Cops break up brawling kids, parents at East Rec
WINONA, Minn. – The staff put the East End Recreational Center on lockdown after parents showed up and jumped into a brawl among school kids outside. City police with backup from county sheriff’s deputies separated the combatant, who began dispersing. This was about 4 p.m. Police were told that bullying at school had carried over to the rec center. Police anticipated disorderly conduct charges as soon as they can review video. When officers arrived, they said tat five or six adults were shouting, shoving and punching, plus the kids. There were no serious injuries as far as police could determine. Apparently the brawl first involved two girls, age 12 and 13.
East Rec profile
The drop-in East End Recreation Center, at Fourth and Zumbro streets, includes a gym, basketball courts, a gaming room, and crafts areas. The center is operated by the city. No alcohol is allowed. The center is available for meetings. Capacity: 466 in gym, 140 in the game room, and 26 in a studio Room 26.
After-school gathering place. Offers wide range of neigborhood activities for teenagers and others.
Walz acts to protect trans-gender people
ST. PAUL, Minn. – Governor Tim Walz issued an executive order to shield the identity of people undergoing gender therapy. The order, effective in April, also specifies that state agencies will protect people who provide gender-change counseling and care. The governor, a Democrat, said the order is partly a reaction to some states. mostly in Republican control, where gender-affecting health-care is being banned. Minnesota, Walz said, will refuse requests from other states to extradite individuals accused of committing acts related to gender-affirming care.
Verbatim
Walz: “As states across the country move to ban access to gender-affirming care, we want LGBTQ Minnesotans to know they will continue to be safe, protected, and welcome in Minnesota. In Minnesota, you will not be punished for seeking or providing medical care. This Executive Order delivers the urgent action that our LGBTQ Minnesotans deserve.”
Minnesota GOP promises post-scandal clean slate
ST. PAUL, Minn. – The Minnesota Republican Party is tryig to put recently disclosed campaign finance lapses in the past. In a statement, the state GOP executive director, Mike Lonergan, said the fine for 2020 violations has been paid $53,000 to the Federal Elections Commission. Another $59,000 will be paid in March, he said. “The MNGOP has fully addressed the findings of the audit, Lonergan said. He noted that the party has had a change in management – a clean slate. The fines, he said, were for events that occurred under the leadership of former state party chair Jennifer Carnahan, who resigned in 2021.
Lonergan. State Republican chair.
Hotel elevator goes kerplunk; guests trapped
WINONA., Minn. – Guests at the four-story AmericInn hotel on the Far West End were caught in a stalled elevator until rescuers from the Fire Department arrived. This was about 10:10 p.m. Power had been lost, firefighters said.
AmericInn. 300 Pelzer Street.
College scores
Baseball: Winona Sate 11, Wesleyan of West Virginia 5
Softball: Winona State 4, Alderson Broaddus 3
Tennis (women): Tampa 6, Winona State 1
Wisconsin prep
Basketball (boys): West Salem Panthers 112, Galesville-Ettrick-Trempealeau Red Hawks 43
Summer target for new Winona train
WINONA, Minn. – Details are coming together for a second daily round-trip train service through Winona. Trista Matascastillo, chair of the Great River Rail Commission, said service could begin as soon as summer. Tentatively the trains would run four hours behind the current Empire Builder.
> East bound: A day train would depart St. Paul about noon with a 3 p.m. stop in Winona and a late-night arrival in Chicago.
> West bound: An overnight train would depart Chicago about 4 p.m. with a midnight stop in Winona and an early-morning arrival in St Paul.
Earlier: New locomotives on Empire Builder
Red-nose power. New trains may be pulled by Amtrak’s recently acquired low-emission Siemens Charger locomotives.
Outburst: Angry Byron solon loses it
ST. PAUL, Minn. – Short-fused State Representative Duane Quom, R-Byron, disrupted a House committee hearing with an outburst at the Democratic committee chair. Several committee members likened the outburst to a childish temper tantrum. What set Quom off? A request by the committee chair to clarify a question he was repeating to a witness. The question was worded confusingly and its relevancy was unclear. Confusingly Quom stumbled into the question. again. The committee chair, Mike Freiberg, D-Golden Valley, again interrupted Quom to clarify. Quom didn’t. Freibeg then tried to move on from Quom’s question. Quom went ballistic and screamed: “Haul me out of the committee if you’re not going to allow us to actually debate the darn bill! I will not allow you to ignore valid questions!” Freiberg pounded his gavel to force order. All this is on video.
Quom temper
Quom has a reputation for disruptive behavior. In 2018 he grabbed a microphone from another legislator and wouldn’t let go. Finally he threw the device at her. Quom makes his living as an engineer. He is a former member of the Byron School Board.
Quom. first elected to the Minnesota House in 2010. Age: 68.
Truck retrieval closes Mississippi River route
Mired in corn field. Just north of Nelson.
Driver escapes injury in sliding off road
NELSON, Wis. – A semi-tractor and trailer left State Highway 35 near the Route 25 exit up the Chippewa River to Durand. The truck remained right but stranded in a cornfield. The driver was unhurt. Buffalo County deputies closed Highway 35 at 11 a.m. so tow trucks could pull the rig back to the pavement. The highway is the main riverside artery connecting LaCrosse and St. Paul on the Wisconsin side.
Emergency, fire crews make 39 calls
WINONA, Minn. – The Fire Department reported 28 emergency medical calls plus 11 fire calls in recent days:
> Tuesday, March 7: No medical calls plus 2 fire call.
> Monday, March 6: 5 medical calls plus 2 fire call.
> Sunday, March 5: 4 medical calls plus 1 fire call.
> Saturday, March 4: 8 medical calls plus 2 fire calls.
> Friday, March 3: 3 medical calls plus 2 fire calls.
> Thursday, March 2: 4 medical calls plus 1 fire call.
> Wednesday, March 1: 4 medical calls plus 1 fire call.
Earlier: Emergency, fire crews make 45 ca1ls
How they voted: Minnesota infrastructure / 1
ST. PAUL, Minn. – The Minnesota House voted 91-43 to spend $1.9 billion for state construction projects. The bill , whch requires borrowing, next goes to the Senate. How southeast House members voted:
For infrastructure package
Peggy Bennett, R-23A (Albert Lea)
Greg Davids, R-26B (Preston)
Kim Hicks, D-25A (Rochester)
Tina Liebling, D-24B (Rochester)
Patricia Mueller, R-23B (Austin)
Bjorn Olson, R-22A (Elmore)
Gene Pelowski, D-26A (Winona)
John Petersburg, R-19B (Waseca)
Joe Schomacker, R-21A (Luverne)
Andy Smith, D-25B (Rochester
Against
Marj Fogelman, R-21B (Fulda)
Steve Jacob, R-20B (Elba)
Brian Pfarr, R-22B (LeSueur)
Lake Pepin ice firm at thickest points
LAKE CITY, Minn. – Ice remained at 22 inches on parts of Lake Pepin in the latest weekly measurement by the Army Corps of Engineers. At its thickest, the ice pack was 11 inches of solid blue ice and 11 of bubble-infused white ice. At seven of the Corps measuring points there was open water. Elsewhere, the Mississippi river’s navigation channel was clear of ice. And so too the lower reaches of the Black, Chippewa, LaCrosse, Trempealeau and Zumbro rivers – although not the backwaters.
Bore points. The Army Corps has 25 points to check Lake Pepin ice to help calculate when it’s safe to open the lake to towboats and barges. The maps shows the typical mid-winter ice pack. The darker the color, the thicker the ice. The Mississippi River navigation channel through the 22-mile lake is the mid-lake line.
Petty wreck: Police car bumps pickup
WINONA, Minn. – A police sergeant pulled into a traffic lane on Mankato Avenue and bumped a four-door pickup truck. No one was injured. There was superficial damage to the pickup, none to the squad car. The incident was about 1:25 a.m. Per protocol, the Police Department asked the Sheriff’s Officer to investigate as an external agency.
Storm watch issued: Perhaps 10 inches
WINONA, Minn. – A winter blast with seven to 10 inches of snow was forecast beginning Thursday afternoon. The National Weather Service identified the most vulnerable areas as south of Intestate 94 – in southeast Minnesota, southwest Wisconsin nad northeast Iowa. The heaviest fall, an inch an hour, will be Thursday evening, forecasters said. The evening commute could be hazardous, they noted. In Minnesota, the winter storm watch incudes Dodge, Fillmore, Houston, Mower, Olmsted, Wabasha and Winona counties.
GOP agrees to fines for campaign finance lapses
ST.PAUL, Minn. – Two attorneys for the Minnesota Republican Party seemed to acknowledge the facts of a Federal Elections Commission audit on financial irregularities in GOP campaign spending records but diminshed them as “minor reporting issues.” Fact: Those “minor issues” involved $1.6 million. Toner and Zehr’s characterization of “minor issues” was in a letter to the Commission in response t $110,000 in fines. In the letter Toner and Zehr said the GOP agreed to pay the fines – not to contest them. Toney and Zehr said the state GOP executive committee was addressing the audit’s findings internally with “a number of proactive steps.”
Rochester ponders ending police school presence
ROCHESTER, Minn. –The Rochester School Board may choose not to renew its contract with the Rochester Police Department for on-site officers. There has been ongoig uneasiness about uniformed “school resource officers” on school grounds and hallways. The Board now has ordered a study on the cost of alternatives to SROs, perhaps putting trained educators in the positions. Likely an alternative would cost more. The district and the Rochester Police Department now share the SRO salaries.
College scores
Softball: Winona State 3, Lewis 2
Softball: Winona State 6, Cedarville 1
Minnesota prep
Thief apparently traverses Midwest for calculators
WINONA, Minn. – The latest stop of a traveling shoplifter who specializes in hand-held calculators may have been Winona, police said. A security agent at the Target store on the Far East End reported a man walking out with $1,600 worth of calculators. The devices had been removed from their plastic-sealed packaging, the agent said. The report to police was about 10:10 p.m. Target said it has had similar calculator thefts at other stores.
Mystery messages slipped under car wipers
WINONA, Minn. – Two days in a row people parked at the Winona hospital have found messages and photos slipped under their windshield wipers. The messaging appears incoherent. Who’s doing this? Police have video of a white sedan and an adult woman putting sheets under wipers but are dumbfounded at why. One message said: “Endured with toxic nerve agent.” One sheet was a photo of a Mille Lacs police car, another of a Leech Lake police car. One sheet was a photo of a woman whom police have been unable to identify.
Minnesota GOP fined $110,000 for financial mess
WASHINGTON – The already scandal-stained Minnesota Republican Party is beset again. The Federal Election Commission has fined the Party $110,000 for campaign finance violations during the 2018 and 2020 election cycles. After an audit uncovered $1.6 million irregularities, the agency voted 4-2 to lev the fines. The irregularities occurred when Jennifer Carnahan was state party chair and Federal and Lee Prinkillas were treasurers. Carnahan was forced out of party leadership in 2021 after revelations that she and her husband, Congressman Jim Hagedorn of southern Minnesota, had accepted major donations from a close associate accused of teen-age sex trafficking. The Prinkillas also have since been stricken from party directories. In summary, the audit reported violations 12 regulations regarding the accurate reporting of $1.6 million in campaign spending as well as accepting more than $48,000 in campaign donations above federal legal limits.
2018 campaign irregularities
> Insufficient employee logs for $298,000.
> Insufficient records for $713,000 in disbursements to 13 different vendors.
> Errors on transfers for $64,300 to party committees.
> Failure to report allocation ratios for $73,000 for expenses and disbursements.
> Failure to properly disclose the purpose and the terms of $526,000 in bank loans and lines of credit.
2020 campaign irregularities
> Failure to report timely and accurate receipts and disbursements contributions exceeding the $10,000 legal limit.
> Acceptance of $59,000 from 11 individuals exceedig the $10,000 max.
GOP recidivism
The new finesnare ot the first time the Federal Election Commission has penalized the Minnes0tan Republican Party. The party paid unrelated fines in 2011 and 2012.
Federal Election Commission profile
The Federal Election Commission is an independent governent agency to enforce campaign finance laws. Its members are appointed by the president and must include representatives of both major political parties. The Commission ws unable to function during much of the Trump administration because Trump reused to fill vacancies. There no quorm. Even when eventually staffed under President Biden, the Commission deadlocked because it had equal numbers of Republicans and Democrats. There was tie-breaking vote. Controversial investigations went unpursued. At one point 350 matters were unaddressed on the agency’s docket. In 2020, President Biden appointed three commissioners to restore a quorum. In the case of the Minnesota Republican Party, the irregularties, were so egregious that commissers voted 4-2 to invoke penalties, Republican Commissioner Allen Dickerson joined the three Democrats — Chairwoman Dara Lindenbaum and commissioners Shana Broussard and Ellen Weintraub – voted to issue a fine. Republican commissioners Trey Trainor and Sean Cooksey dissented.
An end to limits on immigrant driver licensing
ST. PAUL, Minn. – Governor Tim Walz signed a new law that qualifies 80,000 immigrants for driver licenses begining in October. The law makes Minnesta the 18th state to grant licenses to residents regardless of immigration status. Dozens of immigrants and supporters huddled around Walz’s desk for the signing ceremony. Applicants must still pass written and road tests, but they won’t be asked for proof of U.S. citizenship or permanent residency. Critics in the Legislature, mostly Republicans, worried that the bill would encourage voter fraud. Democrats responded that there hasn’t been a single case in 20 years of a driver license being used for illegal voting.
Earlier: Senate votes to expand driver license eligibility
Genesis in 9/11
The new law reverses a 2003 change by under Republican Governor Tim Pawlenty barring people without legal status from getting driving licenses. Pawlenty acted after the September 11, 2001, aerial attacks by Middle Eastern terrorists on New York and Washington that killed 3,000 people. In signing the new law, Walz, a Democrat, called the old restrictions a punitive iver-reaction. “We’re going to erase 20 years of a bad policy and lift up the dignity of all Minnesota,” he said.
Burglary: $8,000 in copper scrap
WINONA, Minn. – A contractor reported $8,000 worth of copper scrap and fittings missing from a work site at the Tau Center on the Cotter Schools campus. Also missing was a laptop tablet computer and a torch kit, police were told. The laptop was later found discarded in a trash bin.
R.I.P.: Daniel Mertes
WABASHA, Minn. – Daniel George Mertes, 84, of Wabasha, died at St. Elizabeth’s Care Center in Wabasha with advanced dementia. He graduated from Winona Cotter High School in 1957. He held a 1961 mechanical drafting certificate from Northwest Technical Institute in Minneapolis. He was in the Army during the Vietnam war. After the military, he worked at Remington Rand’s Univac computer division in St. Paul, then to Taystee Bread. He retired from Brownberry Baking Company. In Wabasha he volunteered at St. Elizabeth’s Hospital. He belonged to the Duluth Kiwanis and he Wabasha American Legion post.
Detail: Watkowski-Mulyck Funeral Home
1938-2023
Insider news: Best Buy closing 30 stores
RICHFIELD, Minn. –The Minnesota-based Best Buy chain of 1,000 tech stores plans to close 30 this year in the face of declining corporate revenue, according to the insider trade journal Retail Dive. The journal didn’t identify the stores being closed. The revenue issue is this: Down 3.8% to $43.8 million. In Minnesota already, the Shakopee and Blaine stores have been closed ,although the Blaine site is being refitted as a discount outlet.
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