WINONA, Minn. – Police said they weren’t surprised that a Winona driver, Cayden James Smith, 25, admitted he had been imbibing. A breath check showed Smith’s.blood at 0.15% alcohol, almost twice what’s permitted to drive. This was in a traffic stop about 1:45 a.m. Smith had failed  to stop at a stop sign at Broadway and Lafayette streets on the East Side, officers said. They said his eyes were bloodshot and watery and his speech slurred.

WINONA, Minn. – The day after a Winona man appeared in court for a $900 theft from Walmart, store detectives found surveillance video that he also had been in the store earlier the same day and left with $800 in goods. Police relocated the man, Christopher Pete Sage, 50. He was charged anew. This time the charge was shoplifting a 55-inch television, a beverage a hand-held steam iron, and toilet paper

Earlier: Cops puzzled by shoplifting tale, issue ticket

RUSHFORD, Minn. – A Rushford man was injured when he lost control of his car and rolled into a ditch. Carter Daniel Skree, 16, was taken  24 miles to the Winona hospital with injuries described as sustainable. He was heading north on State Highway 43 in a 2002 Subaru Forester. This was about 5:20 p.m.

Trash bin origins. Fire spread from a trash bin to a lean-to against a trailer house in southeast Rochester, and destroyed the trailer. Everyone got out in time. The fire was about 10:15 a.m.at 1701 10th Street Southeast. Image: Rochester Fire Department

WINONA, Minn. – A Winna driver, Andrew Kent Olsen, 25, was arrested during a traffric for driving drunk. A breath test showed his blood was carrying 0.10% alcohol — 20% more than allowed for driving. This was near Fifth and High streets on the West End. Officers said Olsen was driving dark —   no headlights — this  about 12:55 a.m. – and he was crossing the centerline. He failed field sobriety exercises and, police said, had other impairment symptoms. Among them: Bloodshot eyes and dilated pupils.

WINONA, Minn. – Plumbers excavating for new water and sewer lines at a Cotter Schools construction site hit a metal underground tank that apparently contained combustible fuel. The smell was obvious in the soil but the extent of leakage was imposssible to ascertain, firefigters said.  The tank was under street paving that had been scraped away for the excavation. The state Pollution Control Agency was notified. So too was city public works director Brian DeFrang. They decided to fence off the area over weekend for safety reasons. The excavators: Boomer’s Quality Plumbing of Winona.

LEWISTON, Minn. – A black Ford Raptor pickup truck, reported stolen Wednesday, was found abandoned on a dead-end backroad near Lewiston.  A handgun in the vehicle wasn’t present, deputies said. They processed the vehicle for DNA other clues -and returned it to the owner in Winona. The truck was abandoned near outbuildings off Betty Jane Lane. It was located about 11:25 a.m.

ST. PAUL, Minn. – A Stockton woman was indicted as running a franchising business to provide dubious treatments for pain and a wide range of ailments – and collecting $1 million in franchise fees. The indictment against Tammy Wadsworth, 62, was from a federal grand jury investigation with evidence from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and Winona County sheriff’s investigators. The indictment, as detailed by Andrew Lager, the U.S. atrjey for Minnesota, asserted that Wadsworth:

> Founded the Pain, Injury and Brain Centers of America as a national franchise organization.

> Operated the business out of her house on Old County Road 23 on the Stockton south side.

> Defrauded PIBCOA franchisees of fees totaling $950,500.

> Laundered fees from the franchise deals in attempts to conceal them.

The extent of the PIBCOA network was not clear, but the indictment said that franchise fees ranged from $60,000 to $250,000.  Wadsworth reportedly trained franchise participants to use PIBCOA devices and techniques to activate cures for specific ailments and diseases. These included Alzheimer’s, arthritis, addiction, autism. Crohn’s, depression, infertility, lupis, Parkinson’s, and multiple sclerosis

Pain, Injury and Brain Centers of America.   Headquarters in a house jn a back street in the Winona County town of Stockton. Population: 800.

WINONA, Minn. – A throng of juveniles playing dangerous games of chicken were admonished by police to stop. There had been a complaint that they were jumping in the path of passing vehicles to see how close they could come not to being hit. This was at the MGM liquor store in the Far East End retail district. The group of 10 to 12 youths were on foot and scooters and belligerent, police said. They dispersed.

WINONA, Minn. – A Winona man admitted to wheeling $900 worth of merchandise in a shopping cart out of Walmart without paying. His explanation to police: He was distracted by his daughter who had gone missing in the store. It wasn’t clear, however, why Christopher Pete Sage, 50, ran when confronted by the store’s staff and drove off. Police were puzzled also when asked how he would have paid for the merchandise, Sage said he didn’t enough money. The cart was loaded with home and garden items. These included a woodless burning stone firepit kit. He was tracked to his house by his car plates.

Sage. Booked for theft.

WINONA, Minn. – Police arrested a man whose live-in girlfriend said had shoved a burning cigarette into her face during an argument the day before. Jeriah Timothy James Boardman, 22, of Winona, was arrested about 9:50 p.m. in the 200 block of Olmstead Street on the West Side. An officer had spotted him on the street and confronted him. Police said Boardman explained that he had only flicked the cigarette and not aimed it. Officers, however, said the woman still had a burn mark on her lower left cheek the next day. She called the burn painful. The incident had been Wednesday morning in the 200 block of Olmstead. The woman didn’t call police until 4:20 p.m.

Boardman. Booked for domestic assault.

MINNEAPOLIS – Violent crime in Minneapolis is continuing to drop. Assistant Chief Katie Blackwell reported the frequency homicides and gun violence was down 24% in the first half of 2024 compared to a year earlier. Carjackings were down nearly half, she said. During Blackwell’s report to the City Council, she was asked whether this were a good time to reduce the size of the force. Her response: No. With only 515 slots filled, the Department is way short of its full complement of  800. Being short-handed puts stress on officers, she said: “Cops are getting tired.” There comes a point when mental health and judgment are affected, she said.

DRESBACH, Minn. – Deputies began more frequent patrols at the Coulee Region Bobcat dealer after overnight surveillance video showed someone going through front-loaders on display out front and taking keys. No vehicles were taken, deputies were told. The dealership is off Interstate 90. The suspicious activity was reported about 12:30 p.m.

LACROSSE, Wis. – A climber fell more than 20 feet and was injured on Grandad Bluff Road. uirst-responders used a four-wheel off-trail vehicle to haul the climber back to the road and a waiting ambulance. The accident was about 5:30 p.m.