ELBA, Minn. – Deputies stopped a car for missing a license late, then, they said, they recognized the driver was drunk. Arrested was Justin Joseph Tlougan, 21, of Utica. The stop was outside the Mauer Brothers bar and Tiny’s bar — the epicenter of Elba’s annual Whitewater Festival, which had grown to a street event with hundreds of revelers. Deputies aid Tlougan admitted to drinking but “it had been hours ago.” His blood-alcohol level told another story – 0.13% on the spot and later 0.12% at jail in Winona. Deputies said there were tell-tale signs of impairment, including bloodshot and watery eyes and the exuding sweat of alcohol.

Earlier: Elba Gone Wild / 1: Street dance sucker punch

ELBA, Minn.  – After three calls about a disturbance outside the Elba bars, deputies arrived to find crowds milling around on Main Street, which had been barricaded off for the town’s annual Whitewater Festival. What had been the disturbance? Part of it was a 9-year-old girl dancing for the crowd to the music of a live band.  As best as deputies could best figure it out when they arrived, one of the revelers, a man, had been photographing the girl dancing. The girl’s father objected – and somebody was sucker-punched. Who hit who had been lost in the confusion and mayhem of the gathering, which had been swelled through the day to several hundred people. Deputies said they would check surveillance video in the morning at two host bars to get a better sense of the  the kerfuffle-turned-violent. Unanswered question: What was a third-grader doing out so late , at 11:30 p.m, at the festival’s usual chaotic and raucous Saturday night finale.

WINONA, Minn. – A Winona driver who admitted to “a few sips” was cited in a traffic stop for underage drinking. Police let Allyson Grace Nascak, 19, walk home. Although they said she smelled of alcohol, showed signs of impairment and failed field sobriety tests, her blood-alcohol level tested at only 0.07%, a bit short of the legal 0.08% considered illegal for driving. The stop was about 1:40 p.m. at Fourth and Market streets.

Frontenac shops. Three quick food places in Far East End strip mall.

Escorted out after third unwanted visit, two in one night

WINONA, Minn. – Twice in the same evening Amy Michelle Brown, 47, went back to a Far East End strip mall eatery despite a no-trespass, don’t-come-back order. Police first were called at 6:46 p.m. She left as requested. Then she back at 9:05 p.m. The food, we’re told, is pretty good. Certainly better than the jail rations she’s on now.

Brown. Charged with property assault.

OSLO, Minn. – A Stewartville woman, Sharon Kay Evenson, 64, was killed when her car struck a vehicle that was pulling out of a farm driveway. She died at the scene. This was about 9:50 a.m. west of the Rochester airport. She was eastbound in a 2004 Oldsmobile Alero. Her airbag deployed, deputies aaid. The other driver, Karl David Stasko, 25, of Hayfield, in a 2015 Chrysler 200, suffered non-life-threatening injuries.

WINONA Minn. – Because of a scheduled power outage related to construction of the new Winona County jail, all calls to the sheriff’s office and city police, including emergencies, will be routed to a police dispatcher in Rochester starting Sunday at 6 a.m. Expect the outage to be four hours. For callers the process should be seamless, the sheriff’s office said.

WINONA, Minn. – A driver told police that a pedestrian hurled an insulate tin cup at her car for no reason she could ascertain. The woman was driving on the Near East Side about 12:30 a.m. The passenger door was damaged and dripping alcohol, police said. A man who had recovered the cup before police arrived was evasive about what happened, officers said. The investigation was continuing. The man, 47 years old, remained to be further questioned, police said. The cup, police said, had alcohol that seemed the same that was on the car door. The incident was near Howard and Franklin streets.

UTICA, Minn. – Deputies checked on a blue plume at a farm south of Utica and found the source — a tire, plastic  and  feed bags bound in bail netting. All are prohibited items even with a burn permit. Joyce Ellen Buckbee, 58, produced a burn permit and said there was no need to call fire-fighters and that she said would extinguish the fire herself. This was about 9:30 a.m. She was ticketed. Eleven hours later, about 8:50 p.m., deputies were called back. The debrs was burning again and unattended. This time Kevin James Buckbee, 60, was ticketed. This was at 28000 County Road 33.

WINONA, Minn. – A Winona woman put her engagement ring for sale online and got an offer back. The respondents said: Yes but for sex. No cash, just sex, it seemed. The woman called police. Deputy Police Chief Jay Rasmussen said an investigator so far has traced the offer to an email address in Wisconsin or Iowa.

Stormy skies to the north

ROCHESTER, Minn. – Seven airliners, including  transoceanic jumbo jets, took refuge at the Rochester airport  after a severe storm closed their destination airport in Minneapolis. Once the storm cleared MSP an hour later, the planes were back in the sky for the 77-mile hop to Minneapolis. Nobody deboarded in Rochester. Other MSP-bound flights also were diverted to back-up sites – Duluth, Eau Claire, Fargo, Grand Forks, and Madison.

WINONA, Minn. – Spanish interpreter Nick Moon has joined Winona Health for Spanish-speaking people. How does it work? Amanda Ciszak, primary-care services director, said to ask for a Spanish interpreter when scheduling an appointment. Ciszak said interpreter services have been available a long time, but the new position expands Winona Health’s capabilities. Moon holds a 2010 degree in Spanish from Winona State University. Before college, he graduated from Central Cities Health Institute with a focus on health care. The Hispanic population of Winona County is 1,500. In Fillmore County, where Winona Health also has a clinic, the Hispanic population is 400.

Moon. Degree in Spanish. Also studied 10 months in Brazil and more briefly Mexico.

OAK RIDGE, Minn. – An Altura man whose pickup truck was found stuck in a cornfield after leaving a county road and striking a tree has agreed to pay restitution to the farmer. The farmer said he wouldn’t press charges against Vanilo Zacarias Aguilar, 23. The deal: Agular will pay for crop damage and plant a new tree. The incident was two nights earlier. Sheriff’s deputies searching for Aguilar found him asleep at a nearby dairy farm a few hours later. He had abandoned his pickup and fled, deputies said..

Earlier: Blaring horn incident ends in milking parlor

WINONA, Minn. – Police checking a broken window at the downtown municipal bus hub found a man camping inside. The man told officers he had been in an argument with young hooligans who threw a rock and shattered the window. The man didn’t report being injured. He picked up his stuff and moved along. This was about 12:50 a.m. at Third and Center streets in the bar district. Police were planning to check retailers in the area for security pictures to identify the culprits.

Bus hub. Because of hooligan damage and trash left by homeless folks, the benches have been removed since this image was taken. Image: Steve Lunde

WINONA, Minn. – The author of “Hugs Help,” Randy Stocker, will speak at the Watkins Manor Great Hall on August 31 on coping with grief. Time: 6:30 p.m., 175 EastWabasha Streetin Winona. Free. Tami Groth, Winona Health chaplain, said she was inspired invite Stocker after hearing him at a conference: “I was touched by his deep passion for grief support and his unique ability to connect with those he speaks to.” Stocker, from Rochester, calls himself “a survivor of unbearable grief” after a 2003 accident in which two daughters and his mother were killed by a distracted truck driver. He has formed numerous bereavement groups and speaks widely abut grief.

Stocker. On loss, resilience, grief. Published by Authorhouse, 2022. 174 pages.

LEWISTON, Minn. – The Daley dairy family’s persistence to fight the Winona County cap on herd size has aimed at draining the resources of no-profit organizations that oppose factory-scale farming, according to the policy director of the Land Stewardship Project.  Sean Carroll made the charge in a fundraising message to LSP members ahead of a new court hearing on the latest Daley case against the Land Stewardship Project, a nonprofit, and also against Winona County. The The Daley farm, outside Lewiston, ss the largest dairy operation  in Winona County.  “When a corporation engages over and over on legal battles, one of their goals could be to drain the resources of nonprofit organizations who are standing in their way,” Carroll said. His message to LSP supporters: “Thanks to the massive support from members like you and our allies, we were able to meet the costly burden of hiring a legal team to represent us. Instead of crippling us, LSP is coming out of this situation stronger.” Carroll said that 370 members have helped meet the organization’s legal fees. He also thanked partner organizations:

> Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement.

> Missouri Rural Crisis Center.

> Dakota Rural Action.

> Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy.

> Farm Aid.

The Daleys’ latest court case is in a familiar forum – in Winona County District Court next month.

Earlier: Daley’s state lawsuit to expand herd still on

Earlier: Daleys yield on suit against feedlot foes

Earlier: Land stewards rally ahead of new Daley talks

Earlier: Daley dairy accused of stifling farm policy dialogue

Earlier: Daleys accused of spiteful political attack

Earlier: Daleys back in quest to grow herd exponentially

Earlier: County’s attorney: Dead-end ahead for new Daley suit

Earlier: Not giving up: Daleys persist for 4,500-cow farm

Earlier: County to Daleys: Let’s spell it out: N-O

Earlier: Feedlot opponents organizing resistance

Earlier:  Mega-feedlot ban again before County Board

Earlier: Daley dairy expansion denied again

Earlier: Daley expansion critics go door to door

Earlier: Next Daley move: “All cards on table”

Earlier: Attorney defends Daley motives for variance bid

Earlier: Land Stewardship tackles latest Daley move

Endless doggedness

Since 2014 the Daleys have sought an exemption from a long-standing Winona County cap on herd size. The Daley goal: To put 4,600 dairy cows in an area that opponents claim is already compromised by high nitrate levels in ground water and fish kills. It’s their right, the Daleys say, to grow their business as they see fit. They have been unsuccessful, however, in a series of appeals in the courts and before regulatory agencies over nine years. A Daley argument evolving in recent years has been that their opponents have tainted he political process for considering an exemption to the herd size rule. The current Daley lawsuit claims that the Land Stewardship Project has created this bias. LSP has responded that the Daleys have it all wrong and don’t understand how democracy works.  Said LSP’s Sean Carroll: “Our organizing is simply part of the democratic process of people coming together to talk to their neighbors about issues that concern and affect them, and then speaking out to their public officials to make those concerns heard.”

WINONA, Minn. – The woman was out of it, slumped over the steering wheel. Her engine was running, her transmission engaged in the drive gear. This was about 3:05 a.m. in the 50 block of Winona Street under the Mississippi River bridge. Police wakened Allison Joyce Swiggum, 27, of Utica, and asked her to get out of vehicle – after telling her, of course, to turn off the engine and put the transmission in park. It wasn’t easy standing up. Police said she stumbled through standard field sobriety tests. Officers said she smelled of alcohol. Her eyes were bloodshot and watery. She admitted drinking. She declined medical attention and said was doing fine. Her blood tested at 0.13% alcohol – 1-1/2 times the amount that the law allows to drive. .She was written up for drunken driving and released to a sober adult.

LACROSSE, Wis. – The LaCrosse City Council approved a permit to repaint the landmark six-pack riverside storage tanks to the original Old Style beer theme. The permit was to La Crosse Sign Group for the $40,000 project. The iconic six-pack, a favorite for tourist cameras, was first decorated o look like giant beer cans in 1969. The six-pack has born different beer labels over the years as ownership of the brewery kept changing hands. Meanwhile, City Brewing, whuch wns the six-pack, has received a permit to construct a new building in “silo alley” and extend an underground tunnel from the brewhouse to the new structure. The project is budgeted at $1.8 million.

Old Style redux. Repainting OK’d by City Council.