Wisconsin prep
Football: LaCrosse Aquinas Blugolds 32, Wrightstown Tigers 13
Basketball (girls): Altoona Railroaders 67, Galesville Gale-Ettrick-Trempealeau Red Hawks 21
Basketball (girls): Cochrane-Fountain City Pirates 58, Durand-Arkansaw Panthers 49
Basketball (girls): Whitehall Norse 55, Port Edwards Blackhawks 13
Basketball (girls): Blair-Taylor Wildcats 43, Black River Falls Tigers 29
Basketball (girls): Hammond St. Croix Central Panthers 38, Arcadia Raiders 31
Bizarre driving leads to East End arrest
WINONA, Minn. – Police arrested a Winona man, Brent Ryan Knopp, 42, whose blood alcohol level was 0.27%, more than triple the legal limit to drive. This was about 8:20 p.m. after odd circling and stopping and running up a curb, police said. This was outside an apartment complex behind Walgreens drug store on Menard Road on the Far East End. Police had pursued Knopp after a complaint that he had entered a house from which he was banned by a protective court order. Nobody was home, but a security camera him entering the house briefly, police said
Barefoot bandit absconds with vodka
WINONA, Minn. – A man walked into the MGM liquor store on the Far East End walked out with a 1.75-liter bottle of Royal vodka without paying. The man was barefoot, the clerk said. Police said they recognized the man from surveillance video.
How they voted: On extending federal funding /2
WASHINGTON – The U.S. Senate voted 87-11 to keep funding the federal government at 2023 levels into the new year. The only negative Democratic vote was from Senator Mike Bennet of Colorado. The alternative to continued authorization of funding was a government shutdown. How members of the Minnesota and Wisconsin delegations voted:
To keep government funded
Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis.
Ron Johnson, R-Wis.
Amy Klobubar, D-Minn.
Tina Smith, D-Minn.
Against
None.
Earlier: On extending federal funding /1
Craig’s attacker in apartment elevator to prison
WASHINGTON — A man who attacked Minnesota Congresswoman Angie Craig in the elevator of her Washington apartment building was sentenced to 27 months in prison. Kendrid Khalil Hamlin, 27, had earlier convictions, including assaulting a police officer, Judge James Boasberg noted in issuing the sentence. Hamlin’s attorney asked for a lesser sentence to facilitate inpatient mental health treatment. At the sentencing, Hamlin apologized to Craig and said he needs treatment for schizophrenia and substance abuse. In the incident, in February, Hamlin. trapped Crain in the elevator, grabbed her neck, slammed her against a steel wall, and punched her. She fought him off by throwing a cup of hot coffee at him.
Earlier: Minnesota party leaders on Craig attack
Craig profile
Angie Craig, of Hastings, a Democrat, represents MN-2. She is in her third term. In a letter to the judge about the assault, she said she was targeted with death threats after the attack and felt compelled to move. “While my physical recovery was days, my mental and emotional recovery has taken much longer and is ongoing,” she wrote.
Minnesota workforce reaches record 3 million
ST. PAUL, Minn. – The number of jobs in Minnesota passed 3 million in October, the most in state history, the state employment agency reported. Over the past 12 months the state gained of more than 42,200 jobs. The growth rate was 1.4%. Even so, the jobless rate also grew — up one-10th of a percentage point in October to 3.2%. October’s national jobless rate was 3.9%
Peak seems over for winter parking violations
WINONA, Minn. – Word got around fast about Winona’s alternate-side winter parking rule. Police found only 26 violations overnight, compared to 264 the night before, when the rule went into effect. The fine: $25.
Winona Health lauded for patient tracking
MINNEAPOLIS – The UCare health insurance provider for 600,000 Minnesotans recognized Winona Health with blue ribbons as an early innovator in improving patient outcomes through a value-based healthcare model. A citation was presented at the annual UCare excellence conference. In all, 22 hospitals and clinics were recognized in a broad range of categories. Accepting for Winona Health: Dana Bentz and Amanda Ciszak.
Bentz. Women’s health nurse manager at Winona Health.
Ciszak. Primary care clinics director at Winona Health.
Hay bales destroyed in fire
WILSON, Minn. – A bearing failed on farm machine and set 20 round bales of hay on fire. This was about 11:55 a.m. south of Wilson off County Road 19 on Liberty Drive. No one was injured. The hay was lost.
News summary at mid-week: November 15, 2023
ENVIRONMENT: Archer fells cougar in Wisconsin: “Either it or me”
CRIME: 14 indictments for major fentanyl trafficking
CRIME: $500,000 bail for LaCrosse airplane knife, bomb threats
HEALTH: No soft punches: Mayo rebuts lawsuit claims
HEALTH: Researcher: “Mayo violated my academic freedom”
SCHOOL: Bracing for school: Teens swap rum on school bus
WINTER: 264 tickets issued for bad overnight parking
GOVERNANCE: Threw out your tax rebate check? Not all is lost
GOVERNANCE: How they voted: On extending federal funding /1
SCARE: Mystery solved? Those UFOs likely not spy balloons
Archer fells cougar in Wisconsin: “Either it or me”
On the prowl. The 2-year-old male, weighing 128 pounds, apparently was hungry and intent on prey. No deer around? How about a hunter? With huge back haunches, cougars can run 70 mph. The fastest human being record, Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt, did the 100-meter sprint at 24 mph. Image: Wisconsin Natural Resources Department
Hunter says big cat ready to lunge
ALMA, Wis. – An Eau Claire bow-hunter shot and killed a cougar that he was sure was stalking him in the woods in northern Buffalo County – the first cougar shot in the state in 115 years. Although cougars are an endangered species, the county attorney, Tom Bilski, took the advice of the state Natural Resources Department and decided not to prosecute. The incident occurred November 11. The hunter, Ben Karash, said he had been in a blind up a tree most of the afternoon waiting for a deer. Then he caught movement in a narrow field where he had placed a deer decoy. He told the magazine Outdoor Life:
“At about 3:45 I looked to my right and about 40 yards away I saw movement that I assumed was a deer. Then I saw the cat-like face staring at me and thought it was a big bobca — they’re not uncommon here. Then I saw the huge body and long tail and realized it was a cougar. I could see it was sneaking up on me, staring right at me with its tail swishing back and forth. It would crouch and hide, then start creeping toward me again, always with his eyes on me. There never was a minute in the whole episode when he wasn’t coming toward me. I think he saw the deer decoy first, then saw me moving in the stand and started concentrating on me instead. I was strapped into my harness, so my movement was limited, and since he was to my right, I had to turn to face him. I waved my hands and yelled at him to get out of here, but he kept coming. The carabiner on my safety harness even banged against the tree stand when I turned, but that didn’t bother him either, he just kept sneaking closer.”
At 13 yards Karasch fired the lethal arrow and struck the cougar in a shoulder. Karash reported what happened to the state hunters hotline in Madison. The next morning Karasch met with two game wardens and a biologist near the stand. They concluded the shooting was self-defense.
Buffalo County. The state wildlife agency didn’t identify where it was in Buffalo County that he cougar was shot. The county comprises 738 square miles. The western border is the Mississippi River from Nelson to Alma, Cochrane, Fountain City and Marshland. The county stretches 40 miles inland. Interior communities include Cream, Gilmanton Mondovi and Waumandee. The county is the sixth least populous in Wisconsin with only 13,000 people, which gives rise to the wisecrack that there are more deer than people. Probably not quite true.
Cougar-tracking
The DNR took possession of the cougar carcass. Biologists plan a full necropsy to determine where the cougar came from. Although a native Wisconsin species, cougars were wiped out by farmers early 1900s. In recent years, the state wildlife agency has verified 15 to 20 sightings. State biologist Mark Rasmussen said that Karasch’s cougar likely was one picked up on a few days earlier. The animal probably came from the Dakotas or Canada, like other cougars sighted in recent years in inWisconsin , Rasmussen said. This year there have been 23 verified cougar sightings in the state, but many may be the same animal. Cougar longevity in the wild is about eight years. They wander for a lifetime, sometimes ending up 1,600 miles. from their birthplace. Males travel than females. It isn’t believed any females are in Wisconsin.
Verbatim
Karasch: “I’ve hunted deer since I was 12 years old and most of my shots have been at about 20 yards. This cougar was half that distance away. All these thoughts are running through my mind, I felt extremely scared and vulnerable at that moment with the cat still staring at me. I could be in serious trouble if the cat lunged up the tree. With how close the cougar was — and his lack of fear even though I tried to scare him away — I felt like the only option I had was to shoot.”
College scores
Basketball (men): Crown 81, Saint May’s 64
Basketball (women): UW-LaCrosse 68, Edgewood 63
When a pizza craving blocks memory
WINONA, Minn. – The lure of pizza was too much for Michael Wade Zvirblis. Although banned from a downtown pizza joint for past behavior, he was back. Police were called. Zvirblis, 55, of Winona, was cited for trespassing. Thirty minutes later he was down the street at another East Third Street eatery from which he also had been previously branded as unwanted and issued a police order not to come back. Police were called again. Same-O, same-O.
14 indictments for major fentanyl trafficking
MINNEAPOLS – Federal agents believe they have broken up the Highs Gang. a major Minneapolis-based supplier of fentanyl. Twelve gang members have been indicted, along with two of their contacts from Arizona, The U.S. attorney for Minnesota, Andrew Luger, announced the indictments. In the last three years, Luger said, gang members made numerous flights to Phoenix to buy drugs and have them shipped to Minnesota by U.S. mail. The dugs went into the High Gang’s wholesale distribution through an extensive Minnesota trafficking operation. The federal investigation into the operation led to the seizure of 26 pounds of fentanyl, three dozen firearms, and $218,000 cash, Lugar said. Indicted:
> Clinton Brown, 29. Also known as “CJ.”
> Gregory Brown, 33. Also known as “Lil’ G” and “Knowledge.”
> Arron Davis, 31. Also known as “A-Boogie.”
> Leneal Frazier, 22. Also known as “Baby Chop” and “ Lil’ Chop.”
> David Hendricks, 29.
> Dashawn Jackson, 31. Also known as “D-Nice.”
> Ernest Ketter, 27. Also known as “Shakedown.”
> Amarjah Lester, 21. Also known as “M-Thang.”
> Robert Lesure, 21. Also known as “Bibby Folks.”
> Avante Nix, 21. Also known as “Fat Folks.”
> Deandre Poe, 34. Also known as “Squizzy” and “Fat Squad.”
> Marques Walker, 41. Also known as “Q” and “Quez.”
> Christopher Lee Washington, 21. Also known as “Flock.”
> Jadarius Wright, 29, of Phoenix.
> Carlos Serrano, 31, of Phoenix.
Luger. Charges came from grand jury.
No soft punches: Mayo rebuts lawsuit claims
ROCHESTER, Minn. – Mayo Clinic issued a statement defending its discipline of anesthesiology researcher Michael Joyner, who claims in a lawsuit that the clinic wanted to shut him up for criticizing the clinic. Joyner’s scientific views had to do with disciplining him, the clinic said. The statement said that Joyner had rude to coworkers and treated them unprofessionally. The statement seemed to concede, however, that there had been lingering irritation with Joyner at Mayo’s highest levels. In 2020, at the height of the CoVid pandemic, Joyner gave Mayo an ultimatum for a $1 million-plus payment within 48 hours, the statement said. About Joyner’s claim that his academic freedom had been violated, Mayo said it has a 150-year record of promoting and protecting scientific research and academic freedom. Joyner is “disingenuously invoking academic freedom as a shield to escape accountability for actions that violate Mayo principles. About his criticism of the National Institutes of Health’s approval process, Mayo said that Joyner was expressing not a scientific opinion but “unprofessional personal frustration” with NIH for not recommending a CoVid therapy he had championed.
Bracing for school: Teens swap rum on school bus
WINONA, Minn. – A14-year-old girl admitted passing rum around to companions on the school bus on the ride to school. One of her friends still had a trace of alcohol in her blood – 0.001% — when police did a breath check 3-1/2 hours later. The girl who brought the rum on the bus said she had poured it into a metal tumbler from a bottle at home. She denied drinking any herself. Police could still whiff the rum in the tumbler and cited the girl as a minor in possession. Two other girls, both 14, admitted to sampling the rum. One of them, however, didn’t show any alcohol in her system. The other girl, with the 0.001% test, was cited for minor consumption .The parents were called to the high school for an uncomfortable discussion.
264 tickets issued for bad overnight parking
WINONA, Minn. – Police laid 264 tickets under the wipers of cars on the first night that the city’s alternate-side parking rule was in effect. Deputy Police Chief Jay Rasmussen noted the number in his usual wonderment about how so many motorists are caught unawares. . A warning had been on the Police Department’s Facebook page. Two-thousand emails were sent out. Students at both Winona State and Saint Mary’s were alerted through the colleges’ internal communication systems. Local news media ran stories prominently. Violations cost $25. Rasmussen said he’s seen patterns over the years to violations – always a lot the first night, some times more than 300. People get idea and the number falls off until Thanksgiving. Then comes a post-holiday bump and also immediately after Christmas and New Year’s.
Threw out your tax rebate check? Not all is lost
ST. PAUL, Minn. – Rebate checks from the $18 billion state budget surplus have all been mailed to every eligible taxpayer, but bundles of them – roughly 150,000 – haven’t been cashed. And they’re valid only for 60 days. The checks were mailed on a rotating schedule between August 16 and September 27. Why haven’t people cashed their checks, which range from $260 to $1,040? Perhaps because they looked so inauspicious — like yet another of piece junk mail disguised in plain-jane envelopes as if from the government. But who knows. Starting Thursday, the state Reveue Department will start mailing new salvos of replacement checks.
Earlier: Where those “Walz Checks”? Any day now
Earlier: Governor goes with $2,600 for Walz Checks
Earlier: Governor softens on $1,000 Walz Checks
Earlier: Walz Checks: Coming back from the dead?
Earlier: GOP now favors tax rebates, one-ups Walz
Earlier: nice to say about Walz Checks
Emergency, fire crews make 50 calls
WINONA, Minn. – The Fire Department reported 40 emergency medical calls plus 10 fire calls in recent days:
> Tuesday, November 14: 7 medical calls plus 3 fire calls.
> Monday, November 13: 9 medical calls plus no fire calls.
> Sunday, November 12: 1: medical call plus 1 fire call.
> Saturday, November 11: 5 medical calls plus 2 fire calls.
> Friday, November 10: 11 medical calls plus 1 call.
> Thursday, November 9: 4 medical calls plus 2 fire calls.
> Wednesday, November 8: 3 medical calls plus 1 fire call.
Earlier: Emergency, fire crews 44 calls
Man calls 911 repeatedly about cop “annoying” him
WINONA, Minn. – Police ticketed a Winona man who called 911 three times to complain that an officer on foot was following him around and harassing him. The officer was on duty enforcing the first night of the alternate-side parking rule for winter, which he said he explained several times to the man. In one 911 call, Anass Gttoa, age 34, demanded to talk to the county sheriff about the officer: “He’s annoying me.” Gttoa also swore on the phone, the police dispatcher said. This all began about 1:40 a.m. near Wabasha and Harriet streets on the Near West Side. Finally a back-up officer was dispatched to the scene. He cited Gttoa for abusing the 911 emergency service, a misdemeanor. The officers agreed that Gttoa was intoxicated.
College scores
Basketball (women): Saint Mary’s 78, Northland 30
Volleyball (women): Concordia of St. Paul 3, Winona State 0
Minnesota prep
Hockey (girls): Red Wing Wingers 8, Winona Winhawks 5
Hockey (girls): LeSueur Minnesota River Bulldogs 3, Rochester Mayo Spartans 1
Wisconsin prep
Basketball (girlss): Whitehall Norse 44, Independence Indees 42
Basketball (girls): Cochrane-Fountain City Pirates 61, Galesville Gale-Ettrick-Trempealeau Red Hawks 24
Basketball (girls): Melrose-Mindoro Mustangs 43, Westby Norsemen 29
Basketball (girls): Cadott Hornets 47, Eleva-Strum Cardinals 29
Basketball (girls): LaCrosse Aquinas Blugolds 60, Platteville Hillmen 54
How they voted: On extending federal funding /1
WASHINGTON – The U.S. House voted 336-95 to keep the government open, averting a shutdown that would have idled most government services and halted paychecks to most federal employees. It had been a cliff-hanger: Current funding for the government was due to expire in three days. If the Senate approves the House bill, government spending would be authorized through January 19. In the meantime a longer term solution will need to be worked out. How members of the Minnesota and Wisconsin delegations voted:
A test for House speaker
passage was a victory for new House Speaker Mike Johnson. He was unable to muster a majority of his House Republicans behind an extension on spending and relied on Democrats to pass the measure. Johnson’s problem finding a Republican majority is the GOP Freedom Caucus, a right-wing faction that is so committed to scaling back federal spending and services that it favors shutting the whole thing down.
To keep government funded
> Angie Craig, D-Mn2 (south suburbs).
> Tom Emmer, R-Mn6 (north suburbs).
> Betty McCollum, D-Mn4 (St. Paul).
> Ilhan Omar, D-Mn5 (Minneapolis).
> Dean Phillips, D-Mn3 (west suburbs).
> Pete Stauber, R-Mn 8 (Iron Range).
– –
> Scott Fitzgerald, R-Wi5 (Clyman).
> Glen Grothman, R-Wi6 (Campbellsport).
> Gwen Moore, D-Wi4 (Milwaukee): Jeffries.
> Mark Pocan, D-Wi2 (Madison).
> Bryan Steil, R-Wi1 (Janesville),
> Derrick Van Orden, R-Wi3 (Prairie du Chien).
Against
> Michelle Fischbach, R-Mn7 (rural west).
> Brad Finstad, R-Mn1 (south).
__
> Mike Gallagher, R-Wi8 (Green Bay).
> Tom Tiffany, R-Wi7 (Hazelburst).
Researcher: “Mayo violated my academic freedom”
ROCHESTER, Minn. – A globally prominent Mayo Clinic doctor has sued the clinic, which he alleges disciplined him for things he said in news interviews. Michael Joyner, an anesthesiology researcher at Mayo for 26 years, said he was suspended unpaid for one week, denied a salary increase, and threatened with termination. Joyner claims that Mayo was retaliating for whistle-blowing. He had asserted in news interviews that:
> Mayo stretched the struth to qualify itself as an educational institution in order to gain a tax advantage
> The clinic was complicit with affiliates to get into protected patient data illegally for extraneous purposes.
> The National Institutes of Health’s approval process was “bureaucratic rope a dope” that discourages doctors from using convalescent plasma to treat CoVid.
These were things that Joyner said in interviews with the New York Times, CNN and other news media. He sometimes uses colorful in his metaphors, He called testosterone “the 800-pound gorilla” while discussing sex differences and sports performance. In his lawsuit Joyner said that Mayo’s disciplinary actions violated the clinic’s own stated creed to value free expression and academic freedom.
Joyner. Widely recognized as an expert on how humans respond to physical and mental stress during exercise, hypoxia and blood loss. Coordinates a federal program on convalescent plasma for CoVid patient treatment.
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