La Crosse Talk PM WIZM

It happened this show, trying to recall a famous name from the 1990s and going through the steps with your mind to get there. Is it Alzheimer’s? No, and Dr. Kimberly Mueller, an associate professor at UW-Madison and researcher at the Wisconsin Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center, was there firsthand to explain it. Mueller joined the show ahead of her visit to town to give us a look at...

The best and worst from La Crosse Mayor Shaundel Washington-Spivey’s first year in office, as he stops in studio just days after that anniversary. We also discuss the city’s decision to appeal the Town of Campbell’s incorporation, the ongoing conversation around the north side pool, community outreach, and the reimagining of Pearl Street. We began the show highlighting Washington...

UW-La Crosse political science professor, Dr. Anthony Chergosky, in studio discussing how Wisconsin's US House members use the F bomb more than anyone, taxpayers are now paying for Badgers players and have state Republicans lost their "muscle." We started the show with the Brewers "city" Wisco jerseys, which led to how our state Legislature will do anything to use taxpayer money on sports. From th...

Mandela Barnes is back on the campaign trail, this time running for governor, and he stopped in studio leaning heavily into a "working class vs. corporate greed" narrative. Throughout the show, Barnes hit on his priorities, giving a Top 10 of what he’d like to get done that included expanding BadgerCare, fully funding public schools, and increasing the minimum wage. He also detailed plans to...

La Crosse City Council president Tamra Dickinson in studio for our monthly deep dive into the April council cycle. On the show, we discuss shifting operating budget funding, where the city administrator talk should be happening, and what's the latest for the old Kmart lot. We also hit on the idea of building an indoor pool facility and the debate over Emerson Elementary School getting historic des...

Adam Murphy on the environmental suck of AI data centers and Wisconsin's Supreme Court race He's what we like to call our political blowhard — politics and economics expert Adam Murphy recently joined the show to discuss the cost of AI data centers, the cost of gasoline vs. EVs and whether gender might play a role in the Wisconsin Supreme Court race. We start with the physical infrastructure...

Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers does the Friday news dump, vetoing no tax on tips and overtime, and the state doesn’t have a villain to make voters care about a Supreme Court race. Those were the big topics we covered with UW-La Crosse political science professor, Dr. Anthony Chergosky.  We also looked at the politics behind whether leaders in the state Legislature and the governor — wh...

A couple of ideas we've been talking about for years on WIZM are now being put into action at La Crosse City Hall. Jenna Dinkel, an associate city planner, joined to discuss La Crosse bringing back the iconic "Hatched Baby" or blue baby, as well as a the reimagining of Pearl Street in downtown La Crosse.  Hatched Baby was vandalized years ago and the city had to take it down. But artists have...

Terry Bauer in the WIZM studio, telling us about the Moon Tunes tribute party Thursday at the Rivoli Theatre in downtown La Crosse, ahead of the 15th year of this concert series at Riverside Park. The event is free but it's already half full. Tickets can be found on the Rivoli website here . Doors open at 4:30 p.m. and the tribute video begins at 6:30 p.m. There will be raffles drawn throughout th...

Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez stopped in studio to discuss her campaign to become Wisconsin's next governor hitting on everything from housing to childcare to minimum wage and marijuana — plus how weird her current job is. After getting to know the former healthcare executive and public health expert, we dove into her "nurse-first" approach to policy, including a bold childcare plan that caps fami...

Stadium food prices are getting out of hand, and Wisconsin state Sen. Brad Pfaff was in studio to discuss how legislative action could bring costs down for fans. Pfaff (D-Onalaska) broke down his “Stop the Squeeze” bill, which would cap concession prices at state-funded stadiums at 20% profit margins. We also compared what must be the best and worst concession deals in baseball —...

Mac Kiel in studio previewing committee week for the city of La Crosse, which includes potentially spending thousands of dollars in TID money like it’s an expiring gift card, that includes some big projects. Kiel helps explain—with the help of TID expert John Kovari from UW-L speaking with us before the show—some of the potential avenues for spending the money, which includes mov...

Holocaust survivor Irene Miller stopped in studio to tell her story, ahead of Thursday’s event at Viterbo University.  Miller tells her tale of resilience that defies imagination, beginning when she was 6 years old, her family fleeing the Germans to Warsaw for the "safety" of the Soviet Union. What they found instead was a frozen exile in Siberian labor camps and a desperate fight again...

Wisconsin Assembly Rep. Tara Johnson (D-Shelby) stopped in studio to help recap the work the state Legislature got done and what still needs to be accomplished — but won't. We began the show discussing how the Legislature is done working for the rest of 2026, despite the need for property tax relief, education and childcare funding, along with Democratic priorities like raising the minimum w...

If he's going to run for president, his slogan might be, "Washington needs a good powerwashing." Rahm Emanuel, Barack Obama's former Chief of Staff, stopped in the WIZM studio ahead of a town hall at UW-La Crosse to discuss some issues with D.C. That included his 75-year-old mandatory retirement age, banning prediction market betting for federal employees and their families, and how to help second...

UW-La Crosse political science professor, Dr. Anthony Chergosky in studio, discussing the end of the Wisconsin state Legislature's work for the year that essentially got the second-highest ranking Republican to quit — but it wasn't over banning milkshakes from legislation. Before we got into that though, WIZM's Brad Williams joined to discuss how the farmers market is coming back to Cameron...

La Crosse Mayor Shaundel Washington-Spivey in the WIZM studio discussing the Kmart lot and development in La Crosse, advocating for the city in Madison — as well as other stakeholders here — plus the city-school relationship with elementary buildings coming offline and the idea of creating an indoor pool facility. We also discussed how Washington-Spivey has changed strategic planning s...

La Crosse School Board candidate Scott Neumeister Q&A with Rick Solem. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

La Crosse School Board candidate Deb Suchla Q&A with Rick Solem. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

La Crosse School Board candidate Loretta Hass Q&A with Rick Solem. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

La Crosse School Board candidate Jake Williams Q&A with Rick Solem. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

La Crosse School Board candidate Lee Weis Q&A with Rick Solem. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Trevor Sprague, La Crosse School Board candidate Q&A with Rick Solem. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Wisconsin Badgers are pushing for a state funding bill that would take $14.6 million in taxpayer money to essentially help pay its players. The funding would help pay down facility debt and free up funding Wisconsin could use to pay NIL money to athletes. We tried to solve that dilemma with University of Wisconsin Athletic Director Chris McIntosh by joking that the beer sales should have been...

Giving UW-Madison $14.6 million in taxpayer money to pay players, will sports gambling become legal and gas prices going up were the big topics we covered Friday with economist, Dr. Adam Hoffer. Hofffer is the director of excise tax policy at the Tax Foundation and began by explaining what excise tax is — or sin taxes, like gambling, alcohol, marijuana. Another one of those excise taxes is g...