🚨 $10M bond set for alleged serial poisoner

🎻 Concerts on the Square Sounds Off Wednesday

• A Madison summer tradition begins this week as the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra’s free outdoor music series Concerts on the Square kicks off Wednesday at the King Street corner of the Capitol Square. The Wednesday concerts begin at 7 p.m., but revelers can start putting down chairs and blankets on the Capitol lawn at 3 p.m. In the event of rain, concerts will be postponed until Thursday.
• This week’s concert will highlight the music of Motown with help from Las Vegas R&B quartet Radience. Future weeks in the six-week series will highlight 20th-century composers, patriotic music and an evening devoted to classic rock.
• 🎧 Dig deeper: Maestro Andrew Sewell chats on the City Cast Madison podcast today about wielding the baton for Concerts on the Square for 26 years now. [WCO, Cap Times, 🎧 City Cast Madison]

🚨 Man Charged in Plot to Poison Ex-Girlfriends

• A Madison man is accused of attempting to murder two women he met online and dated using poison, and his current girlfriend was charged June 16 with assisting his alleged crimes, court documents reveal.
• Paul VanDuyne Jr. was charged June 15 with attempted homicide and stalking last week in an investigation that resulted in several hazardous materials investigations in Madison. Prosecutors say VanDuyne broke into a car owned by one of the victims at the Middleton Costco and put cyanide in her water bottle. They further allege that VanDuyne also poisoned the other victim’s gym water bottle in Rock County, leading to her hospitalization.
• Bail was set Friday at $10 million for VanDuyne and $4 million for his girlfriend, Andrea Whitaker, who prosecutors say removed items from VanDuyne’s home that would implicated him at his request. [WKOW, Ch. 3000]

📻 Wisconsin Public Radio Lays Off 15 Amid Budget Woes

• Facing federal funding cuts and budget shortages, Wisconsin Public Radio is laying off 15 employees and ending four of its programs, including the Peabody Award-winning news program “To The Best of Our Knowledge.”
• Founded as 9XM, WPR is the oldest public radio station in the country. Also ending this autumn will be the nationally-syndicated shows “BETA” and “Zorba Paster On Your Health,” as well as the locally-broadcast university of the air.
• Public radio and television stations across the country are facing funding challenges as the Trump administration is pushing cuts to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. And local privately-owned TV and radio stations are facing their own challenges in an age of media consolidation. [WPR, 🎧 City Cast Madison]

It’s summer in Wisconsin, and ticks are once again a problem. Although, generally, people worry about catching a disease from a tick bite – not that ticks the size of a couch will invade a small town.

But that’s what happens in “Tick Town,” the new horror novel by Madison author Christopher Micklos. The book is inspired by both ‘50s monster movies and ‘70s pulp horror novels, telling the story of a sleepy Midwestern town called Tomahawk Hollow that gets besieged by giant bloodsucking freaks. All the tropes of the genre – a brave sheriff, a craven mayor, horny teenagers – come into play.

“Tick Town” is in stores and online today, and Micklos has an unorthodox book launch event at 4:30 p.m. Saturday at Marcus Palace. He’ll show the 1954 monster movie classic “Them!” (featuring giant ants instead of ticks), and then talk about “Tick Town” and sign copies in the theater lounge afterwards.

Micklos, who also wrote and co-directed the indie horror films “The Headmistress” and “The Nursery,” talked about bringing enormous disgusting insects to life on the page.

Why did you decide to write a novel?

During COVID, where we had these long periods where we were home alone, I started writing and publishing short stories and enjoying that process. Around the same time, I started getting interested in pulp horror. There was this book, “Paperbacks from Hell,” that made a bit of a splash. It’s a survey of 1970s and ‘80s pulp horror paperbacks, and I just found them fascinating, just the gonzo nature of these books.

I started reading them, and I just loved them. So I decided that was the road I wanted to go down, and update the genre a little bit with my own twist.

Why ticks?

Spiders have been done. Ants have been done. Crabs have been done. I started to think that ticks were interesting. I started doing some research on ticks, and they’re really horrible. We know it here in Wisconsin, but if you ever see a close-up of a tick, they’re just grotesque. They feed on you and dig into your skin. It’s pretty gross. So it seemed really ripe for horror. I’m writing a book that’s coming out in the summer, I’m in Wisconsin, it’s the perfect time for a tick story.

Meet Dash! Dash is an independent cat with a “dash” of sweetness, and while can be shy at first, he enjoys receiving attention once he gets comfortable. Soon he’ll be giving you head bumps to ask for more attention, and make biscuits when you rub his head.

He’s not really into toys, but loves treats. He’s done well with both cats and dogs, and is looking for a home where he can lounge in the window to watch the world and get lots of treats.