1410 WIZM

It's time for the standoff to end, according to Governor Walker...

Wisconsin's Republican governor flew around the state yesterday, to La Crosse and other places.  Walker says the state will lose out on millions that could be used to help balance the budget, if 14 Democrats do not return to Madison and vote on the budget plan by tonight. While the governor spoke to reporters inside a La Crosse airport hangar yesterday, a couple dozen union picketers were outside, hoping to speak to Walker.  The governor says even if some collective bargaining rights are eliminated because of the bill, Wisconsin state workers will still have better benefits than many federal workers.

The city of La Crosse is joining the hybrid movement in a big way. Big as a bus, in fact. The MTU has this week  put into service a new hybrid-diesel bus. The bus is a medium size, 25-seat bus that the MTU says is perfect for routes that go to French Island, Onalaska and La Crescent. The bus operates like a hybrid car, with the diesel engine and electric motor working in coordination to help boost efficiency without losing power. The $250 thousand bus was paid for entirely with federal stimulus money.

A National Guard soldier from Oregon, Wisconsin is in trouble in La Crosse after intentionally wrecking his former girlfriend's car. La Crosse cops say 21 year-old Zachary Peters and his ex got into it at a volleyball tournament where she was coaching on Sunday. She didn't want to ride with him. Did anyway. A harrowing ride, apparently, from Aquinas High School to the Menards on Lang Drive. At which point, cops say, Peters drove straight into a pole. A few injuries for him. None for her. The woman suggested to police that Peters might have some anger management issues.

La Crosse may not be as poverty stricken as you've been led to believe.

A recent US Census Bureau study pegged the overall poverty rate for La Crosse county at nearly 15 percent, putting it just outside the ten poorest counties in the state. But a new look at the poverty numbers by the UW Extension excludes the high number of 18-24 year-olds that are a part of La Crosse's population by virtue of three colleges. Take that population out, and La Crosse's poverty level drops to about ten percent, right about at the middle for all counties in the state.