LACROSSE, Wis. – Firefighters rescued two people trapped in a second-floor apartment above Fish’s Bar and Grill on the North Side. The fire was in the stairwell. The only way out was down the firefighters’ ladder on the outside. Nobody was injured. The blaze was about 2 a.m. in the back of the structure.  Tentatively a lithium battery was blamed

ARCADIA, Wis. – Since the first of the year, every police officer in this Trempealeau County municipality of 3,700 has resigned. The crisis began in January. Chief Diana Anderson turned in her badge. Like dominos the next few weeks, every other officer quit. Why? Overwork. Too many calls for too few officers. Burn-out. By April everyone was gone. There had been an interim chief in February. The City council hired Eric Puent, a former Galesville police officer, as the interim chief. That didn’t last, Puent quit, saying he had  “drastically underestimated how much time and energy would be required to do the job correctly.” In desperation, the City Council put Council member Kyle Myhre in charge to hold things together as best he could. Myhre had earlier experience as a deputy sheriff, but all he had to work with was a patchwork of part-time volunteers moonlighting from full-time civilian jobs. At full complement, the force had five full-time officers. About the current arrangement, Myhre said in a WKBT interview that the part time officers come in as they can, but all, he noted, have full time jobs too. The county sheriff, Brett Semingson, has diverted some patrols to Arcadia for the time being, but this, he said, cannot go on forever. As sheriff, Semingson is headquartered 11 miles away in Whitehall and lives 32 miles away in Osseo. Perhaps there’s light appearing at the end of the tunnel. Myhre said he recently found an officer from long ago, Nicholas Scholl, to come back. Still, the city has an unusually high volume of emergency police calls and traffic accidents — and not enough officers.

Downtown. Classic small town Midwestern shopping district.

Arcadia profile

With a population of 3,700, Arcadia is the largest municipality in rural Trempealeau County. It’s 36 miles from Winona, 50 from LaCrosse, and 46 from Black River Falls, and 16 miles up the Trempealeau River from the Mississippi. The major employer is the Ashley Furniture factory, which is the largest furniture manufacturer in the nation. Another major employer, still called Arcadia Fryers locally, processes chickens for national distribution. The poultry plant has gone through several owners and name changes since 1993, including Gold’n Plump and now the the multi-national Pilgrim’s Pride. The city has grown in the past quarter century with the arrival of Hispanic immigrants for farm work, mostly in the poultry and dairy industries. Ethnic assimilation has been relatively rapid. More than 20 businesses in town are Hispanic-owned. Life hasn’t been easy for many Hispanics, however. In 2018 the immigrant population was targeted by federal agents in deportation raids.

Softball: UW-Whitewater 5, Saint Mary’s 3

WINONA, Minn. – A Winona man was booked for burglary after a former girlfriend reported catching video of him inside her house while she was away at work. She told police she had installed cameras inside her house and was monitoring them from afar on an app. Police arrested Christoher Pete Sage on a bicycle few blocks away. The video, police said, showed Sage, age 51, rummaging through mail and personal items. The house is in the 450 block of West Mark Street. The arrest was about 8:55 p.m. near Wabasha and Wilson streets. Besides the breaking-and-entering charge, Sage was booked for violating a court order to stay away from the woman and her address. He had two previous convictions for violating restraint orders, police said.

Sage. Oblivious that house was equipped inside with surveillance cameras.

WINONA, Minn. – A Winona man was booked for strangulation in an assault on a woman with whom he shared an address. Arrested was Daniel Allen Liston, age 42. The incident was about 5:40 p.m. in the Cotter neighborhood of West Howard Street. The woman told police that Liston held her neck under his forearm. She said she couldn’t breathe ,possibly for 20 seconds. but didn’t lose consciousness. There had been argument that escalated out of control, she said.

Liston. Booked for assault with harmful intent and strangulation.

PLAINVIEW, Minn.  –  A Plainview woman was injured in a two-vehicle collision and taken 30 miles to a Rochester hospital. Injuries to Gladay Alize Castillo, 21, of Plainview, were described as sustainable. The accident was about 4:40 p.m. on State Highway 247 at 10th Street on the West End. Police said Castillo was a passenger in a 2006 Ford pickup heading west out of town on Highway 247.  The other vehicle, also westbound, was a 2014 Dodge Caravan minivan. Neither Denise Mary Jacobs, 70, of Plainview, driving the Dodge, nor Christian Ricardo Rodriguez, 18, of Plainview, driving the Ford, was injured. Other passengers also escaped injury, including an infant.

WINONA, Minn. – A Winona woman was charged with punching another woman in the face in a drunken rage at an apartment near St. Matthew’s School on the West Side. The victim, police said, had red marks on her chin but didn’t require hospitalization.  Arrested was Gean Beatrice Bennett, age 28. She was taken to the hospital to determine if detoxification was necessary. The incident was about 12:10 p.m. in the 750 block of West Wabasha Street. Police said Bennett didn’t take kindly to being arrested. They described her as surly and belligerent. Outside the apartment as she was being frisked routinely for a weapon or contraband, she head-butted the hood of a brand new police squad car, officers said. Pending charges include injurious assault, disorderly conduct, and damage to property. The dollar amount for damage will depend on what body shop repairs cost.

MABEL, Minn. – A Mabel man was injured in the collision of a Peterbilt semi-truck and a pickup and a sedan near Mabel. John Deloy Petersen, 77, was transported 42 miles to a LaCrosse hospital with non-life threatening injuries. The collision occurred about 8 a.m. Filmore County deputies said the truck was headed east on Highway 44 and the other vehicles west. The pavement on the two-lane road was dry. The vehicles:

> 2022 Chevrolet Silverado. Driven by Peterson.

> 2019 Peterbilt Semi. Driven by Jeffrey Scott Slowiak, 39, of Granton in northern Wisconsin. His injuries didn’t require hospitalization.

> 2009 Lincoln MKX. Driven by Emilia Johnson Ramirez. 31, of Mabel, She was uninjured.

WINONA, Minn. – A deer wandered down Gilmore Creek onto the Cotter soccer field and somehow got itself entangled in a soccer net. Police were called. Officers cut the nylon netting to free the deer. It bounded off, back to from where it had come. This was about 1:20 p.m.

WINONA, Minn. – A driver has been issued a citation for speeding and recklessness for a wreck involving five vehicles Monday on County Road 17. Two vehicles overturned. Two persons were injured albeit not seriously. Cited was Daniel Johnathan Sjostrom, age 40, who has a rural Winna address. Witnesses said Sjostrom had been darting in and out of cars on the two-lane road to get ahead. The county attorney is reviewing the case for alternate charges.

Earlier: Theory: Speed, erratic passing caused rollovers

WINONA, Minn. – The Fire Department reported 32 emergency medical calls plus 19 fire calls in recent days:

> Tuesday, May 20: 5 medical call plus 2 fire calls.

> Monday, May 19: 6 medical calls plus 2 fire calls.

> Sunday, May 18: 4 medical calls plus 3 fire calls.

> Saturday, May 17: 6 medical calls plus 4 fire calls.

> Friday, May 16: 3 medical call plus 1 fire call.

> Thursday, May 15: 4 medical calls plus 3 fire call9

> Wednesday, May 14: 4 medical calls plus 4 fire calls.

Earlier: Emergency, fire crews make 44 calls

PLATTEVILLE, Wis. – The deaths of two graduating seniors at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville, both women, apparently were a murder-suicide.  Sources were unclear whether Hallie Helms, 22, or Kelsie Martin, 22, fired the shots. Platteville Police Chief Joseph Hallman has been tight-lipped about the investigation except to say there was no suspect at large. The shooting was in a dorm room. Helms was found dead. Martin was taken to the Platteville hospital and then airlifted 70 miles to the UW-Madison hospital, where she was pronounced dead. UW-Platteville  has a policy against guns on campus. The relationship of Martin and Helms was unclear. Helms was a student resident-supervisor in the dorm. Martin also lived in the dorm. A witness reported hearing a loud argument and then a gunshot and a thud.

Earlier: Two UW-Platteville seniors shot dead in dorm

Softball: Houston Hurricanes 16, Hayfield Vikings 6

Softball: Wabasha-Kellogg Falcons 6, Mabel-Canton Cougars 3

Volleyball (boys): Rochester Mayo/Rochester Century/Rochester Marshall 3, St. Paul Cretin-Derham Hall Raiders 0

ROCHESTER, Minn. – Sympathetic volunteers helped a Mexican immigrant elude federal deportation agents at the county courthouse. Volunteers ushered Francisco Javier Montoya, 40, into a fifth-floor conference room, closed the door and waited out ICE agents who roamed the halls searching for him. After 1-1/2 hours the agents gave up and left. The volunteers disguised Montoya in fresh clothes. Feigning to be just a couple of courthouse employees, one volunteer and Montoya took an elevator to the ground floor. Trying to look as casual as possible, they strolled to a vehicle waiting in a parking lot and drove off.

Why ICE wanted Montoya

Responding to President Trump’s grossly exaggerated claims of an invasion by millions of foreign criminals, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency has gone into high gear and arrested hundreds of immigrants — 40,000-plus so far. They have been detained for deportation without judicial review. In some cases ICE agents have been told to arrest people not for any criminal violation but because they had written essays and opinion pieces that displeased Trump. In Montoya’s case, he was at the Rochester courthouse to plead guilty to a misdemeanor of harassment. He was sentenced to two years of supervised probation and fined $200. In lieu of the fine, he was given an option of community service. Although Montoya’s offense was only a misdemeanor, a federal database gave ICE enough information to dispatch a team to arrest him for deportation.

What next?

Montoya now is hiding, presumably with his family and children, ages 8 and 4. A KAAL reporter reached out to Montoya’s attorney, Kalen Best, about Montoya’s status. In question: Will ICE agents return to arrest Montoya at the site of his probation sentence of community service? The agency has cultivated a retributive don’t-mess-with-us reputation. Among others, Governor Tim Walz has characterized ICE as a latter-day Gestapo from the Nazi Germany era. To arrest Montoya, the agency sent a team of at least four agents from its Fort Snelling fortress 80 miles away. There may have been more than four agents, according to volunteers who assisted Montoya. Some agents, in mufti, blended in and were bard to identify. None, however, wore masks, which in some ICE raids has contributed to the terroristic Gestapo metaphor.

Earlier: Walz on Trump deportation practices: They’re Gestapo

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