WINONA, Minn. – A deputy made a U-turn after clocking a car coming at him at 63 mph on a curve on Stockton Hill. He stopped the driver. The odor of alcohol coming from the car window, and also the driver’s blood-shot and watery eyes, led to an arrest, the deputy said. At the Winona jail the blood-alcohol level of Kenneth Edward Lubahn, 67, of Oronco, tested at 2-1/2 times the legal max. He was booked for drunken driving. Speeding too. The stop was about 7:30 p.m. on U.S. 14 at Bow Hunter Road, Lubahn told the deputy he had had a beer and a mixed drink. The test: 0.19% blood-alcohol.

Lubahn. Heading uphill toward Winona from Stockton.

LAMOILLE, Minn. — A Wisconsin man reported his backpack was stolen from a backyard at the Green Terrace trailer court while he was with friends in the front yard. The backpack’s contents, he said, included credit and debit cards, a Social Security card, and his birth certificate. No cash was in the bag, but the bag itself he valued at $120. The man, age 24, from Arcadia, said a man had been lurking around but nobody got a look at him.

ST.PAUL, Minn. – A Lewiston man whose online perversity snared 60-plus girls, some as young as 9, pleaded guilty in federal court. Valentin Quintana, 30, pleaded guilty to:

> Production of child pornography.

> Distribution of child pornography.

> Possession of child pornography.

In many cases, according to the criminal complaint, Quintana would convince girls to send him photos or videos of themselves in sexual activity, which he recorded. Then he threatened to expose the girls to their friends and family unless they sent more. Prosecutors called this extortion. Investigators found some videos of girls pleading in tears for Quintana not to do it. The scheme was far-ranging. Investigators found victims in Oklahoma, Pennsylvania and Texas and in New Zealand and other countries. The scheme involved multiple social media apps, including Snapchat and Instagram. Quintana operated the scheme from April 2022 and June 2023 out of his home in Lewiston, population1,600, in central Winona County. He was slick. The criminal cimolant said that Quintana used fake identities and lied about his age and often posed as a minor himself. He told girls  was their friend or sometimes a romantic partner. In some cases. the complaint said, he offerrf money.

Earlier: Feds take over Lewiston online sex case

Earlier: Lewiston man accused as online sex fiend

WINONA, Minn. –Police decided to seek criminal action against two 14-year-old boys for a bloody attack on another boy at the Winona Middle School. The recommendation to the county prosecutor: Fifth-degree assault and third-degree assault. Criminal charges are rare for school scuffles, but this incident was described as wanton and unusually savage. The incident occurred while students were lining up outside for buses at the end of a class day. Police were told that one 14-year-old boy tripped the younger boy and the other punched him repeatedly in the face ad kicked him on the ground. The victim, age 13, was bleeding from the mouth and suffered a broken nose, a chipped tooth, and a concussion.

Earlier: School boy attacked while queued to board bus

MADISON, Wis.  – The Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled that the First Amendment’s free speech provision should have been protected an anti-abortion protester outside a Planned Parenthood office in Blair. Brian Aish, now 56, had been ordered by a Trempealeau County judge to stay away from the office in 2020. Aish had said bad things would happen to the nurse or her family if she didn’t quit. She took his statements a threat. Aish appealed the judge’s injunction. Aish noted that his comment were made from a public sidewalk and thereby protected as free speech.  The state Supreme Court agreed 4-3. Triggering the case was the part-time presence of Nancy Kindschy, a nurse, at the Blair office  She since has retired. The office has closed. Beginning in 2014 Aish drove off and on to Blair from his home in Black River Falls in the next county. He carried placards quoting Bible verses and preached his anti-abortion beliefs. In 2019 he notched up his protests by directing comments that Kindschy personally. The Court ruled that predicting “bad things” was too vague to be an imminent threat.

WINONA, Minn. – The lake entrance to Winona on Huff Street was blocked by a bumper-thumper during the early morning commute when a driver braked hard to avoid a roller-blader crossing the street.  The braking vehicle was rear-ended. There were injuries. The roller-blader, unhurt, skated away. Thus was about 7:20 at Lake Street.

HASTINGS, Minn. – The Army Corps, which controls Mississippi River dams and navigation, has opened the gates all the way at every dam from Hastings south 200 miles to Guttenberg in Iowa. Dan Fasching, the regional Corps of water manager in St. Paul, said the open gates are allowing high water to flush itself downriver as rapidly as possible. The goal: to minimize flooding. Meanwhile, the Corps is monitoring the Minnesota River loosely. The Minnesota drains inland Minnesota counties that have been devastated with floods. The Minnesota River empties into Mississippi at St. Paul, which is raising water dangerously all the way down the Mississippi into Iowa. Other flood responses by the Corps:

> Blackhawk Park. At DeSoto: Closed.

> Jays landing: At Genoa: Closed.

> Millstone landing. At New Albin: Closed.

> Bad Axe landing: At Genoa. Closed.

Verbatim

Fasching: “Because the recent rain events fell with the Minnesota River basin, the rain adds to more water to the Mississippi River and will take several weeks to drain. Any additional rain during the next few weeks has the possibility to increase the flood risk.”

WINONA, Minn. – Police found a Winona man, bruised and bloody, walking on the Far East End. Kaiden Alexander Carlson, 29, wouldn’t explain his injuries, which police said included a black eye and a bloody nose. This was on Jefferson Street about 3:15 a.m. Police had been looking for Carlson after two 911 domestic complaint calls  a few blocks away on Old Homer Road. Carlson was booked for domestic threats and assault. The first 911 call, from a first floor apartment on Old Homer Road, was that somebody was thumping repeatedly at a window. This was about 1:35 a.m. Police were unable to locate anyone outside the building. A couple hours later came a second 911 call from the same address. The woman, 27, who lived in the apartment with a young daughter, said the father of the child had gained access and threatened to kill her and also himself. He had left by the time officers arrived.

Carlson. Blood and bruises  cleaned up before being booked at jail.

WINONA, Minn. – Although the jury trial for Adam Fravel won’t be heard in Winona, Judge Nancy Buytendorp will conduct a pre-trial hearing in Winona The judge put the hearing on her Courthouse docket for September 3 and 4. Jury selection and the murder trial itself will be elsewhere because local passions are running high against Fravel. He is charged in the slaying of Maddi Kingsbury, the mother of their children, in March 2023. The pre-trial hearing in September will resolve technical issues like the scheduling of witness. At the hearing, if not before,  Buytendorp is expected to announce where the subsequent trial will be held.

Earlier: Fravel loses key defense pleas in murder trial

Earlier: Judge orders venue change for Fravel murder trial

ST. PAUL, Minn. – Governor Tim Walz asked President Joe Biden for flood disaster relief moneys for communities to remove debris, proceed with emergency protective measures, and repair and rebuild damaged infrastructure. Walz made the request after an aerial tour with Senator Amy Klobuchar of hard-hit Henderson, Le Sueur and Waterville and the disabled Rapidan Dam. State and local agencies, meanwhile, are making preliminary damage assessments to support the request for federal assistance.

Earlier: Mankato dam fails as flood finds work-around

Earlier: Sandbagging to save Waterville from Cannon River

Earlier: Minnesota Guard into emergency flood duty

MINNEAPOLIS – An arrest warrant for murder was issued against a woman in whose car a body was found by police in an Interstate 90 accident near Eyota over the weekend. The warrant names Margot G. Lewis, who was arrested at the wreck and then jailed in Rochester. The warrant asks for Lewis to be transferred to Minneapolis, where police say an ex-girlfriend was killed in her apartment, probably stabbed to death. The body of the ex-girlfriend, Liara Tsai, was found wrapped in a bloody bed sheets in Lewis’ wrecked car near Eyota. Lewis was arrested at the scene by Olmsted County deputies.

Earlier: $1 million bail set in corpse-transport case

SPARTA, Wis. – A Sparta man convicted of beating his girlfriend to death was sentenced to 33 years in prison. Shawn Hock, 34, claimed he was lying in bed with Sara Latimer at their apartment when she died, but Judge Todd Ziegler found that hard to believe. An autopsy concluded that the blunt force trauma to the head and face caused her death. That was in May 2022. There evidence that the couple was going through a break-up.

Earlier: Bond at $500,000 in Sparta homicide case

Earlier: Autopsy: Sparta waitress beaten to death

Earlier: Sparta woman dies after brutal attack

Verbatim

 Kevin Croninger, Monroe County prosecutor: “Shawn Hock beat the life out of the victim, Shawn Hock is a coward, a liar, and a murderer, he must be confined for an extremely long period of time for the public to be protected.”

Alwal. At Winona State she majored in political science and minored in sociology.

WATERTOWN, S.D. – The new Miss South Dakota USA is Ahmitara Alwal, a Winona State University political science graduate who’s been active in pageants since she was 4 years old. Now 25, she’s a marketing specialist for the Sioux Falls-based Avera hospital group. At Winona State she was a student trustee on the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities System governing board. She testified in the Legislature to lower tuition. Herself she is a first-generation college graduate. She is of Ethiopian extraction with family still in Gambella after escaping war in the early 1990s. Her favorite recipe, she told pageant judges, is a spicy Ethiopian stir-fry of peppers and jalapenos. She claims fluency in Japanese, Spanish, Haitian Creole, Anyuak and French. She volunteers with Habitat for Humanity. Her lifelong ambition, she said, is to be an ambassador to help maintain integrity in international relations and to contribute to global peace and understanding.

WINONA, Minn. – The Fire Department reported 38 emergency medical calls plus 12 fire calls in recent days:

> Tuesday, June 25: 5 medical calls plus 5 fire calls.

> Monday, June 24: 6 medical calls plus no fire calls.

> Sunday, June 23: 6 medical calls plus 3 fire calls.

> Saturday, June 22: 7 medical calls plus no fire calls.

> Friday, June 21:  5 medical calls plus no fire calls.

> Thursday, June 20: 3 medical calls plus 2 fire calls.

> Wednesday, June 19: 6 medical calls plus 2 fire calls.

Earlier: Emergency, fire crews make 55 calls

WINONA, Minn. – A motorcyclist was arrested on a report that he had kicked in the driver door of a car in anger after a traffic dust-up, the details of which were murky. Responding to the motorist’s complaint, police located Ryan David Orres, 36, of Hampton, and his bike four blocks away at the Kwik Trip convenience store on Mankato Avenue at Broadway street. He was drunk, officers said. They took him in. At jail Orresr effuse refy\used a breath-alyzer test for a blood-alcohol reading. “I have no breath,” he was quoted as explaining.  This all followed a complaint about 12:45 a.m. at Fourth and Wall streets. The complainant said a biker was driving erratically and then brked abruptly, dismounted, and walked back to the car, kicked the driver door, and took off. Orres denied the motorist’s account. He said that he had been chased by kids who tried to run him off road and that he didn’t actually kick the door but tried.

Orres. Multiple charges: Disorderly conduct, drunken driving, driving without a license, driving without a court-required ignition block.

WINONA, Minn. – A Winona man, Aaron William Hunt, 36, was ticketed for illegal dumping after correspondence with his name and address was found in a restaurant trash bin. Police were told that Hunt had made dumps before and been warned. Queried by police at home about 8:10 n.m., Hunt essentially blamed a minor child, police said. The dumps were in the 1400 block of Service Drive.

WINONA, Minn. – The Winona County Board declared an emergency no-wake zone for boaters on the Mississippi River for the duration of high water and lowland flooding. Earlier the Houston and Goodhue county boards authorized  similar go-slow rules. Together the no-wake zones stretch112 mile up and down the river.

ELGIN, Minn. — A 6-year-old child was wounded seriously when shot by another person outdoors at home. The child was rushed 18 miles to a Rochester hospital with abdomen and arm wounds. Only one shot was fired, said Wabasha County deputies. Few details were released, but the incident was being investigated as an accident. This occurred about 6:40 p.m.