CHASKA, Minn. – The Trump enthusiast Mike Lindell is auctioning off equipment and subleasing manufacturing space in Chaska. He’s also sold his private jet. These were revelations in a Minneapolis Star Tribune interview about plunging sales of Lindell’s MiPillow products manufactured n the south Minneapolis suburb of Chaska. Major retailers have dropped MyPillow orders amid Lindell’s bizarre and never proven claims that the 2020 presidential election was rigged. Some shopping networks stopped carrying MyPillow products. In the Star Tribune interview, Lindell said he’s refocusing direct sales to counter the decision by big-box middle men like Walmart to remove MyPilkow from the shelves and as an online option.

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Earlier: Lindell unfraid of pillow competition

Earlier: YouTube yanks Lindell film; other media act too

Earlier: Lindell is denied Twitter access

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Lindell. Paring way back.

ROCHESTER, Minn. – A Rochester man’s car wasn’t in tune with him as he was placing an order at the Chick-fi-A drive-through. The car lurched ahead, went over a curb, and struck the building. The man survived with minor injuries. What happened? The man told police that his engine  revved on its own when he took his feet off the brake and gas pedals. The building suffered minor damage.

LACROSSE, Wis. — Bail was ordered a $1 million for a Viroqua man arrested for a major drug operation out of a Rose Street clothing shop. Louis A. Ray Jr., 46, had been arrested in Black River Falls on a LaCrosse warrant. While being booked in Black River  he contaminated the jail by spewing the fatal drug fentynal around, which the place to be evacuataed.. After that epsiode, Ray  was transferred to jail in LaCrosse. In all, police have arrested three men in the La Crosse case after executing search warrants for four residences, one business, and five vehicles. Confiscated were 43.2 grams of fentanyl that police said was dyed pink for branding purposes and also cash. The criminal complaint said that DRAP Apparel, 700 Rose Street, was the centerpiece of the drug ring. The shop had been under police surveillance for three months. Only the shop’s namesake, Dante Ray Sr., Louis Ray, and Dante Ray Jr. were ever seen entering the shop. There were no customers, police said. Mannequins in the widow were unchanged the whole period. In searching the shop, police reported finding empty kilo wrappers, digital scales, several dozens of plastic baggies with corners cut off. “It appeared his shop was specifically being used as a front to sell drugs,” the criminal complaint said. Ray Sr. has not been charged, police emphasized, But these men have:

T-shirt shop. Police say that illicit drugs passed in and iout of th out of this shop at 700 Rose Street on the LaCrosse North Side. Image: Steve Lunde

Timothy Cannon: Delivery of fentanyl, dealing within 1,000 feet of a park, maintain a drug-trafficking residence, bail-jumping, possession of drug paraphernalia.

Dante Ray, Jr.:  Maintaining a drug-trafficking Residence, possession of cocaine and drug paraphernalia

Louis Ray:  Delivery of cocaine and fentanyl, dealing illegal drugs within 1,000 feet of a park, probation violation

The arrests were a major project involving numerous agencies:  , Jackson County, La Crosse County and Vernon County sheriffs; LaCrosse and Onalaska; police; Town of Campbell police; the Wisconsin Criminal Investigation Division,; the  U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives ;and the U.S.  Drug Enforcement Administration.

Earlier: Jail evacuated: Drug contamination feared

WINONA Minn. – The smoke and squeal of a jack-rabbit start out of a Kwik Trip as he pressed hard into the gas pedal ended the evening for him, police said. Jordan Michael Larson, 26, of LaCrosse, was barely down Sarnia Street when officers were on his tail. He flunked a balance test on the spot. His blood-alcohol tested at 20% above allowable limits – 0.10%. The cops wrote him up. This was about 1:50 a.m. No, they wouldn’t drive home at any speed.

MINNESOTA CITY, Minn. – Deputies arrested a man at his Hidden Valley trailer house after his girlfriend was badly hurt. Arrested was Scott Wesley Whetstone, age 48. Deputies had been called about 5:45 p.m. to a heated argument at Whetstone’s trailer . Deputies thought they had mediated tensions and left. Then 5-1/2 hours later came a second call. The girlfriend had been found walking home to Goodview, two miles away, with a profusely bleeding leg. She accused Whetstone of smashing a framed picture and throwing the broken glass at her.

Whetstone. Booking charge: Domestic assault with intent harm.

WINONA, Minn. – A Woodbury driver who admitted to “a couple drinks” but whose blood-alcohol tested at 0.13%, two-thirds higher than allowed, was taken to jail. Robert James Reedes, 47, of Woodbury, had been driving irregularly, police said. The arrested was about 12 a.m. on the East Side at Fifth and Franklin streets.

ST. CHARLES, Minn. – This time the rural mailbox bomber got it right –- or very wrong. The mailbox, in the 24000 block of County Road 30, was destroyed, unlike several previous incidents over the July 4 weekend with firecrackers. But this turned out more serious than a rank gone wrong, The new explosion, about 11 p.m., as bigger and louder and  started a grass fire.

Earlier: A rural campaign attacking mailboxes

 

OWATONNA, Minn. – Organizers of a festival to celebrate Pride Month held their breath that it would all come off — after weeks of overt and under-the-breath homophobic disparagement. The events, sponsored by a gay group, Rainbowatonna, started with prayers at the Associated Church. The event moved to Owatonna’s Central Park for food, music and a family-friendly drag show. Later there was an adult drag show at a bar and an after-party event at the Owatonna Event Center. Nathan Black, the lead organizer, was pleased as events turned out but noted there had been concerted “very intentional, premeditated bigotry.”

> Venue harassment. The upsccale Torey’s steakhouse and bar backed out as site for the  drag show after  harassing messages left management and the staff concerned for their safety.

> Anonymous messages.  Hateful emails, calls and a handwritten letter were received at Associated Church, where for the prayer service was planned.

> Mayoral visit. Mayor Tom Kuntz showed up the Associated Church a few days in advance and asked a church aide about the Pride events. He wanted contact information for the person who would be giving the sermon and asked whether there would be “stripper poles” in the sanctuary. “Bizarre,” said the aide.

> Mayor’s posture. Black, a Pride organizer who also is a chaplain, had asked Mayor Kuntz to issue a proclamation declaring July 8 Rainbowatonna Day. The mayor’s responded no: “I am so sorry but I just can’t do the proclamation.” He explained: “As a christen (sic) I just want to encourage all of us to follow Gods (sic) commandments and am hoping your service follows Gods (sic) words.”

> Mayor’s prayer. Mayor Kuntz posted a prayer online in advance of the Pride events: “We pray for wisdom as we know of upcoming events where sin and brokenness will be celebrated and where sexually explicit acts will be normalized.”

LINO LKES, Minn. — A lightweight aircraft plunged into a retention pond in this north Minneapolis suburb. The pilot, alone in the craft, swam away to safety, police said. The crash was about 8 p.m. at 7320 Watermark Way, off Interstate 35E. A lot of people witnessed the accident, but none knew what went wrong, police said. Witnesses said the craft seemed to falter, rise a bit, then drop  to the surface of the pond, and flip.

Partially submerged. Eventually it sank.

BLAINE, Minn. – The pilot of single-engine plane on a 60-mile hop between suburban airports lost oil pressure and set down on the shoulder of a busy four-lane highway. The pilot was unhurt, the plane undamaged. This was about 2 p.m. on 125th Avenue in Blaine.  After climbing out of the plane and surveying the situation, the pilot decided not to call out an aviation mechanic to fix the oil problem. So rather than fly back to Cambridge, he asked police to call a flatbed truck to haul the plane back. The pilot had been cleared for an emergency landing at the Blaine airport, but worried whether the engine could make it that far, he put down on an open section of the highway. Police quoted the pilot that he had 13 years flying experience.

Safely down. The oil gauge went bad halfway between the north suburban Cambridge aerodrome and the Flying Cloud aerodrome in Eden Prairie. Image: Blaine Police

WINONA, Minn. – A second rattlesnake in a week was reported on Ridgewood Drive in the bluff-top Crestview neigborhood. There also was s snake call a week earlier at Cedar Valley golf course. For the latest call, police called a snake-handler to relocate the snake. Births, usually eight to 15 babies, occur in July and August. Babies, 10 inches long, are fully independent.

Earlier: Police call: A second rattlesnake

Earlier: Uninvited rattlesnake escorted away

ROCHESTER, Minn. — A Chatfield man trimming trees in an overgrown area southeast of Rochester was injured when a tree fell him. Rescuers had to chop their way to the place where the man lie injured. He was airlifted to a hospital, reportedly in critical condition.  His name was not released immediately. The accident was in the 9000 block of 80th Avenue Southeast.

CENTERVILLE, Wis. – The Toad’s Cove convenience store, the only coffee klatch place at the Centerville crossroads, will be rebuilt on the site where it was destroyed six weeks ago by fire. The owners Andy and Tracy Todd, said in a Winona Daily News interview that they hope to operating again by next May. They already have contactor bids for the project.  It’s all ready to go as soon as their insurance carrier authorizes demolition of the blackened frame of the original 5,5,00-square foot building, they said.

BLACK RIVER FALLS, Wis. – Officers at the Jackson County jail were evacuated after a detainee threw drugs around the booking room. Officers were exposed to the synthetic opioid directly, said Chief Deputy Adam Olson. Ingested even small amounts, Fentanyl can be lethal. The detainee, Louis Ray, 42, of rural Viroqua, had ripped a package of the drug from his clothing, tore it open, and spread it everywhere. Fearing contamination, the officers in the area taken to the Black River Falls hospital, where they were cleared medically. So too was Ray. He had been arrested on a drug-dealing warrant from 45 miles away in LaCrosse.

Taking no chances. A hazmat team enters the jail to rid the area of stray Fentanyl after an angry detainee ripped open a container of the opioid drug Fentanyl from his clothing and hurled it all around

Ray. From the Viroqua area two counties away. Images: Jackson County sheriff

HAYFIELD, Minn.  – The municipal swimming pool has been closed because the usual precautionary disinfectant chemicals are not working. Drought condition were blamed tentatively. The water has a green tint. The Parks Department hopes to have the problem figured out to resume regular hours Sunday.

Mystery tint. Theory: Drought somehow to blame. The pool normally is open 1 to 8:30 p.

BIBABIK, Minn. – The body of a man was found in an old chest-style freezer in a vacant house. The body was identified as that of Brandon Lee Buschman, 34, of nearby Babbitt. Electricity had been cut off to the house since April 2022, which meant the freezer was not functioning. Being an older model, the freezer was impossible to open from the inside. Police reported finding a rod from a metal lawn ornament with the body. It appeared, they said, that Buschman had taken the rod into the. freezer with him and, when trapped,  tried to insert the rod in the latching mechanism but it jammed. After the body was discovered, police found several people who said they had seen Buschman going into the house, apparently fleeing, about the time that officers arrived to serve an arrest warrant.

Court record

Buschman had be in trouble with the law off and on since 2011 on a wide range of misdemeanors, These included drugs, drunken driving, drunken boating, burglary, car theft, and shoplifting.

 

TWO HARBORS, Minn. — Federal aviation investigators have reconstructed what happened in the crash of a small plane that killed two people near the pilot’s private grass airstrip. But they haven’t yet explained what caused the crash. A preliminary report says the[ lane overshot the runway at 100 feet at 58 mph, then climbed and accelerated to 64 mph, and then banked  left at 54 mph and crashed into thick trees 450 yards from the grass strip. This was the morning of June 21 about 18 miles northeast of Duluth. Killed Bryan Handyside, 60, and Matthew Joseph, 64, both employees at Cirrus Aircraft in Duluth. They had taken off from Duluth.

Wreckage in deep woods. The crash occurred June 21 on a short flight north from Duluth. The plane was a vintage Aeronca 7CCM built in1946.