Minnesota economy humming with jobs
ST. PAUL, Minn. – Minnesota employment data continue to show a strong economy, more so in the Twin Cites but also outstate. Angelina Nguyen, of the state Department of Employment and Economic Development, said that unemployment in Minnesota remained steady at 3.4% in October. The average private sector hourly wage fell slightly to $37.76, she said. Over-the-year average hourly earnings, however, have grown $1.21, up 3.3%,outpacing inflation at 2.6%. Nguyen cited thousands of new jobs due to:
> Sofidel. A $200 million expansion of the tissue paper manufacturer in Duluth.
> Solventum. A $209 million state-of-the-art health research and development facility in Eagan
> Rural broadband expansion. Largely government funded.
Wisconsin jobs agency: State policies fuel growth
MADISON, Wis. – The state Workforce Development Department announced record high employment numbers for October. Amy Pechacek, department secretary, said that seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 2.9% — below the 4.1% national rate. Additionally, she said, the Wisconsin labor force participation rate increased to 65.7%, while the national rate fell to 62.6%. Pechacek attributed diversity for growth: “More people are a part of the economy by the state supporting veterans, accommodating people with disabilities, investing in daycare and transportation options, and offering job placement training.”
Winona Library hopes for kid books renewal
WINONA, Minn. – The Friends of the Winona Public Library announced that it will join in the 16th annual statewide Give to the Max Day on Thursday. The project generates funds for Bush Foundation grants. Grants have included the Dolly Parton Imagination Library. Currently the Winona program has 1,140 active children. Donations.
Parton gift books. Free for kids under 5.
Blue Angels booked for Eau Claire air show
EAU CLAIRE, Wis. – The U.S. Navy stunt flying team will perform at the Chippewa Valley Air Show on June 28 and June 29, organizers said. A Navy advance team will be in town Thursday to discuss details.
College scores
Basketball (men): Bethany of Mankato 95, Saint Mary’s 94
Volleyball (women): Sandhills Community 3, Rochester Community 1
Minnesota prep
Football: Fertile Beltrami Falcons 66, LeRoy-Ostrander Cardinals 33
Hockey (girls): Winona Winhawks 5, Rochester Century/Rochester Marshall 2
Bridge update plan riles Trempealeau folks
TREMPEALEAU, Wis. – State transportation planners want to replace three bridges on the heavily traveled Highway 35 corridor — a shortcut that links Trempealeau through backwater swamps with LaCrosse. At a packed public listening session, people expressed displeasure at the 10-mile route straight shot being closed for two years. The only detour would be 16 miles via Centerville. Paul Valenti, who conducted the listening session, said the bridges were built in 1953 and are near the end of their useful life.
Heavy lack mark. Where three aging bridges cross the Black River and creeks and backwater swamps.
SMU enrollment outreach to faithful
WINONA, Minn. – Tuition will be waived at Saint Mary’s University for children of Catholic school employees in Minnesota starting this spring. Said James Burns, college president: “Saint Mary’s is deeply committed to supporting those who dedicate their lives to the formation of young minds in Catholic education.” The waiver is funded by the Catholic Educator Promise. It applies to new undergraduate enrollees from families earning less than $80,000.
College profile
Saint Mary’s University was founded in 1912 as a men’s college by the Winona Catholic diocese on picturesque Terrace Heights. It was given to a Christian Brothers teaching order order in 1933. Women were admitted in 1989. Enrollment peaked about 1,200 a decade ago.. Losses since have been offset by growing graduate programs mostly at rented facilities in Minneapolis. This fall the undergraduate enrollment at the Winona campus slipped into the low 800s. Undergrad tuition, room, board and fees at $48,000 a year.
Fravel trial /65: Judge: Video too gory for public
WINONA, Minn. – Graphic video from the finding of Maddi Kingsbury’s body on a backwoods trail near Mabel has been sealed by Winona Judge Nancy Buytendorp. The judge also sealed images from the autopsy. Why not allow the public to see what the jury saw? To protect the privacy and emotional needs of the Kingsbury family, the judge said. The jury in the trial of Adam Fravel saw the images before finding him guilty of murdering Kingsbury, but Buytendorp already had banned photographic news coverage inside the courtroom. Conventional U.S. jurisprudence is to allow public access to trial evidence, even if cameras have been barred from the trial itself. This is a part of the checks-and- balances system against excesses, misdeeds and dubious rulings by the courts as a government agency. The conceptual rationale also is to allay public doubts the courts as a fair forum. In other words: To inspire public confidence in the system.
Verbatim
Buytendorp: “The privacy interests of the family, coupled with the potential emotional distress caused by the release of these graphic images, outweigh the public interest in their disclosure at this time.”
Three teens sent home after school fuss
WINONA, Minn. – Three teen-age students at Hiawatha Valley Education were sent home with police citations for boozing and drugging. Police were called about 10:25 a.m. for a disturbance involving a 15-year-old boy who had arrived at school and soon was yelling and swearing at staff. It seemed that the boy was under the influence of drugs, police were told. Officers found the boy hiding between cars in the parking lot. He ran. Officers chased and caught him. He was carrying 6.2 grams of marijuana, police said. They also found a. bottle of vodka. His blood was tested for alcohol content. The result: 0.10% — one-fifth more than the law considers impairment. Police then learned that two girls — one 17, the other 16 – had been partying overnight with the boy.
> The 17-year-old girl admitted to marijuana earlier and turned over a nicotine vape pen.
> The 16-year-old girl had bloodshot eyes and dilated pupils and admitted to consuming vodka. Her blood-alcohol level was slightly more than the 0.08% threshold for impairment.
School profile
Hiawatha Valley Education is a state-charted regional school in Winona for students with special needs that their local schools don’t have the expertise to provide. Most are bused, although there also is an outreach staff with teachers commuting to remote locations. The central facility is on Bundy Boulevard in the Far East End industrial area near Homer. Enrollment: 100 students.
Camper slips, crushes man doing repairs
HATFIELD, Wis – A Fall Creek man was killed when pinned under a camper as he was doing repairs. Mark Strobush, 49, was dead when first-responders arrived, said Jackson County Sheriff Duane Waldera. The accident was roughly 10 miles northest of Black River Falls about 10:30 a.m.
Dairyland plans giant power storage farms
LACROSSE, Wis. – LaCrosse-based Dairyland Power has been awarded a $28 million federal grant to build three energy storage facilities for rural customers. Batteries would store excess energy from solar and wind farms. Some 700 kilowatts of electricity would be available for 10 hours of backup. The facilities would be at:
> Wyeville, Wis.: Through Oakdale Electric Co-op.
> Waukon, Iowa: Through Allamakee-Clayton Electric Co-op.
> Fentress Lake, Illinois: Through JCE Co-op.
Kevin Nordt. a Dairyland executive, said the co-op is at the forefront in bringing energy storage projects for underserved rural areas. The grant is from the U.S. Energy Department. Hundreds of jobs will be created by construction, he said.
R.I.P.: Richard Pruka
WINONA, Minn. — Richard A. Pruka, age 73, of Winona, who was with Brock Candy Company 24 years. died at home, of metastatic melanoma. Later he worked five years in food service for the Winona School District. His favorite job was the family farm more than half of his life. He was a graduate of Winona High School.
Detail: Watkowski-Mulyck Funeral Home
1951-2024
Minnesota turkey pair is White House-bound
NORTHFIELD, Minn. – The gift turkeys to the White House this Thanksgiving are from Minnesota. John Zimmerman of Northfield, chair of the National Turkey Federation, has been grooming a flock of 44 birds from which two will be selected as especially suited for the 16-hour trip to Washington for a ceremonial presentation to President Biden. Per a custom dating apocryphally to 1865, the president will pardon them so they don’t end up on a platter. They then will spend the rest of their days in contented retirement back in Minnesota at the Farmamerica agricultural museum in Waseca. They will welcome visitors.
Gobbler at the Rose Garden. President Kennedy pronounces the 1963 pardon on November 19. That year the turkey was a handsome 55 pounds.
Notable journalism
Rachel Mergen (Winona Daily News, November 12, 2024): “From Scratch, Nosh Flourishes”
Alexandra Retter (Winona Post, November 1, 2024): “Many Local Schools Keep Cell Phones Out of Class”
Chris Rogers (Winona Post, November 6, 2024): “Winona State Celebrates New Leader”
Sheriffs’ group sides against jail reform order
ST. PAUL, Minn. — The Minnesota Sheriffs Association may sue the state prison agency over an order for the Hennepin County jail to reduce. overcrowding immediately. James Stuart, executive director, said the state Department of Corrections was singling out the Hennepin jail unfairly. Many jails in the state are short-handed, he said: “More than one jail has been caught up in this situation and when the elected sheriffs have attempted to reach out and have this dialogue, the DOC has been unresponsive.” The order is for Hennepin County to find other places to incarcerate a third of its inmates– from 900 now to 600. In threatening a lawsuit against the state agency, Stuart noted that Sheriff Dawanna Witt, who runs the Hennepin County jail, already was in the process of relocating 200 inmates.
Overbooked jails
Jail overcrowding became a major public issue this week when Hennepin County was ordered to pay out $3.4 million because of a wrongful death in 2022. It suddenly was repotted widely that seven inmates had died at the jail in the past two years. Stuart: said the reporting was overstated: “Five of those seven deaths were of natural causes.”
Stuart. Heads association of 87 county sheriffs in Minnesota. Himself a retired Anoka County sheriff.
News summary at mid-week: November 13, 2024
VOTING INTERFERENCE: Bomb threat at Winona election office
WRONGFUL DEATH: $3.4 million settlement for agonizing death
SCHOOLS: Winona High event: Cool School Polar Plunge
SCHOOLS: Four-day school week nixed in St. Charles
REMEMBRANCES: A Veterans Day vigil at Lake Winona
REMEMBRANCES: Walz cites Minnesota gains to supports veterans
POLITICS: Wisconsin justices lash out on 1849 abortion law
SPORTS: UW fires coaching aide for drunken crash
SEASONS: Hard frost in the bluffs
ECONOMY: If you only could stockpile gasoline
CRIME: Ousted bar patron returns, returns, returns
College scores
Basketball (men): Winona State 72, Missouri-St. Louis 62
Minnesotan Emmer back as U.S. House whip
WASHINGTON – Republicans in the U.S. House re-elected Minnesota Congressman Tim Emmer as the party’s whip. Emmer, a Trump loyalist, has held District MN-6 seat, north and west of the Twin Cities, for five terms. He has been the House GOP whip since 2022 to assure majorities are lined up for votes on key issues.
Polluter? “Will the real Gundersen please stand up”
MADISON, Wis. – The LaCrosse-based Gundersen Health System has agreed to a $160,000 fine for pollution. The state Justice Department announced the settlement of its case against Gundersen for air pollution from a wood-fired boiler in LaCrosse. The settlement was a black eye for Gundersen, which for years as flaunted itself publicly as environmentally conscious.
$5,000 bail on charge of Uber attack
LACROSSE, Wis. – A Minnesota man accused of strangling a Uber driver was released after posting $5,000 bail. Dylan L. Taylor, 26, of Mankato, had been arrested after the driver reported being choked twice by a passenger on November 2 and threatened his life. The felony. charges:
> Suffocation by strangulation.
> Intimidation of a victim.
> Reckless endangerment of safety.
There also were misdemeanor counts of battery and disorderly conduct. Police arrested Taylor after he and a companion were let off at a 24-hour convenience store in Onalaska. Police quoted Taylor denying any assault but admitting to having downed “a lot” of alcohol that weekend night.
Taylor. Free after posting bail.
Worker dies in home siding accident
CHASEBURG, Wis. – A construction worker was crushed fatally when pressed by an all-terrain vehicle into the exterior wall of a house being built on Schoenagel Lane. Co-workers rushed David Hibbard Rode Puig, age 39, of Viola, to the Stoddard fire station eight miles away, but it was too late. Puig had been installing siding. The accident was about 11 a.m. Vernon County Sheriff Roy Torgerson said the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration was notified.
Winona High event: Cool School Polar Plunge
Plungster. At 10,200 pounds empty, 27,600 watered up. Hesitant about being dumped in? An attachment will squirt pre-measured waterballs on willing participants seated or standing.
Fund-raiser for unified phys-ed class
WINONA, Minn. — The Winona High School is bringing in a custom-designed mobile plunge pool – the Plungester, they call it – as a fund-raiser for a phys-ed class that relates to the Special Olympics. The time: 2:15 p.m. on Tuesday. Donations are being solicited to sponsor plungers. Mayor Sherman, are you listening? The event is part of the Unified Champion Schools movement to empower a generation of student leaders to maker school culture more inclusive.
Bomb threat at Winona election office
WINONA, Minn. – Winona County’s election headquarters received an email bomb threat as ballots were being counted on November 5. For reasons unexplained, County Auditor Chelsi Wilbright, who runs elections, did not notify law enforcement authorities until eight days later. Nor was the office evacuated. The office is in the County Office Building at 202 West Third Street, less than block from the sheriff’s office. Sheriff Ron Ganrude said he could not explain the eight-day lapse in being notified. Even so, deputies performed a walk-through inspection eight days later. Nothing incendiary was found, the sheriff said. The email threat had said that a bomb at the election office would explode with little damage but that people would be hurt. The email was time-stamped at 9:14 p.m.
Wilbright. Elected county auditor-treasurer in 2022. Earlier deputy auditor-treasurer.
Threats statewide
Minnesota’s election supervisor in St. Paul, Secretary of State Steve Simon, reported thyat some 40 election offices statewide received the same email bomb threat. All were hoaxes, he said
Southeast College shows off trucking program
WINONA, Minn. – Anyone who has toyed with the idea of a trucking career can get a hands-on feel for the possibilities at a Minnesota Southeast College house house. The event: Tuesday at 5 p.m. Chris Cook, a student recruiter, said that trucking company agents will be on hand. Also, he said, there will be ride-alongs with Southeast instructors. The college’s 20-credit truck driving certificate program has 100% job placement, Cook said. He noted that Minnesota truckers average $57,000 a year to start.
Cook. Southeast admissions counselor.
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