EYOTA, Minnn. — A Rochester couple were injured when their motorcycle stuck a deer near Eyota and went into a ditch. Taken 14 miles to a Rochester hospital sere:

> Charles Logan Behrens, 46, the driver.

> Amber Lynn Behrens, 41.

Their injuries were described as non-life threatening. The crash was about 7:30 p.m. on U.S. Highway 14. Neither was wearing a helmet, Olmsted Countv deputies said. The Behrenses were heading west toward Rochester on a 2022 Harley Davidson larger frame Super Glide.

LACROSSE, Wis. — A Winona man charged for a violent homicide must stay in jail until his trial unless he posts $1 million bail. The bail for Jacob Klaver was set by Judge Elliott Levine. Klaver is charged witb first-degree murder in the June 28 death of a suburban Holmen man at home. The judge scheduled a further hearing Klaver next week.

Earlier: Woman fingers ex-boyfriend for Holmen murder

MIDDLETON, Wis. — A Wisconsin State Patrol bureau director and his school teacher wife were found shot to death in their suburban home outside Madison. Apparently they were killed overnight. A family member called police when neither pf them showed for work. Their last known contact with anyone outside the home was about 9:30 p.m. Both were 64 years old. He was a 40-year State Pattol veteran.

Pabsts. Possibly an intruder, police say.

WINONA, Minn. – Fire damaged the Core Molding plastics factory overnight. Firefighters confined the blaze to the roof and ductwork. The factory was off-shift at the time, a little after midnight. The plant has a payroll of 50 employees. No one was  injured. The cause of the fire was not determined immediately. The plant originally was CPI Binani of Winona, which was known for long-fiber thermoplastic products custom-designed for industrial manufacturers. Since 1996 the plant has been a unit of Ohio-based Core Molding Technologies.

On Wilkie Drive on Far East End. Part of Bundy Boulevard light industrial park off Homer Road.  Images: Winona Fire Department

LEWISTON, Minn. — Police converged on downtown Lewiston after a man reported being fired on after leaving the Rec Bar. Police couldn’t find an assailant. This was about 11 p.m. Sheriff’s deputies, a state trooper and officers from Winona and St. Charles responded to back up Lewiston police. There had been a heated argument at the bar with one man reportedly threatening to fetch a shotgun. The other man said he was shot at three or four times walking home. This was in the 100 block of South First Street, a couple blocks from the bar. Police said their understanding of what happened was hampered by the man’s intoxication and a language issue. It was possible, police said, that the firearm may have been a BB, pellet or soft-air gun.

GRAND PORTAGE, Minn.  — Authorities for almost a month kept a lid on the deaths of two campers at Isle Royale National Park. Why? Only the recalcitrant authorities can explain their secrecy. But now it’s been confirmed that the victims were a father and son from Ann Arbor, Michigan, and that their deaths were a murder-suicide:

> John David Baird, age 6o, who lived in Washtenaw County northeast of Ann Arbor. He was prominent in the insurance business

> Bradley Kenneth Baird, 30, who lived at the same Washtenaw County address. He was a freelance author. He was unmarried.

Who shot who first could not be determined, according to autopsies. The deaths were June 8 at a remote campsite. Campers at distant campsite, but within ear-shot, heard the gunfire. They hiked out the next day to the park ranger station, and rangers hiked 11 hours back in. The rangers called in the FBI because Isle Royale is a federal jurisdiction. That’s when the never-explained news blackout began .

Earlier: Animals ruled out in Isle Royale deaths

Earlier: Campers found dead on Isle Royale

Almanac: Remember when: Isle Royale as Franklin’s deal-breaker

WINONA, Minn. — Authorities called in a trained snake-handler to a Garvin Heights Road address to remove a rattlesnake. The snake was in a garage in the 22000 block. This was about 7 p.m. It was the second snake call in a week. Earlier a snake was removed from a basement. The usual wildlife procedure is to relocate snakes at locations away from populated areas.

ALBERT LEA, Minn. — A speed boat crashed into a pontoon boat on Albert Lea Lake. Two passengers on the speed boar were injured:

> Gary Register, 65, of Albert Lea, was air-lifted to a Rochester hospital with severe injuries.

> Carmelita Simpson, 51, also of Albert Lea n was transported to the nearby Albert Lea hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

The driver of the speed boat, Kelly Gardner, 55, of Albert Lea, was not believed seriously injured. Nor were two people on the pontoon boat: Jeffrey Stewart, 46, of Albert Lea, the driver, and Luis Rios Perez, 43, of Albert Lea. The crash was a little before 10 p.m. Sheriff Ryan Shea said alcohol was not a factor. Although 2,600 acres, the lake is shallow — only 5-/1/2 feet at its deepest. The hulls of the 1997 Crestliner run-about and the 2000 Bennington 2280 RL pontoon were easily recovered.

WINONA, Minn. — The city-county police dispatcher took a call that a prosthetic leg was floating down the Mississippi River main channel. The caller said the foot had painted toe nails and a sandal. The crew on the sheriff’s patrol boat couldn’t find the missing leg. The call had come in about 5:25 p.m.

Oldest Independence Day parade in Minnesota. With 115 units marching down Tiger Drive.  Delano, population 6,600, is 30 miles west of Minneapolis.

Politicos lying low, not kissing babies

DELANO, Minn. — Politicians normally love parades. What better place to kiss babies, glad-hand and feel the public pulse. But not Republicans from Congress.  Not this year. Their bosses in Congress have told them to avoid townhalls, public forums and large gatherings in general. Despite passage of the Trump budget on Thursday, the budget is unpopular with the public. Also: Connections with Trump himself are viewed as toxic for Republican members of Congress seeking re-election in 2o26. Consider:

Where Minnesotans celebrated with parades

> St. Peter (MN-1): Brad Finstad, from New Ulm, 30 miles away, not seen at Independence Parade

> Delano (MN-6): Tom Emmer. not seen at the state’s oldest Fourth of July parade.

> Spicer (MN-7): Michelle Fischbach not seen at Grand Day parade in Lanford Park.

> Forest Lake (MN-8): Pete Stauber not seen at the American Legion Post 225 parade

WYKOFF, Minn. — Two persons from Freeborn County were injured when their car left State Highway 80 and overturned between Wykoff and Fountain. Taken 34 miles to a Rochester hospital were:

> Johnathan David Lyons, of Twin Lakes, the driver, who Fillmore County deputies said had been drinking.

> Shelly Elizabeth Bush, 21, of Albert Lea.

Both were belted and airbags deployed, said deputies. The accident was about 2:15 p.m.  They were in a 2013 Ford Taurus and headed west toward Wykoff.

WINONA, Minn. — A 26-year-old Winona man was arrested after his mother reported he beat her up because he believed she had called the cops on him. Chase Michael Wehner was booked into jail on a domestic assault charge that was elevated because of a prior conviction. Police responded about 4:25 p.m. to a 911 hang-up that was traced to the 350 Block of West Sanborn Street. At the address Wehner’s mother said she made the 911 call after locking herself in a bedroom to escape her angry son, who then crashed open the door and ripped her phone away. Police said she showed bruises and redness. Apparently Chase had seen police on the block in the morning and assumed that his mom had called them. The assumption wasn’t true, police said: Officers had been on the block in the morning regarding a person lying in the street. The call had nothing to do with the Wehners, police said. It is true, however, that Chase has a record of run-ins with the law. In the new case, Chase had left when police arrived at his mother’s house but was arrested nearby without resistance.

Earlier: Cops: Pair evasive, imaginative with cocaine

Chase. Unclear why his sensitivity to police being around.

PICKWICK, Minn. — A Pickwick woman rushing home after learning her house was on fire ran off a road and crashed — and her car erupted in flames. Sandra Kay Kauphusman, 6o, was still 24 miles from home   when she ran off State Highway 43 near the Winona-Fillmore county line. Kauphusman wasn’t seriously hurt in the accident but required a side trip by med-evac helicopter to a Rochester hospital. The house, in Pickwick, was destroyed by the fire. A neighboring house was damaged. This was all Wednesday afternoon.

Earlier: Driver hurt in flaming crash near Hart

Earlier: Fire razes house at Pickwick; no injuries

VIROQUA, Wis. ­— Bail was set at $5,000 for a  Viroqua school employee accused of sex with school kids. Ashley Also: Benson wasordered  not to have contact with the victims, nor unsupervised contact with anyone under 18 unless it’s incidental and in a public place. Her next court appearance was scheduled in three weeks.

Earlier: Sex misconduct alleged on Viroqua school kids

HOLMEN, Wis.  — The criminal complaint accusing a Winona man of first-degree murder claims he was at the Holmen house the night that a romantic rival was bludgeoned and strangled to death. Jacob Andrew Klaver’s cell phone places him at the house at 10:28 p.m., according to police.  Roughly seven hours later, police found Josh Edward Pigney, 37, dead in an upstairs bedroom. Pigney’s girlfriend had phoned police at 5:38 a.m. that she found him unresponsive in an upstairs bedroom. The girlfriend told police that she and Pigney had a minor argument the evening before and that she had fallen sleep on a downstairs sofa. She had been drinking, she said. At some point, she told police, she perhaps heard a commotion upstairs but, half asleep, couldn’t be sure. It’s a large split-level house, 3,100 square feet with four bedrooms. She reported going upstairs when Pigney hadn’t gotten up at his usual time. He was unresponsive and the bedroom in shambles, she said. The house was without power. She ran next door and called 911. The criminal complaint does not name the girlfriend, but the house at 815 Granum Street is owned by Mary Kathryn George, age 35. Neighbors said she he moved in a year ago.

Klaver, an ex-boyfriend

The girlfriend pointed police to Klaver, an ex-boyfriend who she said had been stalking her. She described him as “very scary.” She told police that she installed security cameras outside the home because of Klaver’s behavior. Authorities were notified in Winona, where Klaver lived. Meanwhile, Holmen police used  cellphone tracking tools for Klaver’s whereabouts in the window during which the attack occurred. Aside from Klaver being at the Holmen address at 10:28 p.m., other cellphone data and surveillance video paint only a fragmentary and somewhat confusing timeline and map. Cameras show Klaver’s car in Winona, 27 miles and 34 minutes from Holmen, at 11:04, 11:06 and 11:08 p.m. Klaver’s cellphone has him in the LaCrosse suburb of West Salem, 12 miles southeast of Holmen, at 1:44 a.m. At some point during night the power at the Holmen house was cut off, which disabled the Holmen security cameras.

Search for Klaver

Pigney. Bludgeoned and strangled to death. A family photo.

Klaver. Accused of premeditated homicide. A jail booking photo.

Some details are cloudy, but an investigator from LaCrosse County, where Holmen is located, reportedly traveled later in the day to Winona, beyond the usual LaCrosse jurisdiction, to question Klaver. At Klaver’s address, 755 East Fifth Street, Klaver didn’t respond, but the investigator, who then returned to his car down the street, said he saw Klaver leave the house. Acting on a LaCrosse County warrant, Winona police arrested Klaver at the Fifth Street address at 8:17 p.m. Wednesday. This was four days after the murder. While being booked, officers recorded Klaver had small cuts on his hands, two black eyes, and bruising. He later told investigators that the cuts were from work and that he fell down while walking his dog a few days before. About his whereabouts when the murder occurred, Klaver said he was at home all night on Saturday into Sunday morning and specifically denied being ether in Holmen or West Salem despite cellphone tracks reported by police. What about his injuries? Authorities who interviewed two of Klaver’s co-workers, who were with him on Saturday afternoon. said they didn’t see any injuries. At the Winona jail, while being booked, Klaver said he felt unwell. At a news briefing on Thursday, Sheriff Ron Ganrude declined to discuss the medical issue.  Ganrude would not go beyond quoting Klaver that he hadn’t taken his medication. A diabetic coma?  A heart attack? A chronic behavioral condition? Ganrude wouldn’t say, but Klaver was taken immediately to the Winona hospital. The emergency doctor diagnosed the situation as needing attention at a higher-level trauma center. Klaver was transported to Gundersen Hospital in LaCrosse. While he was being treated at Gundersen and then convalescing, Holmen police stationed an armed guard at his door.

Missing money, burglary tools

Holmen. 815 Granum Street, where murder occurred.

Winona. 755 East Fifth Street, where Klaver arrested.

At the murder scene, Pigney’s girlfriend told police that $5,000 secured by a black clip was missing. The money, she said, was intended for a car purchase. How had an intruder entered the house? Police, the complaint says, found searches on Klaver’s phone for lock-picking devices. Police also found searches for how to disable security cameras: “Will flipping a breaker disable domestic security cameras?” A money clip also was fouund ag Kraver’s Winona address.

Autopsy

Pigney, a sturdy man, was well-known in motorcycle racing circles. He was pronounced dead in the Holmen upstairs bedroom by police. He died of blunt force trauma and strangulation, according to the autopsy. There had been a struggle. Police found blood, overturned and busted furniture, and a bladeless fan split into two parts. The power was out, apparently cut off by the intruder. Without power, home security cameras weren’t functioning.

Earlier: Winona police arrest Holmen murder suspect

Earlier: Details emerge in Holmen murder

Earlier: Man murdered in upscale Holmen home

BALSAM LAKE, Wis. — A Polk County judge ordered bail at $50,000 for retired physician Kenneth GaleWyrick, who was accused last week of fondling two teen-age boys 25 to 30 years ago. GaleWyrick, now 71, was arrested at his Montana retirement home and transported to Wisconsin. His accusers say inappropriate touching occurred when they, in separate instances,  were modeling for GaleWyrick who fancied himself a sculptor. Why the accusers have waited allt hese years to make their charges hasn’t been clear.

Earlier: Doctor-sculptor accused of indecent teen contact

Question: Will Wyrick employ a Michelangelo defense? Perhaps deny the charges.