WINONA, Minn. – Ashley Ann Johnson has a special dread of flashing red and blue lights in her rearview mirror. For the 14th time in two years the Rollingstone woman, age 30, has been stopped driving with an expired license. This time was about 9:20 p.m. near Broadway and High Forest streets on the Far East End. They took her to jail as a habitual violator. Why does she keep doing it? She explained she’s so mjch in debt for tickets, penalties and fees that she’ll never see her way clear — but she still has places to go. “So what’s to lose?”

Johnson. Back in town behind the wheel from 10 miles out in Rollingstone.

WINONA, Minn. – A Winona man was arrested at an ex-girlfriend’s place after police took a 911 call from the West Side about the woman being seriously beaten. Police said they found woman bleeding from her lips. She told police that she had been pushed to the floor and punched on her face and head and strangled to the point she couldn’t breathe. An ambulance took her to the hospital where she was treated without needing stitches. This was about 4:45 a.m. in the 350 block of Grand Street. Arrested was Varajalon Natajvi Koisef Hodges, age 50. Police said he was on the premises when they arrived but pretended to be asleep when asked his side of what happened. The woman said Hodges had been over to celebrate her birthday and fell asleep. When she tried to wake him. he became angry and attacked, she said.

Hodges. Booked for domestic assault, stranulation and  and inflicting fear and pain.

Through the mist. With ice barely strong enough, earnest and brave anglers pitched their first tents even as temperatures pushed above 40 and  melted surface ice. The state Natural Resources Department rule: Allow at least four inches for trekking out on foot.  Image: Steve Lunde

INVER GROVE HEIHTS, Minn. –A Wisconsin man whose stability concerned his family has been located safe in this south Twin Cities suburb. Corey D. Simonson, 49, of Westby, was driving around in his mother’s car, police said. The car had been  reported stolen in Westby. He was found about 10:30 a.m. Simonson had been charged December 21 with ramming his car into a storefront in Viroqua in the wee hours. A couple days later, after his family reported him missing, Westby police issued a Wisconsin crime alert that also went to Minnesota points.

Earlier: Errant smoke shop driver now missing

Earlier: Noisy illegal entry at Viroqua smoke shop

Basketball (boys):  Chatfield Gophers 79, Prairie du Chien Blackhawks 39

Basketball (boys): Durand Arkansaw Panthers 69, Dover-Eyota Eagles 53

Basketball (girls): Prairie du Chien Blackhawks 56, Plainview-Elgin-Millville Bulldogs 48

Hockey (boys): Rochester Century/Rochester Mayo 6, Hayward Hurricanes 0

Hockey (girls): Rochester Mayo Spartans 2, Milwaukee University Wildcats 0

MASON CITY, Iowa – A man who had been with KIMT news anchor Jodi Huisentruit the evening before she disappeared mysteriously in 1995 has died. The death was in Phoenix where John Vansice had lived since 2012. According to a private investigator who once interviewed Vansice, the death was December 6 after mental declines due to Alzheimer’s. Vansice was 78. The private investigator, Steve Ridge, said that the Vansice family decided not to publish an obituary. Vansice generally had avoided discussing the case. He told Ridge, however, that police had interrogated him twice but never told him he was a suspect.  Police had listed him as a person of interest.

The cold case

Huisentruit was last known to have left her apartment on Jone 27, 1995, and was starting her car to go to work anchoring an early morning newscast. This probably was about 3:20 a.m., police said. Police were convinced of foul play – that she was abducted and scurried off in a matter of seconds by someone laying for her. Personal items, including a bent car key and her red high heels, were strewn about the parking lot. Huisentruit and Vansice were friends. She had been at his place the evening before to watch a homemade video of a birthday party, which he had arranged for her 27th several weeks earlier. He was 34.

Mason City billboard. The search has been unending. An incentive for information for an arrest and prosecution is a $100,000 reward.

HOMER, Minn. – Deputies arrested a rural woman up County Road 15 toward Witoka after concluding she was maliciously disciplining her children. Ironically it was the mother, Betsy Jean Comero, 45, who had called 911. She sid the children’s grandparents had attacked her. On scene the deputies heard both sides and determined that the grandparehts were trying to stop Comero from excessive aggression on the children. This was about 5:20 p.m. The grandparents were OK physically, deputies said. Also, the children —  12, 10 and 8 years old — didn’t need medical attention. The mother was booked at the County Jail for:

> Domestic assault.

> Malicious puishment of a child.

> Child endangerment.

> Harassment causing fear.

Earlier: Driver blames crash on deer; cops doubtful

Comero. Arrest in 24000 block of County Road 15.  Accused of punching child.

Mid-day fog. No matter how much you strain, you won’t discern even a trace of the Winona landmark Sugar Loaf from the valley floor. As temperatures drop as predicted in the afternoon, so too may the fog. Expect slick spots on roads. Remember: Use your low beams. Image: Steve Lunde

On a clear day. Towering 800 feet.

PRESTON, Minn. – The city administrator, Ryan Scott Throckmorton posted $3,000 bail to stay out of jail in a drunken-driving case from August. Throckmorton, age 40, faces multiple charges. In the incident, according to the State Patrol, Throckmorton   left a Lanesboro bar on his motorcycle, control on curvy Highway 16 and crashed and needed to be airlifted to a hospital. This was the night of Saturday, August 24. He was charged with:

> Driving under influence of alcohol.

> Refusing to submit to a blood or urine.

> Driving without protective headgear.

> Violating a motorcycle instruction permit.

A court hearing has been scheduled before Fillmore County Judge Jeremy Clinefelter in late February. Meanwhile, Throckmorton has filed a civil case against the State Patrol. He claims the state trooper was unreadable in pressing for his consent for a test to measure alcohol in his system because of his medical condition at the time precluded him from making a reasonable decision. The law doesn’t allow government agents such asolice to tsk a fluid sample without a person’s consent. Tis is the trooper’s account:

> Witnesses at he accident reported Throckmorton was under the influence.

> At the hospital Throckmorton admitted to drinking.

> The trooper obtained a search warrant from a judge to fdraw blood or gake urine.

> Throckmorton agreed at first but read the warrant and said it was flawed and requested a new draft.

> The trooper told Throckmorton the warrant was accurate and that refusing to submit would be a crime.

> Throckmorton continued arguing with the trooper and demanding a new search warrant.

> The trooper accused Throckmorton of delaying the test unreasonably – a tactic to allow whatever alcohol was in his system to dissopate gradually.

LEWISTON, Minn. – Deputies found an abandoned truck off the road near Dutchman’s Crossing, amkle or so downgrade on the railroad from Lewiston. They had been alerted by a caller that a man had shown at her door about 2 a.m. and said his vehicle had crashed nearby. The man was gone when deputies arrived. They had the truck towed.

Interstate span over Mississippi. Neither narge traffic on the river nor automobile traffic on Riverview Drive intrude on the winter quietude. Image: Steve Lunde

STEWARTVLLE. Minn. – Three vehicles, all eastbound toward Wisconsin, collided, near the High Forest exit on Interstate 90. None of the injuries were life-threatening, the the State Patrol said. The accident was about 5:35 p.m. The pavement was dry. The victims:

> Carolyn Marie Devens, 6o, of Rochester, driving a 2025 Subaru Outback, who was treated at a Rochester hospital.

> Lewis Eugene Krummen, 29, of Mount Horeb, Wisconsin, driving a 2021 Mazda CX-5, who was treated at a Rochester hospital.

> Kalli Sue Krummen, 30, of Mount Horeb, a passenger, who was treated at a Rochester hospital.

> Samwele Ibucwa, 34, of Sioux Falls, South Dakota, driving a2014 Honda, who was unhurt.

EYOTA, Minn. – A car parked on residential Carolann Street on the northwest end of town burned up overnight. Firefighters were called about 3:30 a.m. .Fire Chief  Jeff Peck said the cause was undetermined but also not suspicious.

STOCKTON, Minn. – Sheriff’s deputies and volunteers searched five hours for a disturbed man who had walked into the woods at the trailer court on Hickory Lane. This was about 1:20 a.m. There had been  concern he was suicidal. The man finally emerged from woods near the mouth of Jones Valley. He was physically all right despite freezing temperatures overnight, deputies said. The man was taken nine miles to the Winona hospital for a 72-hour evaluation.

From your friends at the Winona Journal on this especially magical confluence of both holidays this year on the 25th of December.

BYRON, Minn. — A Kasson woman, already facing hit-and-run charges in anther county, now faces new traffic-related charges. Brittany Nicole Edgar, 33, was pulled over by a state trooper who reported seeing her merge several times without turn signals and drifting cross over lanes. This was on Highway 14 west of Rochester. Once stopped, the trooper reported smelling alcohol and seeing other signs of intoxication. Edgar then failed multiple sobriety tests, the trooper said. The situation deteriorated. According to court documents:

> The trooper asked Edgar several times for a breath sample, but she argued with him every time he held up a breathalyzer device. Finally the trooper manually captured a sample of air gtom her mouth. Her blood concentration was 0.07%, approaching the legal impairment level.

> The trooper found a glass pipe on Edgar– a type popular among druggies.. In her pursee was an open bottle of vodka. In the car’s center console were several empty shooters of vodka and also another meth pipe.

> When told she was under arrest, Edgar took off running into the ditch. She tripped in the snow and was arrested.

> At the Olmsted County jail Edgar would not let a phlebotomist draw her blood but agreed a urine sample. When Edgar handed the sample to the trooper, it was with water.

Earlier: Plea is guilty in Amish buggy hit-run