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.
What next for Winona State leadership?
WINONA Minn. — The pending departure of Scott Olson as president of Winona State University, to become state chancellor, leaves a leadership vacuum. In a message to campus people, Olson said: “I’m not leaving yet. However. I will remain president into the summer and will confer with Chancellor Malhotra about my last day here, as well as plans for an interim leader.” Olson’s term as chancellor begins officially August 1. An interim president at Winona state would be in place while a national search is organized for a new president. An interim leader usually is a high-level executive already on staff. This would be the choice of the current chancellor, Devinder Malhotra. But Olson will be in the position to choose his own permanent successor at Winona State once he’s installed as chancellor and a national search has been completed. The usual protocol involves recommendations from a campus committee representing faculty and staff unions and students.
Earlier: New MinnState chief plans statewide “listening tour”
Volunteers invited streamside to test water clarity
Outdoor civic duty. Volunteer Beth LeVigne using a Secchi tube to collect a water clarity sample near Duluth . Image: Minnesota Pollution Control Agency
State data collection in 50th year
WINONA, Minn. –The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency asked for volunteers to test the clarity of water this spring and summer to add data to its 50-old project year on whether water is getting better or worse. Testing takes five to 10 minutes and involves dipping a bucket into a stream and pouring water into a test tube, which measures sediment levels. No experience is needed. The agency provides volunteers with free monitoring equipment. To volunteer. Flooding this spring makes sediment measures especially critical, said Shannon Martin, volunteer coordinator. Monitoring sites around Winona include the Root, Whitewater and Zumbro watersheds. The sites:
> Winona County: 16
> Fillmore County: 16
> Houston County: 4
> Wabasha County: 4
College scores
Baseball: MSU-Mankato 10, Winona State 1
Preservation panel hesitates on Masterpiece Hall
Angular, glassy look. Preservationists don’t see a fit with the 1899 domed neoclassical library next door, dwarfed down Fifth Street at the far left in this rendering. The library was the gift of Winona lumber baron WilliamLaird. Construction at the time: $50,000.
Doubt whether design comports with locale’s personality
WINONA, Minn. – The city Heritage Preservation Commission put off certifying the proposed Masterpiece Hall concert venue because the sleek minimalism of the plan doesn’t seem right for the character of the Fourth Street site. The Commission scheduled itself to revisit the issue in June. The delay was a setback for Bob Kierlin and Mary Mary Burrichter, who have put up $35 million for the project. They were planning to begin construction soon. After reviewing architectural sketches, the 15-member commission didn’t see how it complement the neoclassical library next door and the site of the former school that already has been leveled to make room for the concert hall. The postponement decision followed almost two hours of discussion.
Earlier: Master plan taking form for Masterpiece Hall
Neoclassical library. Designed by Warren Power laird, dean of architecture at the University of Pennsylvania, and Edgar Viguers Seeler a prominent Philadelphia architect. The building is capped with a dome rising 56 feet. The brick walls are faced with Indiana limestone. The entrance steps, curbs and walks were laid with Winona limestone. The columns at the entrance are Creole marble from Georgia. Floors in the bookstacks are glass. Shelving and stairs are ornate and copper-faced.
Woman claims eating flowers as free speech
WINONA, Minn. – Police were called to the 200 block of West Second Street about a woman on the street eating flowers. The woman accused the responding officers of harassing her and said she had her First Amendment rights. She packed up her belongings and moved along, officers said.
Federal funds available for septic upgrades
WINONA, Minn. – Property owners in Winona County with septic systems going bad may apply for repair funds from a new federal grant. Lew Overhaug, of the county Environment Services agency, said property owners may apply for as much as $15,000 for repairs or 75% of the cost of a new system. Application form. The funds are from Biden infrastructure update money. There are 5,000 systems in the county, Overhaug said. All eventually begin failing and losing wastewater that contains pathogens, nitrogen or phosphorus into well water.
“Today’s lesson, students: No drugs in school”
WINONA, Minn. – Alerted that a Winona High School sophomore was carrying marijuana, Principal Heather Fitzloff checked the student’s backpack, then called police. There was a small amount of marijuana in a pouch, Fitzloff told police. The 15-year-old, from Goodview, was ticketed, and her parents summoned. This was about 12:25 p.m.
Ready to go: Mammoth habitat project at Lake Pepin
BAY CITY, Wis. – A $27 million muti-agency project to use river sand from the Mississippi River navigation channel and backwaters to improve wildlife habitat will begin this summer. The Army Corps of Engineers, one of the sponsors, said a ground-breaking ceremony will be Tuesday: Time: 10:30 a.m. at Saratoga Park in Bay City. The Corps said the project is the first of its kind for habit improvement. Features include building peninsulas, dredging, and shoreline protection at the head of Lake Pepin. The contractor: LS Marine, of Inver Grove Heights, Minnesota.
Legislation advances to ban faked video
ST. PAUL, Minn. – The Minnesota Senate voted to criminalize people who create and share what are called “deep-fake images” intended to hurt a political candidate online or influence an election. The bill also would criminalize faked images designed to embarrass or humiliate someone sexually. The bill specifies with as much as five years in prison and a $10,000 fine. The bill next goes to a joint Senate-House committee and then to Governor Tim Walz. In the Senate the vote was unanimous except for Republican Senator Nathan Wesenberg, of Little Falls. He wanted tougher penalties.
Deep-fake images
Software to distort images has gone far beyond early-day photoshopping. Cutting-edge techniques enable doctoring video to put words they never said in a person’s mouth. In January, as an example, a statement by President Joe Biden about army tanks was altered into an attack on transgender people. Such misrepresentations can be done with now-easily available artificial intelligence tools that simulating a person’s voice with a few clicks of a button.
New Enbridge-Bad River showdown looms
MADISON, Wis. – A Wisconsin Native American tribe asked a federal judge to shut down a Canada-owned Enbridge oil pipeline immediately as an imminent risk of rupturing on reservation land. Enbridge’s Line 5 is rusting, said the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa. Worse, according to the tribe, chunks of of riverbank has eroded 20 feet in four locations in the past month between the Bad River and Line 5. Judge William Conley scheduled a hearing for next week.. Enbridge claims that a break in the 70-year-old line is virtually impossible. Even so, the company says the tribe has refused to allow the installation of stabilizing barricades made of trees along the riverbank to protect against erosion – or even sand bags.
Bad River. About 60 miles east of Superior.
Line 5 profile
The Bad River tribe has been persistent for years that Enbridge remove a 12-mile (section of Line 5 that crosses tribal lands. The agreement allowing Enbridge to operate on the reservation expired in 2013. Line 5 transports 23 million gallons of oil and liquid natural gas each day across 640 miles of northern Wisconsin and Michigan to Ontario. The Great Lakes economy relies on Line 5, Enbridge notes. The company has proposed rerouting the pipeline 41 miles to end its dispute with the tribe, but it would be a six-year project. Meanwhile, Enbridge faces resistance in Michigan, where it wants to drill a tunnel under Mackinac Strait to replace a lake-bottom section of Line 5 at the juncture of Lake Michigan and Lake Huron.
Policing prof leads Southeast graduation procession
WINONA, Minn. – The criminal justice professor who recently was declared the 2023 outstanding educator of year at Minnesota State Southeast, Greg Cady, will be the college’s commencement marshal Friday. There ceremony: 3 p.m. at Winona State University. Cady will bear the ceremonial mace and medallion as he leads the academic procession. Cady, of Red Wing, joined the Southeast faculty in 2004. He is retired from the U.S. Navy Reserve and was instrumental in establishing veterans centers on the Southeast campuses in Red Wing and Winona.
Cady. Recognized as Southeast’s educator of the year by MinnState Chancellor Devinder Malhotra at a ceremony in April.
Identical message in two graffiti attacks
WINONA, Minn. – Two spray-paint vandal attacks were reported overnight – one at the Hiawatha Mental Health clinic on East Sarnia, the other at the Culver’s restaurant 2-1/2 miles away on West Service Drive. The messages were word for word the same, naming a person and saying he was “killing people with Fentanyl.” Although the same, the messages were in different colors – white at Hiawatha Valley and blue at Culver’s. This was no single-pallet criminal.
Cops check weird email extortion demand
STOCKTON Minn. – A Stockton woman reported an email threat that left sheriff’s investigators puzzled. The woman had received an email demand to change her Twitter handle. If she didn’t, the sender said, police would be notified that a major crime was occurring and to send a SWAT team. Investigators began trying to track the source and to figure out the significance of a Twitter handle to warrant such a threat. It all seemed highly unusual and hardly from any typical extortion playbook.
New MinnState chief plans statewide “listening tour”
Watch that odometer spin. Olson plans to hit the ground running – and the highways and byways of Minnesota.
ST. PAUL, Minn. – As the new chancellor of the sprawling MinnState higher-ed system, Scott Olson of Winona State University plans to put some major mileage on his car. His first mission in August, when he takes over, is to visit all 57 campuses. “The first priority is to get out and around to all the campuses and hear the local stories from the communities they serve, how their needs are being met, meet the students from each campus and get a firsthand sense of what those needs are, so we are all moving together,” Olson said. For two MinnState colleges, Olson won’t have far to go: Both Winona State and Minnesota State Southeast are in his backyard in WInona. On a broader issue, Olson expressed a passion to make college more affordable. “For Minnesota to become what it can be, we’re going to have to remove affordability as a barrier,” Olson said. “Our employers are telling us that they can’t get the volume of workers that they need, and the only solution to that is to make college be more affordable for our students.”
Earlier: Olson sees chancellor role as collaborative
Earlier: WSU chief now next MinnState chancellor
Almanac: Scott Olson legacy at WSU
Emergency, fire crews make 46 calls
WINONA, Minn. – The Fire Department reported 34 emergency medical calls plus 12 fire calls in recent days:
> Tuesday, May 9: 4 medical calls plus 3 fire calls.
> Monday, May 8: 6 medical calls plus 1 fire call.
> Sunday, May 7: 7 medical calls plus 1 fire call.
> Saturday, May 6: 7 medical calls plus no fire calls.
> Friday, May 5: 4 medical calls plus 3 fire calls.
> Thursday, May 4: 6 medical calls plus 1 fire call.
> Wednesday, May 3: no medical calls plus 3 fire calls.
Earlier: Emergency, fire crews 53 calls
Gun controls plugged into police funding bill
ST.PAUL, Minn. – A Democratic controlled joint Senate-House committee approved two gun violence prevention provisions into broad public safety legislation that’s moving through the Legislature. By unanimous voice votes, the all-Democratic House-Senate conference committee approved:
> Expanded background checks for gun transfers,
> A so-called “red flag law” to allow authorities to take guns temporarily from people deemed to be an imminent threat.
The conference committee vote suggests that Senate and House majority leaders, all Democrats, believe they have majorities to pass the provisions as part of a broad public safety funding bill. It would be difficult for rural Democrat legislators, most of whom are inclined against gun controls, to vote no on the broad funding bill. A failure of the broad bill would cut off state funds for police, prisons, courts and public defenders. The Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus, which opposes any and all gun controls, said there had been too little public discussion and no testimony on the provisions. Democrats are ramming the provisions through the Legislature, the lobby said.
Verbatim
Ron Latz, a Democrats from St. Louis Park and chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee chair, said neither provision bans firearms: “These bills focus on the people. Separating the firearms from the people who are resisting the law and ineligible to possess firearms and therefore shouldn’t have them — or people, because of the crisis that they’re in, are an immediate threat to the safety of themselves or their family or others around them.”
Profs ask Northland College president to leave
THIEF RIVER FALLS, Minn. — Faculty at Northland Community and Technical College have asked for the college president, Sandy Kiddoo, to resign — this after two years in office. A vote of “no confidence” was 96%. The faculty union president, Brent Braga, cited growing concern about Kiddoo as “a threat to the continued viability of the institution.” Enrollment has been declining for 10 years. Northland’s two campuses, in Thief River and East Grand Forks, have 2,700 students, mostly part-time. Three programs have been suspended since Kiddoo arrived because of accreditation issues. Also four administrators have left.
Kiddoo. Earlier at Hazard Community and Technical College in Kentucky snd Mid-State Technical College in Wisconsin.
Verbatim
Braga: “We have seen not just an enrollment decline but a real decline in the climate or the culture at the college. It feels like our hallways are very empty. it doesn’t feel like there’s any vibrancy to the institution, This president hasn’t offered any clear direction, any clear vision.”
County Board run-off both settled, unsettled
WINONA, Minn. – Farm-supply dealer Joshua Elsinger of St. Charles won the battle of the yard signs with a bold and hard-to-miss red, black and white message everywhere – and he won the election. Kinda, sorta. Elsinger pulled 456 votes in a three-way run-off for two spots on the August ballot to represent northern and western townships on the Winona County Board. But the other two candidates, Pat Heim and Bill Spitzer, finished even with 184 votes each. This means the special election, on Tuesday, has yet to be a completely done-deal. The county election supervisor, Chesli Wilbright, said a canvassing board will meet next week to tabulate the votes officially If the initial 184-184 numbers hold for Heim and Spitzer, there’ll be coin toss. Meanwhile, Elsing’s red, black and white campaign signs remain planted firmly in yards all around District 3. For sure, he will be on the August ballot.
Earlier: Ex-St. Charles mayor files for County Board
Earlier: Real estate agent runs for County Board
Results
> Elsing, 456 votes.
> Heim, 184.
> Spitzer, 184.
Images: Steve Lunde.
Turnout
All three candidates expressed disappointment at the turnout. Of 9,900 citizens in District 3, only 824 voted. The district includes Altura, Elba, Minnesota City, Rollingstone, St. Charles and Stockton.
Olson sees chancellor role as collaborative
ST. PAUL, Minn. — At the announcement of his appointment as MinnState chancellor, Winona State President Scott Olson said he was humbled. “I will work diligently to meet the opportunities as well as the challenges that lie ahead” Olson said. “What our colleges and universities do every day is nothing short of remarkable, and I look forward to working collaboratively with our faculty, staff, business partners, community leaders, and especially our students, towards a prosperous, inclusive, and innovative future.”
At announcement ceremony. Olson flanked by Roger Moe, MinnState trustees chair, and retiring Chancellor Devinder Malhotra.
Dog-breeding limits still on County agenda
WINONA, Minn. — The Winona County Board voted 3-1 to keep considering a zoning ordinance change to control dog breeding facilities. The voted was a rebuff to the county Planning Board, which had recommended the county not get into the business of regulating breeders. The County Board, however, didn’t outright reject the Planning Board recommendation. Rather the Board set up a process for its own hearings on the subject. A zoning change, if approved by the County Board, could ban kennels outright through removing the facilities from the list of conditional or interim uses or by prohibiting use in certain areas. How the County Board voted:
For more hearings
Chris Meyer (District 1, Winona Eat Side and neighboring south townships)
Dwayne Voegeli (District 2, Goodview and Winona West Side)
Greg Olson (District 4, central Winona)
Against
Marcia Ward (District 5, Dakota, Dresbach, LaCrescent, Lewiston, Utica and south townships)
Position vacant (District 3, Altura, Elba, Rollingstone, St. Charles, Minnesota City, Stockton, and north and west townships)
Eyota city hall referendum fails
EYOTA, Minn. – Voters don’t want to spend $400,000 to buy the former Bremer Bank building in Eyota for a new city hall. A referendum failed 113 to 90.
Notable journalism
TJ Leverentz (KROC, May 7, 2023): “Rochester Lawmakers React to Mayo Warning about Bills”
Max Nesterak (Minnesota Reformer, May 5, 2023): Mayo Clinc Threatens to Pull Billions in Investments Over Propose Legislation?”
Chris Rogers (Winona Post, May 4, 2023, reprinted from April 20, 2015): “The Fight of Our Lives: How Winona Battled the ‘65 Flood and Won”
Online peeping unallowed in Albert Lea schools
ALBERT LEA, Minn. – A substitute teacher, Gary Gottlieb, was placed on a do-not-call-back list after an allegation that he was peeping at “inappropriate pictures” on his cell phone in the classroom. A student had taken a video of an open text conversation with a picture showing a woman’s cleavage, said Superintendent Ron Wagner. The superintendent wouldn’t describe how much cleavage was exposed except that it was inappropriate.
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