Menards gigged for unproved filter sales
EAU CLAIRE. Wis. – The 350-store Menards big-box home-improvement chain has been ordered to stop selling air filterrs that are banned by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. At issue are these products manufactured by Excell Air of Ashland, Ohio:
> Excell Antimicrobial Filter.
> Excell Allergen Filter.
The Fitters have been \withdrawn by Excell under federal pressure, but the government says they continue to be available online from Eau Claire-based Menards. The agency said unreasonable risk to human health or the environment are possible even when the products are used according to the label directions.
Banned product. Feds say somebody at Menards didn’t read the memo.
Trio named in November torture of LaCrosse man
LACROSSE, Wis. – A Kentucky couple and a friend have been charged in the savage imprisonment and torture of an 84-year-old man in his own his use in November. Charged with kidnapping, physical abuse, intimidation and physical force, and false imprisonment were:
> Caleb M. Crocker, 27, of LaCrosse, formerly Bowling Green, Kentucky.
> Kaylan L. Cave, who was believed to relocated to Bowling Green.
> Kyle Wedekind, 40, of LaCrosse, formerly of Bowling Green.
Crocker and Wedekind were arrested last week. A warrant was issued to arrest Cave. The assault occurred November 26. Police had been called for a welfare check on the 84-year-old man, who lived in the 1400 block of South Sixth Street.
Chatfield, Minneapolis drivers hurt in crash
ROCHESTER, Minn. – A two-vehicle accident south of the Interstate 90 interchange on the highway to Chatfield injured both drivers. Deborah Ann Jackson, 32, of Chatfield, and Rhonda Kaye Seraaj, 58, of Minneapolis, were taken to a Rochester hospital with sustainable injuries. An 11-year-old boy with Jackson escaped injury. The collision was about 1 p.m. on U.S. Highway 52 and 90th Avenue Southeast. Seraaji was driving a 2006 Toyota Sienna west on 90th Avenue. Jackson was driving a 2020 Nissan Altima north on Highway
Sex trial delayed for high school coach
WINONA, Minn. – The trial of a former Winona High School coach for sexual misconduct with students has been postponed four months, maybe longer. Two of the girls that Eric Birth is accused of enticing into sex are either traveling or temporarily relocated and unavailable to testify for several weeks. Birth, now 30, has pleaded not guilty. The trial had been scheduled to start this coming Tuesday.
Earlier: Coach’s bail softened in teen sex cases, now $20,000
Earlier: Coach accused of sex with fourth teen athlete
Earlier: Coach accused of sex with fourth teen athlete
Earlier: Police chronicles: The Eric Birth probe
Earlier: Teacher’s bail: $300,000 over school sex allegations
Notable journalism
Brock Bergey (KTTC, August 7, 2023): “Responses to Walz’s 1996 Drunk Driving Arrest Under Scrutiny”
Matthew Stolle (Rochester Post Bulletin, August 16, 2024): “Gwen Walz: How Minnnesota’s First Lady Has Charted Her Own Political Path”
Jessica Williams (KROC, August 11, 2024): “Five of the Best Reasons to Road Trip to This Wisconsin Ice Cream Shop”
R.I.P.: Jackie Lettner
FOUNTAIN CUTY, Wis. – Jacquelyn “Jackie” Marie Lettner, 74 of Fountain City, whoowned and operated the Corner Store in Fountain City before settling into a career at Winona State University, died at the Winona hospital. She graduated from Cochrane-Fountain City High School in 1971. She worked at UBC and the Cross dental office. She. At Winona State she held several a positions, including in the registrar’s office. Simultaneously she eared a Winona State associates degree. She spent her last years at Sugar Loaf Senior Living in Winona.
Details: Hoff Funeral Home
1950-2024
New tactics for thwarting rural beer busts
WINONA, Minn. – Policing agencies in four counties are going into weekend stand-by postures to respond quickly to massive pop-up beer parties like occurred two weeks ago at Beaver Creek north of Elba. Winona County Sheriff Ron Ganrude said his counterparts in Fillmore, Olmsted and Wabasha counties have agreed to help as necessary. At Beaver Creek about 300 partiers congregated up a secluded dirt trail, lit two bonfires, milled around a couple hours with BYOB cartons, and juiced themselves up. It was a dangerous situation when three deputies arrived. They were outnumbered 300 to 3. The deputies were the only sheriff’s officers on duty in Winona County’s 600 square miles and had no backup to deal with belligerents and to disband the drunken hullabaloo. Now, Ganrude said, reinforcements from adjacent counties will be notified of a situation. So too, he said, will be game wardens and other state Natural Resources Department personnel. Other new measures, Ganrude said:
> A loose network of informants is tracking social-media chatter that surreptitiously promote parties in southeast Minnesota’s hidden nooks and crannies..
> Extra deputies are on duty on likely party nights.
> Volunteers with the sheriff’s Search Operations and Assistance Rescue team are checking known party spots.
> Bus drivers are on call to transport partiers too drunk to drive home — or to jail in the event of mass arrests.
Ganrude attributed the new steps for headingoff a party planned last weekend near Ridgeway. Nobody showed.
Earlier: How cops pre-empted yet another rural beer bash
Earlier: Cops caucus on early alerts for beer blowouts
Backroad challenges. Not since the era of moonshine bootlegging have deputies been faced with patrolling hundreds of remote backroads and trails up wooded coulees and through backwater swamps in Winona County. The current target: Covert beer parties at night. Hundreds of participants, many undeerage and mostly drunk and getting more so. This in remote and barely accessible meadows and clearins — and then getting into their vehicles and trying to navigate their way back out. Other dangers: Medical crises from falls and belligerence and from bonfires exploding into wildfires. Image: Steve Lunde
Does living get much better than Northfield?
NEW YORK – the consumer finance magazine Money chose Northfield in Minnesota as one of the 50 best places to live in the United Stages. Writer Mallika Mitra cited affordable homes and “room for adventure” and Carleton and St. Olaf colleges. Then there’s the Jesse James Festival in Septembers. It’s a celebration not so much of the 1876 robbery of the First National Bank, when the notorious Jesse James gang rode their horses into town to rob the bank, but of the citizen-led manhunt that led to the gang’s demise. Population: 21,000.
Among surprises
Also listed by Money magazine:
> LaCrosse, Wisconsin. “Picturesque with a healthy job market, thriving arts scene, some of the best freshwater fishing in the country.” Population: 52,000.
> Boise, Idaho. “Thousands of acres of protected reserves, 100 parks, cricket fields, an off-leash dog park the size of four football fields, museums, and a zoo.” Population: 250,000.
A river flows through. Northfield’s downtown is dissected by the Cannon River, 40 miles from its confluence with the Mississippi.
Police taser, halt fleeing man on Mankato Avenue
WINONA, Minn. – Police tasered a man who fled out the front door of a Mankato Avenue flop-house after police knocked at the backdoor with several arrest warrants. Police said an officer stationed at the front door tried to intercept Austin John Presson, age 29, but he kept running. This was about 9:20 p.m. Police gave this account: Officers went to the back door of the residence in the 400 block of Mankato, knowing from experience that itinerant tenants, mostly without an address of their own, came and went the back way. The owner of the house, , answered the officer’s knock at and said he would fetch Presson. When Presson saw the officers, he slammed the door shut and ran out the front. He xharged by the officer at the front door. Although ordered to halt, he didn’t. The officer fired his stun-gun. The taser jolt hit Presson in a hand. He attempted to grab the officer’s taser gun. By then, the other officers had come around from the back and wrestled Presson to the ground and cuffed him with little further resistance. Presson was charged with fleeing on foot resisting arrest, and attempting to disarm an officer.
Presson. Was being sought on four Winona County warrants for probation violations. At least one warrant involved disorderly conduct.
Injuries at rain-slick Winona intersection
WINONA, Minn. – Four Wisconsin persons were injured in a two-car pileup at the complex U.S. Highway 61 intersections at Gilmore Avenue on the West End. Taken to the Winona hospital were:
> Thomas Gerard Falter. 55, of Westby, driver of a 2008 Honda Pilot.
> Diane Marie Falter, 57, of Westby.
> Agnes Katherina Falter, 22, of Westby.
> Cecilia Marie Falter, 15, of Westby.
Their juries were described as non-life threatening. Also in the vehicle, unhurt, was John Joseph Falter, 18, of Westby. The driver of the other car, a 2016 Chevrolet Impala, who police identified in their report only as a 16-year-old female, was unhurt. In the second car, also unhurt, was Sarah Ann Macdonald, 43, of Rochester. The accident as about 6:40 p.m. Police said the Impala was southbound on Highway 61 and the Honda Pilot northbound. Pavement in he 40 mph zone was wet.
Wisconsin county agrees that aging dams must go
VIROQUA, Wis. – The Vernon County Board approved a federal plan to tear out grass-covered dams in danger of collapse in southwest Wisconsin. The U.S. Natural Resources Conservation Service says a total of 23 dams, built in the 1950s and 1960s, are at of risk of failing because water has cracked through the sandstone. The federal agency also is seeking similar approval from LaCrosse County and Monroe County. Massive storms in August of 2018caused five of the grass-covered dams to break. Catastrophic damage resulted.
Winona man accused of ongoing teen sex
WINONA, Minn. — A 34-year-old Winona man was arrested on a warrant that he engaged sexually for weeks with a girl less than half his age. Edward Lee McFarland was arrested at his home in the 1000 block of West Broadway Street. The complaint originated with the teenager’s mother. The girl, age 14, confirmed the relationship, police said. When McFarland was arrested, police found a military-style AR-15 rifle in his place. Because of a court record, McFarland had been prohibited from possessing a firearm, which meant an additional charge. The arrest was about 5:20 p.m. McFarland offered no resistance, police said.
McFarland. Charge: He 34, she 14.
Teen dies in crash into bridge abutment
ARCADIA, Wis. – An Arcadia teenager died in a single-vehicle crash up Boland Valley Drive off U.S. 95 west of Arcadia. The victim was dead when first-responders arrived. The victim’s name was withheld without explanation by Buffalo County Sheriff Michael Osmond. The accident was reported through an iPhone crash-detection device about 3:20 p.m. The call went to the Trempealeau County emergency dispatcher and was transferred to the dispatcher in adjoining Buffalo County, where the accident occurred.The driver was speeding northbound, lost control, went into a ditch, hit a water drainage culvert, and struck a wall of a bridge, deputies said. The driver, alone in the car, was not wearing a seatbelt, police said.
Farmer escapes injury in truck rollover
ALTURA, Minn. – A farm truck rolled on its side north of Altura. No one was injured, deputies said. A neighbor helped right the tuck. This was about 1:30 p.m. in the 14000 block of County Road31.
Flooding hurt Winona’s June, July tourism
WINONA, Minn. –High water on the Mississippi prevented three of the season’s 10 scheduled riverboat cruise from docking in Winona and hurt tourism. Pat Mutter, director of the VisitWinona agency, said as many as 525 tourists could have deboarded had the boats been able to make it as far upriver as Winona. Also, Mutter said, many crew members usually get off the boats to shop. Passengers would have signed up for local river tours, walking loops, guided paddling in the backwaters, and extended three-hour Discover Winona tours to museums that are accompanied by paid step-on guides. Overall, said Mutter, cruise lines have good numbers for Upper Mississippi trips this year. Her thought is that they might consider locating more boats on this part of the Mississippi River, especially since the American Queen Voyages no longer is in business. Also, she noted, Viking Cruise Lines is expanding into the Mississippi market and might consider Winona in the future.
Earlier: Coast Guard bans Upper Mississippi boating
Earlier: Paring down the Mississippi cruise fleet
Mutter. VisitWinona executive director.
Zumbrota voters OK new $3 million swim pool
ZUMBROTA, Minn. – This Zumbro River city, population 3,200, expects to have a new $4.3 million swimming pool open in 2026, said Brian Grudem, city administrator. Voters approved a $3 million tax increase 490-205 this week to replace a pool that’s been closed for disrepair. The $1,3 million shortfall, Grudem said, will need to come donations and grants.
Feds open Mankato office for flood relief aid
MANKATO, Minn. – A federal disaster relief center opened in Mankato to help citizens navigate the processes for financial aid for flood and storm devastation in the whole Minnesota River drainage. “Anybody who suffered damage from the storms from June 16 through July 4, can come and apply for assistance,” said Eren Strittar of the Federal Emergency Management relief Agency. The U.S. Small Business Administration and state agencies also have personnel on hand. Strittar said staffwill be at the Blue Earth County Justice Center as long as needed. The application deadline: September 27.
News summary at mid-week: August 14, 2024
CRIME: How cops pre-empted yet another rural beer bash
POLITICS: August 2024 primary: House District 26-A
POLITICS: August 2024 primary: Congressional District MN-1
POLITICS: August 2024 primary: U.S. Senate from Minnesota
POLITICS: August 2024 primary election: District 26-B
POLITICS: August 2024 primary: U.S. Senate for Wisconsin
POLITICS: August 2024 primary: Congressional District WI-3
POLITICS: Late splash for Voegeli in 26-A campaign
CRIME: Jury unanimous in Romskog Quarry executions
CRIME: Cops have security video of racist hoodlums
SAFETY: Fire chief: Take extra care tackling Sugar Loaf
SAFETY: Driver air-lifted to hospital after rear-end wreck
JOURNALISM: News in Winona can be costly — or free
Random encounter: “Wanta share meth with me?”
WINONA, Minn. – A Winona man told police he merely was trying to make a friend when he offered to share his meth with a woman in a Kwik Trip parking lot. When he lifted a pant leg to show her a baggy of meth in a sock, the woman went inside and called police. Arrested was Chad Mathew Schultz, 49. To officers, Schultz said he wasn’t a dealer, “just an addict.” Police weighed the meth at 0.5 grams. The incident was about 9:50 p.m. at the Kwik Trip convenience shop on West Broadway at South Baker streets. The 43-year-old woman who reported the incident said she didn’t know Schultz. When the woman had telephoned police, she described him as bald white guy in the parking lot. He was still there when officers arrived. In his car the police found drug paraphernalia.
Schultz. Charged with drug possession
Walz eager to debate Vance but JD not so quick
WASHINGTON – Minnesota Governor Tim Walz accepted a CBS News invitation to a vice presidential debate on the network. To JD Vance, his rival for the vice presidency, Walz messaged: “See you on October 1, JD.” Vance later declined to commit but said he “strongly” suspects he’ll participate.
News junkie quiz /3
> Two Minnesotans have served as U.S. vice presidents? Who? Clue
> Walz joined which state’s National Guard a age 17? Clue
> What ever happened to the humunngous Army Corps river dredge Thompson? Clue
> Who will succed Gene Pelowski as Winona’s voice jn the Minnesota Legislature? Clue
> How deep does he Mississippi River navigation channel needs to be to accommodate barge commerce? Clue
Earlier: News junkie quiz /2
Cops have security video of racist hoodlums
ROCHESTER, Minn. – Police release l d video-cam images of two vandals, both apparently adult men, who spray-painted racist graffiti at the home of State Representative Kim Hicks on August 3. The images, although grainy, have been digitally enhanced as much as possible, police said. The vandals wore hoods and masks, presumably to avoid inhaling paint fumes. Police said they want to make arrests and hope the images will help identify the criminals. The damage has cost thousands of dollars to repair, not to mention the psychological impact on Hicks and her family.
ROCHESTER, Minn. – Police released video-cam images of two vandals, both apparently adult men, who spray-painted racist graffiti at the home of State Representative Kim Hicks on August 3. The images, although grainy, have been digitally enhanced as much as possible, police said. The vandals wore hoods and masks, presumably to avoid inhaling paint fumes. Police said they want to make arrests and hope the mages will help identify the criminals. The damage has cost thousands of dollars to repair, not to mention the psychological impact on Hicks and her family.
Home security video. Police hope for tips from public to arrest dark-of-night attackers.
Trucker hurt in crash near Red Wing
RED WING, Minn. – The driver of a boom truck was injured when the vehicle left U.S. Hghway 61 south of Red Wing. Sergey Pavlov, 53, of Plymouth, was taken to the Red Wing hospital with sustainable injuries. The accident was about 8:05 a.m. The 2018 Kenworth boom truck was northbound.
Emergency, fire crews make 57 calls
WINONA, Minn. – The Fire Department reported 33 emergency medical calls plus 14 fire calls in recent days:
> Tuesday, August 13: 4 medical calls plus 1 fire call.
> Monday, August 12: 5 medical calls plus 2 fire calls.
> Sunday, August 11: 5 medical calls plus 2 fire calls.
> Saturday, August 10: 1 medical call plus 2 fire calls.
> Friday, August 9: 3 medical calls plus 2 fire calls.
> Thursday, August 8: 6 medical calls plus 2 fire call.
> Wednesday, August 7: 9 medical calls plus 3 fire calls.
Earlier: Emergency, fire crews make 51 calls
State Fair’s food fare /17
August 22 to September 2
Sweet Corn Cola Float. Minnesota-made sweet corn cola and sweet corn ice cream in a cup, finished with whipped cream, popping candy and house-made frozen caramel. At Blue Moon Dine-In Theater, northeast corner of Carnes Avenue and Chambers Street.
Sweet Heat Bacon Crunch. Double-smoked slab bacon tossed in red barbecue sauce and topped with hot honey and chili crunch, served over a bed of white rice, and garnished with green onions. At RC’s BBQ, on the north side of West Dan Patch Avenue between Liggett and Chambers streets.
Earlier: State Fair food fare /16
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