🐦‍⬛ Where to go birding around Madison

🗳️ County Clerks Gear Up For Election

• High turnover after the 2020 presidential election means that nearly half of the county clerks across Wisconsin will be working their first election this November.
• More than 30 Wisconsin county clerks have left their positions since 2020. While some retired or changed jobs, many cited harassment and the spread of election misinformation for their decision to leave.
• The state has strong safeguards against election fraud, but that hasn’t stopped the spread of misinformation.
• It might get worse: Two new state Constitutional amendments designed to bolster public trust in elections are written so vaguely that they might actually undermine it. [Wisconsin State Journal 🔒, City Cast Madison 🎧]

⚡ Grab a Kwik Charge

• Kwik Trip is receiving $8.1 million in federal funds to install electric vehicle chargers at 24 of its Wisconsin locations.
• The La Crosse-based chain extensively lobbied to change state laws that made Wisconsin one of the only states barring access to funds from the National Vehicle Infrastructure program.
• A total of $23 million will go to several other gas stations and businesses in the state. Two of the recipients are tribal nations, making Wisconsin the first state to support EV chargers being installed on tribal land. [Cap Times]

🛶 The Ancient Canoes of Lake Mendota

• Maritime archaeologists have uncovered pieces of a 4,500-year-old canoe at the bottom of Lake Mendota, the oldest canoe discovered in the Great Lakes region, according to the Wisconsin Historical Society.
• Lake Mendota alone has produced up to 11 of the found ancient canoes, one of which was unearthed in 2022, and previously held the “oldest canoe” record at 3,000 years old.
• Why so many canoes? Researchers believe that Native tribes in the region might have buried the vessels underwater to preserve them during the winter. [WPR]

Is Madison Missing The Mark With Clean Indoor Air?

Though the Biden Administration ended the COVID-19 public health emergency declaration last May, many Madisonians still don’t feel safe at events and spaces. City Cast Madison podcast host Bianca Martin spoke with Tara Verma, the founder of Clean Air 608, a company trying to change that by lending out HEPA air purifiers and CO2 monitors to Madison event organizers free of charge in hopes of creating safer events and keeping Madison COVID conscious.