Alighting briefly from the woodlands

Gorgeous front-door greeting. At a home in East Burns Valley. With its wings folded and with striped antenna, this butterfly is of the northern pearly eye variety. They usually hold their wings together above the body, opening only occasionally and briefly. They fancy-grassy edges and openings and dirt roads and trails in mature deciduous woodlands, usually near streams, rivers or marshes. Their flight is bouncy. Adults emerge in late June and are around into August. They feed on dung, fungi, carrion, mud, and sap, but not flower nectar. Image: Andy Frank
MiEnergy: No hanky-panky on our data center
RUSHFORD, Minn. — The utility co-op MiEnergy asks people not to confuse its data-center project in Harmony with larger projects whose giant developers are using sweet-talk, secrecy and strong-arm tactics to force essential local zoning changes. MiEnergy’s chief executive, Brian Krambeer calls the Harmony project “a small edge data center.” Krambeer’s assurances come amid growing alarm about ultra-scale data centers that Google and other major players are forcing on local communities. These giant players for desperate for land to install super-computers for the new Artificial Intelligence Age. The ultra-scale data centers take hundreds of acres out of agricultural production and pose environmental concerns, among which is draining aquifers for water to cool their super-heated computers. The developers promise jobs and tax revenue to local zoning authorities, whom hey bind into secrecy agreements to fast-track rezoning without public hearings and citizen review. In contrast, Krambeer described MiEnergy and its predecessor Tri-County Electric as building on an 80-year relationship of trust and transparency. He said Harmony officials are working through public processes for zoning adjustments. About grid demands that ultra-scale data centers pose, Krambeer said that MiEnergy has sufficient existing capacity without any new transmission projects. About concerns that that the electricity demands of data centers will send homeowner and other user costs soaring, Krambeer said MiEnerry already has a large-load discount rate from Dairyland Power of LaCrosse, its electricity-generating wholesale source.

Krambeer. President and chief executive of MiEnergy. The co-op has 19,000 users in southeast Minnesota and northeast Iowa.
Harmony profile
In southern Fillmore County. Population 1,000. About 1,000 Swartzentuber Amish in the area, mostly in low-tech enterprises that produce furniture, baskets, rugs, quilts, jams, baked goods and cashew crunch. Niagara Cave usa nearby tourist attraction. The area sits on a major karst aquifer that moves massive amounts of water south to the Upper Iowa River. As in most of Fillmore County, farmers are dependent on the aquifer for water.
Unexpected slithering in backyard

.
Bug-eyed. And fang-less.

Surprise visitor. A gardener was momentarily unsettled when, unexpectedly, there was motion in a rubble pile along Peterson Creek in central Winona County. The garter snake quietly slithered into the rocks. The gardener was sure the creature was six feet, maybe seyen, maybe eight. Who’s to say otherwise. But garter snakes generally are two to four feet. Garter snakes werelong thought to be non-venomous, but discoveries in the early 2000s discovered they produce a neurotoxic venom, but it’s too weak to injure humans. Also: They lack fags to deliver the venom. Image: Jackie Rislow
Notable journalism
Alicia Eler (Minnesota Star Tribune, November 21, 2025: “Douglass Flanders, Champion of Famous and Unknown Artists, Dies at 75”
Grace Monk (WKBT, June 9, 2026: “Onalaska Restaurant Owner Responds to Backlash over Video Disparaging Female Servers”
Olivia Prndzinski (KTTC, June 11, 2026): “Mantorville Family Out More than $1,000 after Kasson Daycare Abruptly Closes Amid Fraud Charges”
Hunt on for thief: Thought to be music lover
WINONA, Minn. — The theft construction tools from a house being remodeled on the West Side was reported to police about 2:20 p.m. Missing too was a clarinet. This was in the 1000 block of West Wabasha Street. Police found no sign of forced entry.
Arrest ends wild incident in bar zone
WINONA, Minn. — A woman — drunk, yelling and screaming, rolling in the street, and apparently in a mental crisis — bit a police officer who was trying to subdue her. The bite, on an arm, didn’t require medical attention. This was about 12:20 a.m. in the Third Street bar district downtown. Arrested and booked at jail for fleeing police on foot, obstructing police, and disorderly conduct was Korta, age 28, of La Crosse. Police bare had responded to a call about an intoxicated person outside Gabby’s bar. Their report: In an attempt to calm the woman, officers cuffed her hands. She made some comments about wanting to harm herself. Police called her father, who said he would be right over to pick her up. At this point she seemed calmer. Police uncuffed her. She ran. An officer quickly caught her, which was when he was bit. Subdued again, she was taken to the hospital for psychological evaluation. When medically cleared, she was taken to jail.
News summary at week’s end: June 13, 2026
VIRAL VIDEO: Angelini goes loud against protest crowd
POLITICS: Johnson campaign visiting every MN-1 county
NATURE: Mayfly hatch due soon; snowplows on standby
NATURE: Bluff-top buzz is bees, birds and friends
ACCIDENT: Passenger dies when two vehicles collide
ACCIDENT: Both drivers killed in Chatfield collision
ACCIDENT: Driver, rider, dog survive Garvin roll-over
CRIME: Assassin’s plea deal: Prison forever
CRIME: Cops: Driver drunk; worse, kids on board
CRIME: LaCrosse crackdown: No illicit liquor, sex pills
Angelini goes loud against protest crowd
ONALASKA, Wis. — Besieged restaurant owner Tony Angelini tried for an upper hand against street protesters who were objecting to his sexist hiring practices. Angelini took a microphone to outshout the protesters, who were across the street. He called them “hillbillies” and “looneys.” “You guys all lost,’ he shouted. He already had amped the volume of Trump campaign theme music —Village People’s 1978 “YMCA” and Lee Greenwodo’s 1984 “God Bless the U.S.A.” At his side Angelini had five women. In the background his building was obscured by red, white and blue bunting and flags and Trump posters — and also his budddies who are his restaurant’s managers and a few other men. At Angelini’s feet was a 14-foot banner proclaiming “America 1776-226.” It too was replete with U.S. flags. The protesters, numbering about 30, chanted. A few motorists on busy U.S. Highway 35 honked upport and gave high-fives and thumbs-up High-fiving for Angelini’ and his maller crowd were occasional oter drivers Desoite provocative from both sides of the street, police saw no cause to intervene. Nor was there a calk for pre-pre-arranged police .backup from nearby Holmen nnd LaCrrosse. As the confrrontation wonnd down, Angelini switched ears. He thanked the protesters for comjng. It was a weird moment.

Protesters chose signs. Angelini chose a megaphone amdnmusic at deafening volume. The protesters numbered three dozen at most. They stayed across the street from Angelini’s Italian estishment. From his parking lot Angeoinin hiuled insults insults and unflattering epithets.

Angelini. No restraint with insults at protesters, then, oddly, thanked thanked them.

Angelini’s logo. Towers over intereection of U.S. Highway 35, Riders Club Road and Sunset Vista Drive.
Earlier: Restaurateur defiant on “women need not apply”
Earlier: Earlier: Protest targets ristorante’s sexist attitudes
Earlier: Earlier: Readers riled by ristorante’s sexist talk
Bluff-top buzz is bees, birds and friends

A pollinator’s dream. This patch of daisies, clover add milkweed is on Camp Drive into the Winona Y’s East Burns Valley youth summer camp. Image: Andy Frank
Restaurateur defiant on “women need not apply”

Digs heels in deeper. Restaurant owner Tony Angelini goes all-out to link President Trump to his cause. Unclear: Does Angelini feel misogynist connection. Or is he asserting merely that Trump would endorse his right to proclaim whatever he wants. Images: Steve Lunde
Trump décor overwhelms Italian fare signage
ONALASKA, Wis. — In what can be described only as a bizarre business decision, Tony Angelini bedecked his ristorante with Trump posters, some as vulgar as his sexist insults to women in a podcast that went viral. The posters were there at dawn — ahead of a street protest being organized against the podcast insults. The protest was planned for 4 p.m. The link between Angelini’s policy against women servers and Trump was unstated, although Trump has a history of misogyny. One photo-shopped poster showed a defiant Trump with a two-fisted middle-finger message. Other carried the date of 2028, as if Trump could run for an illegal third term. Inexplicably a couple posters expressed support for the neurodevelopmental condition of autism.

Under the eaves. But impossible to miss. Hardly a welcoming invitation to diners.
Business savvy
Data bespeak the questionable wisdom of a business that explicitly espouses dubious moral and the also goes overboard for the est popular U.S. president in history. Census, voting and polling data:
> Gender: 51.06% women, 48.94% men in LaCrosse County, in which Onalaska is a major suburb.
> 2024 election: Trump lost LaCrosse Couny by 9.3 points (Harris, 39,000; Trum, 32,200).
> 2020 election: Trump lost by 13.5% (Biden 37,800; Trump, 32,200).
> 2016 election: Trump lost by 9.5 points (Clinton 2,400; Trump, 28,600).
> Current polls: Trump approval status nationally averages 38%
Exception
Sources say Angelini has one female sevrer on-call as a part-time staffing back-up. She has full-time employment elsewhere.
Earlier: Protest targets ristorante’s sexist attitudes
Earlier: Earlier: Readers riled by ristorante’s sexist talk
Passenger dies when two vehicles collide
CENTERVILLE, Wis. — One person died in a two-vehicle collision triggered by a deer on the road north of Centerville on U.S. Highway 93. Without explanation Trempealeau Count Sheriff Erica Koxlien withheld the victims’ name. The accident was about 5 a.m. Deputies said a vehicle was traveling toward Centerville and hit a deer. The vehicle crossed into the oncomg lane and d collided with a truck. A passenger in one vehicle died apparently instantly. Both drivers were airlifted to hospitals.
Cops: Driver with oodles of impairment signs
WINONA, Minn. — A Winona driver tested as drunk after being stopped for a bad headlamp and expired vehicle registration. At jail Carland Rose Gerdes’ blood showed to be 0.12% alcohol, half again as much as allowed. The stop was about 1:20 a.m. at Fifth and Winona streets. At the scene, police said she smelled of alcohol and had bloodshot and watery eyes and slurred speech. She fumbled through roadside sobriety exercises, the arresting office said. Gerdes, age 27, was released to a sober person to take home.
Minnesota prep
Baseball: St. Cloud Cathedral Crusaders 3, Winona Cotter Ramblers 2
Baseball: Windom Eagles 9, Winona Cotter Ramblers 7
Baseball: Minnehaha Redhawks 13, Cannon Falls Bombers 12
Mayfly hatch due soon; snowplows on standby

Dead mayfly goo. From a previous hatch the morning-after on State Highway 43 bridge linking Winona and Wisconsin on a previous hatch. Vulnerable spans at 30-mile intervals are the ways to cross the Mississippi.
A one-day wonder: Hatch, breed, die
WINONA, Minn. — Snowplow drivers are bracing for the cyclical hatch of mayflies in the Mississippi River mud. The mayflies die by the millions after a brief lifespan, only a day. Their carcasses can pile so deep that riverside roads become a traffic hazard. It takes snowplows to clear the way. In the past there have been accidents, some with fatalities, as drivers lose control on mounds of slippery mayfly carcasses. Especially vulnerable are bridges with illuminated traffic lanes that attract mayflies. Until the hatch occurs — nobody is sure exactly when it’ll be —the state Transportation Department is turning off lights on Mississippi River bridges at Red Wing, Wabasha and Winona. An exception is the complex Intestate 90 bridge at Dresbach whose spaghetti ramps and crossovers would be additionally treacherous without lighting. Another exception is the red and green navigation lamps on the underside of bridge decks. These lamps help riverboat captains keep their barge arrays in the navigation channel between abutment piers.
Both drivers killed in Chatfield collision
CHATFIELD, Minn. —Two drivers were killed — one from nearby Preston, one from Chicago — when they collided late Wednesday night just north of Chatfield. Belatedly the State Patol released their names:
> Samuel A Hernandez, age 62, in a 2015 Jeep Cherokee., who died apparently on impact.
: Devon Peri Williams, age 40, in a 2013 Ford Explorer, who died later 24 miles away at a Rochester hospital.
Troopers suspected alcohol was a factor.
Johnson campaign visiting every MN-1 county
ROCHESTER, Minn. — The Democrat-endorsed candidate for the southeast Minnesota seat in Congress, Jake Johnson, laid out a summer townhall tour to meet voters in all 21 MN-1 counties. The schedule contrasts with Republican incumbent Brad Finstad, who has refused invitations to eyeball-to-eyeball townhalls and not scheduled any on his own. Said Johnson in a KTTC interview:
“People want an opportunity to speak with their representative, their elected representative. It’s something that they just do not feel like they’re getting with Congressman Finstad.”
Johnson’s schedule includes Winona County, July 14; Wabasha County, July 21; Mower County, July 23; Fillmore County, July 27; Olmsted County, August 15; Goodhue County, August 16; Houston County; August 25; and Dodge County, August 31. “I have full faith in the people of southern Minnesota are gonna come out and make their viewpoints known and actually try to solve some problems and do it in a locally focused way,” Johnson said.

On stump. With his take-everywhere red and white campaign poster. Who’s missing? Johnson’s point is that incumbent BradvFinstad hasn’t participated in any townhalls in months.
Candidate profile
Johnson is a math teacher at Mayo High School in Rochester. Active in teachers union as government relations coordinator. New to seeking public office.
Protest targets ristorante’s sexist attitudes
ONALASKA, Wis. — Online outrage at a podcast from the Onalaska restaurant Angelina’s has been feeding on itself for a week and growing. A protest is being organized for Saturday at 4 p.m. outside Angelini’s. It’s at 4 that Angelini’s opens. Nobody knows the scale the protest will take, but the male sexism of Angelini managers in the podcast has gone viral. It’s drawn 58,000 views so far. Restaurant owner Tony Angelini hasn’t returned news media inquiries about how he’s dealing with the escalating anger or whether he’s asked police to control the situation if it becomes unruly. Angelini suggested in the podcast that he realized he was hitting nerve:
“I don’t give a fuck if you want to call me sexist. I don’t give a fuck if I’m prejudiced. What I give a fuck about is making sure that my customers get great service.”
The video runs 10 minutes with Angelini in a sit-down roundtable chat with his three managers. One manager, Matt Johnson, professed not being sexist: “It’s not like a sexist thing. It’s just something you prefer.” Uhh? The podcast was the 23rd in a series that generally focuses on menu fare and cocktails. The new episode contentiously roamed afield. The title: “At Angelini’s They Prefer Male Server”
Earlier: Readers riled by ristorante’s sexist talk
Minnesota prep
Baseball: Winona Cotter Ramblers 15 St. Cannon Falls Bombers 5
Cops: Driver drunk; worse, kids on board
BLACK RIVER FALLS, Wis. — An Osseo man was jailed on booking charges not only of driving impaired but also doing so with three children in the vehicle. Also, said the State Patol trooper who made the traffic stop, the children, ages 7, 6 and 4, were unbelted. The trooper said he stopped the vehicle, druven by Jayson Olson, age 40, on Interstate 94 for erratic driving. Olson was headed west toward Osseo 28 miles away. The stop was about 10 p.m. The trooper said Olson had open intoxicants in the vehicle and failed roadside sobriety exercises.
LaCrosse crackdown: No illicit liquor, sex pills
LACROSSE, Wis. — Don’t expect to buy drinks at Tequila’s restaurant near the UW-La Crosse campus or sex pills at the Citgo gas station on State Road. In a unanimous vote the City Council has yanked their licenses. Tequila’s had been convicted four times of serving underage customers since 2023 — plus 12 times since 2021 for letting underage customers into the bar. The Citgo station has had a citation for serving underage customers in September and twice for having prescription-only pills for sexual arousal behind the counter. Both establishments can seek licenses again in June 2027.
Deputy: Overwhelming alcohol odor a tip
LEWISTON, Minn. — A deputy sheriff responded to a complaint about a driver all over the road and stopped the vehicle and found the driver drunk. Arrested was Erick James Madison, age 39, of Rochester. The deputy reported an overwhelming odor of alcohol and said Madison had a balance issue when he swiveled out of the vehicle. His speech was slurred, the deputy said. This was about 6:15 p.m. on U.S. Highway 14 in Lewiston near the new fire station. A breath test put Madison’s blood-alcohol ratio at 0.22%, almost triple what’s allowed. Charges included giving a false name.
Assault case in Winona-Onalaska boomerang
WINONA, Minn. — Deputies arrested a Pleasant Valley man whose girlfriend reported he choked her to a point she couldn’t breathe. Arrested at his home off County Road 17 near the Bridges Golf Course was 27-year-old Nicholas Robert Quinlan. The girlfriend, who is 28, said an ongoing argument escalated at his house. She said he choked her with both hands and also slapped and struck her. When she tried getting away, she said, he blocked her. She did break out, however, and drove 30 miles to her place in Onalaska. Quinlan then showed up at the Onalaska address and caused a disturbance, she said. She called Onalaska police. By then he was gone. Winona County deputies were advised and went to his Pleasant Valley address and made the arrest. This was about 5:10 p.m. Quinlan was booked on charges of strangulation, causing harm, and false imprisonment.
Open booze, drugs found in I-94 stop
OSSEO, Wis. — A Kenosha driver was stopped for an unsafe lane change, which led to a bevy of charges including drunk driving. He failed roadside sobriety testing, which was a real problem. The State Patrol trooper who made the stop discovered it was the sixth DWI for 59-year-old Phillipp Schiavior. That wasn’t his only problem: In the vehicle the trooper found:
> An open intoxicant.
> Psilocybin, an illicit drug derived from mushrooms.
> An inoperable court-ordered ignition interlock device to stop impaired driving.
The stop was on Interstate 94 in northern Trempealeau County. For Schiavi this was 26o miles from home. The stop was about 2 p.m. He was headed west toward St. Paul.
News summary at mid-week: June 10, 2026
RIVER: CHS shifts grain-shipping infrastructure
POLITICS: Beset Minnesota legislator cancels out
POLITICS: Walz ridicules Trump claim he’s soft on fraud
POLITICS: Veep Vance urges new Minesota criminal probe
CUISINE: Readers riled by ristorante’s sexist talk
CRIME: Assassin’s plea deal: Prison forever
CRIME: Bail at $75,000 in Lewiston sex case
WEATHER: Storms pre-empt Winona bandshell concert
OUTDOORS: Exhausted hikers rescued in Bluffs Park
OUTDOORS: Dazed man carted out of spillway danger zone
OUTDOORS: Why did the turtle cross road?
Storms pre-empt Winona bandshell concert
WINONA, Minn. — Anticipating severe weather, the Winona Municipal Band cancelled its premier evening concert of the season at the Lake Park bandshell. Cancelling was a good idea: A large tree fell and blocked a nearby street at Lake Lodge. Trees around Windom Park were knocked down. One tree fell into a house. There were no injuries. Severe rounds of thunderstorms left much of Winona County water-logged — and so too a broad swath across southern Minnesota and Wisconsin. Some locations reported four inches of rain. A few areas had hail. In Wisconsin the National Weather Service issued a shelter-in-a-safe-place alert for Arcadia and central Trempealeau County townships.
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