Where to get your fireworks fix

Happy Friday, besties!

Here's a little fun fact to cap off your week.

On this day in 1967, the sale of margarine was legalized in Wisconsin.

Yep, until that year, the imitation butter was illegal in the Dairy State.

According to the historical society, the spread was considered contraband for decades and its sale could result in fines or even possible jail time. The butter imposter was sold legally in Illinois and often smuggled into Wisconsin.

The more you know.

— Hayley

P.S. There will not be a newsletter on Monday. Enjoy the long weekend!

🎆 Here's where the fireworks will be.

• Since July 4 falls on a Monday this year, we're in for a weekend of fireworks. Here's where you can find them across the isthmus and beyond.
• Festival Foods Fireworks: July 3 at Warner Park following the Mallards' game.
• Fourth Fest: July 4, free and kid friendly. The festival runs from 2-8 p.m. at the Edgewater hotel.
• Lights the Isthmus: July 2 at Breese Stevens Field from 5-10 p.m. This is a ticketed event ($10) but kids under 12 get in for free with a paying adult.
• Monona Community Festival: July 2-4 at Winnequah Park. There will be festivities all weekend but the fireworks are on July 4.
• For more events in the area, check out these lists from Channel 3000, WKOW, and Isthmus.

⛔ Traffic notes for the long weekend and beyond.

• Busses: On Monday, Metro Transit services will run on holiday schedules for the following routes: 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 13, 16, 17 18, 20, 21, 22, 26, 30, 31, 32, 36, 40, 50, 51, 59, 63, 67 and 68. Route 80 will operate on a shortened schedule and routes 81-84 will not be in service.
• North Broom Street: Starting next Tuesday (July 5) road work will begin at the intersection of North Broom Street and West Dayton Street. In the following weeks, work will continue to move north, eventually crossing West Johnson Street. During that time, traffic on Johnson will be reduced by one lane during off-peak times. If you're a visual learner, check out this map for more context.

🚌 The city is giving out free bus passes to middle and high schoolers.

• For the second year in a row, the city has partnered with Madison Metropolitan School District to distribute summer Metro Transit passes to all middle and high school students.
• Free passes will be given to students in sixth grade and up through their schools. Passes are available from summer school sites, you can see a list of the sites here. Passes are valid through September 6.
• According to the city, students who live in Madison but attend school in other districts are still eligible for the free pass and can pick them up at the Metro Transit offices (1245 E. Washington Ave., Ste. 201).

🏳️‍⚧️ Check out Portraits With a Purpose.

• Pride Month may be over but that doesn't mean we have to stop celebrating LGBTQ+ stories. Through December 6, a portrait series by Rae Senarighi (aka @transpainter) will be displayed in the gallery outside the mayor’s office.
• Senarighi's series, titled Portraits With a Purpose, celebrates unapologetic and vibrant transgender and non-binary joy. The series features almost exclusively trans artists, activists, and leaders with one exception. Our Lives Magazine recently commissioned Senarighi to paint a portrait of beloved gay rights activist and local trailblazer Dick Wagner, who died in December 2021.
• You can check out all of the portraits in an online gallery here.

☕ One grande union, please.

• Workers at Madison’s Capitol Square Starbucks voted overwhelmingly in favor of unionizing, making them the first unionized location in Dane County.
• Cap Times reports employees voted 15 to one in favor of the union. Starbucks has until July 8 to submit any objections to the election.
• “It feels good to win, and it feels good to win by such a substantial margin," shift supervisor and union organizer Lee Marfyak told the news outlet.
• Related: The barista uprising: Coffee shop workers ignite a union renewal (NPR)

🛍️ Celebrate the Monroe Street neighborhood today.

• On the first Friday evening of each month (aka today!), head to Monroe Street for shopping, food, and festivities. Select shops on the street will stay open late and offer special deals.
• The First Friday festival will also feature live music from Kat (of Kat and the Hurricane) and Candace Wagner and a free screening of the movie "Trolls" at Chocolate Shoppe Ice Cream.
• Head to the Monroe Street Merchants Association website here for a full list of participating shops and their deals.

🩺 Your lunchtime read: “People are going to die”.

• Via Tone Madison: "For Dr. Laura Jacques, a Madison-area OB-GYN, the impact of the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade was immediate.
  
  Jacques had a patient scheduled for an abortion on Friday. The woman didn’t have the means to pay for the procedure, so Jacques’ team had scrambled to come up with the funds and schedule her before the final decision came down, which many suspected would be on the following Monday.
  
  Instead the decision came down hours before her procedure. The patient’s fetus has no chance of survival, but she is now forced to carry it to term."

🐶 Friday Floof

Happy Friday! Here's your floof! Meet Oskar, an 11-year-old standard dachshund. Though he's actually named for the literary character Oskar Schell from Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, his owner Nikki always wanted to get pictures of him with the Wienermobile (because why wouldn't anyone want that?!). After years of chasing and close encounters with the famed car, lightning finally struck and Oskar got his photoshoot. Personally, I am so thankful for this tiny miracle.

Do you have a floof you want to see in the newsletter? Send your best pictures and a bit about your fuzzy (or not-so-fuzzy, we don't discriminate) friends to contact@madisonminutes.com.