DRESBSCH, Minn.  – The Army Corps, which operates navigation on the Mississippi River, plans to extend mooring structures for barges just upstream from the lock at its Dresbach dam. If approved, construction would be next year. The Corps asked for public comment on the project by July 17 to Corps biologist Elliott Stefanik. The project would allow additional barge arrays to tie up while waiting for passage through the lock. The new structures would help shield shoreline from prop-wash damage and erosion along the Canadian Pacific railroad tracks.

Details: Project proposal

On Minnesta side. From Dresbach village downriver to Dam and Lock 7.

WINONA, Minn. – The organization Our Voices is sponsoring a Juneteenth event Wednesday at Windom Park to mark the end of the Civil War that freed 3.5 million enslaved black people mostly in the Southern confederacy. Time: 4 p.m. to 7 with vendors, live music and games. Since 2021 the date June 19 has been a federal holiday

WINONA, Minn. – A convenience shop employee was duped into sending $4,200 from a store account to a fraudster who had set up an elaborate scam. Police were told that someone using the store manager’s name sent a text claiming that an emergency payment was needed via bitcoin to the FedEx delivery company. The employee was instructed to go to a bitcoin kiosk in a next-door convenience store and, using a code provided by the “manager,” to make the transfer online. This fraudster sent three separate instructions: For $1,400, $1,370 and $500. Attempts to cancel the transfers were too late, police said. The scam target was a combination convenience store and fueling station on Mankato Avenue across from the hospital. Police received the report about 12:30 p.m. The scam mirrored a similar theft in March from the Qdoba restaurant a few blocks away.

Earlier: Telephone crook dupes Qdoba out of $850

WINONA, Minn. – A Winona man pleaded guilty to not having a body-art license but taking on a client anyway. Travis Wayne Musilek, 38, was fined $300.. A related charge of criminal sexual conduct was dismissed. The case originated in a woman’s claim of inappropriate touching while having a thigh tatted. Musilek denied the charge.

Earlier: Charge: Tattooer ventured forbidden places

WINONA, Minn. – A replica Nazi dagger from the 1930s was shoplifted from the Treasurers Galore antique bazaar. The theft occurred June 15 but wasn’t reported immediately, police said. The dagger was on sale for $45. Police began a review of surveillance video.

WINONA, Minn. – A semi-truck trailer burned up in a backlot where abandoned vehicles have been stored for years on the West Side. Not much was left. Because charred remnants possibly of a mattress or couch were inside, police surmised that the trailer may have been a refuge for a homeless person. No personal effects survived, however. No one was around when police arrived about 3:50 a.m. Firefighters put out the fire, which didn’t spread to other junked commercial vehicles on the lot. There was no mmediate evidence of an accelerant, firefighters said. There was was a possibility the state fire marshal would be asked to check further. The lot is somewhat obscured by trees and self-storage units off West Third and Ewig streets near the trackside Watkins distribution center.

WINONA, Minn. – Although the judge’s decision 1-1/2 weeks ago to move the Adam Fravel’s, murder out of Winona was a victory for his defense, the judge rejected several other defense motions. Judge Nancy Buytendorp denied defense motions to:

> Reduce the elevated charge of first-degree murder that had been recommended by the grand jury.

> Disallow allowing the trial jury an option to consider the crime as especially aggravated, which could mean a longer sentence.

> Dismiss things that Fravel told police investigators on grounds he hadn’t been informed of his right as a citizen to remain silent.

The Fravel trial is scheduled for fall for the slaying of his girlfriend who was the mother of their two children. Maddi Kigsbury went missing in March 2023. Her body was found hidden in woods 69 days later.

Earlier: Judge orders venue change for Fravel murder trial

Earlier: A year later: Remembering Maddi

MADISON, Wis. – A man serving 30 days in jail for taking a gun to the State Capitol to “talk” with Governor Tony Evers said he plans to move to Nebraska as soon as his jail time is up. In an Associated Press interview, Joshua Pleasnick, 44, said he has no plans to go anywhere near the governor. Pleasnick pleaded guilty in May to carrying a firearm in a public building. He said he had no intention of hurting anyone, that he just wanted to talk to Evers about men not being taken seriously when seeking protection orders against women.

Earlier: Guy with gun asks to see governor

Pleasnick. Claims having permit to carry a firearm but didn’t realize it wasn’t allowed in a public building.

LEWISTON, Minn. – A stealthy grafitti enthusiast  took severaol spray-paint cans in multiple colors  to the tunnel-like walls of the Lady Skipper Drive entrance under U.S. Highway 14 to Farmers Park. A Winona County sheriff’s deputy discovered the fresh grafitti about 7:20 p.m. The dark and mossy underpass is laden with years of grafitti messages mostly of the “JH Loves ET”  and “Kilroy Was Here” sort. This time the message, as much as could be deciphered: “Lil Zay Kazi w Parker.” Mud around the underpass had been torn up by a vehicle, but a deputy was unsure of a connection.

WINONA, Minn. – The Schneider Heating & Plumbing shop, a frequent burglary target, has been struck again. Police were called about 9 a.m. to the Schneider’s for old air-conditioners being disassembled for a trash pick-up. Copper tubing in AC units is a magnet for thieves with black-market connections. This was at the industrial stub of Harvester Street on the West Side.

WINONA, Minn. – Odds and ends metal thrown out from the Winona Chrysler dealership, which has been vacated, were stolen over the weekend.  Police said the metal pieces were piled outside around oversize trash bins. There was no apparent salvage value for the thieves, police said.

Earlier: Chrysler dealership foresees doubling showroom

Earlier: Shopping around for cars? Soon a shorter drive

Earlier: Ford dealership to expand Winona acreage

Empty lot. At Huff and Second streets. Last week the dealership moved lock, stock and barrel to its new site adjoining Sugar Loaf Ford on Highway 61.

Toilet whimsy. It’s the scent of spring outside O’Laughlin’s Winona plumbing shop on Cottonwood Drive. Image: Steve Lunde

Carnival moves on. Trailers with Goldstar Amusements equipment wait on First Street to be fully loaded after its four-day Steamboat Days run. For most units the next gig will Lake City Water Ski Days in Goodhue County, although some will go to the Swanville Mid-Summer Festival in Morrison County.

Dumbos strapped in to fly. Their elephant ears are posed for 70 mph flights on Interstates 90 and 35. Images: Steve Lunde

ALTURA, Minn. – A deputy responding to a report of an unresponsive driver in a car parked on a backcountry road north if Alura found, yes, the man was unresponsive. And drunk, said the deputy. An hour later and 16 miles away at the Winona County jail in Winona, Oscar Miguel Rivera Silva, age 25, of Altura, tested with 0.18% of his blood still being alcohol – more than double the legal tops. He was charged with driving while intoxicated and also with lying about his name and age when he was roused. The stop was about 7:50 p.m. on County Road 30 in the Oak Ridge area in far north Winona County.

Rivera Silva. Cops said he was sleeping it off.

CORAL CITY, Wis. – Two teen-age boys were injured when their utility terrain vehicle went off the road and down a steep embankment and struck a tree. They were taken to a hospital with sustainable injuries, Trempealeau County deputies said. Their boys’ names were not released immediately. They were heading north on Thompson Coulee Road near Lake Lane when the accident occurred. This was about 7:20 p.m. Deputies blamed inattentive driving.

WINONA, Minn. –  Two motorcyclists were injured when struck by a car pulling out of an alley at the history museum downtown. Driving the bike was Daniel Wayne Gulbranson, 34, of Fountain City, Wisconsin. He was taken to a LaCrosse hospital. His passenger, Olivia Lynn Hason, 22, of Winona, was taken to the Winona hospital.To first-responders their injuries appeared non-life threatening. They were astride a 2003 Harley Davidson. Neither had helmets. The accident was about 1 :45 p.m. on congested Johnson Street during the final afternoon of Steamboat Days. The car, a 2004 Toyota Prius, was coming out of a parking lot alley, police said. The driver, Mya Mary Vonruden, 19, of Sparta, Wisconsin, was unhurt.

WINONA, Minn. – Technically a Winona driver booked for drunken driving wasn’t drunk, but the officer who pulled him over recommended the charge anyway because the man displayed irrefutable signs of impairment. The blood-alcohol level of Liam James Moynagh, 26, tested at 0.07% — not quite at the 0.08% legal impairment definition. The officer said, however, that the blood-alcohol reading needed to be overridden by other evidence: Watery eyes, slurred speech and poor balance. The traffic stop was about 12:20 p.m. at Broadway and Huff streets

AHRENDAHL, Minn. – Two people escaped with minor injuries when fire that destroyed a house near State Highway 30 south of Ahrendahl in northern Fillmore County. One pet dog also escaped. Five others didn’t. A fire crew from Lanesboro, 11 miles away, responded to the fire about 6:20 a.m. The house was in the 35000 block of Flag Road.