🏝️ What is a heat island?

🗑️ No Trash Collection July 4th

• For those who usually have their trash and recycling collected Thursdays, your trash will instead be collected Friday, July 5. Those who usually put their trash and recycling out Fridays will do so as normal. [City of Madison]

⚖️ Madison School District Settlement

• The Madison School District will pay $572,500 to two parents to settle a lawsuit filed in 2022, which claimed that children’s civil rights were violated when hidden cameras were placed in a room where kids with disabilities regularly changed clothes.
• The cameras were installed in two places at East High School to keep tabs on a custodian suspected of sleeping on the job.
• The district also settled a 2021 lawsuit filed by the same parents that alleged the school took an unreasonable amount of time to respond to an open records request related to the camera incident. [🔒WSJ]

🏢 New Hotel by Monona Terrace

• A new 262-room Embassy Suites is now open on Doty Street. The city hopes the hotel will help Madison host more events and conferences downtown.
• The bigger picture: The hotel is part of Madison’s major Judge Doyle Square redevelopment project, which has spanned the past decade. Other parts of the projects include an apartment complex, a new parking garage, and more. [City of Madison, Cap Times]

🧑‍🌾 Relief for Farmers

• The U.S. Department of Agriculture is offering technical and financial assistance to farmers affected by the recent floods and tornadoes across Wisconsin.
• Related: City Cast Madison recently sat down with Wisconsin’s state climatologist Steve Vavrus to discuss Madison’s recent weather patterns. [Channel 3000, City Cast Madison 🎧]

Where Are Madison's Best Summer Spots for Kids?

Wondering how your kids can spend the summer? City Cast Madison host Bianca Martin caught up with Aaron Seligman, the writer behind the Macaroni KID Madison website, which is full of events for the big and little kids in your life to do this summer in Madison.