Emergency, fire crews make 47 calls
WINONA, Minn. – The Fire Department reported 38 emergency medical calls plus 9 fire calls in recent days:
> Tuesday, January 24: 6 medical calls plus no fire calls.
> Monday, January 23: 4 medical calls plus 2 fire call.
> Sunday, January 22: 4 medical call plus no fire calls.
> Saturday, January21: 5 medical calls plus 2 fire calls.
> Friday, January 20: 8 medical calls plus 3 fire calls.
> Thursday, January 19: 5 medical calls plus 2 fire calls.
> Wednesday, January 18: 6 medical calls plus no fire calls.
Earlier: Emergency, fire crews make 56 ca1ls
Driver hurt in I-90 rollover on “straight ice”
ST. CHARLES, Minn. – A vehicle overturned east of St. Charles about 3:40 a.m. Jenna Guenther, 50, of Rushford, was taken 30 miles to a Rochester hospital. Her injuries were reported as non-life threatening. She was alone the vehicle. a 2000 Chevrolet Blazer. Sheriff’s deputies reported the interstate as “straight ice.”
Notable journalism
Jake Litman (KWNO radio, January16, 2023): On-air interview with State Representative Gene Pelowski
Liz Navratii (Minneapolis Star Tribune, February 15, 2023): “Minnesota State College Southeast President Broke Rules on Gifts, Workplace Respect, Investigators Say.”
Alexandra Retter (Winona Post, January 11, 2023): Behind the Scenes with Zamboni Drivers”
Jacob Shafer (Winona Daily News, January16, 2023): The DaVinci Robot at Winona Heath”
Prof: Her reputation sullied in Islamic brouhaha
ST. PAUL, Minn. — A part-time art instructor sued Hamline University, saying she was subjected to religious discrimination and defamation that damaged her professional and personal reputation. Erika Lopez Prater asked for $350,000. She had shown a centuries-old artwork depicting the Islamic prophet Muhammad in a global art lecture. A Muslim student, Aram Wedatalla, objected that she was offended because of a belief that Muhammad should never be depicted. The university responded by telling Lopez Prater that she wouldn’t be rehired. The depiction was part of an October lesson on Islamic art. Lopez Prater said she knew that visual depictions of Muhammad violate many Muslims’ faith, so she warned the class ahead of time and invited anyone who might be offended to leave. None did. She also said her syllabus had been submitted ahead of time through university channels.
Lopez Prater. Taught a single global art history course at Hamline on semester-by-semester contracts.
Hamline profile
Hamline in St. Paul, enrollment 3,800, was founded in 1854 in Red Wing and is Minnesota’s oldest university. It’s a Methodist-affiliated private college. In 1880 it relocated to a 77-acre prairie halfway between the Minneapolis and St. Paul downtowns.
Campus centerpiece. Old Main.
Minnesota prep
Basketball (boys): Winona Winhawks 66, Faribault Falcons 35
Basketball (boys): Caledonia Warriors 77, Lewiston-Altura Cardinals 70
Basketball (girls): Winona Winhawks 38, Faribault Falcons 31
Basketball (girls): St. Charles Saints 64, Spring Grove Lions 53
Hockey (boys): Winona Winhawks and Kasson Dodge County Wildcats, postponed
Wisconsin prep
Basketball (boys): Chippewa Falls McDonell Central Macks 73, Whitehall Norse 63
Basketball (girls): Melrose-Mindoro Mustangs 57, Black River Falls Tigers 36
Basketball (girls): Whitehall Norse and Gilmanton Panthers, cancelled
Basketball (girls): Blair-Taylor Wildcats 60, Independence Indees 23
Basketball (girls): Westby Norsemen 61, Arcadia Raiders 33
Hockey (boys): LaCrosse Aquinas/Cochrane-Fountain City/ Holmen Avalanche 5, LaCrescent-Hokah Lancers 4
Governor goes with $2,600 for Walz Checks
ST. PAUL, Minn. — Governor Tim Walz crowned his budget recommendations to the Legislature by proposing checks of as much as $2,600 for families from the state’s $17.6 billion revenue windfall. If the Legislature goes along, more than 2.5 million people in Minnesota would get the checks. Upper-income taxpayers, however, would receive nothing. The checks would be structured as tax credits equal to $2,000 for families with incomes below $150,000. The credits would be $1,000 for single filers making less than $75,000. The payments would be exempt from federal taxes. Taxpayers could also get an additional $200 for each dependent — up to three. Combined with expanded tax and child-care credits also proposed by Walz, a middle-class family of four could get $10,000 back. The governor’s budget also includes lower taxes on Social Security income for more than 350,000 households. Experts in Walz’s cabinet said that t43% of households receiving Social Security would save an average of $278.
Earlier: Walz 3.0: Major budget hikes for housing, safety
Nine LaCrosse overdose deaths: Tranq blamed
LACROSSE, Wis. – Nine overdose deaths in LaCrosse in only three weeks prompted Mayor Mitch Reynolds to call a news conference on a drug that goes by the street name “tranq” – a slang derivative of tranquilizer. Reynolds said tranq is especially insidious because victims don’t respond to the usual overdose antidote Narcon. Tranquil is based on the animal tranquilizer xylazine and laced with fentanyl, heroin and cocaine in varying ratios. Users go into a stupor for several hours. Severe, open wounds erupt quickly. Breathing slows.
Reynolds. Mayor flanked by medical and paramedic experts for. news conference.
Handgun reported stolen from unlocked car
WINONA Minn. – A 9mm handgun and a wallet were reported stolen from a car parked overnight at a house on the West End. The owner reported discovering the theft about 8 a.m. He said he had been awakened about 5 o’clock by his dog barking and a car speeding away but went back to sleep. This was in 500 block of Gould Street. His car was unlocked, the owner said.
Profs demand Hamline president resign
ST. PAUL, Minn. – Faculty voted 71-19 for Hamline University President Fayneese Miller to resign immediately. Miller has been under fire after the contract of a part-time instructor was not renewed after showing depictions of the prophet Muhammad in an art history class. Among some Moslems, it’s heresy to portray their holy leader from 1,700 years ago visually. A Moslem student later objected that the artwork violated her religious beliefs. Then the instructor, Erika Lopez Prater, was told by a university administrator that she wouldn’t be hired again. The issue for Hamline Faculty Council was whether the academic freedom of Prater had been violated. Meanwhile, the American Association of University Professors, which champions academic freedom causes, is sending investigators to campus. AAUP blacklists colleges that run roughshod over the academic freedom of faculty.
Verbatim
Faculty Council: “We are distressed that members of the administration have mishandled this issue and great harm has been done to the reputation of Minnesota’s oldest university. As we no longer have faith in President Miller’s ability to lead the university forward, we call upon her to immediately tender her resignation.”
Miller. Hamline president since 2015. First African-American to hold the position.
SMU shift: Arts programs go from classes to clubs
WINONA, Minn. – The events director at Saint Mary’s University, Lynette Johnson, now is wearing a second cap. She has new responsibilities: To nurture the arts on campus in the wake of massive curricular cutbacks. How to do this? Through student clubs in the performing arts and bringing local artists to campus to visit with students. This co-curricular arts initiative will be under the campus Office of Mission and Student Affairs, in lieu of former faculty-staffed academic departments. Johnson holds a Winona State University degree in recreation and tourism and has worked at Catholic Charities in Winona and also at Home and Community Options She has a master’s degree in human resources in progress at Saint Mary’s.
Earlier: SMU to graduate a smaller class
Earlier: SMU musician couple retiring with alumni reunion
Earlier: SMU student loss 13%: Curriculum overhaul to blame?
Johnson. Her new job: Find alternate avenues for an arts presence on campus.
Minnesota prep
Basketball (boys): Plainview-Elgin-Millville Bulldogs 67, Winona Cotter Ramblers 35
Basketball (boys): Caledonia Warriors 93, St. Charles Saints 50
Basketball (girls): Caledonia Warriors 70, St. Charles Saints 17
Basketball (girls): Winona Cotter Ramblers 73, Plainview-Elgin-Millville Bulldogs 68
Wisconsin prep
Basketball (boys): Augusta Beavers 56, Independence Indees 47
Basketball (boys): Galesville-Ettrick-Trempealeau Red Hawks 67, Cochrane-Fountain City Pirates 44
Basketball (boys): Onalaska Luther Knights 81, Melrose-Mindoro Mustangs 52
Basketball (girls): Cashton Eagles 61, Melrose-Mindoro Mustangs 58
Basketball (girls): Galesville-Ettrick-Trempealeau Red Hawks 52, Viroqua Blackhawks 29
Basketball (girls): Whitehall Norse 64, Alma/Pepin Eagles 61
Stand-off ends: Man holed up in house found dead
WINSTED, Minn. – A man who shot two deputies apparently killed himself during a stand-off. Sheriff Tim Langenfeld said deputies had knocked on the man’s door to serve a warrant for child pornography about mid-day and were shot. The deputies were not seriously hurt. They were treated and released from a nearby hospital. After the deputies were wounded, the house was cordoned off. Getting no repose after several hours, officers sent a robot inside and found the man dead, Langenfeld said. The sheriff said he didn’t know how the suspect died. He deferred questions on whether any officers fired their weapons. He said the state Bureau of Criminal Apprehension would investigate. The sheriff declined to release the name of the man who died. Winsted, population 2,200, is 20 miles east of Hutchinson.
Now that we’ve dug out
LEWISTON, Minn. – Snow may not have been plowed to record heights, at parking lots but nonetheless towers in places above one-floor structures. Snow accumulations from last week’s storm in some rural areas were 12 inches at some rural measuring stations – on top of earlier accumulations.
Earlier: 48-hour update on latest snow
Pumpkin lost. After the third major snow of the season Linda Jonsgaard’s orange buggy is dwarfed in a backyard driveway near Lewiston. Image: Steve Lunde
UM president cedes to ethics critics, quits Securian
MINNEAPOLIS – The president of the University of Minnesota tried staring down her ethics critics but has given up. Joan Gabel confirmed her resignation moonlighting on the the governing board a St. Paul insurance company that does business with the university. Gabel tried to spin her resignation as serving a bigger good. It was, she said, “out of respect for the U and to eliminate any further distraction.” The he university’s regents had approved Gabel’s arrangement with the insurance carrier Securian, but critics, including some legislators, would have no hearing of it.
Earlier: UM Board again in ethics imbroglio
Walz 3.0: Major budget hikes for housing, safety
ST. PAUL, Minn. – Governor Tim Walz will ask the Legislature foR $1.5 billion for better housing statewide. This includes funds to address homelessness among military veterans by connecting at-risk veterans to life-stabilizing Social Security disability benefits. The plan als would help veterans with access to rental units. Walz sees Minnesota becoming the fourth state in the nation to eradicate veteran homelessness. The veterans project is in the third part of Walz’s two-year budget, which he has been unveiling incrementally the past week. The third installment deals with housing and public safety. On housing, the governor proposes $128 million for down payment assistance and $100 million community stabilization,” which includes pubic safety. “Community stabilization” is a theme in Part 3 of the Walz budget:
> $300 million for public safety
> $22 million for substance use and addiction, specifically to expand access to non-narcotic pain management, to enhance prevention and support services, to improve identification of substances involved in overdoses, and to improve sober housing care.
> $17 million to expand health insurance options, for no-cost preventative treatment, stronger mobile crisis services and mental health and adult therapeutic services.
Equity theme
Services for marginalized communities has been a theme in the first three Walx budget messages. The governor calls it the One Minnesota plan.]
Verbatim
Walz: “Protecting Minnesotans’ health and safety is foundational to everything we do. Minnesotans deserve to feel safe in their homes and have access to the support, care, and services they need to lead happy and healthy lives. With increased access to affordable health care, investments in local law enforcement across the state, common sense gun safety laws, and strong investments in affordable, stable housing – the One Minnesota Budget addresses the needs of Minnesotans wherever they are and keeps neighborhoods across the state safer and healthier.”
Six trucks crash through Lake Pepin ice
LAKE CITY, Minn. – Six pickup trucks cracked the ice on Lake Pepin and sank to their gunnels over the weekend. No one was hurt. Although Lake Pepin is 60 feet deep in places, Goodhue County Sheriff Marty Kelly said the vehicles all were near enough shore to be towed out. Three went rhrough in one place. In another incident, at Lake Hanska west of Mankato, a pick-up truck fell through the ice near the main landing. The landing has ben closed until ice thickens.
The horses have left the barn. Thin ice signs hvve now been posted.
Probation for Pine Island dog-strangler
MANTORVILLE, Minn. – Probation has begun for a Pine Island woman who went into another woman’s garage and tried strangling her dog. Crystal Ondler, 38, was sentenced to two years of probation. In a plea deal Ondler admitted to drunken driving and disorderly conduct. In exchange, charges of burglary and animal cruelty were dropped. Ondler was arrested in November in a vehicle parked on the front lawn of a Kasson house. It was from the house that police had received a 911 call. A breath test found her blood-alcohol-concentration at 0.28% — triple the legal limit plus.
Ondler. Pleaded guilty to reduced charges.
85 unhappy car-owners, 51 really unhappy
WINONA, Minn. – It was a dreaded weekend for police, who would love to be loved but find little of it in the tag-and-tow season.
> Sunday: Tickets were written for 60 cars parked on the wrong side of the street downtown, and 29 were towed.
> Monday: Tickets were written for 25 cars, and 22 were towed.
The headache for police – “heartache” if you will — comes about dawn. People call and report their cars missing. The answer: “You need to come to the Law Enforcement Center. Ask for a release form. Go out to Borkowski Towing and Salvage, 5035 West 6th Street, in Goodview. Yes, there will be charges to retrieve your car.” It’s a costly deal:
> Illegal parking ticket: $25.
> Towing: Typically $150.
> Storage: $50 to $80 a day after first day.
R.I.P.: Mary Modjeski
WINONA, Minn. – Mary I. Modjeski, of Winona, a hospice worker through Winona Health, died at age 81. She graduated from Cotter High School and held a nursing degree from Winona State University. She also owned her own hair salon.
Details: Hoff Funeral Home
1941-2022
Plea to shovelers: Keep hydrants clear
WINONA, Minn. – Fire Chief Curt Bottle cautioned property owners against burying hydrants as they shovel and plow snow. City crews, he said, are working to clear hydrants but keeping up is difficult. “In a fire emergency, having a quick and constant water supply will make a tremendous difference in the outcome of a tragic situation,” he said.
Wisconsin prep
Hockey (boys): Waunakee Warriors 5, Onalaska Hilltoppers 1
R.I.P.: Arden Hargrove
MONEY CREEK, Minn. – Arden Hargrove, 75, of Money Creek, who had taught and coached wrestling at Caledonia High School, died of a protein disorder. In high school in Houston he was homecoming king and played football and wrestled. He was in the U.S, Navy during the Vietnam war. Later he studied at Winona State University. After college he moved to Australia and taught industrial arts and coached rugby. After coaching at Caledonia he logged with his brother. They named their trucks “Timberdoodler” and “Me Too, Me Too. ” For many years he was a rural mail carrier.
Details: Hoff Funeral Home
1947-2022
R.I.P.: Wendell Ploetz
UTICA, Minn. – Wendell Ploetz, of Utica, a founder of the Whitewater Trailblazers Snowmobilers Club, died at age 74. He farmed near Utica. He competed locally in tractor pulling. He was on the board of directors for United Pullers of Minnesota several years. He graduated from St. Charles High School in 1966.
Details: Hoff Funeral Home
1948-2022
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