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📚 Author James Patterson To Speak at UW Commencement

• James Patterson, who probably wrote another best-selling thriller in the time it took me to write this newsletter, will speak to graduating UW-Madison students at spring commencement at Camp Randall on May 9.
• Patterson, whose more than 250 novels include the Alex Cross series, has deep ties to the university. His wife, Susan, is a graduate of UW-Madison, and the couple provides scholarships to 150 students on campus each year. Patterson also gave a grant to Mystery to Me on Monroe Street for the bookstore to add a children’s section.
• The Pattersons will be at Madison Central Library on April 22 to talk about their new book, “The Mother-Daughter Book Club.” [Fox 47, Cap Times, Wisconsin Book Festival]

🏫 Trump Budget Cuts Force Schools to End Tutoring Programs

• The Madison Metropolitan School District is ending two longtime tutoring programs this year due to federal budget cuts.
• The district has partnered with the United Way of Dane County and AmeriCorps for 28 years to sponsor the literacy-focused Elementary Schools of Hope and math-focused Achievement Connections programs. Together they’ve helped 113,000 students in Dane County with the help of 23,000 community volunteers.
• But the Trump administration ended the $500,000 AmeriCorps grant that funded the program with a matching grant from United Way. Both programs will end this school year, and the district is looking at other ways of tutoring, such as student volunteers from UW-Madison. [ 🔒WSJ]

🚂 Got Passenger Rail Hot Takes? Amtrak Wants Them.

• With Amtrak planning to bring its passenger rail service back to Madison as early as 2029, the company is holding a virtual public meeting on Tuesday to hear questions and comments.
• The Hiawatha West project would use the existing Wisconsin & Southern Railroad freight tracks that connect downtown Madison to Milwaukee, linking into its rail network from Chicago to the Twin Cities.
• Registration in advance for the webinar is required. [ 🔒WSJ, Amtrak]