ROCHESTER, Minn. — After gallons of Clorox and countless hours of elbow grease, the city has begun re-opening park restrooms that had been horribly desecrated and vandalized. All the closed facilities should be usable again by Friday, said Paul Widman. parks director, The vandalism had been worsening for weeks but had become so bad by lasty Friday the decision was made to lock the doors. The usual clean-up crews couldn’t keep up. Needles and other drug paraphernalia were scattered everywhere, human excrement was smeared all over, and driers and plumbing were damaged. The stench of stale urine and vomit was overwhelming, this in parks some of which were designed for picnicking

Earlier: Vandals mess Rochester park restrooms

WINONA, Minn. – The 40-unit Sugar Loaf Apartments building across Sarnia Street from Lake Park was evacuated after a fire erupted on the upstairs deck of one apartment. There were no injuries. This was about 11:15 p.m.at 358 East Sarnia. The tenant said he had been smoking on the deck and had left his cigarette in an ash tray, then gone inside for a nap. He was wakened by police responding to the fire call. Firefighters limited damage to exterior and the single 37-B apartment. The unit was rendered uninhabitable by smoke and water damage.

WINONA Minn. – A Winona visitor, Chloe Helen Labonne, 20, of Harmony, was taken to the hospital after a two-car collision at Broadway and Center. Her injuries were described as non-life threatening. The other driver, Amy Jean Olson, was unhurt. The accident was about 10:15 a.m.

HAMILTON, Mont. – The owner of a major but beleaguered Minnesota optical company, Paul Ehen, died when his vintage World II airplane crashed taking off from the Hamilton airport 40 miles south of Missoula up the Bitterroot Valley. Ehlen, 61, of Minneapolis, was alone in the plane. He was taking off for an 1,100-mile flight to Minnesota from his second home near Hamilton. The crash was about 8 a.m. Witnesses said it appeared there was a mechanical problem with the P-40 Warhawk.

Earlier: $487 million fine for kickbacks to eye doctors

Vintage Warhawk. Crumped in field near airport. The plane was one of only 14 remaining P-40s Warhawks. Production totaled 13,700 in World War II. The high-powered plane had a liquid-cooled supercharged V12 engine.

WITOKA, Minn. – A 53-year-old Pine Island woman was seriously hurt when she crashed her vehicle into a ditch off County Road 17. First-responders found the woman pinned under the steering wheel . She had head injuries from impact with the windshield. She was airlifted to a hospital. This was in the 24000 block of Road 17. Winona County deputies had been alerted that the woman was believed en route toward Winona and was suicidal. She made suicide references to rescuers, deputies said.

WABASHA, Minn. – A Wisconsin driver was injured and taken to the Wabasha hospital after two vehicles sideswiped on U.S. Highway 61. Heidi Annette Conde, 66, of Eau Claire, suffered non-life threatening injuries, deputies said. She was driving a 2020 Chevrolet Spark. Unhurt in the other car, a 2016 Honda Accord, were Bryson Cylus Brettin, 21, and Carter James Dixon, 20, both of Eden Prairie. Both vehicles were northbound at  bound toward Lake Cit at Bruegger Valley Road.

RUSHFORD, Minn. – Two vehicles, one towing a trailer, collided on Highway 43 in Rushford Village, injuring one of the drivers. Alison Gay Kjos, 62, of Rushford, was taken 37 miles to a LaCrosse hospital. Police described her injuries as non-life threatening. Both vehicles were heading south into Rushford about 4:50 p.m. Kjos was driving a 2013 Toyota Highlander. In the other vehicle, a 2004 Dodge Ram with a trailer, were Andy A Swartzentruber, 32, and Elmer A Swartzentruber, 12, both of Mabel. Neither was hurt.

LACROSSE, Wis. – An initial examination at Mayo Clinic concluded that a body found in a Mississippi River swamp near LaCrosse had been in the water roughly five years. Sheriff John Siegel said the body still needs to be examined by a forensic anthropologist for DNA. In the meantime, the identification is unknown. Police upriver on the Wisconsin and Minnesota sides of the river have been asked to check their files on missing persons. There is reason to believe that the person was hunting, the sheriff said. Also, a distinctive piece of jewelry with the remains may be help, the sheriff said.

Earlier: Body recovered from Mississippi backwaters

American Symphony. Arriving from Dubuque. Next stop: Red Wing. The boat was launcehd in 2022. The whole eight day voyage from St. Lous to Minnepaois, costs $5,000 to $6,900 depending on he size of thestateroom.

Buses waiting at Levee for afternoon shore trips

WINONA, Minn. – The first river cruise boat of the season, American Symphony ,will dock in Winona Wednesday with 175 tourists. The boat is due at 1:30 p.m.  In all, 31 cruise dockings are scheduled into October. American Splendor will be the most frequent Winona visitor with 19 stops.

Earlier: River cruises plan record Winona Levee visits

BRICE PRAIRIE, Wis. – The 8,000-acre Lake Onalaska, created when Lock and Dam 7 backed up the Mississippi ad Black rivers in 1940. is filling up with sediment – and something needs to be done before it becomes a giant sandbox, said restaurateur Michael Todd, whose fashionable Red Pines Grill and Bar  is on the backwaters. The channel in front of Red Pines once was 10 feet deep. Now, Todd said, it’s 18 inches, mostly from sediment flowing out of the bluffs down Halfway Creek in Holmen. Todd made his points at an organizational meeting to find funds to dredge a 1,000-foot channel — 60 to 100 feet wide and eight feet deep. A 12-foot would reroute Halfway Creek sediment. The project would cost $230,000, Todd said. The state wildlife agency already has put up $10,000 to study sediment damage to fish habitat. Issues include water quality, high turbidity and low oxygen, Todd said. At Red Pines the channel is filling with algae and swamp weeds. What to do with sediment that’s dredged up? Todd proposed piling it up to create a small island.

Dining room view. Mostly algae and Swamp weeds. And access by water from Lake Onalaska  now a thing of the past.

WINONA, Minn. – A Rochester man was found sleep in his car with all kinds of fresh brush, brambles and branches hanging from the exterior. And the front bumper was mangled. In awakening the driver, police spotted a straw on the floorboard — a utensil used not only to sip drinks but also to take drugs. lan Rachael Peterson, 46, denied being high on any controlled substances but said a passenger might have been. The passenger was not around. This was off Highway 61 on Old Homer Road between a Kwik Trip and a McDonald’s. Police concluded there was sufficient evidence to book Peterson as under the influence at the wheel. They said he was jittery, had constricted pupils and an elevate pulsed, and failed several field sobriety tests. He was booked about 10:30 p.m.

Blue-draped service. The family chose blue, Maddi’s favorite color, for a memorial service at a Winona State University gym. It was a community gathering.

Eulogists share memories of the 26-year-old mom

WINONA, Minn. – A community that had hoped against hope for weeks that Maddi Kingsbury would be fund alive put her to rest — finally, 86 days after she was slain but whose body remained missing for 10weeks. Among eulogists was her brother Steven, an Army sergeant who has been on leave to help in massive searches. One weekend there were 1,800 volunteers combing a 45-mile stretch along Highway 43 from Winona south to Mabel. Her body found June 7 taped tight in shroud in a sideroad ditch 11 miles north Mabel.

Earlier: Maddi Kingsbury funeral at WSU gym

Earlier: A growing tribute to Maddi KIngsbury

ZUMBRO FALLS, Minn. – A Rochester driver, Stephen Robert Marsolek, 57, was taken to a Rochester hospital after a two-vehicle collision at Highway 63 and Highway 60 in Zumbro Falls. His injuries were non-life threatening, Wabasha County deputies said.  Unhurt were the ither driver, Cole Christopher Zeien, 31, of Lake City, and several children, ages 3 to 14. The accident was about 1:25 p.m. Marsolek’s vehicle, a 1002 Buick Regal, was heading north. Zeien’s vehicle, 2011 Chevrolet Avalanche, was heading south.

WINONA, Minn. – An attendant at the Huff Street tourist welcoming enter off U.S. Highway 61 found a bullet while sweeping the walk. It was a .38 hollow-point bullet, police said.  A hollow-point bullet expands on impact, causing serious injury, often death, without penetrating deep. Police took the bullet into evidence. This was about 12:45 p.m.

ORONOCO, Minn. – A Jeep turning across traffic on Highway 63 was stuck by another vehicle about 11:35 a.m. east of Oronoco. A passenger in one of the vehicles, April Ann Dahl, 46, of Rochester, was taken 24 miles to a Rochester hospital. Her injuries appeared non-life threatening. Olmsted County deputies said the 2011 Jeep Compass, driven by a 17-year-old boy, was entering Highway 63 from 18th Avenue Northwest. Neither the Jeep driver nor a 13-year-old passenger was hurt. Nor was the driver of the other vehicle, Gary Stephen Dahl, 48, of Rochester. It was in Dahl’s truck, a 2016 Ford F150, that April Dahl was a passenger.

WINONA, Minn. – A Winona man was arrested at a West End Kwik Trip a few hours after a domestic incident in which a woman said she was strangled almost to unconsciousness. Charles Leroy King. 26, was taken without resistance. He denied even touching the woman. Police had been called five hours earlier to the 1750 block of Kraemer Drive for a parental fight over their kids. The woman said that King grabbed her by neck with both hands choked her about a minute. “I couldn’t breathe,” she told police. When she attempted to leave, she said, King stood in door and took her phone and car keys. He grabbed her purse and hit her in the mouth, she said. Police saw bruises and went looking for King. Arrested at the Kwik Trip about closing time, King denied hitting the woman. His account: She hit him with a broom and bit him as he was leaving.

King. Booking charges: Domestic assault by strangulation, false imprisonment by intentional restraint

Patriotic oak. The seasonal decorations on the Beckman driveway between Houston and Hokah has sprouted red, white and blue. Kelly and Mike’s tree is an eye-catcher for passersby to track the seasons on Highway 16. Image: Steve Lunde