Tom Tiffany on bringing Trump back to La Crosse, $3 billion budget surplus, deer hunting

Donald Trump drew a packed crowd to the La Crosse Center back in 2024.  Will Trump return to campaign for Republican governor candidate Tom Tiffany?  On the Rick Solem Show this week, Tiffany, a U.S. House Rep. in Wisconsin's 7th District, was asked about bringing Trump back to La Crosse to campa…

From SOUP to LAF: Inside La Crosse's ultimate week of food, films, and adventure

Outdoor enthusiasts getting hyped to watch movies inside might seem like a bit of a contradiction, but the La Crosse Adventure Film Festival is leaning all the way into the irony for its fifth anniversary.  Mike Crawford and Paige Manges with La Crosse Adventure Films, along with La Crosse SOUP’s …

UW-La Crosse's Chergosky on millions spent on Van Orden-Cooke race, plus do negative ads work

It’s the sixth-most expensive U.S. House race in the country — and the price tag keeps climbing. Why is so much money pouring into the race between U.S. House Rep. Derrick Van Orden (R-Prairie du Chien) and Democratic candidate Rebecca Cooke, and what does it say about the fight for control of Con…

La Crosse mayor on public safety, the city's image and budget challenges

He wants to swing the wrecking ball, but that might have to wait. Fresh off a couple of groundbreakings and ribbon cuttings, La Crosse Mayor Shaundel Washington-Spivey stopped in studio to discuss the old Kmart development, before moving into deeper conversations about the state of the city — from…

La Crosse School Board president Sprague on the new branding campaign, students building a racing Harley

La Crosse School Board President Trevor Sprague in the WIZM studio for The Rick Solem Show discussing the district’s new brand and how they’re competing for students. We get into the thinking behind the new ‘Grow here, go anywhere’ identity — and why Sprague sees the $100,000 rebranding effort as …

Inside the $64 million plan for La Crosse’s old Kmart site — and who swings the wrecking ball

No wrecking ball on the old Kmart in La Crosse yet, but Jeremy Novak from Three-Sixty Real Estate Solutions stopped in studio to talk about when that could finally happen, what's next for the $64 million Copper Rocks development and why the project has taken more than five years to get to this poin…

Why rural hospital closures could raise your health care costs

A discussion about rural health care on The Rick Solem Show ahead of two days of health and public health programs hosted by UW-La Crosse this week. Two educators joined, looking at different pieces of the rural health puzzle — Dr. Caitlin Carroll of the University of Minnesota and UW-La Crosse’s …

UW-L's Chergosky on Tiffany’s $16M edge over Crowley — and where the money comes from

Three Wisconsin billionaires have essentially bankrolled Tom Tiffany’s side of the governor’s race — nearly $24 million of the $26 million he raised in the latest reporting period. And yet the latest Marquette poll has Tiffany and David Crowley separated by just three points, and 25% of voters sti…

Ahead of Rivoli visit, actor Dan Davies previews 'The Giant Spider Invasion' — movie lore fueled by PBR and Old Style

A Volkswagen Beetle wrapped in fur, cruising down a central Wisconsin highway with eight giant spider legs dangling. That was the scene in 1975 during the filming of what turned into a cult classic, The Giant Spider Invasion — a film based in central and northern Wisconsin that became one of Myste…

State Rep. Tara Johnson slams powerline proposal, outlines priorities if Dems control government

Wisconsin state Assembly Rep. Tara Johnson in studio breaking down the controversy over the 200-foot MariBell power lines and what a Democratic legislative majority would look like in Madison. Johnson (D-Shelby) helps explain the environmental risks in the Driftless region over those power lines, …