😍 It’s Monday. Here’s some cute baby meerkats.

🔬 How Would Trump Cuts Affect UW Research?

• The UW-Madison research community has been rattled by the Trump administration's recent attempts to cut funding for medical and scientific research on a variety of diseases, including Alzheimer’s, cancer, and diabetes. A judge temporarily blocked cuts to funding for “indirect costs” that would cost UW-Madison an estimated $65 million annually.
• “To be blunt, it’s disastrous if it would happen,” Wisconsin Institute of Discovery Director Jo Handelsman tells City Cast Madison host Bianca Martin on today’s podcast. Bianca also gets students’ perspective on the impact of the proposed cuts from Madeline Topf, co-president of the university’s graduate workers’ union. Listen in! (University of Wisconsin, Daily Cardinal, 🎧 City Cast Madison)

🍸 Kavanaugh Family Will Reopen Esquire Supper Club

• Kavanaugh’s Esquire Club, a fixture on Madison’s dining scene since 1947, abruptly and somewhat mysteriously closed Thursday. A sign posted in the window of the restaurant on Sherman Ave. said it was closed due to “the unimaginable.” Owner Craig Spaulding, who bought the restaurant last year from the Kavanaugh family, later posted on social media that “operational and staffing issues” were the reason.
• The restaurant's previous owner, John Kavanaugh, said he planned to come out of retirement and reopen the Esquire Club. "I'm taking the restaurant back," he said. [Cap Times, WMTV Ch. 15]

🎩 State Street Magician Nickey Fynn Dies at 41

• Nickey Fynn, a street magician known for entertaining pedestrians strolling along State Street and at the Dane County Farmers’ Market, has died at 41.
• Fynn died of a heart attack in Laos in January, his family said. While he lived most of the year in Thailand working as a teacher, the Stoughton native would come back to Madison in the summer to delight Madison crowds with card tricks and gags. [🔒 WSJ]