La Crosse Talk PM WIZM

Mac Kiel and Tamra Dickinson in the WIZM studio Monday — along with Lilly and Finn — for La Crosse Talk PM to discuss decisions over new camping bans that would affect the homeless, the new airport director, the $27.5 million Capital Improvement Projects budget and the fight over no new sidewalks. Kiel and Dickson are La Crosse city council members. Dickinson is also on the Board of Public Works,...

UW-La Crosse political science professor, Dr. Anthony Chergosky, in studio Friday for La Crosse Talk PM and, as much as we tried to avoid talking about "the thing," we spent most of the show talking about Donald Trump's legal troubles — and if they are actually troubles. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

No better straight shooting, down the middle guest to have, discussing Donald Trump becoming the first former president felon, than La Crosse County Democratic Party chair, William Garcia. We, of course, discuss the jury's verdict and how we got here. We also talked about Garcia becoming a delegate at the Democratic Party National Convention in Chicago, and why it's voting virtually.  See omnystud...

La Crosse County Sheriff, John Siegel, in the WIZM studio Wednesday for La Crosse Talk PM on dashcams — being used or abused — his thoughts on the Citizen Review Board, plus some random things like being drunk on a bicycle or how peeved we get when a cop is hiding on the side of the road. Began the show, first on traffic cams, as Minneapolis is about to install 42 of them to catch speeders and red...

Adam Hoffer, director of excise tax policy at the Tax Foundation in La Crosse, in studio to discuss paying NCAA Division I athletes, Wisconsin dishing out $23 million for an EV charging network, and selling the Brewers Am-Fam Field for $1.  The meat of the conversation (23:00) was about the NCAA recently settling a host of antitrust claims and beginning the framework of paying NCAA Division I athl...

UW-La Crosse political science professor, Dr. Anthony Chergosky, in studion discussing people unknowingly getting sucked into the YouTube algorithm, getting the Bucks G-League team to the La Crosse Center and how the state messed up, awarding Kwik Trip $23 million for EV chargers. We also hit on the absurdity that Congress gets to trade stocks, a US Supreme Court justice blaming his wife for flyin...

Jared Flick in studio, discussing the possibility of landing the Milwaukee Bucks G-League team or if the La Crosse Center could handle a WNBA franchise, plus the idea of bringing in bigger concerts and more stand-up comics to the city.  Flick is the deputy director of recreation and the La Crosse Center.  The idea of landing the Wisconsin Herd — the Bucks G-League team — could be out in Oshkosh af...

Dan Kapanke stopped in the studio to talk about the upcoming seasons for the La Crosse Loggers baseball team, the newly created La Crosse Steam softball club and the PFAS “forever chemicals” situation in the town of Campbell.  Kapanke is co-owner of both the Loggers and Steam, who will both play at Copeland Park this summer. He is also the board chair for the Town of Campbell, which has been on bo...

While Dave Larsen and Bruce Mathew stopped in studio to talk about the Deke Slayton Airfest and Freedom Honor Flight, we did get one story about blowing up a Mercury Zephyrs with C4 at Fort McCoy, and another story about nearly crashing a plane as a teen and possibly never telling mom.  Larsen is the Airfest media director and spent 20 years in Wisconsin Army National Guard, retiring in 1999, whil...

Wisconsin state Assembly Rep. Jill Billings in studio discussing last week’s political stunt by Republicans, what to do with the $4 billion budget surplus and her campaign priorities for getting reelected. Began the show talking about how the Legislature hasn’t really been in session since mid-March, has the rest of the year off and what kind of things Billings does, outside of session. That led t...

Our political blowhard, Adam Murphy, joins to answer the toughest question: What should we hand to people landing in Wisconsin, like getting a lei off the jet in Hawaii? We also discussed the less-than-half effort from Republicans in the state Legislature to overturn vetoes, plus WIZM on Reddit. Got some great answers from Murphy and callers to that question and spent a good part of the show discu...

If you wanted to know about electric vehicles, we hit on a vast amount of topics with Jeremiah Brockman, president of the Wisconsin chapter of the Electric Vehicle Association.  Brockman was thrown a list of about 50 things having to deal with EVs — including how they hold up in winter, "gas mileage," environmental impacts and charging. Brockman was a great sport in answering as many as we could g...

One more public meeting for the city of La Crosse's Bicycle and Pedestrian Master Plan is coming up. City associate planner Jenna Dinkel joins to go over some of the ins and outs of the plan, plus a look at the Wagon Wheel Trail and some upcoming public meetings from the Wisconsin DOT on Highways 35, 53 and 16.  The city's bike-ped plan is a major revision from its 2012 counterpart, and we talk ab...

Michael Quam, the development director for the Salvation Army of La Crosse County, joined to discuss homelessness in the area, how the shelter has changed over the past few years and where they fit in with the Pathways Home plan. Didn’t take long to get into the homeless situation (3:50), including the Salvation Army being at capacity, how many people it has to turn away and how many success stori...

Tina Tryggestad, the new La Crosse County Board chair, stopped in the WIZM studio Thursday for La Crosse Talk PM to discuss her new role, planning for the board’s five-year strategic plan and new Civilian Review Board. Began the show about how and if the board's work could change as the American Rescue Plan Act funding is basically allocated and there isn't this $22 million from the feds to use. W...

UW-L political science professor, Dr. Anthony Chergosky, in the WIZM studio Friday for La Crosse Talk PM on the best summer movie, some politics — like the US House saga, a dead House rep. wins election and JFK Jr.’s brain worm — but also on sleeping in an airline’s overhead bin and what you’d do if you found $40,000. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Covered a lot of ground with Milwaukee Brewers president, Rick Schlesinger, including whatever happened to Hank the Dog, details in the $500 million taxpayer funded stadium upgrades, are we getting a beer district and playing PlayStation on the scoreboard during games.  Began the show (2:30) talking about Schlesinger's gigantic job description, before getting into the big mystery: Whatever happene...

The $54 million question is coming to the November ballot for La Crosse School District voters and school board president, Dr. Juan Jimenez, joins to break down the plan. Jimenez is also the associate dean at Western Technical College in La Crosse, and we discuss some new changes to classes that just started. And that’s where we started (6:45) the first big segment of the show, with changes to WTC...

Covered a lot with La Crosse Mayor Mitch Reynolds, including the smells from City Brewing, fighting the DOT on closing a road for Amtrak addition, down payment assistance for first-time home buyers and an update on the River Point District, north of downtown. Began the show, however, with the La Crosse being one of 100 cities in the world to be part of the  Youth Climate Action Fund , which came f...

Adam Murphy joined La Crosse Talk PM on Friday, deep diving into the electrification of the nation. Before we got into that, however, we spent a bit of time on the confusing "economy," Donald Trump's immunity claim, and immigration. Murphy, who has degrees in economics and political science from UW-Milwaukee, owns a small tech business, called Big Bang LLC,  in Milwaukee. The second half of the sh...

William Garcia in the WIZM studio Thursday for La Crosse Talk PM discussing the upcoming US House candidate Democratic forum on Wednesday at UW-La Crosse, the peculiar timing of new policies passed by the Biden Administration and politicians useless campaign posts. Garcia is the Democratic Party chair for both La Crosse County and the 3rd US House District here in Wisconsin. Began the show discuss...

Council members, Mackenzie Mindel and Mac Kiel, in the WIZM studio for La Crosse Talk PM discussing city being 1 of 100 awarded youth climate grant funding, selling the south side library building and a homeless plan update. Kiel and Mindel are on the Judiciary and Administration Committee, which meets at 6 p.m. Tuesday. We began the show reviewing one decision by the council last month on a state...

Rachel King and Dillon Constant in studio to talk about two different fields within La Crosse County government that are helping make the community more sustainable and healthy. King is an epidemiologist with the county Health Department, while Constant is the county planner. On the show, we discuss the county’s two phases of its Climate Action Plan, parts of which include transitioning the fleet...

UW-La Crosse political science professor, Dr. Anthony Chergosky, in studio discussing some of the latest results from the Marquette U. Law School poll, showing Joe Biden and Donald Trump even. Plus, why are we complaining when the vice president is visiting La Crosse — and is the electoral college working in creating that opportunity? We began the show with VP Kamala Harris’ upcoming La Crosse vis...

Entomologist, Dr. Ted Wilson, joins to talk about these two cicada species emerging for the first time in 221 years, how we can stick it back to mosquitoes, plus the good and bad with “No Mow May” in La Crosse. Wilson, the Biology chair at Viterbo University, talks about this once-in-multiple-lifetimes event where these two species of cicadas that emerge from the ground every 13 and every 17 years...