Mrs. Oktoberfest 2009, Barb Larsen, joined to hype up this year’s Ladies Day Luncheon — what she calls the Oktoberfest finale.

It happens Sept. 28 at the Cargill Room. Larsen said this fundraiser has been happening about 25 years and this year’s guest speaker is Lisa David Olson, who will be presenting two, what she calls, interactive speeches titled "Untangle my Pretzel" and "How Do You Wash Lederhosen."

Tickets are $40. The event includes lunch and door prizes. Deadline for tickets is Sept. 21.

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We dive into how the Green Bay Packers are owned — the only team in the US owned by its shareholders — with Dr. Adam Hoffer, a sports economist and director of excise tax policy at the Tax Foundation. We also discuss on WIZM's La Crosse Talk what’s called recovery fees — those “additional overcharge” fees you might see on a cellphone bill.

Hoffer shares a recovery fee story he noticed recently on is Uber bill, as these charges are appearing more and more on people’s bills — charges people might not see added to their bills because everything is on autopay. 

We also get into the way the Packers are owned and how we’ll never see another US team owned like it. 

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Covered a bunch with Wisconsin state Assembly Rep. Jill Billings last week on La Crosse Talk — from Democratic bills being ignored and a new water law she's introducing, to state regulations on public schools, La Crosse's newest arts district, and a set of worker-related legislative packages.

We began the show discussing how Wisconsin law requires public schools to start on Sept. 1 because of the tourism industry, but has no such rule for private schools. Currently, the La Crosse School District is asking for a state waiver from the regulation so it can save about $200,000 on busing private school students — which the state also requires.

After that, Billings (D-La Crosse) talked about reintroducing what’s called the Water Testing Notification Act, which would require the DNR to notify local health departments if there are abnormal levels in wells tested near Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs). Right now, there are no rules, and homeowners with private wells next to contaminated factory farm sites may never know their wells are also testing high for things like nitrates.

That led to a conversation about bills that seem obvious to pass but do not — partly because a Democrat has introduced them in a Republican-led legislature. This bill was first introduced in 2019, had bipartisan support, but did not pass.

We then talked about Billings attending the opening of the Rivoli Arts District and what that might mean for taking advantage of the Wisconsin Film Office and having movies potentially shot in La Crosse.

Lastly, we discussed a set of worker protection bills that Billings and Democrats unveiled last week, including restoring Wisconsin’s prevailing wage law and repealing Act 10, among other things.

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UW-La Crosse political science professor, Dr. Anthony Chergosky, joins to discuss the assassination of Charlie Kirk, a philosophical question about homelessness with La Crosse closing two parks, the Wisconsin governor’s race — as David Crowley visited the area — and the city’s dueling administrator-v-ops director proposals.

Began the show on the governor’s race, with Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley in the studio earlier this week, announcing his candidacy, and what Chergosky thinks the field might look like — and who may get, or even want, Donald Trump’s endorsement.

After that, we spoke briefly about UW-L setting back-to-back records for the largest freshman class, before discussing the Kirk assassination and how House Speaker Mike Johnson is trying to lower the temperature in the nation.

Next, we hit on two city of La Crosse issues. First, we asked Chergosky if the mayor is trying to use reverse psychology on the city council into voting for a city administrator position by proposing an operations director position last minute. The ops director was voted Thursday to be put off by council for 30 days.

After that, Chergosky discussed the city closing both Burns and Cameron parks, in part due to homelessness, and what that means for a community where public spaces are meant for everyone.

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Covered a wide range of topics with Democrat David Crowley, who was in La Crosse this week launching his campaign for Wisconsin governor.

The 39-year-old Milwaukee County executive and former state Assembly representative joined us in studio, where we talked about homelessness — as La Crosse shuts down two city parks — along with the Brewers stadium deal, criticism from GOP opponents, state taxes and the growth of data centers.

We started the show getting to know Crowley a bit — his path to the state Assembly, then as county executive. 

Then we dove into the $500 million Brewers stadium deal — where Republicans and Democrats competed to see who could throw more money at the team.

From there, we turned to homelessness, discussing how Milwaukee County has approached the issue while La Crosse this week closed Burns and Cameron parks, in part because of homeless people there.

We also hit on whether Crowley — being black — looks at Mandela Barnes losing to Ron Johnson in Wisconsin’s US Senate race — the same election in which Tony Evers won reelection over Tim Michels. 

To wrap up, we read Republican candidate Josh Schoemann’s statement on Crowley entering the race. We also touched on state taxes and the surge of new data centers in Wisconsin.

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Bethany Poellinger tells her story of being diagnosed and surviving breast cancer. She's this year's Steppin' Out In Pink advocate.

Poellinger's story sounds unique, because she was diagnosed with breast cancer just a few months after being checked for it. 

Saturday is the 20th year of Steppin' Out In Pink, which begins at 9 a.m. at Riverside Park in downtown La Crosse. 

The money raised through the event stays local to help with various causes, including things as simple as gas cards to help people pay to get to and from treatment to funding breast cancer research right here in La Crosse.

Through the first 19 years, the event has raised over $7 million. This year, they're hoping to bring in $500,000 — breaking last year's record of $443,000.

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La Crosse Schools superintendent, Dr. Aaron Engel, joins to discuss a big drop in truancy, getting the state's permission on when to start school, finalizing the budget and all-day 4K. 

Began the show talking quickly about the district's budget situation and finalizing that for next year, before getting into all-day 4K. The state has created a two-model funding system with 4K that the school board is protesting. 

The last two topics deal with start times — both on the calendar and on the clocks.

First, the district is, again, asking the state to start school before Sept. 1 next year. Public schools are required to start after that date, while private schools are not. Doing that costs La Crosse about $200,000, because it still has to bus private school students. 

Also, La Crosse changed its clocks this year and middle school starts 50 minutes later. Engel believes that's led to a drastic drop in truancy and tardies. 

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Public engagement sessions on La Crosse hiring a city administrator are coming.

Lisa Weston, on the city council and on the city admin working group, stopped in studio to discuss what those sessions will look like and what the working group has been doing since it was formed back in December.

We also discussed another similar proposal of operations director, that was put on this Thursday’s council agenda by the mayor.

The city admin position isn’t up for a vote by the council until February. In the meantime, four dates and eight public engagement sessions have been scheduled and are as follows:

BLACK RIVER: Sept 30
NATURE PLACE: Oct 6
ONLINE: Oct. 8
HMONG CULTURAL CENTER: Oct. 14

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The two Moon Tunes co-founders in studio together, Terry Bauer and TJ Peterslie, discussing the last concert series of the season, what the future holds for year No. 15 next summer and how last week went with the combination of a marching band and Elvis impersonators. 

This week’s finale features Adam Gruel and the Space Burritos. Peterslie says Gruel is an amazing talent, who’s even recorded some songs with comedian Charlie Berens.

The two also talk about next year being their last for Moon Tunes, which started as Noon Tunes, but moved to the evenings 11 years ago.

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UW-La Crosse football coach Matt Janus joined ahead of their first game this weekend. On the show we discussed replacing one of UW-L’s best receivers in school history, what it’s like when 100 football players show up at a waterpark and trying to get back to the playoffs for a fifth-consecutive season.

Janus is 37-11 in his four years as coach, winning at least one playoff game in three of those years. He has his quarterback and top running back returning this season, but the schedule is not easy — beginning with a road trip to Pittsburgh to face No. 17 Carnegie Mellon, before taking on a Division II school the next week.

UW-L has to replace Jack Studer, who set all sorts of receiving records and was invited as a nondrafted rookie to tryout for the Packers. We talked about where he’s at, as well as other players trying to make it in the pro game right now.

We also talked about their training camp outing in Wisconsin Dells, where they may have gotten more of a workout at the Kalahari Water Park — plus whose jaws dropped further when 100 football players hit the pool, the kids or the parents that happened to be there that day. On a more serious note, Janus talked about the importance of team building through outings like that. 

After UW-L’s two nonconference games, they take on a WIAC that has five teams ranked in the Top 25. And, while UW-Whitewater is the lowest of those ranked teams, that may be the hardest place to play — and that’s where the conference season starts for the Eagles. So, we also talked about the challenges of trying to survive conference to make the playoffs. 

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