La Crosse Talk PM WIZM

Tim Dale is a UW-La Crosse political science professor who specializes in political philosophy and American politics. We spent the hour talking about how unique Wisconsin voters are when it comes to statewide races and, basically, how unpredictable they can be. We also discussed debates, voter turnout and took some calls.

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La Crosse County Board Vice Chair Kim Cable joined to talk about homelessness in the area. Cable is also Couleecap’s Housing and Community Services Director. Cable talked about why the homeless situation has grown to unprecedented numbers. What she thinks of the Houska Park "campground" plan, that's one week from ending, and what the county is doing both short- and long-term to help people who are unsheltered.

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Samantha Williams is the director of the climate and clean energy program of the Midwest Region for the NRDC. She joined for the hour to talk about the transition to clean energy and why we — people of Earth — need to do it now. Those transitions start at the top with utility companies and trickle down from there, with things like home heating/cooling and transportation.

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UW-La Crosse political science professor, Anthony Chergosky, Ph.D, in the WIZM studio Friday. Kicked off the show way too serious on a local debate and how schools should be funded. Lightened it up after that discussing Halloween movies and where horror movies stand in a political light. Then we dived into the politics and policy of trying to solve homelessness, after the La Crosse County Board approved funding for potentially hotel vouchers. Ended on a lighter note, again, on the “say something nice” debate question that’s becoming popular.

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UW-La Crosse Outreach Specialist Spencer Wilken in the WIZM studio to talk science. We dove into why there’s a mass die-off of snow crabs and the harvest has been halted for a year in Alaska. We also talked about NASA crashing a drone into an asteroid and new, haunting James Webb telescope images. Wrapped up talking about why mosquitoes may like you more than others and flustered Spencer by trying to make her explain quantum physics in 3 minutes.

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Wisconsin state Sen. Brad Pfaff in the WIZM studio. Pfaff is also running for the US House of Representatives in the 3rd District and we bounced between state and federal issues on manufacturing, inflation, jobs, among other things. After that, La Crosse Police Chief Shawn Kudron called in to talk about the Community Resource Unit, which will be on display for the state this week. The CRU is basically an officer and a mental health professional teamed up to take specific calls for their expertise. We also asked Kudron, when candidates always talk about "supporting police," what that support could be.

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La Crosse Mayor Mitch Reynolds on WIZM Tuesday to talk about the city’s tax revaluation and what that means for your property tax bill. Those assessments should be in residents’ mailboxes now. Before that, La Crosse Center director Art Fahey joined, two days before he’s officially retired after 32 years on the job — 22 as director. We did some reminiscing on La Crosse Talk PM about past shows at the Center and what the Center Board and city are discussing for leadership going forward.

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Began the show recapping the Charlie Berens experience over the weekend. The comedian performed two sold out shows at the La Crosse Center. After that, ranted quick about the Hy-Vee opening and the fact that there are now three Starbucks in one block in La Crosse. Ended talking about downtown cameras with La Crosse Police Sgt. Brooke Pataska. The city and police want to raise $50,000 to install more.

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Wisconsin state Assembly Rep. Steve Doyle in studio. Along with representing the 95th District, Doyle is also a La Crosse County Board member. Part of the discussion was county referendum going on the November ballot, which led to a Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers special session on the state having binding referendum. We also discussed the state's predicted $5 billion budget surplus and school referendums, with La Crosse, Holmen and Onalaska all asking for over $340 million.

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UW-La Crosse political science professor, Dr. Anthony Chergosky, in studio. Kicked off the show talking about whether there should be crowds at political debates, as the Mandela Barnes-Ron Johnson faceoff had the night before. Later in the show, we discussed how politicians are prepared, yet not quite prepared enough, to answer softball, "Say something nice about your opponent?" question. In between that, we hit on the state's $4.3 billion budget surplus and the politics around doing nothing with that taxpayer money.

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