10

Number of data centers that already exist in Madison, according to a draft data center framework from the city planning division. A proposed zoning code for data centers is expected to be introduced this month, as Madison’s one-year moratorium inches closer to expiring in January.

‘Politics…is dirtier than I ever thought it could be’ 

— An unfiltered Mandela Barnes speaking in October on the Part Time Opinions podcast, when he claimed Gov. Tony Evers “would never have gotten elected without me” on the 2018 ticket. The former lieutenant governor added that he “did not expect” the lame-duck governor to endorse one of his opponents in the 2026 Democratic gubernatorial primary.

54,265,478

Number of trees planted in Wisconsin by the end of 2025, according to the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, since Gov. Tony Evers signed an Earth Day Pledge in 2021 to plant 75 million trees by 2030. Evers upped the pledge in 2024 to 100 million trees by 2030.

‘They may have a bunch of Hall of Famers, but we’ve got a bunch of gamers, and the gamers won this week’ 

— Brewers manager Pat Murphy lobbed shots after the team swept the Dodgers to continue on to the World Series for the first time since 1982. The Brewers made World Series history, beating the Tampa Bay Rays 4-1. 

‘What people may not realize is that UW took incredible risks on this project’ 

— Francis Halzen, longtime UW-Madison physics professor, after winning the 2026 Nobel Prize in Physics. Halzen is principal investigator of the IceCube Project, which detects high-energy neutrinos in ice at the South Pole. In announcing the award, the Nobel Committee said the research “could even reveal previously unknown cosmic phenomena.” Halzen was more measured on what this work could achieve longterm: “What this will bring is impossible to predict.”

$218 million 

Funding approved by the Federal Railroad Administration to design and construct an 85-mile expansion of Amtrak’s passenger rail line from Chicago to Milwaukee, with additional stops in Madison, Pewaukee and Watertown. Madison has already approved $3.5 million for the project, but the state will also need to pitch in 20% of the project’s total costs.