Fuel prices dropping. At the ubiquitous Kwik Trip stations, nine in Winna County, gasoline prices have continued their fall below $3 a gallon. He national average this week is down three cents to $3.16. The Hurricane Helene disaster had little effect on supplies. Infrastructure damage reduces demand – no roads, no bridges, no travel. Image:Steve Lunde

WINONA, Minn. – A Wisconsin woman was. booked for drunken driving after a traffic stop for erratic driving near Howard and Franklin streets. Arrested was Amilia Bernadine Applebee, age 21, of Arcadia. The arresting officer said Applebee admitted to two, maybe three cocktails.  A roadside breathalyzer test showed her system with 0.14% alcohol, almst twice what’s allowed legally. A later test at jail also showed 0.14%. Applebee had been stopped, according to the officer, for crossing the fog line several times and then accelerating to 40 mph in a residential area. This was about 1:13 a.m.

ST. CHARLES, Minn.– A Rochester motorcyclist died when he went off a major road south ofSt. Charles. Ross Anthony Stensrud, 61, died apparently instantly, police said. The accident was about 6:10 p.m. on State Highway 74. Stensrud was heading north from the direction of Chatfield and was near Park Road, going toward the Interstate 90 on-ramps. The State Patrol said that Stensrud was not wearing a helmet and that alcohol was a factor. He was on a 2012 Harley-Davidson Touring bike.

MOUNT ZION, Wis. – A car struck a one-horse Amish buggy, catapulting the driver out of the buggy. Andy Gingerich, 23, of Boscobel, was airlifted 70 miles to the University of Wisconsin hospital in Madison. His injuries were minor, the emergency room physican determined but had Gingerich stay overnight for observation. The accident was about 5:15 p.m. Crawford County Sheriff Dale McCullick said it appeared that Gingerich was crossing U.S. Highway 61 on County Road W when his horse became agitated and resisted the reins. A car driven by Marcia Gumtow, 60, of Fennimore, southbound toward Boscobel on Highway 61, struck the horse and buggy, the sheriff said. McCullick and a passenger were unhurt. The horse also was unhurt.

ST. PAUL, Minn. – The Minnesota Natural Resources Department sees fall colors creeping slowly south. Summer remains, however, in sections of Fillmore, Houston, Mower and Winona counties in the southeast.

Earlier: Autumnal brilliance ahead: First map of season

NEW ORLEANS, La.  – A man convicted in the axe- murder of a former Minnesota school teacher was sentenced to life behind bars. Before being sentenced, Preston Higgs, age 40, told the judge that Liz Quackenbush meant the world to him, that he cherished her, and that if he could he would breathe life back into her soul. Judge Rhonda Goode-Douglas wasn’t impressed. The judge said that Higgs had not apologized to the family but only made excuses. Quackenbush, age 39, formerly of Rochester, was killed in March 2021 at a New Orleans house where she lived with Higgs. She taught chemistry at New Harmony High School in New Orleans. The trial was emotional. Friends and family described Quackenbush as a magical, fearless and beautiful and a woman with a massive heart. Authorities found the body in the home. Higgs had fled. He was arrested four months later in Indiana after a nationwide manhunt.

Quackenbush. Killed in 2021 in house shared with Higgs.

RUSHFORD, Minn. – The Rushford-based MiEnergy co-op dispatched a crew to South Caroline on a relief mission for the Hurricane Helene disaster. Four linemen were expected in Cowpens, South Carolina, on Thursday with a bucket truck, a digger derrick and a pole trailer. They will rebuild power lines for the Broad River co-op, which powers 25,000 members, About 10,000 of them have been without power since Friday.

Ready to roll. 1,023 mils to Cowpen.

WINONA, Minn. – It’s been 100 years coming, but this year Winona’s storied Bloedow’s bakery has been named the state Retailer of the Year by the Minnesota Retailers Association. “Bloedow exemplifies what it means to be a successful retailer in Minnesota,” said Bruce Nustad, president of the retailers association. “Their unwavering dedication to their customers, their tradition of delivering high-quality baked goods for generations and their strong ties to the Winona community truly set them apart. Bloedow’s is a beloved institution, and we are honored to celebrate their incredible legacy.” How successful is Bloedow’s? Consider these numbers: Each day (except Mondays and Sundays), the bakery’s employees serve 300 to 600 customers. Many start lining up early to get in at 6 a.m. (7:30 on Saturdays), sometimes queuing down the street and around the corner. The bakers, who start even earlier, produce 3,000 to 5,400 doughnuts and 1,140 cookies a day.

Inside at quiet moment. Same address for 99 years. At 451 East Broadway.

Bloedow’s profile

Ernest Bloedow started a little bakery at 601 Sanborn Street in 1924. With the help of his wife Mary, the business took off quickly. In 1925 thet reloacated to Broadway and Laird streets, a former saloon, complete with a hitching post outside. The baker ypassed through the family to Ernest and Mary’s daughter, Mildred and her husband Julius Gernes, who assisted at ghe  bakery. Tyey purchased the business in 1941. Mildred and Julius’ son Ernest and his wife Darleen purchased the bakery in 1984. They continued with the traditional recipes, as does Hugh Polus, a current co-owner.

WISCONSIN RAPIDS, Wis. – Public health officials have identified six Wood County sites that are prone to drug overdosing and installed vending machines with tools to handle crises. The locations:

> Aftermath Tattoo in Wisconsin Rapids.

> Family Health Center in Marshfield.

> Mid-State Technical College in Wisconsin Rapids.

> Mid-State Technical College in Marshfield.

> St. Vincent de Paul in Marshfield.

> Wood County River Block in Wisconsin Rapids.

Said Sue Smith, county health director: “Having these machines in convenient locations removes barriers to accessing lifesaving resources and information.” The vending machines are stocked with personal hygiene kits, Narcan, fentanyl and xylazine test kits, first aid kits, gunlocks, hand wipes, and sharps containers.

Earlier: Winona schools now equipped with Narcan kits

Earlier: Winona schools stocking opioid antidote

Earlier: UW-LaCrosse mounts hallway overdose kits

For emergency aid. Typical machines cost $7,000, which includes installation and shipping. Annual software fee: $600. Optional charge for branding to sponsoring organizations: $700..

Soccer (men): Gustavus Adolphus 2, Saintt Mary’s 1

Tennis (women): UW-Eau Claire 5, UW-LaCrosse 4

STOCKTON, Minn. – Traffic over Stockton Hill was interrupted briefly after a farm rig — a harvesting combine — stalled near Bow Hunter Drive. This was about 8:15 p.m. on the Stockton side of the grade. No one was injured.

LACROSSE, Wis. – The fire chief in suburban French Island said that the fire that engulfed the Omaha Track recycling plant was town’s the worst industrial accident in in his memory. The fire, which broke out early Tuesday, consumed the equivalent to four football fields, said Chief Nate Melby. Crews spent 21-1/2 hours fighting the fire, he said. At a news conference he said:

“It was a very wind-driven fire, which created turbulence and voracity in the fire itself, so it made the fire burn faster and spread faster. So we set up what we call a defensive operation where we tried to control the perimeter of the fire.”

Melby doubts that the fire will rekindle, although he said it may smolder for days. Video surveillance tape in the area is being examined to  help determine the cause, he said.

Earlier: Fire rages at French Island rail-tie recycler

SHAMROCK, Wis. – A 13-year-old boy died in an accident on the family in the Pine Hill area south of Black River Falls. Jackson County Sheriff Duane Waldera confirmed the death but declined to release the victim’s name. He said the boy was “submerged by crops” but didn’t explain. Nor did the sheriff explain his reticence to release basic information  about what happened. It is Waldera’ habit is to withhold information to which the public has legal access and eventually will come out anyway. Other sources said the boy was Brock Alvin Bucholz, an eighth-grader at Black River Falls Middle School. An ambulance took the boy to the Black River hospital, where he died. A family friend said Bubsy, as he was called, enjoyed farm work and was good at driving a tractor.

Bucholz. Apparently buried by collapsing grain in storage.

At Rochester-Stewartville overpass. Fire crews quickly suppressed a grass fire at I-90 and State Highway 63. The cause: Likely a truck that lost a tire at 70 mph set off sparks.

WINONA, Minn. – A Winona woman had a horrific tale about her boyfriend pulling a gun on her at a bus pick-up point in Rochester and threatening her all the way to their destination in Winona until she could get  away and call 911. None of it was true, police said. They said that Kayla Marrie Tolbert, 27, made it all up. She was jailed for filing a false report. Also, as police soon learned, she was a fugitive from justice in Missouri. Her tale at first was compelling, police said. She told them that her boyfriend pulled a loaded handgun on her at the Rochester bus stop and said he would kill her. The threats, she said, continued aboard the bus, which dropped then off on Huff Street near Winona State University. As they walked toward Center Street and their apartment, she said, she purposely fell back about a block so he wouldn’t see her call 911. This was about 2:20 p.m. The boyfriend denied the story to police. Yes, he admitted, he always carried a fake handgun – a plastic replica, no more than a BB air gun actually– and that Tolbert knew about it and knew that it was a fake and that he never came anywhere near to pointing it at her. So who was telling the truth? Police examined the gun. It indeed was a fake – and legal. They called Rochester police to look for surveillance video of the bus stop where the episode supposedly began The tape showed nothing unusual about the couple waiting for the Jefferson Lines bus to arrive and pick them up.

Tolbert. Police dumbfounded about why she concocted her story. Bouyfriend says he  also dumbfounded.

UTICA, Minn. – A $3,300 check mailed to King Lumber of Utica never arrived and ended up cashed in Georgia with the company name scratched off and replaced, Winona County deputies were told. It was unclear whether the check was made out to King Lumber or its wholesale supplier, Key Lumber of Mason City, Iowa. The fraud was reported about 1:30 p.m.

WINONA, Minn. – When police made a traffic stop on the East End, they spotted a man hiding in the backseat. The guy turned out to be William Curtis Perry, 33, of Winona, who already was wanted on an arrest warrant for drug possession. After Perry was ordered out of the car, police found 5.5 grams of meth in a pocket. At jail he was booked for a new drug charge. The car’s driver, Katina Michelle Brett, 28, of Winona, was cited for a revoked driving license. The stop was about 1 p.m. at Broadway and Carimona streets.

Perry. Back in jail with new meth charge.