WINONA, Minn. – Police on an emotional behavior call arrested a Winona man who had left a West Sude house and then drove back while they were still there. Arrested was Kayden A. Shatzer, 21. His blood was 0.17% alcohol, police said. Legal impairment begins at .08%. The arrest was about 9:25 p.m. in the 350 block of Wilson Street. Police said Shatzer’s housemates had called with worry that he was having a mental breakdown. He was gone when officers arrived but then showed up again in his car. Officers said he smelled of alcohol and spoke haltingly with a slur. He failed sobriety exercises on the spot, police said.

Shatzer. Odd behavior led to police eall.

Baseball: Augustana 13, Winona State 3

Baseball: UW-Whitewater 12, UW-LaCrosse 6

Baseball: UW-Whitewater 4, UW-LaCrosse 2

Softball: Winona State 2, Mary 1

Softball: UW-Whitewater 12, UW-LaCrosse 6

Softball: Winona State 8, Mary 0

Softball: Saint Mary’s 7, St. Olaf 1

Softball: Saint Mary’s 7, St. Olaf 3

WINONA, Minn. – A Winona man, apparently out of control, punched walls at a Far West Side home and frightened the woman and one of the children in the place, police said.  Damein Lamont Smith. 56, was booked for domestic assault instilling fear. The incident was in the 1150 block of West Broadway Street about 7:30 p.m. The woman said Smuth had been drinking all day. It was in an argument over disciplining children that he went berserk, she said.

Smith. Admitted to being upset but denied punching walls.

As soon as windows are installed, crews can begin work on interior detail for the $39 million riverside hotel.  At 60 Main Street. The original Fall 2025 completion target now appears to have been overly optimistic. Image: Steve Lunde

STOKTON, Minn. – Firefighters from Lewiston and Winona quenched a grass fire off a Garvin Brook tributary east of Stockton. This was about 9:35 p.m. in the 22000 block of Ridge View Road. The origin of the fire was unclear, firefighters said. The owners of two adjacent properties both denied responsibility.

Earlier: Winds have sucked up surface moisture  

ROLLINGSTONE, Minn. – A rural property owner reported a drone flying and hovering over his place and asked sheriff’s deputies if he could shoot it down. The drone had flown off before deputies arrived. From how the man described the encouhter, the answer was “No.” This was about 10:40 a.m in the 14000 block of Hoffman Hill Roan north of Rollingstone on the backside of Latsch State Pork.

Parochial school rubble. Demolition of the St. Stan’s parochial school is far along on Winona’s East End. Parish leaders have an opportunity to create an appropriate park-like setting for the gorgeous but formerly hemmed-in basilica. The school, built in the 1950s, was an architectural misfit. The school saw its last students in 2023. Image: Steve Lunde

SPRING VALLEY, Minn. — A woman driving a horse-drawn flatbed buggy was injured when stuck by a pickup truck east of Spring Valley. The horse died. The accident was about 7:30 a.m. The 26-year-old woman was taken 28 miles to a Rochester hospital. Fillmore County deputies said the truck, a 2010 Ford pickup driven by Daniel Sheldon, 63, of Stewartville, was southbound on County Road 8, as was the buggy. Sheldon was cited for inattentive driving. The accident was on County Road 8 north of the intersection with 250th Street.

Buggy wrecks

In southeast Minnesota’s Fillmore County:

> September 2023: Two girls were killed, two hurt.

> February 24: Six were hospitalized.

> June 2024: Horse was killed.

> April 2025: Woman was hurt, horse killed

EYOTA, Minn. – The speed limit has been trimmed to 50 mph around the wreck-prone KwikTrip complex on Highway 42. State traffic engineer ordered the change. The limit had been 60. The Kwik Trip location houses not only a convenience store but also major services for over-the-road truckers and their rigs. The location is between U.S. 14 and Interstate 90.

LEWISTON, Minn. – A Rochester driver was charged with under-age consumption of alcohol in a speeding stop. He wasn’t quite drunk, his blood-alcohol testing at 0.07%, the deputy said. Drunkenness starts at 0.08% by state law. The driver was Easton Michael Davis, 20. police said. The stop was about 11:20 p.m. on U.S. Highway 14 at the east city limits. Two other Rochester juveniles in the car, both 18 and also underage, were cited too.

LEWISTON, Minn. – A deputy suspected drunken driving when a car fudged the fog line and crossed over while following another car dangerously close. The driver, when stopped, had bloodshot and watery eyes and poor balance and failed roadside sobriety tests, the deputy said. At jail, however, his blood tested at only 0.06% alcohol — 25% less than the state impairment threshold. But Javier Velasquez Torres, age 20, of Lewiston, didn’t get off free. He was charged with underage consumption of alcohol. The stop had been about 7:10 p.m. on U.S. Highway 14 at County Road 25 in Lewiston.

LEWISTON, Minn. – Acting on an anonymous tip that the Heartland Country Club bar had been serving underage kids, Winona County deputies conducted an unannounced walk-through compliance check and found nothing out of order. The tip had been several days earlier. The nine-hole course has a full-service bar.

WINONA, Minn. – Stock in the locally loved company Fastenal recovered some lost ground after a near 20% drop triggered April 3 by poorly plotted and never-quite-convincingly-explained Trump tariff increases. Fastenal shares climbed to $81.24 on the New York Stock Exchange at 1:26 p.m. on Friday. They settled at $80.64 when market closed for the week at 4:30. This all remained short of Fastenal’s 52-week high of $84.88. Investment analysts remained unsure about what lies ahead with impulsive and bullying Trump behavior. The original Trump ultimatum to every country in the world to impose tariff surcharges ranging from 10% on imports from most countries and 85% on China. Trump waved graphs to support his increases, but nobody could make sense of them.  The graphs inexplicably included unpopulated islands that don’t produce any exports. It all seemed slap-dash and amateurish. And why, oh why, was Russia entirely excused from any new tariffs? Analysts were insulted that Trump would believe they would accept his numbers. The graph, they said  was pretty but nonsense. Over the next few days came dizzying revisions – a 90-day delay in implementing some new tariffs but not all.  Exceptions for select products came and went, Then came additional tariffs for China — first from 85% to an astronomical 104%; then to 134%, and then to 145% because there had been a calculation error. Uhh? What kind of homework had anybody done? None of this inspired confidence that Trump knew what he was doing. Meanwhile, Trump’s chief trade negotiator admitted at a Congressional hearing to being left entirely out of the loop on tariff policy. Analysts took this to mean that the whole tariff exercise was a solo act by Trump with a tiny cadre of White House aides with dubious understanding of the delicate intricacies of business, of trade policy and of tariff adjusting. The analysts’ bottom line: Ever hear of a bull in a china shop?

How smart is Trump?

He calls himself a “genius” – his word. He says his IQ is off the charts. No evidence supports his claims. Trump indeed holds a degree from respected Fordham University in New York, but he has threatened to sue the university if it ever releases his grades. He then was admitted to graduate studies at the respected Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania. He’s little remembered there as ever being much in class. One professor has said it was embarrassing whenever Trump was called on in class. As with Fordham, Trump has threatened to sue if Wharton ever releases his transcript. For sure, Trump was neither summa cum laude, magna sum laude or even cum laude, despite his claim to the top of his class.  All this has led to speculation that Trump’s millionaire father had bought his son’s way into both Fordham and Wharton and that it’s unlikely he learned much either place.

Trump as an economist

His big-picture understanding of global trade policy appears marginal at best judging from his April 2025 tariff threats, say analysts. At micro levels, he seems lost on the intricacies of international negotiations and the explosive unanticipated results from missteps. In short, say analysts, Trump is out of his league. Even his claim to be a master businessman and negotiator has been shadowed by growing doubts. His record in New York real estate is dubius if not disastrous. He has record of moving from one failed enterprise to another, skipping out on debts, and going into multiple bankruptcies. With the exception of notoriously risk-taking Deutsch Bank, Trump was toxic for new bank loans most of his career. To be sure, he was successful in licensing his brand name “Trump” on hotels, golf courses and other enterprises, which he brandished with loud, even deafening huckster-like enthusiasm. It was all image. He drove his Trump Airline into bankruptcy, His Trump University was closed down regulators as a fraud.

Trump as a negotiator

His claim to fame with a 1987 book, “The Art of the Deal,” portrayed himself as a master negotiator. The, book, however, full of hot air — or least less than it claims.  He didn’t write the book. Behind the scenes Trump had fed tales purporting his genius to a ghost writer whom he paid. The writer has since distanced himself with embarrassment from the book’s themes.

Earlier: Fastenal stock up, down in Trump chaos

BEACH CORNERS , Wis. — A rural driver went off Skorstad Road, struck a tree, managed to climb out of the vehicle, and walked half a mile away. When Trempealeau County deputies found him 1-1/2 hours later, they said he was drunk. Adam Hoff, age 33, was arrested on earlier warrants for drunken driving and bail-jumping. He suffered sustainable injuries in the crash, deputies said. The crash was about 3:10 p.m. on Skorstad Road north of Ettrick.

WINONA, Minn. – An Oronoco driver has been charged with vehicular homicide for a head-on collision Highway 14 uphill from Winona 3-1/2 years ago. The criminal coolaint alleges that Eric Arthur Wittlief, 22, had been driving and and browsing talking before he accident. A State Patrol reconstruction of the accident fell short of saying categorically that Wittlief was on his cell phone at the moment of impact but that Snapchat messages were “a contributing factor.” Fatally injured in the accident was Christ George Brown, 58. Hs wife, Laura Renee Brown, 55, who was driving, was critically injured. They were on their way home to Stockton. Wittlief, then19, , was in a Ford Ranger pickup. This was on the near horseshoe bend at Seminary Drive. The State Patrol reconstruction found Wittlief crossed the center line. Brown attempted to swerve out of the way but could not avoid being hit head-on. Wittlief, who was driving a Ford Ranger, was unconscious with jaw and hand injuries and hospitalized. This was around 2:45 p.m. on August 5, 2021. Troopers recovered Wittlief’s phone from the wreckage. The device, the Patrol said, showed him on the device from 2 to 3 p.m. Messages included:

> A call to Ettrick, 30 miles away in Wisonsin that he was running late.

> Communications sent and received on Facebook messenger.

> Messages on Snapchat.

Stockton Hill twist. For drivers unfamiliar with Stockton Hill, the curve at SeminaryRoad can be tricky. It’s among the most dangerous sections in Winona County’s road network.

Earlier: Stockton Hill crash claims life

Earlier: Critical injuries in Stockton Hill crash

DES MOINES, Iowa – Governor Kim Reynolds announced her retirement from politics. She is 65. Somebody else, she said, will need to seek the governorship in 2026. “Now, it’s time for me to be there for my family,” she said. Reynolds called her legacy: “a foundation of strong conservative leadership that will continue to serve this state well.” A fervid Trump supporter, Reynolds was on many shortlists for a Cabinet appointment, but it didn’t come to be.

Reynolds. Governor since 2017. Earlier lieutenant governor, state senator.

WINONA, Minn. – The downtown college bar Gabby’s has been caught lax again on admitting people too young to buy alcoholic drinks. Arrested and charged this time:

> Claire Elizabeth Lewis, age 20, of Lakeville, 0.01% blood-alcohol level.

> Erin Rae Mureen, 20, of Winona, 0.04%.

The women’s impairment level was marginal. Even so, they were charged with underage consumption. The arrests were about 12:10 a.m. The police went to Gabby’s. at 179 East Third Street, after an anonymous tip that under-age 21 customers were on the premises. An unanswered question: Where was the bouncer who was supposed to check identification cards at the door for ages and also to verify the authenticity of identification cards. Like all liquor licenses, Gabby’s operates under a license that is issued for a limited period by the City Council and that is revokable.

Earlier: Another police call to Gabby’s bar

Earlier: Six under-age boozers nicked at Gabby’s

Earlier:  Police sting catches more illegal booze service

ROCHESTER, Minn. – A kitchen fire damaged Los Arcos Cantina in southwest Rochester before it opened for the day. No one was inside, firefighters said. Smoke and water damage was confined to the kitchen. The fire call was about 8:20 a.m.

Los Arcos.  All’s well on exterior. At 7386 Airport View Drive Southwest.

WINONA, Minn. – The search for a Winona mountaineer missing since autumn in the rugged Absarokee Range of Wyoming will resume as soon as the snowpack at 13,000 feet allows, probably in mid-July, his father said. Austin King, age 22, never made it back down after a solo climb while an early storm was moving in. King’s father, Brian King-Henke, of Winona, said six or seven groups of searchers, some with canines, are lined up to help. King has created a GoFundMe account to raise $35,000 for the renewed search.

Earlier: Yellowstone calls off search for Winona climber