Driver arrested with blood at 0.11%, then 0.12%
WINONA, Minn. – A Winona woman who police said admitted to a couple drinks was arrested on the East Side and booked for drunken driving. A police officer said that Stacey Ann Czeplewski, 55, caught his attention running a red light. He said she denied running the red light but by then his attention had shifted to her blood-shot and watery eyes, slurred speech, and a boozy odor. Czeplewski’s blood-alcohol level tested at 0.11% roadside and 0.12% at jail — both in the inebriation range. The traffic stop was about 9:35 p.m. at Franklin and Sanborn streets.
Biker dies in collision near Brownsville
BRONSVILLE, Minn. – A LaCrosse motorcyclist was killed in a collision with an automobile just north of Brownsville. Cameron Sokolik, 23, died apparently on impact, said Houston County deputies. The accident was about 8:35 p.m. on Highway 26. Sokolik’s Ducati motorcycle and a Ford Fusion collide head-on. The Fusion driver, Kathleen Grangaard, 45, of Waukon, Iowa, was unhurt.
School shooter killed by police in Mount Horeb
Apparently where shooter died. On street outside middle school in Mount Horeb, population 7,700. First-responders already had removed the shooter’s body. Police also immediately retrieved the shooter’s long gun .
Lockdown was immediate response to shots outside
MOUNT HOREB, Wis. – Police shot and killed a 14-year-old student who showed up with a rifle — and fired it — outside the Mount Horeb Middle School. The school was already in lockdown when police downed the shooter. No one inside was hurt. The incident began a little before 11:30 a.m. Authorities declined to release the shooter’s identity immediately. It was believed he was a student at a Mount Horeb school although not the middle school. The middle school has an enrollment of 450 students in third, fourth and fifth grades. The school is situated next to Mount Horeb High School, enrollment l 800, but separated by athletic fields. The armed student never got inside he middle school. Converging on the scene were dozens of police officers, many in body armor, and also armored vehicles and a med-evac helicopter as a precaution if needed. It was unknown how many shots brought down the armed student. Wisconsin’s attorney general, Josh Kahl, arrived quickly from the state capital in Madison 40 miles away. Kaul offered few details at a news briefing but said an investigation already was under way. Children were not released from the middle school until each could be interviewed and assessed for trauma. This process took most of the afternoon with parents waiting to be reunited. Parents all knew from cell calls from their children that they were safe.
Possible theft from houseboat investigated
WINONA, Minn. – A houseboat moored at the East End Marina was found burgled. Whether anything was taken was being assessed. Police said surveillance video showed two men kicking in the door about 4 a.m. The incident was reported to police about 11:10 a.m.
Emergency, fire crews make 51 calls
WINONA, Minn. – The Fire Department reported 34 emergency medical calls plus 17 fire calls in recent days:
> Tuesday, April 30: 7 medical calls plus 3 fire calls.
> Monday, April 29: 1 medical call plus 2 fire calls.
> Sunday, April 28: 2 medical calls plus 2 fire call.
> Saturday, April 27: 11 medical calls plus 5 fire calls.
> Friday, April 26: 2 medical calls plus no fire calls.
> Thursday, April 25: 7 medical calls plus no fire calls.
> Wednesday, April 24: 4 medical calls plus 2 fire calls.
Earlier: Emergency, fire crews make 52 calls
Winona home sales in April 2024
WINONA, Minn. – Among residential property sales logged by Bob Bambenek, county recorder, in April:
26664 Miner Valley Road: Boelter to Krieger, $455,000.
8370 Cherry Lane: McElmury/Munns to Krage, $350,000.
Earlier: Winona home sales in March 2024
Winona County home sales in April 2024
WINONA, Minn. – Among residential property sales outside Winona logged by Bob Bambenek, county recorder, in April
La Crescent: 37336 Queens Cove Circle: Zhovtis to Linde, $556,000.
St. Charles: 10732 Old Quarry Drive: Burtis/Trester to Ganrude, $527,000.
St. Charles: 511 Brook Avenue: Tehel to Gilbert, $315,000.
St. Charles: 349 West First Street: Schweitzer to Prebe, $309,000.
Minnesota City: 25635 Stewart Valley Drive: O’Laughlin to Halling, $430,000.
Winona County commercial property sales in April 2024
WINONA, Minn. – Among commercial property sales in Winona County logged by Bob Bambenek, county recorder, in April:
Winona: 250 and 355 West Second Street and 125 Harriet Street (formerly Rochester Wholesale Fruit): Stanton Real Estate Holdings to Winona Mall (John Alexander), $1.3 million.
Buddy arrested coming to friend’s aid
WINONA, Minn. – While police were arresting a man in a domestic dispute, a sympathetic buddy intervened and also was arrested. This happened about 12:40 a.m. Jailed were both Joel James Coleman III, 19, and Michael Palermo, also 19. The episode, according to the police report, had begun an hour earlier. A woman called 911 that a boyfriend had slammed her into a table and jammed her thumb. The man, police said, was gone when they arrived. An hour later the officers were called back to a renewed disturbance. The woman’s lips were swollen and bleeding, police said. Coleman was there. As he was being cuffed, Palermo objected that the arrest was unfair and tried to stop the officers. Coleman grabbed one officer by a hand, according to the police report. A second officer pulled him off. He grabbed a railing and wouldn’t let go until finally wrenched off.
Coleman. Charged with domestic assault.
Palermo. Charged with obstructing police.
College scores
Baseball: St. Cloud State 8, Winona State 1
Baseball: St. Cloud State 8, Winona State 4
Baseball: UW-LaCrosse 16, St. Olaf 6
Imagine a concert fusing brass and pipe organ
Winona Brass Band. Will conclude its 30th season with a concert at Central Lutheran Church. Time: Sunday, 5 p.m., Sunday. Free. With donations accepted. The concert will include Sandy Todd on the church’s Hendrickson pipe organ. Featured will be Jan Bosveld’s “Fantasy for Organ and Brass Band.”
Domestic assault case blamed on $30 dispute
WINONA, Minn. – A Winona couple who were breaking up agree on at least one thing. It was over $30 that their afternoon disintegrated into a physical fight. The woman called police about 2:30 p.m. with fingernail marks on her skin and a swollen lip. She said the ex-boyfriend, with whom she still lived, had pressed her for $30 he claimed she owed him. She went to store for the money and returned but decided not to give him the $30, she told police. She said he persisted and trailed her around the place and hit her in the face and grabbed her and dug his nails into her. Police later picked up Jonathan Queen Jr., 27, and booked him for domestic assault.
Queen. Tentative charge: Domestic assault with intentional harm.
Gundersen Health rebrand: “emplify” with lower-case “e”
LACROSSE, Wis. – The Gundersen Health System has filed a request with the federal trademark office to change its name to Emplify Health. There would also be a new logo. The application was filed quietly in August and has been under eview by the Trademarks Office since then. The change would supercede the existing Gundersen and Bellin names. The two healthcare care systems that merged in 2022. Gundersen, a household word in western Wisconsin is hardly recognized elsewhere. Likewise, Green Bay-based Bellin is hardly recognized outside its service area.
Earlier: Gundersen-Bellin merger on track
Proposed logo. Like it or not, this would be Gundersen’s new look. Bellin’s too. Note the smile: Get it? Get it? Double meaniing — a corporate bridging.
City Brewery fined $100 a day for LaCrosse stink
LACROSSE, Wis. – Fed up with uncorrected obnoxious odors still emanating from City Brewery, the city’s Board of Public Works unanimously voted to fine the company $100 a day. Board members felt snubbed that the company failed to produce a correction plan that the Board requested. The issue: Hydrogen sulfide, which smells like rotten eggs. It’s not good for tourism.
GOP: Scratch remodeling State Office Building
ST. PAUL, Minn. – Although in a minority in the Minnesota House, Republican members are proceeding with a parliamentary scheme to slow a project to remodel and expand the State Office Building to make room for offices for House members. The party’s House leader, Lisa Demuth, R-Cold Spring, announced plans to declare an urgency that would force a time-consuming review of the project. The delay would trigger a default in financing and run up costs from current $500 million estimates to $730 million. Dumuth’s calculation: If bonds on the project are not paid on schedule, the project could incur an additional $230 million in interest. That, Demuth said, may be too much for Democrats to stomach even though they led the campaign for the project in the 2023 legislative session. Demuth announced her plan with a dozen members of the House GOP caucus. She said her idea is to rechannel funding from the new building into K-12 education programs. Her challenge: Democrats control House 70 to 64. Her ace: A Democratic priority is K-12 initiatives.
Demuth. House minority leader. In last-ditch plan to halt State Office Building project.
Fravel attorney makes case to relocate trial
WINONA, Minn. – The case was laid out for Adam Fravel’s murder trial to be moved out of Winona. His attorney argued that the community is so prejudiced against Fravel that he cannot possibly receive a fair trial locally for the 2024 murder of Maddi Kingsbury, the mother of their two children. Judge Nancy Buytendorp will make the decision on a venue change, probably in June. Among witnesses summoned by Favel’s attorney .Zachary Bauer, in arguing that an impartial local jury would be difficult to find and empanel:
> Kim Adams, of SNG Research in Rochester, on his public opinion survey that found a high level of awareness of the case and also a high level of opinion
> Scott Sherman, mayor of Winona, on his role in the 10-week search for Kingsbury and his ties to the Kingsbury family.
> Ben Klinger, county emergency management director, who organized massive land searches, one with 1,800 volunteers, to search three counties for clues.
Testimony noted that the summer Steamboat Days parade had a float calling for justice and domestic violence awareness. News coverage was cited too. Rochester television station KTTC carried 59 Maddi Kingsbury.
Earlier: CBS retells Maddi Kingsbury’s disappearance
Earlier: Judge limits access to details in Fravel murder probe
Earlier: Request to Fravel judge: Please seal murder evidence
Fravel. Escorted to court underground. No news cameras allowed. In orange jail jumpsuit. Was wearing glasses for first time in a court appearance since arrest 11 months ago.
Feds nab man accused as child fetishist
MILAN, Mich. — U.S. marshals in Michigan arrested a southeast Minnesota man accused of a sex fetish for kids and even babies. William Guy Amick III, 36, was located in Milan, population 6,000, about 60 miles southwest of Detroit. Amick was taken to jail for extradition to Minnesota. In Fillmore County he faces 13 felony counts of of lewd images of children 7 years of age and younger. He lived in Mabel and Rushford two years until May 2023.
Workplace “tattling” spills over at West Side bar
WINONA, Minn. – A guy, angry at being fired from his job, walked into a West Side bar and spotted an ex-coworker who he believed got him fired. The guy walked up behind the coworker, slapped him hard on the back, and said: “This is the softest thing you’re going to feel.” It was a threat, at least as the man pereceived it. The man told police that his assailant believed he had been fired because of lies about him to a boss. The other guy was gone when police arrived. They began looking for him to hear his side. This was about 10:05 a.m. at the Cornerstone Bar at 501West Fourth Street.
New evidence of old turkey plant as drug den?
On, Jennie, Oh, Jennie, where are art thou now? Mostly silent on Altura’s Main Street in western Winona County is what townspeople still call the Jennie-O turkey plant. It’s been mostly gathering dust since food giant Hormel shut down the Jennie-O operation in 1996. Image: Steve Lunde
A seamy second life for once-bustling turkey producer
ALTURA, Minn. – Deputies were called to the abandoned Jennie-O turkey plant on a report that drug paraphernalia were found on-premises again. It was the second call about drugs within 2-1/2 months. The 105,000-square foot plant was last owned by an egg-producing company, Primera Foods, of Cameron, Wisconsin, but a $10 million update plan or processing food products never materialized. At its peak under Hormel-owned Jennie-O auspices, the plant bustled as the major employer in Altura, population 490. Hormel pulled out in 1996. Today a small retail turkey shop remains under the brand name Jennie-O. Hormel still has major Jennie-O plants in Barron Wisconsin, and five Minnesota – m Faribault, Melrose, Montevideo, Pelican Rapids and Wilmar,
R.I.P.: Dorothy Evanson
WINONA, Minn. – Dorothy Katherine Evanson, a career nurse first at Gundersen Lutheran in LaCrosse, then at Winona Health, suffered a stroke in September and died peacefully at home less than a year later. She attended Preston-Fountain High School, then pursued nursing at the College of St. Teresa. She voluteered dor bazaars, fundraisers and Girl Scouts and also was the “uniform lady” for the St. Stans and Cotter marching band in the 1090s. She belonged to the Winona and Fillmore County historical societies.
Details: Fawcett-Junker Funeral Home
1954-2024
R.I.P.: Andy Kuklinski
STOCKTON, Minn. – Andrew Edward Kuklinski, 52, of Stockton, who with his teen-age son Yusuf founded Roots lawn service, died at age 52. After years of dialysis, he had received a kidney transplant in 2021 at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The father-son Roots enterprise had grown steadily and expanded into winter plowing services. They were just beginning spring renewal projects. Andy was known for his cheerfulness, focus and hard work – not to mention his expertise on lawn care.
Detail: Watkowski-Mulyck Funeral Home
Detail: A life’s story
1971-2024
Senate GOP fails to neuter Mitchell as deciding vote
ST.PAUL, Minn. – State Senate Republicans, eager to end the one-vote Democratic majority, went after Senator Nicole Mitchell to neuter her pivotal Democratic vote — and failed. The GOP was seeking to capitalize on Mitchell’s arrest 1-1/2 weeks ago for burgling a relative’s house in Detroit Lakes. Carla Nelson, R-Rochester, motioned to prohibit Mitchell from voting until an ethics probe is complete. Senate President Bobby Joe Champion, D-Minneapolis, ruled Nelson’s motion not germane. A vote to appeal Champion’s ruling failed 34-33 — along strict party lines. Mitchell cast the decisive vote. Senator Steve Drazkowski, R-Mazeppa, then motioned to prohibit recording Mitchell’s votes. That too failed 33-32 with Mitchell again breaking the tie.
Drama on Senate floor
The drama marked Mitchell’s first day back in the Senate after Mitchell’s arrest. During her post-arrest absence last week, there were no floor votes. On her first day back, on Monday, Mitchell did not address news reporters nor did she speak on the floor,
GOP’s failed persistence
The session, however, centered on Mitchell’s presence. When the Senate finally got back to legislating, the Republicans wouldn’t quite let go. In a vote on the major state jobs bill, Minority Leader Mark Johnson, R-Grand Forks, insisted that a letter of dissent be entered into the record to protest Mitchell’s vote. The jobs bill passed 33-32 along the same party lines.
Earlier: In burglary’s wake, Democrats shun Senator Mitchell
Ganging up
Senate Republicans used parliamentary maneuvering to try to end the one-vote Democratic majority in the Senate and slow passage of legislation in these last few days of the 2024 session. The tactics failed with Democrats wielding heir 33-32 majority. Main players against Mitchell:
Carla Nelson, R-Rochester.
Steve Drazkowski, R-Mazeppa.
Mark Johnson, R-East Grand Forks.
Burglar leaves watches, jewelry behind
LEWISTON, Minn. – A woman convalescing at a friend’s place the past two weeks returned home and found two watches, jewelry and old car titles missing from her bedroom. They had been in a metal lunch box. She then found the box on a bed in a camp-trailer outside. She called sheriff’s investigators about 1:40 p.m. She said her house had been unlocked. Even so, she had no idea why someone would take the box and then leave it in the trailer and apparently not take anything else.
Factory worker dies, crushed by falling equipment
DODGE CENTER, Minn. – A Brownsdale man was crushed to death under by a 5,000-pound cement mixing drum. Co-workers at Con-Tech Manufacturing scrambled to a forklift to raise the drum off Teofilo Gonzalez, age 63, but it was too late. Resuscitation attempts failed. This was about 10:10 a.m. on State Highway 56 in Dodge Center. Dodge County deputies said Gonzalez was cutting a crossbeam support on a dolly that was supporting the 2-1/2 ton mixer drum. The dolly failed and the drum came down on Gonzales. He had worked for Con-Tech 10 years
School bus driver in hot water for crash
HUDSON, Wis. – The driver of an Eau Claire school bus in a collision at the St. Croix River bridge last week didn’t have his driver permit up-to-date, the State Patrol said. The Patrol recommended that St. Croix County’s prosector, Karl Anderson, bring a misdemeanor charge against Christopher A. Leubner for operating a school bus without the proper school bus endorsement. At the accident Leubner was issued a citation for following too closely. The bus rear-ended a tanker truck.
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