Bringing home the bacon: Gene Pelowski
ST. PAUL, Minn. – This is the status of bills in the 2024 Minnesota House for which Gene Pelowski, D-Winona, was chief sponsor:
> HF 935. Port development. To Budget and Finance Committee.
> HF 1113: Water infrastructure. To Budget and Finance Committee.
> HF 1129: Winona public safety building. To Budget and Finance Committee.
> HF 1223: Winona County sales tax. To Budget and Finance Committee.
> HF 1708: Winona County Road 74. To Transportation and Infrastructure Committee
> HF 1827: Mississippi Riverfront Trail. To Budget and Finance Committee.
> HF 2629: County and city public safety facilities outside metropolitan area. To Budget and Finance Committee.
> HF 3152: Lewiston public safety building. To Budget and Finance Committee.
> HF 3392: Winona County mental health. To Budget and Finance Committee.
> HF 4000: Winona wastewater treatment. To Budget and Finance Committee.
This list doesn’t include bills for broad statewide purposes.
Pelowski. Chair of Houser Higher Education Finance and Policy Committee. Member of Capital Investment Committee, Rules and Legislative Administration Committee, and Way and Means Committee.
Twice in one night; Two police run-ins
WINONA, Minn. – For Drew Steven Follett it wasn’t his lucky evening. Police picked him ip about 8:20 p.m. on a felony warrant. This was in the 450 block of East Fifth Street. He posted bail. Three hours later about 11:30 at Broadway and Lafayette streets, police stopped him driving without a valid license and took him back to jail. Follett is 35 and from Winona.
College scores
Baseball: UM-Crookston 5, Winona State 3
Baseball: UM-Crookston 5, Winona State 1
Baseball: Saint Mary’s 22, Carleton 2
Baseball: Saint Mary’s 9, Carleton 3
Softball: Winona State 14, UM-Crookston 9
Softball: UM-Crookston 5, Winona State 2
Injury-free collision at Zumbrota ramps
ZUBROTA, Minn. – Three people, including an infant, escaped injury in a wo-vehicle collision on Highway 52 at the Zumbrota ramps. Taken 24 miles to a Rochester hospital without injury but to be examined were Nicolle Carol Peltier, 31, of Faribault, and an infant boy. The other driver, Kaylyn Rae Westerberg, 20, of Goodhue, was unhurt and not taken to a hospital. Police said Peltier, in a Ford Transit Van, was westbound on Highway 60 and turning north into Highway 52. Westerberg was heading west on Highway 60
Minnesotan dies after elephant rams safari wagon
LUSAKA, Zambia – An angry bull elephant charged a vehicle of tourists in Kafue National Park, overturning the vehicle and fatally injuring a Minnesota adventurer. Killed was Gail Mattson, 79, a seasoned traveler. Fellow tourists and their guide also were hurt. The attack was Saturday. News was delayed arriving home. Mattson split her time between the western Minneapolis suburb of Hopkins and snow-birding in Arizona. She died after being evacuated to a hospital. The elephant’s attack was chronicled from the vehicle on tourists’ cameras. The elephant stalked the vehicle at running speed for a few hundred yards. This was alongside a back road on the plains. Once caught up, the elephant pivoted and rammed the vehicle, then lifted it on his tusks dropped it on one side. Six tourists were in the vehicle,. What provoked the elephant wasn’t clear to investigators immediately. Four tourists on the game drive were treated for minor injuries. A fifth tourist was taken several hundred miles to a hospital in South Africa.
Mattson. In a fellow tourist’s camera before elephant attack.
Verbatim
Keith Vincent, chief executive of the company in charge of the game drive: “At around 9:30 a.m. on Saturday, the six guests were on a game drive when the vehicle was unexpectedly charged by the bull elephant. Our guides are all extremely well-trained and experienced, but sadly in this instance the terrain and vegetation was such that the guide’s route became blocked and he could not move the vehicle out of harm’s way quickly enough.”
Kafue National Park
At 8,600 square miles, it’s then largest national park in Zambia and the second largest in Africa. The park’s origins are in the early 1920s to combat attrition of wildlife. The park is home to 152 mammal species, 515 bird species, 70 reptile species, 58 fish species and 36 amphibian species. Elephants number about 4,800. Seasonal dirt roads criss-cross the park.
African elephants
Bulls are 10 to13 feet tall and weigh 10,000 to13,000 pounds. Can run 40 mph. .Unlike their Indian distant cousins , African elephants don’t lend themselves to domestication. These aren’t circus animals. In Africa they are moving to extinction because they’re hunted for their tusks and aphrodisiac potions, Poachers are active even in national parks and wildlife reserves.
Alarm over birth control being construed as lewd
ST. PAUL, Minn. — Now is time to scrap the 1873 Comstock Act, created by Victorian era morality police, said two Minnesota elected leaders. U.S. Senator Tina Smith and Attorney General Keith convened a news conference to express concern over a theory being advanced by Republicans to the U.S. Supreme Court that the Comstock Act justifies limits on birth control nationally. The 121-yer-old law is still on the books. The Comstock Act prohibited the U.S. Postal Service from distributing “lewd” materials and included abortion medications. Smith called the law a relic. “It’s a law that was dreamed up by Victorian-era morality police who believed that it was the government’s job to police people’s private lives,” Smith said. She and Ellison, both Democrats, said the Minnesota constitution’s long-standing guarantee of a right to abortion and reproductive healthcare could be jeopardized if the Supreme Court accepts Comstock as a governing principle. Said Smith: “In Congress I will do everything that I can with my legislative power to make sure that this old and arcane law, the Comstock Act can’t be misused to attack people’s rights.” She noted that 60% of abortions use drugs distributed in the mail.
Comstock. U.S. postmaster general from 1873 to 1907. He was a prolific author. Books included “Frauds Exposed; or, How the People Are Deceived and Robbed, and Youth Corrupted” (1880), “Traps for the Young” (1883) and “Morals versus Art” (1877)) His morality crusade has been traced to his time in the Connecticut infantry during the Civil War. He protested vulgarities by fellow soldiers in their everyday conversation.
Ellison and Smith. Among Democrats organizing to derail 21st century applications of the 1873 prudery law to birth control.
Comstock Act profile
When Ulysses Grant was president, Congress created legislation known as the Comstock laws. The parent law, passed in 1873, was titled the Act for the Suppression of Trade in, and Circulation of, Obscene Literature and Articles of Immoral Use. The act criminalized mailing obscenity, contraceptives, aborticients, sex toys, and correspondence with any sexual content or information. The law and spin-offs bore the name of Antony Comstock, a leading anti-vice activist.
Updated higher-ed package clears Minnesota House
ST. PAUL, Minn. — The Minnesota House voted 100-32 for a package of higher-ed policy proposals, including $2,500 scholarships for student aspiring to careers in high-demand energy fields. The House higher-ed committee chair, Gene Pelowski, D-Winona, said the package will help train the workforce of tomorrow.” The bill next goes to the Senate. The package funds programs in both the University of Minnesota system and the Minnesota State system, which includes Winona State and Minnesota College “Southeast in Winona. Pelowski said the new bill builds on “landmark investments” in the 2023 Higher Education Budget and makes them “even more effective.” Besides hundreds of hundreds of additional $2,500 scholarships to build a clean energy workforce, the policy package fine-tunes funding for campus construction. The package also places firmer regulations on third-party companies that run online academic programs. There also are updates on assistance for students with disabilities and how colleges handle sexual harassment and violence. Other provisions:
> Colleges must establish a counselor for “parenting students” to navigate programmatic hurdles.
> All private colleges, large and small, must adhere to government policies against sexual harassment and violence.
> Private career school offering credits through state colleges must be transparent with students and must comply with tighter regulations.
Winona man’s bail at $250,000 for shooting
ALMA, Wis. – Bail was set a $250,000 for a Winona man accused in a tavern shooting in Bluff Siding. Damien Bryant Winn, 39, was told by Judge Thomas Clark that his release would be conditional – no alcohol, no controlled substances, no firearms. Bail was set at an arraignment hearing. The charges:
> First-degree attempting homicide.
> First-degree recklessly endangering safety.
> Possessing a firearm as a convicted felony.
> Carrying a handgun where alcohol is sold or consumed.
> Endangering safety with the use of a firearm.
Earlier: Winona inmate back to Wisconsin to face judge
WSU re-launches hunt for diversity chief
WINONA, Minn. – A second round of interviews has been completed for a new Winona State University diversity officer to bridge cultural gaps on campus. The fjrst round failed to find someone with the “right technical and soft skills” to improve Winona State’s rating for diversity, said Denise McDowell, vice president for student life. She rates the campus at 3 or 4 and wants it to ’”level up.” The new candidates:
> Mohamed Ahmed. Currently head of diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging at Alliant International University in San Diego, California. He holds a doctorate in higher-ed leadership. An arlier degree is in international security and conflict resolution
> Amanda Peterson. Currently chief of staff, diversity and human services at Launch Ministry in Chaska, Minnesota. She holds degrees in Biblical theology, health psychology, and counseling.
> Pos Lis Vwj. Currently interim associate vice chancellor for equity in the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system. He has a doctorate in sociology.
The position has been vacant since August when Jonathan Locust left in a career move to Shippensburg University in Pennsylvania. Said McDowell about the vacancy: “If Dr. Locust left us at a Level 4 or, these finalists were thought to be able to take us to 7, 8 or 9.”
Bringing home the bacon: Jeremy Miller
ST. PAUL, Minn. – This is the status of bills in the 2024 Minnesota Senate for which Jeremy Miller, R-Winona, was chief sponsor:
> SF 3630: Winona County mental health facilities. To Health and Human Services Committee.
> SF 3765: Veterans grave markers. To Veterans and Veterans Affairs Committee.
> SF 4970: Minnesota State College Southeast campus improvements. To Capital Investment Committee.
> SF 4971: LaCrescent street improvements. To Capital Investment Committee.
> SF 4972: Winona wastewater treatment facility improvements. To Capital Investment Committee.
> SF 42973 Historic Forestville bridge preservation project. To Capital Investment Committee.
> SF 4974: La Crescent regional ice arena. To Capital Investment Committee.
This list doesn’t include bills for broad statewide purposes.
Miller. Member of Senate Rules and Administration Committee. Also Taxes Committee.
This arrest an “eardrum assault”?
WINONA, Minn. – Not everybody shares Emerson Gerald Brown’s taste in music — or the volume. He was approached by police for loud music in his parked car in the 250 block of East Fourth Street about 2:20 a.m. The car was locked, but Brown interrupted his listening and opened up. Brown, age 24, of Winona, admitted to a night of drinking, police said. A blood-alcohol test showed 0.29% — 3/12 times the threshold under Minnesota law for impairment.The cops took him to jail.
Brown. Not on his playlist: Mellow folk singer Don McLean’s “American Pie” with the line “The night the music died.”
Smart money shifts on Miller gambling bill
ST. PAUL, Minn. – State Senator Jeremy Miller’s signature 2024 bill in the Minnesota Legislature, to relax sports gambling regulations, is in trouble. Two Democrats say the Miller bill lacks “adequate safeguards” to prevent gambling addiction. Miller, a Winona Republican, has promoted his bill as a way to boost gambling, to promote tourism and and to raise stste revenue. Senators John Marty, D-Roseville, and Matt Klein, D-Mendota Heights, each have counter proposals. “I have very great concerns about letting predatory businesses come in and often take advantage of people’s risk of addiction,” said Klein. Marty’s bill would ban sports gambling on media whose audienes are 10% under the age of 21. “It’s going to mean less profit,” Marty said. Political observers doubt that the Miller plan is likely to pass unless he finds bipartisan support.
Sports gambling as issue
The Miller proposal would put in-house and online wagering via apps under control of tribal casinos. But Minnesota’s two horse tracks want in on the action. Backers reached a deal to share revenue with charities that depend on gambling revenues that were slashed by restrictions enacted last year on electronic pull-tab games. One version includes a ban on betting after games start to restrain problem gamblers. Senator Marty said his position won’t change without some safety nets. Other members of the majority Democratic caucus have expressed similar concerns.
A sad reminder of child abuse as a problem
Hand in hand. Blue silhouettes are staked in lawns around Winona to symbolize April as Child Abuse Awareness Month. This is at the Family and Children’s Center on Huff Street. Some data show four girls and one in 13 boys are victims. Image: Steve Lunde
WSU basketball grad to coach at UW-Eau Claire
EAU CLAIRE, Wis. – A former Winona State University basketball player, Zach Malvik, has been named coach at UW-Eau Claire. Malvik, now 40 years old, was on the Winona State national champion team and was named an All-American in 2006. Malvik also spent a season as an assistant coach at Saint Mary’s University following a brief professional basketball career in Australia. Malvik spent last season as an assistant at UW-Green Bay. At UW-Eau Claire he succeeds Matt Siverling, who resigned in February after a12-13 season.
Malvik. Originally from the LaCrosse suburb of Holmen. Twice led the Holmen Vikings to conference championships.
Notable journalism
Alex Cotter (KAAL, April 1, 2024): “Baby Angel’s Finders Speak 13 Years Later”
Gabriel Hathaway (Winona Post, April 3, 2024): “DWI Charges Dropped Against Council’s Borzyskowski”
Eric Johnson (Austin Daily Herald, April 3, 2024): “Justice for Noelani Higgins Gets Over 17 Years in Prison”
College scores
Baseball: Saint Mary’s and UW-Stout, cancelled
Baseball: UW-LaCrosse 7, Gustavus Adolphus 1
Baseball: UW-LaCrosse 12, Gustavus Adolphus 9
Violence victim: Man-friend suspicious she cheated
WINONA, Minn. – Called to a disturbance, police heard a woman screaming for help, crying and scared, inside a trashed apartment and pointing to a back window. The assailant, she said, had jumped out as officers were arriving. This was next to a strip mall and the Sarnia Avenue veterans center. Police gave chase. Six blocks away, on Franklin Street, they caught Marsean Antonio Shines, 37. He denied any involvement in any incident. Then why run? “Scared,” he said. Indeed, Shines had a history of domestic violence. Also there were two warrants out for his arrest for violence and drunken driving. The assault had been about 8:05 p.m. at the apartment at 350 East Sarnia Street. The victim, a 47-year-old woman, said she had been in an intimate relationship with Shines.
Horrific detail reported to police
This was the wman;s account of what happened:
> Shines got mad because the she had to get ready for work. He accused her of being unfaithful.
> Shines pushed the woman to the floor and threw plants and furniture at her.
> He left and came back, again accusing her of being unfaithful.
> The woman tried fleeing to a neighbor’s apartment, but Shines followed and again pushed her the floor.
> She got up and re-entered her own apartment and locked Shines out. He kicked the door open. As police arrived, he ran to a back bedroom and jumped out a window and ran.
Aftermath
Police found the apartment was a mess – smashed furniture and broken potted plants. The woman, police said, had swollen arms and a bruised ankle. She declined medical attention.
Shines. Booking charges: Felony assault intending harm. Also fleeing.
Cops find meth-in-a-straw during arrest
WINONA, Minn. – A man being arrested at a Far East End apartment on a Wisconsin warrant for drugs was found during the arrest to be carrying meth. The meth, three grams, was heat-sealed inside a plastic drinking straw, police said. The straw was in a pocket, police said. Arrested for extradition to Buffalo County, Wisconsin, was Matthew Elmer Richards, 33. The arrest was about 6:40 p.m. in the 50 block of Links Lane. Police said sealed straws are not uncommon for concealing and transporting drugs in powder form.
.
Richards. Awaiting transfer back to Wisconsin on a drugs warrant.
Mom: Husband attacked as she fleeing with kids
WINONA, Minn. – A Winona man was charged with domestic abuse after police were called to a disturbance on the Near East Side. Aaron Scott Tadewald, 42, denied that anything physical had occurred. His wife’s account was different. The woman, age 35, told police she fears Tadewald when he’s drinking and was trying to get out of the house with five juvenile children. He punched her in the face and shoulder, she said. Police reported her face was red as if from being struck. Also: One of the children said he had seen Tadewald hit her. Police said Tadewald showed signs of intoxication. This was about 4 p.m. in the 500 block of Kansas Street.
Tadewald. Booked for domestic abuse causing fear and harm.
Cruise line adds boats from bankruptcy auction
GUILFORD, Conn. – The largest U.S. river cruise operator, American Cruise Lines, has bought four boats from a rival operator in bankruptcy. American Cruise Lines paid $6.3 million at an auction. The new assets include:
> American Queen: 417 guests, $2.2 million.
> American Countess, 245 guests, $1.6 million.
> American Empress, 223 guests, $1.6 million.
> American Duchess,166 guests, $200,000.
The line already has a fleet of other vessels, which make Winona a port of call. The line also has two new boats under construction. The newly acquired vessels had been operated by American Queen Voyages. They were caught up in the bankruptcy of its parent company, the San Francisco-based private equity investments Hornblower Group.
House favors clipping safety video for older drivers
ST. PAUL, Minn. – The Minnesota House voted 97-34 for its major 2024 transportation bill. Among dozens of provisions is cutting an online crash prevention xourse for over-55 drivers to four hours. The course had been eight hours. Passing the course qualifies for a 10% insurance discount. Among other transportation bill provisions:
> Child car seats. Recommended practices would become a rear-facing seats for children younger than age 2, a forward-facing seat for children 4 to 9, and booster seats for children 4 to 9. Children 13 and younger should ride in the back in vehicles with a back seat.
> State Fair congestion. The Fair would be required to develop transportation plan to reduce traffic, congestion and parking and to expand both bike storage and ridesharing.
> Derailments. Train crews would be required to call 911 for crashes that could cause hazardous spills.
> Electric cars. Trunk highway funds could be spent electric car infrastructure to qualify for federal dollars. Currently there is a ban on such use of trunk highway funds.
> Passenger trains. The state Transportation Department would be allowed to promote interstate train travel, which now is prohibited.
A parallel bill is progressing through the Senate. Almost for sure, a joint Senge-House committee review will be necessary to resolve differences in the bills.
State agency gigs Watkins Manor for patient death
WINONA, Minn. – A state investigator found the Watkins Manor nursing home in Winona was culpable for the death of a patient who fell and died in July. The investigator, Kris Detsch, blamed a nurse for failing “to use her professional judgment.” Detsch named neither the patient nor the nurse in her report. This is what happened according to Detsch’s investigation and other sources:
> The patient arrived for hospice care at Winona Manor with kidney and heat failure and signs of approaching death.
> At the family’s insistence, aides moved the patient from a bed into wheelchair, even though a supervising nurse said the wheelchair wasn’t a good idea but deferred to the family.
> Either later in the day or the next day, a hospice nurse noted the patient was minimally responsive and staring at the ceiling. The nurse noted dry, pale skin and that the patient flinched from stomach pain when touched.
> Mental health medications were discontinued and replaced with pain and anxiety medicine, In retrospect this constituted over-medication
> Three hours later the patient, unattended, fell and suffered a head injury.
> The patient was transferred a few blocks to the Winona hospital and died of a blunt-force head trauma.
Watkins Manor. An assted-living facility operated by Winna Health, whose umbrella of medical sevices include the Winona hospital, clinic ad nursing homes. Winona Manor has 60 apartments for senior ciuzens and also has hospice services that focus on caring, not curing. The Jacobethan building, at 175 East Wabasha Street, is on the National Register Historic Places. It was built n 1927 for Paul Watkins, a scion to the fortune if products manufactuer J.R. Watkins.
Verbatim
Detsch, state Health Department investigator: “The facility and a registered bhrse were responsible for the maltreatment. The resident had signs of approaching death when the nurse failed to use her professional judgment and act in the resident’s best interest when she directed a licensed practical nurse and an aide to transfer the resident out of bed and placed her into a wheelchair. All three staff left the unconscious resident unattended.”
Galesville basketball coach moving on
GALESVILE, Wis. – The boys basketball coach at Gale-Ettrick-Trempealeau High School the past six years, Jared McCutchen, will leave over the summer for an administrative job 20 miles away at Blair-Taylor High. McCutchen’s best G-E-T season was 20-8 and making the WIAA Division 3 sectional finals. His overall record: 76-67. Age: 40.
McCutchen. Overall Galesville record 76-67.
Power snipped after months of electricity theft
LEWISTON, Minn. – A utility crew cut power to a troubled Arches address where the company said nobody had paid for electricity for a year or so. As a usual precaution, sheriff’s deputies stood by while power was disconnected. There were no incidents. Someone at the house, at 23121 Highway 14, had been stealing electricity, MIEnergy said. A number of drug-related incidents have occurred at the house, which has been in growing disrepair.
Earlier: Loose pit bull linked to “problem address” at Arches
Earlier: Wisconsin fugitive eludes cops at Arches
Earlier: Update on Arches drugs: Stray pills found
Earlier: Cops: Inchoate wanderer loaded with cash, fetanyl
Earlier: Cops struggle to force drugs out of man’s throat
Earlier: Warrant issued for Arches attack on sleeping woman
Nursing home evacuated safely in fire
ROCHESTER, Minn. – Residents at the 81-bed Edenbrook nursing home evacuated themselves, some with staff assistance, from a smoky fire in one room. No one was injured. The residents were mostly outside when fire crews arrived about 6 a.m. Firefighters used an extinguisher to put out the flames. The fire was confined to Room 33. The building was ventilated and residents allowed to return. Damage was estimated at $2,000.
Edenbrook. Short-term care facility in Rochester at 1875 19th Street Northwest.
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