WINONA, Minn. – Police found a bunch of prescription tranquilizers and painkillers in a parked car whose driver was slumped asleep over the steering wheel. The car’s engine was running, police said.  Daniel Lee Burt-Vasquez, 22, of Winona, was arrested. This was about 6:50 p.m. at Second and Wilson streets on the Near West Side. Officers awakened Burt-Vasquez by knocking his car window. He fumbled and moved a foil wrapper out of his lap, they said. He admitted taking two Xanax pills, they said. In field sobriety tests, he was unsteady and his speech slurred. He was arrested. In the foil wrapper, officers reported 46 prescription pills. These were 24 Oxycodone painkiller doses, 21 Xanax doses, and one Alprazolam brand painkiller dose.

Burt-Vasquez. Preliminary charges: Illegal drug possession, drunk driving.

ROCHESTER, Minn. – A 70-yer-old Rochester man on a motorcycle was injured seriously when, police said, a van crossed his path. The motorcyclist, whose name Sheriff Kevin Torgerson declined to release immediately, suffered injuries to his head, arms and legs. He was not wearing a helmet, deputies said. The accident was about 3:45 p.m. at 40th Street and 18th Avenue in a rural area southwest of Rochester. The van driver, from LeRoy, age 26, was unhurt. The sheriff declined to release his name immediately.

WINONA, Minn. — Somewhere in the Crestview neighborhood on the Winona bluff-tops a mama rattlesnake has given birth to a bunch of babies. The third rattler of the season has been reported, this one in the 1400 block of Highland Drive. Police called a trained handler who removed the snake to a far-away, less human-populated area. Mamas typically give birth to about 10 at a time. Most don’t survive long. Ravens, crows, falcons, coyotes, possums, skunks and cats find them delicious.

Earlier: More rattlesnakes emerging in new season

MASON CITY, Iowa – The Red Cross, which certifies swimming life guards, closed pools in Hampton, Mason City and Nora Springs because the certification of a lifeguard was invalid. It seems the guard had failed to complete Red Cross training. It was unclear when re-certification was possible.

ELBA, Minn. – Sheriff Ron Ganrude called off the search for a missing Elba man on Thursday after the man assured the sheriff by telephone that he was OK. Here’s what happened, according to Investigator Mark Dungy in a daily news briefing to reporters:

> An anonymous caller tipped the police dispatch office in Winona that the missing man, Bruce Wiza, was safe and well — and left a number to call.

> Ganrude called the number to confirm the information personally.

> Ganrude asked that Wiza be put on the line and was satisfied that he indeed was all right physically and that he would seek assistance as needed.

Dungy told reporters that he didn’t know where Wiza was for the telephone call or where he had been for 2-1/2 days. No criminal issue was being pursued, Dungy said. More detail would be available next week, he said.

Earlier: Missing Elba man found safe

ROCHESTER, Minn. – A Rochester man in whose home police found 36,000 counterfeit Oxycodone pills was arraigned and bail set at $1 million. The arrest of John Michael Ask, 46, had occurred Tuesday.  It followed the interception of a massive shipment of drugs from Arizona on July 15 in a traffic stop at the  Interstate 90 and Interstate 35 interchange at Albert Lea. With clues from the shipment, officers raided various addresses in Rochester three days later. These included Ask’s house in the 2800 block of Riverwood Lane. Besides the 36,00 M30 Oxycodone, which were laced with fentanyl, police confiscated cocaine and marijuana, a firearm, 80 rounds of ammunition and a fake ID card.

Ask. His arrest, police say, culminated months of investigation.

ROCHESTER, Minn. – A second Rochester man was charged in a massive ongoing drug case. Jibril Abukar, 26, had been  arrested Wednesday as the recipient of drugs from a primary dealer. The drugs ahd been mailed to Abukar, police said. Bail was set Friday at $50,000. Seized at his address in 1900 block of Village Drive Southeast were five bundles of crack cocaine totaling of 23 grams; 20 grams of a suspicious white powder; baking soda, commonly used to cut cocaine; a digital scale with white residue; drug-packaging materials; and many $100 counterfeit bills. Expect more arrests, police said.

Earlier: $1 million bail after massive drug haul

MONTICELLO, Minn. – The power company Xcel confirmed that nuclear waste from a November leak at its Monticello plant has edged through groundwater almost to the Mississippi River. Xcel said, however, that radioactive levels are “very low.” None of the radioactive tritium has been detected in the river water itself, Xcel said. Even if the radioactivity reaches the river it would be well below levels that occur naturally in the environment, said Chris Clark, an Xcel regional president, Clark said that teams have collected 75% of the tritium that was released in the lreak. In all, he said, 2.7 million gallons of water has been recovered from contaminated areas and pumped into safe storage to decay and be diluted and neutralized.

Earlier: Monticello on nuclear leak: “Trust but verify”

Earlier: New leak found, fixed at Monticello nuclear station

Earlier: Fish kill blamed on water temps at nuclear plant

Earlier: Nuclear waste at Monticello enters groundwater

Earlier: Regulators: Let’s not cry over spilt milk — err, tritium

Riverside. Forty miles upriver on the Mississippi from the Twin Cities and 135 miles upriver from Winona

ROCHESTER, Minn. – A former Lourdes High School student, now in his 70s, sued the Winona-Rochester Catholic Diocese, claiming sexual abuse by a priest in the mid-1970s. The lawsuit, in Olmsted County Court, names Father Joseph Cashman, the Lourdes school administrator at the time. Cashman earlier was accused as a serial abuser of boys. Most incidents occurred at a cabin where Cashman hosted retreats. Two bishops, Loras Joseph Watters and John George Vlazny, failed to act decisively on complaints over the years and kept reassigning Cashman around the southern Minnesota diocese. A third bishop, Bernard Joseph Harrington, removed Cashman from the priesthood but failed to refer the criminal activity to civil authorities for prosecution. After being defrocked, Cashman reinvented himself in Texas selling real estate. He died in 2014. He was among 100-plus priests in the Diocese whose sexual dalliance and abuse led to $28 million in payouts to victims and put the Diocese in bankruptcy. The Diocese has since installed a no-tolerance policy on sex abuse and committed itself to referring cases as criminal offenses. The new case, however, suggests a specter of additional cases emerging. The new plaintiff, whose name is obscured in court documents, claims he  “has suffered, and will continue to suffer, great pain of mind and body, severe and permanent emotional distress, physical manifestations of emotional distress, embarrassment, loss of self-esteem, humiliation, and physical-personal and psychological injuries.” The suit isn’t specific on how much is sought in damages except they should be at least $50,000.

Earlier: Post-bankruptcy Catholic diocese looks ahead

Earlier: Earlier: Catholic bishop: Sex abuse pay-off detail OK’d

Earlier: Church sex abuse settlement: $21.5 million

ELBA, Minn. —  On the second full of searching, a missing Elba man, Bruce Wiza, was located and was reported safe. Details were expected soon from Winona County Sheriff Ron Ganrude.

Earlier: No firm trace of Elba man after slipping out door

WINONA. Minn. – Expect an aviation spectacular when dozens of Beech Bonanzas make a mass arrival at the Winona airport Friday. The planes will be congregating in Winona enroute to the annual Oshkosh fly-in in Wisconsin. The operator of Winona’s Max Conrad Field, George Bolon, said there could be as many as 150 Bonanzas on the ground. He invited people to come by field in Goodview, to throw blanket on the grass, and watch through the airport fence. Try to be there y 1:30 p.m. , he said. The pilots will later take off in salvos for LaCrosse and then t0 Oshkosh.

In formation. Imagine 150 of these aloft and together.

WINONA. Minn. – Sheriff’s investigators recommended three additional charges of sexual exploitation of minors against a Lewiston man who has been in jail since July 6 on a bundle of similar charges. The recommendation for new charges against Valentin Sylva Quintana, 29, went to the county attorney. The existing charges have been soliciting and possessing lewd selfies and threatening victims to send more. The victims, according to the charges, were all 14 or younger. In all, there are 17 current police and court documents on file against Silva

Earlier:  Lewiston man accused as online sex fiend

WINONA, Minn. – A 14-year-old boy whom a girl accused of unwanted fondling denied the accusation, police said. And after interviewing the girl, also 14,  and also her family, police decided to close the case. The incident was purported ti have occurred on a bus on a field trip. The boy’s father came to Winna and took him home, police said.

Earlier: Teen reports being molested on field trip

ELBA, Minn. – Searchers started a second full day to find an Elba man who walked out into the night during a conversation with police late Tuesday at his house. Jeff Mueller, Winona County chief deputy sheriff, said the only possible clue has been a pair of jeans found in brambles in the heavily forested area near Elba  but, Mueller said, the jeans may nor may not belong to Bruce Wiza. Late Tuesday night Wiza, age 59, walked out of a routine police welfare check after his wife reported him missing. As deputies were en route, she found him in their large, rambling house. As deputies were talking with him to sort through the situation, Wiza ducked out a back door. He hasn’t been seen since. On Wednesday bout 40 searchers, mostly from the sheriff’s office and also first-responders from area fire departments, went door to door in Elba and searched up and down roads in and out for about a mile. Two drones found no trace. No did search hounds.

Earlier: Elba man with medical issue missing a second day

WINONA, Minn. – Pediatricians at the Winona Health clinic have set up walk-in dates for middle and high school athletes who plan to turn out for fall sports. Charge: $49. Hours:

> August 3 (Thursday), 1 to 4 p.m.

> August 8 (Tuesday), 1 to 4 p.m.

Providers: Heather Burton, Jessica Nelson, Sarah Lallaman and Kelli Ostermann. For physicals at Winona Health’s Rushford clinic, apartments are necessary. Note to parents: Fill out forms in advance.

DRESBACH, Minn. –  A Miner Valley Road man reported being a victim of a check-counterfeiter.  The man said he mailed the $1,200 check to a credit card company, which later came back saying it never arrived. The man then learned the check had been cashed at Winona-based Merchants Bank by someone who blotted away and wrote iver the credit card company’s name.  Sheriff’s investigators began checking bank videos to identify the crook.

Starting point. The four-bedroom family home is where Wiza walked out during a police welfare check and didn’t return. Has lived in Elba since 2020.

Sheriff has  searchers spreading out  in woods around Elba

ELBA, Minn. – A two-day search for an Elba man in the woods around Elba gained new urgency because of a medical condition. Neighbors said that Bruce Wiza had had an episode recently. Sheriff Ron Ganrude confirmed the medical issue but didn’t elaborate. Ganrude had a full team searching through the day.

Earlier: Search launched for Elba man who disappeared oddly

Wiza profile

Bruce Wiza, 59, is a home construction and remodeling contractor. Physical description: 5-foot 6 140 pounds, brown hair, brown eyes.

ZUMBRO FALLS, Minn. – A Millville man died in a two-car collision on State Highway 63 midway between Lake City and Zumbro Falls. Spencer Davis Sommerfield, 26, died apparently on impact, Wabasha County deputies said. Sommerfield was northbound toward Lake City in a 2008 Chevrolet Impala on the two-lane highway. He was not wearing a seatbelt but his airbag deployed, deputies said. The other driver, age 16, whose name Sheriff Rodney Bartsch declined to release immediately, was headed south. He was taken 34 miles to a Rochester hospital. His airbag also deployed. The collision was about 4:30 p.m.

FRANCONIA, Minn. – A three-stage rescue operation with two helicopters and ground teams pulled a man, bleeding and unconscious, from a Cannon Cliffs crevice above the St. Croix River. The man, age 74, had fallen 50 feet. This was about 2 p.m. Ground rescue squads, first on the scene, assessed the near-vertical topography and called for specialized equipment from the Taylors Falls and St. Croix Falls fire departments. Using ropes and rappelling gear, paramedics reached the victim and stabilize him until the helicopter arrived to lift him out. Then a second helicopter with med-evac capabilities, took the man to a trauma center 50 miles away. The man was expected to survive. Chisago County Sheriff Thyen Brandon declined to release the man’s name or where he was from.

WINONA, Minn. – A half dozen juveniles climbed an access ladder to the roof of the Qdoba Mexican restaurant on Frontenac Avenue on the Far east End, the manager told police. A support mechanism for a gas line was bent, the manager said. Police received the report about 2:40 p.m. The juveniles weren’t identified immediately.

AUSTIN, Minn. – A Glenville woman said she said she would plead guilty to child endangerment and drug possession in the asphyxiation death of her infant son if a more serious charge were dropped. Originally Jocelyn Leslie Pater, 26, was charged with manslaughter. Investigators said that Pater fell asleep on a couch with the child under her. That was in December 2021. An autopsy found the child had died of smothering but also had meth in his system. Whether the meth factored  into his death was not ascertained. Investigators found meth and needles in the house and a meth pipe near baby bottles and a nipple. The nipple tested positive for meth.

Pater. The death of her 2-month-old son occurred at an Austin address.