This Bandit is stealing hearts

Good morning, Madison!

Henry Vilas Zoo has a new resident and he's already stealing hearts.

Meet Bandit, the 2-year old male red panda. Originally a resident of the Columbus Zoo, Bandit has a few connections to Madison. His paternal great-grandfather was Lum, who came to Henry Vilas Zoo in 2012 and his maternal great-grandfather was Tarrei, the zoo's 19-year old red panda who passed in 2021.

The red cutie has completed all of his health checks and is settling into his new home nicely. You can say hi to him today at the Children’s Zoo near the goat yard.

— Hayley

🚓 Flex lanes are open and the cops are out.

• The new flex lane on the Beltline officially opened for use yesterday. The lane runs on US 12/18 between I-39/90 and Whitney Way and will be open for use during morning and afternoon rush hours, and special events like Badger games.
• The Madison Police Department is working with other law enforcement to keep eyes on the new lane as drivers "get adjusted" to it. MPD says they'll mostly be watching at times throughout the day when the lanes aren't open.

💉 Community Pharmacy has free fentanyl test strips.

• In partnership with Public Health Madison & Dane County's syringe services program, Community Pharmacy is offering free fentanyl test strips at their Fair Oaks location.
• Some context: The majority of drug-related deaths in the U.S. over the past year have involved fentanyl. Wisconsin legalized fentanyl test strips in mid-March. Before the law changed, they were illegal and considered drug paraphernalia.

🌡️ Alliant Energy wants to pay you to take over your thermostats at peak times.

• A new program from the energy provider would pay households $25 a year to let the company control thermostats in participating homes during peak hours.
• The initiative is designed to lower energy consumption. According to the State Journal, Alliant hopes to enroll up to 7,000 households in the next two years, which could provide up to 5 megawatts of power capacity that could used instead of generators in necessary situations.

🚫 Watch out for the closure on West Lakeside Street.

• The city will be replacing the railroad track crossing between Gilson Street and Rowell Street starting 6:00 a.m. Friday. The work will require a multi-day street closure. It's expected to re-open by 3 p.m. next Tuesday, July 19.

👀 Keeping an eye on Monkeypox.

• PHMDC has identified a second monkeypox case in Dane County.

📝 Officials will change the names of 28 places in Wisconsin that slur Indigenous women.

• U.S. Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland recently issued an order declaring the term “sq--w” as derogatory toward Indigenous women. With that order, Haaland also directed the replacement of names with that word in Wisconsin.
• According to the Green Bay Press-Gazette, there are 28 places in Wisconsin that use the term in their name and now officials are working to determine what the replacement names should be. Nationwide, there are 664 names that need changing.
• Hayley recommends: Since you're reading this, you're clearly a fan of great newsletters. Consider checking out the First Nations Wisconsin newsletter, written by Frank Vaisvilas, a reporter at the Green Bay Press-Gazette covering Native American stories in the state.

🎨 Your lunchtime read: Do you love Black artists, or just how their art looks on your walls?

• Via Tone Madison: "In a 2019 study, researchers found that just 1.2 percent of pieces held in major U.S. museums were made by Black artists.
  
  You might be surprised at this number if you’ve paid attention to the increase in retrospectives and other exhibitions by Black artists over the past 20 to 30 years. It is one thing to place Black artists’ work on museum walls. It is an entirely different thing—with greater financial impact to Black artists—to acquire Black art."

🦠 Covid-19 update

🔗 Related links

• Get free at-⁠home Covid-⁠19 tests
• Find a vaccine appointment
• When COVID-19 is endemic, what's the role of testing? (PBS Wisconsin)

📅 Events: Thursday, July 14

La Fete de Marquette / Musique Electronique
McPike Park | Free | Thursday-Sunday  

Movies on the Water: The Land Before Time (1988) & Jurassic Park (1993)
Thursday | 5:30 p.m.  & 7:30 p.m. | The Edgewater | Free
Edgewater is showing movies every Thursday night through August 25.  From The Land Before Time IMDb: "An orphaned brontosaurus teams up with other young dinosaurs in order to reunite with their families in a valley." From Jurassic Park IMDb: "A pragmatic paleontologist touring an almost complete theme park on an island in Central America is tasked with protecting a couple of kids after a power failure causes the park's cloned dinosaurs to run loose."

Maxwell Street Days
Thursday – Sunday | State Street | Free admission
State Street's summer sidewalk sale. Discounts, expanded outdoor café dining experiences, live music, special activities and more.

Tomorrow

• Biergarten at San Damiano
• Live on King Street: Tank and The Bangas

View more events

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