La Crosse Talk PM WIZM

Country Boom co-founder Jon Holthaus joins La Crosse Talk PM to talk about this weekend's event at the Maple Grove Venues in West Salem, Wis., featuring some of the biggest country stars today. We talk about the lineup, how they also like to feature local musicians, and a bit of the history of Country Boom — including booking some of the singers a year in advance, before they're really "big time,"...

La Crosse City Planner Tim Acklin joined to talk about the debate over Lincoln Middle School getting historic designation, but before that, Country Boom co-founder Jon Holthaus talks about the huge event in West Salem this weekend. Some of the interesting things we talked with Holthaus included booking guests a year in advance, and by the time Boom arrives, they're gigantic stars. Also, he casuall...

William Garcia in studio to talk about movie sequels, how Gov. Evers took the power of funding public schools from the GOP in Wisconsin, the tax cut plan that wasn't and Rebecca Cooke's bid to unseat Derrick Van Orden in the US House. Garcia is the La Crosse County and 3rd US House District Democratic Party chair. We began the show talking about how there are multiple sequels in theaters right now...

UW-L outreach specialist Spencer Wilken in studio, breaking 1960s news again — this time about nefarious experiments on twins. She also delivered some space news, including finding the largest diamond and NASA’s biodome experiment for living on Mars. Began the show recapping past “Major Breaking” shows from decades-old news, including the 1876 Kentucky meat shower and the 1950s Great Beaver Drop....

UW-La Crosse political science professor, Dr. Anthony Chergosky, in studio discussing whether government should legislate based on the Facebook comment sections, traffic shaming as an alternative to tickets, “Indiana Jones, really?” and the US Supreme Court. The show began talking about movie remakes, like the new Indiana Jones movie that just came out, but that somehow led to a discussion about s...

Laura Godden, a UW-La Crosse Archivist and member of Heritage Preservation Commission, joined to discuss the city’s most endangered buildings, the controversy over making Lincoln Middle School a historic landmark and if K-Mart is next. Began the show, however, talking about what being an Archivist is and the kind of things she’s seen, while working at UW-L. After that, we talked a bit about the ci...

Sherry Picah, owner of Sprout Childcare on the south side of La Crosse, joined to discuss the dilemma Wisconsin facilities and families are in, after childcare funding was cut out of the state budget. Last week, at 2:30 a.m., Republicans on the Joint Finance Committee voted to end what's called the Child Care Counts program — $340 million in funding the last two years that allowed facilities to st...

Wisconsin state Sen. Brad Pfaff joins. We discussed the discrepancies in the GOP tax cut plan, where top earners see a sizable tax break and lower income get about $2.67 back a month. We also talked about the Joint Finance Committee cutting a childcare funding and not implementing an equal replacement in the state budget. Pfaff also hints on some some amendments to the budget Democrats want to pro...

W-La Crosse political science professor, Dr. Anthony Chergosky joins La Crosse Talk PM to break down the GOP-proposed Wisconsin budget, Trump on top among state Republicans and the deal with lab-grown meat. Began the show, though, talking about Taylor Swift taking over St. Paul with a Friday night concert, where the cheapest ticket was around $800 and the most expensive just hours before the show...

Wisconsin state Rep. Jill Billings joins just as the figures come out on the Republican tax cut plan for the state. We also talked about GOP's 2 a.m., bar time decision to defund childcare and we may have solved the Brewers stadium situation. Began the show on the tax cut plan that doesn't increase, but decreases the number of brackets in the state and gives the largest tax break to the wealthiest...

Dan Shafer joins to talk about Wisconsin politics. Shafer, an independent journalist, runs the site The Recombobulation Area — a name with a pretty funny backstory he tells. On the show, we dive into the shared revenue plan, as well as Republicans cutting childcare funding from the state budget, the backlash from that and potential repercussions. We also discussed the state Legislature and governo...

La Crosse Police Chief Shawn Kudron joined to talk about what he called "challenging incidents" over the past week, including a drive-by shooting on 3rd Street that injured seven, a big drug bust and a knife being pulled on an officer. We also talked about Minnesota legalizing recreational marijuana, and the challenges that brings. Before that, WIZM's Brad Williams updated us on the hung jury over...

La Crosse city council member Barb Janssen joined to help break down better the homeless situation in La Crosse and an amendment that went before the council last week, and will go through committees in July dealing with banning camping in parks. Before that, however, and a a few days after a drive-by shooting injured seven people in downtown La Crosse, WIZM's Brad Williams calls in from the court...

UW-La Crosse political science professor, Dr. Anthony Chergosky joins. Broke down some middle-of-the-night votes by the Wisconsin state Legislature, ending childcare funding. Also discussed a couple conspiracy theories of Solem's on Gov. Tony Evers and the GOP Party convention, as well as the US Supreme Court. And we did have some fun with ways to get Chergosky's daughter to walk on her own, as we...

Chanin Kelly-Rae joined to talk about Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI), after she was hired by the La Crosse County Board as a consultant. Kelly-Rae is gathering DEI data and help the county government come up with a five-year strategic plan. We talked about some of her findings so far, as well as simply defining the terms diversity, equity and inclusion. Kelly-Rae also recently presented the...

Dr. Tom Schelsinger and Nick Nichols joined. They're from Climate Alliance for the Common Good out of La Crosse. We discussed some recent news about La Crosse County's landfill becoming a "land-full," and how that relates to the Xcel incinerator on French Island. We also talked recycling in Wisconsin We also talked recycling in Wisconsin. Schlesinger has a Ph. D. in Political Science specializing...

La Crosse Mayor Mitch Reynolds joins to talk about three huge topics affecting La Crosse — the recent shared revenue deal, the new homeless plan and the city about to charge for downtown parking. After some filibustering, Reynolds joined and first gave a "shout out" to the UW-La Crosse track and field team for winning the D3 National Championship and being invited to the White House. After that, w...

UW-La Crosse political science professor, Dr. Anthony Chergosky, in studio, and Wisconsin state Rep. Steve Doyle live from his parent’s estate sale, where he’s hoarding all his childhood belongings. We also get both their takes on the shared revenue deal. Began the show, however, talking about 4,000 people showing up to Thursday's Moon Tunes concert, the challenges that come with that and some hal...

Just a couple hours after Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers announced a deal with the state legislature on a shared revenue plan, Onalaska Mayor Kim Smith joined to talk about what that will mean for her city and other local governments around the state like it. Before that, however, WIZM's Brad Williams joined, back from Winona where police there held a news conference on the Madeline Kingsbury case, whe...

Brian Sampson with the city of La Crosse and Isaac Hoffman with the county join to talk about the area's homeless situation, a day after local leaders held a public meeting on the unsheltered. Hoffman is the La Crosse County supervisor of prevention and community programming. Sampson is the city’s Homeless Coordinator. We further discussed the first steps of what the county-city collaborative anno...

La Crosse Schools superintendent, Dr. Aaron Engel, joined, we discussed some of the ins and outs with the state budget and state funding for next school year, being an unknown, how truancy has increased to alarming rates and why Hamilton will no longer be year round. Started the show, though, talking about the school year ending and just throwing some ideas at Engel about teacher or class of the y...

La Crosse County and 3rd Congressional District Democratic Party chair William Garcia in studio. We talked about a host things, including incumbents sacrificing their seat for more power, the new Spider-Man: Across the Spider Verse and the upcoming state convention. In the midst of the conversation about incumbents, we discussed what Republicans would run against US Sen. Tammy Baldwin and the situ...

It’s Bizarro World with UW-La Crosse political science professor, Dr. Anthony Chergosky, as Donald Trump takes the high road, Bernie Sanders and Ron Johnson vote together, and Wisconsin is a doughnut desert — not to be confused with dessert. Began the show talking about the debt limit deal passing the Senate but the oddity of Republicans and Democrats voting together no on the package. After that,...

UW-La Crosse outreach specialist, Spencer Wilken, joins to talk about getting and living on Mars, NASA going public on UFOs, but not calling them that, and apparently, we just discovered that Earth has a second moon. We also talked about some of the science-type camps coming up on campus, including an International Youth Media Summit, where three 18-24 year olds from La Crosse are eligible for sch...

A three guest Wednesday, including Chris O'Hearn with River Clean Up La Crosse, WIZM's Brad Williams on another Gov. Tony Evers visit — this one on fixing the roads — and Sam Bachmeier with the county on broadband for all. O'Hearn kicked off the show talking about River Clean Up La Crosse, and shared a funny story about one of the weirder things he's pulled out of the river. Williams came on after...