Violence aboard train approaching Winona
WINONA, Minn. – An unruly Amtrak passenger attacked a snack-car attendant and threatend to kill him as the train was approaching Winona. Police were waiting at the depot and arrested Jason Kalani Mook, 59, of San Jose, California. Mook had boarded the train, the Empire Builder, 37 hours earlier in Spokane, Washington. Police were told that Mook slammed a can of soda into the attendant’s face, said he wanted to go to prison, and “this the way to do it.” There had been no earlier incident with Mook on the train, the conductor said. The Chicago-bound train left Winona a few minutes later than its usual four-minute stop. At the jail Mook was booked for violent threats and assault with a deadly weapon.
Mook. Unruly at jailhouse but eventually in a cell.
“Hang on, sweetie, for a ride to remember”
WINONA, Minn. – The biker was doing some fancy twists and turns with his girlfriend grabbing around him tight. Speeding too, 60 mph on city streets, the cops said. This was about 2:40 a.m. Cops gave chase. The biker stopped, then accelerated up a grassy knoll and spun around. He fell off, the girl too. Small miracle: Both were unhurt. The office approached, then had it all figured out. Brady Lee Ferguson 24, of Winona, tested for 0.16% alcohol in his blood – twice the legal limit for driving. What about the girl? She said she knew nothing. Her face was buried too deep in her guy’s back to know what was going on, she said.
Ferguson. Show-off biking with girl grabbing on tight.
Tribal attorney: New mercury limits fall short
WASHINGTON — Environmentalists and the Lake Superior Chippewa Nation welcomed a proposal for cutbacks in mercury emissions from iron-ore processing on the Iron Rage and in northern Michigan. James Pew, an attorney with Earthjustice, called the proposal overdue. For 30 years, Pew said, the Environmental Protection Agency has failed to enforce mercury limits established by Congress. Pew has represented several groups demanding enforcement, including the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa. Pew said, however, the EPA should have gone further. U.S. Steel, which operates some of the affected iron Range mines, has argued that the 1990 requirement for a 72% reduction was technologically unfeasible and argued for 30%. The new EPA proposal is 57%.
Cub chain plans second Rochester grocery store
ROCHESTER, Minn. – The Stillwater-based CUB grocery chain plans to build an 80,000 square foot store in northwest Rochester. The store’s distinctions will include a gourmet popcorn section. The location: Scott Road Northwest and Commerce Drive Northwest with an opening next spring. There already is a smaller CUB store off U.S. Highway 14 in southeast Rochester. In a quiet swipe at the Iowa-based Hy-Vee chain, which dominates the Rochester market, CUB chief executive Brian Audette said: “As Minnesota’s hometown grocer, we’re thrilled to announce the construction of our newest CUB store here in Rochester.” There will be all the new mega-grocery accoutrements: A wine tasting bar and deli, bakery, vitamin, seafood and take-out meals. departments, and also a built-in liquor store.
CUB profile
CUB is a subsidiary of United Natural Foods of Rhode Islnd. The first store was in Stillwater in 1968. Today the brand operates 80 stores mostly in Minnesota but some in Illinois. The name “CUB” comes from the nickname of founder Culver Davis Jr. The acronym was later used in advertising for “Consumers United for Buying”. At the time it was first total discount food stores in the nation. The chain was bought by Minnesota-based SuperValu in 1980 with five stores in the Twin Cities. It has changed hands several times since. At one time or anther the chain had stores in Colorado, Iowa, Michigan, Nebraska and Wisconsin. During the 2021 and 2022 inflation period the chain came to be considered a premium brand rated as overpriced.
Legislators nod yes to free college tuition
ST. PAUL, Minn. – A joint Senate-House committee has agreed to free tuition at state colleges for residents whose families earn less than $80,000 a year. The plan, called “North Star Promise,” will need approval from both houses as part of the state higher-ed budget. The program is estimated to cost $117 million to get going and then $49 million a year. The plan is an initiative from Democrats who controlled the joint committee and also control both the Senate and House Republicans were displeased. Representative Marion O’Neill, a Republican elected from Maple Lake a member of the joint conference committee, said she was “completely frozen out of all discussions.” An estimated 15,000 students would be eligible. The program would be in place for Fall 2024 classes.
North Star profile
The program would cover tuition beyond state and federal grants and institutional scholarships. Covered would be two-year and four-year programs in the University of Minnesota or MinnState systems or a tribal college. Private colleges would not be covered. Anyone already with a bachelor’s degree wouldn’t be eligible.
National trend
About half of U.S. states offer free tuition, most to community colleges but some to four-year programs. One goal has been to encourage students into college who otherwise might have been leery about the long-term burden of student loans. The programs have helped state colleges stabilize enrollment, which has been declining for 10 to 12 years.
Verbatim
Omar Fateh, a Minneapolis Democrat who chairs the Senate Higher Education Committee: “We’ve been seeing declining enrollment on all campuses. Chair. “If we don’t do something quick, we’re at risk of shutting down some campuses. I see this bill as an enrollment driver.”
College scores
Baseball: UW-LaCrosse 9, UW-Oshkosh 8, 10 innings
Baseball: Rochester Community 10, MSC-Itasca 4
Softball: UW-LaCrosse 7, UW-Whitewater 3
Wisconsin prep
HOCKEY: Arcadia Raiders 6, Galesville-Ettrick-Trempeauleau Red Hawks 2
Luck of the draw: Spitzer to County Board ballot
WINONA, Minn. – Two St. Charles candidates for the Winona County Board, who tied for second place with 184 votes each in a run-off Tuesday for the August ballot, agreed to draw cards to settle the winner. From a fresh deck Pat Heim and Bill Spitzer both drew aces. They drew again. This time Spitzer turned up a king, Heim a three. So the August ballot will have Spitzer, a former sheriff’s deputy and a former mayor of St. Charles, on ballot against Tuesday’s special election winner – Josh Elsing, also of Charles, who had won 456 votes. At stake is the County Board seat from District 3, which was vacated in January by Steve Jacob. The district covers western and northern parts of county. The position pays $24,300.
Elsing.
Spitzer.
August election. Election for County Board between Elsing and Spitzer on August 8.
School girl dies in crash awaiting school bus
EXCELSIOR, Wis.— A 13-year-old girl, Evelyn Gurney, was struck by an out-of-control pickup truck as she was about to board a bus to go to school nine miles away in Reedsburg. Sheriff Chip Meister said the bus was stopped when a Ford F-150, headed the same direction, swerved to avoid the bus, which was stopped. The truck, said the sheriff, sideswiped the bus and continued along a driveway and struck the Gurney girl. The truck came to a stop in a ditch. No students on the bus were injured. The name of the pickup driver, who sustained minor injuries, was not released by Sheriff Meister.
Gurney. A student at Webb Middle School in Reedsburg. In her pale blue hockey jersey.
Poop rains on cars at coffee drive-through
BURNSVILLE, Minn. – Poop apparently from an airplane on a flight path into MSP splattered on a woman’s car as she was waiting for her morning coffee at a Caribou drive-through. “It was like it rained brown for a second,” said Carisa Browne. She got out and went to the next car, which was drenched too: “I was like, ‘What just happened to us?’ And he was like, ‘I have no idea.’” Other cars were bombed too. She looked up. There wasno flock of birds up there. Browne, a trained aircraft mechanic, knows something about aviation. It was no bird, she said. “I didn’t know that there was even a way to release it mid-flight, so that’s why I’m a little confused.” She proceeded in line to the drive-up window. The server got a whiff, held her nose, and handed over the coffee anyway. Browne didn’t say whether she still had any hankering for it.
Fecal fallout. Vision obscured by poop in incident at Caribou coffee drive-through. No reason to think Caribou was targeted.
Verbatim
Browne: “I was looking around, like ‘Who threw it at us?’ But it was very high. It came straight down. It hit on my roof, on my hood. It was all the way down my side. Also, my child was with me, so I’m glad the windows weren’t open.”
Verbatim
Son: “Something landed on my mom’s car. It stinked. It was poop.”
Dairy fined for polluting Whitewater trout stream
PLAINVIEW, Minn. – A dairy co-op was fined $17,800 for discharging milk-laden industrial wastewater into a tributary of the Whitewater River. The state Pollution Control Agency, which issued the fine, discovered the discharges too late to test whether fish were affected. The Whitewater is a protected trout stream. Plainview Milk Products Cooperative, which is owned by 200 farmers, released the wastewater twice in 2022, the pollution control agency said. The co-op failed to report the discharges, as required by law. The agency found also that the co-op kept sloppy records and had an inadequate system to monitor its wastewater going back to 2019.
On Plainview West End. The dairy, established in1899, specializes in sweet cream salted butter and foam-dried non-fat milk powder.
Officers
Becky Pearson, general manager; Bob Tullis, operations manager; Jim Hennessy, quality assurance manager.
Veteran 3M exec out: “Personal conduct”
MAPLEWOOD, Minn. – The namesake Minnesota company 3M, whose products have a global presence, fired executive Michael Vale for “inappropriate personal conduct.” Vale had been group president and chief business and country officer for one month. The company did not offer details except that Vale’s conduct was “unrelated to the company’s operations and financial performance.”
Vale. With multinational Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing 30 years.
Farmer admits subbing ordinary crops as organic
ST. PAUL, Minn. – A Jeffers farmer pleaded guilty to a $19.6 million fraud in which he labeled non-certified crops as organic In a plea deal, James Clayton Wolf., 66, agreed to forfeit all the ill-gotten proceeds. The federal charge was wire fraud. Wolf’s Cottonwood County farm was indeed certified organic but he bought “conventionally farmed” grains from a supplier and resold them as organic. A case against a second man accused as a co-conspirator, Adam Clifford Olson, 46, of Windom, a farm consultant and seed salesman, is moving separately through the courts.
A Lake Winona no-dog zone to protect birds
WINONA, Minn. — Police reminded dog owners not to walk their canine friends on the east shore of Lake Park. This includes walking paths, roads, ball fields and the bandshell area. Several species of migratory birds rest there. Dogs are allowed on the west shore.
Minnesota Senate passes gun limits
ST. PAUL, Minn. – The Minnesota Senate voted 34-33 to amend the 2023 public safety bill with specific provisions aimed at reducing gun violence. The bill was word-for-word what earlier came out of joint Senate House committee. The House, meanwhile, scheduled itself to take up the same provisions, probably over the weekend. The new provisions would toughen background checks on anyone buying a firearm. Another provision would allow confiscation of a gun from anyone threatening to shoot another person or to commit suicide. The chair of the Senate’s Public Safety Committee, Ron Lanz, a Democrat elected from St. Louis Park, said this second provision should be a relief for families and also police who see rising signs of instability. “It will give them lawful tools to separate people in crisis from the firearms that are around them.” The package also includes tougher restrictions on no-knock arrest warrants.
Political dynamics
Senate Republicans had hoped an alliance with rural Democrats would head off the gun control provisions. The alliance began crumbling when Senator Grant Hauschild, a Hermantown Republican, broke away and pledged to support the overall 522-page bill – even with the gun restrictions.
College scores
Baseball: Winona State 8, Minot State 7
Baseball: Augustana 6, Winona State 2
Baseball: UW-LaCrosse 14, UW-Whitewater 4
Baseball: Rochester Community 11, Minnesota North Vermilion 10
Baseball: Rochester Community 6, Riverland 0
Softball: UW-LaCrosse 6, UW-Eau Claire 2
Softball: UW-LaCrosse 9, UW-Oshkosh 5
Softball: Anoka-Ramsey 8, Rochester Community 2
Softball: St. Cloud Community 11, Rochester Community 6
Fraud: Modern-day pen pal a shyster
WINONA, Minn. – A Winona woman thought she had a new online male friend from the Philippines. Little did she know she was being conned, albeit for only $50. This is what happened after a continuing series of exchanges: The man told the woman that she had won a substantial prize, apparently in a lottery of some sort. He said he would send the money if she first sent him $500 to free up the prize. She said she didn’t have $500 but: “Would $50 do?” Yes, he said. She sent the $50. She hasn’t heard again from the erstwhile male friend from the Philippines.
Crash injures eight in horse-drawn buggy
WHITEHALL, Wis. — Eight persons in a horse-drawn buggy were injured, one critically, when the buggy was rear-ended northeast of Whitehall on U.S. Highway 53. Six were children. One of the juveniles was airlifted 150 miles to a Madison hospital. The accident was about 5:40 p.m. at Brittani Lane. Trempealeau County deputies said the buggy was stopped waiting for oncoming traffic before turning left into a private drive. Sheriff Brett Semingson declined to release the name of the driver who stuck the buggy or of the people in the buggy. Two of the juveniles were ejected. All eight suffered injuries, as did the horse.
Scammer: Send money or we’ll arrest you
WINONA, Minn. – A Winona woman told police she was scammed out of $13,000 by a caller who claimed to be police and said she could clear up an outstanding warrant by sending the money. At one point, she said, the caller gave a 507 area code telephone number, which, it turned out, was the Winona Police Department. The woman said she suspected being scammed but the caller was forceful and insistent and in the end persuasive.
Mexicans, Guatemalans caught entering U.S. illegally
CARIBOU, Minn. – U. S. border agents stopped 20 migrants being smuggled into the United States from Canada 20 miles between the nearest ports of entry under the cover of a dark night. Some were walking, some were covered in the beds of two pickup trucks. There is no port of entry at Caribou. The migrants were taken 50 miles to to a customs station in Pembina, North Dakota, to be returned home. Arrested were 14 men, five women, and one child ranging in age from 3 to 43 from Mexico. In addition two drivers from Guatemala were arrested.
Migrants under tarps. Some of them hidden in trucks near pickup in barren land near Caribou. Image: U.S. Border Patrol
Plane comes down, flips in Grand Rapids street
GRAND RAPIDS, Wis. — A man and woman suffered traumatic head injuries when their single-engine plane crashed in a residential area. There was no fire. When police arrived, the pilot had climbed out of the wreckage and was wandering around. Wood County Sheriff Shawn Becker said both victims were hospitalized, one 35 miles away in Marshfield, the other four miles in Wisconsin Rapids. The sheriff declined to release the names. The crash was about 11 a.m. Witnesses said the plane came on Whitrock Avenue, crossed over 16th Street South, struck a parked vehicle. and continued down Whitrock. It flipped when it hit a stop sign.
Top side down. Flight plan not known immediately. The crash was five was from runways at the South Wood County airport in Wisconsin Rapids.
Awkward place to be: Preservationists feel fenced in
WINONA Minn.—The chair of the Winona Historic Preservation Commission, Emily Kurash Casey, wants to avoid a showdown with the City Council on whether the proposed 700-seat Masterpiece Hall gets built. Some Commission members expressed doubt about how well the modernist design, as laid out by architects, meets criteria the Commission’s mandate to examine whether designs are compatible in scale, texture, materials, and visually with the surrounding historic locations. The Commission decided Wednesday to take a breather until next June to ponder the issue and to see perhaps if the architects can adjust their design. In the end of City Council will decide whether to authorize the the $35 million project. The City Council usually leans heavily on the Commission’s recommendations. Kurash Casey said she wants to see the Heritage Preservation Commission avoid a pattern of denying a request and the City Council then overriding. Peter Shortridge, a Commission member, who has been meticulously faithful to Winona’s architectural heritage in numerous projects, described the situation as awkwared: “We’re in this quandary of saying no and having this become a more conflicted process. Everyone wants this to happen. It’s an incredibly large thing for our community and a great gift.” It’s like insulting a gifted horse, Shortbridge said, noting that local millionaires Bob Kierlin and Mary Burrichter are financing the project to further Winona as a world-class cultural beacon.
Compromise possible? Can architects rejigger the persona of proposed Minnesota Masterpiece Hall.
Preservation Commission profile
The City Council created the Historic Preservation Commission in 1989. The Commission issues or enies a certificate of appropriateness for projects. The final decision, however, rests with the City Council. The 15-member Commission was designed for wide input. Members are appointed by the mayor. The Commission must include:
> An architect or person experienced in the building trades.
> A professional in history, architectural history, archaeology, planning, design, building trades, landscape architecture or law.
> A member of the Winona County Historical Society;
> A member of the City Planning Commission;
> Three members with a demonstrated interest or expertise in historic preservation;
> One member from each of the city’s five political wards.
Cemetery a drug-partying place?
WINONA, Minn. – Police stepped up patrols at Saint Mary’s Cemetery on Old Homer Road after drug paraphernalia were found among the grave stones.The sexton said parties seemed to be recurring.
Army Corps’ dam disposition study moves ahead
St. Anthony Falls dams. In this 2008 panorama, looking downstream, are both the Upper and Lower St Anthony Falls dams and locks.
Nil commercial barge traffic these days
MINNEAPOLIS — The Army Corps of Engineers is fine-tuning a study on the ramifications of ripping out its uppermost lock-dam structures on the Mississippi River, both in Minneapolis. In a new status report, the Corps says its goal is to make a recommendation to Congress. perhaps as early as 2025, on whether it’s in the federal interest to continue ownership of the dams and to maintain a navigation channel for barges. The locks have no commercial traffic any more except voters and an occasional tourist boat on a day cruise. The study already has examined issues of navigation, hydropower and recreation. Next is an environmental assessment required by law.
“About your ad for codeine for sale”
ROCHESTER, Minn. – A police investigator spotted an online advertisement for codeine and knocked at the door of Thoung Duong Duy Nguyen. The officer, who hadn’t shown a badge, said that Nguyen agreed to sell him a bottle of liquid codeine for $300. In Nguyen’s place, in the 5100 block of 51st Street Northwest, officers reported seizing 2-1/2 pounds of liquid codeine, 71 grams of hallucinogenic mushrooms, a large jar of marijuana, and almost $3,300 in cash. In Nguyen’s vehicle investigators said they found a digital scale and a list of the going rate for drugs by weight.
Codeine profile
An opiod that’s a weak relative of morphine to treat pain, coughing and diarrhea. It was discovered in 1832 by French scientist Pierre Jean Robiquet in the sap of the opium poppy. Today it’s commonly used also as a recreational drug. Typically its maximum effect is two to six hours. Side effects may include constipation, breathing difficulties and addiction.
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