Autopsy: Eyota woman’s death a homicide
ROCHESTER, Minn. – Authorities said the death of a woman found mostly cuvered in snow Monday will be pursued as a homicide. An autopsy confirmed the identity of the woman as Kimberly Ann Robinson, 41, of Eyota, and that she was already dead when her body was dumped in a ditch in a rural neighborhood. She had been shot, according to sources familiar with the case. Sheriff Kevin Torgerson said that one person was being questioned and that others would be brought in.
Robinson. Her family offered this portrait to jnvestigators. She had three children – ages 25, 19 and 11.
New extension granted in Mall of America shooting
MINNEAPOLIS – A judge granted a second extension for prosecutors who are working up charges for a fatal shooting at Mall of America. The new deadline: Noon on Thursday. Being held are the two 18-year-olds – Taeshawn Wright and Deandre Depratto – and three 17-year-olds whose names were not released because they’re under age.
R.I.P.: Diane Erdmann
WINONA, Minn. –Diane M. Erdmann, 90, of Winona, who farmed many years near Ridgeway until moving in retirement to La Moille in 1980. died at Brookdale Senior Living in Winona. She grew up on a family farm in Wilson Township with eight siblings. She loved bowling and was a card whiz at 500, 31 and Euchre.
Detail: Watkowski-Mulyck Funeral Home
1932-2022
Evers aims opioid settlement funds for homeless
MADISON Wis. – Governor Tony Evers announced an opioid recovery project for opioid-addicted homeless people. Evers said the project will provide affordable, safe and stable housing. The project will tap $2 million from the $31 million fund created by the McKinsey drug company as punishment for falsely promoting opioid sales, the governor said..
Two Winona County jack-knifes on I-90
WINONA, Minn. – An icy left lane on Intestate 90 caught two semi-truck drivers unaware. Both jacknifed and blocked traffic. There were no injuries. The incidents:
> 6:45 a.m. Near the Winona exit to Highway 43.
> 8:15 a.m. Near the St. Charles exit to Highway 474.
Walz order: Keep winter propane deliveries timely
ST. PAUL, Minn. – Governor Tim Walz has exempted propane-truck drivers from caps on their driving hours for the duration of winter road delays. Households and farms especially in rural areas depend on propane to keep them, Walz said in signing the executive order. Ten percent of Minnesota homes use propane as their primary heating fuel.
Emergency, fire crews make 55 calls
WINONA, Minn. – The Fire Department reported 38 emergency medical calls plus 17 fire calls in recent days:
> Tuesday, December 27: 5 medical calls plus 1 fire call.
> Monday, December 26: 6 medical calls plus 3 fire calls.
> Sunday, December 25: 3 medical calls plus 3 fire calls.
> Saturday, December 24: 7 medical calls plus 1 fire call.
> Friday, December 23: 4 medical calls plus 3 fire calls.
> Thursday, December 22: 7 medical calls plus 2 fire calls.
> Wednesday, December 21: 6 medical calls plus 3 fire calls.
Earlier: Emergency, fire crews make 48 calls
Prinsburg mystery: Outgoing anti-abortion solon did it
PRINSBURG, Minn. – Now it’s known who was behind a scheme to pay Prinsburg people to file lawsuits against abortion providers. It was outgoing state legislator Tim Miller, a Republican from Prinsburg. Miller was trying to impress bis new bosses at Pro-Life Action Ministries of St. Paul. Miller’s plan fell apart in early December when the Prinsburg Town Board bowed to pressure from state Attorney General Keith Ellison. The attorney general promised to take the town to court for civil rights intimidation if the anti-abortion proposal were adopted. In April when Miller announced he wouldn’t seek re-election, he hinted at his relationship with the anti-abortion group Pro-Life Action Ministries. But how the proposed Pro-Life Action Ministries’ proposed ordinance ever landed on the agenda of the Prinsburg Town Board was cloudy from the start. In the end, the Town Board, under pressure from the Attorney General Elison, killed the proposal unanimously. Nobody wanted to claim sponsorship.
Authorship
No lawyer lives in Prinsburg, population 500. And ironically there is no abortij-provider in town. Also, plainly nobody on the four-person Prinsburg Town Bosrd authored the proposed ordinance – eight pages of skillfully crafted legalese in tiny type. The proposal was a carbon copy of one adopted by several small Texas towns and thought to be intended as sleepers for future anti-abortion cases to the U.S. Supreme Court. Pro-Life Action Ministries of St. Paul is in a network of organization that lobby against pregnancy termination on many fronts, including legislation. The Prinsburg ordinance could well have slipped under the radar were it not for news coverage that began with Tom Cherveny of the Willmar West Central Tribune. Mayor Roger Ahrenholz said the whole town was surprised to be “thrust into the spotlight” by the eventual national media coverage.
Next?
In an interview with Cherveny, Miller said he was disappointed to have lost his bid for Prinsburg to adopt the ordinance. . He vowed to work with other communities for similar ordinances. Perhaps even Prinsburg might reconsider, he said. Mille racknowledged that the proposed Prinsbrg ordinance was drafted by attorney Jonathan Mitchell with the Thomas Moore Society, a Chicago-based pro-life organization affiliated loosely with Pro-Life Action Ministries of St. Paul. Miller said Mitchell and the Thomas Moore Society had offered to assist Prinsburg in defending any legal challenges. Miller said that Ellison was wrong about that the ordinance never surviving a legal challenge. The town’s legal counsel at the state small cities association also had cautioned that the ordinance would be hard to defend, as well as costly.
Earlier: Tiny Minnesota town a pawn in abortion war?
Miller. Served four terms from State District 17-A. Former giftshop owner. Age 57.
Verbatim
Miller, announcing his decision in April against seeking a fifth term: “Pro-life work has been the most important part of my time in government. As such, I am thrilled to announce that I will be focusing all my efforts on defending the unborn with a new initiative I will be discussing soon. Protecting the unborn is one of the most consequential missions of our time, and I am eager to continue the fight.”
Minnesota prep
Wisconsin prep
Basketball (boys): Galesville-Ettrick-Trempealeau RedHawks 61, Baldwin-Woodville Blackhawks 54
Basketball (boys): Independence Indees 58, Houston Hurricanes 55
Basketball (girls): Fall Creek Crickets 85, Arcadia Raders30
Basketball (girls): Independence Indees 60, Gilmanton Panthers 17
Good deed unrewarded: Jewelry missing
WINONA, Minn. – A woman who opened her house overnight to a hopeless couple two weeks ago later found two rings missing. The woman told police she didn’t know names of the pair, a man and a woman. The Good Samaritan lives in the 1700 bock of West Broadway. Missing:
> Gold ring with diamond look-alike stones, valued at $270t
> Silver ring, $80.
Delay OK’d in Mall of America slaying charges
MINNEAPOLIS – A group of teenagers held since Saturday for a fatal shooting in a ruckus at Mall of America may have to wait until Wednesday to find out if they’re being charged and, if so, with what. The usual 24-hour habeas corpus charge-or-release rule has been extended, authorities said. Police Chief Booker Hodges in suburban Bloomington, where the mall is located, says he believes that the youth who pulled the trigger is among those in custody but that interrogations haven’t gone well for details.
Earlier: Mall of America shooting victim’s name released
Teacher guilty of hitting child with hockey stick
MILACA, Minn. — A teacher pleaded guilty to throwing a hockey stick at a child and knocking out a tooth. The incident was at Princeton Primary School in March. Surveillance video showed the child toss a hockey stick into a pile, and then Neubauer picking up the stick and throwing it at the child. Neubauer, age 64, has since left her school job.
R.I.P.: Marjorie Zitttel
WINONA, Minn. – Marjorie (Marge) Ann Zittel, 88, of Winona, who retired from United Building Centers in 1995, died at St. Anne nursing home. Marge graduated from Alma High School in 1952. She held the the Bishop’s Medal for service at the Cathedral of the Sacred Heart. She was an election and drove home-delivered meals.
Detail: Watkowski-Mulyck Funeral Home
1934-2022
Police seek charges in Latsch Island incident
WINONA, Minn. – Police encouraged the county attrorney to prosecute a Winona man arrested on Latsch island after evading police on foot on a bitter cold night last week. Police referred charges, of careless driving and fleeing officers against Javier Perez Barrientos, 34. The referral document alleged that Barrientos ran into a guardrail on the Interstate high bridge and proceeded to Latsch Island on icy roads with police in pursuit and disappeared on foot into the woods. Police waited him out and arrested him two hours later when he returned, very cold, to his car. Officers didn’t conduct a blood-alcohol test because of the time lapse and also a priority to get him warmed up.
R.I.P.: Gerald Goede
WINONA, Minn. – Gerald “Jerry” Goede, 84, of Winona, who owned Poultry Place in Winona, died at Franciscan hospital in LaCrosse. Also he was service manager at Gem Grain Roaster in Winona. He graduated from Winona High School in 1956. Later he attended courses at Salisbury’s School for training in poultry and swine. For a time he worked for Rushford Farmers Elevator and Moorman’s Feed.
Detail: Watkowski-Mulyck Funeral Home
1938-2022
Crime clue: An open bar cup in car
WINONA, Minn. – In a routine traffic stop, the officer saw the woman passenger in the car gulping dark liquid from a clear plastic bar glass. If that’s liquor, you better dump it out, the officer said. The woman opened her door and did so. Dakota Todd Brown, 26, of Winona, was then ticketed under a state law that bans open booze in an automobile. The driver said she had just picked up Brown at a downtown to drive her home.
Wisconsin prep
Hockey (boys): LaCrosse Aquinas Blugolds 7, Viroqua Blackhawks 0
Vehicles collide near Chatfield; one injury
CHATFIELD, Minn. – A Lanesboro driver and three people in an Iowa car were injured, albeit not seriously, in a two-vehicle accident on U.S. Highway 52 south of Chatfield. Only Shanalee Marie Knight, 39, of Lanesboro, was hurt, but everyone was taken 29 miles to a Rochester hospital to be checked over. Police said 2018 GMC Acadia, driven by Michaelanne Marie Turner, 46, of Dubuque, Iowa, lost control on dry pavement and struck Knight’s 2017 Chevrolet Suburban. They were headed in opposite directions. This was about 7:20 p.m. Also to the hospital: Charlene Marie Sisler, 65, of Dubuque, Iowa, and William James Sisler, 66, of Kennesaw, Georgia,
Body found in snow northwest of Rochester
ROCHESTER, Minn. – A woman walking her dog spotted a human arm sticking out of the snow and called 911. Police recovered the body of a woman believed to be in her 40s. This was about 4:30 p.m. near Riverbluff Lane Northwest and West River Road Northwest. The body was on a deep slope 20 to 25 feet off the road. Police said it appeared that the woman died somewhere else and her body was moved.
Water break damages off-campus dorm
WINONA, Minn. – A pipe burst inside the walls of privately owned student housing near Winona State University and filled a second floor room with water before crashing down a hall. Sprinkler alarms alerted firefighters about 7:30 p.m. They turned off the water. The dorm, just off Huff Street, was largely vacant for the holidays.
River town bar burns to ground
GENOA, Wis. –A fixture in this riverside town of 250 people, the Big River Bar & Grill, was a total loss after an early morning fire. A woman who lived in an upstairs apartment escaped unhurt. However, her two cats died n the fire. Fire crews from Bergen, DeSoto and Wheatland fought the fire eight hours. Water tenders from Viroqua and Ferryville replenished helped because local water pressure dropped. A next-door bar. Tuna’s, was saved although there was smoke and water damage. The fire was discovered about 8 a.m.
Big River Bar. All gone. At 500 Main Street. Image: Theresa Wopat
Car in a snowdrift? You’re not alone
WINONA, Minn. – The Blizzard of 2022 kept police busy. Winona County deputies responded to 21 motorists in trouble, mostly with cars caught in snow drifts. City police had 14 such calls. There were no injuries.
Best wishes to our Winona Journal family.
Steve Lunde and John Vivian
Week’s summary: Ending December 24, 2022
HOLIDAYS: Homeless shelters gear for winter blast
HOLIDAYS: Max Conrad’s Yule visitor arrives early
POLITICS: Guilty plea in state GOP sex scandal
CRIME: Cops: Men arrested for Mall shooting not talking
GOVERNANCE: Walz Checks: Coming back from the dead?
WEATHER: Blizzard puts power grid in stress
WEATHER: National Guard on blizzard rescue mission
FARM: Clark dairy at Rollingstone OK’d to expand
FIRE: Theory for Spring Grove fire: Layered re-roofing
WEATHER: Blizzard blocks interstates’ crossroad at Albert Lea
GOVERNANCE: How they voted: Budget with Ukraine aid / 2
GOVERNANCE: How they voted: Budget with Ukraine aid / 1
GOVERNANCE: Walz taps House tax expert as revenue chief
GOVERNANCE: Pelowski’s House higher-ed leadership confirmed
GOVERNANCE: Proposed landlord orderliness rule delayed
CRIME: Burbach pair arrested on Winona drug warrants
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