La Crosse Talk PM WIZM

Two guests on a Wednesday, led off by La Crosse city council member Chris Woodard to talk about a bill to ban big animal acts, then Zach Trebelhorn from the county discusses elderly abuse calls rising in the area.

Began the show talking a bit about the Biden Administration launching BINGO and pickleball campaigns, as First Lady Jill Biden plans to head to Wisconsin.

After that (5:20), Woodard, who represents District 9, joined to talk about a bill he’s sponsored that would ban traveling acts from having elephants, big cats and bears perform here.

Next (18:10), Trebelhorn, with Adult Protective Services at the county, stopped in studio to promote Elderly Abuse Awareness Day from 10 a.m.-noon Saturday at Riverside Park, that includes the big band, Grumpy Old Men.

Trebelhorn discussed how important it is to bring more awareness to the issue of elderly abuse and how numbers have been rising locally. 

The county says there were 320 community referrals in 2023 related to adults aged over 60 – an 8% increase from 2022, plus a 21% increase seen from 2021 to 2022. Of those 320, 80% of the cases were family members.

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Jed Olson, executive director of ORA Trails, in studio discussing how his nonprofit is helping lead the way to connecting La Crosse through big and bigger projects all over the county.

Started the show a little backwards, talking about how ORA survives, because everything they’re working on is open and free to the public, plus a quick overview of a couple of things they’re overseeing — like the Bud Hendrickson Trail and and the Shelby Trail Farm. 

Then we got into (7:45) a bit of the history of the organization and some of the day-to-day things they do like maintaining Hixon Forest and trainings they hold to do some of that work — like this weekend’s chainsaw training.

After that,we began getting into (14:50) how ORA is trying to “connect the dots” in the county, including the The Bluffland Traverse project, which we get into some more later in the show.

Second half of the show (21:15), we got into the two big projects led first by the West Salem Bike Playground, which is about 80% funded and hoping to be ready by fall, and then we spent more time on connecting north and south La Crosse County (32:00) through the Bluffland Traverse project.

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Wisconsin state Sen. Brad Pfaff in studio discussing bike lanes, missing out on high-speed rail, the priorities of farms, his GOP opponent and the do-nothing legislature.

We didn’t waste any time getting into it. Pfaff (D-Onalaska) brought up June being dairy month and that led to a lengthy conversation about farming crop priorities, meat monopolies and the federal farm bill that has yet to pass.

We then spent a little time (15:00) talking about his Republican opponent, Stacey Klein.

The bulk of the rest of the show was on transportation, led off by how we paraded around the state for Amtrak adding a second Chicago-to-Minneapolis line, but for what? Pfaff pointed out how Wisconsin missed out on having a federally funded high-speed rail when Scott Walker first became governor.

We then transitioned to bicycles, as Pfaff just spent some time on French Island riding with students to school. We discussed how both rural and city roads are mostly unsafe for bicyclists — if not just inconvenient.

Ended the show, like usual, how the state has sat on what is now $3-5 billion in budget surplus with a “full-time” state Legislature that takes the last nine months of its 24-month term off. 

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Isaac Hoffman, the La Crosse Area Family Collaborative director, in the WIZM studio for La Crosse Talk PM last Thursday updating us on the city-county plan to end homelessness, a project called Pathways Home.

We make the distinction early, but Hoffman, who works with the county, is part of the long-term plan combatting homelessness, which is a separate entity to what the city is currently doing, having public meetings over camping bans. 

Throughout the show, we discuss how unique La Crosse is with homelessness, what stage we’re at with Pathways Home — counting and categorizing — why we’re doing that, plus who will be prioritized throughout the project and the hurdles the plan has to overcome.

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UW-La Crosse political science professor, Dr. Anthony Chergosky, in studio ranking Donald Trump’s VP picks and discussing how Wheel of Fortune is both not political and best for politics, as Pat Sajak has last show.

Beginning of the show was mostly about Wheel of Fortune. But, not so much it being Sajak’s last show, but on Vanna White continuing and how she has the best job in history — though she apparently does more than reveal letters. We also got a take about “the Wheel” from WIZM’s gameshow expert Brad Williams, who has been on Jeopardy. And we talked about how the show's politics and "Hollywood" politics in general.

After that (16:30), we got political, starting first about Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul charging some in the state’s false elector scheme to overturn the 2020 election.

And, the second half of the show (22:40) started with the presidential debates coming up, before we wrapped up with Chergosky ranking the Top 8 vice presidential picks, including some OLIs (outside looking ins).

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Wisconsin Assembly Rep. Steve Doyle in studio discussing Donald Trump's guilty verdict, what the state should do about A.I. and how we haven't used much of the $4 billion in budget surplus.

We also talked about plastic pollution, charging people in the Wisconsin false electors scheme, plus the half-hearted effort from Republicans in the Legislature on veto overrides that cost taxpayers. 

First big topic we got into (7:15) was Wisconsin Attorney General charging three Republicans in the false electors scheme to overturn the 2020 election in the state.

We merged that conversation into one about the the Trump trial (12:45). Doyle was asked whether he was surprised by the verdict. He also drew some comparisons to Bill Clinton's impeachment in the 90s and whether this will help or hurt Trump politically. 

After that (16:30) we talked about A.I., as Doyle was on a committee in trying to determine how the state should handle things. Asked Doyle whether we should be regulating A.I. in terms of making art or creating news articles. Turned that conversation into one about plastics (25:15) and if the government should step in and try to regulate these things. 

Next we talked about the state's $3.5-$4 billion budget surplus (29:45) the state has been sitting on for over two years. What could it be used on? That led to a conversation about (33:00) businesses getting millions for building an EV charging network and ended quickly on the Legislature's veto override sessions where Republicans never even followed through, yet it cost taxpayers.

Began the show talking quick about Doyle's new voting district and how he's navigating a new voting base.

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A interesting and fun show with La Crosse County District Attorney Tim Gruenke, where we threw him some scenarios that are happening or could happen in regards to the courts, law and relating that to politics.

Some of it had to deal with the Donald Trump trial, another with a Wisconsin judge possibly needing to recuse himself, plus some local scenarios where that might happen — like a La Crosse judge flying a Black Lives Matters or Blue Lives Matters flag outside their home.

We also discussed juries in the Trump trial, the La Crosse Todd Kendhammer murder trial and the West Salem quarry triple homicide trial.

Sticking with Kendhammer, we talked about a Thursday decision coming from the Court of Appeals on the 2017 conviction that he killed his wife.

Gruenke is up for election in November, but he doesn’t have an opponent. That’s a trend throughout all 72 Wisconsin counties. Why? We also talked about that.

Lastly, I went back to traffic and dashcams conversation from last week. Should people have them? If your own dashcam catches you doing something illegal, what do you do?

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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, which had a packed council chamber over, basically, banning homeless from camping. We discussed (28:00) the ordinance to ban camping mostly along the River March that was voted down and how the city is navigating both the long- and short-term homeless crisis. 

Before that, however, we talked about the city hiring a new airport director (7:20). Jeffery Trip will take over for departed Ian Turner on June 17. Dickinson also chairs the Aviation Board

After that (17:25) we hit on the Capital Improvement Project budget for a minute, and the upcoming public meetings dealing with it.

We also talked about (21:00) how some neighborhoods in La Crosse have no sidewalks and do not want new sidewalks, while the city’s bicycle and pedestrian plan essentially is putting sidewalks on every street.

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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.

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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. 

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