ST.PAUL, Minn. — State wildlife managers hope a record number of licensed archery hunters can help reduce the Minnesota deer herd to a sustainable size. The bow-hunting season opened with ideal weather statewide and with 110,000 licenses having been issued. Paul Burr, big game coordinator for the Natural Resources Department, said the agency fell short of goal to reduce the herd by 200,000 last season. Bow-hunters took 27,700 in 2024, roughly 16%. The bow season runs 110 days. Licenses: $34 for residents and $185 for non-residents.

Vehicle panels all asunder. Most seriously hurt driver not wearing seat belt. Image: Vernon County sheriff

One driver, from Viola, injured seriously

WEST LIMA, Wis – A Viola truck driver was injured in the mangled wreckage of a truck two pickups and two skid-laodeers  near West Lima southeast of LaFarge. Justin J. Valentine, 21, was taken 22 miles to the Viroqua hospital, then transferred another 30 miles to a more fully equipped LaCrosse hospital. The sequence of what happened in the accident was complicated. Vernon County Sheriff Roy Torgerson reconstructed it this way:

WILSON, Minn. —A Winona driver was injured albeit not critically when two vehicles collided at the Interstate 90 exit ramp to Winona and Rushford. Ashley Marie Milene, age 37, was taken 10 miles to the Winona hospital. Winona County deputies said Milene was in a 2013 Toyota Corolla heading north toward Winona on State Highway 43. This was about 3:35 p.m. A Buick Rendezvous driven by Sara Lynn York, 18, of Mabel, was exiting westbound off Interstate 90. The collision was at the top of the exit ramp. Neither York nor a 15-year-old passenger from Rushford was injured.

THIELMAN, Minn. — Wabasha County deputies reported a death in the collision of a motorcycle and pickup truck just northwest of this Zumbro River village. Deputies asked news reports not to release any names until kin could be notified. The crash, apparently head-on, was about 2:10 p.m. on State Highway 60 at County Road 13. This is about 20 miles from Wabasha. A 2014 Harley Davidson motorcycle driven by an Arrcadia, Wisconsin, man lost control, deputies said. The other vehicle was a 2011 Ford F250 driven by a 60-year-old Thielman man. State Highway 60, which connects Wabasha with Zumbro Falls and Mazeppa, was closed about four hours to clear the scene.

GOODVIEW, Minn. — A Winona man was injured and taken to the hospital after a two-vehicle collision on Winona’s northern outskirts. Goodview police described injuries to Mark Anthony Maloney, 62, as sustainable. Maloney was driving  a 2014 Dodge Ram 1500 pickup The accident was about 12:30 p.m. at the U.S. Highway 61intersection with 44th Avenue. It is a controlled intersection in a 55-mph stretch of the four-lane highway. The driver of the other vehicle, James Edgar Hoover, 80, of Winona, was unhurt. He was in a 2010 Subaru Outback.

Autumn beckons. The back yard clematises didn’t do well this summer. Only one flowered and only very late. But just as absence makes the heart grow fonder, so does this lone splash of deep lavender. Image: Steve Lunde

BLAIR, Wis. — A man who reportedly was heard breaking out a window to escape from a gunshop before dawn was arrested. In custody: Christian Dahl, age 20. Recovered were three handguns, ammunition, two knives, and a dummy grenade, said Kent Johnson. The break-in, at Safe and Secure Firearms at 302 North Gilbert Street, was about 5:30 a.m. The noise of an employee arriving early for work apparently spooked the thief. The thief busted glass out of a back hallway and fled on foot.

LACROSSE, Wis. — Two people were targeted and deliberately shot on a North Side street. They were transported to a hospital with what first-responders said were non-fatal wounds. The shooting was about 2:10 a.m. in the  bar district in the 1700 block of George street. Police began scouring the area for video. They called it “an isolated and targeted incident.”

WINONA, Minn. – A Winona driver was arrested and charged with drunken driving after a report that two cars were racing on Second Street on the West Side. Police stopped the cars and found one of the drivers smelling of alcohol. Seth Joseph Sinnaeve. age 25, denied drinking. At jail his blood-alcohol tested at 0.12%, roughly one-half more permitted. The arrest was about 10:10 p.m. near West Second and Laird streets.

WINONA, Minn. — Police took a report of $14,000 being stolen from a West Broadway Street home. The theft was reported about 8:45 p.m. in the Callista Court neighborhood. There were no immediate details from the investigation.

UTICA, Minn. — Responding to a call from a worried citizen, a deputy sheriff found a man standing atop a trashcan and waving a sign skyward. This was about 7:10 p.m. near Sandstone Drive and Burt Road southeast of Utica in central Winona County. The man said the drones were coming and his sign was warning them to stay away. No law was being broken, and the deputy moved along. Indeed, deputies have seen occasional drones in the area off and on in recent weeks.

WINONA, Minn. —Police arrested a Winona woman as causing a disturbance in a parking lot downtown near the courthouse. Bobbi Lynn Frazier, age 42, was charged with disturbing the peace. The officers were responding to a call about 6:30 p.m. that a woman was screaming and throwing items from a car window. She was still screaming when officers arrived. Asked by officers to exit the car, the woman stumbled and didn’t make any sense, officers said. Also: She smelled of alcohol and had blood-shot and watery eyes and was slurring her words. Told she was under arrest, she went limp rather than be escorted peaceably to a squad car. Once in the squad car, officers said, she banged her head repeatedly on the cage between the front and back seats, self-inflicting head wounds. She was driven to the hospital for a check of her condition. Once cleared medically she was jailed. A man was with her in the parked car, in the parking lot, in the 150 block of West Third Street, was not arrested.

Frazier. Charges: Disturbing the peace, obstructing police in their duties

Highway 43 bridges from Wisconsin. Just before the sun dips behind the Winona bluffs. Sunset is earlier by the day, now 6:23 p.m. Image: Steve Lunde

READS LANDING, Minn. — A motorcyclist and his passenger were injured when their bike and a car collided in Reeds Landing on U.S. Highway 61. Eric James Schwarz, 58, and Susan Diane Schwarz, 62, both of Brooklyn Park, were taken 45 miles to a Rochester hospital. Their injuries were non-life threatening, Wabasha County deputies said. Both were wearing helmets. The driver of the car, a 2022 Kia Sportage, was Donald Anthony Evanson, 79, of Minnesota City. He was unhurt. The collision was about 11:35 a.m. Both vehicles were headed downriver.