College scores
Soccer (women: Winona State 2, UM-Crookston 1
Tennis (women): UW-LaCfosse 7, UW-Eau Claire 0
Volleyball (women): Saint Mary’s 3, Hamline 1
Volleyball (women): Sioux Falls 3, Winona State 1
Volleyball (women): UW-LaCrosse 3, Dubuque 2
Volleyball (women): Rochester Community 3, St. Cloud Tech 0
Volleyball (women): Rochester Community 3, St. Cloud Tech 0
Minnesota prep
Football: Winona Cotter Ramblers and Plainview-Elgin-Millville Bulldogs
Football: St. Charles Saints 50, Kenyon-Wanamingo Knights 6
Soccer (girls): Kasson-Mantorville Komets 1, Winona Winhawks 0
Volleyball (girls): Circle Pines Centennial Cougars 2, 2, Lewiston-Altura Cardinals 0
Volleyball (girls): Winona Cotter Ramblers 3, Kasson-Mantorville Komets 1
Wisconsin prep
Football: Cochrane-Fountain City 33, Independence/Gilmanton 0
Football: Arcadia Raiders 46, Galesville Gale-Ettrick-Trempealeau RedHawks 6
Football: Augusta Beavers 34, Whitehall Norse 21
Fourth Winona protest coming against Trump
WINONA, Minn. – The grassroots organization Winona Indivisible confirmed another Windom Park rally to protest President Trump’s “battering of the rights of the people.” A spokesperson called Trump monarchical. The rally is being called “No King 2” as a follow-up to a Wind Park rally of the same name in June. The new rally: October 18, a Saturday, at 12 noon. It will be another a peaceful and family-friendly protest, the spokesperson said. “The rally is an opportunity to reaffirm that our country belongs to all of us, not a wealthy few, and to promote democratic principles.: “Bring flags, signs, banners, and enjoy music, speakers, and a unity of purpose.”
From last time. The first No King rally in mid-June. The new rally will be the fourth anti-Trump protest this year at Windom Park.
Rosen as Minnesota’s new U.S attorney: ”Unexpected”
ST. PAUL, Minn. — A political scientist at Hamline University expressed surprise at President Trump’s choice of Dan Rosen as U.S. attorney for Minnesota. “By traditional credentials, it’s a very unusual pick,” David Schultz told the Minnesota Reformer. “Generally, you’re looking for people with more of a prosecutorial background.” Rosen’s legal experience is eminent domain. “I can’t think of any situation where you would need an eminent domain expert in that office.” Schultz emphasized that he didn’t know Rosen personally, that he had little insight into his politics, and that he did not intend to disparage Rosen’s professional reputation. But, he added, Trump’s pattern has been established plainly as preferring putting loyalty to himself as president ahead of expertise.
$1 million bail in first sweepstakes scam case
LACROSSE, Wis. — The first defendant in a $450,000 scam on a LaCrosse couple appeared before a judge. Bail was set at $1 million. Malcolm Christopher Sterling, 26, had been arrested in Vermont and returned to LaCrosse to face the music. If Sterling posts bail, his temporary release will be with judge-imposed conditions:
> House arrest with GPS monitoring.
> No internet-connected devices except to communicate with his attorney.
> Surrender of his Jamaica passport pending resolution of the case.
Earlier: Three arrests in $450,000 scam
Gundersen buys Sparta ambulance company
LACROSSE, Wis. — Gundersen Health has bought the Sparta ambulance service 27 miles away. Robert and Linda Hess had owned the company for 53 years. Terms of the deal were not announced. Gundersen, based in LaCrosse, already operates one of its two med-evac helicopters out of Sparta. The other helicopter is based in Decorah.
Gundersen’s reach. Gundersen’s Tri-State ground ambulance subsidiary has 15 vehicles plus arragements with other companies to service 22,000 square miles.
Notable journalism
Gabriel Hathaway (Winona Post October 8, 2025): “Split Vote Backs Raises for Winona City Council”
Sydney Kashiagi (Minnesota Star Tribune, October 9, 2025): “Amid Trump’s Push, Minnesota Democrats Walk Fine Line on Transgender Athletes”
Alexandra Retter (Winona Post, October 3, 2025): “WSU Dorm Could Begin This Month”
Minnesota prep
Football: Harmony Fillmore Central Falcons 26, Lewiston-Altura Cardinals 7
Soccer (boys): Winona Winhawks 4, Faribault Falcons 0
Volleyball (girls): Pine Island Panthers 3, Lewiston-Altura Cardinals 1
Gun law update: Walz seems to yield to GOP
ST. PAUL. Minn. — Governor Tim Walz said Republicans have dug so deeply into resisting a tougher gun law that a special session of the Legislature could be “a waste of money and a waste of time.” Six weeks ago, Walz promised to convene the Legislature to deal with a single issue — gun restrictions. This was just after 30 casualties in a mass shooting at Anunciation Church in Minneapolis. Walz figured the time was ripe to clamp down assault-style weapons and high-capacity magazines. He caucused with Democratic and Republican legislative leaders. Republicans, historically under the influence of gun manufacturing and retailing lobbyists, would commit only to mental health funding. Theirs a dubious line of reasoning that massacres are rooted in individual psychological maladies and that weaponry therefor isn’t the problem. Facing GOP resistance, Walz has hinted at a Plan B work-around: To ask the Legislature to authorize a public referendum on building gun control into the state constitution. This buck-passing — to the people— would get the gun lobby off the backs of recalcitrant Republicans. Meanwhile: Hundreds of faith leaders have delivered a letter to the governor to call a special session. The faith leaders held a prayer service on the Capitol steps Wednesday and vowed they’d return as long as necessary to pressure governmental leaders.
Earlier: Rocky road ahead on Minnesota gun reform
Earlier: GOP slams Walz but willing to talk gun control
Earlier: Status report on Minnesota gun laws
Corps caught in federal shutdown: No open house
ST.PAUL, Minn. — The Army Corps canceled a Saturday open house at Lock and Dam 1 in Minneapolis due to “a lapse in government appropriations.” In other words, the agency’s staff is stretched thin by the federal government shutdown over Trump cuts in medical services. The Corps of Engineers continues to carry out mission-critical operations ay locks and dams on the Mississippi River.
Three arrests in $450,000 scam
LACROSSE, Wis. – Three persons accused in a sweepstakes scam that extracted $450,000 from a LaCrosse couple have been arrested, police said. The arrests were on the East Coast. Police said extradition to Wisconsin was being arranged. Arrested were:
> Shanice Shereece Reeves, 31, in Connecticut.
> Faedar Brittanya Rockhead, 24, in Vermont.
> Malcolm Sterling, 26, in Vermont.
Still at large: Gavin J. McIntosh, 37, and Tanya Santanya Rockhead, 34.
Driver strikes median wire at I-90 exit
STEWARTVILLE, Minn. — A western Minnesota woman was injured when, as police described it, she tried to straighten the curve on the Interstate 90 exit ramp into Stewartville. Mara Emily Olson, 22, of Pelican Rapids, was taken 12 miles to a Rochester hospital. Her injuries appeared superficial, police said. This was about 10:30 a.m. Olson was in a 2017 Jeep Renegade whose airbag deployed.
Death claims retired Olmsted County sheriff
ROCHESTER, Minn. — Retired Sheriff Charles “Chuck” R. VonWald died at age 93 in hospice care. He joined rhe sheriff’s staffe in 1958 and was elected sheriff in 1970. He retired in 1991. His legacy includes the VonWald Youth Center, which was established with of his late wife. His son, Steven C. VonWald, served as Sheriff from 2008 to 2011.
New film: The struggle for Elroy-Sparta trail
ELROY, Wis. — A documentary film premieres October 15 on the rail-to-trail conversion movement, focusing on the first successful project in the United States — an old Chicago & Northwestern shortcut from the Wisconsin River to the Mississippi. What remains is a 32-1/2 mile biking and hiking trail between Elroy and Sparta. It opened as a recreational venue in 1967, complete with the three original tunnels. The film is based on the 2021 book “From Rails to Trails: The Making of America’s Active Transportation Network” by Peter Harnik, a co-founder of the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy. Harnik produced the film to chronicle the political, legal and cultural battles to create the growing and interconnected national rail-trail network. The premiere is on PBS. The time varies locally.
Such a climb. The route had a 3% grade in places. It was a tough task for steam locomotives that hooked together to make the 819-foot climb on one side and 659 feet on the other. Without tunnels, the grade would have been even more of a struggle.
High-balling on a flat stretch. The line was built in 1887.
Heavy traffic. C&NW’s Dakota 400 was among the last trains bound on the route for LaCrosse, Winona and points west. Passenger service ended in 1963. Even then an alternate route, longer but easier, was in use. At its peak, the Elroy-Sparta section carried 50 freight and six passenger trains a day.
Cotter slipping as magnet for foreign students
WINONA, Minn. — The number of foreign students boarding at Cotter Schools in Winona has dropped dramatically. This fall has 33 boarders, compared with 55 a year earlier. The Cotter decline reflects a projected loss of 30% to 40% nationally. Why is this happening? In a word: Donald Trump. Analysts point to:
> Visa hassle. Trump has slowed the visa application process at U.S. embassies and in some countries stopped the process completely.
> Perceived hostility. Trump deportation policies against foreign college students have led families to worry about the safety of their children at all levels.
> Re-entry uncertainty. With new Trump scrutiny on foreign students, families fret whether their children can get back through customs after going home for holiday breaks and thus having their schooling interrupted mid-stream.
> Alternative schools. Boarding schools in England, Canada and elsewhere have stepped up international recruiting to exploit the hesitancy about U.S. schooling.
The U.S. enrollment loss is hurting lucrative revenue streams for U.S. boarding schools. At Cotter the tuition, room and board package is $55,000 a year, which is in line with $59,000 nationally. Good news for Cotter is that the international losses have been offset by slow and steady growth in overall enrollment.
Earlier: Cotter Schools enrollment edges up
News summary at mid-week: October 8, 2025
SCIENCE: WSU discovery: Dinosaur bones still with skin
GOVERNANCE: Federal shutdown update: Minnesota on edge
GOVERNANCE: Soybean farmers in Trump’s world of hurt
GOVERNANCE: City Council OKs first pay boost since 2019
GOVERNANCE: Walz to Trump: We’ll do our own policing
GOVERNANCE: Trump choice OK’d as Minnesota’s U.S. attorney
POLITICS: Congressional hopeful to speak at Winona rally
POLITICS: Governor on Lindell: A disaster if elected
POLITICS: Schutz sets sight on election as attorney general
HEALTH: Expert: Measles has growing Minnesota foothold
SCHOOLS: Cotter Schools enrollment edges higher
CRIME: 400 neglected, ailing farm animals rescued
CRIME: Police amass evidence in $450,000 scam
CRIME: Drug bust: Why’d they let Liz drive
CRIME: Cops: Brother tried knife to settle score
WILDLFE: Poached? Felled legally? For sure: Dumped wrongly
ENVIRONMENT: Fall brilliance: Report Number 4
Earlier: News summary at week’s end: October 4, 2025
College scores
Minnesota prep
Soccer (girls): LaCrescent-Hokah Lancers 0, Caledonia Warriors 1
Volleyball (girls): Chatfield Gophers 3, LaCrescent-Hokah Lancers 0
Roadside arrest: K-9 deputy finds drugs
BLUFF SIDING. Wis. — A Winona man, stopped by police for speeding, was arrested after a police sniffer-dog honed in on drugs in his car, police said. Charged on multiple felony counts was Geremy Phillips, age 38. Confiscated were 24 grams of fentanyl and 53 anxiety-relief Xanax prescription pills for which there is an illegal market. There also was drug paraphernalia, police said. The arrest was about 7:30 p.m. on U.S. Highway 35. Phillips was taken 24 miles to the Buffalo County jail in Alma. In Wisconsin courts Phillips is regarded as a repeat offender. At the time of the Bluff Siding arrest he was out on bail from LaCroses County. Although he listed Winona as address when arrested, he moves a lot. Recent addresses include Dodge in Buffalo Count, near Bluff Siding, and Melrose in Jackson County.
Phillips. New arrest across river from Winona.
Trump choice OK’d as Minnesota’s U.S. attorney
WASHIGTON — Despite opposition from both Minnesota senators, the U.S. Sente confirmed Dan Rosen as President Trump’s choice to lead federal legal interests in Minnesota. The vote was 51-47, barely a majority. Rosen, age 59, splits his time between Minnesota and Florida, but his career has been in Minneapolis mostly as a litigator in eminent domain cases. He represented the landowner whose property was taken over in 2007 to build Target Field. The Senate opposition from Amy Klobuchar and Tina Smith, both Democrats, was rooted in Trump’s practice to extract personal loyalty pledges from his appointees and to ignore constitutional limits on presidential power. Osen’s salary in the Minnesota position: $190,000. Although a Republican, there is irony in occasional campaign donations to Democratic candidates — $2,800 to Senator Klobuchar and $500 to MN-2 Representative Angie Craig.
Inherited agenda
Rosen will have high-profile Minnesota cases to handle. There is the prosecution of Vance Boelter for the assassination of state Democratic legislator Melissa Hortman and her husband. This is a death penalty case. There also are indictments of restaurateurs accused of defrauding the state-run CoVid-emergency project Feeding Our Future. Republicans have accused Democrats of lapses in management that allowed millions of dollars in fraud.
Earlier: No impediments to U.S. attorney choice
Earlier: U.S. attorney for Minnesota resigns
Earlier: Ex-U.S. attorney Luger nominated to return
Earlier: Earlier: Corporate-type named to Minnesota law job
Earlier: Trump-appointed U.S. attorney leaves post
Rosen. A University of Minnesota Law School graduate with honors. A bachelor’s from University of Wisconsin. Navy duty in first Gulf war. Since 2017 the chief Minnesota partner for Miami-based Kluger Kaplan Silverman Katzen & Levine.
Walz to Trump: We’ll do our own policing
MINNEAPOLIS — Governor Tim Walz said he’s prepared for the possibility that President Trump will send federal troops to Minnesota to take over policing. The Walz message: “Better not.” Walz spoke at a Minneapolis Star Tribune-sponsored event with Illinois Governor JB Pritzker. Walz accused Trump of abusing the power of his office by sending combat-equipped troops into Chicago and other Democrat-controlled cities, supposedly to solve “rampant crime” although data doesn’t support Trump’s rationale. Walz said his message to Trump: “You do your job, and we’ll do ours. And the fact of the matter is, we’re doing ours.” As a state with elected Democratic leadership, Walz said he recognizes that Minnesota may be in Trump’s crosshairs. Also: Trump has a particular distaste for Walz, who campaigned against him in the 2024 election. About federal troops in Chicago this week with armored vehicles and lethal weaponry, Illinois Governor Pritzker said he wasn’t sure exactly how Trump’s military occupation will end: “What we know is that it is striking fear in the hearts of everybody in Chicago.” Pritzker, a Democrat, noted that Chicago’s crime rate has been declining and is manageable locally. This week Trump also sent troops into Democrat-dominated Portland in Oregon. He described the city as under siege and “war-ravaged” and “burning to the ground. These were lies. He’s done it also in Los Angeles, Washington and threatened to do so in New York, New Orleans and Memphis. He has called for local Democratic leadership to be jailed.
Ex-trailer house tenant accused of arson
LACROSSE, Wis. — A man was charged with arson for a fire that destroyed a trailer house from which he had been evicted in June. John Galster, age 61, was in the trailer, according to investigators who later tracked his movements on a cellphone. Also: Witnesses reported Galster’s truck at the trailer. The fire, at Brookview Mobile Home Court, damaged four nearby structures. There were no injuries. Galster was already in civil court on a complaint that he returned several times after his eviction and vandalized the unit. About the fire, investigators quoted Galster that it was an accident: He was using a butane lighter to find his way in the dark and stumbled. The lighter ignited paint that was splattered around the place, he explained. He also explained he was in the unit to retrieve Christmas ornaments. The fire call was October 1 about 6:40 a.m..
Galster. Says at trailer to retrieve belongings.
WSU discovery: Dinosaur bones still with skin
WINONA, Minn. — In anticipation of an exceptionally rare “dinosaur mummy” for display at Winona State next year, the university’s geoscientists have scheduled a public seminar Monday. The subject is an Edmontosaurus that a Winona State team unearthed in western North Dakota last summer. Seminar: 4 p.m. at the Science Lab building. The remains have been carefully prepared and studied and ultimately will be on display at Winona State for students, researchers, and the community to experience firsthand, said prof Lee Beatty, the excavation team leader. Although 66 million years old, the remains include remarkably preserved skin and soft tissue, Beatty said: “The animal was buried quickly in conditions that limited decay and promoted mineralization of soft tissue.” The remains, encased in sandstone, show extraordinary detail that provides a clearer picture of what dinosaurs looked like in life, Beatty said. Only a handful of such fossils have ever been discovered worldwide, he said: “They are highly valuable for research, offering unique insights into dinosaur biology, evolution.”
Edmontosaurus. A herbivorous dinosaur up to 39 feet long and weighing six tons. Bone beds have been found from Colorado to Alaska, which once were subtropical coastal plains.
Digging carefully. Brushing even more carefully. And posing. The Winona State excavation team students and grads. Their discovery, in the western North Dakota badlands, was in the massive Hell Creek formation that spans portions of Montana, Wyoming and the Dakotas.
Beatty profile
Lee Beatty has been at Winona State since 2008. He holds an earth science degree from Penn State and a doctorate in geology from the University of Pittsburgh. He completed a post-doctoral fellowship at the U.S. National Energy Technology Laboratory. Since 2013 he has led paleontology digs in North Dakota’s Hell Creek formation.
Boldon seeks return to Minnesota Senate
ROCHESTER, Minn. — State Senator Liz Boldon, a Rochester Democrat, announced she’s seeking a second term. Boldon said she believes the national Trump disarray requires “real solutions” at the state level. “The chaos in Washington has folks worried about the future,” she said. “In this moment of widespread division, it’s critical we have leaders who can bring people together to deliver real solutions for the people of Minnesota.” Bolton, age 46, a Mayo nurse, represents Senate District 25. Earlier she was in the House from 25-B. In her first Senate term, Boldon was an assistant majority leader and also vice chair of the Housing and Homelessness Committee. Her priorities, she said, remain healthcare access, childcare affordability and expanding homeownership.
Bolton. Commits to November 2026 election bid.
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