LANSIING, Iowa — First responders pulled a body from the Mississippi River at S&S Houseboat Rentals about 12:20 a.m.  The victim was a 63-year-old Wisconsin man. Authorities asked that his name be withheld until family could be notified. No foul play was suspected, police said.

WINONA, Minn. — A Rollingstone woman drove through a stop sign and was arrested as drunk, police reported. Arrested was Sierra Becky Lohnes, age 23. Police suspected impairment because of bloodshot eyes and imbalance. Lohnes fumbled through roadside balance and dexterity exercises. Her blood-alcohol tested at 0.10% — 25% more than allowed for driving. This was about 9:20 p.m. near downtown at Second and Walnut streets.

For 97 years a landmark. Cotter Schools’ favorite contractor, Schwab Construction of Winona, has begun demolition of Lourdes Hall from the inside and working out. The glamorous Italianesque structure once was the centerpiece of the now-defunct College of St. Teresa.  Cotter’s replacement: An athletic facility for its 900 boarding students and townies. Image: Steve Lunde

Earlier: Cotter tries calming protest over razing Lourdes

ROLLINGSTONE, Minn. — Sheriff’s officers began investigating a theft of prescription drugs from a Rollingstone mailbox. The resident, who receives drugs by mail, said it was the third such theft. This was in the 200 block of Edgewood Drive. Other thefts, some odd, have also been reported in the neighborhood. The latest theft was reported to the sheriff’s office in Winona about 2:30 p.m.

MINNEAPOLIS — An Austin woman wqs sentenced to prison for one year for swindling $360,000 in Social Security funds. Mavious Redmond, age 54, earlier pleaded guilty to collecting benefits under her mother’s name for 25 years. Her mother died in 1999. Federal Judge Nancy Ellen Brasel imposed the sentence.

Earlier: Austin woman posed as dead mom for pension money

“Not to worry.” So say Winona master gardeners. Also, they say, there’s not much you can do about it. Mushrooms are a persistent and natural soil-born fungus and usually not much noticed. But recent torrential rains have made for an unusually heavy emergence. Edible? Take no chances. Some varieties destroy kidney tissue almost immediately. Death within hours is painful.

WINONA, Minn. – Firefighters extinguished a blazing semi-trailer in storage between Second Street and the main Union Pacific railroad yard. There were no injuries. The cause was undetermined. The trailer was in the abandoned semi-traier fleet in which homeless people take refuge and set up sleeping quarters. The fire was reported about 8:45 p.m.

ROCHESTER, Minn. — Police began hunting for a man who pulled off an elaborate scheme to steal two generators worth $2800 from the Acme power tool retail outlet in Rochester. Police were told thgat the man posed on the phone as a city utility employee. He  ordered the generators and presented a purchase ordernumber. When he arrived in person, the generators were waiting to take. He did. Only later did bookkeeping realize the scam.

Deliberate duplicity. At 808 Apache Lane Southwest. Part of family-owned Norh Dakota chain with stores in Iowa, Minnesota and North Dakota.

WINONA, Minn. — A Winona man was arrested in the second floor stacks at the Winona library after a woman reported him engaging in erotic self-arousal. Taken to jail was Nathan Eric Valentis Walker, age 42. This wasn’t Walke’rs first such offense, police said.  The booking charges: Willful and pubic exposure of pudenda, sexual predatory conduct,  and disorderly conduct.

Walker. Fully clothed for jail mug shot.

WINONA, Minn. — A Wisconsin woman was caught shoplifting at the Fleet Farm super-hardware and then, when arrested, was found to be carrying illicit drugs in her purse, police said. A little earlier, they said, video had caught Jessica Ann Bishop, 46, of Onalaska, also shoplifting at the nearby Walmart big box. The drugs in her purse were 3.7 grams of meth and a panoply of prescription drugs that weren’t in her name. The arrest was about 7:30 p.m. The haul at Fleet Farm would have been $380 in merchandise, mostly clothing, said store detectives. At Walmart it was several pairs of sunglasses, said those store detectives.

Bishop. Shopping spree ended badly.

MINNEAPOLIS — Two Minnesota church colleges are within their constitutionals rights to screen students and reject any who don’t profess themselves to be Christian or who are gay, a federal judge ruled. The decision by U.S. Judge Nancy Brasel was a victory for:

> Crown College. Enrollment 1,800. In St. Bonifacius. Tuition: $36,200 a year

> University of Northwestern. Enrollment 3,400. In Roseville. Tuition $36,800.

Both colleges are affiliated with evangelical Baptist teachings, a narrow subset in Christian theology. The judge said that the state cannot deny the colleges from participating in a 40-year-old state-funded program that allows gifted high school earn college credits.

Verbatim

Diana Thomson, attorney for the Washington, D.C -based Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, which reprresented the colleges: “Minnesota tried to cut off educational opportunities to thousands of high schoolers simply for their faith. That’s not just unlawful. It’s shameful. This ruling is a win for families who won’t be strong-armed into abandoning their beliefs, and a sharp warning to politicians who target them.”

WINONA, Minn. – The Fire Department reported 41 emergency medical calls plus 17 fire calls in recent days:

> Tuesday, August 19: 7 medical call plus 2 fire calls

> Monday, August 18: 4 medical calls plus 2 fire callx.

> Sunday, August 17: 5 medical calls plus 3 fire calls.

> Saturday, August 16: 8 medical calls plus 1 fire call.

> Friday, August 15: 5 medical call plus 5 fire calls.

> Thursday, August 14: 6 medical calls plus 1 fire call.

> Wednesday, August 13: 6 medical calls plus 3 fire calls.

Earlier: Emergency, fire crews make 55 calls

ALBERT LEA, Minn. — By November the historic Broadway movie house in downtown Abert Lea, built in 1902, will be no more. City leaders had hoped to restore the 255-seat theater as part of historic district restorations. That goal vaporized in 2023 when a 500-pound sandstone slab unexpectedly broke loose and crashed to the sidewalk. No one was injured. But City building inspector Wayne Sorensen called the crash “a wake-up call.” Restoring the theater took on new urgency. It soon was obvious that the cost of essential structural repairs and new mechanical and electrical system was a shocker. The City Council voted to demolish.

Eager matinee queuing. It was the 1955 premiere of Elia Kazan’s “East of Eden” with heart-throb James Dean, whose car-racing death coincided with the movie’s release.

DOVER, Minn.  — A motorcyclist went into the ditch on Interstate 90, suffering non-life threatening injuries. Benjamin Wade Witeli, age 51, of Minneapolis, was taken 20 miles to a Rochester hospital. The accident was about 5:40 p.m. at the Dover exit between St. Charles and Eyota. Witeli was heading west toward Rochester on a 2001 Yamaha, police said. He was helmeted.

WINONA, Minn. — A Rushford school bus driver engaged in illicit sexual conduct in 2016 on a school bus, according to Winona County authorities. A criminal complaint alleging third-degree sexual assault against Timothy Thomas Wilkemeyer, age 53, is in process, said sheriff’s investigator Mark Dungy. The third-degree Minnesota statute covers sex with minors. Although Rushford is in Fillmore County, the school district has student pick-ups north into Winona County almost to Interstate 90. Wilkemeyer lives in Rushford.

WINONA, Minn. — A second LaCrosse man wanted for the torture of a 3-year-old Winona boy is behind bars. Winona police said that Atzavesta Raymon Williams, age 25, is being held in LaCrosse for a Wisconsin probation violation. When that jail time is served, Williams will be transferred to Winona for prosecution for the July 27 event involving the 3-year-old. Already charged with pending Winona court dates:

> Jalil Wilson, age 27, of La Crosse.

> Joseline Puente Gundersen, age 20, of Winona.

The mother of the abused child has not been charged. She told police she was at the apartment but unaware that her son was being wrapped in duct tape and tormented. She said she was in the shower.

Earlier: New arrest for duct-tape child torment

Earlier: Two men sought in Winona child-torture case

Earlier: Court papers chronicle torture of Winona child

Earlier: Cops: Video shows torture of 3-year-old

Willams. His bail at $10,000 in LaCrosse on unrelated probation issue involving domestic abuse.

WINONA, Minn. — Sheriff Ron Ganrude confirmed that no pop-up beer parties were identified being organized last week on social media. Nor did any parties materialize at sites where the parties were epidemic last summer. This year there’s been only one event — up the hidden Beaver Creek coulee north of Elba. It largely fizzled with a firm police patrol presence on back-country feeder roads to the site.

Earlier: Beer-busts update: Cops as party-poopers

Earlier: Facebook quiet on pop-up beer busts in woods

Earlier: Beer-bust teen parties back in Whitewater woods

Earlier: Cops nip Beaver Creek bust early

LEWISTON, Minn. — The Lewiston City Council award a $3.4 million contract to construct a new emergency services building to house the fire, ambulance and police departments. The contract went to Olympics Builders of Holmen, Wisconsin, the lowest of eight bidders. The new 12,200-squaure foot building will replace the 60-year-old structure that now houses the fire and ambulance services on North Fremont Street across from the state forestry garage. The police office, now at City Hall a block off Main Street downtown, will be relocated to the new building. The new building will be no Taj Mahal. The plan is for an engineered steel structure mounted atop a slab. “Not fancy at all,” said ambulance chief Matt Essig. The current building will be razed. The project’s completion target: Next September. The design, by CRW Architecture of Rochester, calls for:

> Garaging for emergency vehicles.

> Parking for emergency volunteers.

> Showers and decontamination areas to keep out carcinogenic soot from fires.

> Living quarters for out-of-town ambulance crews that comprise a third of the ambulance volunteers.

> Space for fire department turnout gear to lower cancer risks.

> A shared training room.

How tight too tight?

The current building is so cramped that emergency response times are slowed.

> Ambulances are parked shoulder-width apart.

> Fire engines need to be backed within inches of walls, impeding crews called to fires.

> New fire engines need to be custom ordered to fit under low garage doors.