Brass knuckles found on man resisting arrest
WINONA, Minn. – Police responding to a disturbance at an upscale apartment building found a man sitting in a hallway and moaning as he conked in and out of consciousness. Officers gave this account: Asked whether he needed help, the man became belligerent Officers decided to take him to the hospital to be examined. He responded: “Touch me again and I’ll beat your asses.” They tried to cuff him. He pushed one officer back and raised one arm above his head and lowered the other in front of himself to prevent being cuffed. Officers pinned the man the wall, eventually cuffing him. The whole time he was resisting. This was about 1 a.m. at 100 Washington Street. Once the man was in custody, officers found brass knuckles in a pocket – a violation of state law. Meanwhile, medics were summoned to check on the man’s condition. They cleared him for arrest. The next stop for Evan Henry Navarro-Katz, age 22, of Winona, was jail. He wasn’t hurt in the frenzy of the arrest. One officer suffered a bruised finger. The episode began with a 911 call about a man yelling and banging on apartment doors.
Navarro-Katz. Little did officers know about his brass knuckles until after he was subdued.
St. Paul church mostly gone in fire
ST. PAUL, Minn. – Fire heavily damaged a 75-year-old church in St. Paul. No one was Eastside Seventh Day Adventist church in the Dayton’s Bluff neighborhood. The steeple toppled in flames that lit up the night sky. The interior was gutted. The fire was reported about 9 p.m. Fire crews had to break their way inside the locked building.
Cause being investigated. Fifty firefighters were dispatched to the scene. Image; St. Paul Fire Department
Minnesota prep
Basketball (boys): Winona Winhawks 78, Albert Lea Tigers 48
Basketball (girls): Winona Winhawks and Viroqua Blackhawks, cancelled
Basketball (girls): Winona Winhawks 62, Albert Lea Tigers 47
Hockey (boys): Black River Falls Tigers 3, Winona Winhawks 1
Wisconsin prep
Basketball (boys): Cochrane-Fountain City Pirates 75, Independence Indees 57
Basketball (boys): Melrose-Mindoro Mustangs 47, Alma Center Lincoln Hornets 44
Basketball (boys): Durand Panthers 54, Mondovi Buffaloes 50
Basketball (girls): Plum City Blue Devils 46, Independence Indees 31
Basketball (girls): Arcadia Raiders 57, Galesville-Ettrick-Trempealeau Red Hawks 46
Hockey (boys): Black River Falls Tigers 3, Winona Winhawks 1
Hockey (girls): Winona Winhawks and Viroqua Blackhawks, cancelled
Funding Winona’s next Riverfront Trail link
WINONA, Minn. – The City Council voted to seek $5 million from the state to extend the riverfront walking and bicycling trail another five blocks downriver. The extension would be Laird Street to St. Charles Street. There are complex engineering issues, like a bridge of some sort at the Winona Marina. A new state grant would not include land acquisition, which is another hurdle. Easements are needed from:
> Bay State Milling, which already has signed on.
> Xcel Energy.
>Winona Marina.
> RTP.
> Michael’s Lighting.
> U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services.
The new grant being sought by the City Council would augment a previous $2 million planning and engineering grant. In recent years the state Legislature has viewed such recreational trails favorably.
Riverfront route
The long-term vision for Riverfront Trail connects the Flyway Trail from Wisconsin at the Interstate Bridge and runs all the way to the Riverbend Technology Park on Winona’s Far East End. A few blocks already are in place through Levee Park. The plan is for Riverfront Trail trail part if a two-state network. The network would include the Flyway Trail, which crosses Mississippi River sloughs on the Old Wagon Bridge and connects with the Mississippi River Ttail, which, also is a work in progress would link Cochrane and Onalaska on a 46-mile route through the Trempealeau Wildlife Refuge and Perrott State Park.
Flyway Trail. After crossing the backwaters to Latsch island on the Old Wagon Bridge, the Flyway Trail ramps up to the Interstate Bridge and then ramps down to Winona.
City seeks help anew on public safety options
WINONA, Minn. – The Winona City Council voted unanimously to hire the Minneapolis architectural firm BKV Group to go back to the drawing board on where to locate a new police headquarters. The company has three months to report back. Not in the Council’s list of possibilites to BKV was a notable exception: A combined public safety building that would replace East Rec Center, a proposal to which there had been vociferous neighborhood objections. For BRV to explore now:
Combining police and fire
> Police and fire together, possibly with ambulance services, at the site of the current Central Fire Station at 451 East Third Street.
> Police and fire together at the Central School block bounded by Sixth, Seventh, Walnut and Market streets.
> Police and county sheriff together next to the Courthouse, probably replacing the current Law Enforcement Center.
Stand-alone options
> Fire at the current Central Fire Station.
> Fire at Central School block.
> Police at the current Law Enforcement Center site.
> The former Pro-Build lumber yard near the levee, either as a stand-alone for police or a combined police-sheriff facility.
BLK was told to stand by for two additional possible sites. One would come from a further assessment of police space needs. The other would be what other sites come to Council attention. Price tag for the new study: $11,500.
Three House committee jobs to Van Orden
WASHINGTON — Freshman Congressman Derrick Van Orden, a Republican elected from western Wisconsin, has been named to three U.S. House committees, as announced by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy:
> Agriculture.
> Transportation and Infrastructure.
> Veterans Affairs.
Worker falls from old turkey plant roof
ALTURA, Minn. – A man fell from the roof of the abandoned Altura turkey plant. Co-wokers took him to the Winona hospital before first-responders arrived. The extent of his injuries was not known immediately This was about 4 p.m.
Woman tells of four days captive in own house
LACROSSE, Wis.— A Lancaster man was arrested after police surrounded his girlfriend’s LaCrosse house following the woman feeing the house after four days. Cole J. Clark, 30, was charged kidnapping, false imprisonment, intimidating with force, battery, disorderly conduct, and bail-jumping, The woman told police that Clark showed up uninvited on January 11 from Lancaster, 90 miles away, and wouldn’t leave. These are details as alleged in the criminal complaint: Clark messaged the woman’s family that she had been hospitalized in Madison after a car accident and that doctors wouldn’t allow visitors. It wasn’t true. She feared for her life if she tried to escape. At one point Clark took her to a hospital for a medical issue. He didn’t leave her side during the visit and threatened to hurt her if she told anyone what was going on. On the fourth day, a relative of the woman knocked on the door. Clark hid in a closet. She ran outside. After police arrived, Clark came out and surrendered without incident. Police said that Clark denied wrongdoing. About the call that the woman had been in an accident, he said she asked him to call her mother and make up the story because she needed a break.
Clark. Clark was charged last year with abusing the same woman.
Sign of the times: Vaping in school toilets
WINONA, Minn. – In ancient times the daring bad boys and girls hid in school bathrooms for a snoke. Now, for the second ime in a week, a kid has been found with a vaping pen in a stall at Winona High School. This was about 2 o’clock between classes. His mother was called in. He was lectured. Police issued a citation for possessing drug paraphernalia. Wow: A drug record at age 16. Perhaps worse: A scorning mother.
Missing: $1,000 Mickey Mantle baseball card
WINONA, Minn. – A West End man blames a brief house guest for stealing a Mickey Mantle baseball card he valued at $1,000. Also missing, the man told police, was a DeWalt 20-watt impact driver worth $350 and a Snap-On precision drill worth $200. The thief may not have known the relatively low value of the baseball card. A 1952 Mickey Mantle card once auctioned at $12.6 million. Or maybe the thief did know. One-thousand bucks is no small change. The theft was from a Lenox Street house off West Fifth Street.
Walz: Budget reform for family, home, kids
ST. PAUL, Minn. – Governor Tim Walz proposed restructuring state government to prioritize families. There would be a new state agency – the Department of Children, Youth and Families. Walz laid out the proposal in the first of four budget previews ahead of his budget presentation to the Legislature. The price tag: $12 billion. The new agency, Walz said, would provide comprehensive support for families, including core programs from early childhood through youth. Existing programs that would move into the new agency would include child care and early learning services and family-focused community programs. There would be tax credits for middle-class families for child care and a historically large commitment to public education. Schools meals for students would be universal. Special education and mental health resources would be expanded.
Walz and kids. At a summer event. Image: Governor’s office
Verbatim
Walz: “As a former teacher, coach, and parent, I have made it my mission to make Minnesota the best state in the country for kids to grow up. We have a historic opportunity to take bold action to deliver for Minnesotans, and we’re putting forward a budget that meets the moment. For a middle-class family with young kids, this budget would cut the cost of child care by thousands. For kids across the state, it will reduce their chances of living in poverty. And for our students, it will provide the single-largest infusion of state funding in history, allowing them to provide every student, in every neighborhood, a world-class education.”
Nitty-gritty of what Walz calls “bold plan”
> Child care. As much as $4,000 a year in tax credits for child care for families making less than $200,000. Families with two children, $8,000. Families with three children, $10,500.
> Kids in poverty. Tax credits for low-income families of $1,000 to $3,000 per child. This. Walz said, would cut child poverty 25%.
> School funding. Linking school funding to inflation starting in 2026, to ensure funding for schools keeps up with costs. Also a 4% increase to the formula for state school funding next year and 2% the year after.
> Special ed. Reducing local costs for special education 50%.
> School support staffing. Adress shortage of social, emotional and physical health programs in schools.
Devastating California storm due in Minnesota
Likely totals. Most of Winona County in orange bullseye. Eight inches-plus.. Image: National Weather Service
Time again for caps, boots: Snowshoes anyone?
WINONA Minn. – With heavy snow expected starting Wednesday afternoon, the National Weather Service has issued a storm watch. Accumulations in Winona could be 6 to 9 inches. The heaviest snow will be 10 p.m. overnight to 4 or 5 a.m. The storm is the same one that caused billions of dollars damage in floods and mud slides in California earlier in the week. Projected southeast Minnesota accumulations:
> Albert Lea: 6 to 8 inches.
> Austin: 5 to 8.
> Dodge Center: 4 to 7.
> Houston: 6 to 9.
> Owatonna: 4 to 7.
> Rochester: 5 to 8.
> Winona: 6 to 9.
Pelowski vision: Meshing K-12 and job skills
WINONA, Minn. – State Representative Gene Pelowski has called for re-integrating K-12 school programs with vocational training. There was a time 30 years ago, he said, when vocational schools were part of K-12 systems but the connection began eroding when the Legislature moved vocational schools into what’s called “community and technical colleges.” What’s needed is to be sure again that high school students graduate not only with a diploma but also with job skills. He specified careers in automobiles, carpentry, electrical and welding. Pelowski laid out his vision in a radio station KWNO interview. He is beginning hearings this week on realigning K-12s and job training. It will be a long process, at least four to six years, he said. Hurdles include revising teacher prep curriculums, at Winona State for example, for licensure of a new sort of K-12 teacher. This alone will take at least four years for these new-breed educators to start coming out of college preparation programs, he said.
Pelowski. A Winona Democrat and former teacher. Chair of the Higher Education Finance and Policy Committee in the Minnesota House.
Overnight burglar steals computer printer
WINONA, Minn. –The proprietor suspected something missing. When he opened up in the morning, a window was broken. Missing: A computer printer. Police were called to the business, in the 1050 block of West Fifth Street, about 9:40 a.m.
Car driver badly hurt in school bus collision
STOCKTON, Minn. – A 17-year-old driver skidded head-on into a school bus and was critically injured. No children were aboard the school bus, which was just beginning its morning pick-up rounds. The bus driver, age 43, was unhurt but taken to six miles the hospital to be checked out. The driver of the car, however, had life-threatening injuries and was taken to the Winona hospital. The crash was about 6 a.m. just off Highway 14 on the road up Jones Valley next to the Country Valley trailer park. The bus was southbound coming down County Road 20. The car had just turned on to the county road and was heading north. Temperatures were hovering around freezing. and it was surmised that slick surfaces may have been a factor. The State Patrol was summoned to reconstruct what happened.
School bus protocol
As usual with accidents invoving a school bus, multiple agencies responded:
> Winona County sheriff.
> State Patrol.
> Lewiston fire.
> Stockton first-responders.
> Wilson fire.
> Lewiston ambulance.
> Winona ambulance.
Prevagen thieves make off with $4,300 worth
ROCHESTER, Minn. – Do those dumb guys down the block seem suddenly brighter? Last week two men stole $4,300 worth of the purported memory-loss deterrent Prevagen from the Hy-Vee grocery store at West Circle Drive Northwest. The cops have their pictures from surveillance video. Also their red Buick.
Surveillance clues
Finstad to U.S. House ag, military committees
WASHINGTON – Republican Congress member Brad Finstad of Minnesota’s First Congressional District has been named to the House Agriculture Committee and the House Armed Services Committee. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy announced the assignments. Finstad, new to Congress in 2022, is among 45 members on Agriculture and 58 on Armed Services.
R.I.P.: Patricia Joiner
WINONA, Minn. – Patricia Lou Joiner, 82, of Winona, who managed Zinke’s Village Market in Wisconsin Dells many years, died peacefully at home. Her family’s memories included her cooking, baking, and unshakable humor.
Details: Hoff Funeral Home
1940-2022
R.I.P.: Susan Schueler
WINONA, Minn. – Susan Marie (Strong) Schueler, 65, of Winona , who drove for Minnesota City Bus Company, died peacefully at home. She also worked in the the mail room at notions manufacturer Wincraft.
Details: Hoff Funeral Home
1957-2022
Drazkowski frets on Juneteenth fiscal effect
ST. PAUL, Minn. – State Senator Steve Drazkowski, a Republican elected from Mazeppa, expressed doubt at a committee hearing on the creation of Juneteenth as a state holiday. Draz, who is white, pressed the bill’s sponsor, Bobby Joe Champion, who is black, on the fiscal impact. The Senate’s fiscal analyst, Andrew Erickson, intervened and explained to Drazkowski that June 19 is a payday like any other and always has been. In other words, Erickson repeated, Juneteenth won’t add any costs. The committee approved Juneteenth on a voice vote, so there is record how Drazkowski voiced his position in the end or whether he remained silent. Draz, a Winona shoeshop owner. is a freshman in the Senate but he’s been in the Legislature on the House side since 2007. His reputation among colleagues is that often he doesn’t do his homework and that he’s no friend of labor and state employees.
Now wait a minute. Draz is a member of the Senate’s State and Local Government Committee but blank on state employee contract contents.
Extended bed rescue vehicle bears a litter
MANTORVILLE, Minn. – Dodge County rescue teams have a rigged-out rescue vehicle to carry victims on a stretcher, as well as first responders and their equipment. Sheriff Steve Sandvick said the vehicle will help crews navigate rough terrain for snowmobile accidents, farm accidents and weather emergencies. A specialty auto body shop in Kasson, L&L Hotrods, customized an existing all-terrain vehicle.
The green in the back bed is a litter. Image: Dodge County sheriff
College scores
Basketball (men): Saint Mary’s 91, Augsburg 57
Basketball (women): Augsburg 50, Saint Mary’s 44
Minnesota prep
Basketball (boys): Harmony Fillmore Central Falcons 80, St. Charles Saints 36
Basketball (boys): Rushford-Peterson Trojans 56, Lewiston-Altura Cardinals 47
Wisconsin prep
Basketball (boys): Gilmanton Panthers 62, Independence Indees 60
Basketball (boys): Arcadia Raiders 66, Whitehall Norse 52
Basketball (boys): Cochrane-Fountain City Pirates 53, Eleva-Strum Cardinals 50
Basketball (boys): West Salem Panthers 83, Arcadia Raiders 43
Basketball (girls): Neillsville Warriors 61, Mondovi Buffaloes 29
Basketball (girls): Durand Panthers 60, Melrose-Mindoro Mustangs 44
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