, Oklahoma County jail trust votes to evaluate its future (KOSU)
• Seminole Nation of Oklahoma officials stand in solidarity with Florida tribal nations against 'Alligator Alcatraz' (KGOU)
• Despite some dissent, Oklahoma City school board approves cellphone ban (Oklahoma Voice)
• New CEO taking charge of Williams, a $73 billion company (Tulsa World)
• City of Lawton issues fireworks ban ahead of holiday (KSWO)
• City of Catoosa reopens bid for Blue Whale Park project (Fox 23)
• Bond would boost Lone Grove ag, athletic facilities (KTEN)
• Community fundraising effort attempts to boost plans for city pool (Guthrie News Page)
• Family who fled Vietnam started U.S. journey in Tahlequah (Tahlequah Daily Press)
• Lawmakers aim to increase CareerTech access for Oklahoma National Guard, but allocated no funding (Oklahoma Voice)
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