Harvard law student eyes WI-3 Congress seat
MADISON, Wis. – A Wisconsin native finishing law school at Harvard, Aaron Nytes, announced online that he’s a candidate for the Democratic nomination to unseat Republican Congress member Derick Van Orden in the 2024 election. Nytes, age 25, has not held public office before. He grew up in Harford near Milwaukee. He holds a degree from Marquette University. He has worked at the Les Aspin Center government in Washington and also the nonprofit International Rights Advocates. In Wisconsin he was at the Milwaukee Legal Aid Society. Later he was at the state attorney general’s Office. At Harvard he volunteered in the Prison Legal Assistance project. His Harvard focus, he said, has been on labor law. He has been an intern for the Milwaukee Justice Center and U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin. His campaign focus, he said, will be on agriculture, labor rights, healthcare, the environment, education, and social issues.
Nytes. An eclectic background in political and social issues.
Winds crumple Dodge County grain elevator
CLAREMONT, Minn. – Ferocious winds, some gusting to 60 mph, brought down a giant grain bin in downtown Claremont. The Dodge County emergency management director, Matt Mass, said the bin was empty and structurally vulnerable. There were no injuries. Power was out in parts of the the county. Limbs were down and trees uprooted.
Straight-line winds. A funnel cloud was spotted in the area, 28 miles west of Rochester, but the bin was toppled by straight-line winds.
Inside job: Charges in Chatfield lottery ticket thefts
CHATFIELD, Minn. – A Chatfield shop manager was charged with stealing lottery scratch-off rickets and cashing them for $1,200 in winnings. Treyton Lanning, 18, did this in November, according to the criminal complaint. An employee tipped the Minnesota Lottery that nine tickets were missing overnight from the shop inventory. Three tickets were winners and cashed in, records showed. The next day 29 more tickets went missing. Now that the investigation is complete, Charges agaist anning inclide burglary, theft, and receiving stolen property. Lanning didn’t act alone and split the winnings three ways, according to the criminal complaint. Charged were:
> Treyton Jay Lanning, 18, store manager, 14 counts.
> Gabriel Earl Erding, 18, five counts.
> Kieran Paul O’Conner, 19, five counts.
Was guy trying to gum up Winona waterworks?
WINONA, Minn. – A vandal was chased off the grounds of the city water plant near downtown on the Levee. Police said the man had been painting ground-level vents with DP420, a 3M-manufactured epoxy adhesive. Bystanders saw something irregular happening and called police. Using the bystanders’ description of the man’s clothing, a maroon jacket, officers caught him nearby. A motive? Were the vents plugged up? Police said their investigation was ongoing. The incident was about 10:20 a.m.
Judge to Winona therapy swindler: Pay back $192,000
WINONA, Minn. – A former Winona mental health counselor, Kristine Ann Radloff Hollund, was ordered to repay $192,000 that she swindled with fake claims for services to patients. Hollund also was placed on five years probation and ordered to 120 hours of community service. Hollund, age 60, owned Athena counseling, which most recently operated out of the Winona Knitting Mills office building. She since has relocated to Volusia County, Florida, again as a mental health counselor. In Minnesota, state fraud investigators accused Hollund of filing more than1,000 claims for unprovided or fraudulent services over three years from 2016 to 2019.
Messy practices
Hollund pleaded guilty in Winona County court to two counts of aiding and abetting theft by swindle. Four other counts were dismissed. During at least part of the period of fraudulent claims, Hollund’s state license as a mental health counselor had been revoked. The Board of Behavioral Health and Therapy said she had a sexual relationship with a patient, an ethics violation even though she later married the man. During suspension, the Board said, Hollund continued to provide services or contracted other therapists to do so.
Mother-daughter
Earlier this year Hollud’s daughter, Brittany Lindner, was ordered to help pay back the money too. Linder, age 36, was Athenas chief financial officer, manager and biller. Investigators said the frauluent bills were filed not under Hollund’s provider number but a wrong number or had no supporting documentation that the claimed services had even been provided. Investigators also reported these incriminating statements from Linder to her mother:
> June 2018: “I am having to doctor so much on these documents and re-write ones with your name on them. I’m so tired.”
> December 2018: “Do you think telling them that I submit the claims is safe. I don’t know if I want to be charged with fraud.”
Getting tripped up
The Medicaid Fraud Control Unit of the state attorney general’s office, which brought the charges, cited this example of fraud: A client whom Hollund had seen regularly moved away in January 2018. Athena kept filing claims for services.
Athena. The company had satellite offices in LaCrescent and Red Wing.
Crooked claims
Fraudulent bills went to:
> Blue Cross Blue Shield, $117,000.
> Medica, $24,000.
> UCare, $27,000.
> State Human Services Department, $17,000.
> Preferred One, $8,000.
> Aetna, $670.
Wisconsin 608 area code not enough
MADISON, Wis. – Life in southwest Wisconsin soon will have a new layer of complexity. The state Public Service Commission authorized a new area code for the 608 area. The new code, 353, will be used for new and additional lines. This is effective September 15. The Commission said the 21-county 608 zone was running out of available digits. The Commission said there will be no new customer charges between the old 608 and new 353 numbers.
Additional area code. Among affected counties: Buffalo, La Crosse, and Trempealeau.
New physician assistant in Winona Health surgery
WINONA, Minn. – A physician assistant at Winona Health’s Rushford clinic since 2021, Holly Engler, has joined the general surgery at the hospital’s mother ship in Winona. Engler earned a master’s degree emphasizing rural medicine at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She also holds a certificate from Mayo School and a bachelor’s in lab science from the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse.
Engler. Recognized by the National Commission on Certification of Physician Assistants.
Thunderstorms bring more bang than precip
WINONA, Minn. – Scattered thunderstorms rumbled through Winona County overnight but much-needed rain was sporadic and uneven. Even so, the new weekly federal drought monitor showed modest easing. Still, though, southeast Minnesota remains in a a federally defined severe and extreme drought. The driest areas include most of Olmsted County and adjacent parts of Dodge, Fillmore, Mower, Steele and Winona counties.
Notable journalism
Tom Lyden (KMSP, August 19, 2021): “The Making of Tony Lazzaro”
Alexandra Retter (Winona Post, August 2, 2023): “Despite Boost, WSU Budget Challenges Persist”
Chris Rogers (Winona Post, August 4, 2023): “Winona County OKs First Tax Increase for Affordable Housing in Decade”
Lazzaro sex-trafficking accomplice to be sentenced
MINNEAPOLIS – A former St. Thomas college student who lined up teen-age girls for sex with Minnesota Republican operative Tony Lazzaro remains still to be sentenced. Gisela Castro Medina, 21, turned state’s evidence last year against Lazzaro, who was sentenced this week to 20 years in prison. Castro Medina pleaded guilty as a co-defendant in December. She had met Lazzaro through her role in the College Republicans at St. Thomas. She solicited minor girls for Lazzaro and delivered them to them to his penthouse at the Hotel Ivy. After her arrest, she was expelled from St. Thomas.
Earlier: GOP golden boy Lazzaro: 20 years for teen consorting
Earlier: Guilty plea in state GOP sex scandal
Castro Medina. Next court date in September.
Fair fodder / 9: Famished? This is where to be
FALCON HEIGHTS, Minn. – Among 34 new foods on the ever-growing menu at the Minnesota State Fair, which opens August 24:
Miami mango pickles: Dill pickles infused with Miami mango punch. At Soul Bowl in the Food Building, east wall.
MinneCookieDough Pie: Homemade chocolate chip cookie dough in a flaky pie crust dusted with powdered sugar. Served with vanilla or cinnamon ice cream. At Minneapple Pie on the south side of Judson Avenue between Nelson and Underwood streets.
Paletas: Two Flavors of Mexican frozen treats on-a-stick: Dill pickle lemonade and mini-nonut. This islemon-flavored with dill pickle slices. (Vegan.) The mini ionut is vanilla ice cream with mini donut bits and a whole cinnamon mini donut inside. (Vegetarian.) At Hamline Church Dining Hall on the north side of Dan Patch Avenue between Underwood and Cooper streets
Port Authority OKs funds for Levee docking upgrades
WINONA, Minn. – The Winona Port Authority approved $460,000 for a Mississippi riverfront project for large passenger boats at Levee Park. The project already was in line for $4.1 million in state funds. Among improvements is replacing current tie-up cleats that are too small for large tourist boats. Many cleats are broken off. The Port Authority mission is to encourage economic development and expand the city’s tax base. Among other 2024 budget allocations:
> Prairie Island campground. The first $145,000 debt payment on placing the welcome center above the floodplain, and also building new camp store and showers.
> Max Conrad airfield. A final $125,000 debt payment for 2013 airport improvements.
> Riverbend brownfields. About $25,000 to clean up Riverbend Technology and Industrial Park on the Far East End for pending projects. Already lined up is $600,00 in state funds.
Most of the new funding will be covered by shuffling money internally, as well as an 8.8% increase of $560,000 in the Port Authority’s tax levy, which would be drawn from the general tax base.
Developers offer peek at riverfront hotel
Choice of views. Hotel guests to have choice of premium riverview rooms or lesser townview or bluffview rooms. So too the tenants of 30 apartments. This view shows the grand entrance on Center Street with the Levee Park and Mississippi river in the background. The grand entrance faces the historic freighthouse, which would become a restaurant and event venue.
Port Authority OKs six-month planning extension
WININA, Minn. – The waiting ended finally for architectural sketches of a proposed five-story hotel-apartment building at Levee Park. Developers unveiled the sketches to the Winona Port Authority. Authority
ry board members liked what they saw. They voted to grant developers anther six months to refine their plans – or the Authority might solicit other plans for the property. Port Authority approval is essential to create that tax breaks that are central for the multi-million dollar project to viable. The development of the site, called 60 Main, has been delayed time and again at the developers’ request and then further delayed by a shakeup of the participating development companies. The latest development group involves a new configuration of entities:
> Rivers Hospitality, owned by hotelier Mike Rivers whose properties include hotels at the Highway 61 and Mankato junction on the Far East End.
> Winona Real Estate Fund, a Northfield-based partnerhship involving hotelier and financier Brett Reese.
> Wieser Brothers, a LaCrescent construction firm. Construction
> Driftless Development, a limited liability Minnesota entity created in 2021 company with involving Peter Shortridge, a veteran at restoring and repurposing historic downtown buildings.
Earlier: City reclaiming blighted railyard at Levee Park
Earlier: A hotel on the Winona Levee? Still yakking
Earlier: Port to would-be hoteliers: Stop dallying
Adjacent event center
The hotel would be on a city-owned parking lot behind the Winona 7 Cinema and a former sawmill railyard on the river. A Union Pacific industrial rail spur remains between the site and Levee Park, although, perhaps in wishful thinking, the new hotel sketches blot out the the remaining single-track spur, where morning switching occurs weekdays. The plan also turns the old railroad freighthouse across Center Street from the hotel into a restaurant and event space. Most recently the freighthouse was home to Jefferson bar and grill and before that to the Zach’s on the Tracks upscale steakhouse. The freighthouse now is home to the Island City brewpub at the far end. As hotel plan currently stands, there would be 101 surface parking stalls for guests and 31 covered parking spaces for apartment tenants.
An unhappy purple wave marches at Winona State
Salaries among contract issues. About 300 Winona Sate people. mostly members of the State University Administrative and Service Faculty union, marched through campus for a new contract and pay adjustments.
Labor strike could cripple new semester
WINONA, Minn. – In less than a week an 1,600 new students, mostly freshmen, will arrive at Winona State University for orientation for fall semester — amid a pending strike by 111 campus program managers that could cripple operations. Members of the managers’ union, a Teamster unit, staged a demonstration to alert the public how close to the brink that negotiations have come with the MinnState university system. Unless an agreement is reached in a final round of negotiations, scheduled in St. Paul on Tuesday, the union has served notice it will strike on August 22 — the second day of fall classes. A strike also would hit six additional MinnState campuses. The union’s demonstration Thursday at Winona State was organized as “an informational picket line.” The campus managers, who run core support programs, were joined by dozens of students and some members of the faculty, who belong to another union. Their placards emphasized salaries. Some managers complained that barely make it paycheck to paycheck. These managers run programs including:
> Admissions.
> Advising.
> Cultural diversity.
> Financial aid.
> Health services.
> Intramurals.
> Academic records.
> Dorm life.
> Student affairs.
> Sports information.
MinnState response
Responding the news media inquiries, MinnState administrators in St Paul issued a statement that contingency plans are in place in case of a strike. “Essential services” will continue to be offered, the statement said.
Student impact
Confusion always reigns at the start of a fall semester, especially for 18-year-old freshen away from home in a new environment for the first time This is the make-u-up of the new arrivals:
> 1,170 new first-time students.
> 390 new students with a previous degree.
> 88 transfers from other colleges.
Strike vote
The State University Administrative and Service Faculty union has 11 members at Winona State. The membership statewide has voted 93% authorize a strike.
Music wafting among a cemetery’s peace
Afternoon concert. At the 1884 chapel and public mausoleum.
Musicians hope for gifts to maintain Woodlawn
WINONA, Minn. – Three Winona performance groups plan an outdoor concert at Woodlawn cemetery on Saturday at 2 p.m. Bring a blanket or lawn chair. The music is free, but donations will go to maintain the cemetery grounds. The performers:
> Winds of Winona: Ryan Ballanger, Ruth Bures, Frank Bures and Chris Buswell.
> Flutistry: Heidi Bryant, Amanda Wenzel and Janet Heukeshoven.
> A jazz duo: Eric Huekeshoven and Margaret Cassidy.
The performance will be near the new historical marker recognizing the 1884 chapel and public mausoleum. Parking: On West Lake Boulevard.
Police trying to trace mysterious BB gun
WINONA, Minn. – A BB gun showed up mysteriously wrapped in a blue bandana in a residential area east of the Eagles Lodge on the near East Side. Police files turned up no report of a stolen BB gun They noted that the weapon, silver in color, looked old. The gun was found in the 250 East Fourth Street about 3:45 p.m.
Third rattlesnake on Garvin Heights Road
WINONA, Minn. – Police summoned a snake-handler to remove two rattlers from Garvin Heights Road. There was another rattlesnake the day before also on the road. The latest incident, at 11:36 a.m., was part of a continuing rattlesnake infestation in the bluffs behind Winona.
Trick-shot golfer due at Cedar Valley
WINONA Minn. – For its annual charity golf tournament, Winona Health has lined up New Zealand trick-shot artist Tania Tare. Tare’s free exhibition is scheduled for 4:45 p.m. on Monday at the Cedar Valley course. The event is the Ben and Adith Miller Classic to benefit people unable to pay for medical care. The event began in 1990.
Tare. Has 600,000 social media followers and sponsorship from Adidas, Ping and OnCore Golf.
Maddi update: A slightly odd daycare pickup
WINONA, Minn. – Police picked up an early hint at a home daycare center that something was amiss regarding the status of Maddi Kingsbury. A week after Kingsbury vanished, the daycare operator, Brooke Pelowski, who tends for 10 children, told police that Kingsbury’s housemate, Adam Fravel, showed up unexpectedly to pick up the children at the end of the day that she disappeared. Usually Kingsbury picked up the kids, ages 5 and 2, although sometimes it would be Fravel by himself, Pelowski said. This time, Pelowski said, she hadn’t received an advance call from Kingsbury about a change in the usual routine – although it was not unusual for Fravel to come alone. His usual assurance to the children that everything was fine was an explanation like: “Mommy is on her way back from Rochester.” Kingsbury had a job at Mayo Clinic. This time when the kids asked, “Where’s mommy,” he said: “We are going to grandma and grandpa’s.” This all is according to Pelo2ski. At the time Pelowski wasn’t particularly concerned about Fravel’s explanation. But on reflection, and having learned that police were investigating Kingsbury’s disappearance, Pelowski recalled Fravel’s explanation and wondered whether he meant he was taking the children to Kingsbury’s parents or to his parents. As it turned out that Fravel drove the kids 40 miles to his parents’ house near Mabel, which would have been unusual.
Earlier: Maddi update: Early clue? Scratches on Fravel’s face
Police report
The police account of the interview with Pelowski appears among hundreds of documents released recently by Judge Mary Leahy. At the time of the interview, police were still amassing evidence in the case and weren’t prepared to name a suspect. It was 10 weeks after Maddi Kingsbury disappeared that her body was found near Mabel. Fravel was arrested and charged with murder. Judge Leahy is handling the case.
Pelowski daycare
Address: 507 Sioux Street, about 20 blocks from where Fravel and Kingsbury lived.
Hours: 6:30 a.m. to 5:30. p.m. weekdays.
Weekly rate: $125.
Licensed: One of 38 Winona home daycare providers approved by the Winona County Community Services agency.
Hope: Fixing Galesville’s Old Main for 2024 season
GALESVILLE, Wis. – The president of the board that runs the city-owned Old Main performance venue Diane Thatcher, hopes to schedule events by 2024 in the now-condemned third floor. A structural problem in the 80-seat performance area was discovered in April. The floor was suddenly bouncy. Now the city will need to underwrite repairs. perhaps with a fund-raising campaign. Thatcher said. The third floor has a 1916 Steinway grand piano and a vintage Hammond C3 organ, Thatcher said that small intimate concerts on the third floor typically had a reception or intermission for people toget to know the performer. “That is something that should never go away,” Thatcher told the Winona Post. Meanwhile, evets are on schedule on the first and second floors.
Earlier: Sagging floor closes third-floor venue at Galesville
Intimate venue. The third floor performance area put musicians and audience in close proximity.
R.I.P.: Judi Olson
WINONA, Minn. – Judi Marie (Smith) Olson, 87, of Winona, a nurse at the Winona hospital for 30 years, died at home. She was a 1954 graduate of Cotter High School. Her last 17 years were as a private nurse for Ben and Adith Miller. She volunteered at the Winona Humane Society.
Details: Hoff Funeral Home
1936-2023
What are options to finish HVAC school projects?
WINONA, Minn. – The finance director for Winona Schools, Sarah Slaby, is examining possibilities to complete a $26 million upgrade for heating and cooling upgrade project at two aging grade schools. The Board had budgeted $16 million for the projects – far short of the lowest bid that was submitted. Despite not having enough money, the Board ordered construction, at Washington-Kosciusko and Jefferson schools, to start over the summer. But the work can’t be completed unless another $10 million is found. Meanwhile, the schools are torn up. It’s a conundrum for the School Board, which is gun-shy about going to voters to approve a tax increase to cover the $10 million shortfall — especially after voters in April overwhelmingly rejected a $94 million bonding referendum for other projects. There is a provision in state law for school boards to borrow emergency money for what’s called “health and safety” projects. Slaby told the Board’s Finance Committee that she has been in touch with tax consultant about options for the $10 million under the health and safety provisions. Under the provisions, the bonds would need repayment over 10 years, rather than the usual 30-year term for voter-approved referendum borrowing.
Earlier: On failed school bond: “Needs not going away”
Earlier: Winona school referendum down in flames
Earlier: School Board OKs costlier-than expected refits
Earlier: Board seeks options for school cooling
Earlier: Yies: School upgrades 60% over budget
Earlier: Final approval: $16 million for school air upgrades
GOP golden boy Lazzaro: 20 years for teen consorting
MINNEAPOLIS – The wealthy playboy Tony Lazzaro whose largesse included leading Minnesota Republicans has been ordered prison for 21 years for teen-age sex trafficking. The sentence was handed down by federal Judge Patrick Schiltz. Although prosecutors asked for 30 years and Lazzaro’s attorneys for 10, Judge Schiltz chose a middle term. He did, however, have harsh words for Lazzaro. The judge said he was struck by the “soulless, almost mechanical nature” of Lazzaro and the teen-age girls: “It’s almost as if Mr. Lazzaro set up a sex trafficking assembly line.” A jury found Lazzaro guilty five months earlier on seven counts of “commercial sex acts” with five girls ages 15 and 16. He was 30 at the time. The assaults were in his Minneapolis penthouse.
Political connections
Lazzaro’s arrest in 2020 sent the Minnesota GOP into disarray. Not only was Lazzaro’s procurer the head the student Republican club at the University of St. Thomas but he hobnobbed with GOP bigwigs and donated to their campaigns. Among donation recipients:
> Congressman Tom Emmer, a Republican, of St. Cloud and northern Twin Cities suburbs.
> Congressman Jim Hagedorn, a Republican, of southern Minnesota.
> Lacy Johnson, a Republican, who tried unsuccessfully in 2020 to unseat Ilhan Omar, who represented a Minneapolis district in Congress.
Lazzaro also was close with state OP chair Jennifer Carnahan, who was Hagedorn’s wife. As the sex-trafficking scandal was unfolding, Carnahan was thrown out of party leadership. With Carnahan and Hagedorn, Lazzaro had met with President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence on Minnesota campaign visits. In all, Lazzaro gave $270,000 to Republican candidates and political campaigns.
The Epstein connection
At the sentencing hearing, Judge Schiltz said he was troubled that the Lazzaro showed no sympathy for the girls he procured, all 15 and 16 years old and all whom his procurer said were “white, small, vulnerable or broken.” The only sympathy Lazzaro expressed was for himself and Jeffrey Epstein, the judge said. Lazzaro’s affinity for Epstein was unclear except that he saw them both as targets for their political involvement. Epstein was a frequent guest of Trump at the former president’s Mar-a-Lago mansion in Florida, as well a mover in celebrity circles. Federal investigators identified 36 girls, some as young as 16, on whom Epstein lavished gifts and consorted. Epstein died in jail in 2019 at age 66. Epstein’s procurer of girls, Ghislane Maxwell, was sentenced to 20 years in prison for schemes to entice minors to travel and engage in sex with Epstein.
Earlier: Jury: Big-time GOP donor Lazzaro guilty in sex case
Earlier: Lazzaro friends go to bat for him online
Lazzaro. At 2020 Minnesota campaign event wuth Vice President Mike Pence.
Podcast. Promoting the show before it all crashed down.
TV appeal. For all good citizens to come into the GOP “big tent.”
Emergency, fire crews make 56 calls
WINONA, Minn. – The Fire Department reported 40 emergency medical calls plus 16 fire calls in recent days:
> Tuesday, August 8: 6 medical calls plus 1 fire call.
> Monday, August 7: 8 medical calls plus 2 fire calls.
> Sunday, August 6: 7 medical calls plus 2 fire calls.
> Saturday, August 5: 3 medical calls plus 3 fire calls.
> Friday, August 4: 4 medical calls plus 4 calls.
> Thursday, August 3: 5 medical calls plus 2 fire calls.
> Wednesday, August 2: 7 medical calls plus 2 fire calls.
Earlier: Emergency, fire crews 54 calls
Fair fodder / 8: Gastro delight? Or fright? You choose
FALCON HEIGHTS, Minn. – Among 34 new foods on the ever-growing menu at the Minnesota State Fair, which opens August 24:
Italian duo dunkers: Two Italian-themed hand pies with seasoned parmesan crusts: one with sausage, pepperoni and mozzarella cheese in a 7 Vines Winery red wine-infused pizza sauce; and one with chicken, mushrooms and spinach in a creamy garlic alfredo sauce. Served with garlic butter dipping sauce. At Sara’s Tipsy Pies in the Food Building, northwest wall.
Jam’nades. In two varieties: Blueberry mint and strawberry jalapeno. Organic lemonade infused with locally made jams in two varieties: One with a spoonful of blueberry jam and topped with mint sprigs. One with a spoonful of strawberry jam and jalapeño slices. Served with a boba tea straw. (Vegan, gluten-free.) At Jammy Sammies by BRIM at the North End, northwest section, across from the North End Event Center.
Dill pickle lemonade: Lemonade mixed with tangy dill pickling spices, craft brewed by Urban Growler and garnished with a crunchy slice of pickle. (Non-alcoholic.) At Nordic Waffles at West End Market, south section.
Earlier: Nobody hungry at Great Get-Together
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