La Crosse Talk PM WIZM

La Crosse Mayor Mitch Reynolds joined. Gave the mayor some homework for next month’s show — to watch the show Reacher, where the mayor appointed himself police chief. We discussed groundbreakings on a $200 million hospital and a $5.5 million fire department this week, how the state legislature is done for the year, while a city council pounds away every month and how the La Crosse is handling Russian sister city Dubna.

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Jane Klekamp, La Crosse County's associate administrator, joined to talk about some of the projects they're trying to tackle, including bridge housing for the homeless and a childcare plan with the La Crosse School District. Before we embarked on those, however, we talked about the process of acclimating seven new members to the county board.

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La Crosse County Democratic Party chair William Garcia joined to preview Tuesday's 3rd Congressional District debate between the five candidates that's taking place at UW-La Crosse. We also discussed how Wisconsin's state Legislature is done for the year and how party politics is trickling into nonpartisan elections.

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UW-La Crosse political science professor, Dr. Anthony Chergosky, joined. Talked about how the La Crosse County political parties get their hands into local "nonpartisan" elections and whether that's right or not. Also discussed the Wisconsin GOP doing nothing with the $5 billion budget surplus and Wisconsin Republican's partisan "investigation" into the 2020 election. Hired "investigator" Michael Gableman just was at Trump's Mar-A-Lago. But, before all that, we did break down Chergosky soon-to-be fatherhood, as his wife is due this month.

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La Crosse city planning administrator, Tim Acklin, joined to talk about a campaign that just launched called Forward La Crosse. The city is seeking the public's input into what La Crosse should be over the next 20 years. We also discussed the history of La Crosse, its historic downtown district, as Acklin oversees the Heritage Preservation Commission. 

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La Crosse Fire Chief Ken Gilliam in studio for the last time, as he gets set to take over a fire department in Avondale, Ari., near Phoenix. We discussed how he doesn't golf, hates hot weather and isn't into the Phoenix Suns -- the best team in the NBA. We also talked, of course, on where he's leaving the La Crosse F.D.

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Wisconsin state Sen. Brad Pfaff stopped in studio to talk about what could have been done in the Legislature, since it's adjourned for the rest of 2022 now. One of those items was tax reform, including personal property tax on businesses. After that, La Crosse County clerk Ginny Dankmeyer gave us her turnout prediction and some details on Tuesday's elections.

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Rick didn't show up, as rumors spread of his whereabouts, but UW-La Crosse political science professor, Dr. Anthony Chergosky took over hosting duties and brought in Assembly Rep. Steve Doyle to play co-host. The two discuss what or where Rick may be, took some calls as to what should happen to him. They also did dive into some Wisconsin politics.

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Discussed the healthcare dilemma with the Wisconsin Democratic Party chair, Ben Wikler, as well as US House candidate, Dr. Mark Neumann. Got into the politics of why healthcare with Wilker, while Neumann, a retired pediatrician, got into the nuts and bolts of what is wrong with the system.

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Alexandra Zapruder joins to talk about her work studying the Holocaust and Holocaust survivors. She will be speaking at Viterbo March 31 at 7 p.m. We also discussed her grandfather, Abe Zapruder, who happened to film the JFK assassination. Before that, we discussed La Crosse backing out of purchasing the Maple Grove Motel, which was going to be used as bridge housing for the homeless.

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