La Crosse Talk PM WIZM

Two topics merged into one with Wisconsin’s billions in budget surplus and how schools get funded, as the La Crosse School Board this week voted to go back to a referendum for a new school.

Helping us navigate the two topics on La Crosse Talk PM is UW-Oshkosh Public Administration professor, Dr. Mike Ford.

We began the show having a bit of fun about why Ford last joined the show — if you recall the Joe Gow porn video scandal. After that, we got into Wisconsin’s budget surplus, which the Legislature has been mostly sitting on for over two years, and what the state should and shouldn’t do with it.

That led into a conversation about school funding, as La Crosse taxpayers could vote in the spring election to build a new elementary school. We also talked about how taxpayers pay for voucher school students and how Republicans in the Legislature are trying to propose a new way to pay for vouchers — but not use that same model to pay for public education.

Lastly, we spent some time on school boards, in general, and how local elections have become more politicized, despite being nonpartisan.

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Democratic Party chair of La Crosse County and Wisconsin’s 3rd US House District, William Garcia in studio, reminiscing about Spaceballs, after news of new Russian space tech, the GOP rolling back child labor laws in the state and if he wants Gov. Tony Evers to pass his maps.

Began the show talking about some potential new Russian space tech that could take out satellites, which got us talking about the movie Spaceballs. 

After that, a challenger to US Sen. Tammy Baldwin in Wisconsin in Eric Hovde — a multi-millionaire with businesses in California. 

We also talked some Wisconsin legislation both good and bad — rolling back child labor, allowing top high schools entry into UW colleges — and how new voting maps hasn’t really shown to change what things get passed that Gov. Tony Evers would sign. 

And lastly, with the news maps, Garcia talks about whether or not he wants Evers to sign them.

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UW-La Crosse political science professor, Dr. Anthony Chergosky, in studio on the multiple angles how new voting maps plays out in Wisconsin, Donald Trump ordered to pay another $355 million and how partisan politics keeps trickling into local elections.

The whole show kind of centers around power in politics.

Began with Trump in that regard, as he loses another lawsuit. Trump’s argument is something like the system is going after him, while others argue this is how the system should work. 

After that, Wisconsin Republicans’ power is about to be lessened, but by how much? They passed the Democratic governor’s maps and now the conundrum for Gov. Tony Evers is if he’ll sign them. What are the ramifications if he does or doesn’t?

Then we got into local elections becoming more partisan. Is that a result of the structure of the system to some degree?

La Crosse County Judge, and Branch 3 candidate, Mark Huesmann was just on the show last week — appointed by Evers. Next week, his opponent, Candice Tlustosch, who was a judge appointed by Republican Gov. Scott Walker. Is that political in a nonpartisan race, or just the system?

Beyond that, we talked about the county board races and the local political parties getting involved there, as well, both as candidates and with endorsements. 

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If no politician is completely happy and the fringes of both parties are mad, then it’s probably a good deal.

That sums up what Common Cause Wisconsin’s Jay Heck said Wednesday on La Crosse Talk PM, explaining the play by Republicans, who control the Legislature, to willingly pass Democratic Gov. Tony Evers’ voting maps. 

Heck also discusses why Republicans went this route, instead of rolling the dice on flipping the Wisconsin Supreme Court in two years and challenging the maps with potentially a conservative majority there.

It’s obvious why this is good for Democrats and Heck talks about why it’s a great deal for voters, but he is floated the idea that these maps are also good for Republicans. There are, too, of course predictions on how the numbers will shape up and if Democrats can win a majority in the Legislature.

Common Cause Wisconsin is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that’s been working to hold “power” accountable through lobbying, litigation, and grassroots organizing.

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National Weather Service La Crosse meteorologist Todd Shea in the studio discussing the ever-more common weird weather, a first-ever February tornado, no snow and how the job has changed. Shea has been doing weather in La Crosse since 1995 but he's been in the business since 1988. Part of what we talked about is the job itself, are there more or less people interested in the profession and how the profession has changed, even just in his time as a meteorologist. We also talked the first-ever February tornado to happen in Wisconsin — there were two a few days ago — and if these weird weather phenomenon are becoming more common.  Lastly we got into a discussion about weather versus climate and whose responsibility is it to look into each of those things.

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Wisconsin state Assembly Rep. Jill Billings in the WIZM studio Monday for La Crosse Talk PM, discussing new voting maps, ranked-choice voting, La Crosse Hometown Heroes being honored in Madison and bills she’s got hearings on. 

Began the show talking a bit about winter tourism, with Wisconsin not having a winter. 

After that (5:10), we discussed ranked-choice voting a bit, as it’s both getting a bipartisan committee hearings, as well as trying to be banned altogether by other Republicans. 

Then we talked about Hometown Heroes (8:30) that Billings has nominated — UW-La Crosse Fine Arts Department instructors Joe Anderson and Mary Leonard Anderson — who will be honored Thursday in the state Capitol.

The second half of the show (19:30), Billings listened to a rant about car insurance, before we got into a talk about new voting maps, and how Republicans in the state are apparently considering agreeing to use the Gov. Tony Evers’ drawn maps. 

Lastly (36:05), Billings has a couple of bills that could pass the Legislature. One having to deal with exempting minors from being charged with prostitution — because they’re minors — and another on Xylazine test strips. Xylazine is a new drug, typically called tranq.

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La Crosse County Judge Mark Huesmann in studio discussing treatment courts, mental health, bonding out of jail and just what exactly a judge does. 

We also talked about the drug problem in the county, the makeup of the court system and a veterans court that Huesmann helped create.

Huesmann is running for reelection for the Circuit Court Branch 3 seat he currently holds. He was appointed by Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers in July and took over in August for retiring Judge Todd Bjerke. 

Former appointed Branch 5 judge and La Crosse attorney Candice Tlustosch is also running for the Branch 3 seat.

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Political scientists, Marquette’s Dr. Charles Franklin and UW-La Crosse’s Dr. Anthony Chergosky, join Friday's La Crosse Talk PM to break down the latest Marquette Law School Poll, where we find Wisconsin voters don’t like any of the candidates, love marijuana and Nikki Haley would win the whole thing in a landslide.

Franklin is, what we call, the architect of the Marquette poll, which is one of the most prestigious in the country and one that all eyes look to, since Wisconsin is arguably the most important state to win in 2024.

Along with some of the poll results — Haley destroying Biden and Donald Trump even with Biden — we also talk about how these things compare to polls of the past. Plus, how some of the most important issues in the state are things many polled don’t know much about — like “redistricting.”

We started the show with Chergosky on just why this poll is so important and trusted. And, when Franklin joined, we had to throw some ridiculousness at him — like why there was no Taylor Swift question — and if he could throw all prestige out the window, what would he love to get polling on that, perhaps, isn’t political.

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Onalaska native and North Carolina shooting guard Lexi Donarski joined to talk the rise of women’s sports and guarding the most popular athlete in the U.S., Caitlin Clark, and getting ready for Cameron Indoor Stadium and the Duke-North Carolina rivalry. After that WIZM’s Brad Williams talks about the new plan for the La Crosse School District. 

With Donarski (2:15), we dive into how she’s lived through a lot of experiences that past athletes have not gone through — good and bad. That includes losing a potential state championship in high school due to COVID, playing as a college athlete through COVID, watching women’s sports rise to its most popular time in history, and what it was like guarding the most popular athlete, in Iowa’s Clark.

Plus, she’s about to play at Cameron against Duke as a member of the Tar Heels, a year removed from that Iowa-Iowa State rivalry. She’s also taken 18 summer credits to get her degree, then gone through the transfer portal, and we talk about trying to get her an NIL (Name, Image and Likeness) deal highlighting defense.

After that (20:05), Williams joins to talk about the recent decision by the La Crosse School Board to potentially put to a referendum building a new elementary school, instead of the plan that was studied for eight months to close Hintgen and North Woods. Is the school board trying to escape making a tough decision or are they doing the right thing putting the decision to voters? 

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A healthy conversation on what to eat and when to eat it Tuesday on La Crosse Talk PM with the YMCA’s Dr. Gretchen Newhouse and Laurie Nelson.

The two will be hosting a pair of nutrition workshops at the La Crosse Y on Thursday at 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. (sign up here). And, no, they won’t teaching you how to pig out during the Super Bowl.

The workshop will focus on the “timing of food” — when you should eat something before an activity and what you should be eating.

We did, however, have some fun with the idea, taking it another level with the Super Bowl. While marathoners need to think about what they eat heading into those 26.2 miles, what does the opposite of that look like? What do we need to do to prepare for a marathon of eating on Super Bowl Sunday?

Also, part of that workshop will be a bit about the La Crosse YMCA’s food forest and how this is the time to start thinking about gardening — and starting those seeds.

Newhouse is the wellness director at the YMCA, while Nelson, a registered nurse, is the Y’s Food Forest coordinator.

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