WINONA, Minn. – October goblins are out and about. Or maybe it’s mean-spirited teen hoodlums. Who knows. Police took the season’s first report of vandalized Halloween yard decorations. This was in 100 block of East King Street. Police took the homeowner’s call just after dark. By the time that officerse arrived, the vandals — err, the goblins — had vaporized.

BLACK RIVER FALLS, Wis. — A single-engine plane crash-landed on its belly at the Black River Falls airport with its wheels up. There was no fire. The pilot, flying solo, walked away shaken but unhurt. Without explanation, Jackson County Sheriff Wadera declined to release the pilot’s name but said he had forgotten to lower the landing gear. The plane, a Beechcraft Bonanza, built in 1978, apparently was on a 44-minute flight from LaCrosse. The sheriff said the Black River police dispatcher learned of crash almost simultaneously from the airport, which is three miles south of town, and from an air-controller at LaCrosse who had lost contact. This was about 2:40 p.m. The Black River airport has a single 4,600-foot asphalt runway. The runway, will require gt least 24 hours to repair the surface, said Frank Voge, airport manager.

Flat on its belly. With propeller bent. Typically a Bonanza seats four but can be configured for six. Market value for a 1978 vintage Bonanza ranges from $370,000 to $420,000. It’s a popular plane. Almost 19,000 have been manufactured since its 1947 introduction.

ROCHESTER, Minn.  — A St. Charles woman was charged with sexual misconduct with a 15-year-old girl in incidents two summers ago. In both cases, the woman and the teenager had been drinking, according to the criminal complaint. Both counts against Megan Lelani Cogswell, 42, are under-age sexual conduct. The Cogswell arrest, which was Wednesday, followed several weeks of investigation. Evidence includes photos from the teenager of hickeys on her neck.  The teen said she couldn’t remember exact dates other than in July. The girl said that she talked with Cogswell after the first incident and that Cogswell assured her it wouldn’t happen again. But it did, the girl said. She told investigators that she resisted but Cogswell persisted. According to investigators, Cogswell acknowledged knowing the girl was under 18 years old but couldn’t remember her exact age. She denied engaging in inappropriate behavior. Asked if there was a chance she had too much to drink Cogswell said that she couldn’t remember and that it would be “odd” not to remember what the teenager was recalling.

Earlier: St. Charles arrest in teen sex case

Earlier: Snowmobilers arrested after police chase

Cogswell. Admits drinking with teen but denies other illicit behavior.

WINONA, Minn. — Friends of the Winona Public Library will have a $5 book bag sale Saturday, Everything you can fit in a bag will be $5, albeit some individual items in the fund-raiser are more. Time: 9 a.m. to 12 noon. The items have all been donated to the library over recent months.

Raising stone in 1882. A Winona and St. Peter Railroad construction crew poses at the trestle now known as the Arches. It’s aclassic 19th-century railroad bridge engineering. The bridge spans Peterson Creek and what then was Winona County Road 12, which later became Black and Yellow Trail, a tourist route to the Black Hills and Yellowstone Park, a.k.a. as U.S. 14. Now owned by the Canadian Pacific, the trestle carries two freight trains a day between Winona and the South Dakota border. Sepia image from archives: Kelly Beckman

Soccer (women): Sanit Mary’s 1, Macalester 1

Soccer (women): UW-LaCrosse 6, UW-River Falls 0

Volleyball (women): UW-Whitewater 3, UW-Eau Claire 1

Volleyball (women): Rochester Community 3, Western Tech 2

WINONA, Minn. – In a fourth call of the day to disturbances involving a Winona woman, police arrested 59-year-old Amy Michelle Brown. She was in the street yelling and screaming, apparently at no one in particular, and setting items on fire. This was about 5:45 p.m.  in the 450 block of East Broadway Street. Officers described her as delusional, manic and incoherent. Advised she was under arrest, Brown kicked an officer in a leg  tried to run into a house. The officer didn’t require medical attention. Brown has a continuing record with police, some drug-related.

Brown. Charges: Assault, disorderly conduct, forcefully resisting police.

FOUNTAIN CITY, Wis. — A woman from nearby Buffalo City was arrested after her Jeep rearended a car that was stopped for a school bus. Five high school girls were in the car, but none were injured except the driver. She was taken 11 miles to the Winona hospital with sustainable injuries. Arrested was Madison Tennant, age 26, who escaped injury. Deputies reported finding methamphetamine in Tennant’s Jeep Renegade and also a marijuana vape and drug paraphernalia. Charges were pending. The accident was about 3:40 p.m. on U.S. Highway 35 just south of Fountain City at County Road YY. The girls were in a 2004 Chrysler Concorde.

Tennant. No injuries on school bus.

WASHINGTON — A bill to keep federal agencies funded through November 21 failed in the U.S.  Senate. The bill needed 60 votes to pass but received only 55. It was the first Senate vote to end the government shutdown that began at midnight Tuesday. If passed, the bill would have reopened government but with Trump’s elimination of healthcare funding. Democrats have been insistent against the Trump cuts. How Minnesota and Wisconsin senators voted:

SPRING VALLEY, Minn. — A semi-truck rig and a minivan collided at the major junction between Spring Valley and Grand Meadow. Injured were two Spring Valley women in a 2015 Dodge Grand Caravan:

> Lola Anita Anderson, 57, the driver.

> Sharon Denise Littlejohn, 58.

They were taken 24 miles to a Rochester hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. The truck driver, Andrew Henry Irmiter, 42, of Armstrong, Iowa, was unhurt. The collision was about 12 p.m. The minivan was southbound from Rochester on U.S. Highway 63. The truck, a 2022 Peterbilt, was westbound toward Grand Meadow on State Highway 16.

ST. CHARLES, Minn. —A St. Charles woman was arrested on a sexual assault allegation regarding a teen-age girl. Details of the charge against Megan Lelani Cogswell, 42, were not available pending a criminal complaint in Olmsted County court. Sources said the case had been under investigation by authorities in both Olmsted and Winona counties. St. Charles sits on the county line.

ROCHESTER, Minn. — A man implicated in the 2022 overdose death of a Rochester woman is headed for prison. Timothy Daniel Loftus, age 44, was sentenced to eight years. Loftus pleaded guilty to felony possession of a controlled substance and concealing the body of 28-year-old Tia Mercedes Arleth. Loftus admitted providing fentanyl to Arleth. The body was found later in a blue tarp sealed with rope and duct tape. Loftus was arrested based on surveillance video from city buses that showed him purchasing a blue tarp. Other video showed him hooking up a trailer containing a blue tarp at his address. Ninety minutes later the trailer was back without the blue tarp. His cellphone data showed that Loftus had traveled to where Arleth’s body was found and that he stopped there nearly 10 minutes.

Loftus. Receiving credit for 731 days already served locally.

HARPER’S FERRY, Iowa — A landslide sent a boulder into a rural house and killed the 76-year-old man who lived there. Deputies found the body of Michael Dan Stok in the wreckage. This was about 10:40 a.m. just north of this Mississippi River town. Allamakee County Sheriff Clark Mellick said the landslide was from an adjacent property where heavy equipment had been operating.

MONDOVI, Wis. — A logger died of severe head injuries from a falling tree near Modena in central Buffalo County. The accident was about 10 a.m. near County Road VV. Without explanation Sheriff  Michael Osmond declined to release the victim’s name. Sources said the victim was 71years old. The man was taken to the Lindstrom farm equipment dealershipn Modena, where he died despite life-saving efforts before emergency crews could arrive.

Romance lives. Remembered as once the site of the liveliest dancehall in Winona County, long-lost romance has returned to the largely depopulated crossroads of Wyatville. Shall we call the place a “near ghost town.” These skeletons, their sun-bleached skulls in the shadow of brim and veil, posed among pumpkins for a wedding portrait. However, after all these years they were a tad confused in the thrill of the moment. It’s supposed to be the groom who carries the bride over the threshold. Image: Steve Lunde

WINONA, Minn. – The Fire Department reported 45 emergency medical calls plus 15 fire calls in recent days:

> Tuesday, September 30: 3 medical calls plus 4 fire calls.

> Monday, September 29: 7 medical calls plus 5 fire calls.

> Sunday, September 28: 10 medical calls plus no fire calls.

> Saturday, September 27: 9 medical calls plus 1 fire call.

> Friday, Septmber 26: 6 medical calls plus 1 fire call

> Thursday, September 25: 7 medical calls plus 3 fire calls.

> Wednesday, September 24: 3 medical calls plus 1 fire call.

Earlier: Emergency, fire crews make 43 calls

Soccer (men): Macalester 1, Saint Mary’s 0