Lewiston replacing squeezed emergency quarters
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.
Viroqua fugitive captured in Rochester
ROCHESTER, Minn. — A Canton man who had eluded Wisconsin police for two days, was arrested in Rochester. Nathan Randal Gossman, age 40, was booked at the Olmsted County jail about 6:40 p.m. Extradition to Wisconsin was expected. Gossman is accused of driving into a police officer who was attempting an arrest in Viroqua last week. Other Viroqua officers then were led on an 18-mile chase, which ended in a wreck. Gossman disappeared from the wreckage but was suspected of stealing a municipal dump truck that later was found in Rochester. Originally he was wanted in Viroqua on a burglary warrant.
Gossman. Allegations include driving a stolen township dump truck 100 miles to Rochester.
Minnesota job status off slightly; Trump blamed
ST. PAUL, Minn. — Economic indicators tracked by the Minnesota state jobs agency showed signs of slowing in July, although not as much as national metrics. The state lost 4,400 jobs in July. Unemployment increased marginally to 3.5%. The state’s labor force participation rate fell slightly to 68.2%. State jobs Commissioner Matt Varilek believes the downward slope has something to do with President Trump’s economic policies, specifically tariffs and federal funding cuts. Chaotic Trump tariffs have destabilized business planning, which has broad and negative economic effects, Varilek said. Also, he said, Trump budget cuts on federal data-gathering agencies have slowed reporting on metrics that state-level calculations rely on to varying degrees.
Rattlesnake lassoed at foot of bluffs, relocated
WINONA, Minn. – A snake handler was called to remove a rattlesnake in the 1400 residential block of Heights Boulevard. This street parallels U.S. Highway 14-61 at the base of the bluffs behind Dahl Auto and the Hy-Vee grocery. This was the first rattlesnake report at the foot of the bluffs this summer. The snake was relocated.
New arrest for duct-tape child torment
WINONA, Minn. — A LaCrosse man implicated in a Winona child torture case has been arrested. Jalil Wilson, age 27, turned himself in on a warrant issued last week. A second warrant has been issued for another LaCrosse man, Atzavesta Raymon Williams, age 25. Both men were at an apartment ,where a 3-year-old boy was bound at his wrists and ankles by duct tape and taped also over his mouth. Charged earlier was a woman at whose apartment the abuse occurred.
Earlier: Two men sought in Winona child-torture case
Wilson. Rap sheet: Relatively minor stuff in Milwaukee and Chicago.
Minivan crashes, injuring Rushford driver
RUSHFORD, Minn. — A Rushford driver was injured after losing control of her minivan in Rushford Village. May Louise Himlie, age 71, was taken 24 miles to the Winona hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. A passenger, Darrell Craig Himlie, 73, of Rushford, was unhurt. Police said the 2019 Dodge Journey went into the ditch. The Himlies were northbound on State Highway 43. This was a little before 4 p.m.
Charge filed against deputy in teen’s death
BLACK RIVER FALLS, Wis. — A deputy sheriff was read a criminal complaint that accuses him of firing 22 shots at a fleeing teen-age driver in May and killing him. Stan Edington, age 38, appeared in court via video from his current home in the Milwaukee suburb of Elm Grove. Edington has been charged with causing reckless injury. The teenager died of a severed spine. The car chase had ended near Hixton, 12 miles from Black River Falls. It was there, near Hixton, that the shots were fired. Edington had been a Jackson County sheriff’s deputy for nine years. He’s been on unpaid leave.
Victim of Elma rifle volley regaining sight
ELBA, Minn. — The recovery of the woman shot in a rifle attack in Elba last week is progressing well at a Rochester hospital. Winona County Sheriff Ron Ganrude said he understood the woman’s vision is returning. Swelling around the eye is receding, he said. The woman’s car took seven shots Tuesday night. Pieces of glass from her shattered windshield entered one eye.
Attempted Hokah patricide heads to trial
CALEDONIA, Minn. — A Hokah man who stabbed his father with scissors in May, in full view of a passing police officer, cannot claim mental incompetence to avoid prosecution, Judge Carmaine Sturino ruled. The judge scheduled trial for Nicholas McCabe, age 24, in October. The stabbing was outside the family business in Hokah. The father survived. Meanwhile, the son remains in the Houston County jail with bail at $500,000. The charges: Four counts including attempted murder and assault.
Heavy rains flood Niagara Cave 60 feet deep
HARMONY, Minn. — Torrential rains seeped quickly through limestone karst and flooded the Niagara Cave 60 feet deep. No one was caught in the rising waters. The caves, a tourist attraction, would remain open but only at higher levels, which owner Aaron Bishop described as “quite drippy.” Bishop encouraged visitors to wait until mid-week. By then, he said, lower levels should have drained. In the meantime, he has crews bailing out puddles and wiping down handrails and benches. Bishop said he’s seen occasional flooding in the 30 years his family has owned the cave but seldom deeper than 20 feet.
Spelunking wonder. A 60-foot waterfall is the cave’s main attraction, and hence its name.
Niagara Cave profile
The cave is 299 feet deep with a mile of walkways for guided tours. It’s part of a massive southeast Minnesota aquifer whose main exit is a powerful waterfalls 25 miles south on an upper Iowa River bluff in Decorah. The cave was discovered in 1924. In 1932, three spelunkers, Al Cremer, Leo Tekippe and Joe Flynn, explored the cave and chose the name Niagara. Two years later the cave opened for tourists. It’s described as an underground riverbed complete with a 60-foot waterfall. It’s privately owned. Guided tours only. Admission $12 to $20. In Fillmore County 60 miles southwest of Winona. Another cave in the same aquifer, with 13 miles of passages, is at Mystery Cave State Park at Forestville. Mystery Cave admission: $5 to $15.
Fair fodder /15: More tummy-busters
FALCON HEIGHTS, Minn. — Among 33 new foods on the ever-growing menu at the Minnesota State Fair, which opens August 21:
Somali street fries: Cones of mini or full-size beef or lentil sambusas. Full-size with choice of sauce. Also, choice of Vimto or watermelon slushies. (August 21 to 26 only. At Midtown Global Market’s Oasis Grill and Hoyo at the International Bazaar, east wall.
Urban glow mocktails, Choice of Dirty NoTini, Nojito, CosNo, Grilled Peach No Fashioned, Autumn Mule, Pineapple Upside Down Cake, Bonspiel Blue and Nitro Cold Brew. Also, mini all-beef hot dogs in sweet Hawaiian rolls with mocktail-inspired mustards. At Midtown Global Market’s Oasis Grill and Hoyo Sambusa, in the Taste of the Midtown Global Market booth at the International Bazaar, east wall.
Sanity check ordered in Elba gun attack
WINONA, Minn. — A mental evaluation has been ordered for an Elba woman who admitted firing a rifle several times into a vehicle driven by a neighbor. The confession is cited in the criminal complaint against Ava Leone Kock, age 64. So too are a series of bizarre explanations to sheriff’s investigators:
> The targeted woman and her husband had been “murdering and raping people,” Kock is quoted as saying
> She said she had heard the couple digging graves in the basement of their apartment and burying “people and kids.”
> Koch said that nobody else was stopping the “criminal behavior” so she had to do it.
> Both the husband and wife, she believed, were in the Jeep when she pulled the trigger. Actually, the husband was in their apartment and she was coming home and parking their Jeep outside.
> As she fired into the Jeep, she spoke to God: “Guide my bullets like You guided David’s rock.”
> Why seven rounds? Because the Bible has numerous references to seven.
> She felt at peace, and she was unbothered that anyone was injured.
Investigators also reported in the criminal complaint that Kock had an odd reputation in the neighborhood. A nearby business owner said that Kock had mentioned a month earlier that the couple was “very loud” and she thought the husband was assaulting his wife. Kock was quoted also that she and her son were going to figure out a way to “take out” the husband.
Rifle among seized evidence
When officers entered Kock’s place with search warrant the morning after the shooting, they said, Kock pointed them to a rifle hidden behind a stove. Spent shell casings were in a potted plant in her living room, they said. Confiscated were a gun case, a Ruger .22 caliber rifle, a box of .22 caliber rounds, and seven .22 rifle cartridges.
Clarification
There were clarifications in the criminal complaint: Initial reports were that the shots were fired from a front door. The shots actually were fired from a bathroom window, according to the complaint. Investigators have requested a forensic reconstruction of the scene by an outside agency.
Earlier: Elba shooting update: Bullet entered victim’s brain
Notable journalism
Ryan Faircloth and Sydney Kashiwagi (Minnesota Star Tribune, August 15, 2025): “Governor Tim Walz Wavering on Third Term, Setting Off Quiet Scramble within DFL”
Gabriel Hathaway (Winona Post, August 13, 2025): “Winona’s Friendship Center Relocating”
Caden Perry (LaCosse Tribune., August 11, 2025): “Rockstars Align for Charity at Ashley for the Arts Festival”
Teen driver injures ankle near Whiskey Hill ridge
ELBA, Minn. — Deputies were called to a car wreck west of Elba and found the vehicle. but no one was around. Deputies determined that the driver, a juvenile, had been taken 20 miles to a Rochester hospital. Reportedly he had an ankle injury. The accident was reported to the Winna police dispatcher about 6:40 a.m. The site: County Road 36 on the Whiskey Peak ridge incline near Larson Road.
Two Kellogg-bound women hurt in collision
PLAINVIEW, Minn. — Two Kellogg women survived with sustainable injuries in a two-vehicle collision northeast of Plainview on State Highway 42 to Kellogg. Emily Marie Gregurich, 18, driving a 2001 Toyota Camry, and Riley Lynn Henenberger, 17, were taken 34 miles to a Rochester hospital. The other driver, Eric Michael Hegna, 45, of Wabasha, was unhurt. He was in a 2013 Dodge Grand Caravan. The crash wasat the badly angled 590th Street intersection. This was about 1:25 p.m.
Burglary attempt foiled at Homer church
Divine dissuasion? A would-be intruder ended up with a bloodied hand at the United Methodist church on Old Homer Road, south of Winona. Deputies said it appeared that the intruder was cut while breaking a window and gave up. The break-in attempt was reported about 9:40 p.m.
Ettrick man charged for music fest punches
LACROSSE, Wis. — A Trempealeau County man wanted for a serious assault at the Country Boom music fest in West Salem in md-July has turned himself in. William L. Mack, age 20, of Ettrick, was wanted for felony-level battery and misdemeanor disorderly conduct. Allegedly he punched a man in the face and knocked him unconscious. The victim suffered multiple face fractures, broken teeth and an eye injury, according to the criminal complaint. Police were told by witnesses that the injured man provoked a fight: Pushing people and head-butting one man. In a second fight minutes later, Mack punched the original antagonist twice and punched and kicked him after he hit the ground, the criminal complaint said. Police obtained an arrest warrant for Mack but couldn’t locate him. He surrendered a month later.
Country Boom profile
Country Boom is a three-day country music and camping festival at Maple Grove Venues outside West Salem. An annual event since 2o18. Wristband admission: $78. Usual attendance about 20,000. Headliners this year: Nashville singer Kameron Marlow, hip-hop crunker Lil Jon and Texas performer Koe Wetzel.
Mack. Released on $1,500 bond.
Elba shooting update: Windshield glass entered brain
ELBA, Minn. — Although first appearing as relatively unhurt in a gun attack on her car, a 34-year-old Elba woman was in fact in serious peril. Sources said that emergency room doctors in Rochester found that one gpass had pierced an eye and entered her brain. There was “brain bleed,” but it was stopped. The woman then was put in a critical care unit for observation, her condition listed as non-life-threatening. When deputies first arrived at the shooting scene on main street in the village of Elba, the woman was bleeding from a forehead wound. She was taken 22 miles to the Rochester hospital via St. Charles. The shooting was about 10 p.m. Tuesday. In all, seven shots were fired at the woman’s car from next door.
Wrong-way driver stopped on I-90 — twice
DRESBACH Minn. — A Trempealeau woman was arrested going the wrong way on Interstate 90 twice in a six-hour period. After the second stop, near Dresbach, Tamela Marie Lucero, age 57, of Trempealeau, was taken 22 miles to the Winona hospital for a blood draw. Further charges will hinge on blood tests that typically take a few days to complete. Six hours earlier, about 7:30 p.m. elsewhere on I-90, another sheriff’s deputy stopped Lucerne, also going the wrong way, and moved her off right-of-way. Not seeing impairment signs that would warrant an arrest, this deputy turned the case over to a State Patrol trooper who arrived as back-up.
“Don’t take it personal, officer”
WINONA, Minn. – the sherif’s deputy thought it odd that a car in front of him pulled off the road, stopped, and then, after deputy passed, came back on the road. Curious, the deputy pulled off onto the shoulder himself. When the other car passed, the deputy began a began a quiet pursuit at a distance. In Winona near Broadway and Carimona streets on the East End, the driver pulled into a driveway, The deputy got out and asked the man about his odd driving behavior. The answer: “I don’t like being followed by law enforcement.” Not at all nonplused, the man walked away. Nothing illegal about that. His question answered, the deputy returned to his car and resumed his patrol. This was about 12:10 a.m., all in a night’s work.
News summary at week’s end: August 16, 2025
CRIME: Bail at $500,000 for Elba shoot ‘em up
CRIME: Next for Winona man in June murder: A trial
CRIME: Two men sought in Winona child-torture case
CRIME: After too many brandies, Weber rolls vehicle
CRIME: Beer-busts update: Cops as party-poopers
CRIME: Break-through clue in Elba shooting: Ripped screen door
CRIME: Minnesota assassination suspect indicted anew
CRIME: Track coach’s sex trial now in January
CRIME: Driver forfeits plea opportunity in two-death crash
JOURNALISM: Armstrong leaves WXOW anchor chair
TRANSPORTATION: Oil cars ruptured but no fire in train wreck
ENVIRONMENT: Zumbro Lake fishkill being investigated
So obvious a get-away vehicle: A dump truck
VIROQUA, Wis. — A township dump truck was reported stolen near where fugitive Nathan Gossman disappeared after a police chase. Sheriff Roy Torgerson said there was evidence linking the theft to Gossman. The truck would be hard not to recognize. It was an oversize Ram 5500 with “Town of Wheatland” emblazoned on the doors. Torgerson said he had reports of sightings 10 miles away in DeSoto about 12:30 a.m. and 32 miles away in LaCrescent, Minnesota. It’s path had to be via LaCrosse into Minnesota. Gossman has connections in Canton, Lanesboro and Preston in of southeast Minnesota.
Big, gray, dust-encrusted. The stolen work truck linked to fleeing fugitive. Image: Vernon County sheriff
Wreck blocks rail line; Amtrak calls in buses
WINONA, Minn. — Amtrak’s Empire Builder and Borealis passenger train service through Winona was disrupted by a freight train derailment in south-central Wisconsin. Passengers were put on buses in LaCrosse and Milwaukee to bypass the blockage. The derailment was on the Canadian Pacific mainline, on which Amtrak has trackage rights. Crews expected to have the line reopened by mid-day Sunday.
Armstrong leaves WXOW anchor chair
LACROSSE, Wis. — The WXOW television anchor Heather Armstrong, who gave the station a network-quality presence, has signed off after 15 yers. Her departure, she said, opens time for family and children and her passion for rescued animals. Armstrong arrived at WXOW after an early broadcast journalism career in southern California. She grew up in New York City and attended St. Francis University in Pennsylvania. After graduation, she interned at CNN, CBS and Fox. She worked briefly on Wall Street. Her Emmys include a 2010 public affairs award for the “Kids Finance.” Taking Armstrong’s anchor chair starting Monday: Roger Staffaroni, who has been at WXOW since 2018
Armstrong. An anchor, yes, but she also took to the streets to cover special events.
Allen. Bought WXOW in a pakage from the Atlanta-based Gray television chain in 2021.
WXOW profile
The station WXOW has had an historic running battle for viewers and advertisers with cross-town rival WKBT. Dominance shifts back and forth. At the moment WXOW is caught in dire financial straits created by business misjudgments by its owner, Los Angeles-based Allen Meda Group. The chain’s owner, comedian and impresario Byron Allen over-extended himself financially through aggressive acquisitions and other ventures. This year to avert disaster he slashed budgets at all his stations in 21 markets. Layoffs were ordered, employee benefit packages were downsized, hiring was frozen. He outsourced weathercasts to the Weather Channel. Stations were told to cannibalize each other’s local. newscasts to fill time. To meet debt obligations, Allen sold 10 stations in the South last week to raise $171 million. Allen so far is keeping his Wisconsin stations: WXOW, which actually is licensed in LaCrescent, Minnesota; WQOW, Eau Claire; WKOW, Madison; and WAOW and WMOW, Wausau.
Princess Winona unfazed by midnight frolic
Nothing new for her. The princess maintains her nonjudgmental gaze, No need to avert eyes. This has happened so many times before: College kids frolicking in the fountain spray at her feet in Windom Park. But police took notice. They told the revelers to move along. This was just after bar closing time.
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