Feel tired today? Wait ’til tomorrow
WINONA, Minn. — Much of the nation, including Minnesota, switches to daylight savings time at 2 a.m. on Sunday. We lose an hour.
Update: Tomah High threat likely from abroad
TOMAH, Wis. – An email threat against Tomah High School staff and students sent police into high alert. Police with K-9 aides, backed up by State Patrol troopers, spent Saturday scouring the building. They found nothing suspicious. Mike Hanson, school district administrator, said later that classes would resume as usual Monday but with an extra police presence at all 12 Tomah district schools. The targeted high school has 870 students. Investigators from the state Division of Criminal Investigation and the FBI said the email appears to have originated outside the United States. It was sent to 78 Tomah High School employee email addresses.
Car crash injures seven; impact deploys all airbags
CALEDONIA, Minn. – A four-car pile-up injured seven people, including four children, on Caledonia’s south end. The injuries all were non-life threatening, said Houston County deputies. Ambulances took the injured individuals 24 miles to LaCrosse hospitals. These included all the children. The accident was just before noon on State Highway 44 at West Washington Street. The vehicles involved:
> 2016 Chevy Tahoe. Driven. by Roger Oren Lanswerk, 79, of Mabel, whose injuries were non-life threatening. The impact deployed the airbag.
> 2017 Ford Taurus. Driven by Jon Lee Houge, 69, of Onalaska, Wisconsin, who was uninjured. Airbag deployed.
> 2017 Toyota Highlander. Driven by Molly Jane Beatty, 42, of Decorah, who was uninjured. Airbag deployed.
> 2021 Chevy Traverse. Driven by Joshua Jerome Uhlenhake, 39, of Ossian, Iowa, whose injuries were non-life threatening. Airbag deployed. Also with non-life threatening injuries: Samantha Uhlenhake, 38; Nolan Joseph Uhlenhake. 8; Brayden Joshua Uhlenhake, 7; Morgan Judith Uhlenhake, 5; and Jordyn Jo Uhlenhake. 2. All from Ossian.
All four vehicles were heading north on Highway 44 into Caledonia. Everyone was belted, deputies said. Road conditions were dry.
Ellison warns of slick health-care scam
ST. PAUL, Minn. – Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison warned consumers of imposter scams targeting people following the recent data breach UnitedHealth Group subsidiary Change Healthcare. With personal data from the breach, scammers are calling and asking for credit card numbers to straighten out supposed iregularities, Ellison said. “If you receive a call like this, do not provide any information,” he said. “Instead, hang up, then dial your medical provider yourself to determine whether they actually need your payment information.” He called the scammers sophisticated, experienced and persuasive. “Be on your guard.”
Big River magazine sees seamless flux ahead
WINONA, Minn. – The Winona-based magazine Big River is changing business models to be more attractive for grants from foundations and to expand, editor-publisher Reggie McLeod announced. A new non-profit entity, Big River Voice, will buy the magazine. This, McLeod said, will fund more in-depth and complex stories on the Upper Mississippi and also help refresh a digital presence. The current subscription-based semi-monthly magazine, he said, will continue with advertising. In a transition period, he said, tax-exempt donations should be channeled to the Winona Community Foundation as the magazine’s fiscal partner.
Unique regional journalism. The magazine, 31 years old, claims 14,500 readers.
Investigators ready to probe Lutsen Lodge ashes
LUTSEN, Minn. – Agents of the state fire marshal planned to start on Monday to sift through debris of Lutsen Lodge for clues about the fire’s origin. The fire was February 6, but the remnants and ash have taken a month to settle. The site still remains somewhat a safety risk due to the unstable debris, said State Fire Marshal Daniel Krier.
Earlier: Lutsen Lodge mired in lawsuits before fire
On month ago. The 170-room Lutsen Lodge on Lake Superior was destroyed by fire. It was a lull season. No guests were registered.
First barge of spring due perhaps next weekend
WINONA, Minn. – The Upper Mississippi is ice-free all the way upriver to Minneapolis, but don’t expect any barge traffic through Winona until next Saturday at the soonest. The Army Corps still has winter repairs under way at Lock and Dam 7 at Dresbach. Plans are to have the lock operational again to raise and drop barges between Pool 7 and Pool 8. The Red Wing lock also is closed for repairs until next Saturday. The waterway then will be open to navigation all the way to New Orleans.
Remember when
There was a time when Winona merchants made a big deal about the opening of the river. There was a contest to guess the day, hour, and minute that the first tow would arrive. The first boat was cause for celebration—a ritual of spring. Today the excitement pretty much limited to the people involved in harbor commerce – grain-shippers mostly. A couple things have changed. Way, way back before interstate highways and aerodromes, riverboats were essential for travel. The rver was a lifeline to the rest if the world. Later the prospering locally owned mercantile community began being displaced by chain retailers that didn’t have the same feel for the community’s pulse beat. Think Fleet Farm, Hy-Vee, Menards, Target and Walmart. Perkins too. And Lee Enterprises and Leighton Broadcasting.
Drug antidote Narcan saves druggie pair
WINONA, Minn. – First-responders saved two overdosed people with Narcan injections at a notorious drug house on Mankato Avenue. Both were taken to the Winona hospital down the street and recovered, police said. A 911 call had been made about 11:30 p.m. Fire, police and ambulance. crews arrived shortly thereafter. First-responders were unsure what drug was involved, but noted that the antidote Narcan works only for certain classes of drugs – and in these cases it worked. The 911 emergency call was to the 400 block of Mankato Avenue. The caller didn’t self-identify. It was unclear to police whether the two overdosed individuals lived there but probably not. The place has people coming and going.
College scores
Baseball: Minot State 10, Winona State 6
Baseball: Benedictine 10, Saint Mary’s 4
Softball: Wesleyan of Nebraska 9, Saint Mary’s 1
Softball: Saint Mary’s 11, Elizabethtown 4
Tennis (women): Cornerstone 4, Winona State 3
Minnesota prep
Basketball (girls): Stewartville Tigers 64, Byron Bears 51
Hockey (boys): Circle Pines Centennial Cougars 8, Rochester Century Panthers 2
Arrest pending for uninvited garage residency
WINONA, Minn. – Police finished paperwork to arrest a man suspected of using an alley garage on East Fifth Street as a drug den and perhaps even living there several weeks. Pending an arrest, police didn’t release the man’s name but described him as 50 years old and homeless. Tentative charges: Trespass and burglary.
Arrest for violence to wife over house-keeping
WINONA, Minn. – Police arrested a Far East End man whose wife said he pulled her hair and pushed her because he was unhappy with her housekeeping. Arrested was David Cornell Mitchell, 36. Police said Mitchell admitted to the violent behavior. This was about 8:20 a.m. the 250 block of Chatfield Street. The wife was not seriously injured. Police said two children were home at the time.
Nine die in truck-van crash on Wisconsin Highway 95
Wreckage from impact. Strewn along highway tjat connects Fountain City and Neillsville. The collision was 16 miles from the highway’s northern terminus in Neillsville.
All but one passenger killed in van; trucker also dead
MERRILLAN, Wis. – Nine people died in the collision of a van loaded with passengers and a truck on State Highway 95. One passenger in the van survived and was taken 56 miles to the Chippewa Falls hospital. Clark County Sheriff Scott Haines declined to release the names of the victims, but this much was known:
> The driver of the truck, which was pulling a semi-trailer, was killed.
> Eight people in the van were killed.
Coroner Clarissa Rochester confirmed that the fatalities were all dead at the scene. The collision was about 7:50 a.m. on a long straight stretch of State Highway 95 near a rural intersection with Clark County Road J, also known locally as Fisher Avenue. This is north of Hatfield and the Black River’s Lake Arbutus. The van was northbound on County J, which has a stop sign at the intersection. The truck was eastbound on 95 going toward Neillsville. Both 95 and J were expected be closed the rest of the day as crew removed wreckage.
Tragic remnants. The mangled wreckage east of Merillan on two-lane highway.
State 95 profile
Wisconsin Highway 95 is a 73-mile connection between Fountain City and Neillsville. It climbs a steep dugway out of Fountain City, follows a ridgetop 14 miles, drops down into Arcadia, then heads easterly to Blair, Hixton, Alma Center and Merillan, and connects with U.S. 10 at Neillsville.
How much Ice on Lake Pepin? What ice?
LAKE CITY, Minn. – The Army Corps of Engineers, which maintains navigation on the Mississippi River, has cancelled its winter ice measurements on Lake Pepin. With the mild winter there’s been no ice build-up to speak of: Nothing to measure. The Corps said it stands ready to do measurements if March turns unexpectedly cold. Normally the measurements are an essential guide for shippers to plan when to start seasonal Mississippi River traffic through the lake.
Truck, twin trailers wreck, burn on I-94
BROCKWAY, Wis. – The driver escaped from the cab of his truck when it crashed in a construction zone on Interstate 94 before dawn. The rig caught fire. The driver, Ahmad Reynolds, 48, of Shoreview, Minnesota, was hurt, but his injuries were described as non-life threatening. The accident shut down both east-bound and west-bound lanes of I-94, a major transcontinental route to the West Coast. Reynolds’ tractor failed to negotiate a transition into the construction zone Jackson County deputies said. The second of two trailers detached and overturned into the westbound median shoulder. The tractor and front trailer came rest in the eastbound lanes.
Multi-trailer rig. Crews right one of wrecked trailers . Image: Hixton Fire and Rescue
Way too fast: Driver stopped, faces drunk charge
WINONA, Minn.– A Winona driver stopped for speeding ended up being arrested for drunken driving. Dominck Elvin Hester, age 25, had been going 63 mph in a 30 zone near Winona’s Family Restaurant on West Service Drive, police said. This was about 1:45 a.m. The arresting officer said alcohol odors were coming from inside the car, so Hester was put through sobriety tests then and there. He failed. Also, the officer said, Hester’s speech was slurred and his eyes blood-shot and watery. Hester refused the usual breath and blood tests, although blood was taken with a court order at the jailhouse. When results are back from the state crime lab, the DWI charge could be escalated, police said.
College scores
Baseball: UW-Oshkosh 13, Saint Mary’s 3
Softball: Saint Mary’s 3, Heidelberg 2
Softball: Saint Mary’s 15, Penn state-Behrend 11
Minnesota prep
Basketball (girls): Rochester Lourdes Eagles 50, Winona Cotter Ramblers 33
Hockey (boys): Chanhassen Storm 7, Rochester Century Panthers 0
Wisconsin prep
Basketball (boys): Galesville-Ettrick-Trempealeau Redhawks 61, Elk Mound Mounders 55
Basketball (girls): LaCrosse Aquinas Blugolds. 54, Durand-Arkansaw Panthers 39
Winona Health inventory finds Rx missing
WINONA, Minn. – A supervisor discovered pain-killers missing in a routine inventory at the Lake Winona Manor nursing home in the Winona Health complex. Police classified the case as theft. Missing was the prescription-only drug gabapentin, which is used to prevent seizures and also as a pain-killer. Misused, the drug can cause fatal breathing problems.
Winonan, age 20, accused of underage consumption
WINONA, Minn. – A Winona woman, too young to be boozing legally, was arrested downtown and jailed as suspected of drunkenness at the wheel. Alaiyah Ann Yelvington, age 20, was stopped by police about 7 p.m. in the 100 block of East Third. Also, police said she didn’t have a license to be driving.
Yelvington, Stopped in Third Street bar district.
Proposal: Minnesota insurers must cover wigs
ST. PAUL, Minn. – The Senate Commerce Committee unanimously approved a requirement that insurance companies pay for wigs for cancer patients and also for baldness in general. The bill had been proposed by Senator Kari Dziedzic, D-Minneapolis, herself a cancer patient. Insurance coverage would max out at $1,000 a year. “I have the resources to buy the wigs, but not everybody does,” Dziedzic testified. “This will allow others to get wigs to help them present their best self to the world.” Off-the-shelf wigs start about $9 at Walmart. The bill hoes next goes to the Senate Health and Human Services Committee.
Dziedzic. In Senate since 2012.
Eagle Center’s advice for cruises: Bring binoculars
Twelve dates. Two hours aboard the Cal Fremling floating classroom, Season’s first cruise May 25. Most leave the Winona levee, some from Wabasha.
Joint WSU-Eagle Center venture in fifth year
WABASHA, Minn. — The National Eagle Center is running eagle-viewing cruises on the Mississippi River for a fifth season aboard Winona State University’s Cal Fremling floating classroom. The two-hour cruises, on select weekends, are led by a naturalist guide. The schedule:
>May: 25th (2 p.m.).
> June: 8th (2 p.m. (11 a.m. and 2 p.m.); 22nd (11 a.m., and 2 p.m.); 23rd (11 a.m., and 2 p.m.).
> July: 6th (2 p.m.); 13th (2 p.m.); 27th (2 p.m.).
> August: 10th (2 p.m.).
> September: 28th (2 p.m.).
> October: 12th (2 p.m.).
Boardings are in Winoaa except for Jne 22 and 23 in Wabasha. Fare: $60 to $75. Reservations.
Opponents of new state flag hit legal snag
ST. PAUL, Minn. – Republicans in the Legislature have run into a legal obstacle in their quest to stop revisions to the state seal and flag. Their plan was to take the issue out of the hands of the Democrat-controlled Legislature and put it to a vote of the people. But Secretary of State Steve Simon says the state constitution doesn’t provide any sort of direction on ballot referendums. That means, he said, that a plebiscite would possible only by amending the constitution – a long, laborious process with the risk of all kinds of unintended consequences. Neither of the major GOP backers of a public vote is a lawyer – Senator Steve Drazkowski, R-Mazeppa, and Representative Bjorn Olson, R-Fairmont. And apparently they haven’t done their homework on how government works. A rally Tuesday for a public vote drew only a few dozen supporters.
Proposed flag. Recommended after a year’s study by a special commission on state symbols.
Simon. Secretary of State since 2015. A Democrat. Earlier elected to four terms in the Legislature.
Verbatim
Simon: “Minnesota’s Constitution does not provide a process for citizen referendums or initiatives on legislative proposals. As such, a constitutional amendment would be needed – either to create a process for a referendum or approve the flag and/or seal directly. Constitutional amendments must be approved by both the Minnesota House of Representatives and the Minnesota Senate before going to the voters.
Attorney seeks all documents in fatal buggy crash
PRESTON, Minn. — One of the twin sisters accused in the highway death of two Amish school children in a horse-drawn buggy has lined up a Minneapolis criminal defense attorney to take her case. Attorney Carson Heefner’s name appeared in court documents on behalf of Samantha Jo Petersen. Heefner asked for a discovery hearing to identify police findings, including drug tests, to prepare his case. Petersen. age 35, has been charged with vehicular homicide while high on meth and then convincing her identical twin sister Sarah Beth, who was sober, to switch places and take the rap. About representing Samantha Jo, Heefner told KTTC that it was “one of the most interesting cases” he’s ever had. He was quick to point out that he’s not representing the sister Sarah Beth. That, he said, would be a conflict of interest. All tolled, the twins face 37 charges.
Heefner profile
Heefner is a 1998 graduate of William Mitchell Law School with honors. He has advanced certification from the National College for DUI Defense. T9 clients he explains what the does this way: “As we all know, the government has a lot of power, strength and resources. It can be very intimidating when the people who wield that strength and power are intent on taking away your liberty and freedom. And make no mistake, that is what the government wants to do when they charge you with a crime. My job is to protect you against those forces.” He lists 1,000-plus cases in his 21 years of practicing law. They range, he notes, from drunken driving to murder.
Heefner. A Minneapolis-based criminal defense attorney 21 years.
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