La Crosse Talk PM WIZM

La Crosse Mayor Mitch Reynolds joins for the hour. Spent a big part of the show going through some of the ins and outs of homelessness and how it's being handled in La Crosse and what might be coming in the near future — and distant future — to help. Opened the show discussing what exactly is a "supper club," as the library hosted a documentary called "Old Fashioned." Bottom half of the show was about Gov. Tony Evers' visit to the city, updates on the $65 million wastewater treatment plan and how it might power the city with poop, and on some new hires in the parks department and on a major project.

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Adam Murphy, our political blowhard, filling in on a Friday, as the nation is consumed with a balloon, apparently from China. So, we hit on that a bit, but more along the lines of how the U.S. government talks about China to the public. Before that, however, we spent a lot of time talking about how media, in general — like TV vs. streaming — is changing, and what we say is the most popular — like Fox News — doesn't even compare to what is actually being watched (TikTok videos). All that conversation, though, started because of a viral MrBeast video on getting 1,000 people eye surgery, which of course led to a universal healthcare discussion.

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UW-La Crosse outreach coordinator, Spencer Wilken, or "Mrs. Photon," in studio talking about using incredible Artificial Intelligence (ChatGPT) in everyday ways, the unexpected effects of salting our roads — which, apparently, are butterfly steroids and, of course, Puxatony Phil and Groundhog’s Day. That did beg the question, ‘What would La Crosse’s groundhog-like mascot be?’ Wrapped up with some exciting upcoming programs at UW-L, as well as a weird radioactive news out of Australia.

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Gundersen registered dietitian Laura Birkel joined to break down some of myths out there in the food world, how to navigate protein as a vegan, those pre-made dinners we see everywhere and some discrepancies with the new food compass — plus much more. Some of those food myths included whether things like eggs or coffee are healthy. We also talked about some sports myths, like drinking pickle juice to stave off cramps and if protein powder is a good supplement. A big thing today, since we have no time to cook as a society, we see these pre-made dinners, which look like they've replaced frozen dinners. We bet Birkel's take on whether they are actually healthy? Birkel works out of the Onalaska clinic at Gundersen Health System. We began the show talking a bit about what she does and who could/should go see her or her colleagues. 

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La Crosse Education Association — otherwise known as the teachers' union — president Jesse Martinez joined for the hour. Among the many things covered were the February and April elections with the La Crosse School Board on the ballot, as well as a $60 million operating budget referendum question. Martinez, who teachers Middle School at Logan, also discussed Lincoln Middle School closing. We hit on the teacher shortage and some ideas on using Wisconsin’s $7.1 billion budget surplus in education. Throughout the show, we also talked about some of the ups and downs that teachers go through, and whether students should have homework.

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The primary for the spring elections is just weeks away. Chris Haskell from the League of Women Voters of the La Crosse Area joins to discuss some of the things we might see on the ballot. After that, a bit of a rant on how these elections are nonpartisan by name only and how politicians play with the ballot with their partisanship, even though the issues at hand are very much defined by voters already — like abortion, marijuana and gerrymandering.

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UW-La Crosse political science professor, Dr. Anthony Chegosky in studio. Kicked off the show with another guest, La Crosse Airport director Ian Turner, to continue our ongoing saga of "What's going through TSA today?" And we recapped that saga of duct-taping passengers, carry-on frozen chickens and he emotional support boa constrictor named Bartholomew. After that, we talked about a 29-year-old woman posing as a high school student for four days and 7,600 people getting fake nursing degrees. Also spent time on how A.I. affects education. Ended the show with some Wisconsin politics, including how many millions in Wisconsin taxpayer funds the 2020 presidential election investigation cost and how Republicans and Gov. Tony Evers are fighting over the two-year budget.

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Political blowhard, small business owner and failed US Senate candidate out of Wisconsin, Adam Murphy is back. It wasn't part of the agenda, but we spent some time on the rise of Artificial Intelligence and just what movie best represents the fall of man. We also discussed Chevron's record profits and $75 billion in stock buybacks, as well as what to do with Wisconsin's now $7.1 billion budget surplus.

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Viterbo economist John Robinson joins. Spent a lot of the time around the idea from some members of the US House to get rid of federal income tax and to replace that with a 23-30% sales tax on just about everything. Along with that discussion, we talked about filing taxes and who it might help if we did get rid of some of tax systems — like farmers or Hollywood actors. Robinson is a La Crosse native and also Viterbo's Interim Associate Dean and associate professor of business. We kicked off the show talking a bit about the La Crosse School District's building consolidation plan, as the Lincoln Middle School will close this year. Lastly, in there somewhere, we talked about egg price gouging in comparison with the Taylor Swift-Ticketmaster dilemma, as Robinson is a huge Swiftie (or is it Swifty?) and also loves cooking with eggs, apparently.

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La Crosse School District superintendent, Dr. Aaron Engel joined to discuss the decision by the School Board on a $60 million operating referendum and closing Lincoln Middle School. The referendum question will go on the April ballot and would encompass six years. Closing the middle school is part of the district's consolidation plan, after a referendum to build a new $194.7 million high school fell through last fall.

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