Winona cops: ICE doesn’t tell us much
WINONA, Minn. — Winona police remain in the dark whether federal deportation agents made any arrests on two recent missions Winona. “We didn’t have any information,” a police spokesperson said. The ICE immigration agency had notified Winona Police Chief Tom Williams about plans to send a detachment to Winona on January 16 and 17 but were secretive about time and place and who was targeted for arrest. Apparently empty-handed from the mission, the detachment planned to return January 23 and 24. Again there was no follow-up report. ICE is highly secretive about its operations and prefers to aboid public accountability Even advance courtesy calls, like Williams received, are rare.
Earlier: ICE agents make two Winona forays
Klobuchar pauses launch of governor bid
MINNEAPOLIS — Four-term U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar had planned to go public Monday with her campaign for Minnesota governor but delayed the announcement. Instead she’s cleared her agenda for discussions with state leaders about de-escalating the Border Patrol crisis after the slaying of Alex Pretti over he weekend. Klobuchar also is lobying full-bore in the Senate to stop President’s Trump’s proposed $10 billion in new funding for the Border Patrol and companion agencies that have disrupted civility in Minnesota. About the governorship, Klobuchar appears to have no serious rivals for the Democratic nomination. Republicans have a cluttered field of 10. There had been 11 until Monday when high-profile Minneapolis lawyer Chris Madel withdrew. Madel said that President Trump has so poisoned GOP prospects in Minnesota that it’s impossible for any Republican to win statewide office.
Earlier: Madel slams ICE excesses, ends governor bid
Earlier: Who’d they kill this time: A Minneapolis nurse
Minnesota prep
Basketball (boys): St. Charles Saints 76, Rochester Schaeffer Lions 60
Basketball (boys): Lewiston-Altura Cardinals 83, Houston Hurricanes 35
Basketball (girls): Lewiston-Altura Cardinals 70, Houston Hurricanes 56
Wisconsin prep
Basketball (boys): Galesville Gale-Ettrick-Trempealeau Red Hawks 90, Onalaska Luther Knights 68
Farewell, Bovino: Not so nice knowing you
WASHUNGTON — President Trump has relieved Border Patrol czar Greg Bovino of his Minnesota command. Bovino had become a hated symbol for brutish tactics in Trump’s military intrusion into Minnesota. Ill feelings intensified over the weekend when a Bovino detachment created a scuffle and fired multiple funds, perhaps 10, into nurse Alex Pretti at a Minneapolis street scene. Pretti died. Bovino was not at the scene, but his agents played out the savagery that he publicly advocated. Trump had endorsed Bovino’s tactics for weeks — until they became unsustainable in the face of massive public resistance. By demoting Bovino, not firing him, Trump saved spared Bovino some indignity. Bovino, age 57, said he was considering retirement to North Carolia and pick apples. To replace Bovino in, Trump dispatched Tom Homan to Minnesota take the lead on the immigration operation. About Homan, Trump sid: “Tom is tough but fair and will report directly to me.” That chain-of-command would bypass Kristi Noem, secretary of Homeland Security. Noem had been Bovino’s supervisor int he federal chain-of-command. Noem, a former South Dakota governor, who has been widely criticized in Washington as over her head and incompetent.
Bovino. Next assignment: Back to Rio Grande border. Retirement expected to follow.
Bovino profile
President Trump had assigned Bovino to Minnesota less than a month. For his Minnesota duty Bovino brought about 1,000 Border Patrol agents from the Mexico border to expand Trump’s unwelcome occupation force to arrest thousands of immigrants for deportation. Bovino quickly made himself the most hated person in the state. He cultivated a brutish image. Agents were told to break down doors without judicial search warrants and to rough up detainees. To this he was applauded by Tump and Trump’s Homeland Security chief Krisi Noem, who was Bovino’s immediate supervisor. Bovino cultivated a Napoleonic image that exploited 5-foot-4 frame. He proclaimed himself “commander at large,” a rank with no statutory basis and which conjured up aspirations of pre-empting the state’s elected leadership. In all this he was applauded Trump and Noem, to whom Bovino reported in the chain-of-command. He was easy to dislike. He self-designed a gloomily olive serge greatcoat that elicited a Nazi-esque image from he 1930s. The coat was replete with brass buttons and overdone with military-like patches and medals The coat also hearkened unflatteringly to the militarization of immigration enforcement in the 1954 movie “Operation Wetback.”
Minnesota misfit. With masked agents. Here he hadn’t yet pinned on the usual patches and medals on his greatcoat as macho swank. On this day Bovino himself hurled a tear gas cannister at Minnesota protesters assembled in a parking lot.
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Driver dies in collision on Taylor back road
TAYLOR, Wis. — First-responders pulled two persons from their wrecked cars, one already dead, after a collision just east of Taylor. The accident was about 5:15 p.m. on County Road P. Without explanation Jackson County Sheriff Duane Waldera declined to release names of the victims. Usual policing pratice is to release names as soon as kin are notified, this for the sake of transparency and public accoiutability. Waldera did not do so. . Witnesses said it appeared that one vehicle lost control and entered the oncoming lane. The survivor was taken to a hospital.
Madel slams ICE excesses, ends governor bid
MINNEAPOLIS — A Republican candidate for governor, Chris Madel, said President Trump’s Operation Metro Surge has gone wildly out of control and withdrew his candidacy. Madel, a top-tier Minneapolis lawyer, earlier supported Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigrants. But now, after two fatal shootings of unarmed U.S. citizens by overzealous deportation agents, Madel said no more. He accused Trump and national GOP leaders of making it nearly impossible for a Republican to win a statewide election in Minnesota. Operation Metro Surge, said, has been weaponized into a GOP tool of political retribution, he said.
“I cannot support the national Republicans’ stated retribution on the citizens of our state, nor can I count myself a member of a party that would do so.”
Madel said that Operation Metro Suge has expanded far beyond its originally stated focus on “true public safety threats.” Deportation have escalated their mission to terrorizing citizens because of the color of their. They’re being. afrested for not carrying proof skin. He also criticized Trump for cutting off state investigators from access to evidence in the fatal shootings of Alex Pretti and Renee Wood. This, he said, is unconstitutional. Early in his legal career Mael was a trial attorney for the U.S. Justice Department.
Madel. Announcement made online on the platform X. Says Trump deportation campaign has backfired to the point that Republicans cannot win any statewide office inMinnesota.
Alternate-side parking tally at 1,617
WINONA, Minn. — Police contiuedenforcing the city’s alternate-side parking ordinance. The running tally:
> January 20 to 25: None. Officers had other priorities.
> January 19: 28 citations.
> January 19: 23.
> January 18: 66.
> January 15 to 17: None. Officers had other priorities.
> Early January: 310 citations.
> December: 402 citations of which 45 were tagged and towed.
> November totals: 739 citations.
Nurses seek unencumbered probe in Pretti case
SILVER SPRINGS, Md. —The American Nurses Association declared a “tragic irony” of a nurse —”a person dedicated to saving lives” — becoming a victim of state violence. The association called for a full and transparent investigation into circumstances that led to the use of deadly force against Alex Pretti over the weekend in Minneapolis. The association expressed concern for the safety of nurses amid a rise in incidents involving federal agents in Minnesota and elsehere.
Earlier: Who’d they kill this time: A Minneapolis nurse
Earlier: Earlier: Trump agents pummel man, kill him
College scores
Tennis (men): Carleton 7, Saint Mary’s 0
Notable journalism
Bora Erden, Devin Lum, Helmuth Rosales, Elena Shao, Haley Willis and Ashley Wu (New York Times, January 25, 2026): “Timeline: A Moment-by-Moment Look at the Shooing of Alex Pretti”
Chris Farrell (Minnesota Public Radio, January14, 2025): Mi’nesia’s Coprate Silence on ICE Surge”
Gabriel Hathaway and Alexandra Retter (Winona Post, February 5, 2025): “Local Schools, Police Respond to ICE Concerns”
Who’d they kill this time: A Minneapolis nurse
MINNEAPOLIS — The man who was hot multiple times and killed Saturdav by Border Patrol agents was a registered nurse. Alex Jeffrey Pretti, age 37, worked in the intensive care unit at the Veterans Administration hospital in Minneapolis. The shooting was on a south Minneapolis street as border agents were hunting down an immigrant for arrest. Pretti, an American citizen, was not on any Border Patrol wanted list. Pretti’s only police history: Minor parking tickets. When shot, he was participating in a citizen project to track and videotape incursions of Trump border agents who had roamed the Twin Cities for two months and left a disturbing trail of brutal policing excesses to meet a White Houe quota of 1 million immigrant deportations nationwide. Pretti was with a small loosely afflIiaTed group with cellphones recording Border Patrol activities — which is a citizen right. Within an hour of the shooting, the Trump propaganda machine began spinning lies about Pretti to divert blame from the fatal Border Patrol attack on him. At the White House a deputy chief of staff, Stephen Miller, called Pretti a “domestic terrorist.” This was a lie. Miller also called Pretti a “would-be assassin” who “tried to murder federal law enforcement.” More lies with an outlandish resumption of being inside Pretti’s mind. For this too there was no supporting evidence — not on any video or audio of the event and certainly not so quickly and 1,100 miles away. Miller, at the White House, also claimed that Pretti charged at Border agents with a gun. This too was a lie. Yes, Pretti did had a gun but it was holstered, not brandished. Also: Pretti held a right-to-carry firearm permit, as allowed by Minnesota law. About the same time that Miller was fabricating g his false narrative at the White House , Homeland Security chief Kristi Noem, who runs border security, also from Washington, alleged that Pretti approached agents with a gun and wanted to “inflict maximum damage on individuals and to kill law enforcement.” Again: Neither video nor audio evidence supports such allegations. Noem too was fabricating a cover-up to excuse a Border Patrol homicide — the second by her agents in Minneapolis in two weeks Also conspiring in the cover-up was Border Patrol chief Greg Bovino. Too: Vice President JD Vance cast Pretti as an agent of conspiracy — a “direct consequence of Far Left agitators, working with local authorities.” Vance’s account was an insult that Pretti was a puppet and incapable of acting on his own adult volition.
Pretti. In scruubs as an intensive care unit nurse. A graduate of the University of Minnesota. High-schooled in Green Bay, Wisconsin.
Pretti profile
Colleagues at the Veterans Administration in Minneapolis remembered him as kind, professionally committed as a nurse, and with an easy sense of humor. One colleague, Dimitri Drekonja: “The default look on his face was a smile.” Another collegue, Ruth Anway: “He wanted to be helpful, to help humanity and have a career that was a force of good in the world,” Prett loved the outdoors and shared adventures with his dog Jou, who died recently. Pretti’s father told reporters that recent Trump police excesses in his Minneapolis neighborhood had affected him: “He cared about people deeply and he was very upset with what was happening in Minneapolis and throughout the nation. He felt that doing the protesting was a way to express his care for others.”
Verbatim
Michael and Susan Pretti, his parents: “The sickening lies told about our son by the administration are reprehensible and disgusting. Alex is clearly not holding a gun when attacked by Trump’s murdering and cowardly ICE thugs. He has his phone in his right hand and his empty left hand is raised above his head while trying to protect the woman ICE just pushed down all while being pepper sprayed. “Please get the truth out about our son. He was a good man.”
Earlier: Trump agents pummel man, kill him
Earlier: Analysis: ICE agent shot Renee Good four times
Earlier: ICE agent ID’d in Minneapolis raid death
Earlier: Earlier: Woman shot dead in Minneapolis ICE raid
News summary at week’s end: January 24, 2026
ICE PROTESTS: Fed up and frozen: Winona marchers mass up
ICE PROTESTS: Trump agents pummel man, kill him
ICE PROTESTS: Suspicious timing of detainee van in Winona
ICE PROTESTS: ICE agents make two Winona forays
ICE PROTESTS: Arctic strike coincides with anti-ICE boycott
GOVERNANCE: How they voted: On ICE funding /1
POLITICS: Klobuchar files papers for governor bid
POLITICS: U.S. Senate: Craig calls Tafoya a Trump toady
RIVER: Barge traffic into Winona port slips 22%
INFERNO: Hokah fire victims: Father, daughter
WEATHER: At 22 below, even Buddy needs a hat
COMMERCE: LaCrosse air service still in doldrums
Post-game Winona din-din for Bennies women
Come meet the folks. After a women’s basketball victory over Saint Mary’s University, the Saint Benedict’s players convinced their bus driver to swing by the Winona home of senior Megan Morgan’s family for a post-game meal. Then they hit the road back to St. Cloud The bus stirred a bit of excitement in the quiet residential block. At Saint Ben’s Morgan has been a senior wing. Back in high school in Winona Morgan played or Cotter. Image: Kevin O’Reilly
Morgan. Led Saint Ben’s scoring until sidelined by a knee injury a couple weeks ago. Even without Morgan, the Bennies defeated Saint Mary’s 73-68.
College scores
Basketball (men): Winona State 86, Bemidji State 83
Basketball (men): Saint John’s 95, Saint Mary’s 71
Basketball (women): Saint Benedict 73, Saint Mary’s 68
Hockey(women): Saint Mary’s 1, Saint Benedict 0
Tennis (men): Saint Mary’s 6, Luther of New Ulm 1
Tennis (men): Luther of New Ulm 6, Saint Mary’s 1
Tennis (women): Saint Mary’s 7, Luther of New Ulm 1
(more…)
Basketball (men): Winona State 86, Bemidji State 83
Basketball (men): Saint John’s 95, Saint Mary’s 71
Basketball (men): UW-LaCrosse 80, UW-Stevens Point 77
Basketball (men): Viterbo 69, Olivet of Illinois 64
Basketball (men): Minnesota State Community-Tech of Fergus Falls 67, Rochester Community 63
Basketball (women): Bemidji State 72, Winona State 65
Basketball (women): Saint Benedict 73, Saint Mary’s 68
Basketball (women): Viterbo 96, Mount Mary 45
Basketball (women): UW-LaCrosse 62, UW-Stevens Point 57
Gymnastics (women:): UW-LaCrosse 193.50, Simpson 188.150
Hockey(men): Saint Mary’s 3, Saint John’s 1
Hockey(women): Saint Mary’s 1, Saint Benedict 0
Tennis (men): Saint Mary’s 6, Luther of New Ulm 1
Tennis (men): Luther of New Ulm 6, Saint Mary’s 1
Tennis (men): UW-LaCrosse 5, St. Norbert 2
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Minnesota prep
Hockey (boys): Winona Winhawks 6, Faribault Falcons 3
Hockey (girls): Winona Winhawks 3, Hudson Raiders 2
Wisconsin prep
Basketball (boys): Whitehall Norse 72, Eleva-Strum Cardinals 43
Basketball (boys):Eau Claire Immanuel Laners 64, Gilmanton Panthers 58
Basketball (girls): Galesville Gale-Ettrick-Trempealeau Red Hawks 66, Whitehall Norse 62
Fed up and frozen: Winona marchers proceed to lake
High school launch site. More than 150 cars packed the parking lot, the occupants bundled inside, engines running, windows cranked up, heaters on high. Outside was cold, minus -9 with a minus -13 wind chill. At the appointed time, with wool caps tight and hoods up, they assembled with flags and placards for a one-hour march around upper Lake in solidarity against the military-style Trump occupation of Minneapolis and St. Paul 120 miles away. Their cellphones were tuned to reports from Minneapolis where masked Trump agents shot and killed a man three hours earlier and where thousands of protesters were still gathering. The Lake Winona demonstration, with 500 marchers, was peaceful.
Unfurling the colors. Stars and Stripes and the North Star. Lead poster: “De-ICE Minnesota.” Images: Andy Frank
Earlier: Shot near close-blank struggling to his feet
Earlier: It’s a go: Freedom March 2.0 in Winona
Earlier: Winona march proceeds despite hostile weather
Earlier: Earlier: Protesters plan march around Lake Winona
Trump agents pummel man, kill him
Shot dead in Minneapolis. After beating a man to the ground in a south Minneapolis neighborhood Saturday morning, they pulled out their guns. This video, widely circulated online, suggests the man took several bullets at close range.
Shot near close-blank struggling to his feet
MINNEAPOLIS — A federal Border Control agent, perhaps several, shot a man outside a doughnut shop in the culturally diverse and artsy Phillips neighborhood in south Minneapolis. The man bled out and died on the street. The shooting was the third by agents of President Trump’s Operation Metro Surge. These agents, now numbering 3,500, have terrorized the city for two months. In the Phllips neighborhood assault, Trump agents overwhelmed the man and a woman, apparently a companion, and forced them off their feet. The agents piled on the man, pounding him ruthlessly. When he tried to get to his feet, wobbly and unsteady, he was shot at close range. Rather than first aid, the agents backed away and walked off. Dozens of people, indeed hundreds converged on the scene. Police were called.
Reading the video
Here verbatim is one spontaneous interpretation of an early video that surfaced online: “This video shows exactly what happened prior to it happening. The victim is at the scene with a woman. As you can see, the woman is shoved to the ground and He goes to assist her. He has one hand up and has also been pepper sprayed. The agent should have defused the situation at this time and moved them both to the sidewalk. The man definitely was not a threat. Instead, he was pulled into a gang of agents, and everything went to hell.”
Suspicious timing of detainee van in Winona
WINONA, Minn. — An interstate van to transport detainees was in town Thursday — a day ahead of plans by the federal Immigration Control and Enforcement agency to send a detail to Winona. This was about 2:30 p.m. on Thursday. The driver leaned way over toward the passenger side and ducked out of view when he realized he was being photographed. Stronghold Detention Equipment Contractors, based out of Racine, Wisconsin, has substantial government contracts related to detention facilities. ICE itself uses unmarked vans for raids and snatches its detainees away quickly for transfer at rendezvous sites to contract carriers for delivery to detention centers.
Earlier: ICE agents make two Winona forays
Just passing through? On local stand-by for ICE arrests? The van, windowless except for blacked-out tailgate. Parked half an hour in the Aldi grocery store parking on the West End, near Culver’s and El Patron restaurants. Images: Andy Frank
ICE detention centers in our backyard
As of December, ICE had 108 detention centers. There had been 70,300 detainees in 2025, more than 73% than a year earlier
Albert Lea, Minnesota: Freeborn County Jail
Elk River, Minnesota: Sherburne County Jail
Willmar, Minnesota: Kandiyohi County Jail
Grand Forks, North Dakota: Grand Forks County Jail
Juneau, Wisconsin: Dodge Detention Center
Rapid City, South Dakota: Pennington County Jail
Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan: Chippewa County Jail
Council Bluffs, Iowa: Ottawattamie County Jail
Interim LSE airport director now in charge
LACROSSE, Wis. — The deputy director of the LaCrosse airport for 3-1/2 years, Lauren Koss, has been put incharge. Koss holds a degree in aviation management from Purdue University. Koss has been interim director since Jeff Tripp resigned after 15 months.
Earlier: New chief at LaCrosse airport
Koss. Job partly is to draw a second carrier to airport, to build traffic.
College scores
Basketball (men): UM-Duluth 71, Winona State 50
Basketball (men): UM-Duluth 59, Winona State 55
Hockey (women): Saint Benedict 5, Saint Mary’s 4
Gymnastics (women): Winona State 188.750, UW-Stout 183.925
Minnesota prep
Basketball (boys): Caledonia Warriors 78, Winona Cotter/Winona Hope 64
Basketball (boys): Lewiston-Altura Cardinals and Plainview-Elgin-Millville Bulldogs (postponed)
Basketball (boys): St. Charles Saints and Wabasha-Kellogg Falcons (postponed)
Basketball (girls): Winona Winhawks and Rochester Marshall Rockets (postponed)
Basketball (girls): St. Charles Saints and Wabasha-Kellogg Falcons (postponed)
Basketball (girls): Lewiston-Altura Cardinals and Plainview-Elgin-Millville Bulldogs (postponed)
Basketball (girls): Caledonia Warriors 77, Winona Cotter
ICE agents make two Winona forays
WINONA, Minn. — Federal deportation agents have swung into Winona twice in the past week, according to a Winona Daily News report quoting Police Chief Tom Wiliams. In both cases, Williams said, he received a courtesy notification in advance. No assistance was requested from local police, WiIliams said. It was not known immediately whether anyone was arrested in Winona. Nor was it known whether the federal agents were part of President Trump’s 3,500-agent Operation Metro Surge that claims to have made 1,000 arrests in the state. Some Minnesota arrests have been brutal. One unarmed woman was shot and killed. The Metro Surge operation has focused on the Twin Cities, but there been numerous outstate swings, including to Albert Lea, Duluth and Rochester. The Winona, visits, as confirmed by Williams to the Daily News:
> January16 and 17: A Friday and Saturday
> January 23 and 24: Again a Friday and Saturday.
There has been no mention of ICE in daily police briefings to Winona news reporters. These briefings, on weekdays, are intended to keep the community informed in the interest of public accountability. Sheriff’s officers and police officers rotate briefing duties. These are the dates of briefings at which reporters could have been apprised of the presence of ICE agents in town but weren’t:
> January 19: A Monday. Briefing officers: Mark Dungy, sheriff’s investigator, and Nick Quimby, police sergeant
> January 24: A Friday. Scheduled briefing officers: Paul McKay, deputy sheriff, and Wade Anderson, police sergeant. This briefing was cancelled due to a cyberattack that partially disabled police communication.
Kindiger. Recent journalism graduate of Georgetown University. His LaCrosse Tribune beat is healthcare, energy, environment and LaCrosse County government.
WDN’s five-line scoop
There was mystery about how the Winona Daily News was tipped to the local ICE visit. The newspaper hasn’t a had news reporter in Winona for six weeks nor a resident editor in Winona for years. The WDN story was bylined to Cole Kindiger of the LaCrosse Tribune. Kindiger has been on the Tribune staff three months and has never reported Winona news. The Daily News doesn’t publish a daily print edition any more. A weekend print edition edited entirely out of LaCrosse. Kindiger’s story, only five lines, was posted on the company’s subscription-only online Winona website. The item was absent entirely the LaCrosse company’s Winona e-edition. The primary local news media — KWNO, the Winona Journal and the Winona Post, which lean heavily on daily police briefings for law enforcement news — were in the dark.
Barge traffic into Winona port slips 22%
TREMPEALEAU, Wis. — As even causal river-watchers know, commercial dockage at the Winona port was way low this past season. The Army Corps, which operatesUpper Mississippi dams and locks, now has released the data. Only 1,514 barges locked through the Trempealeau dam, just downriver from Winona, in 2925. That was off 22% from the10-year average. The drop was due primarily to lost grain export markets caused by President Trump’s global trade war. Comparative data for Lock and Dam 6 at Trempealeau:
> 2025: 8 million tons cargo.
> 2024: 8.6 million tons.
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