Highway 14 rollover injures Eyota driver
EYOTA, Minn. – An Eyota woman was injured albeit not seriously when her car hit a guardrail and rolled. Chelsea Jade Koch, 35, was taken 16 miles to a Rochester hospital. The accident was on U.S. Highway 14 about 6:40 a.m. Koch was westbound toward Rochester in a 2006 Ford Focus. The airbag deployed but she was not belted, first-responders said.
Cops find four passels of drugs in arrest
WINONA, Minn. – A Winona man who was reported to have walked out of a Kwik Trip without paying for an iced coffee and a sandwich was found sipping and chomping down the street. It was petty theft, worth $5.57, but the officer sensed that something more was going on. The officer said that Dillon Joseph Hale, 35, couldn’t stand still, was talking nonsense, and kept digging in his pockets when told not to. Police searched him and found meth and fentanyl. This, they said, included:
> 1.66 grams rolled in an old sales receipt.
> 1.08 grams in a glass vial,
> 0.07 grams loose in a right front pocket.
At the police station a jailer found:
> 2.74 grams in a pat-down.
Do the math: In all, police confiscated 4.1 grans. The saga had begun about 1:45 a.m. at the Kwik Trip at West Broadway and South Baker Street. Hale was arrested 3-1/2 blocks away at Cummings Street.
Hale. Charges: Drugs and shoplifting.
Shake-up in Mabel: GOP endorses Davids rival
MABEL, Minn. — The end of the road for state legislator Greg Davids of Preston may be at hand after 32 years. At the District 26B Republican endorsing convention, Davids lost the party’s backing. Delegates instead voted 42-27 for Mabel businessman Gary Steuart, a long-time stalwart for the party. Both Steuart and Davids will be on the Distroct26B primary ballot to determine who will be the Republican on the November general election ballot. Davids expressed disappointment at losing the endorsement for a 17th term but was undeterred. “We’re going to take it to the voters,” Davids said in a KTTC interview. “We’re going to let 42,000 people decide, not just 42 people.” Davids, age 65, is the longest-serving Republican in the State House of Representatives. Steuart explained Davids’ loss this way: “He has held the position too long and is out of touch with the district.” Steuart identified these as his own legislative priorities: Term limits, election security, education freedom and medical freedom. Davis, a business owner and farmer, has been touting the new veterans home in Preston as a major accomplishment. Some voters are momdful that in 2017 he was caught olaying cards in an anteroom during a House debate. In 2023 he missed a week of roll calls.
Davids. Former Preston mayor. In Minnesota House since 1991 with a lapse of one term.
Steuart. Owns Steuart Laboratories, which manufactures plant-based lotions to alleviate pain.
House District 26B profile
The mostly rural district includes all of Fillmore and Houston counties and far eastern Mower County. Population centers: LaCrescent, 5,300; Chatfield (south only), 3,000: Spring Valley, 2,400; Rushford, 1,800; Caledonia, 2,800; Preston, 1,300; Racine, 1,300; Spring Grove, 1,200; Houston, 1,000: Harmony; 1,000; LeRoy, 900. Lanesboro, 700: Mabel, 700; Brownsville, 500; Fountain, 400; Canton, 310.
Davids electoral record
1991: Defeated Harlin Taylor 62% to 35%.
1992: Defeated Harlin Taylor 62% to 35%.
1994: Won unoposed with 98%.
1996: Defeated Delbert Mandelko 60% to 39%.
1998: Defeated Delbert Mandelko 60% to 39%.
2000: Defeated Al Hein 59% to 49%.
2002: Defeated Al Hein 53% to 46%.
2004: Defeated Peggy Hanson 52% to 47%.
2006: Lost to Ken Tschumper 50% to 349%.
2008: Defeated Ken Tschumper 50% to 48%.
2010: Defeated Steve Kemp 53% to 32% and Al Hein 16%.
2012: Defeated Ken Tschumper 50% to 48%.
2014: Defeated Jon Pieper 55% to 43%.
2016: Defeated Thomas Trehus 54% to 45%.
2018: Defeated t Thomas Trehus 55% to 44%.
2020: Defeated Jordan Fontenello 63% to 36%.
2022: Won unopposed, 94%.
College scores
Tennis (men): Saint John’s 9, Saint Mary’s 0
Tennis (men): UW-Whitewater 8, UW-LaCrosse 1
Tennis (women): Saint Benedict 9, Saint Mary’s 0
How they voted: On weapons, humanitarian aid /4
WASHINGTON – The U.S. House voted 316-94 for a $95 billion package of aid for Ukraine, Israel and the Indo-Pacific region. The bill also included sanctions on Iran and a measure that could lead to a ban on the Chinese-owned social platform TikTok. Here is how the Minnesota and Wisconsin delegations voted.
For robust war aid
> Angie Craig, D-Mn2 (south suburbs).
> Tom Emmer, R-Mn6 (north suburbs).
> Brad Finstad, R-Mn1 (south).
> Michelle Fischbach, R-Mn7 (rural west).
> Betty McCollum, D-Mn4 (St. Paul).
> Dean Phillips, D-Mn3 (west suburbs).
> Pete Stauber, R-Mn 8 (Iron Range).
—
> Scott Fitzgerald, R-Wi5 (Clyman).
> Mike Gallagher, R-Wi8 (Green Bay).
> Glen Grothman, R-Wi6 (Campbellsport).
> Gwen Moore, D-Wi4 (Milwaukee).
> Bryan Steil, R-Wi1 (Janesville).
> Derrick Van Orden, R-Wi3 (Prairie du Chien).
Against
> Ilhan Omar, D-Mn5 (Minneapolis).
—
> Mark Pocan, D-Wi2 (Madison).
> Tom Tiffany, R-Wi7 (Hazelburst).
Earlier: How they voted: On weapons, humanitarian aid /3
Earlier: How they voted: On Tik Tok /1
Scam: To fix corrupted computer, send $10,000
ST. CHARLES, Minn. – A woman reported being scammed out of $10,000 in responding to an online message that her computer had been corrupted. The victim said she was told to drive to LaCrosse, 50 miles away, and to transfer the money into bitcoin wallet. She did as told. Finally home on Karen Court near St. Charles, she realized something was amiss. She contacted the Winona County sheriff’s office. The woman, age 70, said she thinks her money went to China.
Remember when: Houston County’s KKK hate-mongers
HOUSTON, Minn. – The Ku Klux Klan revival in the 1920s took firm root in Houston County at white-hooded gatherings and with racist bluster but even more so a rabid hatred aimed at Catholics, according to historian Nancy Vaillincourt. In a recent presentation at the Houston library, Vaillincourt showed Klan paraphernalia and historic photographs. The Klan in Houston County was especially strong in the Money Creek area. At least one clergyman — a Protestant, of course — wore a white robe and hood and preached against those Papist Catholic immigrants down in Hokah. Women too wore white hoods and garb. They called themselves the Ladies of the Invisible Empire. There remain gravestones up Money Creek engraved with KKK symbols. Vaillincourt said. Like the Klan elsewhere in the 1920s, the Houston County outpost subscribed to American and Protestant extremism. With few blacks living in Minnesota, the Klan’s most notable hatred, against backs, didn’t gain much foothold. The obsession was more at Jews but no less at Catholics. The Klan saw Catholics as an alien threat because they had a foreign leader — the Pope.
Klan ascents
The white supremacist Ku Klan Klan dates to Civil War veterans from the break-away southern states. Historians say it was the first organized terrorist movement in U.S. history. At first it targeted former slaves who had been freed, but its mantra of hate spread to include Jews, Catholics and new immigrant groups. Although the Klan faded within a decade, it has re-emerged in two later periods:
> 1920s. From a small surviving group in Georgia, the Klan revived in the 1920s, this time also in the Midwest and West. It took on a fraternal structure with mystic rites, closed-off initiation ceremonies, and secret passwords. The organization sold white costumes, complete with hoods, and even had a gold coin currency. Activism came to include cross-burnings and parades. Nationally the membership peaked at an estimated 3 million to 6 million.
> 1960s. Another Klan rebirth developed from a confluence of local white supremacist groups to fight the Civil Rights Movement. Violence and murder were among its tactics. Scholars estimated membership between 3,000 and 6,000.
Contributor: Kelly Beckman
Vaillincourt. An Owatonna librarian shows a Klan hood to a Houston library audience. She has spent years examining newspaper clippings and artifacts to construct a portrait of the Klan in Minnesota in the 1920s. Image: Beth Peterson-Lee
Klan’s undoing
The Klan of the 1920s in Minnesota peaked in 1925 with a state Klanklave at the county fairgrounds in Owatonna. Activities included three weddings against the backdrop of a flaming cross and a parade down Cedar Avenue. Probably 2,400 Klan members attended, although the organization’s well-oiled publicity machine claimed 10,000. The Klan then purchased a tract of land in Owatonna for its 1926 and 1927 state assemblies. “Klan Park,” it was called. But by then two events were already dooming the Klan:
> David Stevenson. He was the Grand Dragon of Indiana and chief Klan recruiter for seven states. He kidnapped and raped a young social worker. Bites into her breasts were so deep that her lungs became infected. She died. The sordid story was news everywhere. One headline had her “chewed by a cannibal.” Stevenson went to prison for life. Many Klan member, even the most adamant, were so turned off that they chose to disassociate themselves..
> Anti-Masking Law. The 1926 Minnesota Legislature created a law to prevent Klan members from hiding behind their hooded masks: “A person whose identity is concealed by the person in a public place by means of a robe, mask, or other disguise, unless based on religious beliefs, or incidental to amusement, entertainment, protection from weather, or medical treatment, is guilty of a misdemeanor.”
Cattle fall out of truck; all survive
RIDGEWAY, Minn. – There was a cattle round-up on County Road 12 – yes, literally, , on the road. Deputies reported the cattle fell out rear of a moving trailer. None were injured.
Peeper offers plea deal if judge goes easy
ROCHESTER, Minn. – A former Rushford man offered to plead guilty as a Peeping Tom at the Crossroads Hy-Vee grocery store if the charge is reduced from a felony to a misdemeanor. Patrick John Gaffron, 38, also said the judge would need to accept his explanation that he was high at the time and has no recollection. Gaffron was arrested in October after a woman reported being videoed in a customer toilet at the store. Gaffron has a record: In 2016 he was convicted for similar peeping at the Winona hospital.
Pigeon Falls collision kills driver
PIGEON FALLS, Wis. – A driver was killed and two others were injured in a collision on U.S. Highway 53 between Pigeon Falls and Whitehall. Trempealeau County Sheriff Brett Semingson declined to release the victims’ names. The accident was about 11:05 a.m. at Daggett Coulee Road. Deputies said a SUV crossed into the other lane and collided head-on with a pickup truck. The SUV driver died apparently outright. The pickup driver and a passenger were taken to the Whitehall hospital. Their injuries were described as non-life threatening.
Vehicle slams into highway truck: Two hurt
NODINE, Minn. – A Jeep crashed into a state highway truck with a load of trash heading down the steep Four-Mile Grade near Nodine. Both Jeep occupants were taken 18 miles to a LaCrosse hospital with sustainable injuries. The collision was on dry pavement about 10:50 a.m. Both vehicles were headed east toward Dakota and LaCrosse. Injured were Randall Hall Kevin, 20, of Tinley Park, Illinois, and a passenger, Arianna Nicole Soco, 20, of Hammond, Indiana. The state truck was hauling a trailer with trash. Unhurt were the occupants — driver Camron John Sylling, 23, of Eitzen, and passenger Donald Ray Bollman, 51, of La Crescent.
At long last, woman getting stolen car back
WINONA, Minn. – Two months after an acquaintance offered to take a Winona woman’s car for a gas fill-up and never came back, the car has been found. It’s 180 miles away in New London, Wisconsin. Police are looking for the acquaintance — Baldemar Mendez-Lopez, 28, of Appleton, Wisconsin. They have a warrant for his arrest. The woman, a Spanish translator, said she met Mendez-Lopez as a client. In February he took the car supposedly for a local errand but left town instead. The woman said she communicated with the man for a month or so to return the car. When he broke off communication, she reported the vehicle stolen. Police in New London, northwest of Appleton, located the car.
2013 Hundai Veloster. Sporty wheels coming home.
Vehicle, probably a truck damages rail crossing
WINONA, Minn. – The Canadian Pacific reported its mainline railroad crossing gate at Hamilton and Mark streets had been damaged by a hit-and-run driver. This was about 4:30 a.m. Police said it appeared that a truck driver towing a semitrailer turning onto Hamilton cut it too close. Damaged were a gate, pole and cement pillar.
Reuniting a Rochester duck brood
Ducklings rescued. Although not a 911 call, it was an urgent matter. A mama duck and her ducklings were down a storm sewer. The Truck 12 crew from the Rochester Fire Department raced to the rescue, although without sirens and flashers. The crew removed the sewer grate and sent a firefighter into the deep dark to extract the whole family. And, as the story goes, everybody lived happily ever after. Image: Rochester Fire Department.
Amazon to build north Iowa distribution center
MASON CITY, Iowa – Mega online retailer Amazon announced plans for a 50,000-square foot distribution center in Mason City. It will be what Amazon calls a “last mile fulfillment center” to hasten deliveries to addresses in north Iowa. The site: Near the airport on U.S. Highway 18. Groundbreaking: In May.
Chrysler dealership foresees doubling showroom
WINONA, Minn. – The Chrysler Winona car dealership hopes to be relocated on the south side of the Winona Mall, behind the Sugarloaf Ford dealership, by the end of July, co-owner Andy Puetz said. Architects are still working on the final design, but the plan, he said, is to keep a combined Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep and Ram showroom like now but larger. The new showroom will accommodate four vehicles, more than the present two. Outside will be space for the dealership’s normal inventory of 60 to 80 new vehicles and a similar number of pre-owned vehicles, he said. The move makes business sense, he said, noting that the Huff Street site – once a Chevrolet and Toyota dealership – is rented. Building new from scratch elsewhere, he said, was financially advantageous. The new site comprises most of the the former south Mall parking lot: “To the back and to the left if you were to stand on the Highway 61 facing the Ford store, it’s the northwest corner.”
Kwik Trip? Joe’s Tires?
Puetz said he had no idea about persistent chatter around town that Kwk Trip wants to build a convenience store at the current Chrysler site at 121 Huff Stret site: “We do not own the current building we are in, so we are not involved with the remarketing of it. We are not aware of any suitors.” the usual Kwik Trip spokesperson at corporate headquarters in LaCrosse has failed to respond to media queries. About other scuttlebutt, Puetz said it’s untrue that Joe’s Tires, at 1252 W Service Drive next to Sugarloaf Ford, is part of the deal.
Current home. At Huff and Second streets.
Verbatim
Puetz: “While we enjoyed being downtown for many years, and hoped to be for several more, our circumstances dictated us moving to a new location to be the most feasible and affordable. We will be able to be in a facility for less than what it would cost to purchase the current one, and yet have a brand new building in a higher visibility location. It was the only alternative that really made sense in the end. We will have room for all of our employees and customers will enjoy the same great service that they are used to having.”
Puetz. Co-owner, general manager.
College scores
Baseball: Concordia of St. Paul 5, Winona State 3
Baseball: Winona State 4, Concordia of St. Paul 3
Baseball: Saint Mary’s 13, Gustavus Adolphus 2
Baseball: Saint Mary’s 13, Gustavus Adolphus 1
Baseball: UW-LaCrosse 12, UW-Stout 1
Baseball: UW-LaCrosse 15, UW-Stout 3
Softball: MSU-Mankato 2, Winona State 1
Softball: Winona State 4, MSU-Mankato 0
Softball: Saint Mary’s 8, Carleton 0
Softball: Saint Mary’s 6, Carleton 3
Softball: UW-Eau Claire 8, UW-LaCrosse 4
Softball: UW-LaCrosse 4, UW-Eau Claire 2
Winona School Board adjusts boundary policy
WINONA, Minn. — By voice vote the Winona School Board voted to give administrators the flexiibiity to assiign elementary tudents to schools outside their desughated school attendance districts to even out class sizes. The change will create efficiencies by eliminating small classes. Class sizes now are projected to range from:
> Kindergarten: 17 to 22 students.
> First grade: 19 to 24
> Second grade: 20 to 25.
> Third and fourth grades: 23 to 26.
> Spanish immersion: 17 to 26.
The district’s elementary schools:
> Goodview: On Far West Ninth Street.
> Jefferson: Centrally located on West Fifth Street.
> Washington-Kosciusko: On Mankato Avenue on the Far East End.
Verbatim
John Casper, School District spokesperson, offered this explanation: “For example, right now we have two sections of 26 or 27 in third-grade at W-K, and we keep having more people move into the boundary with third-graders. In the past, we would have had to add those third-graders into an already crowded classroom. While we have “closed” those classrooms to accepting any more students, our previous policy did not give us a legal leg to stand on to deny admittance to those sections to anyone who lived within the boundary. While those families have accepted spots elsewhere in the district, if they were set on having their child attend third-grade at W-K, we would have had to accomodate that. What this does is provide the district with more freedom to balance class sizes by shifting students who may be in one attendance boundary to another school (and provide free busing). This helps us from a budgeting perspective as well because it gives us more control over how many sections we need to offer in each building. Many times in recent years we’ve been caught in a “no-man’s land” in August between expanding to three sections or holding at two. ”
Cops: Teen-sex sting nabs seven johns
ROCHESTER, Minn. – Seven men eager to buy sex with under-age girls through a pimp were arrested, police said. The men responded to an online advertisement set po by police. Surrise when they showed up with cash at a rendezvous site: No pimp, no girls. Just cops. Arrested were:
> Nicholas Robert Bain, age 24.
> Antonio Cruz-Hernandez, 22.
> Russell Jay Hodge, 48.
> Benjamin Michael Kinyon, 21.
> Andrew Gene Oneill, 50.
> Nathan Harold Robertson, 39.
> Hilario Perez Zenil, 48
The crime is punishable by five years in prison and a $10,000 fine.
Cops turn to Fillmore County for porn trafficker
RUSHFORD, Minn. – An alert was issued for a man believed to have made at least a part-time living with online child pornography out of Rushford and also Mabel. Sheriff John DeGeorge said the man had lived as recently as May in Fillmore County. A tip that William Guy Amick III, 36, may still be in the area came through the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, which had received a Pennsylvania arrest warrant from a county south of Pittsburgh. Public tips to the U.S. Marshals Service invited both online and at the tip line 877-WANTED-2. Tips can be anonymous, the agency said. Amick is charged in Minnesota’s Fillmore County with 13 felony counts. These inckude using minors in sexual performance, soliciting a child to engage in sexual conduct, and possessing pornographic work involving minors. The incidents involve kids 7 and under and also a newborn. Investigators said Amick often used a false female identity when interacting with other men online to create child sexual abuse material. It’s believed Amick was selling the materials online.
Amick. Six-foot-three, 123 pounds, dark brown hair, blue eyes. Sometimes in female disguise. Has been known to the name “E.” Had lived a couple years in Fillmore County.
House OKs fixes to cannabis sales rules
ST. PAUL, Minn. –The Minnesota House voted 68-54 to get the state-approved retail cannabis business up and going, Although the Legislature approved recreational cannabis as a regulated industry in 2023, the licensing process was not sufficiently defined. The new bill sets up two-level lottery-based system for licensing. One lottery would be for “social equity applicants” and the other for all other applicants. The 2023 system was supposed to be merit-based but proved unwieldy. The new bill’s prime sponsor, Zack Stephenson, D-Coon Rapids, said the goal remains a “legitimate marketplace for cannabis” to displace illicit marketing. The social equity provisions in the new bill would give priority in licensing ro people in high-poverty communities that have been historically disadvantaged by cannabis prohibition. The Stephenson bill still needs to be heard in the Senate.
Earlier: Next for Jesse Ventura: A cannabis brand name
Earklier: Minnesota joins 22 states with legal marijuana
Earlier: Marijuana legalization: Ventura says “about time”
Earlier: Marijuana law updates a “long journey”
Earlier: How they voted: Marijuana legalization / 3
Earlier: House reaffirms marijuana legalization policy
Earlier: How they voted: Marijuana legalization / 2
Earlier: Agreement reached on marijuana reforms
Earlier: How they voted: Marijuana legalization / 1
Earlier: Marijuana legalization bill passes House
Earlier: Democrats push to OK adults-only marijuana
Earlier: Walz: Let’s legalize marijuana; prohibition a failure
Stephenson. A Democrat fro Cook Rapids. An attorney. First elected 2018.
4-1/2 years later, a plea in Rochester shooting
ROCHESTER, Minn. – A verdict of guilty was entered on behalf of a homeless man accused in a 2019 shooting in which a man was awakened at his apartment and shot several times. Abdusalam Omar Hussein, 43, had put himself at the mercy of the court, and the judge entered the plea. Sentencing was put off until later. Hussein was arrested in November 2019 after a gas station clerk reported him brandishing a gun. This was after a man at a southeast Rochester apartment took five bullets – four in a leg, one in an arm. The man told police he had been sleeping when a person he knew as “Dream” walked into his unlocked apartment, started kicking him, waved a gun around, and opened fire. This was about 6:20 a.m.
Hussein. Faces two counts assault and being a felon in possession of a firearm. He earlier underwent psychological evaluations.
Heart attack blamed for Zumbro River death
MILLVILLE, Minn. – An Wisconsin man found dead in his submerged pickup truck in the Zumbro River three weeks ago died of a heart attack. The cause of the death of James Steiner, 62, of Alma was determined in an autopsy, said Wabasha County Sheriff Rodney Bartsh.
Craft brewery at Levee in new hands
WINONA, Minn. – A new shingle is hanging at the Island City craft-brewery, which had quickly established itself as a fixture at the Levee. Now with new owners, it’s transitioned into Two Fathoms Brewing. Graham Kaczmarek and Brook Merkwan of Fountain City purchased Island City Brewing in December and have overhauled the business without ever closing its doors. Core changes are in process. “It’ll be our flavor, our thing,” said Merkwap. Kaczmarek has brewing experience in Colorado and in Rochester and La Crosse. He also worked at Island City. Two Fathoms address: 65 East Front Street.
What’s in a name? In olden river days, steamboats needed two fathoms clearance to avoid getting hung up. A fathom was the distance across a boatman’s outstretched arms, fingertip to fingertip, about six feet. Two fathoms was safe.
Armed home intruder holds couple hostage
LAKE CITY, Minn. – A Lake City couple told police they were terrorized by a masked and armed female intruder who held them captive in their house for 3-1/2 hours and demanded money. They were not harmed physically. In the end, the woman went out on a patio and they locked her out. They hid in a fruit cellar until they were reasonably confident the woman had left, then called police. The couple gave this account to police:
> The husband and wife were having a quiet evening, one of them preoccupied at the dinner table and the other watching television in the living room.
> They weren’t aware that a masked woman had entered the unlocked front door. “You should really lock your doors,” the intruder said through a ski mask. This was about 9:15 p.m.
> The intruder had a gun, a knife and a police club.
> The woman demanded money. The couple responded that they didn’t keep money in the house. She then wanted credit card numbers and passwords. Then she wanted to be taken to an ATM. In the course of “negotiations,” the couple came up with $400.
Lake City. Population 5,300. On far north Wabasha County on the Mississippi River’s Lake Pepin. The community is a summer tourism destination. Lots of sailing occurs from two boat harbors. There is an up-scale lake-side population of condos and stand-alone residences, largely retirees from Rochester, 40 miles away, and the Twin Cities, 60 miles away. The median household income is $71,000.
> The intruder apparently had an accomplice. She made a call to someone with directions to get to the house.
> The woman lingered nonchalantly. She smoked cigarettes and drank an orange soda.
b The couple eventually gave the woman $400 cash.
> After three hours or so, the woman walked out on a patio. The couple locked the patio door behind her and scurried to lock every other door.
> They hid in the basement and called police. This was about 12:30 a.m.
> Police picked up a ping from a cell phone stolen from the couple. The location: 12 miles south near Zumbro Falls near State Highway 60 and Wabasha County Road 2.
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