Volunteer Services sets move-in timeline
Interior detailing. From the outside the new $4.8 million home for Volunteer Services looks almost ready go. And it almost is. The plan is to have the staff relocated in April. Image: Steve Lunde
Coralling now-scattered services under one roof
WINONA, Minn. – All the drywall and interior infrastructure will be ready for the Winona Volunteer Services staff to be in place in their new consolidated facility on East Second Street in April, said Sandra Burke, executive director. Full operations, including the clothing shop and food shelf, should be open in the new 22,000-square foot facility by June, she said, Burke said that the volunteer tax assistance office, now operated elsewhere by Catholic Charities, also will be under the same roof, albeit, she said, not in time for the current tax season.
Burke. Agency’s executive director.
Arson a possibility at plastics factory
CLARKS GROVE, Minn. – The cause of a major industrial fire north of Albert Lea over the weekend has not been established, but authorities have not ruled out arson as a possibility. A car was witnessed speeding away from a building at the Green Group Processing plant around 3:30 a.m., Sunday, said Sheriff’s Sergeant Tim Bennett. Then, just before 4 a.m. a neighbor reported loud bangs and seeing flames in the distance. Thr factory was a three-building complex that recycled old plastics into pellets for sale to manufacturers to craft into new products. The plant ran two shifts most days of he week. The company headquarters are in nearby Albert Lea.
Plastics recycling plant. A satellite view. A major employer near Clarks Grove. Jobs $18 to $20 an hour.
Pelowski on why not running: Seems to be: “It’s time”
WINONA, Minn. – In announcing he won’t seek a 20th term in the Legislature, Gene Pelowski side-stepped an explanation. His announcement recited a lengthy list of accomplishments, which suggested he felt it was time to pass the torch. But unanswered were many questions. At age71, is he tiring? Well? Has the local Democratic apparatchik had advance warning to identify a candidate for the November election?
Verbatim
Pelowski: “I will not be seeking re-election in 2024.
“Entering my 38th year as a legislator, I look back on a series of historic achievements. The sponsorship of the creation of Chapters 12A and 12B, which are now the play books to address natural disasters in Minnesota declared by the President of the United States and by Minnesota’s Governor. Chapters 12A and 12B were based on the 2007 natural disaster that struck Southeastern MN, which is still the largest natural disaster in Minnesota’s history for which Minnesota was woefully unprepared. A Special Session will no longer be needed when disaster strikes and the Governor can get aid to those impacted immediately.
“As Chair of the House of Representatives Higher Education Finance and Policy Committee in 1997-98, 2013-14 and 2023-24 record investments were made in Higher Education by freezing tuition and paying for it and the creation of the North Start Promise to provide Minnesota with skilled workers.
“The sponsorship of the Winona State Composite Engineering in 1988 which is still the only undergraduate Composite Engineering Program in the United States. Being the legislative host of Governor Perpich’s State of the State Address on February 9, 1988 at Winona State University focused on the establishment of WSU’s Composite Engineering Program. This was the first State of the State Address held outside the St. Paul Capitol.
“Being the legislative host of two Minnesota House of Representatives Mini-Sessions in Winona in September 1989 and October 2019 brought 134 members of the Minnesota House of Representatives to Winona. Each Mini-Session produced legislation to enhance job creation in SE Minnesota. The program now in place at WSU and MN State College SE to restore Vocational Technical Educators in Minnesota’s High Schools so students will once again have the opportunity to graduate with an employable skill set came out of a hearing at MN State College SE in 2019. These Mini-Sessions of the entire 134 members of the MN House of Representatives, participating in local committee hearings, supported numerous building projects for the City of Winona, Winona County, Winona State University and Minnesota State College SE.
“The sponsorship of legislation for the Disability Community to allow more services in the use of living space, technology and increase funding to ensure the stability of programs.
“As Chair of the House of Representatives Government Operations and Reform Committee, I improved the legislative process to ensure that amendments to bills being presented to the House must have the amendments to those bills posted for the public to see 24 hours in advance. This allows the public to know their content before House floor debate.
“None of this would have been possible without the support of my family, especially my wife Deb Pelowski who for 38 years coordinated everything from raising two sons, keeping family and campaign events balanced and working outside of the home full time. Bob and Sue Edel have been essential elements in the running of the political campaigns with Sue Edel being the Campaign Treasurer since 1986 and Bob Edel rotating in as needed as the Campaign Chair. Special thanks to Duane and Patte Peterson who in 1986, with Duane chairing the Campaign Committee, and Patte, hosting events at their home, established a base of operations for future campaigns.
“Thank you to the residents of Legislative District 26A for allowing me to participate in a remarkable four decades of public service.”
Pelowski. A campaign portrait from 1987 when he was first elected from what then was House District 34-B. District boundaries have been redrawn slightly over the decades and the numbers changed with the new census every 10 years. It became District 32-A in the 1990s, District 31-A in the 2000s, District 28-A in the 2010s, and now District 26-A in the 2020s.
Cops: Impaired driver into Garvin Heights ditch
WINONA, Minn. – A vehicle slid off Garvin Heights Road near Lake Boulevard. The road, the most used route to and from Gavin Heights, was blocked while a wrecker retrieved the vehicle. The driver, Terry Allen Oldham, 57. of Winona, was cited for impairment. The accident was about 12:50 a.m.
Pelowski leaving Minnesota House after 39 years
WINONA, Minn. – Veteran legislator Gene Pelowski, who has represented Winona in the Minnesota House for four decades, announced he is retiring. The announcement was a surprise. Earlier Pelowski, a Democrat, had indicated he would seek a 20th term. His new announcement, a surprise, was on the social media platform X Pelowski offered no explanation.
Pelowski. First elected in 1987 when still a high school civics teacher. He is 71.
Aggressive, stubborn fire levels plastics plant
CLARKS GROVE, Minn. – Fire destroyed a plant that recycled old baling wire into plastic pellets. The north and east buildings of Green Group Reprocessing were too far gone to save when the first fire crew arrived about 4 a.m. Polymers inside kept burning even after one roof collapsed. Only after seven hours could firefighters declare the fire was out. No one was injured. A third building, also large, was saved. Agents from both the state fire marshal and the pollution control agency were called to investigate. The pollution concern was air contamination and runoff from thousands of gallons of water that were poured on the fire. Firefighters responded from Alden, Albert Lea, Ellendale, Emmons, Glenville, Hartland, Hayward and Hollandale.
Green Group Reprocessing. Off Interstate 35 south of Clarks Grover and seven miles north of Albert Lea. The plant formerly was known as I-90 Reprocessing. Image: Freeborn County sheriff
Raw ingredients. The plastic straps used to bind bales.
Background: Rothman all out against UW-L’s Joe Gow
MADISON Wis. — Unknown for sure is how and when Jay Rothman learned that the chancellor at the University of Wisconsin-LaCrosse was producing pornographic videos. But as president of the UW System regents Rothman was outraged. Rothman called an emergency meeting of the UW regents. He wanted Gow fired immediately. The regents emerged from the three-hour closed-door-meeting on December 27, and Rothman announced the decision and said it was unanimous. The meeting, had the earmarks of a kangaroo court. Gow, the popular chief at UW’s LaCrosse 10,000-studenht campus for 17 years, wasn’t invited to defend himself.
Problematic secrecy
Although the decision was a-unanimous, it’s not known what went at the closed-door three-hour single agenda meeting:
> Were any members of the 18-member Board reluctant to fire Gow without a hearing and were either talked or bullied out it?
> Did the regents view the videos, none of which were shot on campus or involving campus personnel, students or resources?
> Did any regents even suggest an appeal route for Gow?
> Did any regent consider Gow’s videos could fit easily free expression and be consistent into the Board’s policy to encourage free expression?
The second round
Rothman’s outrage didn’t end with firing Gow. He called another meeting, this two days later, to press for Gow to be denied a faculty professorship – even though such is routine when a top-tier campus administrator retires. Gow, age 63, had announced plans earlier to retire after spring semester. It’s believed that regents had realized by this juncture it may be exceeding its authority and could be facing ramifications in court. Any decisions at this send meeting, on December 29, were not announced.
UW System regents
The decision to fire UW-LaCrosse Chancellor Joe Gow was reported after the meeting in December 27 as unanimous, But as a closed-door meeting, there was no record of how strongly that individual regents felt, nor of whether soke had reservations or qualms, nor of the dynamics of the discussion. The regents:
Angela Adams, Milwaukee; Robert Atwell, Green Bay; Amy Buemenfeld Bogost, Madison; Evan Brenkus, Green Bay; Héctor Colόn, Milwaukee; Mike Jones, Milwaukee; Jim Kreuser, Kenosha; Edmund Manydeeds III, Eau Claire;John Miller, Madison; Cris Peterson, Grantsburg; Joan; Prince, Milwaukee; Ashok Rai, Green Bay; Jay Rothman, Milwaukee; Jennifer Staton, Kenosha; Mark Tyler, Viroqua; Jill Underly, Madison; Dana Wachs, Eau Claire; Karen Walsh, Madison; and Kyle Weatherly. Milwaukee.
Rothman. As president of the University of Wisconsin System, it was Jay Rothman who convened the Board of Regents to fire the $230,000-a-year chancellor of the LaCrosse campus on the eve of the chancellor’s retirement. Rothman didn’t like that Gow and his wife had a sideline producing sex videos. Gow’s response: Rothman had run rough-shod over his right to victim-less free expression, which is a core academic value. Further, says Gow, the videos were unrelated to his role as chancellor
Rothman profile
In 2022 Jay Rothman, 63 at the time, was appointed president of the 23-campus University of Wisconsin System with 160,000 students. Rothmann was chosen over another finalist — Jim Schmidt, chancellor at UW-Eau Claire and a former vice president at Winona State University Minnesota. Rothman’s background was in law. He had been chief executive of the law firm Foley & Lardner for 11 years. Foley has 1,100 lawyers – one of te largest law firms in the country. It has 10,000 clients with offices in three international cities and 22 U.S. cities, including Milwaukee and Madison. As a lawyer, Rothman’s work was primarily in mergers and acquisitions, capital markets and corporate governance. His duties also included human resources, which would seem to have equipped him to handle delicate personnel issues. A void in his pedigree is First Amendment law and free expression. He holds an undergrad degree from Marquette University and a law degree from Harvard.
Burger King goes gonzo with Barbie menu
SAO PAULO, Brazil – The Burger King fast-food chain introduced a special tie-in the globally successful 2023 movie “Barbie” – hot pink cheeseburgers,; The buns are dyed. The cheese sauce is died. Even the bacon bits are pinkish. To complete the motif is a shake flavored with Nesquik strawberry milk powder. For dessert you can try a pink-frosted doughnut. The fries were soared a dye job but come in a Barbie –marked carton. The good news: This is a limited-time special. More good news; It’s limited to Brazil and not for export: Não para exportação.
Barbie mania. One step too far?
Still puffing a joint, driver lowers window for cop
WINONA, Minn. – A Winona driver was stopped for a traffic violation and admitted, police said, to three or four marijuana hits and a drink and a shot earlier. About the marijuana, police had no doubt. Andrew Dean Glenna, 25, had a joint in one hand as he rolled down his car window for the officer who stopped him. This was about 1:35 a.m. at Grand and Belleview streets on the Near West Side. Glenna failed field sobriety tests, police said.
News summary at week’s end: January 6, 2024
TRAGEDY: Coroner’s confirmation: Latsch Park death a suicide
POLICING: State tries streamlining roadside drug detection
RELIGION: Vatican faults St. Paul ex-archbishop’s judgment
POLITICS: Allow Trump to run? Supreme Court to decide
CRIME: Combative woman charged with domestic abuse
CRIME: Charge now first-degree murder against Mayo doctor
CRIME: Minor Prairie Island collision leads to charges
SENIORS: Preston veterans home accepts first residents
DANGEROUS PLACE: Another collision at Highway 61’s Kellogg exit
State tries streamlining roadside drug detection
ST. PAUL, Minn. –The Minnesota State Patrol is pilot-testing devices designed to check on the spot whether a motorist is loopy on drugs. The current checks are an arresting officer’s impression, which the courts say isn’t scientific enough. If new devices are proven reliable, roadside tests for drugs could be almost as quick as the current breathalyzers for alcohol impairment. The new devices, which cost $5,000 each, require a swab from the mouth. They yield a reading in seconds. The current court-accepted practice for drug testing is to haul a suspected person to a police station for a blood draw. The sample then is shipped to a state lab for evaluation. The turn-around typically is three-days. The Patrol’s traffic safety director, Mike Hanson, said the new collection devices are touted by the manufacturers as capable for measuring levels of marijuana, cocaine, opioids, amphetamine, methamphetamine and benzodiazepine. Two such devices are on the market:
> Sotoxa Mobile Test System, from Illinois-based Abbott Labs.
> DrugTest 5000, from Drager Global of Germany.
While the purpose of the devices is akin to current breathalyzers that detect alcohol levels. they are much more complex – and expensive. Basic breathalyzers cost less than $100. The breathing tubes for each breathakyzer test cost about a dime. Abbott and Drager list their drug-test devices at $5,000.
How it works. A swab, built into a wand, picks up saliva. The swab then is inserted. into a measuring instrument, which in this example is a blue Drager device.
Pilot-testing
The current testing of portable drug-detection devices was authorized and funded by the 2023 Minnesota Legislature. It was a sop to police agencies that opposed the legalization of marijuana.
College scores
Basketball (men): Northern State of South Dakota 77, Winona State75
Basketball (men): Saint Mary’s 83, Macalester 56
Basketball (men): UW-LaCrosse 86, UW-Stevens Point 84
Basketball (women): Northern State of South Dakota 85, Winona State 75
Basketball (women): Macalester 48, Saint Mary’s 43
Basketball (women): UW-Stevens Point 66, UW-LaCrosse 62
Hockey (men): UW-Eau Claire 5, Saint Mary’s 0
Minnesota prep
Wisconsin prep
Basketball (boys): Glenwood City Hilltoppers 63, Eleva Strum Cardinals 55
Basketball (girls): Eau Claire Regis Ramblers 70, Whitehall Norse 43
Basketball (girls): Eleva Strum Cardinals 43, Glenwood City Hilltoppers 33,
Another collision at Highway 61’s Kellogg exit
KELLOGG, Minn. – A teen-age driver was hurt in a collision on U.S. Highway 61 at the Kwik Trip exit to Kellogg. The driver, age 16, whose name was not released by police, was treated for none-life threatening injuries six miles away at the Wabasha hospital. The other driver, Willard Carl Holm, 60, of Zumbrota, was unhurt. Holm had the the right-of-way on Highway 61, police said. He was heading north toward Wabasha in a 2015 Ford Explorer. The other vehicle, in a 2005 Dodge Grand Caravan, was entering the highway from County Road 18. This was about 3:35 p.m. The impact activated airbags in both vehicles. The intersection is one of the most dangerous in Wabasha County.
Marijuana detected in traffic stop; tests followed
WINONA, Minn. – A New York driver opened her car window for the officer in a trafficstop and, the officer said, out wafted marijuana. Stephanie Alison Oquendo, 39, of Buffalo, New York, admitted to the marijuana, police said. She was taken to the police station house for a blood sample. The sample was sent to the state crime lab state lab to determine if charges are appropriate. She had been stopped about 1 a.m. for crossing out of her lane near Third and Center streets, police said.
Minor Prairie Island collision leads to charges
WINONA, Minn. – Two men fled their car near the deer park on Prairie Island Road after rear-ending another vehicle. Police arrested them hunkered in woods nearby while waiting for a friend to pick them up and scurry them away. The arrests were uneventful, police said. No one was injured in the collision. Arrested were:
> David Joseph Willard, 22, of Winona, who told police he ran because didn’t have a valid license to drive.
> Samuel John Mueller, 18, of Minnesota City, a passenger, who was cited for underage boozing after a breath test showed his blood was 0.09% alcohol.
The accident was about 10:10 p.m. Willard and Mueller were picked up within an hour.
Know any burglars who drive a Jaguar?
SPRING VALLEY, Minn. — Police think they know how a thief got to a rural house in western Fillmore County and got away. Sheriff John DeGeorge posted a photo of what’s believed to the thief’s vehicle — a maroon 2005 Jaguar sedan. The sheriff said it’s known that the thief was a male and that the theft was Tuesday in the late morning. Nobody was home at the time. me. How much was taken? DeGeorge wouldn’t say. Nor would he release the addess of the house.
Clues sought. Not many Jags in Fillmore County. Nearest dealers: In Minneapolis, 110 miles away; in Madison, 200 miles; and Des Moines, 210 miles.
College scores
Hockey (men): Saint Mary’s 5, Northland 3
Wrestling: UW-LaCrosse 45, Millikin 4
Minnesota prep
Basketball (boys): Lewiston-Altura Cardinals 63, Winona Cotter Ramblers 59
Basketball (girls): Winona Cotter Ramblers 76, Lewiston-Altura Cardinals 29
Basketball (girls): LaCrosse-Hokah Lancers 61, St. Charles Saints 20
Hockey (girls): Winona Winhawks 2, Hudson Raiders 2
Wisconsin prep
Basketball (girls): Independence Indees 55, Whitehall Norse 47
Hockey (boys): Winona Winhawks 2, Hudson Raiders 1
Vatican faults St. Paul ex-archbishop’s judgment
ST. PAUL, Minn. – Allegations of misconduct have been dropped against Archbishop John Nienstedt for ineffectual decisions regarding pedophile priests when he was the Vatican-appointed leader of the St. Paul-Minneapolis Archdiocese from 2008 to 2o15. The decision, made in Rome, was announced by the headquarters of the 188-parish St. Paul Archdiocese. The Vatican decisions ends a lengthy investigation. Nienstedt took “imprudent” actions but did not violate church law, the investigation’s concluding document said. Even so, Nienstedt remains in exile outside the St. Paul Archdiocese. Reportedly he is doing non-sacrament local parish service somewhere in Michigan. The investigation also examined charges that Niensted molested boys when was bishop in New Ulm and on an ecclesiastic trip to Germany. These were charges that Nienstedt denied and proclaimed he had been faithfully celibate.
Nienstedt. Now 76. Vatican investigators say he did not violate church law although was imprudent. The terms and distinctions s were not spelled out in the archdiocese announcement in St. Paul.
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Vandal punctures all four tires on street
WINONA, Minn. – Police began an investigation into vandalism on a car parked overnight in the 260 block of West Sanborn street. All four tires were punctured and flat.
Driver’s blood sample to lab for alcohol test
WINONA, Minn. – A Houston man suspected of drunken driving was arrested near Second and Chestnut streets about 2:20 p.m. Charges against Scott Richard Coxworth, 55, will depend on a blood sample sent to the state crime lab, police said.
Allow Trump to run? Supreme Court to decide
WASHNGITON – The U.S. Supreme Court agreed to review a ruling by a Colorado court that barred former President Donald Trump from appearing on the state’s Republican primary ballot. A Supreme Court decision could unscramble divergent state positions, including Minnesota’s, on whether Trump should be disqualified because he drove the 2020 insurrection attack on the U.S. Capitol. Different states have had different interpretations of the U.S. Constitution’s provisions on the issue.
> To allow Tump to run: Connecticut, Delaware, Idaho, Kansas, Minnesota, Montana, Michigan, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Utah, Virginia,
> Not to allow: Colorado, Maine.
> Issue pending: Alaska, Arizona, California, Florida, Illinois, Louisiana Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, North Carolina, South Carolina, Texas, Utah, West Virginia, Vermont, Wisconsin,
Earlier: Maine gives Trump candidacy a new setback
Earlier: Colorado court to Trump: Not here you don’t
Earlier: Trumpers prevail on Minnesota ballot issue — for now
Earlier: Trump on Minnesota ballot? Court hears case
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