Baseball: Washburn 21, Winona State 10

Baseball: UW-LaCrosse 69, UW-Eau Claire 55

Basketball (men): Winona State 63, Wayne State of Nebraska 59

Hockey (women): Saint Mary’s 13, St. Olaf 2

WINONA, Minn. – A pizzaiolo on the late shift at Papa Murphy’s found himself walking home. Somebody stole his bike. He told police that he had left the seven-speed, yellow and black, thin-wheel racer outside he pizzeria. This was in the Far East End shopping complex. The bike was gone when he went to leave. He valued the bike at $400. Yes, he admitted the bike was unlocked.

WINONA, Minn. – Alex Boyd may not have remembered what he had for lunch on a couple days a few weeks back, but police have tried to jog his memory. They mailed a citation for shoplifting from Walmart. The store notified police belatedly of a beef sausage, missing on January 7, and a ham and cheese sandwich, missing on February12. Boyd, age 46, did it, the store said.

WINONA, Minn. – A police officer recognized Kayla Marie Benter, 35, of Winona, for having had her driver’s license revoked but there she was driving. The officer  made the stop at Mankato Avenue and King Street, and then discovered in chatting that other matters weren’t right. Benter admitted to having just puffed on a “blunt,” the officer said.  In street-talk a blunt is an oversize rolled marijuana product. Later in the conversation, the officer said, Benter acknowledged meth earlier in the day. Then he found a green leafy substance in a pocket. A police drug-recognition expert was called. Yes, he said, there was significant impairment. At the jailhouse, officers took a blood sample to send to the state crime lab. Benter was released pending what the lab reports back.

ALBERT LEA, Minn. – Three live grenades were found at the Freeborn County history museum. Police summoned the St. Paul bomb squad to take them away. Stephanie Kibler, the museum director, said she had one of grenades on her desk – a paperweight of sorts. It had been around  for years, she said. When she realized it might be loaded with explosives , she called police and began a check of records for other grenades either on exhibit or in storage. In all, there were three. All were believed of World War II vintage, two of them looking to to be of German origin. Kibler said they were donated in the 1960s but declined to say whom or whether they might have been  aware of the danger

Novel paperweight. All’s well now. It’s been disposed of. Also two others.

WINONA, Minn. – Police booked a West End man after a report that he had threatened  to shoot the heads off a pair of neighbors. Keith Gerard Devorak, 64, made the threat on his front porch while pointing a long gun at them, the neighbors told police. No shots were fired. This was about 2:40 p.m. on the 50 block of Lenox Street. When police arrived, Devorak denied some particulars from the neighbors’ account and said the weapon was merely an air gun, which he then showed to the officers. He was booked for domestic assault and brandishing a dangerous weapon. The neighbors, two men, age 48 and 43, said they had knocked at Devorak’s door to object to derogatory letters and stickers he had plastered on their front door. They showed videos to the officers.

Devorak. “My firearm wasn’t real, just a BB gun.”

ROCHESTER, Minn. — The owner of Nupá Mediterranean restaurants, said he hopes to have an immigrant employee back on the job soon — after a two-week ordeal in jail as an alien federal detainee. George Psomas confirmed reports from the U.S.  immigration court that a judge has ordered that the man be freed, as also his brother. The brothers, both native to Mexico,  were seized Gestapo-style by ICE agents on February 12 without arrest warrants. The arrests were on a Nupá parking lot. The men were hauled off to a far-away jail in Albert Lea without informing anyone. A Nupá co-worker, however, happened to witness the ambush. Now an immigration judge has accepted a statement from the brothers’ attorney, Hannah Brown, that neither brother has a criminal record in the United States or anywhere else. After the arrests, Psomas went online to support the brothers “We are mourning the loss of Nupá family and the devastating impact it has on our small business,” Psoma said. He had to close one of his locations because he was short-handed. One of the brothers had been in the United States since 2016, the other since 2018. They had worked four years at Nupá. About the brothers, Brown told the immigration judge: they’ve really hadestablished themselves in the Rochester community. Hundreds of sympathizers, many of them coworkers and Nupá customers, went on Facebook to support the brothers. The Communities Organizing Latine Power and Action put together a downtown demonstration in front of the elegant Kahler Hotel in downtown Rochester.  The case was negative public attention for warp-speed ICE raids without warrants against brown-skin immigrants under the new Trump  administration. Critics say the arrests, 20,000 in a month nationwide, are a campaign to scare and bully brown-skin immigrants with unwarranted and reckless arrests.

Earlier: Judge to ICE: Free your Rochester detainees

Earlier: Report: Hearing set for one ICE detainee

Two Rochester locations: 1035 Civic Center Drive Northwest and 412 Crossroads Drive.

Two Nupá servers. Posing for promotional shot. Neither of them is one of the arrested brothers.

CLAREMONT, Minn. – First-responders pulled a grain elevator wprker from a bin where he had been  trapped under tons of grain. They used recently installed “rescue tubes” to r the man from drowning. It took about hour to dig him out. He was taken 28 miles to a Rochester hospital to assure his recovery.

Elevator cluster in Dodge County. Owned by the global farmer co-op CHS, based in Inver Grove Heights.

RED WING, Minn. – A Black History Month event at the Red Wing High School with the state’s attorney general, Keith Ellison, has been cancelled by the local school superintendent.  Superintendent Bob Jaszczak explained that he was worried about disruptive behavior. In a confused letter to parents, Jaszczak offered no details to support his decision. To news media inquiries, Red Wing Police Chief Nick Sather said no disruptions were on his radar. Ellison, who is black, is a former member of the U.S. Congress and Minnesota’s elected attorney general since 2013. His public appearances have never drawn disruptions. On the the day before Jaszczak’s cancellation, however, Ellison had been vilified by President Tump as a “sick politician who wants killers, rapists roaming ur streets.” There is no evidence to support Trump’s savage rhetoric. It is true, though, that Ellison has resisted Trump initiatives agaihst civil rights for birthright citizens and also against transgender protections.

WINONA, Minn. – The Fire Department reported 60 emergency medical calls plus 10 fire calls in recent days:

> Tuesday, February 25: 6 medical calls plus 1 fire call.

> Monday, February 24: 9 medical calls plus 1 fire call.

> Sunday, February 23: 7 medical calls plus no fire calls.

> Saturday, February 22: 13 medical calls plus 1 fire call.

> Friday, February 21: 5 medical calls plus 4 fire calls.

> Thursday, February 20: 11 medical calls plus 2 fire calls.

> Wednesday, February 19: 9 medical call plus 1 fire call.

Earlier: Emergency, fire crews make 56 calls

ALTURA,Minn.. — A Rochester driver was hurt when her vehicle hit a slick spot and slammed into a guardrail four miles down State Highway 248 from Altura. Erin Marie Kulbertis, 35, was taken 19 miles to the Winona hospital. Her injuries appeared superficial, a state trooper said. The accident was about 7:15 a.m. Kulbertis was in a 2024 Subaru Crosstrek heading toward Rollingstone and Minnesota City.

Baseball: Winona State 11, Jewell 5

Basketball (women): Hamline 73, Saint Mary’s 61

Basketball (women): UW-LaCrosse 71, UW-Stevens Point 67

Basketball (boys): Mabel-Canton Cougars 75, Faribault Bethlehem Cardinals 45

Basketball (boys): Rochester Science Cobras 66, Hayfield Vikings 40

Basketball (girls): Rochester Lourdes Eagles 61, Lake City Tigers 40

Basketball (girls): Grand Meadow Superlarks 60, Houston Hurricanes 25

Basketball (girls): Dover-Eyota Eagles 55, Plainview-Elgin-Millville Bulldogs 46

Basketball (girls): Spring Grove Lions 65, Lanesboro Burros 57

DESOTO, Wis. – The Army Corps, which controls Upper Mississippi navigation, plans a shore stabilization project at Black Hawk Park on the Wisconsin side upstream from its Harper’s Ferry dam. Seven sites were damaged in 2023 floods. The Corps has invited public comments on environmental effects on fishing and other activities by Mach 26. Details. The Corps hopes to begin construction this summer.

ADRIAN, Wis.  – Hard to believe: That the town treasurer in Adrian, population 840, could fiid $294,000 to embezzle. But that’s the charge against Kelly Schleusener. The criminal complaint is that thefts were over three years. Hard to believe too is that nobody figured anything was amiss for three years. Schleusener, age 50, was booked at the county jail in Sparta for criminal misconduct. Monroe County prosecutor Kevin Croninger said additional charges may be filed.

Schleusener. Allegation: Embezzlements averaged close to $100,000 a year: