Basketball (girls): Eau Claire Immanuel Lancers  52, Whitehall Norse 40

ROCHESTER, Minn. – With an unconscious woman over a shoulder, a firefighter carried her out of a burning house to safety. With life-saving measures, she seemed to respond and was taken by paramedics to a hospital. The fire was about 9 p.m. The woman was nonresponsive in a first-floor bedroom.  Meanwhile, flames and smoke were coming from upstairs. Two large dogs were in the house. One was resuscitated.

Heavy smoke, ore damage. In 1-1/2 story house at 525 Third Avenue Northwest Image: Rochester Fire Department

WINONA, Minn. – A fire crew responding to smoke and odors on the West End found a self-cleaning oven was the culprit. So too the home-owner, who had left the house unattended to go off on errands. Firefighters unplugged the oven. This was about 7:30 p.m. in the 800 block of West Mark Street.

WINONA, Minn. – Firefighters shut off the gas and unplugged a stove in putting out an acrid fire in the 300 block of Harriet Street. What happened? Plastic had fallen down on an oven burner and ignited and then melted onto the lower heat shield. There were no injuries. Light smoke and odor was ventilated. This was about 5:30 p.m.

WINONA, Minn. – Police located a 16-year-old run-away girl missing since January 23 from her family’s home in the LaCrosse suburb of Campbell. Ma’iingan Couture was bunking at an apartment in the 700 East block of Belleview in Winona. She had been moving from place to place, police said. Couture was taken to a Winona juvenile facility while police pondered whether charges were in order for harboring her as a juvenile.

Family photo. Girl had called her family a day earlier to say she was OK but didn’t say where. Police traced the call and asked Winona police to assist.

CLOQUET, Minn. – The pilot of a homemade aircraft knew as soon as he took off from a Fredenberg field that his landing gear had fallen off. He considered an emergency landing 20 miles away at the Cloquet airport but decided instead to shift an additional eight miles west and come down on the frozen surface of Big Lake. The drama ended about 1:45 p.m. The ice held.  The plane too — pretty much. The pilot was unhurt. Carlton County Sheriff Kelly Lake did not release the pilot’s name.

Smacks down on frozen lake. Flight started as a weekend lark. Image: Paul Carpenter

WINONA, Minn. – A helicopter rotor blade was reported stolen from outside a hangar at the Winona airport. The rotor  was taken some time over the winter but not missed until now, police were told. The rotor was valued at $1,500. The black-market value of the rotor to anyone not in aviation could be only the titanium leading edge, which goes for $50 a pound, but a single rotor doesn’t have much. Other than that, the spars are are precisely crafted stainless steel surrounding a fiberglass skeleton. The trailing edge is covered with a graphite composite.

WINONA, Minn. – Firefighters were called to smoke at the Bluff View Flats apartments on Sugar Loaf Road. Somebody’s toast had burned. Firefighters called their dispatcher to cancel reinforcements. This was about 10 a.m.

Brunch time. 1116 Sugar Loaf Road.

RIDGEWAY, Minn. – A Wisconsin driver whom a deputy said was passed out at the wheel on County Road 12 between Ridgeway and Witoka was charged with drunken driving. Christopher Rodney Lantz, 34, of Onalaska, had pulled himself over about 11:40 p.m. when the deouty found him. His blood’s content tested at 0.16% alcohol, according to a field test – double what’s allowable.

Gymnastics (women): UW-LaCrosse 190.775, UW-Whitewater 188.350

Hockey (men): Concordia of Moorhead 7, Saint Mary’s 1

Hockey (women): Saint Mary’s 1, Concordia of Moorhead 1

Tennis (women): Winona State 7, Bemidji State 0

Tennis (men): Northwestern of St. Paul 6, Saint Mary’s 3

Tennis (women): Northwestern of St. Paul 7, Saint Mary’s 2

HOMER, Minn. – A deputy quickly figured out why a car was parked on the dark shoulder of Highway 61 in Homer. The driver, asleep behind the wheel, was drunk. Once awakened, Brandon Steven Reutzel, 28, of Winona, consented to a field sobriety test. His blood was running 0.15% alcohol – plainly too high. Things turned worse for Reutzel. The deputy found marijuana, albeit it not much, and related paraphernalia. This was about 8 p.m.

WINONA, Minn. – Firefighters raced up to the second floor of a Winona State University dorm to find, well, just a pot overheated on a stovetop. Somebody’s Dinty Moore was ruined This was in a communal kitchenette about 5:30 p.m, in the 200 block of West Sanborn Street. Kids these days.

ROCHESTER, Minn. – A judge set bail at $100,000 for a 73-year-old Rochester man for repeated rapes of a 6-year-old girl. The incidents, according to a criminal complaint, were over eight months in 2022. The charge against Charles Robert Baker:  Criminal sexual conduct. Police were alerted in August by a Mayo Clinic physician who suspected the girl  had been sexually assaulted. Part of the physician’s concern was the 6-year-old’s “inappropriately comprehensive knowledge of human sexuality.” Police uncovered conversations from Baker’s home security system with him describing the sexual abuse he was planning for the girl, according to the criminal complaint..

Baker. Among evidence: The girl knew more than a 6-year-old should about sexual anatomy.

ROCHESTER, Minn. — A Rochester man was arraigned on a charge of exploiting a vulnerable adult sexually. David Meilander, 46, was employed by an agency as caretaker for the woman. The corporeal relationship was at his house, according to the criminal complaint. Police began investigating in November after a report of inappropriate activity for about a year. The complaint said that Meilander first denied a sexual relationship and claimed the woman  had never been at his house. However, a witness reported otherwise. Confronted, Meilander admitted all, the complaint said.

WINONA, Minn. – The train still stops twice a day in Winona, but the depot isn’t open.  Amtrak confirmed that the part-time depot master quit unexpectedly. So no one is there to unlock the place or greet travelers. You’re on your own to wait outside, whatever the weather – and hope the Empire Builder isn’t running late. No candy machine. No soda machine. No toilets. An Amtrak spokesperson in Chicago said the company is looking to hire. Need to buy a ticket? Try the on-train conductor.

Earlier: Couple overnighted in train depot toilet

Track-side bench. A place to sit and wait. The depot, built by the old Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul & Pacific railroad in 1888, is on the National Register of Historic Places. Image: Steve Lunde

WINONA, Minn. – Police remained stymied about what happened to a Winona man who woke up two weeks ago with horrendous injuries but who insists, despite broken bones, that he wasn’t assaulted. He told police that he had no idea what happened. The injuries included a shattered shoulder, a vertebrae injury and broken hip. Police were called February 2 to the man’s downtown apartment at 100 Main Street. The initial diagnosis at the Winona hospital included a heart problem. The man, age 42, was transferred to a Rochester hospital. He told attendants that he had awakened in great pain. A neighbor heard his screams and called an ambulance. There were no bruises or cuts. Police have checked with neighbors, looked for surveillance video, and tried tracking electronic communications — but no clues. The man lived alone, Family members said he has been unable to explain to them what happened.

WINONA, Minn. – Marauders rummaged through cars parked overnight on the street, none of them locked, police said. Two incidents were in the 100 block of East 10th Street. The third was on West Eighth.