Pelowski still aboard for House re-election bid
WINONA, Minn. – The Winona representative in the State House, Gene Pelowski, confirmed again that he will seek re-election. The confirmation came after at-large City Council member Aaron Repinsky announced his candidacy and as a former Pelowski challenger, Stephen Doerer, reportedly was preparing also to announce. Pelowski is a Democrat, Repinski and Doerr Republicans. Pelowski is among the longest-serving members in the Legislature. He was elected first in 1987. Consistently he has been re-elected even as the current House District, 26-A has moved through several reincarnations and redrawn borders as 34-B, 32-A, 31-A, and 38-A to reflect a population shifts. Pelowski’s only electoral setback was losing a multi-county State Senate seat that went vacant at midterm. He bounced back and was re-elected to the House from his familiar Winona County constituency without missing a term.
Pelowski. If re-elected it was be his 19th term.
Pelowski profile
Pelowski is retired from Winona High School, where he taught government and civics. He also coached debate. For students he created a local model-government project for serious-minded weekends of legislative process simulations. In summers he was a golf-shop pro. As a legislator he became a go-to expert on the state’s higher education systems. He has been friendly to construction and other projects at Winona State University. his alma mater.
R.I.P.: Marian Hopkins
WINONA, Minn. – Marian Hopkins, of Winona, who once taught Latin at Cotter High School and later managed the adult learning program at Winona State University, died at age 93. She held an advanced degree in classical studies from the University of Michigan and did doctoral work in adult education, women’s studies, and international education at the University of Minnesota. Although an excellent cook, her children remember her saying she didn’t want to be remembered for her kitchen but for her ideas. She was a concurrent member in four separate book clubs. She was also a founding member of the Great River Collegium that studied the plays that would be performed in the Great River Shakespeare Festival. She supported aspiring actors in the festival’s apprenticeship Program.
Details: Hoff Funeral Home
1930-2023
R.I.P.: Dale Erdman
WINONA, Minn. – Dale J. Erdman, 84, of Winona, died, at the Lewiston Senior Living in Lewiston.
Detail: Watkowski-Mulyck Funeral Home
1939-2023
Minnesota prep
Volleyball (girls): Mabel-Canton Cougars 3, Adams Southland Rebels 0
Volleyball (girls): Spring Grove Lions 3, Lyle-Pacelli Athletics 0
Volleyball (girls): LeRoy-Ostrander Cardinals 3, Rochester Schaeffer Lions 0
Volleyball (girls): Spring Valley Kingsland Knights 3, Houston Hurricanes 0
Volleyball (girls): Zumbrota-Mazeppa Cougars 3, Kenyon-Wanamingo Knights 0
Volleyball (girls): Grand Meadow Superlarks 3, Lanesboro Burros 0
Zumbrota city leaders ponder police shutdown
ZUMBROTA, Minn. – The police officers union was blind-sided that the City Council was considering disbandonment of the police department, said union steward Tony Pasquale. The Council approached Goodhue County Sheriff Mary Kelly in August about taking over city policing, Pasquale said. The union was never notified and even consulted, he said. Zumbrota population 3,800, has seven police officers.
Hamas carnage claims former St. Paul teacher
ST.PAUL, Minn. – A former teacher at Talmud Torah School in St. Paul, Noi Marudi, was among 260 people killed by Hamas terrorists at the Supernova open-air concert in Israel three miles from the Gaza border. Rabbi Yosi Gordon, of the school, said he had received a message that Marudi’s body had been identified. “I was shattered and for a couple of hours I couldn’t talk to anybody,” Gordon told a KSTP interviewer. “He died along with his brother-in-law and two of his close, close friends, who were both brothers, and they were all dead, murdered in their car.” Maurdi, 29, had been at Talmud Torah School isix years. He moved to Israel in 2021.
Verbatim
Gordon: “ He was so profoundly good. I have known lots of good people. He was like pure good. The older kids, teenagers, and so on, he was a big brother to all of them, and to all of the kids he was this lovely, caring human being who was so wise and so funny and so energetic.”
Marudi. Slain in a car trying to flee the unfolding carnage after terrorists paraglided into the concert from Gaza.
Supernova: 4,000 people in Israel’s Negev Desert
In the tradition of secret-location raves, fans of electronic, reggae and hip-hop bought tickets to the Supernova concert in advance but didn’t even know where to go until the last minute. The only early tip: “The event will take place in a powerful, natural location full of trees, stunning in its beauty and organized for your convenience about an hour and a quarter south of Tel Aviv.” The mystery was part of the attraction. When told the site online, 4,000 people, who paid $100 each, converged in the desert. They parked along an access road and walked to the performance area. Sixteen DJs from around the world spun the music. There also were big-name performers live. The event was supposed to run 15 hours straight. The event coincided with the end of Sukkot, a week-long Jewish holiday commemorating the October harvest and the Old Testament period after Israelites were freed from slavery in Egypt. The large open area had multi-colored banners billowing overhead. There was dancing. Music was channeled from banks of speakers on wooden platforms. Trees circled the site. In an eco-friendly spirit, organizers banned plastic but sold bio-degradablen cups for free water. The organizers hired 30 police officers for security. Before dawn Hamas insurgents invaded from all directions. By the hundreds, concert-goers fled the bloodbath to their cars, some several thousand feet away. Many, trapped in traffic jams, were shot and killed in their cars. Then the terrorists disappeared inth night back into Gaza, many with hostages.
R.I.P.: Paul O’Brien
WINONA, Minn. – Paul Waite O’Brien, 76, of Winona, died at home in after an illness of several months. He graduated from Cotter High School in 1966 and played trumpet in the local band Red Flames. He attended Winona State University but left to travel Europe and worked as a glazier in Germany. He cut stone at Winona Monument for 20 years. Later he was a quarryman for Biesanz Stone.
Detail: Watkowski-Mulyck Funeral Home
1948-2023
Driver’s blood-alcohol high at 0.11%
WINONA, Minn. — A Winona driver, Elizaeth Carol Ressie, 40, was stopped for not having a front license plate and, according to the officer, showed signs of impairment – bloodshot eyes, slurred speech, and a boozy odor. Her blood tested as 0.11% alcohol — almost half again as much as the legal impairment limit. This was about 1:48 a.m. at Third and Hamilton streets.
About nude photo swaps online: Perverts lurking
WINONA, Minn. – Parents called police after discovering their 14-year-old daughter was swapping nude selfies on SnapShot. The girl told officers that it was just among other teens – although not local but all over. Police lectured the girl about appropriate online behavior and possible dangers: There are perverts out there. A police investigator was assigned to check whether the girl’s correspondents might have included pedophiles.
Car-chasing deputy outwitted — this time
ELBA, Minn. – After a car came at him with high beams, a deputy turned around and gave chase. The car, accelerating rapidly, disappeared over a knoll. Three minutes later, as the deputy was looking for where the driver turned off, a 911 call arrived at the police dispatcher’s desk in Winona. The caller said there was an emergency back in Elba: Better get there fast. The deputy reversed himself and raced back to Elba. It turned out there was no emergency. The 911 call was a hoax. Evidently the driver had phoned an accomplice to make the 911 call. There will be a next time, the deputy said.
Cops: Breath test explains wild driving
WINONA, Minn. — A deputy responded to a call about a driver crossing the fog line and almost going up on a curb near the hospital. When Tina Marie Cieminski, 57, of Winona, was stopped on Mankato Avenue, she failed a field sobriety test, then blew 0.10% in a blood-alcohol test – 0.20% too much to be driving legally.
Cieminski. Her deriving reported as erratic.
Greedy, greedy bomb hoax: Send bitcoin
WINONA, Minn. – A scary call arrived at West Side house: Don’t open your front door or back door or a bomb will explode. A subsequent call: Send money — 5,000 in bitcoin to get the bomb defused. The only one home at the time, a teenager, called her folks who rushed back. Police cleared the house and searched for a bomb. None. This was about 6:40 p.m. in the 1050 lock of Marion Street. In a way the demand was absurd: Bitcoin values fluctuate wildly – and recent trading has 5,000 bitcoin at 142 million in U.S. dollars. That’s a bit more than most of us have tucked under the mattress.
Orange aplenty at Wyattville crossroads
Just unloaded. On County Roads 25 and 12 in central Winona County. A propitious site for selling lots of pumpkins in coming days. Image: Steve Lunde
Hixton stabbing suspect spotted but fled
HIXTON, Wis. – A Hixton man wanted for a stabbing during a home invasion Thursday was reported seen walking into another Hixton residence about 2 p.m. Jackson County deputies responded with a K-9 aide and searched the property unsuccessfully, Sheriff Duane Waldera said. Authorities had been looking for Anthony Sylvester IV, 32, of Hixton. Word had spread quicky around Hixton that Sylvester had been cornered. A crowd gathered. Afterward Sheriff Duane Waldera issued a statement: “Law enforcement encountered numerous citizens too close to the scene. This creates a safety issue for innocent bystanders and a security issue for law enforcement personnel.” Please, he said, allow police to do their job. At the same time, Waldera asked people in the Black River Falls area including Hixton, to be vigilant and report any sighting of Sylvester or information on his whereabouts.
Rolling tractor crushes, kills farmer
WATKINS, Minn. – A farmer was trying to hook a wagon to the back of a tractor and corn picker when the tractor started to rolled forward. Matthew Mathies, 59, tried to jump onto the tractor but slipped. He was run over. This was about 1:05 p.m. First-responders attempted resuscitation and called a med-evac helicopter from St. Cloud 20 miles away. It was too late.
Farmer destroys 140,000 turkeys to halt bird flu
LITCHFIELD, Minn. – A fatal bird flu, highly contagious among birds, showed up in a commercial flock of 140,000 turkeys in south-central Minnesota last week. To block spread to other turkey farms, the entire flock was intentionally destroyed, the state Agriculture Department confirmed. The outbreak, in Meeker County, was the first in the state since spring. Six other states, including South Dakota, have had outbreaks this fall. Exerts had expected the new flu with the southward migration of millions of wild birds carrying the infection. The infection doesn’t affect humans if the meat is cooked thoroughly. The danger is catastrophic among birds. Most turkey-growers have installed biosecurity systems to isolate their birds — and even to keep out pets whose paws might track wild-bird feces into turkey barns.
Minnesota turkeys
Minnesota is the nation’s largest turkey supplier. Six-hundred farms comprise a $1 billion industry with 26,000 jobs. Minnesota turkey production: 40 million a year. A 2022 epidemic claimed 58 million trukeys and chickens nationwide. The 2022 outbreak sent the price of chicken eggs soaring nationally.
Thanksgiving prices
The bird flu is not expected to affect the U.S. turkey prices for Thanksgiving, when demand traditionally peaks, said Abby Schuft, University of Minnesota farm educator.
His face hurt, looked bad the morning after
WINONA, Minn. – A Winona man doesn’t remember being punched in the face during a fight while imbibing. He doesn’t even remember the fight. But, looking in the mirror the next morning, he figured that’s what happened. The man, age 38, went to police. What happened, as best as he could reconstruct, was that something unfortunate occurred at a Near East Side bar, probably Market Street Tap. Police assigned an investigator to the case.
WSU homecoming: Highs and lows
WINONA,Minn. – The good news from the Winona State University homeconing was the Warrior football victory, 48-28 over Augustana of Sioux Falls. But there were dark moments, mostly related to over-exuberant boozed-up students. Revelers in the 400 block of Main Street party threw a beer can at the arriving Augustana team being escorted to the field. Police broke up the miscreants. Police were called to 12 disturbances, most on the campus periphery. Fights were reported downtown, but tempers had cooled by time officers arrived. There were more than the usual cases of public urination and public and drunkenness. All in all, there have been more raucous homecomings in the university’s 175-year history. And less.
Cops amassing clues to Quarry Hill vandalism
ROCHESTER, Minn. — Police say they know what one of the vanbdals who spray-painted the Quarry Hill Nature Center looks like but they need his name. Police posted a photograph from a security camera of the guy, spray can in hand, and asked for the public’s help. The vandalism was September 24, mostly at the Prairie House. Three people arrived in a vehicle around 9:15 p.m. departed a couple hours later. police said. Among clues: The spray-painted letters B.W. and A.T.
Know this guy? Call the cops at (507) 328-2735.
Rochester travelers safe after terrorism in Israel
ROCHESTER, Minn. – A Catholic group from Rochester, on a Holy Land tour, made it safely out of Israel after the Hamas terrorist attack that killed more than 1,000 people. The Diocese of Winona-Rochester said it had word that the group was safe in Jordan. The group plans to return to Rochester and Holy Spirit Church as scheduled in late October.
R.I.P.: Dorothy Losinski
WINONA, Minn. – Dorothy Losinski, 100, a life-ling Winona residen , died at Lake Winona Manor. She ws a graduate f Winona High School.
Details: Fawcett-Junker Funeral Home
1923-2023
Something’s to be said for automatic dimmers
WINONA. Minn. – It was a big mistake for Mason Patrick Ingram, 23, of Hudson, Wisconsin when, as police tell it, he failed to dim his high-beam headlights at an oncoming car – whose driver happened to be a cop. A couple minutes later, roof lights flashing, the officer smelled alcohol wafting from Ingram’s car. And his eyes were bloodshot and his speech slurred, the officer said. Then Imgram failed standard field sobriety tests. His blood-alcohol tested too high to be driving — 014%. This was about 1:05 a.m. near downtown at Fourth and Walnut streets During all this Ingram left his high beams on, the officer said.
Reconstruction: Glendorado stand-off in detail
GLENDORADO, Minn. — Five police officers who were shot and wounded in a drug raid last week were inside the house when they were fired upon, according to the criminal complaint against the Glendorado man who has been charged in the case. The officers survived, as also did Karl Holmberg, 64, who has been charged with attempted murder of lice officers. Based n investigator interviews, police camcorders and other sources, this is the sequence beng alleged by the prosecutor Karl Schmidt, the county attorney:
> About 7:10 a.m. on October 12: Members of a drug task force backed up by sheriff’s deputies arrived at 225 190th Avenue, which has a rural Princeton postal address, to serve narcotics search warrant.
> Holmberg woke his wife: “They’re here.” She looked at a home security video monitor and saw police outside. Holmberg said: “It’s my day to die.”
> Members of a drug task force accompanied by sheriff’s deputies approached the front door of the single-story house. Following “knock and announce” protocols, they shouted: “Police. Search warrant” multiple times. They opened the door and entered the living room. Somebody shouted: “Don’t do it. Don’t do it.” The audio on a police camcorder video is muffled.
> Holmberg fired blindly from the closed bedroom door with a .223 rifle. The officers scrambled to retreat. An emergency call went out to police dispatchers: “Officer down.”
> The five wounded officers have not been identified publicly because they work undercover. Their names are not listed in the complaint.
Officer A was shot in the right arm and sustained substantial injuries. He was airlifted 60 miles to North Memorial Medical Center in Robbinsdale, a Minneapolis suburb, where he remaines hospitalized..
Officer B was shot in the chest and hip He also was airlifted to North Memorial Medical Center and remains hospitalized.
Officer C was shot in a hand. He also was airlifted to North Memorial Medical Center and released that night.
Officer D and Officer E also were also shot, They were taken 20 miles by ambulance to a St. Cloud and were later released.
Officer F was in the house but was not struck.
> Holmberg asked his wife to join the fight. She refused. He called her a coward.
> Police set up a command post a mile away at the Glendorado Lutheran Church. Dozens of agencies responded, some with armored vehicles. A perimeter was reinforced around the house. Some vehicles and officers obscured themselves behind tall corn in a field. Others, closer the house, shielded themselves behind vehicles that they had drive in to block a driveway. A State Patrol helicopter arrived and circled. So did news helicopters from the Twin Cities. News reporters on the ground were kept a few blocks miles away, as were curious neighbors.
Command center. Officers from more than a dozen police agencies converged to help. Their vehicles lined a nearby road at the Glenerado Lutheran Church
Finale
> About 10.45 a.m., fter 3-1/2 hours of negotiation, Holmberg came out of the house in a red robe and approached officers but at a distance. He returned to the house and then came back out. He was shirtless in an apparent signal that he was unarmed and surrendering. He sat down in a lawn chair.
> When Holmberg stood, a police sharpshooter fired a nonlethal projectile and hit him. He stumbled at impact. A K-9 was unleashed to bring Holmberg down, Officers rushed to corral Holmberg. They moved him away from the house to the armored vehicle in the driveway to await a med-evac helicopter. He was flown to North Memorial Medical Center, to treated for his wounds.\
> Holmberg’s wife, Dorine Kay Hilmberg, 62, inside the house during the whole ordeal, was brought out uninjured. She was taken o a St. Cloud hiospital to be checked over.
> Inside the house police found multiple handguns, a shotgun, a rifle, and a weapon dropped by one of the officers. Shell casings were recovered from the bedroom and the living room, including a .223 shell.
> At the Robbinsdale hospital Holmberg acknowledged to investigators that he heard the task force members announce themselves but did not feel they had a right to be there. Holmberg said the officers attempted to enter his bedroom. Shots were exchanged. This apparently was when he took a bullet in a foot.
Earlier: $6 million bail for man in police shoot-out
Earlier: State honchoing Glendorado drug-raid probe
Holmberg. In red robe, hands up.
Returns. Shirtless, shivering in cold.
Struck down. By non-lethal projectile that disintegrates in a green puff on impact.
Week’s summary: Ending October 14, 2023
CRIME: Officers wounded in drug raid recovering
CRIME: Intruder tased, tackled, cuffed after break-in
CRIME: Drug raid: Cops find baggies with drugs all over
CRIME: Two liquor vendors caught serving minor
CRIME: Unlicensed driver stopped 10th time
CRIME: Fleeing bicyclist turns on officer, aims propane torch
CRIME: Playing games? No, say cops: It was armed robbery
HEALTH: Nursing home probe finds maltreatment, negligence
COMMERCE: Hormel workers OK major wages upgrade
SCHOOLS: Plainview School Board bars public from meeting
SCHOOLS: Plan: Cut week from Winona school year
COMMERCE: Kwik Trip buys upscale Onalaska office address
POLITICS: Repinski throws hat in ring for State Legislature
ACCIDENT: Driver killed when manure truck overturns, burns
ACCIDENT: I-90 collision kills Arcadia driver
College scores
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