WINONA, Minn. – The officer smelled alcohol through the driver’s open window during a traffic stop and saw empty Corona beer bottles strewn inside. Such, said the officer, led to the arrest of Miguel Agel Rios-Torres, 36, of St. Charles. This was about 10:05 p.m. at Third and Hamilton streets. Also, the officer said, the man’s eyes were red and watery, and he admitted to consuming four or five alcoholic beverages. A roadside sobriety test showed balance and dexterity difficulties. A preliminary breath test showed his blood at 0.11% alcohol, almost 1-1/2 times the legal standard for impairment.

WINONA, Minn. – A deputy stopped an 18-year-old Winona driver for bad plates on her car. Suspecting she may have been imbibing, the deputy asked. “A sip,” said Milana Rose Shira. A breath test showed her blood-alcohol at a minimal level 0.01% — far short of state-defined impairment. But she was 18, too young to sip. She was ticketed for under-age consumption. This was on Prairie Island Road about 10 p.m.

BLACK R RIVER VALLS, Wis. – The structure of healthcare in Jackson County entered a new era with the new year but nobody might much notice.  The Black River hospital and Krohn Clinic announced their formal merger. Each will retain its original name and identity – and still be straight across Adams Street from each other. Michelle Clark-Forsting, chief physician executive of the new entity, sad the merger will streamline articulation seamlessly between the hospital and clinic;

Black River Memorial Hospital. 25 beds, 350 employees.

Krohn Clinic. 38 physicians, 17 specialties.

ROLLINGSTONE, Minn. – A Rollingstone man was gobsmacked when a sheriff’s deputy showed up at his door with an arrest warrant. Supposedly the man had failed to show up in court for a traffic violation. “What violation? Where? When?” An investigation indicated that somebody used the man’s name in the arrest – and apparently his address and some form of identification. How all this made it through the system has Sheriff Ron Ganrude scratching his head. Meanwhile, investigators are trying to clear name of the hapless victim.

WINONA, Minn. – Forty-eight days later, a woman showed up at the sheriff’s office to report her New Mexico driving license had been lost. Her account of what happened was both scary and mystifying. She said she camping overnight at Prairie Island on November 15 and lost conscousness even though she was nether drinking nor drugging. Her account: She woke up drenched in urine and vomit. She managed to get a lift into town. In the way she tore off her soiled and smelly clothes and  threw them out the  window —  as well as a bag containing her New Mexico driving liense and a Byrna brown-and-black self-defense kinetic projectile launcher. She told officers she would ike the license back and also the  projectile. “I know it’s late, but has anybody turned them in?” Answer: Not that we know of.

Manufacturer’s demonstration. Byrna self-defense kinetic projectile launcher.

WINONA, Minn. — The 10 Days of Giving food drive sponsored by Merchants Bank collected $133,000 and 21,900 pounds of food this holiday season. The proceeds went to Winona Volunteer Services. The bank has sponsored the food drive for 36 years. All told, the drive has passed 5 million pounds.

WINONA, Minn. – New Year’s Eve passed with relative tranquility in Winona. Police reported one fight outside a Third Street bar – not untypical for any night of the week. There was one fireworks complaint. When officers arrived, in the 600 block of Mankato Avenue on the Far East End, no sign of revelry remained. Weather may have been a dampening  influence with London-like chill and  fog and mist.

WINONA, Minn. – Police arrested a 19-year-old woman for underage consumption of an intoxicant after a complaint about her behavior in the downtown bar district. Arrested was Rylee Addison Stoffels of Winona. This was about 1:05 a.m. on a sidewalk near Third and Market streets.

WINONA, Minn. – A LaCrosse driver, who initially admitted to marijuana six hours earlier but denied any liquor, was arrested for drunken driving. The officer who made stop said that Madison Marie Eden, 20, changed her story as the roadside conversation continued. Told that a breathalyzer test showed her blood at 0.05% alcohol, she remembered sampling punch at a New Year’s party, the officer said. The stop was about 12:10 a.m. on U.S. Highway 61 on the East End near Bundy Boulevard. The officer said he could smell marijuana from the cabin of Eden’s car but didn’t sense alcohol. Eden failed walk-around field sobriety tests, however. The officer took this to mean that Eden’s erratic weaving, which had led the traffic stop, was due to the cumulative effect of marijuana and alcohol. The officer reported finding a  bowl with marijuana residue in Eden’s car. A blood sample for marijuana was taken and sent to the state crime lab.

Happy New Year. From your friends at the Winona Journal. May you be sharing our eager anticipation and high hopes.

Image: Steve Lunde

The sad, the disappointing

R.I.P.: Vivian Fusillo. The grand dame of Winona Theater died at age 97.

Our nightmare over

News the nation watched. A jury convicted him of murder. The judge sent him to prison for life. Family and friends of Maddi Kingsbury said the punishment, although the severest allowed by law, wasn’t enough.

Governing bodies

Journalism excellence

Basketball (women): St. Scholastica 79, Saint Mary’s

NEW LISBON, Wis. – The victims of what appears a triple homicide were an adult and two juveniles, police said. Without explanation Police Chief Kyle Walker declined to release the victims’ names. Walker confirmed, however, that the search was continuing for 47-year-od Virgil Thew as a person of interest. The bodies were found Monday afternoon in a residence in New Lisbon. Police offered this barebones scenario of events from Monday:

> 7:40 a.m. New Lisbon police were asked by authorities in neighboring Monroe County to help find a missing juvenile. The juvenile reportedly was last seen being picked up by 47-year-old Virgil Thew of New Lisbon.

> Later in day. A second juvenile, this one from New Lisbon, was reported missing.

> 4:29 pm. The bodies of an adult and two juveniles were found inside a house in New Lisbon. The body of the adult, police emphasized, was not Thew.

Called to process the scene: The Wisconsin State Crime Lab, Juneau County sheriff’s detectives, and Monroe County sheriff’s investigators.

Earlier: Dragnet out in triple New Lisbon slayings

Police lines. At the address where the bodies were found. In the 300 Block of West Bridge Street.

BYRON, Minn. – A burned-out car registered to a missing Rochester man was found between Byron and Rochester with a man’s body behind the steering wheel. The car apparently had been at  the obscured site for several weeks, sheriff’s deputies said. The car was registered to Uong Ong. He was reported missing December 3. The vehicle was off Country Club Road West, which also is known as Olmsted County Road 34.

ELBA, Minn. — A hunter recovered a rusty pump shotgun off a back-trail downstream on the Whitewater River from Elba. The hunter, from New Prague, found the gun about 1 p.m. off Highway 30 through the Whitewater Wildlife Management Area. A deputy forced the encrusted chamber open and found a spent cartridge inside. The gun was identified as a Remington 870. No record of it showed in a national registry of lost and stolen firearms. Nobody has any idea how long the gun had been in the weeds. The 870 has been a bestseller for Remington, which introduced it in the 1950s. Today there are versions that retail about $600.

RUSHFORD, Minn. – The federal Re-Connect prgram awarded $14.1 million to the Rushford-based MiEnergy Co-op to bring fiber to 2,255 people, 55 businesses and 235 farms in Fillmore and Winona counties. The granyt matches funds that MiEnergy is putting up. Brian Krambeer, the co-op’s president, noted that MiEnergy has fewer than four members per mile of power line. This, he said, is a budget challenge to providing rural service. The Re-Connect grant is from the U.S. Agriculture Department.

WINONA, Minn. – The Fire Department reported 32 emergency medical calls plus 13 fire calls in recent days:

> Monday, December 30:11 medical calls plus 2 fire call.

> Sunday, December 29: 6 medical calls plus 2 fire calls.

> Saturday, December 28: 3 medical calls plus 3 fire calls.

> Friday, December 27: No medical calls plus 1 fire calls.

> Thursday, December 26: 4 medical calls plus no fire calls.

> Wednesday, December 25: 1 medical call plus 2 fire call.

> Tuesday, December 24: 6 medical calls plus 1 fire call.

> Monday, December 23: 1 medical call plus 2 fire call.

TOMAH, Wis. – Police found a Tomah man shot and critically wounded when they arrived at his house to  check on his welfare. Robert Goad, 80, was taken the hospital with wounds to his head and a shoulder. He said he had been shot by Ryan Goad. The relationship of the men was not immediately clear in police reports but appeared to be to be familial. This was about 1:15 a.m. The younger Goad, age 45, was located two counties away near Madison about 7 a.m. and arrested. Paperwork was begun for charges of:

> Attempted homicide.

> Aggravated battery.

> Recklessly endangering safety.

> Disorderly conduct.

Tomah police had been called to an address on Mary Kay Avenue about a man threatening to kill an elderly man. The caller claimed Ryan Goad, 46, had tken  his children to the address. When police arrived, the younger Goad and the children were gone. About 2:45 a.m., 1-1/2 hours later, police were informed the children were located at an address in neighboring Juneau County and were safe. Then deputies in Sauk County located the younger Goad another three hours later and took him into custody. This was about 7 a.m. Meanwhile, the older Goad had been  transported from the Tomah hospital to the trauma-care unit Gundersen hospital in LaCrosse.

Goad. Arrested in Sauk County northwest of Madison.

NEW LISBON, Wis. – A manhunt was launched for New Lisbon man in the deaths of yhree people in a house in New Lisbon. Police listed Virgil G. Thew as a person of interest and described as on the run. Thew should be d considered armed and dangerous and should not be approach if spotted. police said. Police didn’t explain why they figured Thew was connected to the killings. Court records showed Thew on 14 years probation and beig wanted by the Wisconsin Office of Probation and Parole. He had been sentened for house burglary and as a felon illegally possessing a firearm. Threw also was categorized for habitual criminality. He had lived briefly in LaCrosse in 1996 and moved around a lot in western Wisconsin.

Earlier: Three dead in suspected Juneau County homicide

Thew. About 150 pounds. Last seen in a dark coat and hat. Usually wears glasses.

Basketball (men): Claremont-Mudd-Scripps 87, Saint Mary’s 49

Basketball (men): UW-LaCrosse 81, Keene State 66

Basketball (men): Rochester Community 70, North Dakota Science 68