La Crosse Talk PM WIZM

UW-L outreach specialist Spencer Wilken in studio, breaking 1960s news again — this time about nefarious experiments on twins. She also delivered some space news, including finding the largest diamond and NASA’s biodome experiment for living on Mars.

Began the show recapping past “Major Breaking” shows from decades-old news, including the 1876 Kentucky meat shower and the 1950s Great Beaver Drop. That was a precursor to two other 1960s experiments — one about twins and triplets separated as infants — without consent — and then studied for years. Data that’s still being fought over by these subjects today. The other about creating a mouse utopia. 

We also discussed a similar telescope to James Webb launching Saturday from Europe — and why the James Webb owns some sweet real estate above Earth, and we capped off the show talking about the Earth’s upper atmosphere is cooling, which apparently isn’t great news.

SHOW LINKS:
Mars biodome: https://futurism.com/the-byte/nasa-test-subjects-simulated-mars-base

James Webb pal: https://phys.org/news/2023-06-europe-space-telescope-universe-dark.html

Earth's atmosphere: https://www.wired.com/story/the-upper-atmosphere-is-cooling-prompting-new-climate-concerns/

Triplet experiment: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/twofold/202110/the-controversial-study-twins-and-triplets-adopted-and-reared-apart

Mouse utopia: https://www.livescience.com/58257-milgram-experiment-poland-obey-authority.html

Largest-ever diamond: https://www.livescience.com/space/cosmology/this-collapsed-star-is-turning-into-an-gigantic-diamond-before-our-eyes

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UW-La Crosse political science professor, Dr. Anthony Chergosky, in studio discussing whether government should legislate based on the Facebook comment sections, traffic shaming as an alternative to tickets, “Indiana Jones, really?” and the US Supreme Court.

The show began talking about movie remakes, like the new Indiana Jones movie that just came out, but that somehow led to a discussion about social media. In the past week, guests on La Crosse Talk PM have mentioned the comment section in regards to certain issues in the city, so we talked about whether that’s how governments should be taking the pulse of a community — and are public comments before city, county meetings just an older version of the comment section.

After that, we discussed a strategy in Washington where they’re public shaming bad drivers through letters and texts, but we honed it down to be more effective — including an idea from a caller.

We also talked about the recent US Supreme Court decisions, and threw Chergosky three different questions. One in how the court works — like how many hours a week are they putting in? Also, if the decisions are political winners or losers and we rehashed my conspiracy theory on the court can increase its dwindled popularity.

Lastly, we hit on Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers upcoming options on the state budget, which passed the Legislature this week.

TOPIC LINKS:

Supreme Court rulings

• Affirmative action in college admissions https://www.wizmnews.com/2023/06/29/divided-supreme-court-outlaws-affirmative-action-in-college-admissions-says-race-cant-be-used/
• Wedding websites for gay couples https://www.wizmnews.com/2023/06/30/the-supreme-court-rules-for-a-designer-who-doesnt-want-to-make-wedding-websites-for-gay-couples/
• Student loans https://www.wizmnews.com/2023/06/30/the-supreme-court-rejects-bidens-plan-to-wipe-away-400-billion-in-student-loan-debt/

Washington driver shaming: 

https://dcist.com/story/23/06/23/dc-text-messages-letters-dangerous-drivers/

Wisconsin state budget:

https://www.wizmnews.com/2023/06/29/wisconsin-republicans-send-budget-state-to-democratic-gov-evers-after-assembly-passage-thursday/

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Laura Godden, a UW-La Crosse Archivist and member of Heritage Preservation Commission, joined to discuss the city’s most endangered buildings, the controversy over making Lincoln Middle School a historic landmark and if K-Mart is next.

Began the show, however, talking about what being an Archivist is and the kind of things she’s seen, while working at UW-L. After that, we talked a bit about the city’s Top 10 most endangered buildings list and the thought process behind it. 

The bottom half of the show, we dissected the Lincoln Middle School dilemma, where the Heritage Preservation Commission granted it landmark status, but the La Crosse School District is unhappy about that, because it is trying to sell the building. Godden breaks down why the district might actually benefit from historic status in selling Lincoln.

Lastly, we got Godden’s personal Top 10 Least Endangered Buildings list, which may or may not have had something to do with the food those buildings produced.

Top 10 Most Endangered buildings: https://www.wizmnews.com/2023/05/24/lincoln-hogan-schools-glory-days-bar-on-la-crosses-top-10-most-endangered-buildings/

Heritage Preservation Commission grants Lincoln historic status:

https://www.wizmnews.com/2023/06/22/la-crosses-lincoln-middle-school-gets-landmark-status-but-that-could-complicate-sale-of-the-building/

School Board wants to appeal Lincoln historic status: 

https://www.wizmnews.com/2023/06/27/la-crosse-school-board-votes-to-appeal-historic-status-for-lincoln-school-building/

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Sherry Picah, owner of Sprout Childcare on the south side of La Crosse, joined to discuss the dilemma Wisconsin facilities and families are in, after childcare funding was cut out of the state budget. Last week, at 2:30 a.m., Republicans on the Joint Finance Committee voted to end what's called the Child Care Counts program — $340 million in funding the last two years that allowed facilities to stay in the margins. Picha talks about the repercussions from those cuts — the crunch that puts, not just childcare facilities in, but also families and other businesses. We also talk about what the next steps could be — would childcare facilities strike — and how important childcare centers are for those first years of a kid's life. 

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Wisconsin state Sen. Brad Pfaff joins. We discussed the discrepancies in the GOP tax cut plan, where top earners see a sizable tax break and lower income get about $2.67 back a month. We also talked about the Joint Finance Committee cutting a childcare funding and not implementing an equal replacement in the state budget. Pfaff also hints on some some amendments to the budget Democrats want to propose when the Senate votes on Wednesday. We did take some calls, as well, including a Town of Holland bridge being unusable right now and the plan to fix that.

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W-La Crosse political science professor, Dr. Anthony Chergosky joins La Crosse Talk PM to break down the GOP-proposed Wisconsin budget, Trump on top among state Republicans and the deal with lab-grown meat. Began the show, though, talking about Taylor Swift taking over St. Paul with a Friday night concert, where the cheapest ticket was around $800 and the most expensive just hours before the show was nearly at $10,000. Most expensive Taylor Swift ticket on Stubhub just hours before St. Paul show.
Spent quite bit of time discussing the tax cut plan put forward by Republicans crafting Wisconsin’s two-year budget, along with Brewers stadium funding and cutting childcare money that has created an uproar. And how that now kind of feels like it's being fast-tracked, despite a $7 billion budget surplus, because the top Republican has a work-cation July 4.  Also talked about the Wisconsin GOP Party straw poll on presidential nominees. In between that, however, we discussed billionaires offering $127,000 to be dog nannies and two companies getting approval to sell lab-grown chicken. But the latter conversation was more about the horrible terminology and terrible names of these two companies.

Story links:

Wisconsin GOP budget breakdown: https://www.wizmnews.com/2023/06/23/tax-cuts-and-a-uw-squeeze-a-look-at-the-proposed-republican-backed-wisconsin-state-budget/

Lab-grown meat: https://www.cnn.com/2023/06/21/business/cultivated-meat-us-approval/index.html

GOP cuts Wisconsin childcare funding at 2 a.m.: https://www.wizmnews.com/2023/06/16/wisconsin-republicans-vote-at-2-a-m-to-end-funding-for-child-care-program/

Billionaire's dog nannies: https://www.ktvu.com/news/billionaires-offering-dog-nanny-job-with-127k-salary-pull-ad-after-surge-in-applications

Wisconsin GOP Party straw poll for president: https://www.wispolitics.com/2023/wispolitics-wisconsin-gop-activists-prefer-trump-for-president-tiffany-for-u-s-senate

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Wisconsin state Rep. Jill Billings joins just as the figures come out on the Republican tax cut plan for the state. We also talked about GOP's 2 a.m., bar time decision to defund childcare and we may have solved the Brewers stadium situation. Began the show on the tax cut plan that doesn't increase, but decreases the number of brackets in the state and gives the largest tax break to the wealthiest. After that, we discussed the GOP plan not to fund the UW-La Crosse Prairie Spring Science Center. I floated Billings my idea to solve the Brewers stadium situation and we ended the show trying to decipher why Republicans cut a very popular, effective childcare subsidy plan that's been working for years out of the budget — while the state sits on a $7 billion surplus.

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Dan Shafer joins to talk about Wisconsin politics. Shafer, an independent journalist, runs the site The Recombobulation Area — a name with a pretty funny backstory he tells. On the show, we dive into the shared revenue plan, as well as Republicans cutting childcare funding from the state budget, the backlash from that and potential repercussions. We also discussed the state Legislature and governor fight over who can be responsible for giving money for Milwaukee Brewers stadium renovations. Also threw Shafer an idea for that plan he hadn't heard before. But, we began the show talking a bit about a tour of La Crosse's wastewater treatment plant, hosted by the superintendent of the facility, Jared Greeno. 

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La Crosse Police Chief Shawn Kudron joined to talk about what he called "challenging incidents" over the past week, including a drive-by shooting on 3rd Street that injured seven, a big drug bust and a knife being pulled on an officer. We also talked about Minnesota legalizing recreational marijuana, and the challenges that brings. Before that, WIZM's Brad Williams updated us on the hung jury over the West Salem triple homicide and we concluded the show discussing the governor signing a shared revenue bill and the UW System president saying college campuses could close, as they're under threat of being defunded.

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La Crosse city council member Barb Janssen joined to help break down better the homeless situation in La Crosse and an amendment that went before the council last week, and will go through committees in July dealing with banning camping in parks. Before that, however, and a a few days after a drive-by shooting injured seven people in downtown La Crosse, WIZM's Brad Williams calls in from the courthouse reporting on the alleged shooter's first court appearance. We also discussed the Vernon County Sheriff's deputy killing of someone during a traffic stop.

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