College scores
Soccer (women): St. Catherine 1, Saint Mary’s 0
Volleyball (women):UW-River Falls 3, UW-LaCrosse 1
18-wheeler rolls at Dakota split on I-90
DAKOTA, Minn. – A long-distance trucker was injured when he lost control of his rig and it rolled off Interstate 90 emerging from the spaghetti intersection with an exit to Winona. Kevin Lawrence Novotny, 47, of Montgomery in LeSueur County, was taken 13 miles to a LaCrosse hospital. His injuries were described as non-life threatening. His load of corn spewed all over and slowed traffic through the area. The accident was about 12:30 p.m. The Peterbilt semi was heading west toward Rochester.
A delayed domestic assault report
WINONA, Minn. – A Winona woman told police that a boyfriend assaulted her at an apartment, picking her up, throwing her on couch, and dragging her around the living room. This occurred, she said, on September 10, but she didn’t report it right away. The boyfriend also broke her cellphone, she said. This was in the 250 block of East Sarnia Street. Police began a search for the boyfriend.
Mass casualties in Lafayette hayride accident
LAFAYETTE, Wis. — Two hay wagons carrying 25 kids and chaperones overturned on a school field trip at the Bushel and a Peck Apple Orchard. Initial reports said three children suffered life-threatening injuries, at least one of whom was airlifted to a hospital. Otyhers went to hospitals either 62 miles away in Marshfield or 14 miles away in Eau Claire. The mass-casualty situation was confused. Sheriff Travis Hakes confirmed that no one was killed. The sheriff said he understood that five persons suffered serious injuries and that nine were taken to hospitals by ground ambulance. Others were transported by private vehicles. A complete casualty list was being compiled, the sheriff said. The children were fourth-graders and fifth-graders from St. Mark Lutheran Church and School in Eau Claire. The principal, Peter Micheel, said he was focusing on reuniting children with their caregivers.
Turquoise tractor. Towing two haywagons, both of which rolled. Here the wagons have ben righted to rescue children and chaperones pinned underneath.
Bush and Peck profile
On a scenic ridge separating the Chippewa and Eau rivers at18444 County Highway OO. Hayrides $3.50 per child, chaperones free. Orchard planted a century ago. Now includes 20,000 trees producing 30 varieties of apples. In addition there are currants, raspberries and pumpkins, and a three- acre corn maze.
Gow’s adult-film appeal: Now to Madison hearing
LACROSSE, Wis. – The former University of Wisconsin-LaCrosse chancellor, Joe Gow, expressed confidence about keeping his role on the faculty at an upcoming hearing. “Finally we’re going to get down to the fundamental First Amendment freedom of expression questions,” Gow said in a WXOW interview. He was fired as chancellor in December after the UW system regents learned he was producing and performing in sex videos being marketed ostensibly as marital aids. The issue, besides Gow’s removal as chancellor, is whether to strip him also of any continuing role on the faculty. A final hearing is scheduled for Friday in Madison before the UW Board of Regents’ personnel committee. The issue, Gow said in the interview: “Can the university fire a tenured faculty member for their speech and expression? It really will be an important meeting. We’re eager to get it happening.” Gow noted he has counsel from Milwaukee lawyer Mark Leitner, whose specialties include constitutional law and the First Amendment. Gow also has backing from the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression.
Earlier: Gow’s adult-film appeal: Now to Madison hearing
Earkier: Gow: UW-L faculty probe was a bamboozle
Earlier: Faculty review to Gow: Leave, don’t come back
Earlier: UW-LaCrosse showdown: Gow v. regents
Gow. Fired on the eve of retirement for writing sex advice books under a pseudonym with wife. Also for explicit videos on the same theme.
Leitner. Among the few lawyers nationwide who have won both a jury verdict and a settlement of more than $100 million.
UW-LaCrosse enrollment
A argument for removing Gow as chancellor and from the faculty was potential damage to student recruitment, Preliminary enrollment data for this fall semester show an an increae to 10,438.
iPod stolen at WSU located by pings, recovered
WINONA, Minn. – A Winona State University student traced pings from her stolen iPod music device to a pawn shop in Rochester. Police recovered the device within hours, then went looking for another Winona State student, Wyatt Charles Condon, 27, of Kasson. They waited until he was out of class. He confessed and was charged with theft, police said. The iPod had been stolen the day before at the Education Village on campus. It was in a backpack left for a few minutes while the owner went to use a communal printer. When she returned, it was gone.
Emergency, fire crews make 52 calls
WINONA, Minn. – The Fire Department reported 41 emergency medical calls plus 11 fire calls in recent days:
> Tuesday, September 17: 7 medical calls plus 2 fire call.
> Monday, September 16: 4 medical calls plus 2 fire call.
> Sunday, September 15: 6 medical calls plus 2 fire calls.
> Saturday, September 14: 7 medical calls plus 3 fire calls.
> Friday, September 13: 6 medical calls plus 1 fire calls.
> Thursday, September 12: 5 medical calls plus no calls.
> Wednesday, September 11: 6 medical calls plus 1 fire call.
Earlier: Emergency, fire crews make 46 calls
Marijuana suspected as causing driver jitters
WINONA, Minn. – A driver was sweating profusely, jittery and shaky during a traffic stop, the police officer said, and the officer smelled marijuana from inside the car. A search of the driver revealed a cannabis-infused vape and also three ounces of marijuana and a bong. Dakota Lee Jonsgaard, 20, of Winona, failed field sobriety tests. Jnsgaard told the officer that she had smoked but that was the day before. This was about 12 a.m. near Broadway and High Forest Streets on the East Side. Blood was drawn and sent to the state e crime lab. Charges were pending the lab’s conclusion.
When Earth’s umbra shadowed our moon
The view from East Burns Valley. The season’s full Harvest Moon and a partial lunar coincided. The eclipse lasted four hours, peaking at 7:44 p.m. Almost 5% of Moon’s diameter was blocked by Earth’s shadow. Image: Andy Frank
Minnesota prep
Soccer (boys): Rochester Mayo Spartans 5, Winona Winhawks 0
Soccer (boys): St. Charles/Lewiston-Altura 6, Plainview-Elgin-Millville Bulldogs 0
Soccer (girls): St. Charles/Lewiston-Altura 7, Plainview-Elgin-Millville Bulldogs 0
Tennis (girls): Stewartville Tigers 4, Winona Cotter Ramblers 3
Volleyball (girls): Winona Cotter Ramblers 3, Lewiston-Altura Cardinals 1
Volleyball (girls): Rushford-Peterson Trojans 3, St. Charles Saints 0
Vance: Migrants causing Wisconsin health crisis
Eau Claire redux. In his latest Wisconsin visit, Republican vice-president candidate JD Vance hammers at Trump campaign themes against migrants. He accused migrants of undermining the viability of rural health delivery (Fact check: No supporting data), crime rates that he said are soaring (despite facts to the contrary), and the disappearance of pet dogs and cats for meals (Fact check: Untrue). He blamed Democrats for rising inflation and gasoline prices (Fact check: Both inflation ndt gas are down.)
His second rally in Ray Claire in six weeks
EAU CLAIRE, Wis. – Vice presidential candidate JD Vance doubled down on the Trump pledge to deport migrants by the millions if elected. All of them will be “going home,” Vance told an indoor rally. He was inconsistent about whether he meant illegal migrants or all migrants, appealing, it seemed, to nativists in the almost wholly white crowd. Vance, who is white, called migrants a threat to rural health:
“A lot of our rural hospitals are bearing the burden of providing health care to millions of people who shouldn’t be in this country to begin with. And so those hospitals go bankrupt and then a lot of American citizens can’t afford health care. Now you might not think that rural health care access is an immigration issue. I guarantee it’s an immigration issue.”
Health and refugees
Although an industrial city of 70,000, Eau Claire is the hub of a largely rural western Wisconsin region. The city is struggling with health issues after he giant provider HSHS closed hospitals and clinics. (Fact check: Recent migrants comprise a miniscule 0.01% of Eau Claire’s population and even less in rural counties.) The city, also, has gone through assimilation of refugees from World Relief, a humanitarian aid group founded by the National Association of Evangelicals. The organization has settled 77 refugees fleeing war and persecution in central Africa and others from Venezuela and Colombia — and plans to resettle 100 more in October. The assimilation has been a low-level local issue. A lone billboard has accused city leaders of using tax dollars to “traffic Somali refugees” and of keeping the plan secret. (Fact check: Although most Somalis are black, no Somalis have been in the World Relief’s Eau Claire’d resettlement project.)
Campaigning together. Vance and wife Usha at Eau Claire rally.
Springfield dog dogs and cats
Vance arrived in Eau Caier haunted by his recent claim that Haitiann refugees in Ohio, his home state, were stealing and eating pet dogs and cats. Ex-President Tump amplified the claim in the September 9 debate with Democratic rival Kamala Harris. Pressed repatedly to tell his source for claim, Vance conceded he knew it was untrue but told it anyway to draw media attention to migrants as a national threat.
Zarate case
In Eau Claire, Vance moved on from the Ohio tale and focused on an arrest in the southwest Wisconsin city of Prairie du Chien, 150 miles away. A Venezuelan. Alejandro Jose Coronel Zarate, 26, was arrested September 9 and charged with rape and strangulation of his girlfriend and her daughter. The circumstances of Zarata being in the United States have been murky so far, but Republicans have glommed quickly onto claims of lax immigration policies. Said Vance “Every community is a border community.” A generalization in Trump and Vane messaging is that millions of migrant criminals in the country.
Earlier: Fuel prices continue “torrid decline”
Earlier: Wisconsin polls: Harris leading by a hair
Earlier: Veep hopefuls Vance, Walz target Wisconsin
Earlier: Suspected Venezuela terrorist surfaces in Wisconsin
Earlier: Minnesota crime frequency in dramatic drop
Earlier: Company closing Eau Claire, Chippewa Falls hospitals
Mega-size Trump banner yanked down
Political violence, Stockton-style. A home owner on Main Street in Stockton told deputies that someone ripped a Trump political sign off a fortress-like fence around the house. A witness who saw the culprit’s car gave the license plate number to deputies. The banner was valued at $40. This photo was taken three days earlier. Minnesota Statute 609.595 specifies as much as five years in prison and a $10,000 fine for desecrating a political sign. Image: Steve Lunde
Brain injury or not, man to be tried for murder
EAU CLAIRE, Wis. – An Eau Claire man accused of a 2016 murder was declared competent to stand trial. Shane Helmbrecht.44, was charged with killing a neighbor eight years ago and found incompetent at the time to stand trial and ordered to live in a mental health group home in Tomah. The original incompetency order now has been reversed by Eau Claire Judge Sarah Harless. Prosecutors acknowledged to the judge that Helmbrecht suffered brain injuries from military service but that things he confided to others in the group home, as well as his conduct, bespoke his competency to stand trial. Helmbrecht walked out of the group home in 2023. Authorities found and arrested him in Mexico.
Earlier: Federales capture Eau Claire murder fugitive in Mexico
Pedestrian hit by truck, badly hurt
LACROSSE, Wis. – A pedestrian was struck by a truck towing a semi-trailer and critically injured. This was near Rose and Gillette streets on the North Side about 11:55 a.m.
Cashton man denies minor sex abuses
SPARTA, Wis. – A Cashton man accused on 22 counts, some involving child sex, pleaded not guilty in Monroe County court. Aiden Harris, age 21, was escorted from jail for the plea. He is held in lieu of $50,000 bail. The criminal complaint, says that Harris kissed and groped a 14-year-old girl when he was 19 and that he coerced a 15-year-old into sex. He’s also accused of sending or requesting explicit photos on social media apps.
Pedestrian struck, injured in Winona crosswalk
WINONA, Minn. – A woman was taken to the hospital after being struck by a car turning from Fourth Street into Johnson Street near downtown. Police described the woman as conscious and alert. This was about 8 a.m. The driver, Stephanie Lynn Herold, 57 of Fountain City,, may have been blinded by the morning sun, police said. Witnesses told police that the woman was in a crosswalk.
School firearms threat tentatively called hoax
WINONA, Minn. – Police stationed an officer at the Winona Middle School after a story made the rounds on the Snapchat site that the school would be “shot up.” Police learned of the threat the night before from the parent of student who saw it on Snapchat. They traced the Snapchat message to another student, who claimed overhearing it from yet another student. Police talked to the father who said that there was no gun in the home and that his son, age 11, had no access to a firearm. The boy was asleep for the night, so police delayed interviewing him until morning and told the father to keep the boy home for the day. Meanwhile, police and school officials concurred the threat was without merit. Classes began as usual in the morning, albeit a police squad car parked outside and an officer in the school.
School profile
The Winona Middle School is at 1570 Homer Road. Enrollment 650. Grades 5 to 8.
Wanek gift: $6.5 million for Western Tech job-training
LACROSSE, Wis. — Western Technical College announced a $6.5 million gift from Ron Wanek, the founder Ashley Furniture, to equip an advanced manufacturing center to be built on the La Crosse campus. The building which will bear Wanek’s name, will enable students for careers in robotics and other 21st century industrial skills. There will be virtual simulation capabilities and full integration with advanced manufacturing like cybersecurity and data analytics. Ground will be broken for construction in October. The completion target: June 2025. The total cost: $10.5 million.
Western’s Business Education Center. About $3 million of Wanek’s gift will go toward equipment like new robotics and new laboratory technology.
Winona-bound through Wabasha County at 79 mph
On schedule. This day the new intercity Borealis is pulling six passenger cars, more than the five when the new service began in May. At the end of the consist: A second locomotive that takes the lead on return trips. The whole St. Paul-Chicago trip is 7-1/2 hours. Image: Steve Lunde
WI-3 incumbent Van Orden may be in trouble
WASHINGTON – A poll commissioned by Democrat Janet Cooke supporters puts her ahead of first-term Congressman Derrick Van Orden, a Trump Republican seeking re-election from western Wisconsin. Cooke led 49% to 47%, albeit with a five-point margin of error. The race is being watched closely as a measure of ex-President Donald Trump’s own prospects in the largely rural region. Both sides have invested millions of dollars in television ad buys in Eau Claire, LaCrosse and Madison. The new poll results were announced by the Democratic-aligned House Majority Political Action Committee, along with information as to its validity: The polling firm GBAO surveyed 400 likely voters from September 8 to September 10.
Cooke. She has been a small business operator in Eau Claire and organized fellow women entrepreneurs. This is her second WI-3 campaign. She grew up on a dairy farm. Age 36. Her camapign theme: Fighting for working families.
Van Orden. Of Prairie du Chidn. Has cultivated a macho persona as a biker and a Navy Seal veteran. Age 55. He’s presence n the news has been jagged. Last vear he went on a drunken rage against teen-age Congressional pages in the Capitol rotunda after hours. He was at the January 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, although he lied about being there until photos surfaced. This year he went uninvited and unauthorized lone-wolf mission to Israel, ostensibly to advise the military leadership on its Gaza war.
Quiz for Winona news hounds /7
> What’s the goal of Winona philanthropists Barbara and Steve Slaggie’s $50 million gift to Mayo Clinic? Clue
> Do you expect the state Republican attack linking Winona legislative candidate Sarah Kruger and the new state office building project to backfire? Clue
> How much is gasoline your neighborhood? Clue
> Which is your kind of party – Stockton Days or Stockton Fest? Clue
> Who’s in ascendency in the presidential contest in the battleground state of Wisconsin? Clue
> How was it that a LaCrosse police officer in a squad car ran dwn a fellow officer? Clue
Earlier: News quiz /6
Minnesota prep
Volleyball (girls): Winona Cotter Ramblers 3, Lake City Tigers 0
Volleyball (girls): Lewiston-Altura Cardinals 3, Hayfield Vikings 1
City Council locks in salaries through 2027
WINONA, Minn. – The Winona City Council voted 4-3 against a salary increase. The decision leaves salariees ar $7,705 a year for Council members and $10,778 for the mayor.
> The majority, against a raise: George Borzyskowski (4thWard, East Side and East End bluffs); Aaron Repinski (at-large); Scott Sherman (mayor); and Steve Young (1st Ward, industrial harbor area and West End bluffs).
> The minority: Jerome Christenson (at-large); Jeff Hyma (2nd Ward, West Side); and Pamela Eyden (3rd Ward, downtown and centra city east of Huff Street).
Salaries come every two years as an agenda item.
One driver injured when Winone vehicles collide
DOVER, Minn. – A Minnesota City driver was injured, although not seriously, in a two-vehicle accident at the Dover exit on U.S. Highway 14. William Curtis Perry, 33, was taken 24 miles to a Rochester hospital to be checked over. The accident was about 8:55 p.m. Perry was in a 2002 Dodge Durango. The airbag deployed. Unhurt in the other vehicle, a 2007 BMW 328, were Juan Benito Bocardo, 22, of Winona, the driver, and Dontrell Deanthony Whiteside, 15. Neither was hurt. Deputies said the BMW was eastbound toward Winona and the Dodge westbound toward Rochester.
Winona man unhurt in Dodge County collision
HAYFIELD, Minn. — A Winona man, Michael Palermo, 19, escaped injury when two pickup trucks crashed on State Highway 56 north of Hayfield. Palermo was a passenger in a 2015 Ram driven by Wyatt David Heins, 29, of Stewartville. Heins also was unhurt. The other driver, Dean Patrick Holets, 59, of Kasson, in a 1998 GMC Sierra, was taken 27 miles to a Rochester hospital with sustainable injuries. The accident was about 6:15 p.m. at the 710th Street intersection.
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