Peregrines: Long path from extinction
KELLOGG, Minn. — A project to restore the peregrine falcon population, begun nearby in the Weaver Dunes in 1986, has so far produced 164 mating pairs in 12 states and a total of 440 birds. The greatest success has been in Minnesota with 44 pairs and in Wisconsin with 38, the St. Paul-based Midwest Peregrine Society reported. The peregrines disappeared in the 1960s due to the Word War II insecticide DDT. The last known U.S. nest had been in Whitewater State Park near Elba in Winona County. Among current knows nesting sites:
Minnesota
Houston County: Great Spirit Bluff, Red Hawk Bluff,
Olmsted County: Mayo Clinic in Rochester.
Wabasha County: Lake City.
Winona County: Homer Bluff, John Latch State Park, Queen’s Cliff, Whitewater State Park,
Wisconsin
Buffalo County: Alma Marina, Castle Rock, Dairyland power plant in Alma, Maasen’s Bluffs, Twin Bluffs at Nelson,
LaCrosse County: Goose Island Bluff, US Bank in LaCrosse.
Vernon County: Bad Axe River Country Club, Bad Axe River North, Red Bird Bluff.
Very fast. Also rare but reversing extinction.
Peregrine profile
Peregrines, also known duck hawks, are a crow-size bird with blue-grey backs, barred white underparts, and black heads. Peregrines are fast. They can speed-dive 200 mph for prey. The known record is 242. Typically they weigh two pounds. They like cliffs for nesting as well as urban settings like tall buildings.
Peregrin repopulation
Bird scholar Tom Cade launched a captive peregrine breeding program at Cornell University in New York in 1962. Cade’s group released its first peregrines, two paired birds, at Weaver Dunes near Kellogg in the mid-1970s. One pair was lost to predator owls. The other was recaptured and re-released and, once nested, produced eggs. Slowly the population has grown with birds being captured, banded and taken to diverse sires, mostl y in the Upper Midwest, to propogate.
Cop: 0.17% alcohol explains erratic driving
MINNESOTA CITY, Minn. – A Wisconsin man was charged with drunken driving after a deputy reported him weaving all over Highway 61 north of Winona. Arrested after turning on to State Highway 248 to Rollingstone was Montaivo Tepolie, 23, of Arcadia. His blood-alcohol tested ag at 0.17%, twice the legal limit. He was stopped at Lone Pine Drive He didn’t have a license to drive, the deputy said.
Databank: Minnesota roadside litter project
ST. PAUL, Minn. – Volunteers picked up 42,000 bags of roadside trash last year, the Minnesota Department of Transportation reported. Volunteers represented 2,000 groups and put in 1000,000 hours, the agency said.
Measles makes rare Wisconsin appearance
MADISON, Wis. – The first 2024 case of measles in Wisconsin was reported by the state health Department. The case was in Milwaukee. The highly contagious disease has been largely eradicated in the United States through vaccination. Most of the 125 U.S. cases this year have been brought home by travelers abroad.
Minnesota polling: Biden, Trump close right now
ST. PAUL, Minn. – Polls suggest Minnesota may become one of a half-dozen or so battleground states for the presidency in November. An early April poll by St. Paul television station KTSP showed that Biden leading Trump 44% to 42%, within the margin of error. Some 11% said in the snapshot that they would vote for someone else. And 4% were undecided. A MinnPost poll last fall showed a similar neck-to-neck statistical breakdown. Even so, most smart money favors Biden. Historians note that Minnesota has not voted for a Republican for president since Richard Nixon. Also, the Biden campaign warchest has been raising more in the state than Trump.
Eau Claire school bus hits tanker; kids injured
HUDSON, Wis. – Two Eau Claire middle-school students were taken to a hospital after their school bus rear-ended a tanker-trailer. The injuries appeared minor, the State Patrol said. The bus driver and four other students sustained lesser injuries. Other students were unhurt. The accident was about 10:30 a.m. on the three-lane westbound approach to the Interstate 94 bridge over the St. Croix River. The Wisconsin State Patrol gave this account:
> A lane was closed for construction.
> A car stopped to let another vehicle merge in, causing traffic to slow suddenly.
> The school bus rear-ended the tanker trailer, which was empty.
The students were from the DeLong Middle School in Eau Claire. They were on one of two buses for a 180-mile roundtrip to the Orpheum Theater in Minneapolis.
Field trip. Students were on one of two buses for a 180-mile roundtrip to the Orpheum Theater in Minneapolis. Image: Wisconsin State Patrol
State Senate sidetrack: The Mitchell mess
ST.PAUL, Minn. – The Senate got back to law-making after losing a day f wrangling over what to do about Nicole Mitchell, the Democrat in troube for burglary in Detroit Lakes. Republicians called for Mitchell’s immediate ouster. Democrats, desperate to maintain a 33-32 majority, wouldn’t yield. Finally there came a compromise: Asking the Senate’s Democrat-controlled Ethics Committee to investigate and report back in 30 business days. That would be after the statutory adjournment of the 2024 session. Although a Detroit Lakes judge has freed Mitchell on her own recognizance, she had not yet returned to the Capitol.
Attorney general: Fridley car-dealer a swindler
FRIDLEY, Minn. – Although Midwest Car Search touts tons of testimonials from happy customers on its Facebook site, Keith Ellison isn’t one of them. The Minnesota attorney general has filed a consumer-protection lawsuit against the Fridley-based used-car dealer and owner Scott Spiczka. Ellison’s suit alleges:
> Misrepresenting cars as certified when they weren’t.
> Inserting service provisions, financed for $1,800, into purchases contracts without buyer consent.
> Refusing to provide warranties that are required by law.
> Conducting business with an unregistered name to exploit Spanish speakers.
> Failing to make accurate disclosures in Spanish.
None of 3,200-plus vehicles sold from 2017 to 2022 were certified, Ellison said. He called Spiczka “a bad player.”
Verbatim
Ellison: “Minnesotans should be able to shop for cars without having to worry about being deceived or defrauded. Equally appalling is that Midwest Car Search aggressively targeted Spanish speakers through widespread advertising campaigns in Spanish and conducted sales in Spanish, only to have those speakers sign documents in English that bore no relation to the promises.”
Coming soon in Iowa: More short drivers
DES MOINES, Iowa – The Iowa Legislatue passed a bill to allow kids as young as 14-1/2 to drive back and forth to school and work. Govenor Kim Reynolds was expected to sign the bill into law. The window for young drivers is narrow: No more than 25 miles and only within an hour of start and dismissal times.
Gow looks to faculty support to stay at UW-L
LACROSSE, Wis. – The former chancellor at the University of Wisconsin-LaCrossse, Joe Gow, plans to appeal being removed from university’s faculty. Gow said he has requested a hearing before a faculty committee — a right he has under state law. The committee would recommend to the UW System regents whether he can keep his retirement job as a tenured communications professor. The regents have been unfriendly to Gow since revelations that had produced and performed in a series of explicit videos promoting healthy sex for older olks. He is 64. Before the revelations, Gow was planning to retire from the chancellorship and take a position on the university’s faculty, but his interim successor as chancellor moved to strip him entirely of rank on the active faculty. The successor, Betsy Morgan, who had been Gow’s chief vice chancellor, acted on a 300-page investigative report on Gow’s sexual sideline. Morgan has declined to release the report publicly, but to a news reporter Gow identified these charges:
> Co-uthoring two detailed autobiographical books with his wife about their evolving sex life and also producing a series of explicit videos on senior sexuality.
> Refusing to speak to an outside law firm investigating the matter unless he had an attorney present.
> Using UW-La Crosse computers to produce pornographic materials.
n an interview Gow denied using any state-owned equipment or state dollars to produce the books or videos. On whether the issue has eroded his ability teach, Gow was firm: Students, he said, value his presence and are eager to take his courses. In broad terms, Gow said: “It is really hard to be treated like a criminal when you haven’t done anything wrong. I really am curious how the administration is going to prove I did anything wrong.”
Opening in kitchen. The videos of Gow and wife Carmen Wilson typically opened with upscale kitchen scenes on the delights of vegan cooking. The couple, who moved i]easiky in porn industry circles in sunny climates, often had top-tier porn actors as guests helping out with food preparation. Everyone was fully clothed. Bedroom scenes that followed were just Gow and Wilson.
Cops recover stolen moped, find cocaine
WINONA, Minn. – A police patrolman stopped a man who had been tooling around the West End on a stolen moped and then found the man had cocaine in his pants. Arrested was Jeriah Timothy James Boardman, 22, of Winona. Boardman’s undoing, police said, began with a shoplifting call from the Kwik Trip store on South Baker Street. The patrolman recognized the moped outside as stolen and checked with the clerk inside. Meanwhile, the officer reported, Boardman had spotted the officer and sneaked away on foot and abandoned the moped. He was arrested a block away. This was about 7 p.m. At jail Boardman was booked for possession of 1.4 grams of cocaine. And also for stealing the moped.
Boardman. Charges: Controlled substance possession, theft of movable property.
State senator not sidetracked by burglary charge
ST. PAUL, Minn. – State Senator Nicole Mitchell was expected to return to the State Capitol for the remainder of the 2024 session even while facing a home burglary charge in Detroit Lakes. Mitchell, a Democrat, is key to the party’s thin 34-33 majority in the Senate. Majority Leader Erin Murphy, of St. Paul, called the burglary allegations “upsetting,” but added that Mitchell has the right to a full defense case in court. Mitchell’s next court hearing in Detroit Lakes is in June. Meanwhile, Senator Mark Johnson, of East Grand Forks, the Republican minority leader, called for Mitchell to resign for conduct unbecoming of a legislator.
Earlier: Senator arraigned for burglary, released
Earlier: Senator’s sentimental explanation for burglary
2022 campaign poster. Mitchell defeated Republican Dwight Dorau 58% to 41% for a four-year Senate term. She was unopposed for the Democratic nomination. In the Senate she is vice chair for state and local government and veterans. Also assigned to these committees: Elections; energy, utilities, envirment and climate; and human services.
News summary at mid-week: April 24, 2024
COLLEGES: UM cops break up “tent city” Gaza protest
COLLEGES: UW-L chancellor denied graceful retirement
GOVERNANCE: How they voted: On cannabis retailing
GOVERNANCE: How they voted: On weapons, humanitarian aid /5
POLITICS: Vice President talks up women’s rights
HEALTH: Hospital faults criticism over patient death
POLITICS: Senator arraigned for burglary, released
CRIME: Woman accused as Lake City ski-mask bandit
Cops: Driving too fast, drinking too much
LEWISTON, Minn. – A deputy stopped a car he clocked at 100 mph and made an arrest for drunken driving. This was about 10:50 p.m. on the east end of Lewiston on U.S. Hghway 14. The deputy said that Carlos Alberto Castille-Garcia, 21, of St. Charles, blew a 0.23% blood-alcohol level in a field sobriety test – roughly triple he allowable max. Also, the deputy said , he had blood-shot eyes, slurred speech and uneven balance.
Castille-Garcia. Radar showed 100 mph in 50 zone.
College scores
Baseball: Winona State 10, UM-Duluth 9
Baseball: Winona State 7, UM-Duluth 1
Baseball: UW-LaCrosse 12, Saint Mary’s 2
Lacrosse: UW-LaCrosse 13, UW-Eau Claire 12
Softball: Winona State 8, Concordia of St. Paul 7
Softball: Winona State 9, Concordia of St. Paul 1
Three hurt near Winona-Olmsted county line
TROY, Minn. – Three people, all from Chatfield, were injured in a collision west of Troy in Olmsted County. Injured were John Michael Townsend, 20, and Alanna Faye Goetzinger, 23, in a 2006 BMW 326, and Nancy Matie McClellan, 71, in a 2012 Toyota Highlander. Med-evac helicopters from Rochester and LaCrosse were summoned to fly 30 miles to a Rochester hospital. The injuries appeared non-life threatening, deputies said. The Townsend vehicle was southbound, and the McClellan vehicle northbound at State Highway 74 and 190th Avenue. The collision was about 8:40 p.m.
Woman: He pushed, stomped. twisted me
WINONA, Minn. – A Winona man, reportedly angry at being admonished for drugs, pushed over the mother of his child and beat her, police were told. This was about 3:50 p.m. in the 700 block of West Broadway. Arrested a few blocks away, at Fifth and McBride streets, was Skyler Shane Ehlenfeldt, 27, of Winona. The woman said Ehlenfeldt, pushed her down, stomped on a shoulder, and twisted an arm behind her back. It hurt, she said. The woman declined immediate medical attention but told police she wild go later to an urgent care office.
Ehlenfeldt. Booked for felony domestic assault.
Roommate: Angry guy leveled him with punch
WINONA, Minn. – Belatedly a man reported being assaulted by a roommate sometime two or so months ago at a shared apartment. The man said the roommate came home from work angry and punched him. He said he fell and lost consciousness. He showed photos of redness and swelling to police but said he hadn’t sought medical attention The incident was in the 250 block of Walnut Street in the Midtown Foods neighborhood. The roommate will be sought, police said.
UM cops break up “tent city” Gaza protest
Unmistakable message. Student anger at incessant and brutal Israeli attacks on Palestinian Gaza turned instead on campus police after nine arrests at the University of Minnesota. In response, dozens more tents spawned at their “Gaza Solidarity Encampment” on campus.
Protesters claim wholly peaceable; cops claim trespass
MINNEAPOLIS – Campus police arrested nine persons as a protest against Israeli excesses in its Gaza war was coming together outside the Coffman student union at the University of Mnnesota. Hauled to jail were seven students, one faculty member and a person whose campus connections were fuzzy. Pro-Palestinian flyers had summoned campus people the afternoon before to protest “the political repression of Palestine activists on campus.” By evening there were nine tents on the green space in front of Coffman. Organizers put up posters and went inline for inviting more studjtys to join ghem. By dawn there were 15 tents. Then campus police moved in. Estimates on police number ranged from 15 to 30. Sorcha Lona Lona, an organizer for Students for Democratic Society, said her protesters were peaceful, squatting in a circle with arms linked and chanting support of Palestine. One by one, Lona said, nine protesters were handcuffed. “Half of us still have marks from the handcuffs,” she told an interviewer after herself being booked by police and then released and returning to the encampment. Police, meanwhile, had dumped protester’s tents, water, textbooks and other belongings in the trash. Later, however, police stayed back as the encampment swelled with dozens of new tents and hundreds more protesters as the day progressed.
Verbatim
Scott Smith, A university alum and protestor, called the police presence overwhelming and disproportionate: “You can tell someone’s moral ineptitude when they call on such overwhelming force. It’s just wrong. These students are sending the right message at the right time.”
Verbatim
Omar Ali, spokesperson for Students for Justice in Palestine, said police threatened students recording the raid: “We were recording from the outside and were told we would be arrested too.” He noted that campus police dumped student belongings in the trash: “Their priority was to clean up the encampment before anyone could see it.”
Trespass as issue
Verbatim
University policy: “Rallies, demonstrations or other gatherings of a similar nature of fewer than 100 participants are allowed without a permit in specified outdoor spaces or immediately adjacent to these spaces and buildings.” The policy further states that permits are required to pitch a tent anywhere on university grounds.
UW-L chancellor denied graceful retirement
LACROSSE, Wis. – University of Wisconsin regents want the former UW-LaCrosse chancellor, Joe Gow, off campus once and for all. Gow received a good-riddance letter from his interim successor, Betsy Morgan. She wrote that Gow would not be kept on the faculty even though university practices always have allowed past chancellors to retire to faculty status. Morgan had been appointed to replaced Gow in the top campus job by UW regents in December after they fired Gow for producing sex videos and performing in them with his wife. Morgan said the decision followed a 300-page investigative report, but the fact was she acted the behest of UW System President Jay Rothman, who has obsessed on ousting Gow.
The case for Gow
Gow had been chancellor 17 years and was a popular campus figure. His supporters make these points:
> The videos advocated what Gow and his wife called “healthy sex.”
> Charges of salacious intent was more revelatory about prudish inferences than anything implicit in videos.
> The videos were not produced with university resources or on university time.
> The videos were a part-time Gow activity protected by his First Amendment guarantee of free seeech.
> Neither Gow nor his wife made reference to their UW-LaCrosse roles in the videos.
Up-ended university protocol
Rothman, as UW System president, discovered the videos in December — years after Gow, age 64, and his wife, Carmen Wilson, launched the series. Rotham then lobbied the regents in a blitzkrieg campaign to fire him. This was one semester before Gow’s announced plans to retire thus spring. Gow had planned in retirement to return to the university’s faculty and finish his teaching career in the Communications Department. It is this finale teaching role that has been cancelled in the latest Rothman initiative against Gow.
Earlier: Any advance tip on Gow firing at UW-L? Barely
Earlier: Earlier: Experts unsure on legality of Gow’s dismissal
Earlier: Background: Rothman all out against UW-L’s Joe Gow
Earlier: Hot brew for hot chancellor: Sold out
Gow. Now a second set of walking papers.
Gow profile
Before being named chancellor at UW-LaCrosse, Gow spent three years as president of Methodist Wesleyan University in Nebraska. When hired at Wesleyan, Gow insisted on a salary tens of thousands of dollars less than what was offered. His salary decision was a stark contrast with this predecessor, who had secured a $750,000 retirement package when leaving. The campus press hailed Gow as a favorite with students.
Earlier Gow was liberal arts dean at Winona State University. He quickly earned a reputation as the guitar-strumming dean who would show up unannounced at offee houses for impromptu fsoft rock and olk jams. As dean, he was a faculty advocate with disdain for adminisrtative hijinks and policies and budgets that he saw as short-sighted and inconsistent with the purposes of a university.
During his own college studies Gow spent two years as the guitarist and frontman of the rock band Johnny Deadline, which released an EP titled “Whatever Happened to Rock & Roll” in 1982. The band broke up about that time but reunited for shows in 1987.
Gow’s scholarship included a 1993 study on the influence of MTV. The study found that male performers were substantially over-represented despite MTV’s claim to be a revolutionary force in updating culture. MTV “finds itself in the incongruous position of presenting videos that reinforce very traditional gender definitions,” Gow said.
Emergency, fire crews make 52 calls
WINONA, Minn. – The Fire Department reported 33 emergency medical calls plus 19 fire calls in recent days:
> Tuesday, April 23: 2 medical calls plus 4 fire calls.
> Monday, April 22: 6 medical calls plus 5 fire calls.
> Sunday, April 21: 4 medical calls plus 2 fire calls.
> Saturday, April 20: 5 medical calls plus 4 fire calls.
> Friday, April 19: 5 medical calls plus no fire calls.
> Thursday, April 18: 6 medical calls plus 3 fire call1.
> Wednesday, April 17: 5 medical calls plus 1 fire call.
Earlier: Emergency, fire crews make 52 calls
Murder mystery beckons in drama fundraiser
WINONA, Minn. – Harkening to the 1940s and a madame’s secret, the Theater du Mississippi troupe is staging an audience participation production at No Name Bar on Friday. “Wear a fun costume and follow clues to crack the case,” says teh group’s flier. Time: 6:30 p.m. at 252 East Third Street. Tickets for the Murder Mystery Night fundraiser: $15 to $20.
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R.I.P.: Niel Christensen
HOUSTON, Minn. – Niel Frederick Christensen Sr., age 90, of Houston, a life-long learner, died at Valley View Healthcare. He was a graduate of Audubon High School in Iowa and attended Dana College to be a pastor. He left college when drafted into the U.S. Army for duty two years in Korea. He was a military policeman and a member of a precision drill team. He planted trees and built slab fences everywhere he lived. He was a tractor puller, driving his blue Ford tractor straight out of the field to the track at area events.
Details: Hoff Funeral Home
1933-2024
College scores
Baseball: UW-Stout 13, Saint Mary’s 12
Softball: Saint Mary’s 15, Macalester 4
Softball: Macalester 5, Saint Mary’s 3
Softball: UW-LaCrosse 9, UW-River Falls 0
Softball: UW-LaCrosse 9, UW-River Falls 0
Softball: UW-LaCrosse 9, UW-River Falls 0
How they voted: On weapons, humanitarian aid /5
WASHINGTON – The U.S. Senate voted 79-18 for a $95 billion package of aid for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan. The bill also included sanctions on Iran and a measure that could lead to a ban on the Chinese-owned social platform TikTok. President Joe Biden was expected to sign the bill. Here is how the Minnesota and Wisconsin delegations voted.
For war aid package
> Tammy Baldwin, D-WIs.
> Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn.
> Tina Smith, D-Minn.
Against
> Ron Johnson, R-Wis.
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