Looking for a great outdoor music festival this weekend? You're in luck -- Jazz in June kicks off tonight at Brookhaven Village in Norman! Bring your lawn chairs and coolers and enjoy three evenings of Blues and jazz, with performances from Margo Valiante, Murali Coryell, the 145th Army Big Band, Larry Coryell, Poncho Sanchez, Jeremy Thomas Quartet, the Norman North High School Jazz Choir and Norman High Jazz Combo. KGOU helps produce this annual festival; get all the info from the Jazz in June website. See you there!

  

It's that time of year again, when KGOU closes the books on another fiscal year, which ends June 30. FY 2011 has been a great year for the station, in which several goals were realized, not the least of which was adding new signals in Chickasha, Woodward and Ada.

  

Financially FY11 was also successful for KGOU; we'll have more details over the next few months on how financial goals are progressing. If you have not yet fulfilled your pledge this year, send a check or use our online donation form by June 28 to be counted toward this fiscal year's goals.

  

For employees of the University of Oklahoma, June 30 is also the deadline to sign up to make your KGOU contribution through the Campus Campaign payroll deduction plan. Visit the Campus Campaign website for more info.

  

A new NPR News series, "Beginnings", examines the medical and cultural complexities of childbirth around the globe and here in the U.S. Starting with family planning and continuing through pregnancy, birth, and early child-rearing, the series reports from Mozambique, where nearly half of women still give birth at home, to Washington, DC, where some Latina mothers are taking part in group pre-natal care.

  

The series airs throughout the summer, beginning Monday, June 27, on All Things Considered. Look for an online complement to the series: a real-time blog by women in their third trimester called The Baby Project, coming soon to NPR.org.

  

Arnold has a love child, Anthony tweets photos of himself -- there's so much in the news lately that deserves a sendup in the Capitol Steps' upcoming edition of Politics Takes a Holiday. KGOU airs their special brand of parody at 11 a.m. and 6:30 p.m. on Monday, July 4. Here's an itsy, bitsy, teeny, weeny... preview.

  

In the evening, we'll broadcast highlights from this week's Jazz in June festival in Norman. Musical fireworks from Margo Valiante, Murali Coryell, the 145th Army Big Band, Larry Coryell, the Jeremy Thomas Quartet, and headliner Poncho Sanchez begin at 7 p.m. July 4.

  

Kudos to JazzSet host Dee Dee Bridgewater, winner of the 2011 Female Singer of the Year award from the Jazz Journalists Association. JazzSet with Dee Dee Bridgewater kicks off KGOU's Friday Night Live block, Fridays at 9 p.m. The JJA also honored NPR's A Blog Supreme, naming it Blog of the Year.

  

In summer, people like to get away. Some visit the beach, others the mountains. But many like to go a little further: to an imaginary world or maybe a new dimension entirely. In other words, they escape into a fat science fiction or fantasy novel. Editors at NPR.org asked fans for their favorites and they responded in droves -- this Web exclusive is the most commented story at NPR.org. See if your favorite is there.