WINONA, Minn. – Police stepped up their manhunt in the investigation of a brutal assault on a woman in the rural Arches neighborhood near Lewiston two nights ago. Sheriff Ron Ganrude said there is probable cause to make an arrest. “We know who he is,” Ganrude said, but added he was also seeking a warrant. There is no reason to suspect the assailant poses a public danger, the sheriff said. The woman told investigators it was a case of infatuation. She said that she had told the man to leave her alone but he persisted after her. Ganrude said some deputies were familiar with the man and went make an arrest at the place where he was thought to be staying. He wasn’t there. Meanwhile, the woman continued in recovery from heavy blows to the back of her head.

Earlier: Woman badly bashed in assault near Lewiston

WINONA, Minn. – The last inmate at the old Winona County jail was transferred next door to the sheriff’s new incareration facility three weeks ago, Sheriff Ron Granrude said. There were 19 on this morning’s roster. Gradually Winona inmates who have been housed elsewhere because of the old jail’s inadequacies are being brought back. These prisoners were costing about $60 day each for room and board in other counties’  jails. The new $28 million Winona jail has 53 cells with 80 beds

Earlier: Ever thought about going to jail? Now your chance

WINONA, Minn. – The Fire Department reported 46 emergency medical calls plus 14 fire calls in recent days:

> Tuesday, January 16: 4 medical calls plus 1 fire call.

> Monday, January 15: 8 medical calls plus 2 fire calls.

> Sunday, January 14: 4 medical calls plus 4 fire call.

> Saturday, January 13: 8 medical calls plus 1 fire call.

> Friday, January 12: 10 medical calls plus 1 call.

> Thursday, January 11: 6 medical calls plus 5 fire calls.

> Wednesday, January 10: 6 medical calls plus no fire call.

Earlier: Emergency, fire crews 57 calls

WINONA, Minn. – Police tagged 47 vehicles for towing because they blocked snow-plowing after the first heavy snow of season. The city’s contract tow company Borkowski hauled he vehicles to its Goodview storage yard. There were 13 tags after midnight Monday and 34 Tuesday. Being tagged is costly – usually $300 for towing, storage and fines. This not to mention the hassle. Police have been ticketing vehicles in violation of the city’s even-odd winter parking ordinance since November but didn’t issue tow orders until now.

Earlier: Winona winter rule: Odd day-odd side, even-even

Unwelcome sight. The distinctively green Borkowski tow trucks were out the past two nights for cars blocking snow plows on city streets.

RUSHFORD, Minn. – With the recent cold spell continuing, the regional power grid remains taxed close to its limits. Rushford-based MiEnergy, which serves nine counties, renewed its call a third day for customers to reduce usage from 7 to 11 a.m.  So have other southern Minnesota electricity co-ops. Conserving electricity will help keep rates stable and affordable, said MI Energy. The cold was expected to  last into the weekend.

Earlier: Demand again presses power grid’s capacity

Hockey (men): Lawrence 6, Saint Mary’s 4

SPRING VALLEY, Minn. – An Iowa driver was hurt but not seriously in the collision of a semi-truck rig and a pickup northwest of Spring Valley. David Maurice Demro, 75, of Ionia, Iowa, was taken 27 miles to a Rochester hospital to be examined. Police said the semi, driven by Patrick John Nesler, 56, of Ostrander,  was entering U.S. Highway 63 from 111th Street. Nesler escaped injury. The accident was about 8:05 p.m. Demro was in a 2019 Ford F150.

ROCHESTER, Minn. – A judge rejected a proposal to increase bail to $10 million for a Mayo doctor accused of murder in the poisoning death of his wife. Judge Kathy Wallace said the current $5 million bail for Connor Bowman was sufficient. The prosecution had wanted bail doubled to reflect the recently elevated charge of first-degree murder.

Earlier: Doctor seeks record of secret murder proceedings

MINNEAPOLIS – The man accused of stabbing a grocery store clerk to death with a broken golf club last month is mentally incompetent, a court-hired psychologist reported. The judicial officer in the case, Danielle Mercurio, accepted the report. Next for the defendant, Taylor Justin Schulz, 44, is a hearing scheduled for July. Typical in such cases is a civil commitment for mental illness. Meanwhile, Schulz remained in jail in lieu of $1 million bail. Schulz was diagnosed earlier with schizophrenia and post-traumatic stress disorder as a military veteran. In 2021 he was civilly committed for six months after a doctor called him at an “unacceptably high risk of further psychiatric deterioration.”

Earlier: Stabbing victim once a leading man in dance

Earlier: Man surrenders in fatal savage grocery clerk stabbing

Earlier: Golf-club stabbing: Neighborhood grocery clerk dies

LEWISTON, Minn. – A badly battered woman was brought to the Winona hospital by a friend after a savage assault at a house in the Aches neighborhood on U.S. Highway 14. The woman told deputies that she had been crashing several days at the house and was sleeping on the kitchen floor when she woke being punched on the head. This was about 2:45 a.m. The houseowner told deputies that he heard the commotion down the hall from his bedroom and saw the intruder bashing the woman on the back of her head. She had been bleeding profusely by the time that the houseowner got her the emergency room. The woman said she took three blows in all. The woman, age 25, from Rochester, said she had a known the intruder a few weeks and had told him she didn’t to see him anymore. How the man gained access to the house wasn’t clear. The house-owner ordered the intruder to leave. The man left but on his way out said he would  bash the woman’s car. Although shaken ,the woman  was coherent at the hospital but said she had blacked out and seen stars after the the first blow. The houseowner took the woman 14 miles to the Winona hospital. Sheriff Ron Ganrude said an alert was issued for the arrest of a 39-year-old Winona man about 5-foot-10 and 150 pounds with brown eyes.

RUSHFORD, Minn. – For the second time in two days MiEnergy Co-op issued an alert to cut back on electrical use. Demand on the regional grid was expected to peak again from 7 a.m. to 11 a.m.

Earlier: Cold puts regional power grid at risk

Gabriel Hathaway Winona Post, January10, 2024): “After delays, Winona County Jail Opened in December”

Rachel Mergen (Winona Daily News, January 13, 2024): “Superintendent Berzinski Focuses on Connections, Trust in Return tt Winona Area Public Schools”

Caden Perry (LaCrosse Tribune, December 29,2023): “’He’s a Good Dude: Students, Community React to Firing of UW-Crosse Chancellor Joe Gow”

Basketball (women): St. Catherine 64, Saint Mary’s 59

WINONA, Minn. – The loss-prevention team at Target watched on surveillance video as an 18-year-old woman stuffed her coat with personal-care products and walked out. They stopped the woman outside in the parking lot. Wtthout resistance they took her back to an interview room and called police. This was about 8:45 p.m. Police issued a citation to Kyeli Mae Wehlade, 18, of Winona. The merchandise, valued at $625, was reshelved.

LACROSSE, Wis. – The chancellor at the University of Wisconsin-LaCrosse, Joe Gow, claims his First Amendment right of free expression was violated when UW System regents fired him. But so far Gow hasn’t filed a legal objection. Would Gow have a case based on First Amendment law if he goes to court? The First Amendment prohibits any government entity, like the UW regents, from “abridging” free expression. The regents acted against Gow for sexually explicit videos that typically are constitutionally protected by the First Amendment. But there are nuances.

A legal test:  Job performance

A constitutional scholar at the UW-Madison campus, Howard Schweber, pointed to an exception to the First Amendment — when, for example,  an employee’s  ability  to do a job has been compromised. The regents have expressed their outrage at Gow’s videos but didn’t challenge whether Gow’s job performance was affected. In fact, nobody at UW-Lacrosse seemed eveb aware of Gow’s videos. The videos were an off-campus sideline that didn’t involve university resources. In court, it would seem, the regents would need to produce evidence that Gow’s ability to do his work as chancellor was diminished. Examples could be a dramatic drop in enrollment or a drop in fund-raising. A fact is that the videos and two earlier positive- sex Gow books go back 2017. For six years there had been no hullabaloo. In his 17 years as chancellor Gow has been popular. While some LaCrosse people have shared the regents’ sudden outrage in letters to the editor, the campus reaction seems supportive. Students have circulated to restore Gow to his $230,000-a-year position as chancellor. One student was quoted in LaCrosse Tribune interview as calling Gow “a good dude.” No one has called for a faculty vote of no confidence, which the usual channel to remove an unpopular campus administrator.

Schweber. Asks whether regents can prove that videos affected job performance.

Faculty rights: Academic freedom

Although the UW regents might succeed in a court battle for removing Gow from his administrative post, a knottier issue is whether they can keep Gow off the faculty, as they have proposed as an additional punitive step. Long before the Gow video issue came to light. he had said he planned to leave his chancellorship  this spring and take a faculty position. Such is standard practice in higher education fir retiring administrators. As a faculty member, Gow would be protected by the concept of “academic freedom” which bars a faculty member from being dismissed for expressing views outside the mainstream. The idea is that academe should a place to explore and discuss any and all sorts of ideas as essential to the quest for truths. This includes performance – from theater to visual arts  to music and presumably to sex — that pushes boundaries. Historical examples are legion:

> Galileo Galilei in the 1600s on Earth being spherical.

> Charles Darwin in the 1850s on evolution.

> Rachel Carson in the 1950s on environmental risks.

> Martin Luther King Jr. in the 1960s on social justice.

This suggests that UW regents might have a harder time keeping Gow off the faculty, according to UW-Madison professor Anuj Desai. Gow says he’s an advocate for what he calls “positive sex.” In effect, says Desai, the issue is whether the regents can ignore the academic freedom that it bestowed on Gow in his 2006 contract when he was appointed chancellor. That contract guarantees Gow a right to join the university’s Communication Studies Department faculty with the usual protections for free inquiry, exploration and expression.

Earlier: Hot brew for hot chancellor: Sold out

Earlier: Background: Rothman all out against UW-L’s Joe Gow

Desai. Sees Gow protected by the usual tenure rules  for free expression of any and all ideas.

RUSHFORD, Minn. – Th Minnesota-Iowa Energy  Co-op asked its 23,000 members to pare their electricity consumption because the regional power grid was approaching its peak capacity. The peak could come between 7 and 11 a.m., Monday, the co-op said. What to do:

> Lower thermostats to  68 degrees, or lower if no one is home.

> Delay dishwashing and laundry until evening.

> Use microwaves to cook, not ovens.

> Refrain from television and gaming.

Earlier: Life-threatening wind chills into Tuesday

Other pare-backs

Also issuing peak usage alerts:

> People’s Energy Co-op, Oronoco.

> Freeborrn Mower Electric Co-op, Albert Lea.