La Crosse Talk PM WIZM

City Council President Tamra Dickinson in studio as La Crosse Talk PM returns from about a year hiatus.

On the show we discuss a crazy amount of things, including one of the two parks reopening, the Charmant sale needing council approval, the search for an airport director and bringing in Allegiant Airlines. We also hit on the old Kmart lot development status, the DOT bike lanes plan for downtown, hiring a city administrator and closing the north side pool.

Dickinson also gives an update on getting new ADA compliant bathrooms installed at Badger Hickey Park on the north side. 

In regards to the parks reopening, Dickinson explained how it was a soft opening, with Burns Park first, then Cameron Park in maybe a few months. Both have been closed since early September.

Dickinson also talked about the details with Allegiant Air coming to the La Crosse airport, plus Lauren Koss being the interim director and how long the search will be for a permanent one.

In terms of things coming before the council, Dickinson talked about the development group needing to rework its proposal on the old Kmart lot, as well as the working group studying the city administrator position getting set to present to the council at a special meeting at 5 p.m. Thursday.

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UW-La Crosse political science professor, Dr. Anthony Chergosky, in studio discussing optics of the Trump-Zelenskyy Oval Office meeting, media bias and why Republicans are now shying away from public town halls. 

Plus, Chergosky reignites the #CurdWar between Kwik Trip and Culvers, and we chatted quick about the end of Skype, when the video service should be ruling the world.

We began the show by delving into media bias, highlighting billionaire Jeff Bezos's recent overhaul of The Washington Post's opinion section to prioritize "personal liberties" and "free markets," which led to the resignation of opinion editor David Shipley. This move has sparked significant debate about media handling of the Trump administration.

Our conversation then shifted to the peculiar televised meeting between Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, President Donald Trump, VP JD Vance, and the media. We analyzed the unusual dynamics of the event, including whether anyone emerged favorably from the encounter including the journalist who blew his question asking Zelenskyy about not wearing a suit).

This led us to examine why Republicans, including House Speaker Mike Johnson, are retreating from holding public town halls, claiming paid actors are attending to voice complaints. Chergosky noted that Democrats held a similar stance around 2009 during Obama's tenure and the Tea Party movement.

We wrapped up the show saying farewell to Skype and wondering how it managed to fumble what should have been an easy win as the pandemic moved everyone to video calls. Once the only name in that realm, Skype somehow let Zoom take over — when, really, it should have been ruling the world of virtual meetings.

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UW-La Crosse political science professor, Dr. Anthony Chergosky, may have just sparked Wisconsin’s fiercest food fight — the Great Curds War between Kwik Trip and Culver’s.

We kicked off Friday's show with this critical debate and circled back often. Chergosky took a firm stance on who has the best cheese curds based on some changes in the Kwik Trip kitchens. 

In the spirit of ranking Wisconsin favorites, we also discussed La Crosse-area businesses that made Forbes Top 100 list for customer service, including Kwik Trip, Chick-fil-A, Barnes & Noble, The UPS Store, Five Below, Texas Roadhouse, and the soon-to-arrive Raising Cane’s.

From there, we tackled the La Crosse mayor race between Shaundel Washington-Spivey and Chris Kahlow.

A big chunk of the conversation centered on the city administrator position, which was a continuation of Thursday's conversation with Dr. John Kovari. 

Chergosky discussed whether the position could bring out single-issue voters, how the candidates have (or haven’t) taken a firm stance on city administrator, and why it doesn’t really have political ideologies — unlike everything else these days (even cursive in Wisconsin, for some reason).

We also briefly covered the La Crosse School Board race, featuring six candidates, and broke down Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers’ state budget address. Is it a legacy budget? A reelection budget?

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UW-L political science and public administration professor, Dr. John Kovari, joins in-studio to dissect everything from the city administrator's role in lowering La Crosse taxes to working Oompa Loompas into a conversation about TIFs — which might explain why his TIF book is orange.

Kovari breaks down TIF (Tax Increment Financing) districts, how La Crosse uses them, and why they're on the spring ballot for both mayor and city council.

Oh, and speaking of TIFs, Kovari literally wrote the book on them — Tax Increment Financing: A Practical Guide for Analyzing TIF Risks, Benefits, and Outcomes (available here). He is yet to set up a Pearl Street Books signing.

Beyond TIFs, we dig into the pros and cons of La Crosse potentially hiring a city administrator, which is also on the ballot. Part of that conversation included whether the position could help lower taxes.

Finally, we discuss regionalizing assets, like the La Crosse Center and the La Crosse Regional Airport and how that, too, could reduce the burden on city taxpayers.

Basically, the whole show toyed with the one big question: How do we lower taxes in La Crosse so people actually want to move here?

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UW-La Crosse political science professor, Dr. Anthony Chergosky, joins on Valentine's Day, so of course we discuss those chalk hearts. We also got into voter turnout in Tuesday's primary with the mayor race being on the ballot, plus is Tim Walz going to run for US Senate in Minnesota? 

Began the show, though, with Valentine's Day, whether those candy hearts are even good and what ever happened to those candy cigarettes. Later in the show, we negotiate a babysitting hourly rate to watch Chergosky's 2 year old.

After that, we hit on voter turnout in Wisconsin's primary election, which comes to conclusion Tuesday and how that could be all over the place. Onalaska has one thing on the ballot, while La Crosse has its mayor and school board.

After that, news that 66-year-old US Sen. Tina Smith isn't running for reelection in Minnesota and if Gov. Tim Walz would put himself in that race. That led to a few conversations, including if governor or senator is a tougher job and if governor or mayor is more difficult. We also talked about how political parties might handle having a primary in those races and if that's better or worse in terms of winning the overall election.

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UW-La Crosse political science professor, Dr. Anthony Chergosky, in the WIZM studio Friday for La Crosse Talk PM, breaking down the mayor debate, while also discussing what you wish you knew before moving to the area and creating fake social media profiles.

Less than 12 hours after WIZM hosted the four candidates for La Crosse mayor, Chergosky, along with WIZM’s Brad Williams, spent a good portion of the show covering different aspects of the forum, including the mic drop answer from one candidate and some of the other key questions. 

We also hit the La Crosse Reddit question of the day: What do you wish you'd known before moving to La Crosse?

The third thing we covered was the controversy of public officials making fake social media profiles to either bash opponents or policy, or talk themselves up, as a story out of Oshkosh shows two school board members doing just that. It’s also something that’s happened in the area, when the Holmen School Board president did something similar. 

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On Feb. 6, the four candidates running for La Crosse mayor took part in a forum hosted by WIZM at the UW-La Crosse Student Union. Shaundel Washington-Spivey, Vicki Markussen, Ellie McLoone and Chris Kahlow are looking to push through the primary and on to the spring election. Voting in the primary ends Feb. 18, when the field will be cut to two.

Here's the rundown of questions:

3:24 - Opening statements 

10:22 - Question 1: Allyson Fergot (WKBT) — What's your opinion of the Pathways Home project and what would you do as mayor to make it a success?

15:18: Question 2: Brad Williams (WIZM) —  How do you see the ideal role of a city administrator who would work alongside and where do you stand on the idea if one is hired?

20:18: Question 3: Chandler Brindley (WXOW) — How do you continue to ensure a safe level of drinking water for the city of La Crosse?

24:40: Question 4: Hope Kirwan (WPR) — In what ways can the city best support La Crosse Schools?

29:53: Question 5: Todd Krysiak (Tribune) — Do you believe there's a need for the city to focus infrastructure updates on a specific type of infrastructure in upcoming budgets and, if so, what type needs the most attention?

34:56: Question 6: Fergot — As mayor what would you to build 200 new housing units a year to keep up with demand, while keeping prices affordable for residents.

40:44: Question 7: Williams — How do you plan to work with the surround communities and could you point to a program where you'd like to see more cooperation?

45:14: Question 8: Brindley — What are your thoughts on charging for a city amenity , like the new $25 a year to use the yard waste site?

49:59: Question 9: Kirwan — Should La Crosse Police be involved in immigration enforcement, assisting federal immigration officers?

52:28: Question 10: Krysiak — How would you hold city department heads accountable to meet your goals for the city, especially since at this time La Crosse does not have a city administrator? 

56:22: Closing statements

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UW-L political science professor, Dr. Anthony Chergosky, in the WIZM studio for La Crosse Talk discussing the worthwhile and worthless bill lawmakers propose, like banning cellphones in school in Wisconsin and putting Donald Trump on Mt. Rushmore.

We went down a rabbit hole on that latter idea, while I came up with a better proposal — putting Trump on the $1 million bill. That, in a way, actually, already happened, but it did lead to a deep dive on the idea.

After that, we got into a more substantive discussion on Wisconsin legislators proposing a school cellphone ban and how this is an example of big government doing something good versus leaving it to small governments, like school boards, to be the arbiter of such things.

After that, other proposals by Republicans in the Legislature, including requiring schools to display “in god we trust,” what flags get to be flown, no tax on tips, return to work requirements and curbing the governor’s veto powers.

Began the show, though talking about the Super Bowl halftime show with Kendrick Lamar and how that’s triggered 17 Louisiana Republicans worried something might happen.

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La Crosse County and 3rd US House District Democratic Party chair William Garcia in studio trying to make sense of all the chaos that surrounds President Donald Trump's first days, the Dems' involvement in local races and Goonies turns 40 this year.

Started and ended the show with Trump's first 10 days in office. We began with his administration's strategy of overwhelming with chaos. The impossibility of anyone or anything trying to keep track of what's going on. We ended with DEI. Trump blamed just about everything, including DEI, on the nearly 70 dead from an Army Blackhawk helicopter crashing into a passenger jet.

In between that, we hit on some of the past and present legislative policies in Wisconsin, including Gov. Tony Evers lowering the standard on lead in water to help replace pipes, as well as the state allowing free tax filing. We also hit on how funding for reading, PFAS and emergency rooms couldn't get passed in the last two years, despite being in that budet.

Then we got into the La Crosse mayor forum coming at 6 p.m. Feb. 6 at the UW-La Crosse Student Union, plus how the La Crosse County Democratic Party is involved in local elections, like mayor, school board and city council.

After that, we paused a bit to chat about our other passion: sci-fi. A new Spiderman series dropped on Disney, but we also talked about the latest Star Wars show Skeleton Crew, as Garcia compared it to Goonies — which actually turns 40 this year.

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UW-La Crosse political science professor, Dr. Anthony Chergosky, in studio as we kickoff the show breaking news that a La Crosse mayor primary debate is coming, plus the news of a media group laying off or firing local meteorologists. 

Began the show talking about WIZM hosting an upcoming La Crosse mayor debate between Ellie McLoone (who will be on La Crosse Talk at 7 a.m. Wednesday), Chris Kahlow, Shaundel Washington-Spivey and Vicki Markussen (who was on La Crosse Talk last week Monday). 

After that, we discussed Allen Media perhaps backtracking on laying off meteorologists, including in La Crosse, after public outcry. We also conjured up a strange scenario in what could be their plan to replace weather people with some Weather Channel intern in Atlanta, and what that might look like. Lastly, we simply asked the question, "Do we need local meteorologists?" We can access the weather any time, plus there are nearly a dozen employees at the National Weather Service La Crosse, up on the bluff.

After that, more weather news, as a meteorologist in Milwaukee was fired for expressing their opinion on their personal social media site of Elon Musk's "Nazi-like salute."

Lastly, we talked about a "Captain Obvious" statement from the Walgreens CEO, who said people buy less stuff when it's locked behind glass cases. 

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