WINONA, Minn. – Local Democrats spent the morning making signs for a series of demonstrations through March at Central Park. The theme: “Stand Up for Democracy.” The first demonstration was planned for evening commute time on Monday, 5 to 5:30, at the pocket park behind the Post Office. The demonstrations will be every Monday, said organizer Kristen Melnichenko.

Her message clear. Pam Kelly hoists her poster for the rally. Her target: The $880 tax break that President Trump has promised rich people and corporations by cutting services for middle-class citizens and especially poor people. Image: Mary Kaye Perrin

Basketball (men): UW-Platteville 89, UW-LaCrosse 68

Softball: Winona State 5, Nebraska-Kearney 2

Softball: Winona State 4, Lincoln 3

Basketball (boys): Mankato East Cougars 95, Winona Winhawks 34

Basketball (boys): Owatonna Huskies 66, Rochester Mayo Spartans 55

Basketball (boys): Rochester Marshall Rockets 93, Red Wing Wingers 48

WINONA, Minn. – A Winona police officer collapsed after apparently brushing against opioid residue or inhaling fumes while answering a call on the East Side. The officer experienced confusion, dizziness, sweatiness, low blood pressure and euphoria before sitting down and appearing to lose consciousness, a fellow officer said. It was described as having all the signs of a drug overdose. The fellow officer sprayed a dose of Narcar, an anti-overdose nasal remedy, and called an ambulance. The fallen officer was treated with Naloxone at the hospital emergency room  and held a few hours for observation, then released. The opioid contact was at a house in the 500 block of Kansas Street. Officers had been called about the unexpected death of an 82-year-old man. Officers said Drugs were ound in the house, officers aid, but added here was no reason to suspect the deceased man was on drugs. However, an autopsy was ordered because the circumstances of the death were not clear. Foul play was not suspected, police said.

LEWISTON, Minn. – A woman reported being scammed out of $12,200 in an elaborate scheme that began with a telephone call that her grandson needed money to get out a legal jam in Indiana. “How much?” The caller, a man who identified himself as the grandson’s attorney, was precise: $12,200. He said he would send a courier to pick up the money – and not to tell anybody at her bank because a judge had ordered a gag order. The woman, age 86, who lives south of Interstate 90 on County 109, drove to town and withdrew the money in cash. At home she waited for the courier. He arrived a half hour later and took the cash. It seemed odd, she said, that he appeared to have arrived on foot on the unpaved rural road where she lives. She said she watched as he departed, walking half a mile down the road to a waiting car with a driver. As best as she could tell, it was a dark vehicle perhaps with rally stripes. The woman described the courier as a black male in his 30s and wearing a surgical mask. After he was gone the woman grew concerned that she had been scammed. She called the Winona police dispatch center. That was about 3:50 p.m. The initial call from the supposed Indiana attorney had been about four hours earlier. Sheriff’s deputies began a canvass of neighbors who might have surveillance video. There was reason to believe, at least a possibility, that the scheme was hatched locally, an investigator said.

Red Wing High. Lingering race issue surfaced in mid-morning walk-out from classes. This was after the school’s major Black History Month event was cancelled by Superintendent Bob Jaszczak.

Walk-out peaceful, but will it change things?

RED WING, Minn. — About 100 Red Wing High School students, mostly white, staged a peaceful walk-out to protest the cancellation of a Black History Month event at which Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison was the scheduled guest. It was school Superintendent Bob Jaszczak who cancelled the Ellison event at the last minute. Jaszczak expressed concern that “significant disruption” might be triggered by Ellison, who is black. The walk-out was brief. The students paraded around the flagpole. Several placards proclaimed “Black Lives Matter.” Organizers with the school’s Black Student Union said they had no idea what it was that so worried Superintendent Jaszczak about what he called “a disruption.” Police said also said they hadn’t picked up any chatter about a disruption trough their sources. The walkout came the last day of February — the finale of Black History Month.  The observation has been around since 1926 although known then as Negro History Week. The students who organized yhe walk-out said they wanted to object to “a repeated set of acts committed against our student body” but were unspecific. Their online post: “We will take a moment tomorrow at 9:45 to honor Black History Month and fight for the change we want to see in our school.”  The walk-out, they aded, was”an act made to show support of Black students, staff, community and administration.

Earlier: Red Wing voids attorney general’s school visit

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Around the flagpole. Protest led with “Black Lives Matter” banner.

WINONA, Minn. – A Burnsville man was scheduled to see a judge to be advised formally of charges from the largest Winona drug bust in recent memory. Rafael Rosales Lopez, 41, was arrested Thursday at a drop-off point for the drugs in a parking lot in the East End hotel district at U.S. Highway 61 and State Highway 43. This was about 3:45 p.m.  He was booked on a tentative charge of selling 17 grams or more of a controlled substance. Don’t fooled by “17 ounces or more” It’s a statutory category. Police said they confiscated 22 pounds of cocaine. fentanyl and meth.

Earlier: Huge drug shipment seized; cops arrest mule

WINONA, Minn. – The Winona Journal generally follows Associated Press preferences on news style but not this time. Unlike the AP, the Winona news site will continue to refer to the tallest peak in North America as Denali. It’s the name used by native Koyukon people as long as anyone remember. AP policy is to follow geographic names as designated by governing authorities, hence Beijing for Peking, Myamar for Birma, and for a while Stalingrad for St. Petersburg. The Denali is an issue because President Trump issued an executive rdeer to take “Denali” off maps. The Winona Journal sees Trump’s action as a crude, rude and white supremacist slap at indigenous people. Said Editor John Vivian: “We will not participate in this insult.”  In fact, the McKinley name is historically a late-comer. In 1896 a non-indigenous gold prospector presumptively proclaimed the peak as Mount  McKinley in his enthusiasm for Republican presidential candidate William McKinley. Ethnically sensitive President Barrack Obama reverted the name to its Kuyukon roots in 2015. About Trump’s companion proclamation to rename the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America, the Winona Journal won’t go along either. Tromp has no legal authority to name geographic features outside the United States. The AP won’t go along either, nor will cartographers.

Denali. At 20,300 feet the tallest peak on the continent.

Softball: UW-Oshkosh 59, UW-LaCrosse 47

WINONA, Minn. – A joint-agency police force including sharp-shooters intercepted 22-pound drug transfer in the Super 8 hotel parking lot under Sugar Loaf. The mule picking up the load was arrested without resistance. Taken to jail was Rafael Rosales Lopez, 41, of the Minneapolis suburb of Burnsville. Police said. Lopez had arrived at the Super 8 about 3 :45 p.m. to pick up the drugs from a car that had been parked at the hotel and left unattended an hour earlier.

The tip, the take-down

The police operation, involving 15 officers, was assembled quickly after a tip about 12:30 p.m. The State Patrol notified Winona police that a trooper had made a traffic stop of a small nondescript Honda on Interstate 90 near Worthington and found it loaded with drugs. The driver admitted he was headed to a transfer point for the drugs in Winona, 200 miles away. The driver was arrested, and a Worthington officer took over the car and drove to Winona for the sting. He left the car parked unattended and unlocked outside the Super 8 hotel. Meanwhile, the Rochester-based Southeast Minnesota Violent Crime Enforcement unit mobilized a team to wait as inauspiciously as possible in the hotel area for the drugs to be picked up. An hour later, police said, Rosales Lopez drove into the lot, got out of his car, also a small Honda, and walked to the car with the drugs. At that moment officers sprang seemingly from nowhere and made the arrest.  Police had prepared for the possibility of a difficult take-down. A State Patrol helicopter was in the air but out of hearing range in case the pick-up driver tried to flee. The regional unit has sharp-shooting capabilities. Rosales Lopez was not armed, police said, and the take-down was uneventful. He was booked at the county jail at 4:25 p.m. The 22-pound drug load was  fentanyl, cocaine and meth, police said.

Detainee not in Winona drug scene

Winona police said they had no previous experience with Rosales Lopez.Police were unsure where the drug shipment originated. The West Coast seemed likely. Police also were unsure where the drugs were destined, although circumstances suggested the Twin Cities. The drugs were not packaged for retail sale, police said..

Rosales Lopez. Little did he know police had him under surveillance.

Parking lot take-down. At 1025 Sugar Loaf Road.

ST. PAUL, Minn. – State officials are on pins and needles about drastic cuts that President Trump is pushing. The state budget director, Ahna Minge, told legislators that one-third of the Minnesota state budget relies on federal funds. At greatest risk, Minge said, is Medicaid healthcare insurance for low-income people. Federal Medicaid support to Minnesota is $12 billion, Minge said at a Senate Finance Committee hearing. In all, she said, federal dollars account for more than one-third of the state’s spending — roughly $23 billion. Besides Medicaid, federal dollars go to roads, food assistance for the needy, public healthcare, and childcare. The Trump budget, which received initial U.S. House approval this week, decimates Medicaid funds to states by $880 billion. Medicaid is only one of the many Trump-proposed cuts to offset revenue losses that would result from huge tax cuts he wants for the benefit of rich people and corporations. It’s possible that not all Trump reductions will make it through the whole Congressional budgeting process. Even so, said Minge: “Uncertainty about the federal budget creates a lot of challenges and uncertainty for state agencies and policymakers.”

Earlier:  How they voted: On Medicaid cuts / 1

Minge. Appointed 2021. Earlier chief financial officer at state Human Services Department.