College scores
Lacrosse (women): UW-LaCosse 17, Milwaukee Engineering 5
Minnesota prep
Basketball (boys): Austin Packers 86, Winona Winhawks 68
Basketball (boys): Stewartville Tigers 70, Faribault Falcons 39
Basketball (boys): Lakeville South Cougars 67, Rochester Marshall Rockets 46
Basketball (boys): Rochester Mayo Spartans 73, Rochester Century Panthers 55
Dairyland Power sees Genoa nuclear comeback
Pioneer Genoa reactor. Built 1960s on Mississippi riverbank. Dismantled 1987. Site now used only for dry cask storage of spent fuel from the facility.
Ahead: Less obtrusive, new-tech cooling
GENOA, Wis. — The giant electricity wholesaler Dairyland Power is eyeing the riverside site of its now-decommissioned Genoa nuclear reactor for a new generation reactor. Dairyland’s chief executive Brent Ridge, described the Genoa site, nine miles south of LaCrosse, as his dream scenario” for the returning to nuclear energy generation. “The challenge is going to be partnerships of the federal government, state government, cooperatives, investors, utilities and big technology. Getting all those things to work together,” Ridge said in a LaCrosse Tribune interview. “I am more positive about that than I’ve been in a decade.” Since Dairyland closed its early-generation plant in 1987, Wisconsin’s only nuclear plant has been near Manitowoc on Lake Michigan. Advancements in nuclear technology have opened the door for modular reactors, Ridge said. These facilities, he said, process less fuel while taking up less space, making them more versatile and reducing siting limitations.
Verbatim
Ridge: “The new power plants are looking to be more efficient from a cooling perspective, using less water, different mediums for coolant. You can put five on a site, two on a site, acting like a plug-and-play module. It’s interesting that the word is actually correct: It’s modular.”
Ridge. Chief executive at LaCrosse-based Dairyland Power.
Wisconsin-Chicago pilot dies in foggy crash
DEERFIELD, Ill. — The pilot of a single-engine airplane was killed in a crash flying into Chicago from Wisconsin. Few details were immediately available, including the name of the pilot. He was alone. The crash occurred about 9:45 p.m. in heavy fog. The plane struck the roof a townhouse, hit two gas meters, and ended up in a backyard. No one on the ground was hurt. The pilot was dead when first-responders arrived. The plane was bound for the Chicago Executive Airport five miles away in the northwest Chicago suburb of Wheeling. It was believed he plane had taken off from Madison, 140 miles away, or Necedah, 150 miles away .An air traffic controller at the Wheeling airport knew there was a problem:
“Altitude alert. Check the altitude immediately. Can you please climb? … 800 feet above the ground … 700 feet above the ground.”
$7,500 bail in Trempealeau chase, intrusion case
WHITEHALL, Wis. — Bail was set for $7,500 for a Galesville woman captured by deputies in a rural house where the owner called deputies after locking her in a bathroom. Shanna Eichman, age 45, posted he bail. She had been arrested the night before near Trempealeau in the southern end of the county.
Lake Pepin ice pack yields inch by inch
LAKE CITY, Minn. — Ice on Lake Pepin receded slightly, to 22 inches at the deepest point, in the latest Army Corps borings. The borings are closely watched by the Mississippi River shipping industry. Barge traffic has been moribund all winter on the Upper Mississippi and cannot resume until the ice is breakable.
Earlier: Pepin ice pack thicker than average
Emergency, fire crews make 47 calls
WINONA, Minn. – The Fire Department reported 36 emergency medical calls plus 11 fire calls in recent days:
> Tuesday, March 3: 5 medical calls plus 1 fire call.
> Monday, March 2: 6 medical calls plus 4 fire call.
> Sunday, March 1: 5 medical calls plus 1 fire call.
> Saturday, February 28: 5 medical calls plus 1 fire call.
> Friday, February 27: 7 medical calls plus 1 fire calls.
> Thursday, February 26: 4 medical calls plus 1 fire call.
> Wednesday, February 25: 4 medical calls plus 2 fire calls.
Earlier: Emergency, fire crews make 65 calls
Dumpster crash linked to 0.23% blood-alcohol
WINONA, Minn. — A witness told police seeing a driver crash into a trash bin on the West Side. Then, his car stuck in a snow bank, the driver walked off. The witness described the driver as a white male dressed in black. This was a little after 2 a.m. About three blocks away, near Fifth and Olmstead streets, officers located a man on foot and wearing black and matching the witness description. Samuel James Vonarx age 24, of Winona, said his car indeed was stuck in the snow but denied hitting the dumpster, police said. Vonarx smelled of alcohol, fumbled with impaired dexterity for his wallet, and had bloodshot and watery eyes, police said. He failed roadside sobriety exercises, they said. Also: His blood-alcohol tested at 0.23%, about triple what’s allowed. He was charged with driving while intoxicated.
Handgun report leads to assault charge
WINONA, Minn. — A Winona man who reportedly waved a pistol during an argument at an East Side apartment was arrested on the other end of town in a traffic stop. Charged with assault was Logan Edward Kempen, age 23. Police recognized Kempen’s vehicle westbound on U.S. Highway 14 approaching the Terrace Heights area. A replica handgun — actually a BB gun — was in the car, officers said. This was about 12:10 a.m. Police ealier had been called to the 450 block of East King Street about a disturbance. Police were told that Kemper and a 16-year-old companion had stopped at the apartment of 22-year-old man and his friend. In an ensuing argument, Kempen pointed the gun at the other man, police were told.
College scores
Baseball: Rose-Hulman 8, Saint Mary’s 1
Softball: Saint Mary’s 13, LaGrange 3
Softball: Saint Mary’s 11, LaGrange 1
Volleyball (men): Governors State 3, Viterbo1
Minnesota prep
Basketball (boys): Lewiston-Altura Cardinals 85, Grand Meadow Superlarks 53
Basketball (boys): Wabasha-Kellogg Falcons 73, Lanesboro Burros 66
Basketball (boys): Zumbrota-Mazeppa Cougars 73, Dover-Eyota Eagles 71
Basketball (boys): Caledonia Warriors 61, Cannon Falls Bombers 58
Basketball (boys): Goodhue Wildcats 86, Lake City Tigers 57
Wisconsin prep
Basketball (boys): Cochrane-Fountain City Pirates 59, Port Edwards Blackhawks 41
Basketball (boys): Hillsboro Tigers 68, Gilmanton Panthers 38
Basketball (boys): Arcadia Raiders 70, Wautoma Hornets 52
Basketball (boys): Augusta Beavers 45, Whitehall Norse 43
Basketball (boys): Bangor Cardinals 61. Eleva-Strum Cardinals 59
Erratic driver found locked in basement bathroom
TREMPEALEAU, Wis. — Deputies found a Galesville woman locked in a basement bathroom at a rural house where she had fled on foot after a car chase. Shanna Eichman, age 45, was booked at the county jail in Whtiehall. The charges:
> Burglary.
> Recklessly endangering safety.
> Fleeing police.
> Possessing methamphetamine.
> Possessing drug paraphernalia.
> Driving while intoxicated.
> Driving with a revoked license.
According to Trempealeau County court documents: A deputy attempted to pull over Eichman’s vehicle for incorrect plates. When the deputy activated his lights, Eichman accelerated and her driving became erratic. She exceeded speed limits, ran a stop sign, struck a mailbox, and fled to a nearby house. At the house she asked for refuge from the cops. The resident told Eichman to hide in the basement, then locked her down there, and called 911.When deputies arrived, they unlocked the basement door. Eichman came out and explained her presence in the house as having left a sex toy in the abasement bathroom sink and was wanting to recover it. Meanwhile, a juvenile at the home told deputies he found a plastic bag of crystalline material beneath the basement sink. Eichman admitted that the bag was hers and contained meth.
Trump lags on promised Minneapolis drawdown
WASHINGTON — The number of Operation Metro Surge federal agents in Minnesota remains near 650. This this quadruple the usual immigration control contingent for the state. The 650 number was squeezed out of Trump’s Homeland Security chief, Kristi Noem, when pressed for a update by Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar at a Congressional hearing. Trump had dispatched 3,600 to 4,000 immigration and border control agents into Minnesota in a political retribution campaign. Their street beatings, warrant-less intrusions and other barbary ignited massive citizen resistance and eventually forced Trump to back off. The drawdown began three weeks ago. Trump’s point man for Metro Surge, bypassing Noem, was federal border czar Tom Homan, who promised in mid-February to shrink the presence of federal agents in Minnesota within a week to their “regular footprint” of 150. If Noem’s 650 figure is to be believed, it hasn’t happened. To be sure, Noem has a weak management record for precison and clarity. The Klobuchar-Noem exchange at the Senate Judiciary hearing:
Klobuchar: “When are you going to get down to the original footprint as promised to us?”
Noem: “We’re continuing to work at that.”
Pressed further, Noem said investigators are still in the state to investigate fraud. It was unclear how fraud was in the purview of Noem’s Homeland Security Department. She then muddied the waters by saying the slower-than expected drawdown was in case “things get out of hand.”
Noem. A Trump loyalist and first in his chain of command to run immigration and homeland security affairs. In office 14 months. Projects have included military-style occupation of Minneapolis, Los Angeles and other Democrat-controlled cities.
The imperial Noem
The Senate Judiciary hearing, her second before Congress in two weeks, didn’t go well for Noem. She seemed to conflate fraud and deportation issues, as has Trump. She was confronted at the hearings about her priorities, her management style, and her judgment. She is notorious for multiple daily wardrobe changes for cameras. She flies costly private jets on government business. Recently she fired an aide summarily for leaving her personal blanket on a plane. Her judgment has been questioned about an account in her autographed about shooting a puppy who was rambunctious during a pheasant hunt with people she wanted to impress, this as testimony her decisiveness as a leader but viewed widely as pointless cruelty. This was when shef governor of South Dakota. When asked about her ongoing extramarital with her chief aide, Corey Lewandowksi, which goes back to her South Dakota days, Noem turned angry. Neither confirming nor denying what’s been common knowledge at Homeland Security headquarters and earlier in Pierre, Noem dismissed the issue as not as a matter of her personal judgment but as “tabloid gossip” below her dignity to address. She is 54, he is 52, and the relationship has been disruptive at top levels at Homeland Security. She also was challenged at the hearings for rushing to judgment in calling Renee Good a “domestic terrorist” even before any facts were in abut her being shot and killed by a Homeland agent on a Minneapolis street. Noem bristled. She denied ever calling Wood a “domestic terrorist” but only that Wood had committed an act of “domestic terrorism.” Noem’s distinction came across as pointless word-splitting and lame and another sign of bad judgment.
Winonans hurt in two-vehicle crash downriver
WINONA, Minn. — A collision at the Everyday Campground intersection south of Winona injured two persons in a minivan. The driver, Elizabeth Diane Kugel, 23, of Winona, was taken six miles to the Winona hospital. A passenger, Luke Prentiss Spalding, 28, of Winona, also was taken to the Winona hospital, then transferred to a LaCrosse hospital. First-responders from Pickwick described their injuries as sustainable. The second driver, Marshal James Rohrer, 19, of Brownsville, in a 2008 Chevrolet Silverado pickup, was unhurt. The crash occurred about 4:30 p.m. on combined U.S. Highways 14-61 at Woodland Hills Drive. Winona County deputies said Rohrer was southboond toward LaCosse on the four-lane right-of-way. The minivan, a 2019 Dodge Caravan, was coming off Woodland Hills Drive, deputies said.
Minnesota soldier dies in Iran campaign
WASHINGTON — An Army reservist from Minnesota was killed Sunday in an Iranian drone strike in Kuwait. Sergeant First Class Nicole Amor, of White Bear Lake, was with the Iowa-based 103rd Sustainment Command at the Kuwait industrial port of Shuaiba on the Persin Gulf, the Pentagon reported. She was 39. Amor enlisted in the National Guard in 2005 and transferred to the Army Reserve in 2006. She deployed to Kuwait and Iraq in 2019. Amor was on the first casualty list of fallen soldiers from President Trump’s Operation Epic Fury against Iran. The other 103rd fatalities besides Amor included:
> Sergeant Declan Coady, 20, of West Des Moines, Iowa.
> Captain Cody Khork, 35, of Winger Haven, Florida.
> Sergeant First Class Noah Ttietjens, 42, of Bellview, Nebraska.
Without explanation the Pentagon did not identify the two other fallen U.S. soldiers at Port Shuaiba. There also were 18 other soldiers wounded on Sunday. It wasn’t clear whether the casualties were all in the same attack. Iran was aiming drones and missiles at U.S. military installations, as well as other targets, in Iraq, Israel, Kuwait, Lebanon, Qatar, Syria and United Arab Emirates.
Amor. Just days away from returning home to her husband and two children in White Bear Lake.
Notable journalism
Marc Hequet (Big River magazine, March-April 2026): “Riverbed Mine Plan Provokes Concerns”
Cole Kindiger (LaCrosse Tribune, February 26, 2026): “‘As Vulnerable as Ever,’ Winona’s Immigrant, Refugee Groups Keep Working as ICE Draws Down”
Tesla Mitchell (Winona Daily News, December 16, 2018): “Beer, Scandal and the Real Pronunciation of Bub’s: Drink It All In at New Winona County Historical Center Exhibit”
Pump prices zoom after Trump’s Iran attack
^ Saturday
Tuesday >
WINONA, Minn. — Three days after President Trump unleashed U.S. military might on Iran, ostensibly to pre-empt an attack on the United States, oil prices surged globally. By Tuesday a typical 20-gallon fill-up for Minnesota motorists soared from $55 to $60. Analysts blamed Trump, citing global jitters about his unpredictable and impetuous decision-making, his failure to consult allies in advance, and misreading Iran’s response by blocking 20% of the world’s oil supply ships out of the Persian Gulf. Iran also has attacked U.S. embassies and military bases throughout the Middle East. One Iran missile reached a British military base on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus. Geopolitical strategists worried whether Trump had so upset the world order that global escalation couod be inevitable.
Earlier: Johnson: Iran war wrong, so too Finstad
Earlier: On all-out war on Iran: Finstad stands by Trump
Murder plea: Guilty in Kellogg river shooting
WABASHA, Minn — A Chatfield man pleaded guilty to murder for the 2025 shooting death of a Wabasha woman. The victim, Melissa Hunt, age36, was shot in the face at a boat landing near Kellogg. She managed to drive to nearby house and named her assailant as “Ham.” She died soon afterward six miles es away at the Wabasha hospital. Police later found Craig Alan Hameister, 45, hiding up a tree. At a hearing Tuesday, Hameister told the judge: “I shot Melissa Hunt in the face.” Hameister appeared in a video hookup from his Wabasha County jail cell. Judge Dwight Luhmann, on loan to Wabasha County from Winona, accepted the plea and scheduled a pre-scntencing hearing for April.
Earlier: Bail at $2 million in Kellogg boat landing case
Police make drug arrest in alley garage
WINONA, Minn. — A Winona man was arrested amid drug-related debris in an alley garage on the East End. Mason Sean Maloney, 25, was charged with drugs possession. This about 10:50 p.m. The arrest, police said, concluded an evening of five calls to the police dispatcher on the 911 emergency line when in fact there was no emergency. The calls had started at a Kwik Trip about 5:50 p.m. The last call was from a flop-house in the 400 block of Mankato Avenue with the caller requesting a ride. Police responded and found Maloney in the detached garage smoking. Scattered around were burned tinfoil wrappers, metal smoking pipes,10 doses of the street drug myoxin, and a baggy with traces of a white substance. It wasn’t clear whether Maloney had made the false 911 calls or just happened to be holed up alone in the garage at the Mankato house from which final call was made requesting a ride.
College scores
Baseball: Saint Mary’s 14, Wartburg 3
Minnesota prep
Basketball (boys): Goodhue Wildcats 86, Lake City Tigers 57
Basketball (boys): Dodge Center Triton Cobras 84, Rushford-PetersonTrojans 76
Basketball (boys): Hayfield Vikings 79, Mabel-Canton Cougars 51
Airport management to change hands
WINONA, Minn. — The City Council voted 6-0 to award a 10-year contract to manage the municipal airport to a Wisconsin company that has been flying in and out o Winona 16 years. The company, Heartland Aviation, operates luxury jet charters out of Eau Claire, and maintains an Eau Claire service base. The company also operates corporate flights from Rochester and has a flight school at RST. At Winona’s Max Conrad Field in Goodview, Heartland will replace B2W, which has had the management contract for 30 years. This is how management proposals ranked on a 100-point scale considered by a City Council advisory committee:
> Heartland Aviation: 91.
> Fountain Aviatio: 74.
> B2W: 55.
> AircraftMD: 54.
> Conrad Aviation: 49.
The deal marks an end of an era for popular Winona aviator George Bolon, whose B2W has been what’s known as the “fixed-based operator” since the 1990s. Bolon, who is 85 years old, has been a continuing link to the legacy of pioneer Winona aviator Max Conrad after whom the airport was named in 1948 when it was founded. Conrad died in 1979.
Welcome to Winona. Main building dating to era when the city had scheduled air service.
Airport profile
Max Conrad Field has a primary asphalt runway of 5,600 feet. The airport averages 30 aircraft operations a day: 92% general aviation, 8% air taxi. Thirty aircraft based at the airport: 26 single-engine, two multi-engine, one jet, and one glider. The airport offers fueling, major airframe and major engine serivce. There has been scheduled commercial airline service since 1970s.
Foot-dragging alleged in probe into pets’ deaths
CHATFIELD, Minn. — A rural couple is blaming a neighbor for shooting their Golden Doodle pet Sadie and her Great Pyrenees companion Bertha. The couple told Olmsted County sheriff’s investigators that the dogs had been let out for their evening routine but failed to come home to a bell, which as was their routine. Bertha’s body was found at a carcass put out by a neighbor to lure coyotes, they said. A blood trail led to Bertha at a creek. This was January 5 northwest of Chaftield. They couple said the neighbor admitted to firing shots from inside his house after seeing commotion on a motion-activated camera. A gofundme site has been set up to raise funds for egal acti after two months of no follow-up by county officials, according the couple.
In happier moment. Orion Township couple seeks help to prod legal action for loss.
Johnson: Iran war wrong, so too Finstad
ROCHESTER, Minn. — Congressional candidate Jake Johnson faulted President Trump’s all-out surprise attack on Iran as a giant misstep. The first wave eradicated Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and dozens of his top staff. Hundreds of civilians also died. Johnson squared off against MN-1 incumbent Brad Finstad, a Trump toady, who earlier praised the attack. Johnson’s response; The attack has opened the path of “another open-ended conflict.” Meanwhile, he said, trillions of dollars of U.S. dollars are going into a war while U.S. families are struggling to make ends meet. Johnson called the attack “a brazen and unlawful rush toward war.” Congress, he said, must act immediately to stop Trump from further escalation.
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