Appeal promised in contested House race
ST. PAUL, Minn. – The speaker of the Minnesota House, Melissa Hortman, announced that an appeal will be filed against a judge’s ruling that voided the election of Curtis Johnson, a Democrat, to the Legislature from Shakopee. Without Johnson, control of the House would go to Republicans. Ramsey County Judge Leonardo Castro ruled last week that Johnson didn’t really live in House District 40-B. Hortman is having none of it: “The Republicans are seeking to do in court what they were unable to do at the ballot box.” The appeal will be to the state Supreme Court. In the November election Johnson defeated Republican Paul Wikstom by 30 votes. Republicans then went to court to disqualify Johnson. Agents had staked out the apartment that Johnson put down on paper as his residence and reported finding zilch activity in and out. Meanwhile, they said, Johnson actually was living way across town in Little Canada.
Johnson. Political control of the Minnesota House may depend on where he hung his hat.
Merchants’ windows still lit after shopping flurry
Downtown Second Street. The only activity is late night visitors seeking levity either in the fancy wine bars or the college dives. As Clement Clarke Moore wrote in his ode to Christmas: “And to all a good night.” Image: Steve Lunde
You can’t fly there anymore
ROSEAU, Minn. – An airfield that straddles the U.S.-Canada border is shutting down. The Piney-Pinecreek Border Airport desperately needs upkeep – and neither the Minnesota nor Manitoba government is willing to put any money into it. The reason: The 3,200-foot asphalt runway is listed in aviation documents in poor condition with tall vegetation growing through cracks. Also: The apron also needs work, and the terminal needs reconstruction. The international agreement required to operate the airport expires Thursday. The airport opened in 1953 with a grass runway. A paved runway was added in 1978. Although calling itself a gateway to both countries, the field’s traffic has been mostly Americans traveling to Canada to hunt and fish. Operations have averaged 250 a month.
Minnesota exports nearly quadruple national rate
ST. PAUL, Minn. – Exports of Minnesota products surged 11% ahead of a year earlier, according to the latest report from the state Economic Development agency. The total was $6.7 billion from July through September. The greatest growth:
> Mineral fuel and oil. up 369%.
> Aircraft and spacecraft, up 33%.
> Plastics, up 27%.
Matt Varilek, economic development commissioner, credited the growth to a “flourishing relationships with our international trade partners.” Minnesota’s two largest markets remained Canada and Mexico. Mineral fuel and oil exports to Canada topped $520 million, up from $15 million. Exports to Mexico were pushed by electrical equipment, machinery, oil seeds and grain, and optic and medical goods. The overall Minnesota export growth, at 11%, outpaced the national rate of 3%.
Quiet Christmas weather ahead; then fresh precip
WINONA, Minn. – Gray skies have been forecast for Christmas Day in southeast Minnesota and adjoining counties in Iowa and Wisconsin. Expect highs in the upper 20s and lower 30s, the National Weather Service said. It’s a lull between last weekend’s snow and a new moisture-laden front arriving from the southeast on Thursday.
Official: U.S. now has a national bird
WASHNGTON – President Biden signed legislation from Congress to amend the United States Code to make the bald eagle the country’s national bird. The eagle has appeared on the Great Seal of the United States since 1782, when the design was finalized. But nobody remembered to put it into law.
Emergency, fire crews make 23 calls
WINONA, Minn. – The Fire Department reported 16 emergency medical calls plus 7 fire calls in recent days:
> Sunday, December 22: 2 medical calls plus 1 fire call.
> Saturday, December 21: 3 medical calls plus 1 fire call.
> Friday, December 20: 2 medical calls plus 2 fire calls.
> Thursday, December 19: 3 medical calls plus 3 fire call.
> Wednesday, December 18: 6 medical calls plus no fire calls.
Earlier: Emergency, fire crews make 42 calls
Dozer due soon: Rural church’s days numbered
Alone, cold, abandoned. Will be torn down when weather allows. To be left undisturbed: The cemetery behind the church. Image: Steve Lunde
Unlike 1870s, other churches now a quick drive away
WILSON, Minn. – The Immaculate Conception church, 10 miles up State Highway 43 from Winona, is locked up for winter and also forever. The 150-year-old church, once a vibrant worshipping magnet for rural Catholics, awaits the wrecking ball come spring. The bishop of the Winona-Rochester Diocese, Robert Barron, decided this fall that declining attendance couldn’t support the church anymore. It became the latest of a dozen rural Catholic churches in southern Minnesota to close, including those in Elba, Harmony, Houston and Minneiska. In its final days, the Wilson church still stands as a sturdy reminder cof an earlier era — its brick walls solid and its steeple capped by a gilded cross. The church was founded in 1874 and rebuilt after a devastating fire in 1935.
Why raze?
As with other rural churches closed in recent years, the Diocese considered selling the Wilson church. The decision in the end, said Bishop Barron, was that the site’s narrowness precluded a new driveway without an easement that could be problematic to obtain. Also, the bishop said, some repurposed uses could detract from the solemnity appropriate for the graveyard next to the church.
Errant smoke shop driver now missing
WESTBY, Wis. – A Westby man charged with ramming his car into a smoke shop in nearby Viroqua over the weekend has gone missing. The mother of Corey D Simonson, 49, reported that he disappeared with her car, a maroon 2007 Chevrolet Equinox with mismatched panels. The mother said Simonson might be headed to the Twin Cities. The car was placed on a multistate police registry of stolen vehicles. Family told police that Simonson might be suicidal. The vehicle was spotted two counties north of Westby on a Mississippi River route likely through Winona or Prescott.
Simonson. Six-foot-1 and 180 pounds.
Driver flees wrecked car as flames erupt
PRAIRIE DU CHIEN, Wis. – A LaCrosse driver climbed out of his wrecked car after it crashed off snow-covered South Main Street and caught fure. Tauren Miller-Amunson, 17, was taken to the Prairie du Chien hospital for minor injuries. The accident was about 1:15 p.m. Crawford County deputies said the vehicle veered across an incoming lane into a grassy area and crashed through brambles and trees. Miller-Amunson was cited for driving under the influence of a controlled substance.
Bent, charred beyond repair. In Bridgeport township.
Images: Crawford County sheriff
Mayor has court date on child abuse charges
CANTON, Minn. – The mayor of Canton, Joshua Darin Nordsving, was charged with beating an 8-year-old boy at his home in Canton. Police were notified by a woman who said she heard what was going on over the phone and that the boy showed up bruised a little later at a child exchange 30 miles away in Chatfield. Investigators concluded that the boy, now 9, had been struck in the face eight times. Investigators quoted Nordsving that he struck child in the mouth with the backside of his right hand, perhaps a little too hard, for ongoing bad behavior over the weekend. Investigators said the boy’s right cheek had bruising consistent with a handprint The incident was in October. The charges: Malicious punishment of a child and domestic assault.
Nordsving profile
Nordsving was re-elected unopposed as Canton mayor in November. Canton, population 350, is in Fillmore County near the Iowa border.
Lengthy bank robbery probe ends in arrest
BLACK RIVER ALLS, Wis. – A Wisconsin woman has been charged with robbing two banks in Jackson County six years ago. Michaela Davis, age 26, drove 80 miles from her Medford home to rob banks in Black River Falls and in Alma Center, according the criminal complaint. The robberies were in November 2018 and 5-1/2 weeks later in January 2019. In both cases, the robber, wearing a hoody, showed a note a teller and demanded money – in one case $4,000, in the $3,000. That Davis didn’t appear in any police databases slowed the investigation. Her car, however, was among hundreds on traffic surveillance tape on Interstate 94 and dozens pf lesser roads and byways on the dates the of the robberies. A Jackson County sheriff’s investigator culled the registered owners of the vehicles and eventually got to Davis. When interviewing Davis at home in Medford, the investigator noted a pair of shoes that looked to be like the ones the robber was wearing. There also was a mark on her face that showed vaguely in a careful recheck of the bank’s tapes. The case came together when employment records showed Davis wasn’t at work on the robbery dates. All these details are in the criminal complaint. Davis confessed Wednesday.
Earlier: Bank bandit hits tiny Alma Center
Davis. Arrest caps five-year investigation.
Robbery locations
Both banks were acquired in 2020 by Security Financial Service of Eau Claire.
Alma Center: Jackson County Bank branch at 141 West Main Street.
Black River Falls: Jackson County Bank motor branch, 660 Highway 54.
Car crashes at slippery rail crossing
GOODVIEW, Minn. – A driver slid on ice into a railroad cross-bar sign at the Canadian Pacific double tracks through Goodview. Luckily there were no trains. This was at the 69th Avenue crossing off Wenonah Road about 10:40 a.m. Damage to the crossing sign and the car was modest, police said.
Lonely and distressed dog given lift to vet
WINONA, Minn. – A neighbor called police abut a dog barking in incessant distress at the absence of its owner in the hospital. Police calmed the dog and asked the city’s animal control officer to look for other arrangements.
Thieves steal ATM hard drive, not cash
WINONA, Minn. – The staff at Alerus bank arrived at work to find their automated teller machine ripped out. As best as anybody could tell right away, no cash was taken but the hard drive was missing. Police began research to determine if ATM hard drives have any blackmarket value among bank burglars. Police had been called about 9:30 a.m. to Alerus, the former Home Federal Savings Bank, at Third and Center streets.
Canadian whisky: More punch than expected
WINONA, Minn. – A Winona driver was arrested after showing signs of inebriation and booked on an elevated drunk-driving charge — elevated because it wasn’t his first time. Arrested was Scott Adrian Sabotta, age 67. His blood-alcohol, tested at Third and Sioux streets, where he was stopped, was 0.16%. A recheck at jail showed 0.17%. Those readings are double what’s permitted to drive. The arrest was about 11:45 p.m. Police said that Sabotta admitted through slurred speech to having downed three beers and a mixed drink with top-shelf Windsor Canadian whisky.
Igloo shops along Sparta creek bank
Kristkindlmarkt. For the 10th year the Sparta Chamber of Commerce has organized a traditional European-style market with wares from local artisans. Booths were in Mueller Square, on the Water Street Bridge, and both sides of the Love Lock Bridge in the Creekside and Love Lock Villages. Image: Andy Frank
Walz really peeved at presumptuous Flanagan
ST. PAUL, Minn. – The strong personal and political relationship between Governor Tim Walz and his chosen lieutenant governor Peggy Flanagan has gone all asunder. Apparently they aren’t even speaking. From what political observers have pieced together, Flanagan put the cart ahead of the horse and assumed that that Kamala Harris ticket would win the presidency in November and carry Walz into the vice presidency as her running mate. As Minnesota’s lieutenant governor, Flanagan would have ascended to the governorship until an election could be held. Things didn’t work out way. The Harris-Walz ticket lost. When Walz returned from campaigning, sources said, he learned that Flanagan was far along in building an organization to run for governor herself and had even tapped into Walz campaign accounts.
Capitol grapevine abuzz about rift
Exactly when Walz learned what was going on hasn’t been established. The buzz around the Capitol is that it was almost as soon as Walz was back in town. In the first Walz homecoming event, three days after returning, at Eagan High School, Flanagan was nowhere to be seen. Typically she would introduce Walz at such occasions. Instead First Lady Gwen Walz did the honors. In attendance were Walz staff, various state commissioners and invited guests. Why not Flanagan? Sources whispered that she wasn’t invited. How crusty has the relationship become? Walz doesn’t mention her publicly by name anymore. Not at all. Too: Flanagan was not invited to a pre-Thanksgiving turkey event at the Capitol. Nor was she at a 90-minute media reception with cookies and punch at the governor’s mansion. Flanagan and her family have attended both events for years.
The Walz-Flanagan partnership
Neither Walz nor Flanagan, the Dynamic Duo of State politics for six years, have been together in public now for seven weeks. There were earlier hints, emerging clearly only in retrospect, that things were on a collision course. When Flanagan was asked in August if she would consider running for governor, she said: “If the people of Minnesota want me to continue to serve, I am absolutely open to that” It was about then, sources believed, that Flanagan had tapped Walz’s gubernatorial campaign funds without authorization. When Walz was asked recently if he would seek a third term in 2026, he said he hadn’t decided. Pressed further if he might step aside for another Democrat to run, he in effect said. no. His words: “That what’s what primaries are for.” Were you listening, Peggy Flanagan?
Earlier: Walz contemplating third term? “Ask me later”
Walz and Flanagan. Unlikely that this 2022 campaign image will appear ever again.
Flanagan profile
Her name in the Ojjbwe language is Waudamukwe. As lieutenant governor, Peggy Flanagan is the first woman of color elected to statewide office in Minnesota. She is the highest-ranking Native American woman in elected office in the nation Flanagan, wh is 45, holds a degree in child psychology and American Indian studies from the University of Minnesota. In college Flanagan got her feet wet in politics on a campaign for U.S. Senator Paul Wellstone, Later she was an organizer for the urban Native American community in Minneapolis. In 2004 she was elected to the Minneapolis School Board. In 2008 she ran for the Legislature but dropped out to help her sick mother. Flanagan was elected to the Minnesota House without any competition in 2015. Walz chose her as his lieutenant governor running mate for 2018. She addressed the 2o24 Democratic national convention in Chicago with enthusiasm for Walz for vice president. She was one of four chairs of the national convention.
Frozen rail switch stalls Borealis; late to St. Paul
HASTINGS, Minn. – Twenty-four miles short of its St. Paul destination, the red-nose passenger train Borealis slowed to a stop, backed up, and sat three hours in Hastings. For 300 holiday travelers, it was an inconvenience. For railroaders, it was one of those not-so-uncommon winter nightmares — a frozen switch on the mainline ahead. Hastings isn’t the ideal place to be stranded these days. It hasn’t been a scheduled stop for decades — no depot, no trackside vendors. And snacks in the Borealis club car ran out. By 10:15 p.m. the switch was thawed and fixed. The train pulled out and proceeded, albeit gingerly, across the Canadian Pacific bridge over the Mississippi. Twenty minutes or so later it was at the end of the line in St. Paul. Everybody deboard with a story to tell.
Timetable. The daily Borealis, Amtrak’s Train 1333, had departed Chicago at 11:05 a.m. and cleared Winona at 6:36 p.m.
Missing Arcadia teen located in Winona
WINONA, Minn. – Winona police found a 16-year-old Wisconsin girl whose family was worried about where she was and asked their local police in Arcadia for help. The family gave a Winona address where they thought she might be —in the 1700 block of West Fifth Street. She was there. So was a companion, also 16. This was about 9:40 a.m. No criminal charges were filed.
All aglow: Winona’s Windom Wonderland
Holiday dazzle. Park at Broadway and Huff streets — the namesake park of U.S. Senator William Windom, who served from 1870 to1883. A strong advocate of railroad regulation. Earlier in the U.S. House and the Minnesota Legislature. Also two terms as U.S. secretary of the Treasury under President Harrison and President Garfield. Image. Steve Lunde
GOP seeks post-election Minnesota House majority
ST. PAUL, Minn. – What was believed to be a 67-67 tie between Democrats and Republicans for control of the Minnesota House may not be so. Two developments:
> District 40-B (Riosedale). A judge has ruled that the winner, Democrat Curtis Johnson, doesn’t actually live in the district and is disqualified. An appeal is pending,
> District 54-A (Shakopee). Democrat Brad Tabke won narrowly by 15 votes, but now it’s been discovered that 20 absentee ballots somehow went missing.
Conceivably, depending on how the two races are adjudicated, Republicans could control the House 69-65. That would end the Democratic triumvirate – control of the governorship and both houses – that shaped major public policy changes in the 2024 session of the Legislature. Either way, the best that Democrats can end up with would be a 67-67 balance.
News summary at week’s end: December 21, 2024
GOVERNANCE: How they voted: On federal budget /2
GOVERNANCE: How they voted: On federal budget /1
GOVERNANCE: How they voted: On Trump tax cuts for rich
SCHOOLS: Students act on school’s generosity theme
SCHOOLS: No jail for shoplifting School Board member
HOLIDAYS: Gift-bearing Hidden Heroes making the rounds
HOLIDAYS: Shop with cops: Venturing into toy aisles
ENVIRONMENT: Bald eagle finally about to be national bird
CRIME: Fravel has new cell in state prison system
CRIME: Cops: Madison shooter chatted with terrorist online
CRIME: Noisy illegal entry at Viroqua smoke shop
CRIME: Trial set on $183,000 Iowa farm crop thefts
COLLEGES: New WSU dean of students in pending overhaul
HEALTH: Avian flu makes dreaded leap in Wisconsin
College scores
Basketball (men): Winona State 89, MSU-Mankato 75
Basketball (men): UW-LaCrosse 86, Ripon 74
Basketball (men): Rochester Community 76, Bismarck State 42
Basketball (women): MSU-Mankato 83, Winona State 69
Basketball (women): Rochester Community 87, Bismarck State 45
Minnesota prep
Basketball (boys): Dodge Center Triton Cobras 63, Winona Cotter Ramblers 50
Basketball (boys): St. Charles Saints 67, Waterville-Elysian-Morristown Buccaneers 63
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