Oklahoma

The defending NBA champions aren’t thinking of themselves in that way.

The 80th season of the NBA starts Tuesday night in Oklahoma City, where the Thunder — the “defending” champions, even though they don’t seem to like the term — will get their rings and enjoy one final moment of celebrating last season’s seven-game triumph over the Indiana Pacers in the NBA Finals.

“Everybody is saying ‘defending,’” guard Jalen Williams said, “but we’re trying to be on the offensive as well.”

Translation: One title isn’t enough for the Thunder. They want more.

They are fully aware that this is the NBA’s parity era — seven different franchises have won titles in the last seven years, a run unprecedented in league history. Commissioner Adam Silver has seen nine different franchises win in his 12 seasons leading the NBA; his predecessor, David Stern, saw eight different franchises win in his 30-year run as commissioner. The Thunder would like to be the ones to put at least a temporary halt to parity, and with basically everyone back from a 68-win team that won the crown last season, it’s easy to see why BetMGM Sportsbook lists the Thunder as favorites to win the 2026 title.

“It’s what you strive for,” said Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, coming off a year in which he was the scoring champion, an NBA champion, the MVP and the NBA Finals MVP. “We’ve all achieved something that we’ve dreamed about since we were kids. We’ve had plenty of time to relish and think about it and have fun, and I guess you can kind of say just soak in it. I know I have.

“But … it would suck to lose the NBA championship in 2026. So that’s the new focus. That’s the new goal.”

It won’t be easy, of course. The Western Conference is positively loaded.

Lakers guard Luka Doncic drives past Oklahoma City Thunder guard Cason Wallace during a road loss last season.

(Kyle Phillips / Associated Press)

Houston added Kevin Durant to a 52-win team. Victor Wembanyama is healthy again in San Antonio. Golden State still has Stephen Curry. The Lakers have Luka Doncic and (soon, they hope) LeBron James. Nikola Jokic remains unstoppable in Denver. Anthony Edwards hasn’t even reached his prime yet in Minnesota. The Clippers have the most experienced roster in the league. Dallas has the No. 1 pick in Cooper Flagg and tons of talent around him.

Those eight teams — among others — all have legitimate hopes. Consider this: Assuming the Thunder make the playoffs, at least one of those eight teams won’t even make Round 1 of the postseason.

“I think the Western Conference is the best conference I’ve ever seen. This is my 29th year in the NBA,” said Tim Connelly, Minnesota’s president of basketball operations. “I’ve never seen such a talent-rich conference. … We’re not going to duck anybody. We can’t wait to see where we stand up in this kind of historically stacked Western Conference.”

The Eastern Conference has a slew of intrigue.

Defending East champion Indiana lost Tyrese Haliburton to a torn Achilles tendon in Game 7 of the finals and knows he won’t play this season, then lost Myles Turner in free agency to Milwaukee. Boston — the big preseason favorite to win last season’s title after being champions in 2024 — is waiting to see if, or when, Jayson Tatum’s torn Achilles tendon will allow him to return. Philadelphia had a wasted season last year because of injuries and now gets another chance at seeing if Joel Embiid, Tyrese Maxey and Paul George can make a run. Cleveland and New York are established and expected to be near or at the top, with upstarts like Orlando, Detroit and Atlanta poised to give themselves contending opportunities as well.

“I think the team that wins the East will feel like they can win it, just like the team that wins in the West,” Milwaukee coach Doc Rivers said. “Last year I made the case that I thought the East was every bit as good as the West at the top. Now two teams have taken a hit. That may have changed.”

The Thunder are trying not to change.

They are no longer chasing. They are the ones being chased. That, Thunder coach Mark Daigneault hopes, is the only real difference between this season and last. This season will bring unplanned challenges, he said, and how the Thunder react in those moments may wind up telling the tale of this season.

“It’s pretty unpredictable as to where that will go,” Daigneault said. “What is predictable is the solution to it and the things that we’ll rely on. We’ve always relied on being very present. We’ve always relied on stacking the days. We’ve always relied on continuous improvement and an emphasis on the things that kind of transcend circumstances. And that’s really where our focus has been, and is, and will continue to be.”

Reynolds writes for the Associated Press.

Oct. 19 (UPI) — An early Sunday shooting on the main campus of Oklahoma State University has left three people injured, only one a student, authorities said, as they continue to investigate.

The shooting occurred as a result of what the Oklahoma State University Police Department said in a statement was a “disagreement” that occurred outside of Carreker East hall, a three-story residential building on the northeast side of campus, in Stillwater, located about 64 miles northeast of Oklahoma City.

None of the victims were identified.

The one student injured in the shooting suffered a gunshot wound to the abdomen and was airflighted to the OU Health University of Oklahoma Medical Center in Oklahoma City after being transported by private vehicle to the Stillwater Medical Center. The victim is listed in stable condition.

A second victim, suffering from multiple gunshot wounds, was also driven to Stillwater and airflighted to the OU Medical Center and was listed as in stable condition.

The third victim has since left St. John’s Hospital in Tulsa after receiving treatment.

Police said their investigation indicates that there was a large off-campus party at the Payne County Expo Center, which ended around 2:30 a.m. CDT. A group of individuals who left the party then made their way to Carreker East for an after-party when the shooting erupted, according to police.

According to authorities, police arrived at the hall “within minutes” of the shooting, secured the scene and determined there was no ongoing threat to campus.

The Stillwater Police Department said in a separate statement that its officers responded to the shooting at 3:42 a.m. and that they had performed “life-saving measures” at the scene.

The investigation is ongoing, and OSUPD is asking for members of the public with information about the shooting to come forward.

No indication of who is responsible was mentioned. A statement from OSUPD at 11 a.m. stated “the suspect is no longer on campus. As the event happened, all parties left campus.”

“We are working diligently to bring this to a close with the assistance of Stillwater Police Department and OSBI,” OSUPD said on its Facebook page.

The Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation is collaborating with the OSUPD in processing evidence.

Many actors talk about process but Ethan Hawke has made the act of creation central to his work. He’s played musicians and writers and when he’s gone behind the camera, he’s focused on the stories of composers, novelists, movie stars and country singers both famous and forgotten. Sometimes, it feels like he’s the unofficial patron saint of art suffering, fixated on the glory and anguish of putting yourself out there in the world.

So Hawke’s portrayal of Lorenz Hart, the brilliant but troubled lyricist responsible for beloved tunes like “My Funny Valentine,” in a story set shortly before his death would seem to be just the latest chapter of a lifelong obsession. But “Blue Moon,” Hawke’s ninth collaboration with director Richard Linklater, cuts deeper than any of his previous explorations. Imagining Hart on the night of his former collaborator Richard Rodgers’ greatest triumph — the launch of “Oklahoma!” — Linklater offers a wistful look at a songwriter past his prime. But the film wouldn’t resonate as powerfully without Hawke’s nakedly vulnerable portrayal.

It is March 31, 1943, eight months before Hart’s death at age 48 from pneumonia, and Hart has just gruffly left the Broadway premiere of “Oklahoma!” Arriving early at Sardi’s for the after-party, he plants himself at the bar, complaining to bartender Eddie (Bobby Cannavale) that the show will be a massive success — and that it’s garbage. Eddie nods in a way that suggests he’s often lent a sympathetic ear to Hart’s rantings, allowing him to unload about the show’s supposedly banal lyrics and corn-pone premise and, worst of all, the fact that Rodgers will have his biggest smash the moment he stops working with Hart after nearly 25 years. “This is not jealousy speaking,” Hart insists, fooling no one.

As played by Hawke, Hart adores holding court, entertaining his captive audience with witty put-downs and gossipy Broadway anecdotes. Begging Eddie not to serve him because of his drinking problem, which contributed to the dissolution of his partnership with Rodgers, this impudent carouser would be too much to stand if he also wasn’t such fun company. But eventually, Rodgers (Andrew Scott) and his new lyricist Oscar Hammerstein II (Simon Delaney) are going to walk through that door and Hart will have to swallow his pride and pretend to be happy for them. From one perspective, “Blue Moon” is about the beginning of “Oklahoma!” as a pillar of American theater. From another, it’s Hart’s funeral.

Set almost exclusively inside Sardi’s, “Blue Moon” has the intimacy of a one-man stage show. After Hart vents about “Oklahoma!,” he readies himself for the arrival of Elizabeth (Margaret Qualley), a gorgeous Yale undergrad he considers his protégée. (He also claims to be in love with her, which baffles Eddie, who rightly assumed otherwise.) If the universal acclaim of “Oklahoma!” will force Hart to confront his professional irrelevance, maybe Elizabeth’s beaming presence — and the promise of them consummating their feelings — will be sufficient compensation.

Linklater, the man behind “School of Rock” and “Me and Orson Welles,” has made several films about creativity. (In a few weeks, he’ll debut another movie, “Nouvelle Vague,” which focuses on the making of Jean-Luc Godard’s epochal “Breathless.”) But what distinguishes “Blue Moon” is that, for once, it’s about someone else’s achievement — not the main character. Fearing he’s a has-been, the diminutive, balding Hart slowly succumbs to self-loathing. He can still spitefully quote the negative reviews for his 1940 musical “Pal Joey.” And he nurses a paranoid pet theory that Rodgers decided to collaborate with Hammerstein because he’s so much taller than Hart. (“Blue Moon” incorporates old-fashioned camera tricks to help Hawke resemble Hart’s under-five-feet frame.) Linklater’s movies have frequently featured affable underdogs, but by contrast, “Blue Moon” is an elegy to a bitter, insecure man whose view of himself as a failure has become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Of the many artists Hawke has honored on screen, he has never depicted one so touchingly diminished — someone so consumed with envy who nonetheless cannot lie to himself about the beauty of the art around him. Turning 55 next month, Hawke shares with Hart an effusive passion for indelible work but also, perhaps, a nagging anxiety about the end of his creative usefulness. If he were younger, Hawke would have come across as self-regarding. Here, there’s only a poignantly egoless transparency, exposing the lyricist’s personal flaws — his drunkenness, his arrogance — while capturing the fragile soulfulness that made those Rodgers and Hart tunes sing.

Apropos of his relaxed approach, Linklater shoots “Blue Moon” with a minimum of fuss, but one can feel its enveloping melancholy, especially once the next generation of artists poke their head into the narrative. (Sondheim diehards will instantly identify the brash young composer identified only as “Stevie.”) But neither Linklater nor Hawke is sentimental about that changing of the guard.

That’s why Hawke breaks your heart. All of us are here for just a short time: We make our mark and then the ocean comes and washes it away. In an often remarkable career, Hawke has never embraced that truth so completely as he does here. Ultimately, maybe the work artists leave behind isn’t their most important contribution — maybe it’s the love they had for artistry itself, a passion that will inspire after they’re gone. That’s true of Lorenz Hart, and it will hopefully prove true of Hawke and this understated but profound film for years to come.

OKLAHOMA CITY — Oklahoma’s new public schools superintendent announced Wednesday he is rescinding a mandate from his predecessor that forced schools to incorporate the Bible into lesson plans for students.

Superintendent Lindel Fields said in a statement he has “no plans to distribute Bibles or a Biblical character education curriculum in classrooms.” The directive last year from former Superintendent Ryan Walters drew immediate condemnation from civil rights groups and prompted a lawsuit from a group of parents, teachers and religious leaders that is pending before the Oklahoma Supreme Court. It was to have applied to students in grades 5 through 12.

Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt appointed Fields to the superintendent’s post after Walters resigned last month to take a job in the private sector.

Jacki Phelps, an attorney for the Oklahoma State Department of Education, said she intends to notify the court of the agency’s plan to rescind the mandate and seek a motion to dismiss the lawsuit.

Many schools districts across the state had decided not to comply with the Bible mandate.

A spokeswoman for the state education department, Tara Thompson, said Fields believes the decision on whether the Bible should be incorporated into classroom instruction is one best left up to individual districts and that spending money on Bibles is not the best use of taxpayer resources.

Walters in March had announced plans to team up with country music singer Lee Greenwood seeking donations to get Bibles into classrooms after a legislative panel rejected his $3 million request to fund the effort. The plaintiffs in the lawsuit challenging the Bible mandate did not immediately comment.

Walters, a far-right Republican, made fighting “woke ideology”, banning certain books from school libraries and getting rid of “radical leftists” who he claims were indoctrinating children in classrooms a focal point of his administration. Since his election in 2020, he imposed a number of mandates on public schools and worked to develop new social studies standards for K-12 public school students that included teaching about conspiracy theories related to the 2020 presidential election. Those standards have been put on hold while a lawsuit challenging them moves forward.

Thompson said the agency plans to review all of Walters’ mandates, including a requirement that applicants from teacher jobs coming from California and New York take an ideology exam, to determine if those may also be rescinded.

“We need to review all of those mandates and provide clarity to schools moving forward,” she said.

Murphy writes for the Associated Press.

The former Stolper Co is a financial management company that merged with another financial services business to form Wealth Oklahoma in 2025. It initiated a new position in Allison Transmission Holdings (ALSN -2.01%), acquiring 75,606 shares in the third quarter, an estimated $6.4 million trade based on the average price for Q3 2025, according to its October 10, 2025, SEC filing.

What happened

Wealth Oklahoma disclosed the purchase of 75,606 shares of Allison Transmission Holdings in its quarterly report filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on October 10, 2025 (SEC filing). The new holding was valued at $6.4 million as of Q3 2025, with the transaction representing 1.9% of Stolper’s $330 million in reportable U.S. equity assets.

What else to know

This is a new position; the stake now accounts for 1.9% of Wealth Oklahoma’s 13F reportable assets as of September 30, 2025.

Top holdings after the filing are as follows:

• BRK-B: $18.96 million (5.75% of AUM) as of 2025-09-30
• JPM: $17.74 million (5.37% of AUM) as of 2025-09-30
• AAPL: $14.90 million (4.52% of AUM) as of 2025-09-30
• GOOGL: $11.92 million (3.6% of AUM) as of 2025-09-30
• COF: $10.73 million (3.25% of AUM as of Q3 2025)

As of October 9, 2025, Allison Transmission shares were priced at $81.02, down 18.4% over the prior year ending October 9, 2025 and underperforming the S&P 500 by 33.9 percentage points over the past year.

The company reported trailing 12-month revenue of $3.2 billion for the period ended June 30, 2025 and net income of $762 million for the period ended June 30, 2025.

Allison Transmission’s dividend yield stood at 1.3% as of October 10, 2025. Shares were 35% below their 52-week high as of October 9, 2025.

Company Overview

Company Snapshot

Allison Transmission designs and manufactures fully automatic transmissions and related parts for commercial, defense, and specialty vehicles. It also offers remanufactured transmissions and aftermarket support.

The company generates revenue primarily through product sales to original equipment manufacturers and aftermarket services, including replacement parts and extended coverage.

Allison Transmission serves a global customer base of OEMs, distributors, dealers, and government agencies, with a focus on commercial vehicle and defense markets.

Image source: Getty Images.

Allison Transmission is a leading provider of fully automatic transmissions for medium- and heavy-duty commercial and defense vehicles worldwide. The company leverages a broad distribution network and long-standing OEM relationships to maintain a strong position in the auto parts sector.

Foolish take

Founded in 1915, Allison Transmission is a veteran of propulsion systems technology. It’s the world’s largest manufacturer of medium and heavy-duty fully automatic transmissions, according to the company.

Allison Transmission’s sales are down slightly year over year. Through the first half of 2025, revenue stood at $1.58 billion compared to $1.61 billion in 2024.

This lack of sales growth is a contributor to the company’s share price decline, adding to its dismal 2025 outlook, which it slashed due to softness in demand in some of its end markets, such as for medium-duty trucks. Allison Transmission now expects 2025 revenue to come in between $3.1 billion to $3.2 billion, down from $3.2 billion to $3.3 billion.

With Allison Transmission shares hovering around a 52-week low, Wealth Oklahoma took advantage to initiate a position in the stock. This speaks to Wealth Oklahoma’s belief that Allison Transmission can bounce back. This might be the case, given Allison’s recent acquisition of Dana Incorporated, which provides drivetrain and propulsion systems in over 25 countries.

With a price-to-earnings ratio of 9, Allison Transmission’s valuation looks attractive, which also explains Wealth Oklahoma’s purchase. The stock certainly looks like it’s in buy territory.

Glossary

13F reportable assets: U.S. equity holdings that institutional investment managers must disclose quarterly to the SEC on Form 13F.
AUM (Assets Under Management): The total market value of investments managed on behalf of clients by a financial institution or fund manager.
Dividend yield: Annual dividend payments divided by the share price, expressed as a percentage, showing income return on investment.
Trailing twelve months (TTM): The 12-month period ending with the most recent quarterly report.
Original equipment manufacturer (OEM): A company that produces parts or equipment that may be marketed by another manufacturer.
Aftermarket services: Products and support provided after the original sale, such as replacement parts, maintenance, or extended warranties.
Stake: The amount or percentage of ownership an investor or institution holds in a company.
Quarterly report: A financial statement filed every three months, detailing a company’s performance and financial position.
Distribution network: The system of intermediaries, such as dealers and distributors, through which a company sells its products.
Defense market: The sector focused on supplying products and services to military and government defense agencies.

Walker Lyons took his place in the slot and looked right. Lake McRee crouched on the opposite wing and looked left. The two Trojan tight ends had spent all last Saturday night moving around USC’s formations — split out wide, in the backfield, on the line of scrimmage — paving rush lanes and creating mismatches wherever they went.

Now it was third and short, early in the third quarter of USC’s win over Michigan State, and the two of them were on the field together again, forcing the Spartan defense to decide in a hurry just how Lincoln Riley planned to deploy them.

That unpredictability was precisely the point of the position. It’s why the tight end has been a critical tenet of his Riley’s offense since he started as Oklahoma’s offensive coordinator in 2015. No other position, Riley has come to believe, adds more versatility to an offense.

“It’s the one piece that really can truly do everything,” Riley said. “But it’s also the hardest piece to find.”

During his first three seasons as the Trojans coach, Riley struggled to find that unicorn for his USC offense. Let alone two — or even three — at the same time.

In his first season, in 2022, tight ends accounted for just over 3% of the Trojans’ receiving yards. That number rose to 6% in 2023, then 8% in 2024.

But through a spotless first third of this season, tight ends — and Lyons and McRee, primarily — have contributed 20% of USC’s total passing output in 2025. One reason being the availability of McRee, who has battled a multitude of injuries over his college career. Another being that Riley has used more 12 personnel, with two tight ends on the field, this season than he has before at USC.

“It keeps defenses on their toes,” McRee said. “You don’t really know what we’re going to do, run, pass, or do all of the above out of it.”

The use of 12 personnel has generally been on the rise across all levels of football, including in the NFL, where teams have used two tight end sets nearly 24% of the time through three weeks, according to ESPN. At USC, Riley has gone even further than that, utilizing two-tight end sets at least 35% of the time through four games.

It wasn’t hard to see last Saturday night why he’d lean on that particular scheme, as Lyons took off in motion from the slot. The sophomore tight end slowed just before the third-down snap, as if to prepare to run block, then took off sprinting into the flat. At the same time, McRee sprinted through the seam, taking a linebacker with him.

In the backfield, quarterback Jayden Maiava faked a handoff, forcing another linebacker to bite on the run, while Lyons sprinted into the open space the play design had created. Riley’s modern variation of a triple option would work precisely as planned, as Maiava lofted an easy pass to Lyons, who ran 10 yards for his second touchdown in three weeks.

USC tight end Walker Lyons (85) heads onto the field after talking to coach Lincoln Riley.

(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

It was just the sort of play that reminded what Riley was capable of as a playcaller with two talented tight ends at his disposal.

“I’ve missed it,” Riley said. “Because I love the matchups, I love what it creates. I’m excited about what that room has become for us. I think that room is just going to get better.”

When he first started as a college football coach, tight ends weren’t so much on Riley’s radar. Mike Leach, his mentor at Texas Tech, didn’t seek out or use a tight end unless he happened to have one on his roster.

It wasn’t until Riley left for East Carolina that he started to tinker more with the position.

“We started to get more creative, especially in the run game and some of the different things we could do off of it,” Riley said.

Those innovations accelerated at Oklahoma, where, as offensive coordinator, he was fortunate to inherit redshirt freshman Mark Andrews in 2015. By 2017, Sooner tight ends contributed more than 31% of the team’s passing offense. Andrews had 958 yards and eight touchdowns that season, the most of any tight end in college football. He now stars for the Baltimore Ravens.

“We started building more [at Oklahoma],” Riley said. “We started studying people. And, yeah, we got to the point where we were playing with tight ends, so much in so many ways, it became a comfort.”

He wouldn’t have the same security blanket at USC. The tight end room he took over was totally depleted of talent.

The Trojans two most productive tight ends from 2021, Malcolm Epps and Erik Krommenhoek, were out of eligibility. Their promising freshman, Michael Trigg, had transferred. McRee was the only returner with any real experience, and he’d only played in four games before redshirting.

“That room was a ways off, in terms of the depth and skillset and talent we had,” Riley said. “It’s definitely taken some time.”

Lyons’ arrival would be a major inflection point. A four-star recruit, he’d come to USC from a high school offense that regularly utilized two tight ends. He was used to having his hand in the dirt, as well as working as a receiver on the perimeter.

During his recruitment, Riley showed clips of all the different ways he used Andrews at Oklahoma. He felt Lyons could fill a similar role.

“All the things that he did with [tight ends] was definitely intriguing,” Lyons said, “and it definitely made an impact.”

The sheer amount that Riley asks of tight ends in his offense would add another hurdle in actually making that two-pronged role a reality. McRee, for instance, has technically lined up in 16 different spots through four games, according to Pro Football Focus.

“You’ve got to know protections, route concepts, run game — like, you really have to know it all,” Riley said.

Lyons admits it was overwhelming at first.

“But it’s great now,” he says.

The feeling is mutual for Riley, who knows how rare it is to have two tight ends to build an offense around.

“But when you get it,” he said, “it could be really powerful.”

WASHINGTON — Arriving in Oklahoma City the night after the worst domestic terrorist attack in U.S. history, Merrick Garland grasped the enormity of the task ahead of him. Downtown resembled a war zone. Military vehicles blocked streets. For blocks, federal agents and police were busy collecting evidence. At the federal building, where 168 people had died in a massive bomb blast, rescue workers were searching through rubble for victims, guided by the eerie glow of floodlights that seemed to Garland as bright as the noonday sun.

With shattered glass crunching underfoot on his way to the command center, Garland knew his Justice Department team would have to surmount obstacles typical of any big investigation. But he also understood broader societal forces required special attention if prosecutors hoped to win justice for those slain: Trust in law enforcement was eroding, America was awash in conspiracy theories, and the government didn’t have a grip on the threat posed by right-wing extremists.

Garland’s oversight of the bombing inquiry provides insights into how, as President Biden’s nominee to be the next attorney general, he would run the Justice Department, according to interviews with former prosecutors and agents, as well as a detailed oral history Garland provided in 2013 to the Oklahoma City National Memorial & Museum. Though the attack took place nearly 26 years ago, the former prosecutor’s experiences have become newly relevant as he seeks to lead the federal effort to hold accountable those responsible for the deadly siege last month of the U.S. Capitol and to prevent similar violence.

“Merrick Garland has seen the face of domestic terrorism,” said J. Gilmore Childers, a former Justice Department prosecutor who worked with Garland on the Oklahoma City case. “And he has learned how to recognize that face and what it stands for.”

Garland is expected to win easy confirmation from the Senate, which is scheduled to hold a hearing Monday on his nomination. If confirmed, the 68-year-old federal appellate judge will face serious challenges beyond those posed by extremists who stormed the U.S. Capitol.

He has been tasked with expeditiously implementing Biden administration policies that seek to beef up enforcement of civil and voting rights laws, and reduce racial disparities in the criminal justice system. He will also need to bolster morale at an agency that became mired in the Trump era over how it handled prosecutions of the president’s associates and the rollout of a special counsel’s report on Russian interference in the 2016 election while simultaneously overseeing politically sensitive investigations, including a tax inquiry on Hunter Biden, the president’s son.

Garland is sure to get tough questions from senators of both parties. Conservatives are likely to attack him about Biden administration policies they consider to be too liberal. Republican senators expressed similar apprehensions when they torpedoed Garland’s 2016 nomination to the Supreme Court following the death of Justice Antonin Scalia, a conservative icon. They argued at the time that Garland’s appointment would swing the high court too far to the left. The GOP-controlled Senate refused to consider the nomination, and left the seat vacant for the next president to fill — though it was nearly nine months before the election. President Trump succeeded in winning confirmation of Neil M. Gorsuch, a conservative federal appellate judge, to the seat.

Still, Garland has drawn support from influential Republicans. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), the party’s most recent Judiciary Committee chairman, tweeted shortly after news of Garland’s nomination became public that the judge was “a man of great character, integrity, and tremendous competency in the law.”

His nomination has generated muted enthusiasm from liberal activists concerned he too often sided with law enforcement as a judge, and Democratic senators are expected to ask him about his plans to enforce civil rights laws and the Justice Department’s role in reforming police departments.

Lawmakers are also likely to question him about whether Trump bears legal culpability in urging his followers last month to march to the Capitol before they stormed the complex.

Associates say the federal judge — whose nomination became public hours before the Capitol was besieged — will avoid commenting directly on Trump or the Capitol investigation, but may point to lessons he learned while overseeing the investigation into the Oklahoma City bombing.

Garland has called overseeing that inquiry the capstone of his legal career, which has included a two-decade stint on one of the nation’s most influential appeals courts. Then a top Justice Department official, he spent several weeks in bomb-devastated Oklahoma personally supervising prosecutors and agents before returning to Washington, where he continued to guide the department’s bombing trial preparations.

“This is the central thing, the most significant thing I worked on,” Garland said in the oral history with the Oklahoma City National Memorial, in which he spoke at length about his work on the case.

Lawyers, he added, are not always sure if they make a difference in a specific case. But he never felt that way about Oklahoma City. “Being there makes you feel like you had a role to play in the investigation,” he said, “helping pull people together, and it’s a very satisfying feeling for a lawyer.”

Garland, a 1977 graduate of Harvard Law School, worked in private practice, rising to partner of a major law firm before deciding he needed trial experience, he has said. In 1989, he left his lucrative job and joined the Justice Department as a prosecutor. A few years later, he was tapped by the Clinton administration to serve as principal assistant deputy attorney general, the top advisor to the deputy attorney general who runs the department’s day-to-day operations.

Garland was at his desk April 19, 1995, when an “Urgent Report” flashed across his computer screen. It said there had been explosion at 9:02 a.m. at the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building. Within minutes, the horror became clear: A bomb had detonated and scores of people, including children in a day care center, were missing and presumed dead.

The Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building was devastated by a bomb that killed 168 people on April 19, 1995.

(Associated Press)

The Oklahoma City U.S. attorney’s office did not have the capacity to spearhead such a vast investigation. The day after the attack, Garland hopped on an FBI jet and headed west.

At first, the government suspected Islamic terrorists were behind the attack. But before Garland could land in Oklahoma, authorities arrested Timothy McVeigh, a former U.S. soldier who had become an anti-government zealot angry over the bloody 1993 storming of the Branch Davidians compound in Waco, Texas.

McVeigh’s initial court appearance was moved from the damaged federal courthouse to nearby Tinker Air Force Base, and Garland arranged that the hearing be open to the media and public, believing that conspiracy theories could be combatted with transparency.

When he met with prosecutors and investigators, he insisted that everyone “do everything by the book,” a mantra veterans of the inquiry still vividly recall. Garland, former agents and prosecutors said, understood missteps would be used to attack the legitimacy of the investigation by McVeigh’s defense team or anti-government extremists.

For example, former agents and prosecutors said, when a company offered to voluntarily turn over records, Garland ordered investigators to instead obtain the information with a subpoena. And when agents wanted to search a car for a second time, Garland told them to seek another warrant.

At the time, the O.J. Simpson trial was generating daily headlines detailing allegations of slipshod police work, and Garland did not want an Oklahoma City investigation to be criticized in the same way.

“It was the most recent sort of ‘Trial of the Century,’ which every few decades there is another trial of the century,” Garland said in the 2013 oral history. “There were a lot of issues in [the O.J. Simpson trial] about how the forensic evidence had been handled and also how the people involved, the investigators had handled themselves, and we wanted to be sure that we were not going to have that kind of circumstance.”

Former prosecutors said Garland’s assiduousness in Oklahoma City and his later assistance in supervising the trial team from Washington set the stage for a successful prosecution of McVeigh and a co-conspirator, Terry Nichols. McVeigh was eventually convicted and sentenced to death. He was executed in 2001. His co-conspirator, Terry Nichols, pleaded guilty and was sentenced to life in prison.

Through it all, Garland never betrayed emotion, not even when he and Donna Bucella, another Justice Department prosecutor, toured the devastated federal building, she said. With the stench of death in the air, they peered into the gaping hole left by the explosion and noticed a nearby workstation that hadn’t been touched — papers were perfectly stacked on a desk and a sport coat was draped without a wrinkle over a chair.

“We just looked at each other and nodded,” Bucella said. “That’s all you could do. It was a solemn moment.”

Jamie Gorelick, the deputy attorney general who sent Garland to Oklahoma City, said the future nominee was the right person for the job. A quick thinker, he made tough decisions but also wasn’t a micromanager.

“As attorney general, he would know he can’t run investigations, but he will make sure that the right questions are asked, the right resources are brought to bear,” Gorelick said. “That is certainly a lesson he learned from the Oklahoma City bombing.”

Garland has said he was so deeply affected by the bombing that he asked to remain in Oklahoma City to supervise the eventual trials. But Gorelick and Atty. Gen. Janet Reno rejected his request. After several weeks in Oklahoma City, Garland returned to Washington to help run the Justice Department.

It’s not easy being from California, especially if you’re hoping to leave the Golden State’s fires and rising home costs behind and move to a more affordable red state.

In Texas, some politicians have adopted “Don’t California my Texas” as both a rallying cry and a fundraising appeal.

In Montana, rising home prices prompted lawmakers to pass a package of bills this year that increased property taxes on people — including many Californians — who own second homes in the state.

And now, in Oklahoma, education officials have entered the fray by requiring teachers from California and New York to take an exam aimed at guarding against “radical leftist ideology.”

The test is being developed by leadership from the Oklahoma State Department of Education and PragerU, a nonprofit advocacy group that produces videos promoting conservative views of history, finance and other topics. PragerU videos have already been approved for use in schools in several states, including Oklahoma.

“Our teacher qualification test is very simple,” PragerU CEO Marissa Streit said in a statement to The Times. “Frankly, every American should be able to pass it. Certainly, every teacher should be able to pass it.”

She added that the full test will be available in the coming weeks. “We encourage you to take a look at the test yourself and make your own decision on whether it’s reasonable or not,” she said.

Superintendent Ryan Walters poses for a portrait in his office.

(Nick Oxford)

Ryan Walters, Oklahoma’s state superintendent of public instruction, told The Times that he launched the test out of concern over state standards in California and New York that require teachers to instruct students about gender identity.

The test comes at a time when Californians are increasingly relocating to other states in search of a slower pace of life and more affordable housing. Some cities seeking to reverse years-long population declines have created incentive programs to attract remote workers.

Tulsa Remote, which pays workers $10,000 to move to the second-largest city in the Sooner State, has attracted more than 3,600 remote workers since its inception in 2019. More than 7,800 Californians have applied to the program and 539 have made the move, cementing California as the second-most common origin state behind Texas.

Amid a nationwide teacher shortage, the Oklahoma schools system has launched a $50,000 signing bonus program — the largest in the country — to help recruit new educators for some of the most difficult to fill jobs, including early elementary and special education instruction.

The so-called “Californian exodus” accelerated during the pandemic, with places like Texas, Florida and Tennessee seeing major influxes from the West.

But by 2024, the exodus had ended, according to state data. The state’s population rose slightly in 2024 after three years of decline.

A Public Policy Institute of California survey in March found that many Californians who leave are either favoring nearby states such as Arizona, Idaho, Nevada and Oregon; larger states such as Texas; or locations without income taxes — not necessarily Oklahoma.

And the emigration of Californians to other states has done little to shift political demographics in their new homes, according to Eric McGhee, a policy director and senior fellow with the Public Policy Institute of California.

“The partisan balance of people moving to different states tends to be an exaggerated version of the partisan balance of the state they’re moving to,” he said. “So states that are more Republican tend to have migrants from California who are even more Republican than people in the state they’re moving to.”

The number of teachers that would be mandated to take the test in Oklahoma is unclear, but some data indicates that it might be small.

Information from the Commission for Educational Quality and Accountability — which oversees the education department and reviews out-of-state certification assessments for comparability with Oklahoma’s testing standards — shows that since 2020, the agency has reviewed only 19 out-of-state applications from California and New York. In 2025, only one applicant came from California, and none from New York.

Critics say the exam will discourage educators from accepting jobs in Oklahoma, which has been struggling with a teacher shortage and continues to lag behind the national average in reading and math, according to national data.

“This MAGA loyalty test will be yet another turnoff for teachers in a state already struggling with a huge shortage,” American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten said.

“[Walters’] priority should be educating students, but instead, it’s getting Donald Trump and other MAGA politicians to notice him,” she said. “Teachers are patriots, and whether they are conservative or liberal, they want what students need: safe and welcoming public schools that are engaging and relevant and that prepare kids for college, career and life.”

Dennis Prager, founder of PragerU, in 2024 in Los Angeles. A test for new teachers in Oklahoma is being developed by leadership from the State Department of Education and PragerU.

(Araya Doheny / Getty Images for DailyWire+)

Experts say the creation of a test where teachers are forced to adhere to a certain viewpoint to get a job is unprecedented in the American education system. It also highlights the growing foothold PragerU has on the education system in certain states, said Jonathan Zimmerman, a professor of history of education at the University of Pennsylvania.

“What they’re doing is they’re making Prager into a central player in the operation by vetting teachers based on their affinity for what Prager believes,” Zimmerman said. “I think the other thing that’s unprecedented, frankly, is the involvement of the White House in all of this.”

In January, Trump signed an executive order titled “Ending Radical Indoctrination in K-12 Schooling,” which sought to cease funding any schools that teach gender ideology or curriculum that portrays the United States as “fundamentally racist, sexist, or otherwise discriminatory.” The order emphasizes the need for a “patriotic education.”

“I don’t think we’ve ever seen the White House engaging directly in these sorts of questions,” Zimmerman said.

“Historically, in the United States, school has been a state and especially a local concern and it still is,” he added. “The bulk of money for schools comes from states and localities, but I think something’s really different about our moment in the way these issues have become nationalized.”

With respect to California and New York educators, Walters has taken issue with the “gender fluidity argument,” which details that a person’s gender identity is not fixed and can shift or change over time, which he says is a “lie that they continue to push.”

The California Healthy Youth Act, which took effect in 2016, requires that districts provide comprehensive sexual health and HIV prevention education for students in grades 7 through 12 in public schools. The lessons, which parents can opt to take their children out of, include discussions of gender and sexual orientation.

Oklahoma public schools are not required to teach sex education, including gender. In 2021, the state passed a bill, HB 1775, that restricts the teaching of certain concepts related to race and gender in public schools and universities. The ACLU filed a lawsuit challenging what they called “unconstitutional censorship” in schools. That case is ongoing.

New York and California were “the first states that we’ve seen that are actually requiring their teachers to do things that are antithetical to our standards,” Walters said, adding that the test’s goal is to ensure they’ll teach to Oklahoma state standards. Walters is also looking at requiring the test for teachers from other states including Massachusetts, Maine and Minnesota.

Still, the notion that waves of Californians moving to other states are changing the political leanings on a large scale of their destinations isn’t borne out in the research.

The 50 question multiple choice exam, which is expected to be rolled out in the next few weeks, will include questions about gender, civics and American history. A preview of the exam released by the department of education included the question: Why is freedom of religion important to America’s identity?

Teachers must answer all 50 questions correctly to pass the test, Walters said, noting that the state is proud to be focusing on creating good citizens and being “unapologetic about a patriotic education.”

Zimmerman sees the creation of a good citizen a bit differently.

“To me, a good citizen, is somebody who has the capacity and skill to judge matters for themselves. Now how are you going to teach a future citizen to do that if you’re simply giving them one answer? I don’t think you can,” he said.

Aug. 8 (UPI) — The Justice Department filed a lawsuit this week challenging an Oklahoma law that provides eligible undocumented migrants with in-state tuition benefits, the latest litigation targeting migrants’ access to higher education amid the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigration.

Though announced Thursday, the lawsuit was filed Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Oklahoma.

The law, approved by the state’s legislature in 2007, offers in-state tuition at the 25 state-run colleges and universities to anyone — including undocumented migrants — who graduated from an Oklahoma high school and resided in the state with a parent or legal guardian while attending the state high school for at least two years before graduation.

The lawsuit argues the rule violates two of President Donald Trump‘s executive orders on immigration — one signed Feb. 19 directing federal departments and agencies to ensure no taxpayer-funded benefits go to “unqualified aliens,” and one April 28 ordering “appropriate” actions to end enforcement of laws and practices “favoring aliens over any groups of American citizens,” including those in-state tuition to undocumented migrants.

The Justice Department sayd that the law favors undocumented migrants over out-of-state Americans, calling it “unequal treatment,” and argues it violates the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution, which holds federal law takes precedence precedence over state laws.

Prosecutors are asking the court to declare the law unconstitutional and issue a permanent injunction against its enforcement.

The state’s Republican attorney general, Gentner Drummond, has filed a motion in support of the Trump administration lawsuit, saying Tuesday marked “the end of a longstanding exploitation of Oklahoma taxpayers.”

“Rewarding foreign nationals who are in our country illegally with lower tuition costs that are not made available to out-of-state American citizens is not only wrong — it is discriminatory and unlawful,” Drummond said in a statement.

Since returning to the White House in January, Trump has led a renewed crackdown on immigration, seeking to conduct mass deportations and limiting the protections of migrants already in the country.

This is the fourth lawsuit since since June challenging state laws offering in-state tuition or tuition benefits to migrants that are unavailable to out-of-state-Americans.

In early June, the Justice Department filed a lawsuit against a similar Texas law. As in Oklahoma, the Republican-led state sided with the Trump administration, and the two reached an agreement to halt its enforcement.

Similar lawsuits have also been filed in Kentucky and Minnesota.

Florida ended in-state tuition for undocumented migrants in February.

According to the Higher Ed Immigration Portal, 23 states and Washington, D.C., provide in-state tuition to undocumented students. Of those, 18 and D.C. provide access to state financial aid.

LeShon Johnson’s shameful career operating a dogfighting enterprise of immense magnitude is as long as it is grisly, far longer than his stint as a running back, even if his season as the leading rusher in college football is included along with his five years in the NFL.

The Department of Justice announced Monday that a federal jury in Oklahoma convicted Johnson of violating federal Animal Welfare Act prohibitions against possessing, selling, transporting and delivering animals to be used in fighting ventures.

Johnson, who operated in the open plains of east Oklahoma not far from where he grew up, faces a maximum of 30 years in prison, five years for each of the six felony counts. He also faces a fine of up to $250,000 on each count.

Authorities took 190 pit bulls and other dogs from his property, the most ever seized from an individual in a federal dogfighting case. Many were scarred and injured. Authorities also uncovered treadmills, bite sticks, steroids and records that detailed fight arrangements and wagering.

The verdict culminated a two-year investigation that included raids on Johnson’s properties in Broken Arrow and Haskell, Okla. Operating under the name Mal Kant Kennels, Johnson was found to have bred, trained and fought dogs in multiple states.

The former ballcarrier who finished sixth in Heisman Trophy voting in 1993, also had a conviction in Oklahoma state court for dogfighting in 2005, which preceded the much-publicized dogfighting conviction of star NFL quarterback Michael Vick by three years.

Twenty years ago, Johnson had a breeding operation called Krazyside Kennels, and its most famous dog, Nino, was the topic of an online narrative that chronicled the pit bull’s fights in several states, his last match approaching two hours despite having his ankle snapped in the first 30 seconds.

When Johnson was arrested in Tulsa in May 2004, agents found a calendar that detailed his breeding and fight schedules. Fights were listed so far back that investigators believed Johnson fought dogs during his NFL career, which ended in 1999.

A 2007 Sports Illustrated story that focused on Vick’s involvement in dogfighting rings included information about Johnson’s case. George Dohrmann — who was a Los Angeles Times reporter before moving to Sports Illustrated — wrote that Johnson was one of several athletes who had been charged with dogfighting or spoken openly of their links to the practice.

“[Fighting dogs] is a fun thing, a hobby, to some [athletes],” an NFL Pro Bowl running back who asked not to be named told Dohrmann. “People are crazy about pit bulls. Guys have these nice, big fancy houses, and there is always a pit bull in the back. And everyone wants to have the biggest, baddest dog on the block.”

Johnson avoided prison after his 2005 conviction, getting a deferred sentence and probation. This time he likely won’t be so fortunate.

“Dogfighting is a vicious and cruel crime that has no place in a civilized society,” U.S. Atty. Christopher J. Wilson for the Eastern District of Oklahoma said Monday. “I commend the hard work of our law enforcement partners in investigating this case and holding the defendant accountable for his crimes.”

U.S. Atty. Gen. Pamela Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel also issued statements condemning dogfighting and lauding the conviction of Johnson.

“This criminal profited off of the misery of innocent animals and he will face severe consequences for his vile crimes,” Bondi said.

Added Patel: “The FBI will not stand for those who perpetuate the despicable crime of dogfighting. Thanks to the hard work of our law enforcement partners, those who continue to engage in organized animal fighting and cruelty will face justice.”

Johnson was a Green Bay Packers third-round draft pick in 1994 after he led the nation with 1,976 yards rushing at Northern Illinois in 1993. His best day in the NFL came on Sept. 4, 1996, when he rushed for 214 yards for the Arizona Cardinals in a win over the New Orleans Saints, scoring touchdowns of 70 and 56 yards.

Nicknamed “the Cowboy” because he had been a bull rider on the junior rodeo circuit growing up in Oklahoma, Johnson’s NFL career was interrupted by lymphoma cancer in 1998. He made a comeback with New York Giants in 1999 and also played in the XFL for the Chicago Enforcers.

The Pacers lost key player Tyrese Haliburton to a leg injury just seven minutes into the contest when he slipped and fell while driving towards the basket, but still held a narrow 48-47 lead at half-time.

However, the Thunder, who with an average age of 25.6 are the youngest side to win an NBA Finals title since the Portland Trail Blazers in 1977, out-scored them 34-20 in the third quarter and pushed the lead out to as many as 22 points (90-68) in the fourth.

“It doesn’t feel real, so many hours, so many moments, so many emotions, so many nights of disbelief,” said Gilgeous-Alexander.

“It’s crazy to know that we’re all here. But this group worked for it, this group put in the hours and we deserved this.”

“Our togetherness on and off the court, like how much fun we have, it made it so much easier. It made it feel like we were just kids playing basketball. It was so fun.

“We have a lot to grow, individually and as a group. I’m excited for the future of this team. This is a great start. I’m really excited for this team.”

OKLAHOMA CITY — Shai Gilgeous-Alexander walked off the court for the final time this season, collapsed into the arms of coach Mark Daigneault and finally smiled.

It was over.

The climb is complete. The rebuild is done. The Oklahoma City Thunder are champions.

The best team all season was the best team at the end, bringing the NBA title to Oklahoma City for the first time. Gilgeous-Alexander finished off his MVP season with 29 points and 12 assists, and the Thunder beat the Indiana Pacers — who lost Tyrese Haliburton to a serious leg injury in the opening minutes — 103-91 in Game 7 of the NBA Finals on Sunday night.

“It doesn’t feel real,” said Gilgeous-Alexander, the Finals MVP. “So many hours. So many moments. So many emotions. So many nights of disbelief. So many nights of belief. It’s crazy to know that we’re all here, but this group worked for it. This group put in the hours and we deserve this.”

Jalen Williams scored 20 points and Chet Holmgren had 18 for the Thunder, who finished off a season for the ages. Oklahoma City won 84 games between the regular season and the playoffs, tying the 1996-97 Chicago Bulls for third most in any season.

Only Golden State (88 in 2016-17) and the Bulls (87 in 2015-16) won more.

It’s the second championship for the franchise. The Seattle SuperSonics won the NBA title in 1979; the team was moved to Oklahoma City in 2008. There’s nothing in the rafters in Oklahoma City to commemorate that title.

In October, a championship banner is finally coming. A Thunder banner.

The Pacers led 48-47 at the half even after losing Haliburton to what his father said was an Achilles tendon injury about seven minutes into the game. But they were outscored 34-20 in the third quarter as the Thunder built a 13-point lead and began to run away.

Indiana Pacers guard Tyrese Haliburton falls to the court in pain after sustaining an apparent Achilles tendon injury in the first half against the Oklahoma City Thunder in Game 7 of the NBA Finals.

(Nate Billings / Associated Press)

Bennedict Mathurin had 24 points and 13 rebounds for Indiana, which still is waiting for its first NBA title. The Pacers — who were 10-15 after 25 games and were bidding to be the first team in NBA history to turn that bad of a start into a championship — had leads of 1-0 and 2-1 in the series, but they simply didn’t have enough in the end.

Home teams improved to 16-4 in NBA Finals Game 7s. And the Thunder became the seventh champion in the last seven seasons, a run of parity like none other in NBA history.

Pacers forward Pascal Siakam was part of the Toronto team that won in 2019, Thunder guard Alex Caruso was part of the Lakers team that won in the pandemic “bubble” in 2020, Milwaukee won in 2021, Golden State in 2022, Pacers forward Thomas Bryant and Denver prevailed in 2023, and Boston won last year’s title.

And now, the Thunder get their turn. The youngest team to win a title in nearly a half-century has reached the NBA mountaintop.

The Thunder are the ninth franchise to win a title in NBA Commissioner Adam Silver’s 12 seasons. His predecessor, David Stern, saw eight franchises win titles in his 30 seasons as commissioner.

“They behave like champions. They compete like champions,” Daigneault said. “They root for each other’s success, which is rare in professional sports. I’ve said it many times and now I’m going to say it one more time. They are an uncommon team and now they’re champions.”

Reynolds writes for the Associated Press.

INDIANAPOLIS — Season on the line, the Indiana Pacers did what they’ve done time and time again. They bucked the odds.

And the NBA Finals are going to an ultimate game.

Obi Toppin scored 20 points, Andrew Nembhard added 17 and the Pacers forced a winner-take-all Game 7 by rolling past the Oklahoma City Thunder 108-91 Thursday night.

The first Game 7 in the NBA Finals since 2016 is Sunday night in Oklahoma City.

“The ultimate game,” Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said.

Pascal Siakam had 16 points and 13 rebounds for Indiana, while Tyrese Haliburton — playing through a strained calf — scored 14 points. The Pacers started slowly and then turned things into a blowout.

In a way, Game 6 was a microcosm of Indiana’s season. The Pacers started the regular season with 15 losses in 25 games, have had five comebacks from 15 or more down to win games in these playoffs, and they’re one win from a title.

“We just wanted to protect home court,” Haliburton said. “We didn’t want to see these guys celebrate a championship on our home floor. Backs against the wall and we just responded. … Total team effort.”

T.J. McConnell, the spark off the bench again, finished with 12 points, nine rebounds and six assists for Indiana.

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 21 points for the Thunder, who pulled their starters after getting down by 30 going into the fourth. Jalen Williams added 16.

“Credit Indiana,” Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said. “They earned the win. They outplayed us for most of the 48 minutes. They went out there and attacked the game.”

Good news for the Thunder: Home teams are 15-4 in finals Game 7s. Bad news for the Thunder: Cleveland won at Golden State in the most recent of those and one of the three other home-team losses was in 1978 — by Seattle, the franchise that would move to Oklahoma City three decades later.

Indiana missed its first eight shots and got down 10-2. The arena, roaring just a few minutes before at the start, quieted quickly. Hall of Famer Reggie Miller, sitting courtside in a Jalen Rose Pacers jersey, was pacing, kneeling, generally acting more nervous than he ever seemed as a player.

No need.

After the slow start, the Pacers outscored the Thunder 68-32 over the next 24 minutes. An Indiana team that hadn’t led by more than 10 points at any time in the first five games — and that double-digit lead was brief — led by 28 early in the third quarter. The margin eventually got to 31, which was Oklahoma City’s second-biggest deficit of the season.

The worst also came in these playoffs: a 45-point hole against Minnesota in the Western Conference finals. The Thunder came back to win that series, obviously, and now will need that bounce-back ability one more time.

“Obviously, it was a very poor performance by us,” Daigneault said.

The Thunder, desperate for a spark, put Alex Caruso in the starting lineup in place of Isaiah Hartenstein to open the second half. There was no spark. In fact, there was nothing whatsoever — neither team scored in the first 3:53 after halftime, the sides combining to miss their first 13 shots of the third quarter.

And the outcome was never in doubt.

Jalen Williams scored 40 points for Oklahoma City Thunder as they held off an Indiana Pacers comeback to win 120-109 and take a 3-2 lead in the NBA Finals.

The Pacers reduced an 18-point deficit from the second quarter to two points in the fourth quarter before Williams, whose tally was a career best in a play-off game, and team-mate Shai Gilgeous-Alexander helped guide the Thunder to victory.

NBA Most Valuable Player Gilgeous-Alexander provided 31 points along with 10 assists as home side Oklahoma moved one win away from securing the NBA title in the best-of-seven series.

“My team-mates instil a lot of confidence in me to go out and be me,” Williams said. “And [coach] Mark [Daigneault] has done a good job of telling me to just be myself.

“I don’t got to be anything more and that’s given me a lot of confidence.”

The Pacers had overcome a 15-point deficit in game one to win but could not repeat the feat in game five.

“Tonight was the exact same game as game one, to be honest,” Williams said. “Learning through these finals is what makes this team good and we were able to do that.”

Game six will take place in Indianapolis on Thursday at 20:30 local time (Friday, 01:00 BST), with Pacers star Tyrese Haliburton insisting he will be ready for the contest.

Haliburton scored just four points in 34 minutes of action in game five, with Indiana coach Rick Carlisle saying the player was “not 100%”.

He added: “It’s pretty clear. But I don’t think he’s going to miss the next game.

“We were concerned at half-time. He insisted on playing.”

Haliburton said: “It’s the Finals, man. I’ve worked my whole life to be here and I want to be out there to compete, help my team-mates any way I can.

“I was not great tonight by any means, but it’s not really a thought of mine to not play here. If I can walk, then I want to play. It is what it is. Got to be ready to go for game six.”

Thunder coach Mark Daigneaul gave Gilgeous-Alexander, this season’s Most Valuable Player, a break late in the third quarter rather than his usual rest early in the fourth.

The Pacers led 101-97 with less than four minutes remaining, but Gilgeous-Alexander scored 15 of the Thunder’s final 16 points and ended the game with 10 free-throws from 10 attempts.

Jalen Williams scored 27 points and made seven rebounds for the Thunder, while Alex Caruso added 20 points off the bench.

Pascal Siakam led the Pacers with 20 points and Tyrese Haliburton 18.

“We just didn’t execute at the end of the game,” said Siakam. “We didn’t get easy shots. The easy shots that we got, we missed them. And they made them.”

The Thunder host game five at Paycom Center in Oklahoma City at 19:30 local time on Monday (01:30 BST, Tuesday).

McALESTER, Okla. — Oklahoma executed a man Thursday whose transfer to state custody was expedited by the Trump administration.

John Fitzgerald Hanson, 61, received a three-drug lethal injection at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester and was pronounced dead at 10:11 a.m., prison officials said. Hanson was sentenced to die after he was convicted of carjacking, kidnapping and killing a Tulsa woman in 1999.

“Peace to everyone,” Hanson said while strapped to a gurney inside the prison’s death chamber.

The execution began at 10:01 a.m. After the lethal drugs began to flow, a doctor entered the death chamber at 10:06 a.m. and declared him unconscious.

Hanson, whose name in some federal court records is George John Hanson, had been serving a life sentence in federal prison in Louisiana for several unrelated federal convictions. Federal officials transferred him to Oklahoma’s custody in March to follow through on President Trump’s sweeping executive order to more actively support the death penalty.

Hanson’s attorneys argued in a last-minute appeal that he did not receive a fair clemency hearing last month, claiming that one of the board members who denied him clemency was biased because he worked for the Tulsa County district attorney’s office when Hanson was prosecuted. A district court judge this week issued a temporary stay halting the execution, but that was later vacated.

Prosecutors alleged Hanson and accomplice Victor Miller kidnapped Mary Bowles from a Tulsa shopping mall. Prosecutors alleged the pair drove Bowles to a gravel pit near Owasso, where Miller shot and killed property owner Jerald Thurman. The two then drove Bowles a short distance away, where Hanson shot and killed Bowles, according to prosecutors. Miller received a no-parole life prison sentence for his role.

Thurman’s son, Jacob Thurman, witnessed Thursday’s execution and said it was the culmination of “the longest nightmare of our lives.”

“All families lose in this situation,” he said. “No one’s a winner.”

Bowles’ niece, Sara Mooney, expressed frustration that the litigation over Hanson’s death sentence dragged on for decades, calling it an “expensive and ridiculous exercise.”

“Capital punishment is not an effective form of justice when it takes 26 years,” she said.

During last month’s clemency hearing, Hanson expressed remorse for his involvement in the crimes and apologized to the victims’ families.

“I’m not an evil person,” Hanson said via a video link from the prison. “I was caught in a situation I couldn’t control. I can’t change the past, but I would if I could.”

Hanson’s attorneys acknowledged that he participated in the kidnapping and carjacking, but said there was no definitive evidence that he shot and killed Bowles. They painted Hanson as a troubled youth with autism who was controlled and manipulated by the domineering Miller.

Both Oklahoma Atty. Gen. Gentner Drummond and his predecessor, John O’Connor, had sought Hanson’s transfer during President Biden’s administration, but the U.S. Bureau of Prisons denied it, saying the transfer was not in the public interest.

Murphy writes for the Associated Press.

OKLAHOMA CITY — Mia Scott hit a grand slam, Teagan Kavan claimed another win and Texas defeated Texas Tech 10-4 in Game 3 of the Women’s College World Series championship series on Friday night to win its first national title.

Kavan, a sophomore, allowed no earned runs in all 31⅔ innings she pitched at the World Series. She went 4-0 with a save in the World Series for the Longhorns and was named Most Outstanding Player.

Leighann Goode hit a three-run homer, Kayden Henry had three hits and Scott, Reese Atwood and Katie Stewart each had two hits for Texas (56-12).

Texas Tech star pitcher NiJaree Canady, who had thrown every pitch for the Red Raiders through their first five World Series games, was pulled after one inning in Game 3. The two-time National Fastpitch Coaches Association Pitcher of the Year gave up five runs on five hits and only threw 25 pitches. The loss came after she signed an NIL deal worth more than $1 million for the second straight year.

Not even support from former Texas Tech football star Patrick Mahomes and his wife, Brittany, who were in attendance, could put the Red Raiders (54-14) over the top.

Texas had lost to Oklahoma in the championship series two of the previous three years. Oklahoma was one of the teams Texas beat on its way to the championship.

Canady’s night started like many of her others, as she struck out the first batter she faced. After that, she didn’t resemble the pitcher entered the game leading the nation in wins and ERA. Goode’s homer in the first put the Longhorns up 5-0. Scott’s blast came in the fourth inning and gave Texas a 10-0 lead.

Hailey Toney was a bright spot for the Red Raiders. She singled to knock in two runs in the fifth, then singled to knock in another run in the seventh.

The Oklahoma City Thunder “have a lot more work to do” after reaching their first NBA Finals since 2012 with a win against the Minnesota Timberwolves, says Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.

The NBA’s Most Valuable Player (MVP) scored 34 points, seven rebounds and eight assists in the 124-94 victory as the Thunder won the best-of-seven Western Conference finals series 4-1.

The Thunder remain on course for a first NBA title, having been beaten by the Miami Heat in 2012.

“This is a step in the right direction but we have a lot more work to do to get to our ultimate goal, so let’s buckle up and get ready,” said Gilgeous-Alexander.

“That’s all that I’m focused on. This isn’t the end of our road.”

The Thunder will host game one of the Finals next Thursday, when they face the winners of the Eastern Conference finals between the Indiana Pacers and the New York Knicks for the NBA title. Indiana lead the series 3-1 with game five on Thursday.

Gilgeous-Alexander joins Steph Curry, LeBron James and Kobe Bryant as the only players in the past 20 years to reach the Finals in the same year as winning the MVP.

The 26-year-old Canadian, also named Western Conference MVP on Wednesday, is on course to become the first scoring champion since Shaquille O’Neal in 2000 to win an NBA title in the same season.

Chet Holmgren added 22 points while Jalen Williams also scored 19 for the Thunder, who are the youngest team in the NBA Finals since the Portland Trail Blazers in 1977, with an average age of 25.6 years.

Gilgeous-Alexander added: “These guys really make me feel like I’m a kid playing AAU basketball, like I’m 15 years old again.

“It’s just fun. That’s what makes us really good. We have so much fun being out there together.”

Meanwhile, the Timberwolves saw their season end in the conference finals for the second year running, having lost to the Dallas Mavericks last year.

“They dominated the game from the tip,” said Anthony Edwards, who scored 19 points for the Timberwolves, who were led by Julius Randle with 24 points.

“I tip my hat to those guys. They came ready.”

The performance of Mark Daigneault’s side was an impressive response to the 143-101 thrashing they suffered in game three.

“We did a good job of staying in the moment tonight,” Gilgeous-Alexander said.

“We obviously had a bad taste in our mouth from the last game, and we just wanted to control the things that we could control tonight. I think staying in the moment was the best way to do so.

“We could have been better tonight for sure. Tonight wasn’t perfect, but we gave ourselves a chance… and we got a W.”

The Timberwolves pushed Oklahoma City all the way, with Nickeil Alexander-Walker scoring 23 points off the bench, Jaden McDaniels contributing 22 points, and Donte DiVincenzo finishing with 21.

“Everything is out there,” Alexander-Walker said.

“There’s no secrets. They know how to beat us. We know how to beat them. It’s just about going out there and doing it and who wants it more [and who is] trying to execute it more.

“We showed that at times throughout this game, but consistency, that’s all it has to be.”

Victory in game five in Oklahoma on Wednesday (01:30 BST on Thursday) will secure the Thunder a place in the NBA Finals for the first time since 2012, where they would face either the Indiana Pacers or the New York Knicks.

WASHINGTON  — The Supreme Court dealt an unexpected blow Thursday to the conservative drive for religious charter schools.

The justices announced they were split 4-4 in a test case heard last month from Oklahoma, which blocks the new Catholic charter school in the state.

Justice Amy Coney Barrett had announced in advance she would not participate in the decision. A former Notre Dame law professor, she was a close friend of law professor Nicole Garnett, who led the drive for faith-based charter schools.

Chief Justice John G. Roberts sounded uncertain during the oral argument in late April. In the past, he had said states may not discriminate against religious groups, but Oklahoma’s law applied only to public schools, not private ones that were religious.

Defenders of church-state separation had argued that charter schools by law were public, not “sectarian” or religious. They urged the court to uphold the laws as written.

Four other conservative justices had signaled they would vote to allow the religious charter school.

While Thursday’s split decision is a major setback for religious rights advocates, it does not finally settle the issue of religious charter schools. It’s possible, for example, that Justice Barrett may participate in a future case.

This is a breaking news story and will be updated.