La Crosse Talk PM WIZM

Two guest Tuesday, beginning with Happy Plants owner Stephanie Perry, who's shop near TJ Maxx in La Crosse will have a grand opening celebration this weekend — though the boutique is open now. After that, Michael Quam with the Salvation Army joins to talk about the homeless situation in La Crosse, a few weeks after Houska Park evicted campers. Quam talks about how many are staying at the SA currently, some of the ways they go about getting people back on their feet and the group's Canteen, which provides lunches seven days a week.

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La Crosse Mayor Mitch Reynolds in studio, discussing the city potentially cutting services, his demands for action from the Wisconsin Legislature in regards to the state budget, Delta bailing on La Crosse and bringing back “Blue Baby." Spent a lot of time on what the state needs to do to help fund municipalities like La Crosse in the upcoming two-year budget, as the Wisconsin Joint Finance Committee is holding hearings this week on those plans. Also hit on Delta Airlines leaving the La Crosse Airport and the impact there. Spent a couple minutes discussing a UW-La Crosse student's campaign to bring back the Hatched (Blue) Baby artwork that was destroyed from vandalism. But began and ended talking NBA playoffs, of course. 

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It's been gone a year and a half now, but one UW-La Crosse student is taking it upon herself to try and bring back "Blue Baby." Ashlyn Neader joined to talk about her petition to bring back a piece of art in the city of La Crosse called Hatched Baby. If you don't know, Hatched Baby was a 9-foot tall statue of a blue baby's head coming out of an egg. It was created by Wolfgang Auer, a German artist from La Crosse's sister city of Friedberg, Germany, and donated to the city. It was vandalized in September of 2021, and deemed irreparable, thus removed from its perch in front of the city's police headquarters. Neader's main reasoning behind the campaign is because she feels Hatched Baby's destruction is not representative of who the people of La Crosse are. She hopes to get the statue fixed by Auer and put back on display. Sign the petition here: https://www.change.org/p/bring-back-blue-baby

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UW-La Crosse political science professor, Dr. Anthony Chergosky in studio. A whirlwind of a show that dealt with everything from the election recap to the government banning participation trophies to the best MLB mascots to the ongoing politics in Wisconsin's legislature. Began the show with a bit of a recap on Tuesday's election results. From there we talked about a poll of MLB's best mascots — Bernie Brewer is not happy — before discussing the politics of cancelling student loan debt. After that, we hit on a state banning participation trophies, before ending with the work — or lack thereof — Wisconsin's legislature is doing and baseball's new sped-up game.

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Wisconsin state Assembly Rep. Jill Billings in studio to discuss the how the public comments in the budget process, La Crosse building projects and the $7.1 billion budget surplus. Spent the first half of the show going back and forth between the building funding/projects the La Crosse School District has and UW-La Crosse. After that, we discussed her hosting an upcoming public comment session on the state budget, happening Monday (April 10) at the Main Street Library in La Crosse, and some of the details people might want to know in how to participate. Lastly, we talked about the recent election, some of the things the Wisconsin Supreme Court might take up and voter turnout in La Crosse.

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School District of La Crosse superintendent Dr. Aaron Engel joins. We discussed the passing of the operating referendum, student walkout on gun violence, future middle school classes being cut, elementary building consolidation. We began with a bit of a sigh of relief from Engel as Tuesday's election saw La Crosse voters turn out 65% in favor of the district's six-year, $60-million operating budget request. We discussed what that means and then moved on to a Logan student walking due, in part, to the Tennessee school shooting and no action against gun violence. After that, we discussed the district's situation with now over $100 million in building deferred maintenance. Ended the show discussing the plan going forward — after closing Lincoln MS — to cut one period of classes and make class time longer, as well as the next stages of building consolidation, which could include elementary schools.

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La Crosse Education Association president Jesse Martinez joined. With the spring election cycle ending Tuesday, we spent quite a bit of time on the district's six-year, $60-million operating budget referendum on the ballot and the school board race. We also talked about cellphones in classrooms and how the schools and teachers deal with those. And, in the midst of the school board conversation, as well as having a Wisconsin Supreme Court race on the ballot, we asked Martinez the process the teachers' union goes through to make endorsements. 

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UW-La Crosse political science professor, Dr. Anthony Chergosky in studio talking about culture wars of woke and CRT, the Donald Trump indictment, the arrest of Ulysses S. Grant, and dueling checkouts — self checkout vs. chatty checkout. Started the show talking about culture wars, how nobody can define things like woke and Critical Race Theory and how, when governments take on these battles, nothing legislatively gets done. After that we talked about the Trump indictment and how he isn't the first president to be arrested — there may still be a warrant out for Ulysses S. Grant. Also took some calls on who has the power: government or corporations, and ended the show on Kwik Trip's new checkout policy vs. the opposite kind of checkout in Finland.

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La Crosse School Board candidate Trevor Sprague joins. The big topics with Sprague were transparency from the district, the operating budget referendum and the tough decisions the board will have to make in the future. Sprague is a lifelong La Crosse resident, who currently is a visiting professor of rhetoric and composition at UW-Eau Claire. The Central High School graduate has three young kids, the oldest currently going to Emerson Elementary. Getting back to transparency, another part of that conversation was public trust — something most of the candidates have brought up — and how the school board, the district can restore that. We also discussed the responsibility Wisconsin state government has in public schools, as it’s going through a budget-writing process with a $7.1 billion surplus to play with. Another topic we spent some time on was endorsements — not just the groups that are supporting Sprague but one group in particular that is endorsing candidates but doesn’t seem to have their support.

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La Crosse School Board candidate Scott Neumeister joined. We discussed an unwanted endorsement, how he feels the district isn’t giving all the info on a new operating referendum and the tough decisions about consolidation. Neumeister was born and raised in La Crosse and is a small business owner on the north side, as well as a real estate agent. Like he did, Neumeister’s three kids all went through the La Crosse public school system. A unique part of the conversation was about a PAC endorsing Neumeister, called the 1776 Project putting out flyers on his behalf — something he says he didn’t not ask for and does not support some of the PAC’s views. We also talked about the six-year, $60-million operating budget referendum question on the spring ballot and how he believes the figures the district is putting out there aren’t painting the entire picture in how they would affect taxes. Neumeister also talked about building consolidation and how he would like to see the future of the high school(s) in La Crosse. 

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