UPPER RED LAKE, Minn. – Emergency crews rescued 35 people stranded on a chunk of ice that broke off on Upper Red Lake. Strong winds coupled with unseasonably warm weather and recent rain caused the break-away. The ice broke about 4:50 p.m. The rescue took 3-1/2 hours with seven agencies and helpers from several lake resorts ferrying the stranded people 100 yards to solid ground. There were no injuries. Beltrami County Sheriff Jason Riggs said Upper Red Lake is always late to freeze thick enough for safe for ice-fishing because of its geographical size.  The lake is part of dual-basin Red Lake, which at 288,000 acres is Minnesota’s largest inland lake.

Air boats to rescue. Among responding emergency units were rescuers from Bemidji, Blackduck and Kelliher. Image: Kellliher Fire Department

KELLOGG, Minn. – A Lake City teen-ager was injured when a vehicle in which she was a passenger struck a cow just west of Kellogg. Injured was Raegan Marie Hoffman, 14. She was taken seven miles to the Wabasha hospital. Her injuries were non-life threatening, said Wabasha County deputies. Driving was Bridget Marie Hoffman, 41, of Lake City. She was unhurt. The accident was about 8:50 p.m. at the 170th Avenue intersection. The Hoffmans were in a 2010 GMC Yukon.

HOUSTON, Minn. – The death of a 70-year–old man north of Houston probably was homicide, sources said, The body of Durwood Ard was found by a family member in his home. Houston County Sheriff Mark Ihglett declined to release details.  Ard lived off County Road 9, which runs north and east out of Houston.

Out of of control and frightening. A trucker faced this view as his semi-trailer, the brakes failing, gained speed coming down  County Road 3 from the bluffs onto U.S. Highway 14.

Unable to turn at T: Truck overturns, loses load

LAMOILLE, Minn. – An Iowa trucker escaped serious injury when his tractor and semi-trailer overturned and landed on Canadian Pacific mainline right-of-way. Joseph Scott Biagioli, 41, of Des Moines, was taken 19 miles to a LaCrosse hospital. His injuries were non-life threatening, said Winona County deputies. The accident was about 8:15 a.m. Biagioli roared acoss four lanes of the highway and rolled on its side  onto the roadside tracks. The CP mainline, between Winona and LaCrosse, which caries CP, Union Pacific and Amtrak trains, was blocked temporarily.

WINONA, Minn. – To catch a thief, listen for a clarinet. When a school girl got off her bus after school, she forgot her $500 clarinet. When she called the bus company, somebody checked the bus and couldn’t find any clarinet.  About 10:15 p.m. the parents called police. The theft occurred somewhere after the bus stopped in the 300 bock of Gilmore Avenue.

Basketball (boys): Winona Cotter Ramblers 48, Alma-Pepin Eagles 40

Basketball (boys): Houston Hurricanes 55, Gilmanton Panthers/Independence Indees 47

WINONA, Minn. – Firefighters made a difficult rescue of a driver pinned under a minivan dangling on a 10-foot embankment over Shive Creek on the Far East End. The man, identified initially only as a 40-year-old man, was taken a few blocks the Winona hospital with a mangled right foot. This was about 5:15 p.m.  on the Shive Creek outlet from Lake Winona. Here is the Fire Department after-action report:

> The victim was on the backside of a building, prone with his with his legs pinned under the minivan’s dashboard. The driver’s side door was open and partially pinning him to the ground.

> The vehicle was on the edge of the embankment with the rear wheels hanging over. It was 10 feet down to Shive Creek and steep.

> Firefighters deployed cribbing to create wheel chocks and used a winch to secure the vehicle from rolling down the embankment.

> An ambulance crew kept the victim in place while firefighters stabilized the vehicle.

> The victim’s right foot remained tangled between the lower dash and the emergency brake pedal. Firefighters cut off the car door and attempted to “roll the dash” using a hydraulic ram. It didn’t work.

> Firefighters sawed away the emergency brake pedal and plastic from the lower dash, then used a small pry bar to remove materials adjacent to the victim’s trapped foot. This created enough room to free the foot.

> The victim was back-boarded to the ambulance.

> A tow company pulled the vehicle to level ground

WINONA, Minn. –  A man already facing multiple trespass and huffing charges now faces one more. Keith Roy Schroeder, 35, was charged with shoplifting a $7.88 can of a dust-control aerosol at Walmart on November 30. He had been under a no-trespass order from the store since August but somehow got back in anyway. The Walmart report to police was delayed while store detectives examined surveillance vide to track the theft. Schroeder, formerly of Dakota, had been charged already with numerous aerosol thefts from retailers, in some cases so eager to huff that he didn’t even leave the premises but went to restroom stalls to do it

Earlier: Man just released on huffing charges nabbed again

HOMER, Minn. – Child protection agents took custody of a 1-year-old infant after a day of suicide threats and drunkenness involving his parents. The boy, unharmed, was turned over to a grandmother in Black River Falls, Wisconsin. A bizarre sequence of events had begun about 11 a.m. with a call for deputies to make a welfare check at a residence in the 36000 block of Old Homer Road.  Deputies were told by a man on scene that he had felt depressed about a break-up with his girlfriend but was OK. He said the girlfriend had left with a handgun because she either was suicidal or worried that he was. Fast forward five hours: The police dispatcher in Winona received a call from Mauer Brothers tavern 24 miles away in Elba. The barkeep said an intoxicated woman, perhaps suicidal and with a gun, was causing a disturbance. By the time deputies arrived, the woman had driven off. Deputies found the car a mile away on a rural road with a flat tire.  The woman was hiding 50 yards away in the woods. Although she initially refused to come out, she eventually did. She was transported 30 miles to a Rochester hospital for evaluation. Deputies said they found the gun from the Holmen residence in the Elba woods nearby, where, they said, the woman had tossed it. Back in Winona deputies called county social workers to intervene for the security of the baby at the Homer address. No charges have been filed, pending further investigation.

WINONA, Minn. – A Rushford driver admitted using marijuana within an hour of being stopped for running a stoplight at Fourth and Washington streets near downtown. Police said there was other evidence, like the sweet smell of marijuana coming from the car. Also, said police, Cassidy Jean Allbrecht, 21, had blood-shot eyes and droopy lids. She failed field sobriety tests. This was about 3:10 p.m.

WINONA Minn. – Although hardly the crime of the century, police responded dutifully to a call from the Kwik Trip convenience store that an adult woman had shoplifted four potatoes. The store had the heist on video. Police went to the woman’s house. She apologized that she hadn’t meant to steal the potatoes but realized only when she got home that she hadn’t paid for them. It had been a long day and  hardly seemed worth going out again to make it right, she said. Kwik Trip said the four potatoes were worth $1.05.

All hugs and glee. Family of Marvin Haynes were exuberant as he emerged from the front gate at the Stillwater state prison after serving 14 years of a life sentence on a murder conviction that had just been determined to be flawed.

Ex-inmate says he now can “correct my narrative”

STILLWATER, Minn. – A crowd of supporters greeted Marvin Haynes with unbridled exuberance as he walked out of the Stillwater state prison. Haynes, 36, had learned only hours earlier that a judge had vacated his 2005 Minneapolis murder conviction as improperly prosecuted. Every newsroom had reporters at prison gate. When the emotion settled down, Haynes said: “Now you all can recognize that I’m actually innocent. I’m happy I can correct my narrative. I’m so happy.” A reporter shouted: “What next?” Answer: “I’m going to go see my mom.” Haynes then was  whisked away to a news conference arranged by the Great North Innocence Project, which had fought for his freedom.

Earlier: 2005 murder conviction tossed out

SR.PAUL, Minn. – A woman on a national missing person list told St. Paul police she wasn’t missing and please take my name off the list. The family of.Lauryn Tchida,19, had reported her missing after almost two weeks of no contact.

Earlier: Alert issued for Cannon Falls teen missing 13 days

MINNEAPOLIS — A judge vacated the first-degree murder conviction of a Minneapolis man who was sentenced to life in prison at age 16. Judge William Koch said the conviction of Marvin Haynes was based on flawed evidence that failed to link him to the crime. Haynes, now age 36 years old, was ordered released immediately from the Stillwater state prison. He has been in prison 14 years. Hayes maintained his innocence at his 2005 trial. When he was hauled away he shouted: “I did no kill that man.” His case eventually came to the attention of the Great North Innocence Project, which won a hearing from Judge Koch, who last week held a two-day review of the facts in the prosecution’s 2005 case .

Murder scene. At 3300 Lyndale Avenue North n Minneapolis. A clerk at Jerry’s Flower Shop, Randy Harry Sherer, 55, was shot and killed. Prosecutors pinned the crime on 16-year-old Marvin Haynes but, now says a judge, the evidence was pressed harder than warranted back then and ignored plausible alibis.

WINONA, Minn. – Restaurateur Tim Beier, who closed his Ground Round franchise in Winona in 2022, has changed his mind. Beier confirmed he will be the proprietor of a new franchise, Pizza Ranch, at the same site off U.S. Highway14 on the Far West End. He had closed the Ground Round after setbacks during the CoVid crisis. There also were family health issues. This all was amid a major remodeling to add a jazz and blues entertainment venue to the Ground Ground’s adult bar business. Beier put the building up for lease. There were no takers. As a Pizza Ranch, the place will be a far cry from the Ground Round, which was one of Winona’s classier sit-down restaurants and which had an extensive menu. The attraction now will be a pizza and salad bar with a game arcade for kids. The place is undergoing an extensive remodel for a larger footprint. Target to open: Spring.

Earlier: Ground Round make-over: Pizza, chicken, salad buffet

Earlier: Ground Round eatery hit with CoVid

Earlier: Ground Round eatery, bar closing

$5.5 million deal. Sugar Load Ford, hemmed in at current crowded lot, seeks “breathing room”

Kwik Trip-Chrysler-Ford domino scenario? Puetz: Not that we know of

WINONA, Minn. – One of the three new car dealerships in Winona, Sugar Loaf Ford, has bought adjacent property on U.S. Highway 61 to expand. Andy Puetz, of the family that owns Sugar Loaf, said that the acquisition will create “some breathing room” and had come up  for sale. The transaction:  $5.5 million. Although county transaction records don’t detail the extent of new Sugar Loaf property, it apparently includes Joe’s Auto & Tire shop, next door at 1252 West Service Drive, and part of the Winona Mall parking lot off Vila Street. Winona’s new car dealerships:

> Chrysler Winona: Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, Ram. 121 Huff Street, near downtown.

> Dahl: Buick, Chevrolet, GMC, Toyota.  Side-by-side showrooms at 1077 and 1201 West Service Drive. off U.S. 61.

> Sugar Loaf: Ford, Lincoln. 1222 Service Drive of U.S. 61. advertises itself as on the “sunny side of the street,” across U.S.” Highway 61 from the newer, flashier bluff-side Dahl.

Puetz acknowledged hearing rumors around town that the Chrysler dealership, also owned by the Puetzes, might move to the Sugar Loaf Ford site, “Yes, I have been hearing that for some time,” said Puetz. “We may locate Chrysler to an alternate site down the road, but no immediate plans at this moment.” The current Chrysler shop is on the heavily trafficked Riverview Drive route into downtown from the Far West End. A downside to the Chrysler Winona site, like the Sugar Loaf Ford site, is being tightly hemmed in.

Earlier: Winona County commercial property sales in November 2023

Earlier: Winona Ford dealer wins state title

Earlier: LaCrosse car dealer wins state honor

DRESBACH, Minn. – Deputies arrested a drunk man who said he was sleeping in his car at the Interstate 90 tourist stop to wait for dawn to go fishing at the Mississippi River dam. This was about 11 p.m. How drunk was Padraic Richard Oconnell? His blood-alcohol level tested at 0.347% — four times the legal definition of impairment Let’s ask that again: How drunk was he? When the deputy asked him to exit his car, he did so and turned and then peed – never a good thing to do while being arrested. But there’s good news: His aim was good enough not to splash the deputy. Oconnell, age 54, who has a LaCrosse address, was booked two hours later at the Winona County jail 24  miles upriver from where had been planning to go fishing. And, by the way, what fishing season was still open?  Only for the apex predator muskellunge, which is known for such ferocious line-pulling that an unstable angler can be pulled in.

Oconnell. His undoing began by parking illegally in a handicap lot.

DODGE, Wis. – A driver was injured gravely when his car crossed the center line, entered a ditch, struck a culvert and rolled several times. The driver was ejected. He was taken 15 miles to the Winona hospital, then airlifted to a higher-level trauma center. Trempealeau County Sheriff Brett Semingson, as is his habit, declined to release the driver’s name.  The accident was shortly before7 a.m. on County Highway G in the lower Trempealeau River valley.