Minor busted for chat group threat
LAKE CITY, Minn. — Investigators traced an anonymous online threat to a Lincoln High School student and arrested him at home. The threat, posted on a group chat site, showed a weapon and “threatening language,” police said. As far as police can tell, the student didn’t possess the weapon but had acquired the image online. The school has 600 students in Grades 7 to 12.
Anti-ICE Winona protesters draw minor taunts
WINONA, Minn. — About 75 protesters continued their Monday practice of gathering on Broadway Street behind the post office. The focus again: Brutal excesses by ICE deportation agents in President Trump’s growing military-style surge into Minnesota. Commute-hour motorists honked support none louder, though, than a semi-truck driver with a deep throaty burst. The Monday demonstrations at Central Park have become a 4 p.m. ritual and growing. This week several Winona State University students were among first-timers. The demonstration was peaceful albeit vocal. There were two antagonist incidents, both short-lived and nothing physically violent. A car with two older men pulled over, one giving a thumbs down gesture through a closed window and driving off. Another driver rolled down his car window and shouted unintelligible negatives while claiming he was a military veteran. One protester, a Vietnam-era vet, shouted back that he was also a veteran. A female protestor on the sidewalk shouted that her father was a World War II veteran and was rolling over in his grave. The man then accused the protesters of all being paid to be here, to which everyone on the sidewalk laughed and shook their heads no. The man raised his window and drove away.
Pillow in a box One Winona protester was inspired by buttons that celebrities wore at the Golden Globe awards ceremony after Renee Nicole Good was killed by an ICE agent in Minneapolis. By all accounts from people who knew her, Good was a nonviolent person, loving her family and neighbors, and with no history that could have put her life on the line while peacefully protesting and being polite to ICE agents. The homemade sign, looking like a pillow inside a shallow box, was created out of materials easily at hand at home. Image: Andy Frank
Minnesota demands Trump to retreat
MINNEAPOLIS — Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison went to court to order President Trump to withdraw 2,000-plus combat-equipped deportation agents from the Twin Cities. The suit, filed in federal court, seeks to end:
> Using force against individuals peacefully engaging in constitutionally protected speech.
> Arresting, threatening and using force against innocent bystanders
> Pointing firearms at individuals who pose no threat to DHS agents.
> Carrying out enforcement actions at sensitive locations like schools, churches and hospitals.
The suit was filed on behalf of the state and the cites of Minneapolis and St. Paul. It names the federal Department of Homeland Security and related agencies that launched Operation Metro Surge in early December. Massive arrests followed, ostensibly aimed at violent immigrants but actually have been heavy handed political retribution aimed at Minnesota’s Trump-unfriendly political leadership. The Trump excesses became painfully personified when an agent shot and killed Renee Nicole Wood last week. She was neither an illegal immigrant nor a criminal. Details alleged in the lawsuit:
News conference. Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey flanked to his right by Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison and to his left by St. Paul Mayor Kaohly Her. They call Trump’s Operation Metro Surge disruptions as pure nastiness for political revenge, with immigration crackdown as a ruse.
> Armed and masked Trump agents have stormed the Twin Cities to conduct militarized raids and carry out dangerous, illegal and unconstitutional stops and arrests, all under the guise of lawful immigration enforcement.
> These agents have brazenly and repeatedly deployed excessive force and spread terror throughout the Twin Cities and beyond.
> Tangible harm has resulted. Municipalities have been forced to divert local law enforcement resources away from their normal public safety duties.
> Emergency responder resources have been strained, and schools have been forced into lockdowns and closures to protect students.
> Some local businesses have lost 50% to 80% of their customer base because they are fearful for their safety to venture out.
> The rights of Minnesotans have been violated time and time again.
The lawsuit alleges violations of the U.S. Constitution, which guarantee of equal sovereignty between state and federal governments. Also alleged are violations of the First Amendment, which guarantees freedom of expression, freedom of movement, and freedom to criticize government. Also ignored by Trump, the suit says: The U.S. Administrative Procedure Act, which prohibits federal agency actions that are arbitrary and capricious.
Verbatim
Frey: “Minneapolis didn’t ask for this operation, but we’re paying the price. When federal actions undermine public safety, harm our neighbors, and violate constitutional rights, we have a responsibility to act. That’s exactly what we’re doing today.”
Verbatim
Her: “Federal law enforcement’s occupation of our city is putting us all at risk. They’ve come into Saint Paul and needlessly invaded our neighborhoods and homes; they’re targeting us based on what we look and sound like. Our residents are scared, and as local officials, we have a responsibility to act.”
Verbatim
To the court: “Peaceful bystanders and law-abiding citizens have been arrested, had riot control munitions and chemical irritants used against them, had guns pointed at them, and more. Many United States citizens have been the victims of unlawful racial profiling by DHS agents due to the color of their skin or, in the words of one ICE agent, because ‘I can hear you don’t have the same accent as me.’ These individuals are frequently handcuffed and detained for hours by DHS agents for no reason. Immigration agents have targeted individuals in sensitive locations, including schools, medical facilities, places of worship, daycares, and funeral homes.”
Manure load rolls down bluffs; driver hurt
MINNEISKA, Minn. — A truck and semi-trailer carrying an estimated thee tons of manure rolled off crooked, steep and narrow County Road 25, which is carved into near vertical bluffs in dropping down into Minneiska. First-responders from Altura and Rollingstone used hydraulic tools to extricate the driver. His name was not available immediately. A med-evac helicopter flew him 37 miles to a Rochester hospital. The accident was about1 11:30 a.m. Ben Klinger emergency manager for Winona County, said that County Road 25 would be closed until manure and spilled fuel could be cleaned up. The accident was in the Taylor Hill coulee, which drains into the Mississippi River at U.S. Highway 61 in Minneiska. The route is the main access to blufftop farms.
Nutbush owner accused as video-snooper
LACROSSE, Wis. — A court date has been set for Onalaska restaurateur Fargo Hillman on a charge he set up a secret video camera in the bedroom if a woman he knew. Meanwhile Fargo Hillman, age 55, is free on $500 bail. Hillman was arrested December 19 after a 22-year-old woman told ploice that she found the camera, aimed at her bed from a closet, and that Hillman had access to her place. Police said the camera had a towel draped over top. The on-light was taped over, police said.
Hillman. Widely known for his Nutbush City Limits, which is famous or infamous, depending on your taste, for beer-infused pancake batter.
Jensen taps mate for 2026 governor bid
ST. PAUL, Minn. — The 2022 Republican candidate for governor, Scott Jenen, who is running again, named Phouthaivanh Wilkerson as his running mate. Wilkerson is a 30-year veteran with the Hennepin County sheriff’s office in Minneapolis. Her work is mostly recruitment and public engagement. Wilkerson said she reached out to Jensen to be his running mate. “When I heard Scott Jensen say, ‘Minnesota is for families who want to build it, and America is for Americans who want to love it,’ I heard my family’s story,” she said at the announcement ceremony. Wilkerson, a native Laotian, came to the United States as a child after Communists killed her father. In tapping Wilkerson, Jensen passed up his 2022 running mate, former Viking football player Matt Birk. Birk was a frequent off-message disaster for the 2022 ticket.
Wilkerson. Family values her emphasis.
Alternate-side parking tally at 1,344
WINONA, Minn. – Police issued 60 citations for overnight for alternate-side parking violations. The running tally:
> January 11: 60 citations.
> January 9 to 10: None. Officers had other priorities.
>January 8: 10 citations.
> January 7: 3.
> January 6: 2.1
:]> January 5: 25.
> January 4: 56.
> January 1 to 3: None. Officers had other priorities.
> December: 402 citations of which 45 were tagged and towed.
> November totals: 739 citations.
Trump’s Minnesota rage: Hundreds more troops
WASHINGTON — Frustrated at Minesota resistance to a massive influx of combat-ready immigration enforcement agents, President Trump has ordered “hundreds more” agents to Minneapolis. The announcement was made by Kristi Noem, Trump’s homeland security director. In a television interview Noem declined to specify how many additional agents would be shifted to Minnesota but said they were on their way. Trump already had 2,000 deportation agents in Minnesota. After one agent shot and killed a woman Wednesday, Trump immediately dispatched 100 more, ostensibly to “restore safety.” Now more are coming. Local authorities meanwhile have declared that the ICE presence is itself stirring public anxiety and fear and endangering safety with hundreds of secret raids and arrests without warrants. The Trump military presence is uninvited and unneeded, say Governor Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey.
Earlier: ICE agent ID’d in Minneapolis raid gone wrong
Earlier: Woman shot dead in Minneapolis ICE raid
Earlier: Mayor to Noem’s attack on sanctuary policy
Earlie: Noem: Get ready, Minnesota, for more federal presence
Buttigieg to talk up Obamacare in LaCrosse
LACROSSE, Wis.— Former U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg has rescheduled a town hall discussion in LaCrosse for Friday. His agenda: Healthcare costs. Registration is required. The event will be at 5 p.m. For security reasons the site will be released only to registrants. Buttigieg, a rising star in national Democratic politics, has been an advocate for maintaining the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare. President Trump has wanted to scrap Obamacare. That, says Buttigieg, would mean health insurance premiums would double or more for 300,000 people in Wisconsin this year.
Is this an Ole and Lena joke?
Advertising for July fireworks. On a barn on a chilly and windy January afternoon along U.S. Highway 53 in the Beaches Corner hamlet in Wisconsin’s central Trempealeau County. Also: Lutefisk being served come October: “All you can eat.” Uffda. Image: Steve Lunde
Notable journalism
Michael Biesecker, Jim Mustian and Giovanni Dell’Orto with Heather Holligsworth (Associated Press, January 8, 2026): “Family and Neighbors of Woman Who Was Shot by ICE Agent Made Minneapolis Home”
Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs with Michael Levenson and Mattathias Schwartz (New York Times, January 8, 2026): “Court Records Reveal ICE Agent’s Previous Dragging Incident”
Garett Owen (Salon. January 9, 2026): “ICE Officer Who Killed Minneapolis Woman Had Prior Violent Arrest that Made Him Fear for His Life”
News summary at week’s end: January 10, 2026
ICE SHOOTING: Trump’s Minnesota rage: Hundreds more troops
ICE SHOOTING: Winona protesters to Trump: Recall your troops
ICE SHOOTING: Expert: Outrage over ICE a Democratic plus
ICE SHOOTING: ICE agent ID’d in Minneapolis raid death
ICE SHOOTING: LaCrosse group protests Minnesota ICE deployment
ICE SHOOTING PROFILE: Kristi Noem
POLITICS: Buttigieg to talk up Obamacare in LaCrosse
RIVER: Main channel flow keeps ice at bay
NFERNO: Two die in major Rochester house fire
CRIME: High Court hears familiar Fravel appeal
CRIME: Driver hits snowbank, arrested as triple drunk
CRIME: Car overturns, left untended; driver later arrested
College scores
Basketball (men): MSU-Moorhead 83, Winona State 79
Basketball (men): Concordia of Moorhead 76, Saint Mary’s 58
Basketball (women): Winona State 84, MSU-Moorhead 80
Basketball (women): Saint Mary’s 63, Concordia of Moorhead 51
Basketball (women): UW-Platteville 66, UW-
Hockey (men): Gustavus Adolphus 5, Saint Mary’s 3
Hockey (women): UW-Eau Claire 7, Saint Mary’s 0
Minnesota scores
Basketball (boys): Winona Winhawks 58, Rochester Century Panthers 53
Basketball (boys): Zumbrota-Mazeppa Cougars 71, Winona Cotter/Winona Hope 55
Basketball (boys): Lewiston-Altura Cardinals 78, Wabasha-Kellogg Falcons 39
Basketball (girls): Rochester Century Panthers 70, Winona Winhawks 41
Wisconsin prep
Zumbrota crash injures Rochester driver
ZUMBROTA, Minn.— A Rochester driver was injured in a two-vehicle accident near Zumbrota and taken 28 miles to a Rochester hospital. Injuries to Wing Sum Vincy Tam, 29, were described as less than life-threatening. A passenger, Cheuk Yiu Leung, 33, of Rochester, escaped injury. So did two Plainview persons in the other vehicle: Mark Ralond Steneman, 76, and Garrel Lynn Steneman, 72. The accident was about 7:45 p.m. on US. Highway 52 near 440th Street. Police said Steneman’s 2016 Kia Sorento was entering Highway 52 and collided Tam’s 2025 Buick Envista in the left lane.
Winona protesters to Trump: Recall your troops
WINONA, Minn. — Several hundred angry but peaceful demonstrators lined all four corners at Central Park and spread several deep down the block. They were unhappy, very unhappy, with President Trump’s assignment of 2,100 deportation agents to Minneapolis. The slaying of a woman by an ICE agent in Minneapolis on Monday was specifically what ignited the Winonna demonstration. Carol Bromeland, an organizer, said Winonans were “terrified” at Trump immigration enforcement practices. Since taking office in January, his agents have rounded up 70,000 people for deportation. Winona, population 25,000, is a city that celebrates its immigrant roots, mostly Polish and Germans. At the Saturday demonstration there lots of chants. The crowd returned over and over to Matin Luther King Jr.’s civil rights anthem “We Shall Overcome.” A drummer’s incessant beat reinforced the crowd’s resolve. Cow bells clanged. The only counter-protestor was a coatless man with an anti-abortion poster that seemed out of touch with the thrust of the anti-ICE demonstration. Dozens of drivers on busy Main and Broadway streets honked support of the event’s theme. There was no police presence, none needed, although a black squad car made an occasional pass. Winona police policy for large gatherings is to be alert for safety or traffic issues and a possible medical emergency.
Chilly, windy afternoon. Anti-ICE demonstrators defied unfriendly weather to object to President Trump’s escalating attacks on Minnesota. The man focus: Reckless immigration policy enforcement. Other demonstrations were occurring in the Twin Cities, Rochester, LaCrosse and elsewhere in he nation. Images: Andy Frank
A protest portfolio
No niceties minced his words.
A rally’s heartbeat always a drummer.
Canines aplenty.
Gestapo synonym.
To quote the U.S. Constitition. The issue: Reckless and false ICE arrests.
Lest anyone forget: Her name was Renee Nicole Wood, shot dead in Minneapolis.
Grand and istoric backdrop. John Wesley United Methodsit Church.
Earlier: LaCrosse group protests Minnesota ICE deployment
Earlier: Mass Minneapolis vigil shows sadness, anger
Earlier: Woman shot dead in Minneapolis ICE raid
Earlier: Walz cancels re-election campaign
Expert: Outrage over ICE a Democratic plus
WINONA, Minn. — Political scientist Darrell Downs sees the violence associated with ICE as creating a “slight benefit” for whomever the Minnesota Democrats nominate to replace Tim Walz. “I expect the GOP is disappointed that they won’t have Walz as their scapegoat,” Downs said. Walz, a Democrat, has shut down his campaign for re-election to a third term. Minnesota Republicans, goaded by Trump’s incessant attacks on Walz, had pinned their 2026 gubernatorial hopes against Walz by saddling him with lax supervision of funding for private public services agencies. Come election day, Downs said, the negative feelings over recent ICE incursions may outweigh the simmering fraud issue that Republicans have been advancing.
Earlier: Mass Minneapolis vigil shows sadness, anger
Earlier: Woman shot dead in Minneapolis ICE raid
Earlier: Walz cancels re-election campaign
Downs. Political science professor at Winona State University.
Multiple indicators lead to DWI arrest
WINONA, Minn. — A Rushford driver was arrested after a breath test showed her system running 0.09% alcohol, a full notch above the state-defined 0.08% for intoxication. During a traffic stop the arresting officer had smelled a light odor of alcohol from the vehicle driven by Hannah Dawn Ronnenberg, age 20. The office said her eyes were bloodshot and watery and her speech slurred. This was about 11:20 p.m. at Wabasha and South Baker streets on the West Side.
Still standing in sunset stillness at Wilson
Immaculate Conception. People don’t worship here anymore, but the solid rock structure remains as testimony to a once-vibrant albeit small rural parish. This sunset was Wednesday. Image: Kevin O’Reilly
Two die in major Rochester house fire
ROCHESTER, Minn. — Two persons were found in the garage of a large single-family house that was all ablaze. Firefighters pulled them out, but resuscitation attempts failed. The fire was reported about 10:15 p.m. Authorities said they would release the victims’ names as soon as the medical examiner could identify them. It was known that both were adults. When firefighters arrived, heavy smoke was coming from the garage, main floor and rear roofline. They determined the fire started in the garage and attic but were unsure of the cause.
Cause under investigation. Five units responded fire in the 800 block of Fox Point Lane Southwest Image: Rochester Fire Department
College scores
Basketball (men): UM-Crookston 67, Winona State 62
Basketball (women): Winona State 86, UM-Crookston 66
Gymnastics (women): Air Force 194.750, Winona State 190.025
Hockey (men): Gustavus Adolphus 5, Saint Mary’s 4
Hockey (women): Saint Mary’s 2, UW-Eau Claire 1
Minnesota scores
Wisconsin prep
Basketball (boys): Sparta Spartans 79, Arcadia Raiders 44
Basketball (boys): Galesville Gale-Ettrick-Trempealeau Red Hawks 77, Cochrane-Fountain City Pirates 50
Basketball (boys):Elmwood-Plum City Wolves 65, Gilmanton Panthers 52
Basketball (girls): Alma Center Lincoln Hornets 63, Melrose-Mindoro Mustangs 56
Basketball (girls): Eleva-Strum Cardinals 70, Osseo-Fairchild Thunder 22
Basketball (girls): Independence Indees 52, Whitehall Norse 42
ICE agent ID’d in Minneapolis raid death
MINNEAPOLIS — The ICE deportation agent who shot and killed a Minneapolis woman in her car this week was Minnesota-based Jonathan Ross. Eerily Ross’s record with ICE has a somewhat parallel incident in June in suburban Bloomington. He shot a motorist in the face during a traffic stop and later offered an excuse that he feared for his life. It’s the same excuse that his supervisors are making for him in shooting Renee Nicole Good in the face on Wednesday — that he feared for his life, that it was self-defense. To be sure, the Trump administration has refused to identify Ross as the ICE agent in Good’s death, but his name has been confirmed by multiple news sources. The government’s refusal to identify Ross publicly has been part of a quickly hatched scheme Wednesday morning to create a false narrative about what happened. The scheme was put in place immediately after shooting by Kristi Noem, chief of the cabinet-level federal Homeland Security Department, Noem’s department runs the Immigration Control and Enforcement agency. At a hastily convened news conference in Texas, Noem blamed Good, whom she falsely called a “domestic terrorist,” and tried without evidence to exonerate the ICE agent who shot her. This was still amid confusion at the scene 1,400 miles away in Minneapolis.
Noem. Spinning fact-loose and dubious account of fatal ICE shooting. At news conference in Brownsville, Texas, even before the shooting of Renee Nicole Good could be investigated.
Noem nrofile
Kristi Noem had just been elected to a second term as governor of South Dakota when President Donald Trump named her director of the cabinet-level U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Noem’s qualifications dumb-founded political observers. It appeared a further reflection of Trump’s attraction to weak but flashy appointees. Noem, age 53, a fashionista, was famous for multiple wardrobe changes a day. Her grand smile was a dental resurrection. She disturbed readers of her 2024 autobiography “No Going Back” with an unremorseful account of shooting her family’s 14-month-old puppy Cricket for ruining a pheasant hunt with guests by “chasing all those birds and having the time of her life.” As Trump’s Homeland Security secretary, Noem has overseen a massive build-up of immigration control and border agents. These agents have rounded up thousands of immigrants and deported them without a day in court to the hell-hole Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorism prison in El Salvador. The prison is operated as an international profit center by ruthless EL Salvador strongman-dictator Nayib Bukele, a Trump ally. Noem’s record at Homeland Security has been not as honest counsel to Trump on policy but as an unflinching executor of his instructions.
Ignominous locale choice. On publicity photoshoot outside CECOT prison in El Salvador.
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