R.I.P.: Sharon Ramm
WINONA, Minn. — Sharon Ramm, of Winona, whose family described as fiercely independent and who lived life on her own terms, died at age 84. She was a story-teller whose tales evolved in retelling at family picnics at Prairie Island along the Mississippi. She saw laughter is a powerful healer, the family said. One of her joys her for cats, for whom she provided a loving home over the years.
Details: Fawcett-Junker Funeral Home
1938-2023
Collision injures three people at Stewartville
STEWARTVILLE, Minn. – A Lanesboro couple and a Rochester man were injured, albeit not seriously, in a two-vehicle pile-up just south of the Interstate 90 interchange. Both vehicles were headed into Stewartville at Schuman Drive on U.S. highway 63 about 5:25 p.m. In a 2012 Nissan Rogue were Jeffrey Albert Ihrke, 66, and Jeanne Marie Ihrke, 65, both of Rochester. They were taken 15 miles to a Rochester hospital. The driver of a 2023 Ford Explorer, Richard Steven Budde, 77, of Lanesboro, was unhurt. A passenger, Vonda Lee Budde, 75, of Lanesboro, was taken to a Rochester hospital with non-life threatening injuries.
First SMU enrollment check: Way, way up
WINONA, Minn. – The enrollment losses in the Saint Mary’s University undergrad Winona campus may have bottomed out and reversed. The number of new students this fall is 308, according to an early count – up a significant 40% from a year earlier. The university expects a firmer count Monday when classes begin. The freshmen move-in date was Friday, although student dorm proctors and athletes began arriving earlier. Total undergrad enrollment was 848 in 2022, a major drop after new president James Burns shut down several liberal arts programs, including theater, music and philosophy. It was a a mission shift to career-oriented fields like nursing and business. The looming question now is whether Burns’ initiative is translating into undergrad enrollment growth. At its peak, Saint Mary’s claimed 1,200 students at the Terrace Heights campus. A second program, founded in the Twin Cities in 1985 and functionally separate, is geared to part-time degree-holding students seeking advanced degrees. It has a much larger enrollment.
Earlier: SMU student loss 13%: Curriculum overhaul to blame?
Harmony collision injures two Iowans
HARMONY, Minn. – Two Iowa people were hurt in a two-vehicle collision in Harmony and taken 50 miles to a Rochester hospital. Their injuries appeared non-life threatening. Taylor R. Majerus, 22, and Katelyn Nicole May, 20, both of Dubuque, were in a 2013 Chevrolet pickup. Their airbag deployed. The other driver, Esme Grace Gastfield, 17, of Spring Valley, in a 2007 Chevrolet Impala, was unhurt. The accident was about 11:30 a.m. at U.S. Highway 52 and Morem Street. Deputies said the Impala was northbound on Highway 52 waiting for a vehicle to turn left. Chevrolet pickup also was northbound.
Major expansion at Lutsen ski resort denied
Overlooking Lake Superior. The Lutsen company had wanted to double its skiable terrain and connect its four mountains with more lifts and trails.
Tribes objected to intrusion on sacred land
DULUTH, Minn. – The U.S. Forest Service denied an application by the ski resort Lutsen Mountains to expand its 95-run area by 496 acres. Thomas Hall, supervisor of the Superior National Forest, sided with three native tribes that negative impacts on the land would outweigh the economic benefits of more tourism income and jobs. Lutsen had put forth the plan in 2017. The plan was to build two new base facilities, seven chairlifts and two new snowmaking reservoirs on the south face of Moose Mountain. The proposal drew 560 public comments on both sides. The three tribes — the Bois Forte, Fond du Lac and Grand Portage bands — objected that the expansion would “irreversibly impact this unique area that has been historically important to the bands and will continue to be important culturally, spiritually and as a subsistence resource for future generations.” The expansion would have doubled the skiable Lutsen terrain.
Earlier: Lutsen still hosting skiers in May
Lutsen profile
Lutsen, built in 1979, is the northernmost ski area in the contiguous United States, and the largest in the Midwest. It’s a destination resort for skiing and in summer for hiking. Lutsen benefits from lake-effect snow off Lake Superior. The ski area consists of four hills, named Eagle, Ullr, Mystery and Moose. The vertical drop: 825 feet. The lift system has seven chairlifts, one gondola and one surface lift. The corporation has two resorts — Caribou Highlands and Eagle Ridge with hotels, condos, and townhomes.
Few emergency heat cases at Winona hospital
WINONA, Minn. – Aside from a few people arriving at the Winona hospital with heat exhaustion from the recent 100-plus days, there hasn’t been a significant uptick in heat-related cases, said hospital spokesperson Karen Sibenaller. “We seem to be out of the dangerous heat for the time being,” she said. Winona Health has invited has opened the clinic lobby for people to cool off during hot times of day.
Heat tips
Among Winona Health coping recommendations:
> Draw shades, blinds and curtains.
> Don’t leave children, elderly adults or pets in parked cars.
> Take baths and apply cool cloths to head or feet.
> Place hands and wrists in cool water.
Weather moderates; bye to 100-plus heat
WINONA Minn. – Winonans woke up to light mist and a break in a heat wave that soared above 100 degree the last couple days. Even so, highs were forecast above norms in the 90s. Cooler and more seasonal temperatures were predicted for the weekend. Highs next week were forecast in middle and upper 70s with partly cloudy skies.
Coaches: Bemidji the Northern Sun team to watch
BURNSVILLE, Minn. – Bettors should be favoring Bemidji State to dominate the Northern Sun conference football season, at least according to the pre-season coaches’ poll. The Beavers received four first place votes and amassed 131 points. Minnesota State at Mankato was second at 125. To keep the poll pristine, coaches cannot vote for their own team. But how accurate is the poll? As professional and uniquely knowledgeable conference-watchers, the coaches’ prognosticating is worth noting. But a lot can happen in the 11-week conference schedule. The first games are Thursday. The coaches’ ranking for the season:
> Bemidji State, 131 points (four for first place).
> Minnesota State, Mankato, 124 (five).
> Wayne State of Nebraska, 114 (two).
> Augustana, 112 (two).
> UM-Duluth, 109.
> Winona State, 103.
> Northern State of South Dakota, 75.
> Sioux Falls, also 75.
> Southwest Minnesota State, 50.
> MSU-Moorhead, 45.
> Concordia of St. Paul, 20.
> Mary, 20.
> Minot State, also 20.
A rough night for drug-linked Winona woman
WINONA, Minn. – A Winona woman had two run-ins with the law within two hours overnight — one drug-related and perhaps the second run-in too. The troubled night for Heather Lynn Meinke, 31, began about 12:05 a.m. near the East End marina.
Episode 1: A police officer decided to check out a car parked suspiciously in a dark secluded area. Two people were inside. So too were scattered hypodermic needles, which tested positive for meth residue. Also in the car were cut-off straws that often are make-shift devices for smoking and snorting. In a purse the officer found a baggie with a pink alprazolam pill, a Schedule 4 prescription drug. Meinke admitted the purse was hers, the officer said.
Episode 2: About 1:45 anther officer, on patrol a few blocks away, witnessed an erratic incident A car braked to a stop a Mankato Avenue intersection, blocking traffic. The car honked three times. A man in the car threw a cell phone out a window Then the two people, a man and a woman, clamored out. The man picked up the phone and handed it to the woman. The officer went to check what was going on. The woman, who was Meinke, was not in good shape, the officer said: Her breathing was sporadic, her conversation difficult. A second officer with drug-testing certification was summoned and took a urine sample, which was sent to the state crime lab. Pending an evaluation of the sample, Meinke was released.
R.I.P.: Larry Fort
ROLLINGSTONE, Minn. – Larry Dean Fort, 71 of Rollingstone, who retired from the diecast foundry TDI in Stockton after 21 years, died at at Gundersen hospital La Crosse. He graduated from Winona High School in 1971 and obtained an auto body diploma from Winona Vo-Tech in 1972. He fished winter and summer around Winona.
Details: Fawcett-Junker Funeral Home
1952-2023
Minnesota prep
Football: Houston Hurricanes 36, Alden-Conger Knights 34
Volleyball (girls): Caledonia Warriors 3, Winona Winhawks 0
Volleyball (girls): Lewiston-Altura Cardinals 3, Lake City Tigers 2
Volleyball (girls): Dover-Eyota Eagles 3, St. Charles Saints 2
Wisconsin prep
FOOTBALL: Eau Claire North Huskies 35, LaCrosse Logan Rangers 34
State re-licenses Monticello nuclear storage area
ST. PAUL, Minn. – The state Public Utilities Commission granted a 17-year extension to Xcel Energy to operate a storage facility for spent nuclear fuel at its aging and troubled Monticello power plant. Xcel Energy told regulators that the extension would be a “major step toward continuing to provide reliable carbon-free energy for more than 500,000 customers.” Meanwhile, Xcel has a separate request for an extension before the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The Monticello nuclear plant, on the banks of the Mississippi River, was built in 1971. Faulty tubes resulted in a 2022 radioactivity leak that keeps moving through groundwater nearer to the river
Why moose dying off? Research points to snails, slugs
GRAND PORTAGE, Minn. – The plunging Minnesota moose population may be due to a brain worm. Research by the University of Minnesota and the Grand Portage Band of Lake Superior Chippewa say the worm is a parasite that moose consume with vegetation that hosts snails and slugs. The state had 9,000 moose in 2006, now 4,700. Seth Moore, director of natural resources for the Grand Portage Band, called the evidence, gathered from genetic evaluation of moose droppings, is conclusive. What to do? Moore said ways need to be found to manage the population of the culprit snails and slugs. New molecular techniques may help control lesser known pieces of the transmission cycle like the slug or snail, he said. This, Moore said, is now the parasite works: After being ingested, the parasite attacks the moose nervous system. The animals loose their appetite and either starve to death or, malnourished, become susceptible to wolves and other predators.
Moose. The Minnesota herd now half what it was in 2006.
Train clips auto at river driveway; driver OK
LAMOILLE, Minn. – A train clipped a car on a private crossing and took off the front end. The driver, Jerome, walked away even as the train was still moving. Kwasek said he was leaving his driveway on the narrow strip of Swan Lane between the CPKC mainline and the Mississippi River, as he does almost every day. Too late he saw the train. a mixed freight, bearing down on him. He braked and put the car n reverse but not soon enough. This was about 9:30 a.m. Irony of ironies, Kwasek, age 88, was leaving to buy a lottery ticket. Not his lucky day, eh? Or maybe it was.
Technology gift memorializes Winona physician
WINONA, Minn. – The widow of long-time Winona physician William Davis made a substantial donation to the Winona hospital simulation lab, which is used for staff education and advanced training. Judy Davis noted her husband’s passion for technology and teaching. The gift, she said, was a meaningful way to share his legacy – a perfect fit. At the hospital Davis implemented a sophisticated electronic medical record system, the first in Minnesota.
Davis. Retired at age 75 in 2015 and died in 2092.
Why yelling in street? “Because she kicked me out”
WINONA, Minn. – A Rochester teenager told police responding to disturbance call that was he was upset at being spurned by his girlfriend. That, he said, was why he was standing outside her apartment and yelling. She had kicked him out, he said. This was about 3:55 a.m. Marco Antonio Juarez, 18, was charged with under-age consumption of alcohol. The incident was in the 700 block of East Belleview. The young woman didn’t answer their knocks at her door, police said.
Red Wing firefighter falls through weak floor: OK
RED WING, Minn. – Fire rendered a house on Putnam Avenue uninhabitable. One firefighter fell through a flame-wakened floor but climbed out with the help of the other firefighters. His injuries were minor. No one was home at the time. The fire was in the 1000 Block of Putnam Avenue about 12:15 a.m..
One beer, she said – but blood test suggested more
WINONA, Minn. – A Wisconsin motorist was charged with driving drunk after failing sobriety tests in a traffic stop. Rylee Ann Kolstad, 20, of Cochrane, had been stopped at Sanborn and Main streets near downtown about 12:25 a.m. Police said she admitted to having a beer about 25 minutes earlier. A blood-alcohol test suggested more. Her blood was runnigg 0.13% alcohol – roughly 1-1/2 times the max allowed to drive.
Impairment tests still out on woozy driver
WINONA, Minn. – A Winona driver’s bodily fluids were drawn for controlled substance content after a traffic stop, and the results were sent to the state crime lab for testing. Meanwhile, a charge of impaired driving was pending against Sydney Irene Joseph, 18. She had been stopped at Fifth and Pelzer streets on the West End for driving without headlights. Police then got a whiff of marijuana inside the vehicle and noted Joseph’s eyes were dilated, bloodshot and watery She failed field sobriety tests, pokice said. This was about 12:35 a.m.
Car in ditch: Intoxication blamed
ALTURA, Minn. – A deputy found a car stuck in a ditch after having hit a road sign. One look inside, the deputy suspected the driver was drunk. Beer cans were in the console and scattered on the floor. Yes, the driver, Alfonso Sanchez Tzompaxtle, 53, of Rollingstone, admitted he had been drinking, the deputy said. This was about 11:40 p.m. on County Road 31 north of Altura. The deputy said that Tzompaxtle swayed during a field sobriety check, showed other signs of inebriation, and tested at 0.20% for blood-alcohol content. Anything topping 0.08% is too much to drive. He was taken 24 miles to the Winona hospital for further tests and charged with drunken driving.
102 degrees matches Winona record
WINONA, Minn. – The weather monitoring station at Lock and Dam 5A hit 102. That matched the record for August 23, which was set in 1948 –75 years back. The average high for the date is 80, going back to 1939 when record-keeping began,
Electrical transformer turns ugly, really ugly
WINONA, Minn. – Something looked and sounded really wrong. An electrical transformer up a pole in an East Side alley was smoking, arcing and it sounded like boiling. People on the 200 block of Chestnut Street called 911. This was about 6:50 p.m. Firefighters blocked the alley to keep foot and vehicle traffic back and called Xcel Energy, the utility that owned the transformer. An Xcel crew identified issue and shut the unit off.
Southeast Minnesota meth gang behind bars
MINNEAPOLIS — The feds believe they’ve closed the books on a huge drug gang that wholesaled meth to dealers throughout southeast Minnesota. Ten gang members, all of whom had pleaded guilty, have been sentenced:
> Jerry Lee Milliken , age 41, 20 years. .
> Aaron Raymond Dombovy, 30, 15 years.
> Marshall Michael Galbreath, 44, 15 years.
> Scott Christopher Dobbelaere, 42, 12-1/2 years.
> James Lee Nelson, 45, 12 years.
> Samuel Orlo Schafer, 35, 10 years.
>Lisa Christine Phillips, 42, 7-1/2 years.
> Edward Gary Kearns, 50, 7 years.
> Mercedes Kay Milliken, 28, 3-1/2 years
> Lisa Marie Musolf, 61, 3-1/2 years.
All were taken from the courtroom in cuffs to federal prisons. The U.S. attorney for Minnesota, Andrew Luger, said Jerry Lee Milliken was the ringleader of the distribution network out of Rochester. The meth came from a supplier in Kansas City, Missouri. Between the fall of 2021 and the winter of 2022, authorities seized 80 pounds of meth from the conspiracy in a series if raid, Luger said The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration coordinated the arrests with the Southeast Minnesota Violent Crime Enforcement Team of which Winona County sheriff’s officers were a part.
Luger. Federal prosecutor for Minnesota frim 2014 to 3017 under President Barrack Obama and again since 2021 under President Joe Biden.
Southeast Minnesota Violent Crime Enforcement Team.
Minnesota minimum wage goes up for 2024
ST. PAUL, Minn. – To help wage-earners meet rising costs of living, the inflation-triggered Minnesota minimum wage will go up 2.5% in January. The state Labor Department announced that the minimum-wage will be $10.85 an hour at large employers, those with at least $500,000 annual revenue. The new minimum will be $8.85 at for workers at smaller employers, for new hires, and for trainees. “Increasing minimum-wage rates gives the lowest-wage workers in Minnesota more earning power as they work hard to support themselves and their families,” said labor commissioner Nicole Blisenbach. Federal, state and municipal employees are not covered by the same minium wage law and generally earn more.
Required poster. Employers are required by law to post written notices of changes in the minimum wage. The 2024 updates are at the printer’s.
WELCOME
The worthiest goal of journalism is to promote intelligent citizen involvement. Such is our goal with Winona Journal. We focus on local issues so you can go about your daily activities with confidence that you can be a genuine and valued part of informed public dialogue on the kind of community we’re building.
Although Winona-centric, we are attentive also to regional issues. Our community doesn’t exist in a vacuum.
You will find opinion here. We quote and paraphrase with attribution so you know the source and can assess ideas and thoughts. Sometimes you will find our commentary but always clearly labeled.
As journalists we are committed to accuracy but not perfect. Please let us know if you spot an error, whether substantive or even just a dumb typo. We’ll get errors squared away promptly.
We’re glad you’re with us.