La Crosse Talk PM WIZM

There’s an important election coming in 2024 and, no, it isn’t the one with two senior citizens on the ballot. Hannah Dull and Grant Mathu of the La Crosse Young Dems were in studio to discuss how important the spring elections are when it comes to local issues like closing schools and rent costs.

Began the show just talking generally about the group, before laying out how people shouldn’t get too sucked into the 2024 presidential election, before really paying attention to the county board, city council and school board elections coming up in the spring.

The La Crosse Young Dems is a new group that welcomes anyone from about the 18-40 age range but they really aren’t that picky. They meet at 6:30 p.m. the last Wednesdays of the month at the La Crosse County Democratic Party headquarters on State Road.

Email them here.

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We look at the housing situation and some key legislation going currently through city committees on short-term rentals and "ADUs" with Kahya Fox, the executive director of Habitat for Humanity of the Greater La Crosse Region. It's committee week in La Crosse and the city is looking at regulations on short-term rentals and whether to allow what's called Accessory Dwelling Units. We also couldn't come up with a better name for "ADUs," though Fox called them "Mother In-Law homes." We also discussed the crunch the city is in for housing stock, and how the city's population could drop below a key threshold which would make it ineligible for government funding. The city of La Crosse saw the biggest per capita drop in population across Wisconsin in 2023. We began the show talking about a Habitat program that allows homeowners to get help working on projects around their property, and we ended the show discussing how Habitat set a record for rebuilding and rehabbing homes, and how it's in the midst of a statewide public voting competition for a $15,000 award. To vote for Habitat La Crosse, click here.

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La Crosse City Council members Erin Goggin and Mark Neumann in studio to help explain and preview one of the city's biggest committees, Finance and Personnel. We discuss some of the budget items, like short-term rentals, what the F&P committee represents and how the public can get involved. Other agenda items we discussed broadly was the fire chief saving the city $800,000, a couple of lease agreements, and "public way vacations." In regards to short-term rentals we dissected, a bit, how both of the city's big committees work somewhat in unison on legislation, such as short-term rentals. The F&P committee meets at 6 p.m. Thursday at city hall and online.  

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UW-La Crosse political science professor, Dr. Anthony Chergosky, in studio Friday for La Crosse Talk PM to discuss how penguins nap thousands of times a day, a development plan to tear down the old Macy’s for fast food and parking, and how we’ve already started the 2025 campaign season.

Began the show talking about the Valley View Mall, and a proposal discussed Thursday on La Crosse Talk PM to tear down the Macy’s to build a Panda Express, a Raising Cane’s, a carwash and more parking.

After that, an interesting story on demographics, where the city of La Crosse has seen the largest population decrease in Wisconsin. Where are those people going? North. Just a bit north.

Then we had a great call from Karen — not THAT kind of Karen — on WIZM’s Operation Poinsettia and how that brings joy to a lot of seniors like her around this time of year. She also suggested WIZM should bring animal rescues to them, as well. We still need a name for that, though, because “Operation Cat-Dog” doesn’t quite work.

Karen also brought up a funny story on penguins, which we had to get into, in how these animals take thousands of four-second naps a day. We also took a couple of our own “penguin naps.”

After that, we had to ask Chergosky if it’s ridiculous that former Republican Wisconsin Attorney General Brad Schimel has announced he’s running for state Supreme Court … in 2025. So, bypassing that little 2024 election.

That led to a discussion about “The Permanent Campaign," as the Wisconsin state Legislature — a full-time body — is out of session until mid-January and only working 3.5 months in all of 2024, before they hit the campaign trail.

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It's the Mac and Mack hour of La Crosse Talk PM, with city council members Mackenzie Mindel and Mac Kiel in studio to discuss legislation to demolish the old Macy's at the Valley View Mall and replace it with other businesses and look at multiple housing items, including an ordinance in regards to Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs). Both Mindel and Kiel are on the city's Judiciary and Administration (J&A) Committee. With that we talked about how J&A, which meets the first Tuesday of the month, and the Personnel and Finance Committee, which meets the following Thursday, are the city's most powerful committees and how these are the meetings in which the public should be highly involved.

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Wisconsin Farmers Union president, Darin Von Ruden, joined to discuss the federal Farm Bill that got kicked down the road and what small farm supporters should now be lobbying Congress to include. That led to talk about factory farms v small farms. We also hit on Wisconsin legislation on grass fed farms, as well as internet access.

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La Crosse County administrator Jane Klekamp in studio discussing potential county board strategic plan makeup, county priorities — like fixing roads — county vs. city governments, transparency, the DEI consultant's upcoming report and current survey and housing project grants.

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Wisconsin state Assembly Rep. Steve Doyle joined to discuss the governor using a fake email, how much is too much to fix La Crosse County roads, whether he’s running again in 2024 — as we make fun of his age multiple times — and the blasphemes question of whether legislators should get a raise.

We also talked with Doyle, a Democrat out of Onalaska, about the A.I. committee he's on and some things the state might need to do in various forms of education — in regards to A.I. and "fake news." 

Began things talking about the holidays and, while Wisconsin doesn’t have a higher minimum wage, should the state make double-time pay mandatory for people who have to work on a holiday, like Thanksgiving. 

From there we talked (7:00) about the county using $14 million next year to “fix the roads,” and whether that’s too much.

After that, we asked if he’s running in 2024 (10:30), before discussing the story that Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers using an alias email to conduct government business (13:05), and if the Legislature should pass some rules against doing that.

Concluded the show talking about my ludicrous idea of giving the state Legislature a pay raise or making it a part-time entity (23:30) and ended things discussing his work on the state A.I. committee, if a 65-year-old is the right man for the job in that regard (32:10) and what kind of education the state might need — with A.I. and fake news.

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The architect of the Marquette University Law School polls, Dr. Charles Franklin joined, to talk about his creation, how its evolved and some of its latest findings, including the 2024 presidential election and the Wisconsin Supreme Court.

Franklin is a Professor of Law and Public Policy, as well as the Director of Marquette Law School Poll. We were also joined by UW-La Crosse political science professor, Dr. Anthony Chergosky.

Chergosky began the show talking a bit about the latest Marquette Law poll and how polls have changed. 

That conversation, of course, continued with Franklin throughout the show — how the questions are created and how the information is gathered from the public — phone and online.

Franklin told an interesting story on how the poll began in 2012, and how it may not have become as popular as it has, if the politics at that time had not been the way they were.

We then got into a conversation about the 2024 presidential election — and what the poll numbers show a year away from the election.

We also asked Franklin questions on poll results affecting Wisconsin, including how the state Legislature is perceived, how the lawsuit on district lines is received, Wisconsin’s two US Senators through the last election (Ron Johnson) and this upcoming one (Tammy Baldwin), and how the public feels about the Wisconsin Supreme Court expressing its personal opinions. 

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Keeping and attracting teachers to Wisconsin was a big part of this show with Christina Brey, the public affairs manager for the Wisconsin Education Association Council (WEAC).

We discussed some legislation WEAC has proposed, why rural schools are hurting worse for teachers and some ways the state could change to create better jobs for educators.

We also talked about a lawsuit over taxpayer funded voucher students that could possibly end that system in Wisconsin. With that, we discussed the double standard public and private schools have in the state and how much extra private schools cost taxpayers in the area.

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