Official: Candidates with hats in ring for 2024
WINONA, Minn. – The 4:30 p.m. deadline for 2024 office-seekers to file nomination papers has come and gone. Election day: November 4. This is the line-up, including some races in which an August 13 primary will narrow the field:
Congressional District MN-1
> Brad Finstad (Republican incumbent)
> Rachel Bohman (Democrat)
> Gregory Goetzman (Republican)
> Gregory Tweten (Republican)
State House District 26-A
> Stephen Doerr (Republican)
> Sarah Kruger (Democrat)
> Aaron Repinski (Republican)
> Dwayne Voegeli (Democrat)
Winona County Board
> Josh Elsing (District 3 incumbent)
> Jerald Hettenbach (District 4)
> Greg Olson (District 4 incumbent)
Winona City Council
> Scott Sherman (mayor incumbent)
> Jason David Dicus (at large)
> Al Light (at large)
> Steven Young (Ward 1 incumbent)
> Jon Krofchalk (Ward 3)
> Samantha Zierden Shortridge (Ward 3)
School Board
> None (District 3)
> Gregory Fellman (District 4)
> Monica Siegfried (District 4)
> Martin Stickney (District 5)
Soil and Water Conservation District
> Bill Rowelkamp (District 3 incumbent)
> Lynn Carson (District 3)
> Dale Hadler (District 3)
> Andy Kronebusch (District 5 incumbent)
Tanker truck overturns on U.S. 14, spills chemicals
On its side. Leaking calcium chloride. Between Mankato and Eagle Lake at Blue Earth County Road 12 junction. Photos: Blue Earth County sheriff
Environmental threat believed minor
MANKATO, Minn. – A tanker truck carrying hundreds of gallons of diluted calcium chloride overturned on the eastern outskirts of Mankato, spilling its liquid cargo. The accident blocked U.S. Highway 14 – the historic 1,400-mile route between Chicago and Yellowstone park. How the accident occurred wasn’t immediately clear. The driver, Glenn Smebak, 52, of Little Falls, was taken to a nearby Mankato hospital. His injuries were thought to be minor. The accident occurred about 3:50 p.m. The tanker, owned by Knife River Corporation, was hailing a chemical used in road construction projects to suppress dust. A Blue Earth County highway crew and people from a wrecker company attempted to right the tanker to stem the break. They eventually lifted the trailer upright. Even so, hundreds of calcium chloride leaked out. Because the product was diluted, the environmental threat was thought to be minimal.
Dropping punctured tank back on tractor. To be towed from from scene so U.S.. 14 lanes traffic lanes can be reopned again. Highway was closed three hours.
Roadway debris disables cars on I-90
NODINE, Minn. – Two drivers hit debris on Interstate 90. The vehicles, their tires punctured, had to be towed. No one was injured. This was abut 1 p.m. near the Nodine ramps atop the Four Mile Grade. Sheriff’s officers were unable to determine the source of the debris.
Judge sets $5,000 bail for cattle theft
BLACK RIVER FALLS, Wis. – A Sparta man accused of steailng cattle, Jennings Christenson, 20, was arraigned for the theft of two animals from a farm near Alma Center on May 28. The animals were recovered and returned before butchering. Christenson was released on $5,000 bail. Officers had suspected Christenson and interviewed him. Two days later he turned himself in.
Earlier: Cops: We lassoed the cattle rustler
Motorcycle, van collide; biker hurt
RED WING, Minn. – A Red Wing motorcyclist was injured in a collision with a mini-van on Highway 61 on Red Wing’s north end. John Irvin Wiese, 62, was taken to the Red Wing hospital with sustainable injuries. The accident was abut 11:20 a.m. Police said that Weise was making a U-turn on his 2006 Harley Davidson Cruiser at Spring Creek Road. The other driver, Sally Ann Hattemer, 50, of Goodhue, in a 2021 Nissan Rogue, was unhurt.
Project aims to counter summer knowledge loss
Peterson’s crew. In the back row to teacher Maeve Peterson’s left: Brody Ellinghuysen, Ronnie Lemon, Lamel Lillard, Cleo Lohnes, Olivia Poulin, Emily Swartling, Jordyn Werner and Alex Zierfus. Below them are the Jefferson kids.
Goal: Keeping the learning curve lit
WINONA, Minn. – Scholars who study education have known for years about “summer slide”—the period when kids forget a lot of wha what they just learned the year before. Now in Winona somebody’s doing something about it. It’s students in a high school class called AVID — short for Advancement Via Individual Determination. They are working with grade-schoolers at Jefferson School to combat the summer knowledge loss. The teacher: Maeve Peterson of the English faculty.. Kits have been created with resources to learn independently at home over the long hot, lazy days of summer. Funding for the project is mostly from the Foundation for WAPS and the Earl Graves Foundation.
“Summer slide”
A 2020 Brown University study foond students lose 17% to 34% of their knowledge from the previous school year during summer break.
$750,000 bail in Black River Falls rape case
BLACK RIVER FALLS, Wis. – Bail was set at $750,000 for a Black River Falls man under arrest for a particularly brutal rape. The next court date for Paul Sylvester, age 52, will be Monday. Meanwhile, he has a cell at the Jackson County jail unless he comes up with the $750,000. The criminal complaint says the assault was May 25. It accuses Sylvester of:
> Waiting for a woman he knew to come out of a Sparta bar and get into her car.
> Opening her passenger door, getting in, nd demanding she start driving.
> Spraying the woman with her own pepper spray after she tried to fend him off.
>Hitting the woman and taking control of her car.
> Driving the woman to secluded woods across the Monroe-Jackson county line and sexually assaulting her.
> Leaving her stranded in the woods after breaking her cwllphone and glasses and driving off in her car.
The next morning a passerby found the woman walking along a backroad.
Sylvester. Six criminal counts include sexual assault, kidnapping, false imprisonment, and car theft.
Black River salon message: Politics not spoken here
BLACK RIVER FALS, Wis. – Juanita Schmitz says the first thing she learned in beauty school 40 years ago was never talk politics or religion on the job. She took the advice a step further. On the front door of the salon she co-owns, Hair Four All Seasons, she posted a sign several years ago: “We prefer not to discuss politics.” It worked pretty well, she said. Then somebody stole the sign. She doesn’t know who did it, but she has a suspect. Her plan now, with politics heating up for November in Black River Falls, she plans to take out another half-sheet of white paper and write the message again – yes, bold in black – and tape it to the front door again.
Hold your tongue. Juanita Schmitz has been in cosmetology 40 years — first in LaCrosse, then Taylor and now Black River Falls The current shop: 5881 North State Highway 54 in Black River. Image: Steve Lunde
With DWI on record, Eleva police chief must resign
ELEVA, Wis. – The Eleva police chief, Patrick Timotiy McKillip, has lost his driver license as part of a drunken-driving conviction. McKillip, age 55, will need to resign. The DWI arrest was his first. He was fined $900. The arrest was in January after another officer stopped him for going 85 mph about 2 a.m. The officer said that McKillip smelled faintly of alcohol standing outside his car and then stumbled in a ditch. Moments later inside the squad car, the odor was overwhelming, the officer said. McKillip’s blood-alcohol tested beyond impairment at 0.11%.
R.I.P.: Mike Miller
WINONA, Minn. – Michael A. “Mike” Miller, age 70, of Winona, who retired in 2023 as a deputy sheriff after 29 rears, died at Methodist Hospital in Rochester. He attended Cathedral Grade School and Cotter High School and was a graduate of Winona High School. He completed his law enforcement training at Winona State University. He loved trout fishing at the hatchery in Lanesboro. He was a firearms enthusiast.
Detail: Watkowski-Mulyck Funeral Home
1963-2024
Minnesota bans speed-squeeze gun triggers
ST. PAUL, Minn. — Governor Tim Walz signed a gun law to ban binary triggers that that change a trigger from one shot per squeeze in to a semi-automatic mode. Police had supported he law. Said a police spokesperson, St. Paul Assistant Chief Paul Ford: “Binary triggers are making our communities more dangerous and when you can shoot more rounds off when you’re pulling that trigger, you’re more likely to hurt more people. The new law becomes effective in January. The bill also stiffens the penalty for “straw purchases,” those made on behalf of someone else. In signing the bill into law, Republicans had opposed the bill through the whole legislative process. . Walz, a Democrat, noted that he himself was a law-abiding gun owner and a hunter. “Nothing that has been passed impedes your right to own and possess a firearm in any way,” Walz said.
Gun requiem
The only gun bill to pass th2 2024 Legislature was the ban on binary triggers and the tougher penalties for straw purchases. Failing in committees:
> Mandatory reporting of lost and stolen firearms.
> Required safe storage of firearms.
Setback for Fleet Farm in illegal gun case
MINNEAPOLIS – A federal judge said the big-box gun retailer Fleet Farm cannot hide behind a federal gun law to escape culpability for sales to third-parties using false pretenses. The decision, by U.S. District Judge John Tunheim, allows Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison to proceed toward a federal trial against Fleet Fam. Ellison has accused the company of selling 37 firearms to straw purchasers at its Blaine store. Ellison has made these points: The Blaine purchasers, Jerome Fetcher Horton Jr. and Jean Elwood, then resold the guns without traceable paperwork – in some cases to felons who had been barred by law from possessing guns. One of these guns was used in the deadly mass shooting at the Seventh Street Truck Park in St. Paul in 2021. Fleet Farm had tried to head off Ellison’s suit by claiming the U.S. Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act shielded it as a retailer based outside Minnesota from responsibility. In his 37-page opinion Judge Tunheim wrote that Ellison’s allegations were “clear examples of how illegally obtained firearms endanger the public in a way that legal firearms typically do not.”
State Senate leader on fence on Mitchell issue
ST. PAUL, Minn. – The State Senate majority leader Erin Murphy, said she’s withholding judgment for now whether fellow Democrat Nicole Mitchell should resign because of a burglary case against her in Detroit Lakes. In a Minnesota Public Radio interview, Murphy said: “Senator Mitchell has an important decision in front of her. I have a lot of respect and empathy for what she’s going through. I do. But my job as the leader of the caucus is to make sure we’re in a strong position to govern for the people of Minnesota.” In April just after Mitchell was arrested, Republicans called right away for her to esign to end the one-voyrv Democratic advantage in the Senate. Mitchell has chosen to run the course. Her four-year term ends in 2027.
Fire crew cools super-hearted Qdoba gas line
WINONA, Minn. – Firefighters found a two-square foot scorch on the kitchen’s tile floor at the Qdoba casual eatery on the Far East End after being called for a fire. The Qdoba breakfast workers said the fire had self-extinguished after they cut off gas to a stove. Firefighters found the gas line at 180 degrees. They called in an Xcel utility crew and waited until the line cooled to an acceptable 90 degrees. The Qdoba manager was told not to use the stove until a certified technician inspects what was wrong. Firefighters said their sensors didn’t find any hazardous atmosphere in the building.
Qdoba. Stand-alone building at 950 Frontenac Drive.
Teen arrests pending over racist display
ROCHESTER, Minn. — Four teenagers have been linked to a racial slur posted prominently on a pedestrian viaduct over East Circle Drive near Century High School in April. Police have recommended criinal mcharges to the county prosecutor. Police didn’t release the names, but sources said ther are 17- and 16-year-old students, all white, at Century. The slur had been created with paper cups inserted to form a word in the cyclone fencing on the bridge.
Offensive and hurtful. The slur, made of paper cups, was unplugged one cup at a time soon after being discovered at dawn.
Cellphone burns up at hotel; fire crew called
WINONA, Minn. – A hotel guest’s cellphone burst into flames in his room at the Riverport Inn. The man threw the phone in the toilet. Firefighters retrievd the submerged device and put it in a salvage bucket for disposal. Nobody was injured. A fan was need to clear a light haze. This was about 4 a.m.
Riverport. At 900 Bruski Drive in the East End hotel complex.
Winona home sales in May 2024
WINONA, Minn. – Among residential property sales logged by Bob Bambenek, county recorder, in May:
41415 Big Trout Drive: Berg/Frey Ttust to Barthelme, $540,000.
408 Valley Oaks Drive: Graham to Wynn, $410.000.
203 Janet Marie Lane: Speltz to O’Laughlin, $370,000.
126 West Sarnia Street: Lash to Drewry, $351,000.
23345 Blackberry Road: Henderson to Trent, $$343,000.
112 Sunnyside Lane: Dahmen to Geyrink, $336,000
243 Janet Marie Lane: Voelker/Mathees to Wantock, $325,000.
23516 LaMoille Road: Sultz Estate to Engel/Schwighammer, $306,000.
1561 Circle Drive: Tollison to Mathol, $300,000.
Earlier: Winona home sales in April 2024
Winona County home sales in May 2024
WINONA, Minn. – Among residential property sales outside Winona logged by Bob Bambenek, county recorder, in May:
Rollingstone: 174 Sweetwater Drive: Seppa to Sloos, $480,000.
St. Charles: 30666 County Road 117: Car/son/others to Bontrager, $300,000.
Winona County commercial property sales in May 2024
WINONA, Minn. – Among commercial property sales in Winona County logged by Bob Bambenek, county recorder, in May:
2 Kansas Street: Michael’s Lighting to Winona Port Authority, $1 million.
Canoe overturns off Latsch Island; pair rescued
WINONA, Minn. – Firefighters in their flat-bottom rescue boat to pull two people from the water off Latsch Island after their canoe overturned. One canoeist had swum to shallows off the Latsch Island beach and was standing in the water.. The other canoeist was hanging on to the capsized canoe. Although soaked, they were unhurt. This was about 9:45 p.m.As a precaution, dam-keepers in Fountain City and Trempealeau were alerted to halt barge traffic around the night-time rescue operation.
Climbers rescued by ladder from Levee boulder
WINONA, Minn. – Two climbers found their way to the top of the Levee Park boulder but couldn’t figure out a passage back down in the dark. Firefighters brought them down uninjured with a roof ladder. The monolith was planted in Levee Park in 2019 as an attraction for what’;s called “bouldering” — a form of free climbing on small rock formations or artificial rock walls without ropes or harnesses.
Trapped 12 feet up. Lessom: Getting up can be easier than gettg down.
Rising on the river: With views from the top
Riverview Flats. The first walls have been anchored into the concrete base for a new apartment house at the Huff Street crook at the river. Promoters haven’t missed a trick in marketing. They’ve picked up the faddish Britishism “flats” in a bid for tenants. River views promise to be great from upper floors. On the first floor, not so much. The place is squeezed tight by Union Pacific railroad yard and busy Huff Street. Image: Steve Lunde
Earlier: How they voted: On Riverview Flats
Injury in LaCrescent pickup-sedan crash
LACRESCENT, Minn. – One person was transported five miles to a LaCrosse hospital after a two-vehicle collision on the LaCrescent northside. Police said a Toyota Tacoma was traveling south on Highway 61. A Hyundai Sonata was at a stop sign on Fourth Street and attempting to turn north. This was about 12:40 p.m.
Quickly on scene. Houston County deputies, La Crescent police and paramedics. Image: Steve Lunde
Minneapolis police-killer had rap sheet
MINNEAPOLIS – The man who killed a Minneapolis police in officer what’s being called an ambush was Mustafa Ahmed Mohamed. His name was released by the state Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, which is in charge of the case. Mohamed, 35 was himself shot and killed Thursday by a second officer in an exchange of gunfire. Mohamed died of multiple gunshot wounds, according to a preliminary autopsy. Records show Mohamed had been prohibited from carrying a gun because of a 2007 burglary conviction. Muhamed was arrested again in 2022 when an officer reported he had a gun in a robbery – although, police said, he he had ditched the weapon and a holster before they caught him.
Democrats vote to keep Klobuchar in Senate
DULUTH, Minn. – Democrats endorsed Amy Klobuchar for re-election to the U.S. Senate at their state convention. Addressing the assembly, Klobuchar characterized herself as aa builder of “bridges across ideological and geographic divides.” She criticized Republicans who, she said, want to tear things down rather than build them up. “These people,” she said, “want to attack others rather than work together. They are people who want to divide us and tear us apart rather than find common ground for change. That is not who we are. That is not who I am.”
Verbatim
Ken Martin, state Democratic chair: “Time and again, Senator Klobuchar has overcome partisan divisions. Thanks to her leadership, seniors will be getting lower prescription drug prices and veterans exposed to toxic burn pits are finally getting the benefits they deserve. At this pivotal moment, Amy is standing up to monopolies and extremists trying to take
Klobuchar. Seeking a fourth term.
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