Fire takes out car, chicken coop
WITOKA, Minn. – Fire destroyed a parked automobile and a chicken coop on County Road17. No one was injured. It wasn’t clear whether the fire originated in the car or the coop. Flames were extinguished quickly. This was about 7:10 am. in the 24000 block.
New setback for Daley dairy feedlot growth
ST. PAUL, Minn. — The Minnesota Supreme Court decided against hearing the latest attempt by the Daley Farm of Lewiston to force Winona County to allow a mega expansion its dairy herd. Chief Justice Natalie Hudson issued an order announcing the court had declinedto consider a Daley appeal of a lower court decision;. Since 2018 the Daleys have gone repeatedly to different agencies and the courts for an exception to the county ceiling on feedlot sizes. Several agricultural organizations have backed the Daleys financially in what became a showdown between environmental degradation and factory-scale farming.
The sixth generation. Among Daley arguments for a bigger feedlot is financial. After six generations of family ownership, they say their ever-expanding family cannot remain economically viable in the changing and competitive milk-producing industry without a larger herd.
Overnight Kwik Trip clerk stabbed fatally
MANKATO, Minn. – A man working the overnight shift at a Kwik Trip in Mankato was stabbed and killed. Dennis Vosika, 34, was pronounced dead of multiple knife wounds at the Mankato hospital. Police had been called to a disturbance about 3 a.m. Vosik was on the floor bleeding out, police said. A co-worker said the assailant was a frequent customer. It was not believed that Vosika and the assailant had any other connection. Surveillance video seemed to confirm the assailant as the 28-year-old man the coworker identified.
Police seek boyfriend in strangulation case
WINONA, Minn. – An East Side woman said her boyfriend, angry that she was breaking it off, locked her in a bedroom and strangled her. She said she bit him to get away. This, she told police, was in the 250 block of East Fifth Street early Sunday evening when she had gone to his place to retrieve some belongings. She didn’t notify police for several hours. Police were unable to locate the man right away. They said the man, age 36, can expect charges of false imprisonment, causing fear, and strangulation. The woman told officers that he followed her around as she gathered up her things and kept yelling that she was ruining their relationship. He locked a bedroom door behind them and grabbed and strangled her to the point she couldn’t breathe, she told police. There were still red marks on her neck and a wrist, officers said.
R.I.P.: Wayne Theye
WINONA, Minn. — Wayne Theye, of Winona, who held a counseling position at Winona State University, died at age 81. He held clinical certificate in counseling from the University of Dayton and a 1978 doctorate from New Mexico State. He had a passion for gardening and donated thousands of pounds of food every summer to Winona Volunteer Services.
Detail: Cremation Society of Minnesota
1944-2025
Cops: Drugs handy in her sunglasses case
WINONA, Minn. –Things didn’t look right with Erin Margaret Beirne when an officer stopped her for a bad brake light. She was fidgety and couldn’t stand still, the officer said. Also, he said, her eyes were bloodshot and watery, her speech slurred, and she couldn’t string together a coherent thought. He suspected drugs. Then she stumbled through roadside sobriety tests and failed. Worse: The officer said he found 0.1 grams of cocaine and 0.6 grams of meth in a sunglasses case. The traffic stop was near Franklin and Sanborn streets about 1:44 a.m.
Bierne. Booked for drunken driving and possession of controlled substances. Her age: 54.
College scores
Baseball: Minot State 16, Winona State 5
Baseball: Winona State 8, Minot State 0
Basketball (men): MSU-Moorhead 70, Winona State 59
Tennis (men): St. Olaf 9, Saint Mary’s 0
Tennis (women): St. Olaf 6, Saint Mary’s 3
Softball: UW-LaCrose 6, Coe 4
Softball: UW-LaCrossse 6, Wooster 1
Wind whips down ladder; two farm men fall, hurt
UTICA, Minn. – A father and son working on a grain bin on their farm fell 20 feet from a ladder. Wind was to blame, said deputies. The father, age 45, was flown by helicopter to a Rochester hospital with hip pain. The son, age 21, was taken by a land ambulance. This was about 3:30 p.m. on U.S. Highway 14 west of Utica.
Trump gleeful: “I outfoxed the judge”
Mega-prison hellhole. El Salvador strongman President Nayib Bukele opened what he called the Terrorism Confinement Center in 2023. The mega-prison has a capacity for 40,000 inmates. It’s where President Trump has started sending men whom he suspects to be Venezuela gang members. At least some haven’t had their day in court, according to civil rights advocates. Image: Nayib Bukele
Bukele. El Salvador oresident nce 2019. Known for strong-arm tactics to impose policies. Prefers to be called “your excellency.” Among autocrats publicly admired by Trump.
Gamesmanship: President taunts judge to showdown
WASHINGTON – President Trump claimed victory in getting two plane loads of immigrants in the air before receiving a judge’s order to halt the plane. A Trump spokesperson said the planes were already over international waters. “Federal courts generally have no jurisdiction over the President’s conduct of foreign affairs,” the Trump spokesperson said. The planes, two Global X Airline A320s, delivered the 249detainees to El Salvador. The detainees then were bused to the country’s gruesome 40,000-inmate mega-prison 45 miles from the San Salvador airport. There were immediate questions in Washington whether Trump had defied the judge’s order intentionally and thus created a constitutional crisis over the separation of executive branch and judicial branch authority. The White House refused to confirm a timeline. From various sources this much is known:
> Trump was aware on Saturday afternoon, if not earlier, that the American Civil Liberties Union, was asking a judge in Washington for a temporary restraining rder to stop the flights. The ACLU was acting on behalf of eight detainees.
> To evade a possible restraining order, Trump ordered the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency to accelerate the scheduled deportation. It was a game: Getting the planes fueled, prepared, staffed and in the air before the judge could act.
Shackled, cuffed. Forced to bend. With scalp wound after weeks in U.S. detention. Among 242 U.S. detainees being deboarded one at a time from a Trump-charted prison flight to El Salvador. Are they all members of the Venezuela gang Tren de Aragu? Are all guilty of violent crimes? Trump thinks so. Has a court reviewed their cases, per constitutional American judicial oprinciples? No. How about juries? No. This image is among hundreds available online from the prison itself in perverse don’t-mess-with-us messaging. Image: Nayib Bukele
A note
Dearest Reader:
We at the Winona Journal know our limits. We barely have the resources to cover everything we would like jn our news-rich locality. We do, however, tackle far-away news if there be a local angle. Such has been the case with arrests of brown-skin immigrants in in the Upper Midwest jurisdiction of President Trump’s immigration control agency. There have been gestapo-like detentions in Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin with detainees disappearing into a secretive Trump gulag with disregard for the U.S Constitutional assurance guaranteed for citizens and non-citizens alike. Yes indeed, these deportations are local stories. And major at that.
/ John Vivian, editor
> 5 p.m. (Washington time): Knowing the clock was ticking, federal Judge James Boerberg had convened an emergency Saturday hearing to hear the ACU’s argument to postpone the deportation 15 days.> 5:22 p.m. The judge recessed the hearing and gave Trump attorneys until 6 p.m to report back on what was going on at the White House.
> 6:45 pm. GlobalX Fligt 6145 takes off from the Texas border town of Brownsville. So too did a second GlobalX plane. Typical flight tme: 2 hours and 28 minutes.
> 6:51 p.m.: GlobalX 651 was approaching the Yucatan Peninsula on the Mexican gulf coast.
> 6:52 p.m.: Judge Bierberg ordered the planes to turn around: “Any plane containing these folks that is going to take off or is in the air needs to be returned to the United States This is something you need to make sure is complied with immediately.”
> 7:02 p.m. (Washington time): GlobalX 6145 is on the ground in San Salvador. A caravan of white prison buses was waiting to transport the U.S. detainees to prison.
> 7:26 p.m.: The judge’s written order was posted to an electronic docket.
The question whether Trump had engaged in hanky-panky seemed confirmed by Nayib Bukele, the autocratic El Salvador president. On social media Bukele mocked Judge Boerberg: “Oopsie. Too late.” With human lives and human rights at issue, Bukele’s cutesiness came across as insensitive and gross.
Earlier: Judge to Trump: Halt alien expulsions for now
GlobalX profile
This Korea-owned charter airline has its U.S. base in Miami. It specializes in cargo delivery. The 18-plane fleet: Airbus 319s, 320s and 321s. In 2025 a GlobalX flight to Brazil with deported US. immigrants made an unscheduled landing due to technical issues. The conditions on the flight, which had no air-conditioning, led to diplomatic tensions between the United States and Brazil. Brazilian government ministers described the handling of the deportees t as “unacceptable” and “degrading.”
Driver hurt in crash at LaCrescent crossroads
LACRESCENT, Minn. — A Twin Cities driver suffered sustainable injuries in a two-vehicle collision at the busy intersection outside the larger Kwik Trip in LaCrescent. Hope Nhou Jah Vang, 24, of Brooklyn Park, was taken six miles across the river to a LaCrosse hospital. The other driver, Charles Newton Wallace, 77, of Houston, was unhurt. The accident was about 11:15 a.m. Police said a 2012 Chevrolet Suburban driven by Wallace was coming into the intersection from Fourth Street. Vang was southbound on Highway 61 in a 2018 Toyota Corolla.
Fourth Street incident: Domestic abuse charged
WINONA, Minn. – A Winona man was charged with fear-instilling domestic assault after his girlfriend called 911 that he had broken down a locked door on a bathroom where she had sought refuge. Arrested at the address was Carson James Dale Sanvik, age 21. The woman, with whom Sanvik lived, said he had been drunk and abusive. When she locked herself in the bathroom, he broke through and kicked her, she said. She got away and called police. This was about 2:15 a.m. in the 300 block of West Fourth Street. The woman declined medical attention.
Sanvik. Booked as drunk, mean and abusive.
News summary at week’s end: March 15, 2025
GOVERNANCE: Trump target: Winona headquarters of Wildlife Refuge
GOVERNANCE: Judge to Trump: Halt alien expulsions for now
GOVERNANCE: Why beer costing more: Thank Trump
GOVERNANCE: Trump yanks school food aid, also related projects
GOVERNANCE: What Trump school cuts mean locally
ENVIRONMENT: Feedlot spill poisons Iowa drainage
REMEMBRANCE; R.I.P.: Jason Gruett
SCHOOLS: Third stray bullet in planted in Tomah school
CRIME: His online “love” scammed him for $38,000
CRIME: BB shot hits teen in eye; sight seems OK
CRIME: Woman describes week of beatings, sex assaults
CRIME: Police nab fugitive in cocaine case
RIVER: Lake Pepin ice shrinks to 18 inches
SEASONS: Bye to alternate-side parking hassle
AVIATION: Red Wing crash review: PiIot error
College scores
Baseball: Minot State 14, Winona State 9
Baseball: Minot State 16, Winona State 8
Basketball (men): Winona State 69, Minnesota Southwest State 62
Tennis (men): Concordia of Moorhead 7, Saint Mary’s 2
Tennis (women): Saint Mary’s 6, Concordia of Moorhead 3
Wisconsin prep
Basketball (boys): LaCrosse Aquinas Blugolds 69, Cumberland Beavers 56
Wobbly, smelly Winona driver arrested
WINONA, Minn. — A Winona driver whose blood-alcohol tested at 0.15% was arrested near Sarnia and Center streets and booked for drunken driving. Arrested was Benjamin Joseph Kimber, 43. At 0.15% Kimber was almost twice the legal impairment level. The stop was about 9:55 p.m. Police said Kimber’s car was wandering all over the road. He showed several signs of impairment, including body odor and slurred speech, and he failed roadside sobriety checks, police said.
Airline assigns larger CJRs to LaCrosse
LACROSSE, Wis. – Larger planes will begin LaCrosse service on April 4, the airport’s business manager, JD Roberts, announced. The American Airlines will replace its 50-seat American Eagle brand CRJ-170s witb stretched CJRs with 70 seats. Departures, all to Chicago, remain at 7:16 a.m., 11:52 a.m., and 4:18 p.m. There is no other airline ser LaCrosse.
Earlier: Might Sun Country Airlines add LSE service?
Judge to Trump: Halt alien expulsions for now
WASHINGTON — A federal judge ordered President Trump to stop deporting planeloads of foreign aliens immediately– until the legality of the deportations could be ascertained. Judge James Boasberg issued the order at an emergency Saturday hearing as two planes were being loaded to fly an estimated 249 detainees to El Salvador. The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency had labeled the detainees as members of a Venezuelan gang known as Tren de Aragua. Background: ICE has been overzealous in many of 32,000 arrests of immigrants since Trump became president in January. There have been gestapo-like sweeps, racial profiling, and secretive imprisonments. Judge Boasberg’s order was to delay deportations for 15 days so the courts can sort through ICE practices under Trump. The judge said his temporary restraining order would cause no harm to the country. The detainees, the judge said would remain in custody.
Earlier: Trump eyes Prairie du Chien as anti-migrant prop
Earlier: Venezuelan silent on Prairie du Chien sex charge
Earlier: Trump doubles down to stir immigration paranoia
Earlier: Trump eyes Prairie du Chien as anti-migrant prop
Earlier: Vance: Migrants causing Wisconsin health crisis
Earlier: Suspected Venezuela terrorist surfaces in Wisconsin
Boesberg. Chief judge, U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. On bench since 2002. Earlier with the U.S. Alien Terrorist Rights Court. Before that with the U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.
Verbatim
Judge: “You shall inform your clients of this immediately any plane containing these folks that is going to take off or is in the air needs to be returned to the United States. However that’s accomplished, turning around the plane, or not embarking anyone on the plane. This is something that you need to make sure is complied with immediately.”
Wisconsin detainee
Unknown was whether a Venezuelan arrested in Prairie du Chien in September was among the detainees to be deported to El Salvador. Alejandro Jose Coronel Zarate, 26, was arrested on sex charges. Several nations have refused to accept U.S. deportees because of doubts about rough-shod ICE practices under Trump. El Salvador, however, acceded to Trump pressure.
His online “love” scammed him for $38,000
DAKOTA, Minn. – A 69-year-old Dakota man, smitten in an online romance, decided to give it up after years of having sent his far-away amour something like $38,000. He called the sheriff’s office to report he had been duped. The man said he assumed his correspondent was a woman and had loaned her at least $200 a month in bitcoin, often more, for five years. Finally he asked for the $38,000 back, but then found himself overdrawn at the bank when the repayment never arrived. That’s when he decided he had been a fraud victim. So who was this mysterious love? At first, he said, she claimed to be from Russia but then living in China, then North Carolina.
Notable journalism
Brock Bergey (KTTC, March 12, 2025): “How Much Do Southeast Minnesota School Districts Receive in Federal Dollars”
Tim Harlow “Minnesota Star Tribune, March 14, 2025): “USDA Cutting Millions of Dollars that Minnesota Schools, Child Care Centers and Food Banks Used ro Buy Local Food”
Minnesota Public Radio (March 14, 2925): “DOGE Lease Cancellations: These Government Offices Could Be Closed in Minnesota”
BB shot hits teen in eye; sight seems OK
WINONA, Minn. – A 14-year-old girl was shot in an eye by a boy riding a bike Wild West-like through a West Side neighborhood and shooting off his BB gun. The girl was treated at the hospital and released, apparently not permanently losing sight. The boy rode off. The incident was about 10:45 p.m. in the 450 block of West Wabasha Street, where teen-age friends were hanging out. Police were told the boy had been doing stunts on his bike and firing the gun randomly in the air. Some of the kids told him to stop. That was when the girl was shot, police were told. The kid fled on his bike, police said
Stockton Hill driver’s tests at drunk twice over
WINONA, Minn. – A deputy arrested a Utica driver on Stockton Hill after seeing erratic weaving and then discovering the driver was drunk. Arrested was Luis Fernando Martinez-Martinez, age 27. At jail his blood- alcohol tested at 0.16% — double what’s allowed for driving. The traffic stop had been about 2 a.m. on U.S. Hghway14 near Seminary Drive.
College scores
Baseball: Saint Mary’s 5, UW-Eau Claire 4
Baseball: Saint Mary’s 5, UW-Eau Claire 3
Basketball (men): UW-LaCrosse 72, Wesleyan of Illinois 65
Golf (women): Winona State and Wayne State of Nebraska
Tennis (women): Aquinas of New York 72, Winona State 0
Minnesota prep
Basketball (boys): Rochester Marshall Rockets 68, Lakeville North Panthers 60
Basketball (boys): Byron Bers 65, Stewartville Tigers 56
Basketball (girls): Caledonia Warriors 69, Sauk Center Mainstreeters 63
Mom: Unhappy son, needing money, throws punch
WINONA, Minn. — An East Side woman told police that her adult son punched her in the face and threw a can of energy drink at her. She said they had been building a fence and fell into an argument over money. The son, age 36, was gone when police arrived. The mother was drenched but said she didn’t need medical attention. Police issued a pick-up alert for the son for domestic assault. The incident was about 3:50 p.m. in the 450 block of East Fifth Street.
Trump target: Winona headquarters of Wildlife Refuge
WINONA, Minn. – The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service office in Winona has gone on the Trump chopping block. The General Services Administration, on orders from Trump aide Elon Musk, notified landlords that hundreds of governent leases for offices and buildings nationwide may be terminated. Twelve are in Minnesota, including the Winona headquarters that oversees the 48-mile Upper Mississippi River National Wildlife and Fish Refuge from Wabasha to Trempealeau, It was unclear whether Musk budget-cutters in Washington had any idea of plans for a 6,000 square foot Refuge management complex on riverfront land on Kansas Street. The land was acquired a year ago by the Winona Port Authority on behalf of the Fish and Wildlife Service.
Refuge management office Since 2021 a tenant at the historically renovated 102 Walnut Street address near downtown.
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