La Crosse Talk PM WIZM

If you wanted to know about electric vehicles, we hit on a vast amount of topics with Jeremiah Brockman, president of the Wisconsin chapter of the Electric Vehicle Association. 

Brockman was thrown a list of about 50 things having to deal with EVs — including how they hold up in winter, "gas mileage," environmental impacts and charging. Brockman was a great sport in answering as many as we could get through. 

Brockman is also put...

One more public meeting for the city of La Crosse's Bicycle and Pedestrian Master Plan is coming up. City associate planner Jenna Dinkel joins to go over some of the ins and outs of the plan, plus a look at the Wagon Wheel Trail and some upcoming public meetings from the Wisconsin DOT on Highways 35, 53 and 16. 

The city's bike-ped plan is a major revision from its 2012 counterpart, and we talk about some of the decade-old ideas t...

Michael Quam, the development director for the Salvation Army of La Crosse County, joined to discuss homelessness in the area, how the shelter has changed over the past few years and where they fit in with the Pathways Home plan.

Didn’t take long to get into the homeless situation (3:50), including the Salvation Army being at capacity, how many people it has to turn away and how many success stories it has had.

We also discussed ...

Tina Tryggestad, the new La Crosse County Board chair, stopped in the WIZM studio Thursday for La Crosse Talk PM to discuss her new role, planning for the board’s five-year strategic plan and new Civilian Review Board.

Began the show about how and if the board's work could change as the American Rescue Plan Act funding is basically allocated and there isn't this $22 million from the feds to use.

We then got into her becoming the ...

Covered a lot of ground with Milwaukee Brewers president, Rick Schlesinger, including whatever happened to Hank the Dog, details in the $500 million taxpayer funded stadium upgrades, are we getting a beer district and playing PlayStation on the scoreboard during games. 

Began the show (2:30) talking about Schlesinger's gigantic job description, before getting into the big mystery: Whatever happened to Hank the Dog (5:30)? 

After ...

The $54 million question is coming to the November ballot for La Crosse School District voters and school board president, Dr. Juan Jimenez, joins to break down the plan. Jimenez is also the associate dean at Western Technical College in La Crosse, and we discuss some new changes to classes that just started.

And that’s where we started (6:45) the first big segment of the show, with changes to WTC class lengths which sounds like i...

Covered a lot with La Crosse Mayor Mitch Reynolds, including the smells from City Brewing, fighting the DOT on closing a road for Amtrak addition, down payment assistance for first-time home buyers and an update on the River Point District, north of downtown.

Began the show, however, with the La Crosse being one of 100 cities in the world to be part of the Youth Climate Action Fund, which came from Reynold’s trip to Dubai for COP ...

Adam Murphy joined La Crosse Talk PM on Friday, deep diving into the electrification of the nation. Before we got into that, however, we spent a bit of time on the confusing "economy," Donald Trump's immunity claim, and immigration.

Murphy, who has degrees in economics and political science from UW-Milwaukee, owns a small tech business, called Big Bang LLC, in Milwaukee.

The second half of the show (18:30) was a multi-layered dis...

William Garcia in the WIZM studio Thursday for La Crosse Talk PM discussing the upcoming US House candidate Democratic forum on Wednesday at UW-La Crosse, the peculiar timing of new policies passed by the Biden Administration and politicians useless campaign posts.

Garcia is the Democratic Party chair for both La Crosse County and the 3rd US House District here in Wisconsin.

Began the show discussing the first of four US House fo...

Council members, Mackenzie Mindel and Mac Kiel, in the WIZM studio for La Crosse Talk PM discussing city being 1 of 100 awarded youth climate grant funding, selling the south side library building and a homeless plan update.

Kiel and Mindel are on the Judiciary and Administration Committee, which meets at 6 p.m. Tuesday. We began the show reviewing one decision by the council last month on a state law dealing with supermajorities....

Rachel King and Dillon Constant in studio to talk about two different fields within La Crosse County government that are helping make the community more sustainable and healthy.

King is an epidemiologist with the county Health Department, while Constant is the county planner. On the show, we discuss the county’s two phases of its Climate Action Plan, parts of which include transitioning the fleet to EVs and zero emissions by 2050,...

UW-La Crosse political science professor, Dr. Anthony Chergosky, in studio discussing some of the latest results from the Marquette U. Law School poll, showing Joe Biden and Donald Trump even. Plus, why are we complaining when the vice president is visiting La Crosse — and is the electoral college working in creating that opportunity?

We began the show with VP Kamala Harris’ upcoming La Crosse visit, before getting into some of th...

Entomologist, Dr. Ted Wilson, joins to talk about these two cicada species emerging for the first time in 221 years, how we can stick it back to mosquitoes, plus the good and bad with “No Mow May” in La Crosse.

Wilson, the Biology chair at Viterbo University, talks about this once-in-multiple-lifetimes event where these two species of cicadas that emerge from the ground every 13 and every 17 years collide this spring — soon. Where...

Laura Godden joins to talk about the upcoming release of La Crosse’s Top 10 most endangered buildings, plus she discusses the city’s most untouchable structures, as well.

Godden is an archivist at UW-La Crosse and on the city’s Heritage Preservation Commission. Among the buildings we discuss are two that are very much threatened to get demolished soon — Glory Days Sports Pub, downtown, and the La Crosse School District’s Hogan Adm...

La Crosse Education Association president, Jesse Martinez joined to talk about the school board elections, with their write-in candidate winning, plus how the teachers’ union feels about the $54 million new elementary school plan potentially going on the ballot.

Martinez, a seventh-grade math and science teacher at Logan, started the show talking about how he handles giving students standardized tests in the midst of one of the ni...

La Crosse Mayor Mitch Reynolds in studio discussing the Wagon Wheel Trail expansion to the city, rethinking sidewalks and bike paths and the riverbank cleanup from homeless encampments.

Began the show with Reynolds talking about the FIRST Robotic Competition that was held at the La Crosse Center last weekend. 

After that, we talked a bit about the NCAA women’s basketball tournament and the phenomenon of Caitlin Clark, and...

UW-La Crosse political science professor, Dr. Anthony Chergosky, recapping the local elections and how negative campaigns played a part in the judicial race, how school referendums did across Wisconsin and the tight rope Eric Hovde is walking in his US Senate race in the state. We also hit on Wisconsin US House Rep. Mike Gallagher's "timely" retiring to perhaps sabotage his own GOP party. Ended the show talking about Kansas City vo...

La Crosse County Administrator, Jane Klekamp, in studio discussing what happens now with a new county board, plus updates on homeless plan, healthcare center renovations and strategic plan. Spent the first half of the show talking about the La Crosse County Board elections, that included six brand new members and how they will get initiated. After that, we got updates on the Pathways Home plan to end homelessness, the timeline for ...