PRAIRIE DU CHIEN, Wis.  – A Lynxville man in police custody at a hospital emergency room escaped and stole a car outside and fled. Paul Germundson, 26, had been in the Crawford County jail in Prairie du Chien but was taken to the hospital for medical attention. After his escape, deputies spotted Germundson 15 miles upriver at his home in Lynxville. But he rammed the deputies’ unmarked squad truck and got away again. Thirty miles farther upriver on the outskirts of Stoddard, Germundson crashed the car near some cabins and again fled. It was believed he was heading for LaCrosse, another 12 miles upriver. Crawford County Sheriff Dale McCullick urged people to lock their doors and remove keys from any vehicles.

Germundson. On the run after eluding cops at Crossing Rivers Health’s emergency room in Prairie du Chien.

ST. PAUL, Minn. — The state Human Services Department began distributing $173 million to help stabilize Minnesota’s financially troubled nursing home industry. Earmarked for Winona this year:

> Lake Winona Manor, $333,000.

> St. Anne Extended Health Care, $331,000.

> Sauer Health Care, $255,000.

Similar amounts will be distributed in 2024.

WINONA, Minn. – Police tased a Winona man three times after he resisted arrest in a traffic stop. Jonathan Patrick Catlin, 22, gave up after the third stun. “OK, OK. OK,” officers reported he shouted finally. They cuffed him. The incident was about 1:30 a.m. near Broadway and Laird on the East Side. Officers said that Catlin, who had three women in his car, one only 17, had been weaving across Broadway’s four lanes. He got out of the car as requested but gave a false name, officers said. His blood-shot watery eyes suggested he had been drinking, then he failed field sobriety tests, that included walking a straight line. When told he was under arrest, officers said, Catlin tensed and refused to put his hands behind his back, then trashed and flailed in resistance. The women in the car, meanwhile, were yelling at the officers and compounding the commotion, the officers said. Catlin’s resistance continued even after two low-intensity stun-gun shots were fired into him. On the third stun, he gave up. At the jailhouse, his blood-alcohol level showed impairment at 0.09%. The 17-year-old in the car was cited for under-age consumption and turned over to her parents. The other two women were not charged.

Catlin. Booked for drunken driving, obstructing police, and an outstanding felony warrant.

WINONA, Minn. – Beware the rookie cops. Newly hired city police officers are on the streets testing their Police Academy skills. Over the weekend they made 41 stops for speeding. The arrests symbolized welcome news for the Police Department, which had been running as many as 10 officers short for two years. Still, said Deputy Chief Jay Rasmussen, the force is four or five officers short.

WINONA, Minn. – Masses of police evidence against Adam Fravel in the murder of Maddi Kingsbury in March, including serial beatings, have been released in court documents. Judge Mary Leahy unsealed the documents as part of the judicial process. Included are allegations that police withheld at the time so as not to tip possible perpetrators and conspirators to what the investigation was uncovering and to protect their sources. Among new revelations:

> Hospital chat. Lauren DeBois, a college classmate of Maddi, said she had told her that Fravel had been “beating the hell out of her for years.” She said Maddi, age 26, asked DeBois for advice on how to get out of the relationship. “Everything is bad with Adam at the house,” she quoted Maddi as saying. This was months before Maddi’s disappearance. At the time DeBois was hospitalized at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, where Maddi worked and had stopped by to talk. “If anything happens to me, know that Adam did it,” Maddi reportedly said.’ I would never leave my kids.” The couple had two children, 5 and 2.

> Confidant.  Maddi’s close friend Katie Kolka said there have been issues with Fravel for a while and that a new man her life, Spencer Sullivan, was nice to her. Having someone finally be nice was new, Kolka quoted Maddie as saying.

> Therapy. Text messages revealed Maddi and Adam had been attending couple’s therapy since late 2022 or early 2023. To her mother, Maddi wrote: “I committed to therapy and making it work so I’m doing my best.” This was nine days before she disappeared. To another friend, Maddi had texted about therapy: “It’s been helpful so far since Adam and I just have so much traumatic history.”

> New man friend. Maddi met Spencer Sullivan on the online dating app Tinder in December 2021 and recently had resumed talking again. Six days before Maddi disappeared, she texted Sullivan, “He knows. I’m sorry.” Sullivan responded: “It’s OK. Did you tell him?” Madi answered: “Yes, he was asking what was wrong, and I can’t keep lying.” Sullivan told police that both he and Maddi knew Fravel was onto their relationship but probably didn’t know who he was. Sullivan said that when he and Maddi would get together, she would make her phone untraceable because Fravel would text her non-stop. Sullivan told police that he ended his relationship with Maddi when he learned that she had revealed it to Fravel. Later when a police investigator asked Fravel about Sullivan, Fravel responded, according to one document in the case, that  he felt hurt that  they were “hanging out together,” Even so, Travel told the investigator that his relationship with Maddi had continued to be cordial.

> Petito obsession. Text messages between Maddi and her friends confirmed previously reported news that Fravel had told Maddi in December that she would “end up like Gabby Petito” if she didn’t learn to “mind.” Petito was a 22-year-old woman who was killed by her fiance on a Wyoming vacation in 2021. The finance then returned to Florida before killing himself. In an April interview with police, after Maddi disappeared, Fravel admitted being “infatuated” with the Petito case. He acknowledged making the statement to Maddi but said but meant it only as a joke.

Earlier: Bail at $2 million for Fravel in murder case

WINONA, Minn. – Firefighters loaded an injured hiker into a basket and lowered him down the steep Garvin Heights bluffs. The hiker had fallen on the trail to the lookout. An ambulance was waiting below at the trailhead on West Lake Boulevard. The injuries appeared sustainable. This was about 11:40 a.m.

LACROSSE, Wis. – A former Mayo Clinic pediatric cardiologist was sentenced to five years in prison for molesting child patients, all girls, in his private practice in LaCrosse. Joseph Thomas Poterucha, 41, had revised his plea to guilty for two 2021 incidents. Originally there were three counts. Poterucha was accused pf grooming and manipulating the girls. Besides five years in prison there will be 14 years of probation. Poterucha told the judge he was getting help for alcoholism and his sexual urges.

Earlier: Doctor swaps plea to guilty for child molestation

WINONA Minn. – Two new police officers were sworn in at City Hall, closing the force’s personnel shortage. Although there are 42 roster slots, the department has been down to 33 at some points in the past two years – a reflection of the post-George Floyd diminishing of the ranks nationally. At the City Hall ceremony, retired officers Sergeant Gary Hoeppner Badge, 59, and Investigator Mike Swanson, Badge 60, watched as their badges went to their numerical replacements. Both have been retired 10 years.

WINONA. Minn. – An interim switch of Winona police calls to Rochester on Sunday morning went smoothly, said Sheriff Ron Ganrude. For four hours while power was out for police station construction, Gandrude had sent two dispatchers to Rochester to field calls patched in from Winona. The Winona outage related to work at the new county jail, which is scheduled to be operational in October.

Earlier: Power outage planned at Winona police HQ

Earlier: Slow-to-deliver jail generator en route

Earlier: Worrisome detail: Delays in delivery of generator

WASHINGTON – The western Wisconsin member of Congress who launched into an expletive-laden tirade at teen-age Senate pages in the U.S. Capitol rotunda last week, Derrick Van Orden, has no significant court record involving alcohol, according to records in states where he has lived. The alcohol issue became relevant because Van Orden acknowledged drinking before the Rotunda disorder. His court record includes:

> A 1994 disorderly conduct charge, which was dismissed. This was in Fredricksburg, Virginia.

> A 2006 speeding ticket in Chesapeake, Virginia, for driving 72 mph in a 55 zone.  His fine, $177, was paid in absentia.

> A 2022 charge of carrying handgun through check-in the Cedar Rapids, Iowa, airport. He paid a $360 fine

Court records were checked in California, Minnesota, North Carolina, Oregon, Virginia and Wisconsin.

Hello, Washington. Van Orden cultivated a tough, macho campaign image with news photo opps astride  a top-of-the-line Harley-Davidson. So too when he arrived in Washington on his Harley in 2022 as a newly elected House member from Wisconsin Congressional District 3,

Earlier: Van Orden’s blood-alcohol level that night?

Earlier: Airport check catches WI-3 candidate with handgun

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

What next for Page Theater? The heart of the Performing Arts Center at Saint Mary’s has been the 455-seat Page Theater. The university has promoted it as “the premier performing arts center” in southeast Minnesota. The Page performance series has brought 25,000 people a year to the venue, not counting campus performances, community workshops, and school matinee programs. The performance building opened in 1987.

Can clubs, guest artists fill the campus arts gap?

WINONA, Minn. – Fingers crossed, students and profs are struggling to keep the arts alive at Saint Mary’s University, where once the arts were flagships of the liberal arts curriculum. In 2022 under new president James Burns, Saint Mary’s downgraded programs in music, theater and arts and trimmed its faculty by 20%. So what’s next? The university now advertises itself with a triad of programs:

>Practical training. This now is the main curricular thrust. Programs in business, nursing and public health.

> Character development. Defined as “ethical excellence.

> Liberal learning. Still offered even though courses in the arts, history, music, philosophy, religion and theater are shadows if their former selves.

Although perforing arts programs were decimated, the university is looking to hire a music director of music to organize student music activities and shows this summer. These, it’s hoped, will include a choir and  pep band. “It’s an arts co-curricular model,” said Lynette Johnson,  he campus director of events, said in a Winona Post interview. In general these activities will not include faculty. The arts activies will be largely through student clubs.Tentative plans incuide two theater productions next school year with remaining students whose academic programs that are being phased out. The university hopes to start a drama club to have student-led productions, Johnson said,. Saint Mary’s also will also bring in community and professional productions, she said. In the same vein, the university’s arts gallery will run a full schedule. Also, she said, the university plans to offer short workshops for students to learn about the arts.

Johnson. Working with student clubs, local artists to keep arts alive at SMU.

Earlier: SMU shift: Arts programs go from classes to clubs

Earlier: SMU ends arts conservatory in curriculum do-over

Earlier: SMU to graduate a smaller class

Earlier: SMU musician couple retiring with alumni reunion

Earlier: SMU student loss 13%: Curriculum overhaul to blame?

Earlier: SMU quits 11 programs, drops fifth of profs

Earlier: Master plan taking form for Masterpiece Hall

ST. PAUL, Minn. — Minnesota fishing license sales are up 3% from a year ago. Glen Schmitt, an outdoors podcaster, said 783,000 have been sold. Schmitt said the demand has caught up after a slump due to weather early in the season.

WITOKA, Minn. –  An Altura driver was arrested and booked for drunken driving after a deputy clocked him at 52 mph through Witoka. The hamlet’s limit is 30. It was a strange arrest. The arresting deputy deputy said that Brian Anthony Kruger, 49, was eastbound through Witoka, then turned around and came toward the pursuing office, whose flashing red lights and siren were activated, this  time at 56 mph. Once stopped, the deputy said, Kruger admitted that he must ave missed a speed sign. Detecting alcohol on Kruger’s breath, the deputy administered a portable breath test that confirmed his blood-alcohol at 0.13%. Besides the DWI, Kruger was cited for speeding and not having a valid license to drive.

RIDGEWAY, Minn. – A Wisconsin motorcyclist crashed in a cloud of dust on the Interstate 90 median while being pursued by Winona County deputies. Tariq Lamont Cleghorn, 24, of Wisconsin Rapids, was up and walking as deputies in two cruisers pulled up. Cleghorn said he was fine and declined medical attention, The crash was about 9:50 p.m. between the I-90 exits to Winona and Houston. The pursuit began, said one deputy, when the motorcycle revved loudly past his cruiser at an estimated 79 mph and kept accelerating.

RED WING, Minn. – A Red Wing driver, Michael Jay Tombers, 59, was injured when his 2005 Volkswagon Beetle went off the roadway and struck a sign. He was taken to the Red Wing hospital with sustainable injuries. The accident was about 6:20 p.m. on U.S. Highway 61 at Cannon River Avenue North. Tomberg was northbound.

WINONA, Minn. – For third time in recent days, police have called animal control officers to snare rattlesnakes from backyards in the bluffs. The latest rattlers were on Wincrest Drive in Garvin Heights and on Jederman Drive in Gilmore Valley. The snakes, police said, were removed to the wild where they belong.

WINONA, Minn. – Just as the caller said, the snake-handler found the rattler in the driveway on Michaelwood Drive up Gilmore Valley. The handler removed the snake without incident and took it far away t a place less habited by people. The incident was in the 300 block of Michaelwood. It was the fifth snake call of the season in the Winona area, all in neighborhoods bordering on wildlands.

Earlier: Rattlesnake carefully lassoed, carried far away

ELBA, Minn. – An Altura woman was arrested for what deputies called “significant intoxication” while driving without headlamps down Main Street in the waning hours of the Whitewater Festival street mayhem. Deputies said Shawn Marie Tall, 59, had a 0.16% blood-alcohol check on the spot – twice the level for drunkenness in state law. Deputies noted her poor balance, slurred speech and tell-tale body fumes. Not being her first DWI stop, the charge was elevated to second-degree drunken driving.

Earlier: Elba Gone Wild / 3: Weaving at 70 mph

ELBA, Minn. – Deputies said they arrested a Lewiston driver for zig-sagging all over the highway out of Elba as the annual Whitewater Festival was winding down.  Feliciano Morales Tepole, 29, was charged with drunken driving.  Deputies said they followed Tepole at 70 mph on County Road 26 and State Highway 248 and made the stop.. Through his open car window, deputies said, the smell of alcohol was unmistakable. His eyes were watery and bloodshot. A field breath test showed him at 0.08% alcohol. The 0.08% was confirmed by a blood test at the Winona County jail.

Earlier: Elba Gone Wild / 2: Bad plates, bad breath