A parting online postcard. After 2-1/2 years the owners of Bear Paw Coffee in Byron, population 6,300, announced they’ve poured their last cup: “We held on convincing ourselves it will get better, and it just hasn’t.” Not only is a small business difficult in a small town but the times weren’t right, the announcement said. Without explicitly name the deteriorating Trump economy, the owners said: “Declining economic trends did not do the business any favors.”

WINONA, Minn. — Police smashed a window on a stopped car to drag out the driver who had refused to exit the vehicle. The arrest of Robert Lee Maringer Jr., age 49, of Winona, involved seven officers. This was at U.S. Highway 61 61 and Orrin Street near the Hy-Vee grocery. The incident began about 3:30 p.m. when, according the police report, Maringer failed to signal a turn and strayed out of his lane. The officer detected indicators of drug impairment — bloodshot eyes with pinpoint pupils shaky hands, and fumbling for documents. The officer asked Maringer to exit the vehicle. He refused. The officer called for back-up. Once Marger was dragged from the vehicle, officers found brass knuckles and 0.55 grams of a white powdery substance in his pockets. In a briefcase was a 9-mm handgun. At the jailhouse the powdery substance tested as meth and cocaine.

Ready to go. Heavy equipment already is stationed along County Road 114 at the intersection with State Road 26. Barricades will minimize traffic on the five-mile stretch between Altura and Elba. Image: Steve Lunde

Only locals allowed from Elba to Cystal Springs

ALTURA. Minn.  — To replace a culvert, the main route connecting Altura downhill through Kieffer Coulee to the Whitewater River at Elba will be closed beginning Monday. The project is expected to take to mid-January. Box culverts are being laid to carry an unnamed creek under State Road 26 from the area of the Pork & Plants organic farm and floral nursery.

WINONA, Minn. — An Ohio driver smelled drunk and showed signs of impairment in a traffic stop on the East Side, according to the arresting officer. At jail Joshua Michael Lange, age 27, of Cincinnati, declined to provide a bodily fluid sample for measuring impairment. Based on other signs, including bloodshot and watery eyes and roadside sobriety exercises, Lang was charged with drunken driving and also test refusal. The traffic stop was about12:50 a.m. Why was he stopped? Going the wrong way near Second and Franklin streets, the officer said.

Football: Slayton McMurray Central Rebels 29, Harmony Fillmore Central Falcons 26

Volleyball (girls): Chatfield Gophers 3, Nevis Tigers 0

Volleyball (girls): St. Louis Park Benilde-Margaret’s Red Knights 3, Stewartville Tigers 0

Football: Cochrane-Fountain City Pirates 35, Boyceville Bulldogs 14

Football: Mondovi Buffales 35, Eau Claire Regis Ramblers 28

Football: Baldwin Woodville Blackhawks 27, LaCrosse Aquinas Blugolds 20

WASHINGTON — The Trump order to airlines to cancel 10% of their flights at 40 major U.S. airports was expected to have truckle-down impact on hub-feeder regional airports. These include RST and LSE with their flights to Chicago and Minneapolis. Trump’s transportation secretary ordered the cancellations because of a shortage of federal air controllers due the government shutdown, now in its 37th day.  The shutdown has been triggered by Trump’s insistence that Congress go along with his priorities to:

Affected hubs.  About 2.9 million people a day fly on 45,000 U.S. flights.

> Eliminate the 15-year-old Obamacare healthcare assistance for vulnerable people.

> Eliminate SNAP nutritional assistance, also for vulnerable people.

> Impose huge tariffs that are forcing consumer costs higher.

> Continue sloppy execution of a deportation campaign in which hundreds of law-abiding people have been arrested.

> Change tax policy to shift personal wealth more to already-rich people.

The cuts on air service widen Trump’s calculation to inflict pain on large pubic constituencies. Although the air cuts ostensibly were due to an aviation staffing shortage, the shortage was caused by Trump’s government shutdown.

WINONA, Minn. — Police arrested a person wanted across the river in Wisconsin related to a stabbing at a Trempealeau residence. A second person was arrested separately, said Trempealeau Police Chief Jeremy Randall. The victim survived but was hospitalized. The stabbing was Friday evening, Randall said. He declined to discuss details pending further investigation.

WINONA, Minn. – Police began a second day of assessing evidence and conducting interviews in a shooting that unsettled an East Side neighborhood Thursday morning. At a Friday briefing to update news reporters, Police Sergeant Doug Inglett confirmed there was a victim but that the victim wasn’t wounded. Because the investigation was still fluid, Inglett declined to identify the victim — not even by age or gender or the relationship to the shooter or whether the victim was in the apartment where Jonathan Payton was arrested as the suspected shooter. “Were the two shots aimed the victim?” Inglett said such details were yet to be determined. A motive for the shooting also was yet to be established, he said. The Police Department mobilized its entire Day Platoon to the scene — five patrol officers and two sergeants. Mobilized also were five investigators who happened to be in their offices. A deputy sheriff was also on scene to assist. An evidence technician was at the scene too. Among evidence gathered, Inglett confirmed, were two two .40 mm shell casings on the ground on Third Street, a couple blocks from the apartment where Payton was arrested. The arrest itself was in a large house that had been converted into apartment units. At least one other person was in the building, Inglett said.  A black Taurus handgun with a .40 caliber round in the chamber was found in the apartment, but it wasn’t yet clear whether it was the weapon fired in the street, Inglett said. It’s still “a very active investigation,” he said.

Earlier: East Side gunshots random? Targeted?

Soccer (women): Concordia of St. Paul 3, Winona State 1

Football: Fergus Falls Hillcrest Comets 40, Mabel-Canton Cougars 38

Football: Kasson-Mantorville Komets 35, Maplewood Hill-Murray Pioneers 21

Hockey (girls): Rochester Century/Rochester Marshall 7, Windom Eagles 0

Volleyball (girls): Ada-Borup West Cougars 3, Harmony Fillmore Central Falcons 1

Volleyball (girls): Chatfield Gophers 3, Esko 1

ROCHESTER, Minn. —  A Wyoming couple were injured and in a two-vehicle accident on at a U.S. Highway 52 interchange on the West Sude. Injured were Carol Ann Stutzman age 61, and her passenger, Tylan Ray Stutzman, 60, both of Sundance. Their injuries were less than less than life-threatening, police said. Tyey were in a 2020 Chevrolet sport utility. Vehicle. Unhurt:

> Mohammed Shajid Nabi, 38, of Rochcster, who was driving a 2020 Mercedes 250 sedan.

> Navila Israt Noor, 30, of Rochester, a passenger in the Mercedes.

The accident was about 5:55 p.m. Police said that the Chevrolet was eastbound on U.S. Highway 14 and tat the  Mercedes was turning south onto a Highway 52 ramp.

WINONA, Minn. – Police arrested a 40-year-old man after gunshots were reported near the Watkins factory and headquarters block on East Third Street. Witnesses described the shooter, who police said they found in a nearby house on Fifth Street. Arrested was Jonathan Marquist Payton. He was taken to jail and booked on a dangerous weapons charge. Police had no idea what precipitated the gunshots. After the arrest the police issued an online message to assure the community there was no ongoing public danger. No one was injured by the gunshots. Police found two shell casings in the street. One bullet punctured a parked car. Police reported a handgun was in the house where Payton was arrested. The gunshots had been reported just after 9 a.m.

Payton. Arrested, no resistance.

A rap sheet that appears not to end

Payton is no stranger to police. In March 2023 Winona County deputies arrested Payton after a chase that began with his car stuck in a snowbank. Two Good Samaritans stopped to help, but Payton produced a gun and drove off in their pickup. The police chase ensued. Payton pleaded guilty in federal court and was sentenced to 15 months in prison. Besides Winona, Payton has been in jail in Rochester and St. Cloud in Minnesota and in Vancouver in Washington and Portland in Oregon.   He has lived off and on in Preston, Rochester and Winona. Arrests have been on charges of attempting murder, committing assault, possessing a weapon illegally, burglarizing a home, consuming meth, driving drunk, interfering with police, stalking police, fleeing police, and driving without a permit.

Earlier: A tale of blackberry brandy, a Glok and a pickup jacking

WINONA, Minn. — Police patrols have continued their extra swings through Levee Park, which has been an occasional congregating place for homeless folks after a downtown warming center closed for the season last spring. The usual police practice is to tell interlopers on city property to move along. There’s often litter and debris left behind.

Earlier: Firefighters to Levee for deserted grill

Earlier: Winona’s homeless: Where these folks live

Earlier: Baked beans an assault weapon at Levee Park

Quarried stone, polished slabs. Masons are mortaring locally quarried Biesanz stone at street level as skirting for the showcase Masterpiece Hall on Fifth Street. Above the waist are finishing slabs of gleaming polished stone. The 700-seat Fiftth Street showcase has missed its original May completion target. Is the wait worth it? You decide. Image: Steve Lunde

Earlier: Hall seen as key in further downtown revival