Your Daily Guide

📚 Author James Patterson To Speak at UW Commencement

• James Patterson, who probably wrote another best-selling thriller in the time it took me to write this newsletter, will speak to graduating UW-Madison students at spring commencement at Camp Randall on May 9.
• Patterson, whose more than 250 novels include the Alex Cross series, has deep ties to the university. His wife, Susan, is a graduate of UW-Madison, and the couple provides scholarships to 150 students on campus each year. Patterson also gave a grant to Mystery to Me on Monroe Street for the bookstore to add a children’s section.
• The Pattersons will be at Madison Central Library on April 22 to talk about their new book, “The Mother-Daughter Book Club.” [Fox 47, Cap Times, Wisconsin Book Festival]

🏫 Trump Budget Cuts Force Schools to End Tutoring Programs

• The Madison Metropolitan School District is ending two longtime tutoring programs this year due to federal budget cuts.
• The district has partnered with the United Way of Dane County and AmeriCorps for 28 years to sponsor the literacy-focused Elementary Schools of Hope and math-focused Achievement Connections programs. Together they’ve helped 113,000 students in Dane County with the help of 23,000 community volunteers.
• But the Trump administration ended the $500,000 AmeriCorps grant that funded the program with a matching grant from United Way. Both programs will end this school year, and the district is looking at other ways of tutoring, such as student volunteers from UW-Madison. [ 🔒WSJ]

🚂 Got Passenger Rail Hot Takes? Amtrak Wants Them.

• With Amtrak planning to bring its passenger rail service back to Madison as early as 2029, the company is holding a virtual public meeting on Tuesday to hear questions and comments.
• The Hiawatha West project would use the existing Wisconsin & Southern Railroad freight tracks that connect downtown Madison to Milwaukee, linking into its rail network from Chicago to the Twin Cities.
• Registration in advance for the webinar is required. [ 🔒WSJ, Amtrak]

One single act by itself won’t save the world. One single person on their own won’t save the world. But the message of Earth Day on April 22 is that a lot of people all doing little things to preserve and beautify the planet can achieve big results.

Earth Day has its roots in Wisconsin – U.S. Sen. Gaylord Nelson founded it in 1970 as a national day to promote environmentalism, and it went global in 1990. On the City Cast Madison podcast today, host Bianca Martin talks to Curt Meine, a senior fellow with the Aldo Leopold Foundation, about Wisconsin's conservationist tradition.

There are all kinds of family-friendly, thoughtful, and fun ways to celebrate Earth Day and support environmental causes in Madison this week.

🌎 Earth Fest

Given Earth Day’s Wisconsin roots, UW-Madison goes big for Earth Day with this weeklong series of events. This year’s festivities includes a Climate Games Day on April 17, a Make Your Own Bee House crafting activity on April 19, a two-day symposium by the Center for Ecology and the Environment on April 20 and 21, and a Climate Change Theatre Action performance on April 23.

There’s also a special Earth Fest Forum on April 21, featuring a keynote address by Isaias Hernandez, an environmentalist and educator best known online by the moniker Queer Brown Vegan.

👕 Overture Community Clothing Swap

For the first time, Overture Center is sponsoring a massive clothing swap on April 18. Bring your gently used clothing to the Rotunda lobby to donate this week, then come back Saturday to find new fashions to enjoy.

At the April 18 event, DaneNET will also be accepting donations of electronics that they can refurbish and donate to nonprofits and low-income households.

💻 Hilldale E-Cycling Donation Drive

Get rid of your computers, peripherals and other tech safely at this event sponsored by Hilldale and Goodwill on April 18.

💧 Fitchburg Waterway Cleanup

Sign up to volunteer to help clean up Dunn’s Marsh, Swan Creek, and other open spaces in Fitchburg on April 18.

🎻 Earth Signals: Wisconsin Weather

Arts and science meet in this special concert on April 20, where meteorologists and musicians join forces to use climate data to create musical pieces.

☀️ Madison Parks Earth Day Challenge

Madison Parks is looking for 900 volunteers to clean up over 60 of its parks on April 25. Register online and see where volunteers are needed most, then head out with your neighbors to help keep Madison beautiful.