🌍 Join Madison’s largest park cleanup

🏀 Meet UW Women’s Basketball’s New Coach

• UW-Madison has hired former Missouri coach Robin Pingeton to lead the university’s beleaguered women’s basketball team. The program is coming off 14 consecutive losing seasons, and the previous coach, Marisa Moseley, was accused of mistreatment by a former player.
• I talk about the highs and the lows of the week in Badger sports on the City Cast Madison podcast’s Friday news roundup. Host Bianca Martin does a post-mortem on the State Street pedestrian mall experiment, and executive producer Hayley Sperling talks about how protests are hitting Elon Musk where it hurts – Tesla dealerships. Plus, the strangest ad of the election cycle. Listen in! [Badger Herald, UW Athletics, WSJ, WMTV, Facebook, 🎧 City Cast Madison]

🏡 Will Home Upgrades Be A Casualty of Trump Cuts?

• A $20 million federal grant to help Madison homeowners make energy upgrades is in limbo after the Trump administration froze the funds.
• Under former President Joe Biden, the city was awarded the $20 million Community Change Grant by the Environmental Protection Agency for home upgrades, sustainability programs, and income assistance for low-income households. The city administers the program through local community partners, including Urban Triage and Operation Fresh Start, but said the federal money used to pay those partners has been suspended. [Cap Times]

🗑️ Join Madison’s Largest Park Cleanup For Earth Day

• The city has put out the call for volunteers for its massive Earth Day Challenge park cleanup on April 26 from 10 a.m. to noon.
• People of all ages can take part in cleaning up the parks, including trash pickup, weeding, raking, and removing sticks, but those 14 and up should register in advance. The Earth Day Challenge website lists which of the over 60 participating parks still need volunteers. [City of Madison]

Meet Gracie and Jiji, the “unmistakable joy” in their humans' lives. Jiji is a “chonker” who takes after his poppa Sam and loves string, while Gracie is brilliant like his Mom Ellen and lives for churros. Sounds like a happy family!