1410 WIZM

There might be room for optimism in the local housing market.

From State Bank Financial in La Crosse, senior v-p Wayne Oliver is encouraged by things he sees like the number of businesses that are hiring.   Something that always has to happen, he says, before the housing market picks up.   Oliver says mortgage applications are growing as hiring picks up in the area.

Biggest movement appears to be in existing homes in the 130 to 170 thousand dollar price range.

Although home sales and prices across the state for June were both down considerably from last year, the consensus is those numbers have been skewed by last year's home buyer tax credits.

Regardless of how the deficit talks in Washington turn out, are we seeing signs of a Republican party splinter?

Tea Party republicans have been occasionally vocal in their criticisms of the mainstream GOP in handling the debt ceiling crisis. But La Crosse county republican party chair Bill Feehan thinks those are minor differences.   In the end, he says, all republicans can agree that the government is spending too much money and taking too much in taxes.

And, Feehan says, it's always the democrats who are proponents of lots of spending and taxes; also something all republicans should agree on.

Dane County Circuit Judge Juan Colas has extended the Public Service Commission's decision deadline on the proposed 345-kilovolt Cap X 2020 line to December 6th in an order the PSC made public yesterday.

The proposed line, which has been met with quite a bit of criticism the past couple of weeks, would cross the Mississippi River near Alma, pass through Buffalo and Trempealeau counties before terminating at a substation near Holmen.

The PSC had determined last month that the joint application from Dairyland Power Cooperative, Xcel Energy and Wisconsin Public Power was complete but acknowledged it would need more than the 180 days it's given by statute to act on major project requests.

Lacrosse County has a new board chair. It's Tara Johnson. She was voted in Thursday night by her surrounding supervisors. The District 18 Representative replaces Steve Doyle, who was recently elected to the Wisconsin State Assembly. Doyle has retained his seat on the county board. Johnson has been a board member for the past 11 years. She is also a former director of the Lacrosse Area United Way.