Midway ready, set go. The Gold Star carnival had its flagship rides in place for Steamboat Ddays weekend.  The road show heads next to Water Ski Days in Lake City. Image: Steve Lunde

Earlier: Steamboat Days show-stopper: 1950s retro

BARABOO, Wis. – With no luck and only a a few clues, searchers have looked six days for a missing seventh-grader who apparently is camping on his own in the rugged 9,200-acre Devil’s Lake State Park or thereabouts. James Yoblonski went missing overnught Sunday from his family home 20 miles away at Reedsburg. A van and a gun were missing, the family said. On the first day of the search, the van was found parked along Highway 12. The boy’s phone was across the road. Later searchers f found a campsite in nearby woods. Other campsites also have been found — and items like socks and a knife sheath that may be his. There have been no sightings. Deputies have covered 5,000 acres both in the park and nearby. The forest is dense in places that deputies haven’t been able to see six feet ahead of themselves. The search has included 10 K9s, two airplanes, and a helicopter. An endangered person alert has been issued.

Dad’s details

The Yoblonski lad’s father Bill says he has no idea why the boy would run off. In an interview with WKOW, the father acknowledged tat he himfelf had had two survival books received as gifts “Come to find out he’s got one of those with him.” Might the boy be attempting a survivalist mission, going off the grid. and wanting to know how long he could make it on his own the wilderness? The father called James “a smart kid,” but added: “This is uncalled for, to do something like this and not to talk to anybody abut it.” The father said he wanted James to know he won’t be punished when he comes back.

Yoblonski. Not thought to be a danger to himself. Stands 5-foot-11, weighs 120 pounds. Blue-green eyes, short brown hair, a scar on the back of his neck. When he last seen, wearing red shoes, blue jeans, a shirt, and a baseball hat.

Mercury Monterey Sun Valley.  Among show cars lining Third Street for Steamboat Days. What could have been more fashionable in 1954 than an upscale Mercury in bittersweet orange, or was it bittersweet pink. Under the raised hood  an overhead valve V-8 developing 161 horsepower. Over the top: A color-keyed bittersweet trailer for long, long road trips. Image: Steve Lunde

Earlier: Short-sleeve 70s open Steamboat Days weekend

WASHINGTON – The International Bureau of Expositions named Minnesota to host the 2027 World Expo. The theme: Health and wellness. The host city: The Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington. Governor Tim Walz had met with global ambassadors in Washington, D.C., to promote Bloomington. About Bloomington’s section. Walz said:  “As Minnesotans, we don’t like to brag, but let’s be clear: We’re global leaders in health care, medical innovation, and quality of life,” Walz said. Four other cities also had applied:

> Phuket in Thailand.

> Belgrade in Serbia.

> Malaga in Spain,

> San Carlos Bariloche in Argentina.

Early shopping.  Steamboat Days vendors were finding a brisk trade mid-morning at their plastic-covered pop-up booths. Center Street was closed off for shoppers to browse art, jewelry, trinkets and memorabilia. Image: Steve Lunde

Earlier: Found resting at Woodlawn: Steamboat Days medallion

WINONA, Minn. –- A man who reportedly broke into two apartments in separate incidents and terrorized the women inside was arrested with blood on his hands and taken to the hospital. Because his injuries were severe, he was transferred to a LaCrosse hospital. From there, police said, the man phoned one of the women who had reported being assaulted and told her: “The party is just getting started. I will kill you when I get back to Winona.” At the request of Winona authorities, LaCrosse police arrested Andrew John Stanek, 22, of Minnesota City, at the LaCrosse hospital.

Stanek. Pending charges:  Burglary, assault, violent threats .

Angry break-ins, terrorizing assaults, blood

From witnesses, Winona police pieced together  this series of events:

> At an apartment in the 100 block of West Seventh Street, a man broke down a door and threatened to “end it.” He held a woman by her arms and squeezed hard when she tried calling 911 for help. The woman described the man in a “manic state,” possibly, she said, from drugs. The man was gone when police arrived.

> At a second apartment, in the 650 block of West Fifth, the man and broke down a dead-bolted door of a a family member’s unit. He bashed a mirror and a television. The family member, a woman, hid in the bathroom, but he broke hole in the door, splintering the wood, and climbed through. Inside he threatened the woman directly. She managed to call 911, and the dispatcher heard yelling and screaming.

> Police found Stanek outside, bleeding profusely from an arm and wrist. They got him to the Winona hospital. An emergency room doctor decided Stanek needed more detailed attention and arranged his transfer to the Gundersen hospital in LaCrosse.

GENOA, Wis. – A sheriff’s deputy shot and killed a driver who was speeding away from a traffic stop with a second deputy hanging onto the vehicle. Bodycams or dashcams recorded  what happened, said Vernon Sheriff Roy Torgerson, but the video wasn’t released immediately. It was believed, however, tyat  the deputy was dragged 20 feet before the fellow deputy shot the driver. Neither deputy was injured. The driver, whose name was not released immediately, was dead at the scene. The incident was abut 5:55 p.m. on State Highway 35 and Gianoli Road, just south of Genoa near  the site of a now-decommissioned and dismantled nuclear power plant on the Mississippi River. The deputies had been making a welfare check at a house when they saw the subject driving away. They stopped the vehicle. As one deputy approached the vehicle, the driver sped away, reportedly at a high rate of speed, with the deputy hanging on to the side of the vehicle.

Genoa landmarks remembered. The Dairyland Power coal-fired power station was demolished in 2022. A pioneer nuclear plant at the site was shut down in 1987 after 25 years service.

Access limited. Firefighters are on foot or canoe in spots where fires are ravaging. Image: Superior National Forest

Spice Lake fire corraled near Canada border

GRAND MARAIS, Minn. — About 80 wilderness campsites in the Boundary Waters reserve have been closed because of wildfires and tinder-dry conditions. The Spice Lake Wildfire near the end of the Gunflint Trail started Tuesday and spread to 30 acres. The fire was reduced to 20 acres by Friday. Because conditions can change quickly paddling and overnight camping remained prohibited in specified areas.

Deputies approach wayward craft. Pilot fine. Walked away “calm and collected,” said a witness. Image: Taylor Littler

Motorists find unexpected company on right-of-way

MAHTOWA, Minn. – The pilot of a light plane, its engine apparently dead, guided the plane to an emergency landing on Interstate 35. The pilot was unhurt, the plane damaged only minimally. This was about 1 p.m. 30 miles short of Duluth. A witness driving on I-35 told Clayton County deputies that the plane was kind of hovering and coming down little by little. As the witness saw it, the pilot looked to have control.  The plane landed in the northbound lane and rolled on its landing gear into the ditch.

ST. PAUL, Minn. – The latest Minnesota state jobs data showed 7,700 new jobs in May. The state jobs agency said the number of employed Minnesotans passed the 3 million threshold. The report also said Minnesota’s labor force participation rate, at 68.2%, was among the highest in nation. The national rate was 62.6%.

What a crew. Karla Hovey, Matt Hovey, Rick Hovey, Steve Roberts and John Glowcheski. Image: Dave Kuklinksi

For third time, winners from Market Street Tap

WINONA, Minn. – Treasure-seekers from Market Street Tap, in the downtown bar district, did it again. For the third year the six-person team found the bidden Steamboat Days medallion, this time in Woodlawn Cemetery. Team leader Dave Kuklinski called the 2023 riddle clues moderately difficult. The team also won in the 2019 and 2021. The prize: $50.

Earlier: Steamboat Days event: Sip, celebrate, bid

Earlier: Musical lineup set for Steamboat Days

Earlier: Banker new Steamboat Days harbormaster

Earlier: Steamboat Days button by Bluffview student

WINONA, Minn. – Although Winona police refused publicly for 2-1/2 months to call Adam Fravel a suspect in the March 31 disappearance of Maddi Kingsbury, they questioned him several times beginning the day after she vanished. Fravel had an explanation for his whereabouts that police couldn’t shake conclusively. This is Fravel’s own account to police for the day Maddi disappeared, as itemized in the June 7 murder complaint against him after her body was found a few miles from his parents’ rural home near Mabel.

> Fravel, 29, and Madeline Kingsbury, 26, were breaking up after several years of an unsettling relationship and two children, age 5 and 2. She had told Fravel that she was seeing someone else — he didn’t know who. She was looking for another place to live with their children. He spent the day starting to vacate their townhouse on Kerry Drive on the Winona West end.

> Fravel had planned to make property storage runs most of the day. His plan was to travel to his parents’ home 45 miles south of Winona, near Mabel, with items he wanted to store there and then to return to Winona to take other items to Midwest Storage on Highway 14 near the townhouse.

> This was after they both had driven the children to daycare about 8:15 a.m. and returned together to the townhouse, where Maddi had a home office related to her job at Mayo Clinic in Rochester. This day, March 31, was a Friday – a day she sometimes commuted to Rochester.

> After packing up Maddi’s minivan, he left for Mabel, stopping first at a Kwik Trip on the West End. This was about 10:15 a.m. He was somewhat discombobulated about the break-up with Maddi. Thirty-five miles later, near the hamlet of Choice on Highway 43 to Mabel,  he looked in the rearview mirror and realized the items he had packed were meant for the Midwest Storage unit in Winona, not his parents’ place. He turned around at a barn in Choice and drove back to Winona, not making any stops.

> About 11:30 a.m., back in Winona, he emptied the van at the townhouse. Inside he didn’t  see Madeline. His car, however, was still the driveway. He figured that Maddi carpooled to Rochester. He texted Maddi but got no response.

> Fravel remained at the townhouse the rest of the afternoon. Later he texted Maddi about picking up the kids and plans for supper. When she did not respond, he decided to pick up the children at daycare and drive them to his parents’ residence in Mabel.

Earlier: Basis for Fravel arrest? Police chief: “Probable cause”

Earlier: Sheriff: Maddi body carefully covered,

Earlier: Boyfriend of Maddi Kingsbury arrested on murder charge

WINONA Minn. – A Winona woman who admitted to a couple drinks was arrested a the wheel of a car near downtown about 1:20 a.m. There was no denying the facts, officers said. She was wearing a wrist band from the Steamboat Days beer tent on the Levee. Even so, they said Katherine Louise Wohletz, 55, was a  bit testy: “Go find the people who much worse than me.” As for her condition , officers said Wohletz was  oozing booze vapors and failed the usual field sobriety tests – like a standing with one foot off the ground and walking straight. At the jailhouse, she tested for 0.15% blood-alcohol, almost twice the legal limit. The stop was between Johnon and Center streets.

Capping the night. A turn signal violation. One thing led to another.

CHESTER, Minn. – A Lewiston woman broke a leg and suffered other non-life threatening injuries when an ATV four-wheeler overturned. Her name was not released immediately by Sheriff Kevin Torgerson, but her age was reported as 42. The accident was about 12:45 a.m. southeast of Rochester in the 4000 block of Maple Court. Deputies arrested the driver, whom they identified only as a 44-year-old Rochester man. He was booked for drunken driving and criminal vehicular operation.

WINONA, Minn. – Deputies made a controlled-substance arrest at NcNally Landing on the causeway between Winona and Bluff Siding. Arrested was Erin Elizabeth Roberts, 25, of Goodview. This was a little after midnight. Deputies said Roberts was in a car in the dark at the slough, its lights turned off. In the car was drug paraphernalia, deputies said. A blood draw was taken and for state testing.

KASSON, Minn. – A West Concord driver, Colleen Lynn Zimmerman, 49, was hurt when her pickup struck a deer on U.S. Highway 14 at Kasson. She was taken 16 miles to a Rochester hospital. Her injuries were described as non-life threatening. This was about 9:50 p.m. at 230th Street. She was westbound in a GMC Sierra, heading toward the Dodge Center exit to West Concord.

THIELMAN, Minn. — A Lake City man was airlifted to a Rochester hospital after his motorcycle hit a deer at the Thielman intersection between Wabasha and Zumbrota. Wabasha County deputies described the injuries to Randall Robert Gerber, 61, as non-life threatening. The accident was about 4:40 p.m. at Highway 60 at Wabasha County Road 4, at the confluence of the Zumbro River and West Indian Creek. .Gerber was heading east toward Wabasha aboard a 2003 Harley Davidson FLSTC.

Twin engines, five rotors. European aircraft manufacturer Airbus introduced the predecessor H145 in 1999 and has built 1,500 in various configurations. The earliest models were for French air rescues. The Mayo craft is one of the first of adapted to U.S. medical gear.

First being stationed in Mankato

MANKATO, Minn. – Mayo Clinic has placed a state-of-the-art Geman-built air ambulance in service at Mankato, the first of three such helicopters due to replace the whole Mayo fleet by December. Next in line will be craft based in Rochester, then Eau Claire. The $11 million Airbus H145-D3 has twin quick-start 1,000-horsepower engines. There is 100% power in one minute. The machines fly 150 mph — 10 mph faster than the 15-year-old craft being replaced. There are five rotor blades, which mean less vibration. “You almost forget you’re on a helicopter because it flies so smooth,” said Rhiannon Osborne, a Mayo flight nurse. You’re able to focus on your patient, your task at hand.”

Mayo homage

The tail numbers, N483WC, reflect Mayo history. The “N” stands for North America.” “483” honors the four people who founded Mayo in 1883.The “WC’ stands for Will and Charlie Mayo — the sons of William Worrall Mayo, who opened a private medical practice that evolved into the Mayo Clinic.

RED WING, Minn. – A Goodhue County man, Cody Franklin Banitt, 31, of Welch, was hurt when his pickup went off Highway 19 west of Red Wing. His injuries were described at the scene as sustainable, but he was taken by ambulance anyway to a Rochester hospital 50 miles away. Bannitt, alone in the vehicle, was eastbound, toward Red Wing, in a 1999 Ford F150.This was about 9:45 a.m.