ST. PAUL, Minn. – The Army Corps of Engineers is waiving day use fees at its 2,800 recreation areas nationwide in observance of Veterans Day on Saturday. These include 49 recreation areas in North Dakota, Minnesota and Wisconsin. The waiver covers fees for boat launch ramps and swimming beaches. The Corps began the Veterans Day fee waiver in 2006.

RIDGEWAY, Minn. – A Dakota man was arrested at rural house near Ridgeway after a call that he had attacked a woman inside and then was outside yelling and still threatening her. Concerned about the man’s mental stability, deputies summoned an ambulance to take him 14 miles to the Winona hospital for evaluation. He resisted being loaded into the ambulance and grabbed and twisted a thumb of one deputy. This was in the 30000 block of Shortcut Road. Deputies followed the ambulance to the hospital and left him there. Later the deputies were called back to the hospital for a new disturbance. After calming the man down, the deputies left again and began doing their paperwork on all that had happened. Pending charges against Christopher Randall Palmer, age 34: Domestic assault, threatening violence, attacking a police officer, and obstructing the legal process.

WINONA, Minn. –A man wearing a helmet broke down the door into an East End  house and barged in swinging a six-foot metal rod with a padlock belted at the end. Roommates in the house were terrorized.  One called police. When officers arrived, they said, Shane Richard Oevering, 44, still had the homemade weapon in hand and was in a threatening stance. He was making nonsensical comments as if under the influence of a controlled substance, police said. Oevering did not hit anyone with the weapon, according to police. The incident was about 11:40 p.m. in the 1050 block of East Fifth Street.

Oevering. Charges include assault with a dangerous weapon.

Volleyball (girls): Caledonia Warriors 3, Cannon Falls Bombers 0

Volleyball (girls): Mabel-Canton Cougars 3, Harmony Central Fillmore Falcons 0

ROCHESTER, Minn. – The 83-room LaQuinta hotel was evacuated after a carbon monoxide scare. Staff and guests were already huddled outside when firefighters arrived about 11:20 a.m. Four whoozy guests, including a child, all with acute carbon monoxide poisoning symptoms, were ushered to ambulances and dispatched to a hospital. Their conditions were not known immediately. The usual CO1 symptoms are headache, dizziness, weakness, upset stomach, vomiting, chest pain, and confusion. The gas itself s odorless, colorless, and tasrtless.  Firefighters said they found highly elevated levels in a swimming pool area. At first the issue was whether it was CO1 or chlorine poisoning. Gas utilities were cut off.  Minnesota Energy Resources was called in to verify the origin. Large positive-pressure ventilation fans were used to rid the structure of the gas. By 2 p.m. the building was cleared for occupancy again.

LaQuinta. At 4353 Canal Place Southeast, halfway between downtown and the airport.

Time to fall back. If Galesville still had an old lamplighter, this is the day, at midnight, that  he would be turning back the clock an hour at the town square. Image: Steve Lunde

Legacy Park. Theme of Plainview’s park to be Peace Corps service.

First in nation in Congressionally authorized project

PLAINVIEW, Minn. – The first in a new series of national park to recognize people for work in military, national and public Service was launched outside the Plainview high school. Congress approved the parks in 2017 to elevate all forms of national service. Sketches were unveiled of what the park will look like. It is thought the Plainview ark will be the first nationally to be completed.  Ken Flies, president of the Peace Corps Legacy Association, said the park will help young people appreciate their potential in serving the common god. “We want to help them understand that national service is the crux of our country,” Flies said. Also at the ceremony:

> Ken Goodson, AmeriCorps director and also Civilian Community Corps director.

> Carol Spahn, Peace Corps director

> Eduardo Suarez, communications director, Minnesota National Guard,

> Joseph Votel, commanding general of U.S. Special Operations Command at MacDill Air Force Base.

High school proximity. Among goals is inspiring young people.

BYRON, Minn. — The black bear whose home was the Oxbow Park zoo came down with paralysis of her hind quarters and has been euthanized.  A brief announcement said the dispatch was performed humanely. The bear, a favorite of visitors, lived a long life of almost 25 years at the zoo.

Munching lunch. At Olmsted County’s Oxbow Park zoo.

Mazie Olson (KAAL October 23, 2023): “Rochester Doctor Accused of Poisoning Pharmacist Wife; Court Documents Cite Debt, Suspicious Internet Activity”

Chris Rogers (Winona Post, November 1, 2023): “County Plans to Ban Dog Breeders in January”

Jordan Sansom (KAAL, October 23, 2023): “Neighbors of Mayo Doctor React to Murder Charge”

WINONA, Minn. – Two men walking home from the downtown bars were assailed, they said, by a crazed man who tried to rob them and then to stab them. This was near Fourth and Walnut Street around 2:30 a.m. Arrested nearby was Chase Randall Hawley, 23, of Winona. This is what happened, as police reconstructed what happened from the victims and what a witness recounted: Hawley followed the two men down the street and asked for money. When they refused, he hit one of the men in the face and tried to grab a wallet from his trousers.  The two men kept walking. Hawley continued to follow them. Another physical altercation ensued. Apparently Hawley tried to stab one of the men with a sharp object. When a witness intervened and said he was calling the police, Hawley dropped a metal object and fled. When officers found Hawley short time later, he had injuries to his face. Hawley denied being involved in the incidents. Officers, however, found his eyeglasses on the sidewalk at the scene of the altercations. That could explain his face cuts. About the stabbing allegation, no weapon was found. It was unclear whether it was a knife or a fork or whether there was a weapon at all. One the victims did have a superficial cut on his torso through his clothes, police said. Officers found no weapon. The victims suffered other minor injuries.

Hawley. Booked for assault and robbery.

Hockey (men): Saint Mary’s 2, Hamline 0

Hockey (women): Saint Mary’s 2, UW-Eau Claire 1

Volleyball (women): Winona State 3, MSU-Moorhead 1

Volleyball (women): Macalester 3, Saint Mary’s 1

Volleyball (women): UW-Oshkosh 3, UW-LaCrosse 0

Football: Caledonia Warriors 35, Dover-Eyota Eagles 20

Football: Stewartville Tigers 34, Rochester Lourdes Eagles 7

Football: Harmony Fillmore Central Falcons 14, Kenyon-Wanamingo Knights 0

Football: Spring Valley Kingsland Knights 44, Spring Grove Lions 14

Football: Oak Park Stillwater Ponies 49, Rochester Mayo Spartans 31

Soccer (boys): St. Paul Academy Spartans 3, Pine Island-Zumbrota-Mazeppa Wildcats 2

Football: LaCrosse Aquinas Blugolds 20, Columbia Cardinals 13

Football: Rice Lake Warriors 58, Onalaska Hilltoppers 36

JUDSON, Minn. – An Eyota man, 110 miles from home, was injured when he lost control and his car, which left the roadway, Cade Thomas Jakobson, 23, was taken ro the Blue Earth hospital with non-life threatening injuries. Ths was about 5:45 a.m. on Highway 68 about 10 miles west of Mankato along the Minnesota River. Jakobson was headed west toward New Ulm in a 2006 Ford Focus. The road was dry. He was unbelted, deputies said.

GOODVIEW, Minn. – Jerky miester Jeremy Littel has bought property in Goodview to build a 15,000-square-foot retail store with an outside music venue and warehouse. The site is at a former state-operated truck weigh station at Highway 61 and 54th Avenue. “Time to grow,” he said. Littel has retailers in 20 states that stock his Kickkass jerky in more flavors than you can count. He also has new Kickass product lines: Snack sticks, pickled products, olives, gift cards soaps and bloody mary and other mixes. He sees the new store as a destination for out-of-towners – kind of like Lark Toy up the road in Kellogg or Wall Drug in South Dakota L.L. Bean in Freeport Maine.

Soccer (women): Winona State 3, Wayne State of Nebraska 0

Soccer (women):  UW-LaCrosse 5, UW-Stevens Point 0