⚖️ Supreme Court candidates face off in debate

🧑‍🎓 Feds Investigate UW-Madison Over Antisemitic Claims

• UW-Madison officials were told Monday by the U.S. Dept. of Education that it is one of 60 universities under investigation over allegations that it failed to protect Jewish students on campus.
• The notice comes days after the Trump administration cancelled $400 million in federal funding to Columbia University, claiming it failed to stop antisemitism on campus. Students at Columbia, like UW-Madison, staged pro-Palestinian protests last year over Israel’s invasion of Gaza. [WMTV]

🪨 Did City Workers Disturb Burial Mounds at Vilas Park?

• Municipal workers may have disturbed an Indigenous burial site at Vilas Park when they moved three large boulders in order to uproot a hazardous tree last fall. While historical documentation suggests that the boulders were part of a burial mound, city workers want to use ground-penetrating radar to confirm it.
• If confirmed, the removal would be a violation of state law. The Wisconsin Burial Sites Preservation Board voted in January to refer the matter to the state Department of Justice. [🔒 Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel]

💰 Madison Would Get Funding Boost Under Gov. Evers Proposal

• Gov. Tony Evers wants to nearly double the funding for local fire, police, and waste management services at state facilities, which are exempt from property taxes.
• Municipalities across the state have complained that lawmakers have steadily cut funding from the state over the years. In 2024, Madison received $13 million less from the state than it was owed.
• It’s unlikely that Republicans will go along. Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, when asked about Madison’s shortfall complaints, suggested that state government operations could be moved out of Madison.
• Dig deeper: The city is working on getting attention (and funding) from state lawmakers by hiring a conservative-led lobbying firm. [Isthmus, 🎧 City Cast Madison]

It’s a good time to be a fantasy writer, but Katherine Addison was writing fantasy stories before the likes of Rebecca Yarros and Sarah J. Maas were dominating the best-seller charts. Addison (the nom de plume of Madison author Sarah Monette) has written a number of acclaimed fantasy novels, including the new “The Tomb of Dragons,” which caps her “Cemeteries of Amalo” trilogy featuring Thara Celahar, a mystery-solving elven medium.

“I have never written a successful realistic story,” Addison said in a recent email interview. “There has to be a dragon. Or a ghost. Or, you know, a ghost dragon.”

“The Tomb of Dragons” was published March 11, and Addison will read from and talk about the book at 6 p.m. March 13 at A Room of One’s Own. Addison talked about the challenges of writing a trilogy, what it’s like to be in the middle of fantasy novel boom times, and how Wisconsin inspires her fantasy worlds.

The last time I interviewed you for the Capital Times in 2019, you were in the middle of writing what would become the first novel in a trilogy. What inspired you to make that the start of a trilogy? How do you feel now looking back on the three books?

I was about two-thirds of the way through “The Witness for the Dead” when I realized the story I wanted to tell was actually much longer, that I hadn't traveled nearly far enough with Thara Celehar. I will not say that the next two books (“The Grief of Stones” and “The Tomb of Dragons”) unspooled themselves then and there, but I had a sense of the links in the chain of the story and a very general sense of where we were going to end up.

Now, looking at the trilogy, I'm mostly just relieved that we — Celehar and I — pulled it off. Writing a series is terrifying, because every decision you make closes off another avenue of escape, and you commit yourself to more and more baggage. Eventually you end up painted into a corner and you just have to hope that your plans come out right and it's the corner with a window.

How did you balance making sure each book stood on its own while making them work together as a trilogy? What did you try to do differently with each book, especially Tomb of Dragons?

Since each book is a mystery (okay, “The Tomb of Dragons” less so, although it has mysteries IN it), it was actually relatively easy to make each tell its own story. That is one of the great things about the mystery genre, for a writer: it gives you a plot outline as part of the package. And the larger story, Celehar's arc from bleak depression to cautious hope, had certain things that each book needed to accomplish, and those things created ties from book to book.

⬆️ Last Week’s Photo

This giant bobblehead of Ron Dayne is located inside the front entrance of the University Book Store on Library Mall!

🎉 Congratulations to Amanda S., Karmen S., and Tarah H. for being the first of many to guess right!

⬇️ This Week’s Photo

Do you know where this ginormous map is located? A few clues:

• It’s located downtown
• It’s inside a place where you can eat and drink.
• The map fits in with the travel (and shipping) theme of the place!