Car-pedestrian accident injures teenager
RED WING, Minn. – A teen-age pedestrian was struck by car west of downtown and taken to a hospital with non-life threatening injuries: Kayda Clover, 18, of Red Wing. The accident was about 3:20 p,m. at U.S. Highway 61 and Franklin Street. Streets were dry. The driver of the car, a 2019 Hyundai Tucson, was Karen Joy Etheridge. 76, of Red Wing, She was unhurt. Police said her airbag deployed
R.I.P.: Gene Sturgis
WINONA, Minn. – Gene C. Sturgis, 76, of Eyota, who was chief financial officer for People’s Cooperative Services in Rochester for 30 years, died peacefully with diabetes and dementia at St Mary’s Hospital in Rochester. He grew up in Altura and graduated from Lewiston-Altura High School in 1962. After U.S. Army duty in Vietnam, he graduated from the Minnesota School of Business and moved to a 12-acre hobby farm in Eyota.
Details: Hoff Funeral Home
1944-2024
GOP cashing in, fueling dissent on new state seal
ST. PAUL, Minn. – Although the Minnesota Republican Party doesn’t have a platform position on revising the state flag, the party bosses don’t seem to like the idea of a proposed update much. The official Minnesota GOP Shop has rolled out a line of opposition T-shirts. The message is clear: The old flag was plenty good enough. The 2023 Legislature created a commission to revise the state seal and flag to get rid of racist, sexist and xenophobic undertones. That’s been done. A proposed new seal features the state’s natural beauty. A loon, the state bird, is the centerpiece. Gone is the old seal’s dejected Indian riding in defeat into the sunset. The north star reigns in brilliant white. And the seal has been stricken from a proposed new tri-tone state flag in bold blue, gray and white with, yes, the north star.
Earlier: Final state seal proposal: Loon’s eye is red
Clever. Catchy. Also mean? The messages: “Don’t PC our flag,” “Erasing history never ends well,” “Historic Minnesota: Fighting for freedom since 1861.”
400% mark-up
The GOP Shop didn’t respond to a query about how well the shirts are selling. At $20, the mark-up is in the vicinity $15 each, which goes into the party treasury.
Gundersen-Bellin: We’re OK in wake of HSHS debacle
LACROSSE, Wis. – The jointly operated Gundersen and Bellin health systems have assured patients they’re in no danger of going belly-up. A joint statement followed a surprise decision by the Illinois company HSHS to close Eau Claire and Chippewa Falls hospitals and clinics and to lay off 1,400 employees. The joint Gundersen-Bellin statement expressed confidence that “our system will not be in a similar situation.” LaCrosse-based Gundersen and Green Bay-based Bellin came together in 2022 to form a single system. Their joint statement said that a team was being assembled “to provide parameters and guidance for what we can and cannot do to support the many people impacted by the situation in the Chippewa Valley.” The statement called the HSHS closure “an unfortunate example of what many communities are experiencing during significant, national challenges in healthcare.”
Earlier: Company closing Eau Claire, Chippewa Falls hospitals
Emergency, fire crews make 59 calls
WINONA, Minn. – The Fire Department reported 46 emergency medical calls plus 13 fire calls in recent days:
> Tuesday, January 30: 2 medical calls plus 1 fire calls
> Monday, January 29: 7 medical calls plus no fire calls.
> Sunday, January 28: 7 medical calls plus no fire call.
> Saturday, January 27: 7 medical calls plus 2 fire call.
> Friday, January 26: 9 medical calls plus 3 calls.
> Thursday, January 25:7 medical calls plus 4 fire calls.
> Wednesday, January 24: 7 medical calls plus 3 fire call.
Earlier: Emergency, fire crews 54 calls
Arrest made in Minnesota City domestic case
MINNESOTA CITY, Minn. – A Minnesota City man was arrested after a violent argument in which a woman was injured at an apartment. Deputies said the woman didn’t need medical attention. The woman was alone when deputies arrived. They arrested Ricky Lee Orr, 45, when he later returned. This about 4 a.m. on Wenonah Road, which is an extension of Fifth Street out of Winona’s West End.
College scores
Basketball (men): Winona State 78, Concordia of St. Paul 67
Basketball (women): Concordia of St. Paul 59, Winona State 57
Minnesota prep
Basketball (boys): Rochester Marshall Rockets 71, Winona Winhawks 36
Basketball (boys): Lewiston-Altura Cardinals 61, Winona Cutter Ramblers 59
Basketball (girls): Rochester Marshall Rockets 51, Winona Winhawks 41
Basketball (girls): Randolph Rockets 58, St. Charles Saints 36
Hockey (boys): Northfield Raiders 7, Winona Winhawks 0
Wisconsin prep
Basketball (boys): Arcadia Raiders 70. Tomah Timberwolves 61
Basketball (boys): Alma Center Lincoln Hornets 52, Whitehall Norse 50
Basketball (girls): Independence Indees 55, Alma-Pepin Eagles 43
Basketball (girls): West Salem Panthers 70, Arcadia Raiders 35
Basketball (girls): Galesville-Ettrick-Trempealeau Red Hawks 45, Black River Falls Tigers 42
Coon Rapids murders: Looks like drugland rift
COON RAPIDS, Minn. – Drug money apparently was a motive in the home robbery in which three people were shot to death Friday in a Coon Rapids. Newly released court documents say that one of the victims, Mario Alberto Trejo Estrada, 39. had been trailed by drug investigators for weeks. The documents say too that Estrada and his wife, Shannon Patricia Jungwirth, 42, who was also shot and killed, had been sending money to Mexico. None of the documents say whether their son, Jorge Reyes-Jungwirth, 20, was involved with drugs. He was at home at he time of the robbery and also was shot and killed.
Emergency call
Police learned of the robbery as it was occurring. A police dispatcher took a 911 call about 12:30 p.m. It was an open line – no one talking – but the dispatcher could hear commotion and what sounded like a demand for money. Coon Rapids police and Anoka County deputies responded immediately. But by then the three robbers had left. One man was arrested three hours later, alone in his car, 10 miles away. The two other men remained at large.
Surveillance cameras
The Estrada’s modest home, on a quiet back street in Coon Rapids, had a curiously heavy presence of security equipment. Several rooms. had always-active cameras equipped to record both video and audio. The tapes gave police an usually thorough record, minute by minute, of what had gone on. Also: On a pole on the street outside was a security camera that recorded the robbers arriving and leaving.
Drug stashes
An affidavit seeking a search warrant, filed after the shootings, asserted that Estrada had been dealing cocaine, fentanyl and methamphetamine. The search was conducted at a rented storage unit in Golden Valley, a west Minneapolis suburb 15 miles from Coon Rapids. Found, according to police, were psilocybin mushrooms, marijuana, meth and a white powder that was sent to the state crime lab for testing. Also, police said, a second rented storage unit, this in Eagan, 35 miles from Coon Rapids, yielded sealed bags of marijuana and latex gloves that tested positive for the presence of cocaine, fentanyl and methamphetamine.
Judge: Factory farms need permit to dump
CHILTON, Wis. — An eastern Wisconsin judge ruled against factory farms about whether they can be required to obtain state permission before dumping pollutants. The state Department of Natural Resources had begun requiring permits to protect the state’s waters. But the Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce, the state’s largest business lobby, sued on behalf of the Wisconsin Dairy Alliance and the Venture Dairy Cooperative. Calumet County Circuit Judge Carey Reed ruled that pre-emptory permits are within the regulatory jurisdiction of state to protect lakes, streams and drinking water.
Bail cut in Blair house ransacking
WHITEHALL, Wis. – A Blair man’s bail was cut to $15,000 for a series of attempted home intrusions, one of them “successful,” on New Years Day. Bail for Shawn Gill, 22, originally was $ 20,000, but Judge Rian Radtke accepted the argument of Gill’s atorney for the reduction. In one the intrusions the home-owner shot Gill in a leg. He has recovered.
Minnesota prep
Basketball (girls): Winona Cotter Ramblers 69, Lake City Tigers 52
Basketball (girls): St. Charles Saints 41, LeRoy Ostrander Cardinals 29
Wisconsin prep
Animal shelter shut down as unfit
No puppies here anymore. As the sign taped to the front door says, For Furever has been closed as uninhabitable. The animal rescue mission was part of the NoKill national network of animal shelters.
Cruelty charge against For Furever owner
ANDOVER, Minn. – The owner a dog rescue mission was charged with animal mistreatment after an investigation that began last fall when eight puppies were dumped dead on Gray Cloud Island in suburban Cottage Grove. Arrested was Carley Mackenzie Ryan, 36. After being called about the dead puppies, police reported finding 22 dogs in sorry condition at Ryan’s For Furever animal shelter. Officers were met by an “overwhelming odor of feces and urine.” None of the 22 dogs was healthy enough for adoption without medical or behavioral treatment, a police vet said. Some had fecal or urinary scalding to their feet. Urine and feces matted their coats. The animals were taken to the Minnesota Animal Humane Society for treatment. Court documents quoted Ryan that the puppies found in Cottage Grove had arrived with a highly contagious infection. The police vet said, however, that the virus was treatable. Police said Ryan claimed that two of the puppies died a few days after she acquired them and the rest died about a week later.
Willmar man dies after taser shot by police
WILLMAR, Minn. — A 75-year-old man being evicted from aa apartment was shot by a sheriff’s deputy with a. taser and later died at the Willmar hospital. Michael James Yanacheak had come at deputes with a knife, according to a preliminary report. This was about 10:25 a.m. The report said two Kandiyohi County deputies and two Willmar police officers went to Yanacheak’s apartment with aa court-ordered eviction notice. This, according to the report, is what happened next: The officers tried to get Yanacheak to open his door. After an hour, the apartment manager pried open the door. The officers went inside. Yanacheak was in a bedroom. He picked up a kitchen knife and walked towards them. The officers tried to retreat. At one point, Deputy Riley Kampsen fired his taser. The officers provided medical care until an ambulance arrived. No firearm was discharged in the encounter, the report said. At least three of the officers hd body cameras, the report said. The state crime agency was called to investigate. Deputy Kampsen has five years policing experience.
$5 million bail for suspect in triple slayings
MINNEAPOLIS — Bail was set at $5 million for a Minneapolis man accused in a triple- homicide in Coon Rapids on Friday. Alonzo Pierre Mingo, 37, was arrested in a traffic stop three hours after the slayings. Bail was set by U.S. Magistrate David Schultz. Mingo was charged d on three counts of second-degree murder with an escalating clause because a firearm was involved. If convicted, his sentence could be as long as 40 years on each count – or more if prosecutors decide to go to a grand jury for elevated charges of first-degree murder. Under Minnesota law a grand jury indictment is necessary f0r a first-degree murder charge.
Hayfield collision injures two, one seriously
HAYFIELD, Minn. – A Rochester man was gravely injured in a collision with a semi-truck on Highway 56 south of Hayfield. Michael Anthony Scovill, 77, was airlifted 30 miles by to Rochester hospital. His injuries were described as life-threatening The collision was about 10:50 a.m. The truck driver, Donald Dean Fenske, 61, of Saint Charles, was also injured but less seriously. Mower County deputies said that Scovill was entering the highway from 750th Street in a 2015 Chevrolet Traverse. The semi rig, with a 2015 Freightliner tractor, was traveling north on Highway 56. Conditions were wet.
Dialysis gift to Winona hospital: $3 million
WINONA, Minn. – A gift to save the Winona Health kidney dialysis program from being shut down totaled $3 million. The hospital’s executive officer, Rachelle Schultz, confirmed the sum and said the gift was from multiple anonymous donors. The dialysis unit had been losing $1 million a year, which Schultz said was unsustainable. The gift is in $1 million increments over three years. “Our goal is to continue to look for ways to restructure, reduce costs, and improve our operations to reduce the loss to a level that we can support to keep the unit operational,” Schultz said.
Earlier: Anonymous gift saves Winona kidney treatments
Earlier: Winona Health ending costly kidney dialysis unit
Quintana rape case remains locally active
WINONA, Minn. – The Winona County case against a Lewiston man for criminal sexual assault remains active even while he remains in federal custody on 60-plus counts of online juvenile sex crimes. The assault charge against Valentin Silva Quintana, 30, was filed in July when he was arrested also for the online juvenile crimes. The assault – with penetration, according the complaint – was on a 26-year-old woman. Quintana had been held in the Winona County jail until last week, when he was turned over to federal agents on the online counts. It’s possible that conviction on the now-federal level charges could be so overwhelming that the criminal penetration charge in Winona County would be pointless to pursue. IN short, Quintana could be destined already to being locked up on the federal charges for a very long time.
Earlier: Sexploitation case detailed against Lewiston man
Earlier: Feds take over Lewiston online sex case
Earlier: Lewiston man accused as online sex fiend—
Quintana. Rape charge not going away.
Minnesotan Phillips insists being on Wisconsin ballot
MADISON, Wis. – Democratic presidential candidate Dean Phillips asked the state Supreme Court to overrule state election officials and put his name on the April primary ballot. Phillips, a Minnesota congressman running a long-shot challenge to President Joe Biden, was excluded by the state Election Commission. The Commission accepted only names forward by Biden-friendly state party bigwigs and legislators. Those names were rubber-stamped by the state Election Commission.
Wisconsin law
State law requires that all candidates be placed on the primary ballot if they are “generally advocated or recognized in the national news media throughout the United States on the ballot.” The law also permits parties see fit to put forward.
Probation for St. Charles embezzler
ROCHESTER, Minn. — A St. Charles woman was placed on five years probation for $150,000 in unauthorized charges on a company credit card. Loretta Lyn Taylor, 56, was the financial controller at the company. She pleaded guilty in November. The unauthorized charges were over seven years beginning in 2012. The embezzlement was from snack grocery producer Reichel foods of Rochester. Taylor said her supervisor knew about her charges, which she regarded as a fringe benefit. The supervisor, a company executive, Thomas Weichmann, was sentenced earlier to three years probation for stealing $600,000 plus. He pleaded “no contest.”
Earlier: Reichel’s exec pleads to $600,000 credit card abuse
R.I.P.: Donald Nelson
WINONA, Minn. – Donald T. Nelson, age 81, of Winona, a Winona County sheriff’s deputy for 22 years, died at the Gundersen clinic. He also as a campus security officer at Saint Mary’s University. He was a graduate of Cotter High School. He was in he U.S. Navy from 1960 to 1964. He belonged to the Knights of Columbus.
Detail: Watkowski-Mulyck Funeral Home
1942-2024
Final state seal proposal: Loon’s eye is red
On solons’ agenda. Whether to adopt the State Emblems Redesign Commission recommendation is on the Legislature’s agenda when its 2024 session begins February 12.
The question: Whether to be true to nature
ST. PAUL, Minn. — As the Minnesota State Emblems Redesign Commission was winding up its work in December, the looming question, although it might seem trivial, was whether the eyes of the centerpiece loon should have the state bird’s somewhat jarring red eyes. An alternative was to apply artistic license and make the eyes white. The Commission decided to be true to nature.
Earlier: Welcome to Minnesota’s new state seal
Earlier: Minnesota a step nearer to new state seal
Earlier: Earlier: New Minnesota state flag choices: What? No loon?
College scores
Tennis (men): Carleton 9, Saint Mary’s 0
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