Wisconsin prep
Basketball (girls): Eleva-Strum Cardinals 85, Cornell Chiefs 12
Basketball (girls): Mondovi Buffaloes 56, Whitehall Norse 40
Basketball (girls): Cochrane-Foutain City Pirates 64, New Lisbon Rockets 47
Basketball (girls): Durand-Arkansaw Panthers 53, Osseo-Fairchild Thunder 28
Basketball (girls): Amery Warriors 70, Galesville Gale-Ettrick-Trempealeau Red Hawks 41
Basketball (girls): Melrose-Mindoro Mustangs 65, Montello Hilltoppers 29
Walz regroups for new gun laws
ST. PAUL, Minn. — After rebuffs from the legislature for stricter gun controls in September, Governor Tim Walz is back with a new plan. The governor’s new plan is a package of 15 bills that together address gun violence, firearm regulations, and public safety. The September rebuff was to an initial Walz attempt to convene a special session of the Legislature. Public outrage was running high at the time after a mass shooting at a Minneapolis church and the Hortman assassinations. The Walz idea was for legislators to draft new gun laws in the special session. Republicans balked, consistent with their historic alliance with gun manufacturers. They insisted that Walz, a Democrat, present specific language for them to consider, which would relieve them of rath from the gun industry for drafting tougher gun controls. In announcing his package of new pre-drafted bills, Walz aid: “While we couldn’t get a sense of urgency in the fall to get this done, but we’re here now. We’re in this legislative session, and something needs to be done.” The governor’s strategy is for at least parts of his package, if not all, to make it through the legislative process.
Earlier: 2026 Minnesota Legislature: Your citizen guide
Earlier: New Walz agency on easing gun violence
Earlier: Rocky road ahead on Minnesota gun reform
Earlier: GOP slams Walz but willing to talk gun control
Earlier: Status report on Minnesota gun laws
Winona doctor accused of patient misbehavior
WINONA, Minn. — A Winona Health obstetrician, who was hired in November, has been accused of sexual harassment of women patients at his previous job in the Minneapolis suburb of Edina. Juan Carlos Angelats, age 53, has denied the accusations. The legal action was filed in October — a month before Angelats was hired by Winona Health. It was not immediately clear whether Winona Health was aware of the accusations from Edina. The allegations are specific:
> A day after delivering twins in 2021, the complainant said, Angelats sat “very closely” to her and massaged and squeezed a shoulder and commended that her figure looked good. The woman later told investigators she felt uncomfortable about the interaction.
> In a follow-up visit when her scheduled provider was unavailable, she said, Angelats massaged and squeezed a shoulder without permission and commented again that her figure looked good, particularly after birthing twins. It was a sexualization of her appearance, she said.
> In a later exam, while the she was robed in a flimsy examination gown whose front was open, the woman saidM Angelats hugged her without permission and had his clothes and body against her bare chest. She said she felt humiliated by and left without scheduling a follow-up he recommended for imaging, She said she drove off in tears.
The woman said she went online and found several women who claimed similar experiences. She went to the state Human Rights Department. Investigators concluded there was probable cause for action. Investigators also heard a report of inappropriate behavior with a female employee at the Diamond Women’s Center in Edina. An internal investigation at the clinic, however, found no issue. Angelats had practiced 20 years at the clinic and was a part-owner.
Angelats. Holds 1998 medical degree from the University of Illinois-Chicago. Residency at the University of Minnesota. Practiced 23 years in women’s health. When hired at Winona Health three months ago, the announcement noted that he was bilingual: English and Spanish.
To be decided
Whether the allegations are warranted. The complainant seeks $50,000.
Minnesota fraud study: Agency lapses, no criminality
ST. PAUL, Minn. — The findings of a three-month investigation into fraud at state agencies has found no evidence of embezzlement by anyone in state government. The findings are from Judge Tim O’Malley, who in December was asked by Governor Tim Walz to conduct an external review of government practices. Among O’Malley’s conclusions and recommendations:
> No government officials we have broken any law.
> Instructions to agencies to install program integrity rules go back 50 years but were never as strong as they needed to be.
> Integrity plans enacted by agencies over the years fraud weren’t executed effectively.
> Fraudsters must be forced to give back ill0gitten gains.
> The state needs an independent fraud watchdog agency for oversight, staff training and enforcement to combat fraud.
O’Malley’s recommendations — “Pillars of Reform,” he called them — will go to the governor, to legislators and state agencies.
Verbatim
O’Malley: “I have not found any evidence that there was corruption within the government. There’s well-intended people who for a number of weren’t effective in what they tried to do.”
Collegians contribute in Martin Luther King spirit
WINONA, Minn. –—More than 120 Winona State University students put their shoulders into public service on Martin Luther King Jr. Day last week. Among projects:
> Organizing and cleaning at the Winona Humane Society,
> Preparing meals for local shelters Catholic Worker houses.
> Creating cards for seniors.
> Stocking the campus food shelf for needy students.
> Supporting local schools.
> Serving at senior living communities.
Minnesota prep
Basketball (boys): Caledonia Warriors 70, Winona Cotter/Winona Hope 51
Basketball (girls): Lewiston-Altura Cardinals 79, Spring Grove Lions 60
Basketball (girls): New Richland-Hartland-Ellendale-Geneva Panthers 76, Houston Hurricanes 39
Basketball (girls): Red Wing Wingers 65, Rushford-Peterson Trojans 30
Wisconsin prep
Basketball (boys): Menomonie Mustangs 78, LaCrosse Logan Rangers 51
Basketball (boys): Eleva-Strum Cardinals 49, Eau Claire Immanuel Lancers 48
Basketball (boys): Osseo-Fairchild Thunder 81, Gilmanton Panthers 34
Basketball (boys): Durand-Arkansaw Panthers 72, Altoona Railroaders 64
Winona paper’s fraud pay-outs in mail
WINONA, Minn. – Online subscribers to the Winona Daily News have begun receiving checks, some for hundreds of dollars, in a court settlement. The newspaper’s owner, Lee Enterprises, had created revenue streams by providing personal data about subscribers to advertisers, who then deluge dthem with commercial messages. The practice, profitable while it lasted, had gone on 4-1/2 years.
Copper innards cut, ripped out at gym
WINONA, Minn. — Thieves made off with a haul of copper overnight from a ji jitsu gym on the Far East End. Police were told the theft was discovered when a trainer arrived and realized there was no heat. Nine feet of tubing and 30 feet of wiring had been cut from an exterior air-conditioning unit, police said. The replacement value was pegged by the buildings lease-holder at $3,000.
Car-truck crash at I-90 injures Chatfield women
ROCHESTER, Minn. — Two Chatfield women were injured, one critically, when their car and a Freightliner truck with trailer collided at the Marion interchange southeast of Rochester. First-responders said Mary Francine Virnig, 72, a passenger in the car, suffered life-threatening injuries. The driver, Sandra Lee Fenstermaker, 76, was less seriously hurt. Both were taken nine miles to a Rochester hospital. The trucker, Kenneth Lee Langford, 61, of Rochester, was unhurt. The crash occurred about 12:55 p.m. Olmsted County deputies said Langford’s truck was southbound on Highway 52, turning to go eastbound on I-90. The Chatfield car, a 2012 Ford Edge, was northbound into Rochester.
Charge: Hotel attendant stole from guests
CLEAR LAKE, Iowa — A hotel chambermaid was arrested for multiple thefts from guest rooms at the Best Western Holiday Lodge. Police said they found stolen items in the home of Tara Ann Bohr, age 44, in nearby Swaledale.
Cam-equipped snoop reported in campus toilet
MADISON, Wis. — A University of Wisconsin student accused of spy-videoing in dorm toilet stalls has posted bail and left jail. Meanwhile 19-year-od Braden Berndt, age 19, has been banned from dorms and is believed to have gone home 90 miles away in Berlin. Berndt was arrested Sunday and held on three counts of disorderly conduct and three counts of capturing an image depicting nudity without consent. From police documents and interviews, this is what happened:
> A sixth-floor student in the dorm said someone in the next stall of a men’s bathroom dropped a blue phone between the divider, camera pointing up, and let it lie perhaps four seconds before picking it up. This was on Saturday.
> The student encountered a similar encounter earlier in the day— same bathroom, same blue phone.
> Suspicious, the student created a group chat with other dorm residents to ask if they had experienced similar incidents. A fellow resident responded thathe had.
> Both students went together to the bathroom and set a trap. This time they quickly grabbed the phone when it dropped.
> They confronted the guy in the next stall.anded that he delete all his videos — somewhere between 40 and 50, they said.
> Campus security was called, then police.
Sellery Hall. Incidents in sixth-floor men’s room of B Tower of 1,100 student UW-Madison dorm.
Berndt. Charge: Capturing images depicting nudity without consent
A Winona confluence of the centuries
The Winona Library is an architectural classic from 1899, and the next-door Masterpiece Hall is also a classic in its emerging 2026 form. Although side-by-side visages may seem discordant at a glance, the contrast bespeaks a trans-generational continuity in sharing values in our ongoing quest to understand and appreciate the human experience. Image: Steve Lunde
College scores
Baseball: Jewell 6, Winona State 4
Baseball: Jewell 5, Winona State 4
Baseball: Saint Mary’s 6, Luther of Decorah 5
Baseball: Jewell 6, Winona State 4
Baseball: Jewell 5, Winona State 4
Baseball: Saint Mary’s 6, Luther of Decorah 5
Baseball: Rochester Community and St. Louis Community, cancelled
Softball: Winona State 5, UW-Parkside 1
Softball: Saint Mary’s 5, Dominican of Illinois 2
Softball: Saint Mary’s 19, UM-Morris 0
Tennis (women): Winona State 4, UM-Duluth 3
Rochester’s top cop to major Trump event
State of he Union. The U.S. House chamber is configured to seat 950 people for the annual State of the Union presidential address. Guests invited hy members of Congress will be seated in balcony gallerues.
Trump’s annual summary address coming Tuesday
WASHINGTON — Emphasizing his tough-on-crime bona fides, Congressman Brad Finstad invited Rochester Police Chief Jim Franklin to be his guest at President Trump’s State of the Union address on Tuesday. Finsted, in Congress from the southern Minnesota’s District MN-1, called Franklin “a good friend.” Franklin is a City Council appointee who assiduously sidesteps partisanship. But as the guest of Finstad, an unflinching Trump loyalist, there is an inferred affinity, perhaps wrongly, perhaps correctly. Either way, political analysts were perplexed that Finstad gad invite dFranklin and even issued a news release about it The emerging consensus on Capitol G-Hill is for Republicans, like Finstad, to distance themselves from from Trump,. The President’s approval ratings have tanked into the historically low 30% range. This is due largely to excessive local policing with federal forces. In Minnesota especially, the Trump following has plummeted with his brutal 2-1/2 month occupation with federal Metro Surge agents.
.
On being a guest
The U.S. House chamber is configured to seat 950 people for the annual State of the Union presidential address. Each U.S. senator and representative can invite one guest. Almost all guests are chosen for the political statement their presence makes. Example: Many Democrats this year have invited survivors from the sex trafficking empire of President Trump’s erstwhile buddy Jeffrey Epstein. The question for political analysts about Finstad’s choice was the political n wisdom of inviting the police chief of MN-l’s largest city to be his guest. The flipside of the question: What was the wisdom of Police Chief Franklin in accepting the invitation? It is Franklin’s officers who are on call for frequent unfriendly citizen protests outside Finestad’s Rochester office.
Franklin. Rochester police chief since 2018.
Sidelined Viking wide receiver dead at 25
NEW ALBANY, Ind. — An injury-prone Minnesota Vikings football player, Rondale Moore, shot himself fatally in a friend’s home garage in the Louisville suburb of New Albany. Tentatively police called the death a suicide. Moore was 25. Not many details, like time of death, were known. He was taken to a New Albany hospital, where he was pronounced dead. The was called at 6:15 p.m. An autopsy is scheduled.
Moore profile
Moore was raised in poverty in New Albany across the Ohio River from Louisville. He never lost an opportunity to praise his hard-working mother for raising four chidren on $20,000 a year. At Purdue he Moore was the nation’s leading collegiate receiver with 1,258 receiving yards, 213 rushing yards and 14 total touchdowns. He was drafted by the Arizona Cardinals in 2021 on four-year rookie contract worth $6.9 million. With the Cardinals he suffered multiple injuries. A trade to the Atlanta Falcons followed in 2024. He missed the entire year due to a knee injury in training camp. He signed with the Minnesota Vikings as a free agent in 2025. He suffered a knee injury his first game and was sidelined the rest of the season.
Moore. Hometown was New Albany.
News summary at week’s end: February 21, 2026
GOVERNANCE: Ellison: Scotus has hit “major blow” to Trump
GOVERNANCE: Sheriff’s cozy ICE views rile Dodge County
COLLEGES: Search for Southeast College leader in final phase
POLICING: Klinger quits candidacy for Winona sheriff
FIRE: Three escape Winona house fire
ACCIDENT: Winona driver rescued before car explodes
WEATHER: Heavy storm impedes I-90 traffic, affects schools
CRIME: I-90 traffic stop turns up 50,000 fentanyl pills
CRIME: Emergency room nurse takes punch; arrest follows
CRIME: Masked robber holds up Rochester grocery
CRIME: Insanity plea fails in East Side shoot-up
College scores
Baseball: Winona State 6, Jewell 5
Baseball: Winona State 13, Jewell 2
Baseball: Saint Maty’s 11, Luther of Decorah 8
Basketball (men): Gustavus Adophus 120, Saint Mary’s 92
Basketball (men): St. Cloud State 62, Winona State 50
Basketball (men): Gustavus Adophus 120, Saint Mary’s 92
Basketball (women): Gustavus Adophus 73, Saint Mary’s 68
Basketball (women): Winona State 75, St. Cloud State 70
Hockey (men): Saint Mary’s 7, Augsburg 3
Hockey (women): Augsburg 2, Saint Mary’s 1
Softball: Winona State 5, Wayne State of Nebraska 2
Softball: Grand Valley State 3, Winona State 1
Softball: Saint Mary’s 10 UW-LaCrosse 2
Softball: Saint Mary’s 4, Concordia of Wisconsin 1
Minnesota prep
Basketball (boys): Minneapolis Minnehaha RedHawks 87, Caledonia Warriors 63
Hockey (boys): Northfield Raiders 3, Rochester Lourdes Eagles 1
Wisconsin prep
Basketball (boys): Onalaska Hilltoppers 106, Menasha Bluejays 65
Basketball (boys): Alma-Pepin Eagles 91, Blair-Taylor Wildcats 84
Basketball (boys): LaCrosse Central RiverHawks 93, Eau Claire North Huskies 50
Ellison: Scotus has hit “major blow” to Trump
ST. PAUL, Minn. — Minnesota’s attorney general, Keith Ellison, praised the U.S. Supreme Court opinion outlawing President Trump’s erratic tariff policies that have disrupted the global economy. Ellison called the Court’s 6-3 opinion “a vindication of the work my fellow attorneys general and I have been doing for over a year now to rein in this lawless president.” Ellison noted that Minnesotans, as well as others, have. suffered from Trump’s trade disruptions: Agricultural export markets have dried uo. Consumer prices have soared. Geopolitical stability has been shaken. Trump’s rationale for sweeping tariff hikes — a never defined “national emergency” — was always dubious, Ellison said:
“From the start, it was clear that Trump had manufactured emergencies to justify his tariffs. I refused to stand by while he broke the law and saddled hardworking Minnesotans with higher costs. That’s why I took action — filing a lawsuit alongside 11 other attorneys general to stop him.”
Trump was plainly deflated at the Court ruling — and also angry to point of making no sense. To news reporters he called Court majority “unpatriotic,” although failing to define or explain the tern. He also said the majority had fallen under foreign forces but provided no evidence. Pundits’ conclusion: Typical Trump blustery but empty rhertoric.
The 6-3 opinion
Against Trump on tariffs
> John Roberts, chief justice. A George W. Bush appointee, 2005
> Amy Coney Barrett, a Trump appointee, 2020.
> Neil Gorsuch, a Trump appointee, 2017.
> Sonia Sotomayor, an Obama appointee, 2009.
For Truup
> Clarence Thomas, a George W, Bush appointee, 1991.
> Samuel Alito, a George W. Bush appointee, 2006.
> Brett Kavanaugh, a Trump appointee, 2018.
Car-pedestrian accident results in injuries
WINONA, Minn. — A pedestrian was struck at a busy Winona crossroads and taken 37 miles to a LaCrosse hospital. Gean Beatrice Bennett, 29, of Burnsville, suffered non-life threatening, according to first-responders. The accident was about 10:50 p.m. at U.S. Highways 61 and 14. The driver, Carol Ann Beardsley, 68, of Minnesota City, was unhurt. Police said she was headed north toward Minnesota City in a 2014 Chevrolet Malibu. Road conditions were dry.
Dangerous place to be
The intersection is Winona’s most dangerous for pedestrians. Foot traffic bis heavy between Maplewood Townhomes and a Kwik Trip convenience store. Pedestrians need to cross a minimum of four through-traffic lanes plus four turn lanes. Although there are stop-and-go lights, the narrowing and widening of lanes is problematic for motorists and complicated further by the nearby Cottonwood Drive corner into Kwik Trip and Pizza Ranch
College scores
Baseball: Winona State 6, Jewell 5
Baseball: Luther of Decorah 5, Saint Mary’s 3
Tennis (men): Saint Mary’s 5, Crown 2
Hockey (men): Augsburg 3, Saint Mary’s 2
Hockey (men): Augsburg 3, Saint Mary’s 1
Tennis (men): Saint Mary’s 5, Crown 2
Tennis (women): Saint Mary’s 6, Crown 1
Minnesota prep
Basketball (boys): Rushford-Peterson Trojans 90, Winona Cotter/Winona Hope 55
Basketball (boys): Lewiston-Altura Cardinals 89, Dover-Eyota Eagles 71
Basketball (boys): Chatfield Gophers 82, St. Charles Saints 72
Wisconsin prep
Basketball (boys): Blair-Tayor Wildcats 75, Gilmanton Panthers 47
Basketball (boys): Whitehall Norse 55, Cochrane-Fountain City Pirates 54
Basketball (boys): Melrose-Mindoro Mustangs 56, Eleva-Sturm Cardinals 46
Basketball (boys): Galesville Gale-Ettrick-Trempealeau Red Hawks 81, Black River Falls Tigers 62
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