Notable journalism
Dan Kraker (Minnesota Public Radio September 27, 2024): “Minnesota Summer Tourism Struggled, New Fed Survey Shows”
Alayna Majkraak (Winonan, February 7, 2024): “Somse Hall Celebrates 100 Years”
Steve Rundio (LaCrosse Tribune, October 25, 2024): “Trucker Reportedly Says, ‘It’s My Country’ Before Stabbing at West Salem Truck Stop”
Gun threat reported on Winona school bus
WINONA, Minn. – An 11-year-old boy reported an older boy flashed a gang gesture at him and threatened to shoot him. This was on a school bus enroute to the Riverway charter school. The younger boy reported the incident after the bus dropped everyone off at the school. Police were called by the principal about 9 a.m. Officers talked with older boy’s father, who said there were no guns at home and that his son had no access to guns. A stern lecture followed.
School profile
Riverway is a preK to 12th grade charter district with two schools in Winona. The licensed capacity is 142 students, Riverway specializes personalized and environmental schooling. Address: 1200 Storrs {Pond Road.
How the Walz sex assault story was deepfaked
CLEMSON, S.C. — The Russian propaganda agency Storm-1516 fabricated a report that Minnesota Governor Tim Walz assaulted a Mankato teenager 27 years ago when he was a high school teacher, according to an expert on deepfake disinformation. Darren Linvill, codirector at Clemson University’s Media Forensics Hub, said he immediately recognized the footprint of Storm-1516. So have other intelligence experts who were interviewed by the high-tech Silicon Valley magazine Wired. Experts immediately recognized sloppy editing typical of Storm1516 – a tell-tail cursor in one screenshot that didn’t belong. Other telltale clues included a date-time overlay in a Storm-1516 style. “There is little doubt this is Storm-1516,” said Linvill. Also, he said, is standard practice for Strom-1516 to create an X or YouTube account for initial placement of stories. Linville said that Storm-1516 goal is to suck other parties into reposing disinformation. The “seed” worked with the deepfaked Walz post. Among those suckered into citing it as gospel was Republican vice-presidential candidate JD Vance. Walz, of course, is the Democrat running for the vice presidency. It’s believed that Storm-1516 and other Russisan agencies have planted at least 50 false narratives aimed at U.S. readers since last fall to tilt the 2024 U.S. election in favor Donald Trump. Most are outlandish on their on their face but nonetheless pick up traction among gullible readers who revel in dark conspiratorial tales as well as mal-intentioed people. One recent deep-faked account claimed falsely that Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris arranged a hit-and-run scenario in San Francisco in 2011 when she was California’s attorney genera..
Storm-1516 profile
The Russian propagandist group Storm-1516, based in St. Petersburg, creates and spreads online disinformation to further Russian global interests. It’s one of several Russian agencies that produce videos with paid actors and fake personages thatae are manufactured through artificial intelligence. Storm-1516’s existence was discovered by media forensic scholars at Clemson University in 2023. Some U.S. emigres are key players, according to U.S. intelligence experts at Clemson and elsewhere. The agency is one of several offshoots of Russia’s former Internet Research Agency whose propaganda advanced Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign.
College scores
Football: Minnesota North-Mesabi 45 Rochester Community 37
Soccer (women): Minot State 1, Winona State 0
Truck-stop knifing a hate crime?
LACROSSE, Wis. – A knife attack on a trucker at an Interstate 90 truck stop last week may have been racially motivated. The chief prosecutor for LaCrosse County, Tim Gruenke, is considering an amended criminal complaint to include racial hatred. Gruenke said the victim is non-white and the man alleged as the stabber is white. The stabbing, at West Salem, occurred in a parking dispute between the two truckers. The victim said other trucker pulled the kniide as he uttered: “It’s my country.” It an interview with LaCrosse Tribune, Gruenke said: “We are still investigating the case and reviewing video and witness statements.” The other trucker, who has been arrested in Tennessee, already faces felony counts of recklessly endangering safety/use of a dangerous weapon and substantial battery with a dangerous weapon.
Fravel trial /32: Kingburys testimony due next
MANKATO, Minn. – The Fravel murder enters its third week Monday. Prosecutors were expected to put family of Maddi Kingbury on the stand. The family of the slain Winona woman has been vocal against Fravel since she disappeared in March 2023
Rescued Fountain City cats, dogs flood shelters
FOUNTAIN CITY, Wis. – Animal shelters are full-up and out of space with 72 dogs and cats rescued from a trailer house where they were cooped up for weeks and starving and dehydrated. The animals were picked up at the trailer after police found a woman’s corpse inside and arrested her grieving and apparently deranged husband. The husband, Arthur E. McMullin, 69, expressed deep concern for his deceased wife and “the kids,” Police called Tails of Hope, a rescue organization in Alma, to bring its large transport to the scene to pick up the animals. Some, however, had already run away and were being sought. Also, some were dead in the trailer The shelters all went online for donations of cat litter, wet kitten food, and paper towels. The influx has exhausted the shelters’ budgets, and they asked too for financial donations.
> Buffalo County Humane Association (at Mondovi): 47 cats.
> Trempealeau Couty Humane Society (near Blair): 11 cats and six dogs.
> Lucky Paws (in Baldwin): Eight dogs.
Verbatim
Kristen Gregerson, administrator, Buffalo County Humane Association, about one dog: “You can see that he has a respiratory infection and that he still doesn’t feel well. But he looks so much better today than he did yesterday before he had his antibiotic shots. He’s hanging in there.”
News summary at week’s end: October 26, 2024
CRIME: Bail at $10,000 for Fountain City corpse
CRIME: Late-night gunshots disturb Maplewood area
CRIME: Mother with babe relates scary chase to cops
CRIME: Blow by blow: Trucker recounts I-90 stabbing
CRIME: Cops make drug bust in WSU dorm
CRIME: School janitor accused of accessing child porn
CRIME: Shame on you: Patriotic spirit gone awry at Altura
POLITICS: Minnesota election turnout already at record
POLITICS: Yard sign flap: Honking not encouraged
SEASONS: Homeless and cold: Cops move squatters along
CRIME: From the Blue EarthCounty courtroom:
> Fravel trial /31: Texts show confused emotions
Late-night gunshots disturb Maplewood area
WINONA, Minn. – A caller summoned police to the Maplewood neighborhood on the Far West End for five or six gunshots. The situation had calmed by time officers arrived, about 11:20 p.m., but people still were milling around. Although several people on-scene apparently witnessed what happened, nobody wanted to talk much, police said. Among those who acknowledged hearing the incident, estimates were as few as two shots being fired. Police canvassed the area and found six casings from a small .38-calibre handgun. Officers began looking for video from ring-door cameras and business surveillance cameras for clues to what happened and who was involved. The casings were in a parking area on he north side \of the 1700 block of West Wabasha Street.
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College scores
Football: Augustana 34, Winona State16
Soccer (men): Carleton 3, Saint Mary’s 0
Soccer (women): Saint Mary’s 0, Carleton 0
Soccer (women): Anoka-Ramsey Community 2 Rochester Community 1
Volleyball (women): Winona State 31, Bemidji State 28
Volleyball (women): St. Scholastica 3, St. Mary’s 0
Minnesota prep
Football: Byron Bears 28, Winona Winhawks 0
Football: Caledonia Warriors 20, Lewiston-Altura Cardinals 12
Swimming-diving (women): Rochester Century Panthers 368 (at 1st), Northfield Raiders 277 (2nd), Rochester Mayo Spartans 274 3rd), Winona Wihawk254 (4th), Mankato East Cougars 228 (5th), Rochester Marshall Rockets 184 (6th), Austin Packers 166 (7th), Mankato West Scarlets 132 (8th), Red Wing Wingers 128.5 (9th), Owatonna Huskies 112 (10th), 11. Faribault Falcons 74 (11th), Albert Lea Tigers57 (12th)
Boat stuck on wing dam; boaters OK
WINONA, Minn. – The Winona County river rescue team pulled a pontoon boat off a Mississippi River wing dam where it had hung up. Three people on board were unhurt. The rescue team towed the boat to Dick’s Marina on Latsch Island. This was about 1:15 p.m.
Yard sign flap: Honking not encouraged
SARATOGA, Minn. – A spirited political activist posted a yard sign inviting motorists to honk if they supported his candidate. A neighbor didn’t like noise and called the sheriff. A deputy drove out to the bucolic and normally tranquil 28000 block of Highway 74. The partisan claimed his sign was constitutionally protected as free speech. The deputy pointed to the neighbor’s righto peace and quiet. The resolution: Signs yes, honking no.
Minnesota election turnout already at record
ST. PAUL, Minn. – Early voting and mail-in voting in Minnesota are setting records, said Steve Simon, who runs election as secretary of state. “We are more than double the pace of 2016.” Simon uses 2016 as a baseline for presidential election years because the. 2020 turnout was depressed by the CoVid pandemic. County, city and township election officials have accepted 565,900 ballots so far, Simon said. Nearly 300,000 early ballots are yet to be returned, he said.
> Mail-in ballots must be received by local election offices by 8 p.m. on Election Day.
> In-person early voting can be done at local offices as late as the close of business November 4.
> In-person voting on election day, November 5, is at precinct and township places through 8 p.m. Most open at 7 a.m. but some at 8.
Fire engulfs vehicle in Lake Wazoo wreck
Investigation in progress. Accident on side road for recreational vehicles. Image: Jackson County sheriff
Med-evac helicopter ferries victim to hospital
BLACK RIVER FALLS, Wis. — One person was injured when a vehicle erupted in fames on the loop around Lake Wazee west of Black River Falls. The person was airlifted to a hospital, said Sheriff Duane Waldera. First-responders were called about 7:35 a.m.
R.I.P.: Kimberly Hundt
WINONA, Minn. – Kimberly Anne Hundt, age 59, of Winona, died at home of cancer. She graduated Winona Technical College in cosmetology. Her career included jobs at K-Mart, Winona Knits, Watkins, and Fastenal.
Detail: Watkowski-Mulyck Funeral Home
1965-2024
Cops make drug bust in WSU dorm
WINONA, Minn. – A sophomore at Winona State University was caught with psychedelic mushrooms and LSD, police said. They recommended to the county prosecutor that Aidan Marquis Luhmann,19, of Minneapolis, be charged on two counts of illegal possession of a controlled substance. It was believed that Luhmann was expelled, but the university declined to comment. Police were tipped to the drugs by campus security. The mushrooms weighed 7.2 grams and the LSD 0.8 grams, police said. The arrest was about 11:35 p.m. The drugs, police said, were in Luhmann’s room in the Prentiss dorm.
College scores
Soccer (women): Mary 1, Winona State 0
Volleyball (women): St. Catherine 3, Saint Mary’s 1
Volleyball (women): UW-Plattevlle3, UW-LaCrosse 0
Minnesota prep
Football: Rochester Mayo Spartans 28, Circle Pines Centennial Cougars 24
Wisconsin prep
Football: Cochrane-Fountain City Pirates 12, Wauzeka-Seneca Hornets 7
Football: Columbus Cardinals 52, Arcadia Raiders 0
Football: Spring Valley Cardinals 42, Whitehall Norse 7
Fravel trial /31: Texts show confused emotions
MANKATO, Minn. – Painful text communications over several months became evidence in the Fravel murder trial, detailing an unraveling relationship between Fravel and Maddi Kingsbury. The texts were shown in screenshots to the jury by Matt Lund, a special agent with the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension. Lund was a prosecution witness. Clear from the texts was that Fravel had already moved pretty much out of the Winona duplex he and Maddi shared by March 31, 2023, thr day she disappeared. He was pretty kuch back to his parents’ home 40 miles away in southern Fillmore County.
Phone logs and text messages
Lund detailed text exchanges back to the end of 2022 – three months before the disappearance. Among points in the thread of communications:
> Fravel wanted to know why the relationship was ending and asked Kingsbury to “lay it all out.” Kingsbury responded in lengthy messages about years of build-up. While expressing strong feelings for Fravel, she said she could never feel the same about their relationship again. Kingsbury apologized repeatedly for the deteriorating relationship. They had been together at least six years. The last thing she wanted to do, she said, was to hurt him again.
> Fravel sent photos to Kingsbury from their past, including some of them together and some of their two pre-school children. Fravel said he found the photos while “cleaning out.” Kingsbury responded that the photos were made her feel worse. Fravel denied that such was his intent. Kingsbury asked him to stop sending photos, but he didn’t.
> In an exchange on March. 27, four days before Kingsbury went missing, she told him she was looking for a new place to live in Winona. Fravel asked her to consider a townhouse in Rushford, 20 miles south of Winona, so that the children wouldn’t be too far from his parents’ house in Mabel.
> On March 31, the day of Kingsbury‘s disappearance. she appears to have sent him a cash transfer of $20. The transfer wasn’t explained There also was Fravel asking Kingsbury what was for supper, and that he was considering taking their children to his parents’ house in Mabel for the weekend after picking them up from daycare. This was a Friday.
> A phone log of Kingsbury’s phone showed missed calls from family and friends later that day.
Defense finds sunnier exchanges
Fravel’s defense attorney, Zach Bauer, had advance access to records presented Matt Lund, the state investigator, from pre-trial proceedings. Bauer put a different cast on the phone logs and text exchanges:
> In one thread Fravel was thanking Kingsbury’s stepmother for wishing him a happy birthday. Fravel called herb“mom.”
> In a similar exchange thenext year, Fravel thanked the stepmother for a birthday present.
> In a conversation between Fravel and Kingsbury in May 2022, both Fravel and Kingsbury appeared to be happy. Kingsbury told Fravel she appreciated him “so much” and was glad they were a family.
> Some exchanges were romantic.
> In one exchange Kingsbury told her sister that things between her and Fravel were “lots better” and that partner therapy had “really helped.” Her sister asked if they would marry. Kingsbury’s answer: “Probably yeah.” This was a month before Kingsbury went missing.
Earlier: Fravel trial /25: His attorney warns about mistrial
Fall 2024: Lakeside lingering for a photo
Waters calm. Breezes too. Autumn moves the lush green along Lake Winona’s shores toward their winter barrenness. A hard frost was predicted for overnight. Image: Steve Lunde
Blow by blow: Trucker recounts I-90 stabbing
WEST SALEM, Wis. – A trucker who was stabbed at a West Salem truck stop told investigators that the attack was preceded by a brief quarrel over parking. The victim said he had never seen the other guy before. This, according to the criminal complaint against the other trucker, is what the victim told police:
> The victim was parking his truck and trailer when “an older caucasian dude with a beard” in another truck started honking and waving his arms.
> The victim ignored the gestures and went into the store for groceries.
> When he returned, the other driver again honked.
> The victim approached the other the driver’s door and asked: “What’s going on? Why do you keep doing this?”
> The other driver responded from his cab: “It’s my country, and I can do what I want.”
> The victim couldn’t make any sense of the situation and told the other driver; “Keep it up, and we’ll have an issue.”
> The other driver dismounted from his cab.
> The two spoke another 30 seconds, then the other driver produced a knife and began slashing.
> The other driver climbed back into his and drove off.
> Although wounded, the victim managed photos showing a company name and federal licensing numbers on the other truck.
Police said the victim sustained an eight-inch cut across the chest and another cut, one or two niches, across the collarbone. He was holding a napkin against his neck when police arrived. Police said blood was dripping down the front of the victim’s pants.
Earlier: Trucker nabbed in Tennessee for West Salem stabbing
Bail at $10,000 for Fountain City corpse
ALMA, Wis. – Bail was set at $10,000 for a Fountain City man who failed to report the death of his wife six weeks earlier in their trailer house in Fountain City. In setting bail, Judge Thomas Clark set a further hearing for Arthur E. McMullin, 69, in November. Failing to report a corpse can mean 12-1/2 years in prison and a $25,000 fine – plus $200 to cover the government’s cost of a deoxyribonucleic acid test of tissue from the bodily remains.
McMullin. Was confronted at trailer house by deputy making a welfare check.
Nelson Hill crash blocks U.S. 52
CHATFIELD, Minn. — A Harmony man and a 17-year-old girl were injured in a collision on Highway 52 south of Chatfield on Nelson Hill. William Harley Lark, 79, was transported 27 mules to a Rochester hospital with non-life threatening injuries. He was a passenger in a 2024 Chevrolet Equinox driven by Jon Carl Haugan, 68, of Preston. Haugan was unhurt. The girl, driving a 2017 Mitsubishi Mirage, was taken to a Rochester hospital with sustainable injuries. Her name was withheld by the State Patrol without explanation. The accident was about 7:20 a.m. on Highway 52 at 300th Street. Both vehicles were heading toward Chatfield. Traffic was detoured on backroads
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