Minnesota prep
Volleyball (girls): Red Wing Wingers 3, Winona Cotter Ramblers 0
Volleyball (girls): Dodge Center Triton Cobras 3, St. Charles Saints 0
Volleyball (girls): LaCrescent-Hokah Lancers 3, Rochester Lourdes Eagles 0
Volleyball (girls): Harmony Fillmore Central Falcons 3, Rochester Marshall Rockets 0
Volleyball (girls): Zumbrota-Mazzeppa Cougars 3, Cannon Falls Bombers 2
At-risk occupation: Pizza delivery
WINONA Minn. – A man lost control of his dog while answering the door for a pizza delivery. The dog lunched at the pizza guy and nipped his left thigh. The skin didn’t break, and no medical attention was needed. Even so, the victim wanted police to document the incident. There will be no further pizza deliveries to the dog’s home in the 950 block East Fourth Street. This was about 8:40 p.m.
Police to second fight at Winona High School
WINONA, Minn. – A fight between a 15-year boy and a 14-year-old boy erupted in the Winona High School central concourse. Staff members intervened, but the boys jumped back into fighting stances and tried pushing through and keep the fight going. Staff broke up the fight again. By then, police had been called. Both boys were issued citations. Their parents were called. This was about 11:20 a.m. — the second assault of the morning that drew police to the school.
Car hits man in wheelchair at intersection
WINONA, Minn. – A 58-year-old man crossing the busy Huff-Sarnia intersection in a motorized wheelchair was struck by a car making a turn – and escaped injury. He was in a crosswalk. Witnesses told police that the man had a white walk signal. The driver, Helen Aldena Neavill, 88, of Winona, was cited for failure to yield to a pedestrian in a crosswalk. This was about 10:05 a.m. The man will need a new wheelchair.
Van Orden’s verbal abuse of aides won’t go away
WASHINGTON – A Wisconsin member of Congress, Mark Pocan, renewed his call for fellow Congressman Derrick Van Orden to at least apologize for balling out young Congressional aides in an unpleasant encounter in the Capitol Rotunda. Pocan, a Democrat from Madison, said he had just reviewed security tape of what happened. The encounter was in July, but Capitol Police didn’t release the tape before. Said Pocan:
“This video was bad and unbecoming s. There is no way to prove Derrick was drunk, but this is not behavior a sober or sane person would do. He looked unbalanced and had belligerent hand gestures when he was threatening these teenagers. He towered over many of them and then followed them when they got up to leave. This was abusive behavior intended to frighten these pages.
“It’s odd enough to have a raging party in your office until midnight. But even more concerning is taking a large group of people to tour the Capitol at midnight and pushing others around to show off, including a bow to his guests afterward. Representative Van Orden’s behavior does not reflect Wisconsin values and he owes each of the pages and his constituents an apology.”
Pocan said the video of the fusillade would not be released to the public to protect privacy and safety concerns for the pages most of them teenagers. Meanwhile, iut remains a ticking time bomb against Van Orden if he chooses to seek a second term.
Verbatim
Van Orden aide, responding to Pocan’s criticism: “Derrick Van Orden came to Congress to work for the people of Wisconsin’s Third Congressional District. Right now, he is laser-focused on making sure the government doesn’t shut down.”
Pocan. Says Van Orden had been partying at his Capitol Hill office and sure looked drunk.
Van Orden. In first term from western Wisconsin’s WI-3 district. A Republican.
Earlier: Van Orden’s blood-alcohol level that night?
Earlier: Fellow Wisconsin solon to Van Orden: Own up to deed
Earlier: Van Orden challenger: He’s unfit for office
Earlier: His side on cussing out pages: Faults news media
Earlier: Democrats question WI-3’s Van Orden character
Earlier: House GOP chief rails against GOP Congressman
Earlier: Senate leader rebukes Van Orden behavior
Earlier: Van Orden attacks teen-age Capitol pages as jackasses
Student bruised in Winona High assault
WINONA, Minn. – Teachers broke up a fight between two boys in a Winona High School classroom and called police. The two, ages 17 and 14, had an earlier argument, which wtnesses said the older boy escalated in the classroom. The witnesses told police that he approached the 14-year-old, who was seated, and punched him repeatedly in the face. The younger boy suffered scratches and bruises under an eye. The 17-year-old admitted to the assault. Police wrote a ticketed. His parents took him home. No other students were injured. This was about 9:30 a.m.
Low Mississippi levels again hinder farm shipping
ST. LOUIS, Mo. — For the second year in a row, the Lower Mississippi River is so low that barge companies have been lightening loads so barges don’t get hung up on the river bottom. The companies also are running shorter arrays of barges to navigate bends in the river. This is occurring as farmers in the whole Mississippi, Missouri and Ohio river systems are harvesting crops for shipment to New Orleans and foreign destinations. The shallows are most serious south of St. Louis and getting worse with persistent droughts throughout the Upper Midwest. Ironically the Upper Mississippi from St. Louis north to Minneapolis and St. Paul is open as usual because dams, locks and dredging keep navigation channels at a depth of nine feet. Even so, crops from the Upper Midwest are piling up in elevators and fields because of the Lower Mississippi bottleneck.
Agricultural economics
For Midwest farmer, the alternatives to shipping by barge are more expensive. The usual 15-barge to 17-barge array down the Mississippi carries the equivalent to 1,000 trucks. Rail also is mucch more expensive. And with smaller loads on the barge fleets, cargoes southward from St. Louis are 77% more than the three-year average.
Geopolitics and global hunger
There are geopolitical implications for hunger. Almost two-thirds of U.S. corn, soybean and wheat exports are taken by barge to New Orleans for transoceanic shipment. Meanwhile, grain from Ukraine, also a major global breadbasket, has been slowed out of the Black Sea ports by the Russian war.
Wild seasonal fluctuations
Drought late last summer closed the Lower Mississippi. Hundreds of barges and a few tourist cruise boats ran aground on the river bottom. Stuck in the mud, they blocked mile after mile of the usual navigation channels, especially at difficult sharp bends.
Farmers stymied: Capacity narrows for barge shipping
Grounded, stranded. Barges aground last summer on lower Mississippi. Appears to be happening again.
This spring, ironically, an unusually heavy snowpack in northern Minnesota and Wisconsin quickly melted and flooded the Upper Mississippi dam and lock system and interrupted shipping three weeks, delaying the start of the shipping season. Although the floodwaters receded, they left giant mounds of underwater sediment at critical points that kept the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers busy dredging. Of necessity, dredges were in the way of normal barge traffic as they sucked muck out of navigation channels.
Earlier: Drought grips 99% of Minnesota
R.I.P.: Margaret Sultze
WINONA, Minn. — Margaret B. Sultze, 89, of Winona, who had lived in Lamoille since 1966 and before that in La Crosse, Galesville and Onalaska, died at home. She was a 1951 graduate of Galesville High School. She graduated from La Crosse State University in 1953 and taught for one year at the Grant School in Galesville. She was in the Wandering Sams and often camped at the Whispering Pines trailer park. In LaMoille her home lit up the holidays, especially Christmas.
Detail: Watkowski-Mulyck Funeral Home
1933-2023
$9.8 million asked for Bob Ross’ first TV work
“A Walk in the Woods.” A 1983 wet-on-wet oil piece created within the 30-minute confines of his television
Ross. And his signature.
Not necessarily for sale, says gallery owner
WAYZATA, Minn. — Art dealer Ryan Nelson has put a $9.8 million price tag on the painting “A Walk in the Woods,” the first work that television host Bob Ross crafted on-air in his long-running series “The Joy of Painting.” Nelson, of the Modern Artifact gallery in Wayzata, said the painting originally was bought for less than $100 by a Public Television employee right after Ross’ first show in 1983. Nelson holds a number of Ross works. He wouldn’t divulge what he paid for “A Walk in the Woods” but said he acquired it from the original purchaser. Nelson said he likely will insist that a purchaser exhibit the painting publicly — or keep it himself as a traveling exhibit “to let other people enjoy ” The PBS program ran 11 years. Ross died in 1995 at age 52.
The Ross technique
Ross stayed pretty much with landscapes. He used a quick wet-on-wet technique of oil painting developed in Italy the 1500s. The technique, “alla prima,” begins with a thin base layer of wet paint. Additional layers are applied while the base is still drying. With the techniqu, Rosa inspired a new generation of amateurs, in part because it required little investment in a oils and tools. It’s thought that Ross produced 30,000 paintings during his lifetime, not counting his first works while the Air Force in Alaska. There he painted landscapes on gold pans for as mementos for tourists to take home.
Northern Lights: Consider staying up late
Southern Minnesota and Wisconsin. At the southern edge of a display expected to be spectacular Monday. Astronomers said the dancing colors will be strongest starting about 10 p.m. A lesser show may appear Tuesday night. Image: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
College scores
Soccer (women): Augustana 2, Winona State 1
Tennis (women): UW-LaCrosse 8, Carroll of Wisconsin 1
Jogger angry at bite but runs on
WINONA, Minn. — A woman’s dog broke from a leash and bit a man jogging by. Not to lose his pace, the jogger shouted back a vulgarity as the woman tried to explain that the dog was vaccinated. She reported the incident to police. Later the jogger checked in at the hospital. The bite was minor and again he heard the assuring information that the animal as vaccinated. The bite was about 3:50 p.m. near Huff and Sarnia streets.
Ground broken at Camp Ripley for military museum
LITTLE FALLS, Minn. — A ground-breaking ceremony Sunday was a landmark for the new $32 million Minnesota Military and Veterans Museum at the National Guard training site at Camp Ripley. Following the turning of the first shovels of dirt, a World War II bulldozer cleared a small section of the site. The museum, 40,000 square feet, has been designed to accommodate 80,000 artifacts. Major funding has come from the Minnesota Historical Society from the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund.
Minnesota Military and Veterans Museum. Completion target 2026.
Emergency doctor: “Patient shoved me off balance”
WINONA Minn. — A patient at the Winona hospital emergency room was arrested after pushing a doctor off balance, police said. Arrested was Ivie Thomas Popplewell, 34, of Winona. He was at the hospital on a 72-hour police hold to check his well-being. Popplewell was taken to jail. Popplewell is well-known to police for in Winona and Iowa for unexplained behavior.
Strike ahead? Hormel, meat-packer union at impasse
AUSTIN, Minn. — Negotiations between Hormel Foods and 1,700 meat-packer employees have entered a crisis stage. The United Food and Commercial Workers Union, which represents 1,700 employees, said its members have voted overwhelmingly to reject what Hormel had called its final offer. The union didn’t release details on what it meant “overwhelming.” Both sides have agreed, however, to extend negotiations to October 8. The union claims the company is in a good position to share its extraordinary recent revenue with workers. The company had $2.1 billion gross profits over the past year.
Hormel labor history
A strike against Hirmel in1985 lasted 16 months — one of the longest and most bitter in Minnesota history. The strike became a sociological case study pn how a strike can fracture a community into warring factions with long-time scarring. Barbara Kopple’s 1999 documentary ‘American Dream” won an Academy award. Playwright Philip Dawkins’s 2020 “Spamtown, USA” chronicled the misery the strike caused on children. On a broader scale, the strike symbolized the nationally organized corporate drive that followed in the 1990s to break the labor movement after a century of growth. In the end, the Hormel workers’ strike failed when the parent union backed away from supporting the local Austin unit.
Could it happen again?
Reporter Bill Strande of television station KARE asked two scholars for their analysis:
> Dave Vang, a finance professor of finance at the University of St. Thomas, doesn’t see a repeat disaster for Hormel workers: “Given what happened last time in the ’80s, I think there’s going to be a tremendous amount of resistance on the part of the union to even allow that to happen,” said Vang. He noted, though, that the price of Hormel’s signature product Spam, as well as meats in general, might go up. He said also tat some farmers may find “a little bit of disruption in trying to find someone who’s going to take their cattle for slaughter.”
> Peter Rachleff, a retired historian at Macalester College who wrote a book on the 1980s strikes, doesn’t think the union will be influenced by the past. “It’s in a sense, a new union,” said Rachleff. “This is a completely different workforce.”
In the library
> Dave Hage: “No Retreat, No Surrender: Labor’s War at Hormel,” 398 pages, 1986.
> Fred Halstead: “The1985-1986 Hormel Meat-Packers Strike in Austin, Minnesota,” 44 pages, 1989.
> Peter Rachleff: “Hard-Pressed in the Heartland: The Hormel Strike and the Future of the Labor Movement,” 144 pages, 1999.
Romeo falls from upper window, badly hurt
ALTURA, Minn. — A 17-year-old boy broke int a house, climbed to a second-floor bedroom to see a girl, and then fell from a window making his exit. The parents awakened by the clatter, found the lad writhing on the ground in pain and called police and an ambulance. The boy had a broken femur and facial injuries. At the hospital emergency room in Winona, 20 miles away, a doctor assessed the injuries as needing a greater level of care and sent him to a LaCrosse trauma center. The original call to the I00 block of First Avenue Southeast in Altura came into the Winona oCunty police dispatch center about 2:15 a.m.
Filling up in Galesville? No choice anymore
GALESVILLE, Wis. — This Trempealeau County town of 1,600 has lost one its two gas stations. The Mega Co-op chain closed 13 of its stations as part of a bankruptcy. The Eau Claire-based chain kept 18 other stores operating, including one in Arcadia 20 mile from Galesville. Still operating in Galesville is a BP station and convenience store downtown.
Bar night ends with two in hospital, third arrested
INDEPENDENCE, Wis. — A fight of some sort at the Welcome Bar in downtown Independence ended with two people hospitalized — and another man who returned to the scene being arrested. Trempealeau County Sheriff Brett Semingson declined to identify anyone involved. He also was scant on details. Deputies were called about 2 a.m. Witnesses identified the assailant. They said he hit one person and left and then returned and hit another man. He fled again but later came back with a gun, witnesses aid. No gun was to be found when deputies arrived.
Welcome Bar. 23733 Washington Street. Quiet place the morning after.
Driver to cops: “I drive high all the time”
WINONA, Minn. — As a police officer was making a traffic stop, he smelled heavy marijuana inside the car. Yes, said the driver, Stephen Ballard Jr,. 19, and he admitted to having partaken. “I drove high all the time,” he told the officer. The officer wasn’t surprised. He said that Ballard’s eyes were red and he could barely keep his lids open. After failing a field sobriety tests, Ballard was taken to jail. His blood was drawn for lab tests. This was about 1:30 a.m.
Drunken arrest after swinging too wide at corner
WINONA, Minn. — With the car up on a sidewalk about 1:30 a.m., something clearly was amiss. Police found the driver, Anna Theresa Burandt 24, of Winona, inside and tested her for having imbibed. Her blood-alcohol showed at 0.17%, double what the law allows. There were other less quantifiable signs of intoxication. Burandt was slurring her words. Her eyes were bloodshot. Balance was a challenge. And she reeked of alcohol. Then too, the officer had seen her swing too wide at Third and Center streets in the downtown bar district and go up on the sidewalk.
Life in fast lane. Ends up on sidewalk.
R.I.P.: Michael Szczepanski
GOODVIEW, Minn. – Michael Allen Szczepanski, a welding instructor Western Wisconsin Technical College for 20 years with contracts to Trane Company, died at age 66. His passion was drag racing. He traveled the country racing. He built racing cars and and restored vintage cars. These included George Cureton’s famous Tokyo Rose. The Thursday night garage crew guys were the friendships of a lifetime.
Details: Hoff Funeral Home
1957-2023
Cop finds stolen bike, returns to owner
WINONA, Minn. — A police officer was suspicious about a biker running without a lamp at 1 o’clock in the morning. The officer stopped him. The guy ditched the bike and ran. The officer soon found Brogan Christopher Hahn, 21, of Preston, sitting nearby on a porch at Fourth and Kansas streets on the Near East Side.
> Officer: “Why’d you run?”
> Hahn: “Dunno.”
The officer walked the bike a block back to the No Name Bar near Third and Franklin streets. The owner was grateful — in fact so grateful that he said he wouldn’t press charges. Good news for Brogan Hahn.
Hormel: Undercooked Spam recalled
AUSTIN, Minn. — A small batch of Hormel’s Spam meat product has been recalled from a Texas grocery chain, the Austin meat-packer confirmed. The product, Spam Classic, may not have been up to commercial sterility standards, Hormel said. The product was shipped to H.E.B. grocery stores in Texas. The 12-ounce metal cans carried a best-buy-by date of August 2026.
R.I.P.: Gary Lindborg
HOUSTON, Minn. — Gary Raymond Lindborg, 72, of Houston, a gun enthusiast who taught gun safety in LaCrescent, died at Gundersen Care Center in Harmony. He graduated from Richfield High School. He held a degree from Kennedy-Western University. He was a Navy Seal who served in Vietnam. He took pride in his Norse heritage and had he nickname “Viking.”
Details: Hoff Funeral Home
1950-2023
Traffic stop: The company we keep
WINONA, Minn. — During a traffic stop, the cops were sure that Nathan Brett Styles, 27, had been drinking. He smelled like it. Too, he admitted to being at a bar a half hour earlier. His blood-alcohol content on the spot showed impairment at 0.9%. In the car with Styles was David Frederick Dantzler, also 27, and he had a cold beer open — an open container in a vehicle is a legal violation in Minnesota. Both men were charged. Styles is from Mundelein, Illinois, and Dantzler from Homestead, Florida. The stop was about 12:05 a.m. at Third and Sioux streets on the West Side.
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