And who’s the richest of them all? Ask Forbes
NEW YORK – Five Minnesotans made the annual Forbes magazine list of the 400 richest people in the world:
> Glen Taylor: $2.7 billion. From his Mankato-based graphic commuications company Taylor Corporation. Owns Timberwolves, Lynx and Loons sports teams and the Minneapolis Star Tribune newspaper.
> Stanley Hubbard: $1.6 billion. Owns KSTP and other broadcast properties.
> Jeffrey Michael: $1.2 billion. From his healthcare technology company Corvel.
> Martha MacMillan: $1.2 billion. Inherited from the Cargill food company fortune.
> John MacMillan: $1.2 billion. Inherited from the Cargill fortune.
Wealth indicators
Forbes relies on extensive research of court documents, like probate and divorce papers; of corporate reports from publicly traded companies; and hundreds of other indicators. The lists were stated in 1982 by Forbes publisher Malcolm Forbes and updated and refined annually.
Ground sweeps set for Maddi Kingsbury search
WINONA, Minn. – Volunteers will be bused Friday from Winona and Rushford for shoulder-to-shoulder ground searches for Matti Kingsbury, who’s been missing a week. There will be two brigades, at 9 a.m. and 1 p.m., after briefings at the Goodview Fire Hall and the Rushford school. Volunteers will be assigned to a search area and will be bused out to rough terrain. Required: Age 18, appropriate clothing and footwear, and an ability to walk long distances.Sign up.
Minnesota moose count steady
ST. PAUL, Minn. – The state’s moose population is down but relatively stable, according to extrapolations from a new aerial survey. The Minnesota Natural Resources Department estimates the state has 3,290 moose That compare to 4,700 a year earlier. The population is down from 8,000 in 2009 but in recent years has stabilized around 3,700.
Friends, sorority sisters search for Maddi
MABEL, Minn. – About 50 volunteers gathered at the American Legion post in Mabel at 9 a.m. to join the search for Madeline Kingsbury, a 26-year-old Winona woman who disappeared mysteriously Friday. Armed with maps, the searchers set out for clues. Among them were two of Kingsbury’s sorority sisters from Winona State. Mabel is 44 miles from Winona at the southern end of a massive search area. Police have at least one report of a minivan like Kingbury’s on Friday on Highway 43, which connects Winona and Mabel. Mabel also is the hometown of Kingsbury’s fiancé, Adam Fravel. Among search areas out of Mabel Thursday was Big Woods campground west of town. The terrain around Mabel is difficult. Another obstacle was getting permission from absentee property owners to go on their land. More ‘boots on the ground were needed, one searcher told KIMT news reporter Sananda McCall: “We need hundreds of people to cover this ground. It takes like 100 people in one field just to do I think what they call ‘American Arms ‘and if you send two people out there it’s just not enough.” They planned to head out again Friday.
School computers compromised: External attack?
ROCHESTER, Minn. – The Rochester public school’s computer system was shut down after technicians discovered “irregular activity” on its network. The shutdown interrupted network-based learning and telephone connections. Was it a ransomware attack for extortion? Nobody knew. A third-party cybersecurity company was summoned for a detailed examination of school systems and data.
Tomah man found dead north of Black River Falls
MERRILLAN, Wis. – A Tomah ma was found dead alongside a rural road just outside Merrillan. Deputies identified the man as Mitchell Norman Link II, age 35. The body was discovered about 3:20 p.m. Jackson County Sheriff Duane Waldera said an autopsy was ordered.
Link. Cause of death uncertain.
Teen to prison for blade attacks
ROCHESTER, Minn. – It will be two years prison for a Rochester teenager for two attacks last year – one with a machete, one with a knife. Jacob Bale. 18, had pleaded guilty. In one case, Bale struck a boy on the head with a machete. Earlier. according to the criminal complaint, he had sent the boy a nude photo with a caption calling him a “snitch.” That pornography count was dropped in a plea deal. Bale was also accused of pulling a knife on the father of a girlfriend while punching and kicking the father and another man in a street encounter.
Earlier: Rochester man accused in machete attack
Bale. Prison to include training on anger management.
College student arrested for huge tactical hoard
NORTHFIELD Minn. – A St. Olaf College sophomore was arrested after campus police found his dorm room stuffed with weaponry. Also in the room were a campus map showing entry and escape routes, notes on police radio frequencies, and detailed plans to steal ammunition from the Walmart in Northfield. Waylon Kurts, 20, of Middlesex, Vermont, was charged with:
> Conspiracy to commit threats of violence.
> Conspiracy to commit second-degree assault.
> Making terroristic threats.
The case began when a janitor found two empty packages of high-capacity magazines in a garbage can. The criminal complaint quoted Kurts that he was a gun enthusiast and didn’t believe he was breaking rules. There were no guns in his room. St.Olaf suspended him from the college.
Kurts. A high school track and field and Nordic skiing star in Montpelier, Vermont. At St. Olaf he ran track.
Tail-wagging end for dog in jeopardy
WINONA, Minn. – A caller said his dog had fallen through ice 60 yards out from the boat ramp. When a Fire Department rescue team arrived, the dog was hanging on to the ice shelf. Then as the rescuers were preparing to reach the dog, it climbed onto the ice and ran to shore. This is this story’s happy ending.
Search includes Highway 43-12 common path
Highway 43’s odd jog. A frontage road along Interstate 90.
Plea to people on route: Don’t erase video
WINONA, Minn. – The Highway 43 corridor south from Winona into Fillmore County includes a third search zone for missing Madeline Kingsbury of Winona. For three miles Highways 43 and 12 run concurrently along Interstate 90. This is between the Wilson Fire Station and the FedEx transfer depot halfway to Wyattville. Highway 43 departs at a right angle at the FedEx depot, passes under I-90, and heads straight south into Fillmore County. Winona Police Chief Tom Williams, the lead officer in the six-day-old search for Kingsbury, said there is reason to believe the concurrent three-mile 12-43 stretch was on the route of Kingsbury’s minivan the morning of March 31, when she disappeared. Williams asked people with video equipment on the route not erase their tapes but to call (507) 457-6288 or (800) 222-TIPS or go to the Crime-Stoppers site.
11 new Kwik Trips coming in Minnesota
LACROSSE, Wis. – The 525-store Kwik Trip convenience chain is continuing its march into Minnesota. The LaCrosse-based company announced 11 new stores coming this year in Cambridge Centerville, East Bethel, Elko New Market, Lino Lakes, Luverne, Kasson, Marshall, Melrose, Redwood Falls and Worthington.
Man removed for camping out in laundry room
WINONA, Minn. – A Winona man, apparently a squatter in a house converted to apartments, was removed by police and referred to the county attorney for possible burglary and drug charges. Police found Brett John Dennis, 36, in a laundry room with what seemed to be transient clothes, although police said he denied the clothes were his. Police noticed a small plastic bundle dangling from his shirt. The bundle’s contents tested as 0 .37 grams of meth, police said. How Dennis got into the locked laundry room wasn’t clear, hence the possible burglary charge. This was about 7:55 a.m. in the 100 block of Wabasha Street.
Prison time for laser attack on airliner
MADISON, Wis. – A Minnesota man was sentenced to prison for beaming a laser at an airliner approaching MSP, interrupting the plane’s communication system and damaging the pilot’s sight. Nicholas James Link, 43, of Rochester, will have two years in a cell to consider what he did. Link had pleaded guilty January. Federal Judge William Conley issued the sentence. The attack was from west of River Falls, Wisconsin — 38 miles short of MSP runways. Prosecutors during hearings had not attempted to link the laser attack to similar attacks on MSP-bound airplanes near Kenyon and Elba, Minnesota – both within 30 miles of Rochester., where link lives. River Falls, from where the Wisconsin attack occurred, is 70 miles from Rochester.
No-nonsense judge
At sentencing Judge Conley discounted Link’s argument that it was not commonly known that aiming a laser at aircraft was dangerous. The judge said that such incidents are frequently reported in the news and the danger is commonly known. The judge also mentioned that Link shined and strobed a handheld flashlight in the eyes of an officer during an arrest in 2017. The judge said too that he mindful that Link’s criminal record included numerous domestic assaults.
Airbus 319
The Delta configuration of its A319s has 132 seats. There are five crew members. Flight 2158 was nonstop to MSP from Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina. The captain has been a commercial airline pilot 28 years with 25,000 flight hours.
Detailing the strikes
Timothy O’Shea, U.S. attorney, gave this account of the October 29, 2021, attack, which was from the ground near River Falls:
> An Airbus A319, flown by Delta Airlines, was at 9,000 feet on a landing path to the Minneapolis-St. Paul airport.
> Just west of River Falls the plane was hit by blue laser beams. The cockpit lit up three times. The “sheer brightness” was like “suddenly turning on all the lights in a dark room.,” the pilot said.
> The strikes caused a major distraction in the cockpit. Neither the captain nor first officer was able to see instruments to respond to ground-control instructions to change runways.
> Eventually the pilots were able to reprogram a new approach and land safely.
> The captain’s vision in his right eye was affected several hours. The first officer did not suffer any disruption to his vision.
> Air traffic controllers at MSP called the Minnesota State Patrol, which flew an aircraft to River Falls to investigate.
> The State Patrol pilot circled the area at 3,500 feet. Their aircraft was also struck by a blue laser.
> Using the aircraft’s surveillance equipment, the State Patrol crew identified the coordinates of the beam’s source and called local authorities, all the while circling to maintain visual contact on the source of the attack.
> Police officers on the ground found Nicola James Link, who was at that time shining the laser at a drone. He then aimed again at the Minnesota State Patrol aircraft.
Accidental gunshot kills man near Centerville
CENTERVILLE, Wis. – A man shot himself accidentally and died in the parking lot at Composite Technologies on Highway 35 between Centerville and Marshland. The man, age 22, was dead before an air ambulance arrived from LaCrosse. This occurred about 7 a.m. Trempealeau County Sheriff Brett Semingson declined to release the man’s name.
Self-storage units ablaze on Gould Street
Burglary? Arson? At 105 Gould Street. Investigation underway. Image: Winona Fire Department
Lots of smoke: No injures at Edwards Mini Storage
WINONA, Minn. – Firefighters extinguished a fire at adjoining self-storage units at Edwards Mini Storage on Gould Street on the West End and, in the process, discovered there had been a burglary attempt. Locks had been cut on three units. Police arrived to investigate, this about 5 a.m. The last ember was out three hours later.
Ongoing search zones for Madeline Kingsbury
WINONA, Minn. – Police have kept up their hunt for Madeline Kingsbury in their original search zones while also looking 40 miles south into adjoining Fillmore County. Police Chief Tom Williams released two maps of the first, still-active search zones:
One-mile radius of home. Ground, air and water searches began April 1 outward from Kingsbury’s townhouse in the 350 block of Kerry Drive on Winona’s Far East End. The zone extended to Goodview and Bollers Lake.
Goodview and Minnesota City backwaters. From the Winona fleeting harbor upriver through swamps ad sloughs along Latsch Island
Only a couple beers, says reeking driver
WINONA, Minn. – After the motorist was stopped by police and lowered his car window for the officer, the cop knew right away that the guy had been drinking. It was his odor. Yes, the guy said, he had had a couple beers. Then Zackary Michael Frovik, 22, of Apple Valley, was asked to walk a straight line in a standard field test for impairment. He didn’t do well. A blood-alcohol check found his blood at 010% alcohol – too high. This was about 1:10 a.m. at downtown Fourth and Lafayette streets.
College scores
Baseball: Winona State 5, Bemidji State 4
Baseball: Winona State 16, Bemidji State 1, doubleheader
Softball: Winona State and Augustana, cancelled
Softball: Winona State and Augustana, doubleheader, cancelled
Anchor points in the day Kingsbury vanished
WINONA, Minn. – Police Chief Tom Williams shared the timeline that investigators have pieced together on the day that Madeline Kingsbury disappeared. Williams acknowledged lapses and unanswered questions in the timeline. He emphasized that the investigation was ongoing and that there were details he was not yet free to share. “We are doing everything we can to bring Madeline home,” the chief sad. “We are leaving no stone unturned.”
What police know
The timeline for March 31 as laid out by Police Chief Tom Williams:
> 8 a.m.: Madeline Kingsbury and the father of their children, ages 5 and 2, dropped them off at daycare.
> She failed to show up for work, which was “very unlike her.”
> 8:15 a.m.: She returned to her townhouse in the minivan.
> 10 a.m.: The father told police that he left the home in her minivan and returned later in the day and she was not home.
> 10 a.m. to 1:30p.m. A minivan, thought possibly to be gers, was seen on Highway 43 and south into eastern Fillmore County.
> This similar minivan returned toward Winona on Highway 43.
> 1:30 p.m. on: The minivan remained parked in the driveway at her townhouse from 1:30 p.m. on.
> Friends and family tried to contact her hut to no avail, which was “unlike her.”
In the townhouse, police discovered her mobile phone, the jacket she wearing in the morning, and her wallet and identification. Police also searched her minivan. Police found no evidence that she had left the townhouse on foot or in another vehicle.
Avian flu reappears, this time near LeSueur
LESUEUR, Minn. – The avian virus that devastated poultry farms nationwide in 2022 is bac but for now on a relatively small scale. A backyard flock of 114 birds was found infected last week and exterminated to prevent spread. The state Board of Animal Health said the flock was in LeSueur County in south-central Minnesota. There had been another minor outbreak, in December, in Redwood County in southwest Minnesota. It was thought to have been contained. The 2022 crisis claimed 58 million birds nationally and sent egg prices soaring.
Missing woman update: “Involuntary,” “suspicious”
WINONA, Minn. – Police Chief Tom Williams said all evidence points to the disappearance of Madeline Kingsbury as “involuntary and suspicious.” So far, he said at a news conference, police have no suspects or persons of interest. He expressed hope that “we will find her.” Williams was flanked at the news conference by members of the Kingsbury family, all wearing shirts with a photograph of Maddi with the all-cap bold-face word “missing” and personal details that could help the public recognize her. Williams said the search has involved countless people on foot, in vehicles and by water and air.
Williams. Police chief says investigation unstopping around the clock.
UM president leaving in July
MINNEAPOLIS – The president of the University of Minnesota, Joan Gabel, is leaving after four years to become chancellor of the University of Pittsburgh. Her new appointment is effective this summer when the current Pittsburg president retires. At Minnesota Gabel would be earning $750,00 a year. At Pitt, with five campuses and 34,000 students, she will earn $950,000.
Earlier: UM president cedes to ethics critics, quits Securian
Gabel profile
Her University of Minnesota accomplishments included strong growth in research, philanthropy and graduation rates. Her record was marred in recent months by a conflict of interest scandal for joining the governing board of the Securian insurance company, a UM vendor. In the end, she resigned from the Securian board.
Gabel. A wunderkid, she started college at age 16. Age now: 55.
Kingsbury family offers $50,000 to find Maddi
Sister Megan. Speaking for family, she thanks everyone who has helped with search.
“We need her back. We just want to find her.”
WINONA, Minn. – The family of Maddie Kingsbury, missing now for six days, offered a $50,000 reward for information to help find her. Her older sister Megan announced the reward surrounded by family at a tearful news conference at City Hall. Kingsbury, 26, disappeared Friday under suspicious circumstances. Tips can go to Winona Crime-Stoppers online or at (507) 507-457-6530. Anonymous information is welcome.
Pine Island frets about flooding, aged sewage plant
PINE ISLAND, Minn. – Minor flooding on the Zumbro River has Pine Island people on edge. Sandbags are ready, said Mayor David Friese. The concern is mostly about the city’s 70-year-old sewage treatment plant. In the past the plant has discharged wastewater into the Zumbro in high water. The city sought emergency permission from the state in 2019 to pump untreated water directly into the river.
Zumbro profile
Headwaters of the forks of the Zumbro River are near Hayfield in Dodge County, West Concord in Steele County, and Faribault in Rice County. The forks are each about 50 miles long. The South Fork flows through Rochester. From there the fork is dammed near Oronoco and backs up Lake Zumbro. The fork picks up other forks and branches as it flows through Pine Island, Hammon and Millville and into the Mississippi at Kellogg. Fish include bass, common carp, catfish, chub, northern pike and sunfish
Teen boys come to blows at high school
WINONA, Minn. – Police were called to Winona High School after staff tried to break up two brawling boys in the central concourse. This was about 9:30 a.m. Discipline was left to Principal Heather Fitzloff. The boys were 15 and 14, police said.
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