WINONA, Minn. — After a couple of odd disturbances downtown involving an Anoka man, police decided the best course was to send him packing out of town. Alexander Craig Larson, 32, was last seen fueling up his pickup truck. Police said that he indicated he was heading for New Orleans. The disturbances:

> Blooming Grounds, 50 East Third Street. Police were called about 1 p.m for a man throwing food inside the eatery. Police found Larson parked outside in a [pickup truck. He first refused to respond to officers tapping on the window to open up but finally lowered the window. He was issued a standard trespass warning not to return to Blooming Grounds.

> Gabby’s, 179 East Third Street.  Police were called about 4:30 p.m. for a man acting strangely outside Gabby’s bar. Police found Larson had parked his 2007 black GMC Yukon pickup and placed  tires and orange traffic cones as well as tires. in the street. Larson, wearing a black face mask, was out in the street spray-painting the pavement with a 15-foot circle of orange, yellow and black. Seeing the officers, he walked away but when confronted he explained he was hoping to raise gas money. He didn’t make much sense, the officers said, but stgere was something about his “street art” meant to convey “Anoka to New Orleans” and something about the country’s 250th anniversary. He was issued a disturbing-the-peace citation and tlod where to find a chafity agency that mught help with gas money to leave town.

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WABASHA, Minn. — A rural Winona County motorcyclist was critically injured when he ran into a deer. David Michael Deering, 66, was taken to the Wabasha hospital. The accident was on a four-lane section of U.S. Highway 61 between Wabasha and Kellogg. First-responders described his condition as life-threatening. This was about 11 :25 a.m. Deering was on a BMW R1200 and headed south toward home near Minneiska. No one else was injured.

DAKOTA Minn. — A deputy gave chase to bikers who, mufflers disconnected, had been roaring around nearby LaCrescent and disturbing the peace. The bikers got away from LaCrescent police and headed north into Winona County. The deputy intercepted them on County Road 1. They went even louder and faster onto Interstate 90. The deputy, siren shrieking and lights flashing, was on their tails, at points at 100 mph. Finally one biker pulled over. The deputy arrested Miguel Ramone Dodge, age 19, of LaCrosse, and confiscated his bike-cam. Police are seeing bike-cams more and more for bikers to relive their stunt-riding and ultra-speeding. The cam left no doubt that Dodge deserved to be arrested, the deputy said. The second biker, however, kept on going. He’s now on police list to be apprehended. This was all was about 7:10 p.m.

25th annual event. Invitation-only diagonal parking on downtown Winona’s blocked-off Third Street for the Steamboat Days car show. Business was hopping at Peter’s fresh-air beer garden. “Anybody see my glitzy ’57 DeSoto?” Image: Helen Nordby

POTTSDAM, Minn — An Elgin man was injured in a three-car collision at Reikes Corners west of Zumbro Lake on White Bridge Road. Zackary Austin Peterson, 36, was taken 18 miles to a Rochester hospital. His injuries were non-life threatening, first-responders said. No one else required medical attention. The collision was about 1:20 p.m. Peterson was eastbound toward Plainview on State Highway 247. He was driving a 2007 Chevrolet Impala whose airbag deployed. Others in the accident:

> Michael Paul Halasy, 55, of Rochester, driving south on State Highway 63 toward Rochester in a 1998 Porsche Boxster convertible.

> Jon Palmer Dunham, 56, of Rochester, driving north in a 2020 Ford F150 pickup and turning west toward Oronoco.

> Tara Louise Kenitz, 54, of Rochester, a passenger in the pickup.

Anna Brennan. Crowned Miss Minnesota at Treasure Island casino event. From Byron. As talent she performed classical ballet to “Tango de Roxanne.” Studying journalism at University of St. Thomas and interning at television station KSTP.

WYATTVILLE, Minn. — A northern Arizona man, seemingly after too much fun at Steamboat Days in Winona, crashed his car into a tree 24 miles away on County Road 12. A sheriff’s deputy who came across the wreck said Joshua Ray Leach, age 37, was unhurt but drunk He was wearing a beer-tent access bracelet from Steamboat Days. A roadside breath test put his blood at 0.12% alcohol, four points more than law allows. The crash was at the 90-degree corner where County Road 12 forks into County 25.  This was about 3:45 a.m.

WINONA, Minn. –— Police responded to a call about a street fight in an East Side residential neighborhood. Although officers found people milling around, the fight was over. Police said no one would talk about what happened. Officers handed out forms and encouraged people in the remaining crowd to submit written statements in the morning when they sobered up. All appeared to be adults, officers said. This was about 1:25 a.m. on East Sanborn Street between Kansas and Liberty streets.

WINONA Minn. — The narrowing of U.S. Highway 14 up Stockton Hill on the Winona side was a one-day project, said state transportation spokesperson Mike Doughery. A crew was tarring caps on pilings that hold back new retaining walls on steepest sections of the highway. Also: Thousands of night-time  reflectors were afixed  atop  new guardrails. Pilot cars led motorists in single columns between Knopp Valley in Winona and the 1110-degree turn near the summit at Seminary Road.

Earlier: Stockton Hill 4.0: For another century

Downhill to Winona. Spray-coating the pilings. Image: Steve Lunde

Turning off the lights. The sprawling Goodview manfacturing campus , at 3760 West Fourth Street, is quiet at the end of a workday. Will become more so after the summer when shutdown completed. Operations moving to Indiana. Image: Steve Lunde

Bye: Pink slips to 86 union workers

ATLANTA, Ga. – The global lighting manufacturer Acuity is closing its suburban Winona factory in Goodview and laying off 86 employees. The announcement came as a surprise locallyin Winpna.  Atlanta-based Acuity has had a Winona presence since 2010 when it acquired the longtime local employer Winona Lighting. Acuity called its new decision part of “ongoing efforts to align our manufacturing network to best support our customers and long-term business needs.” Manufacturing currently at the Winna plant is  being shifted immediately to an Acuity plant in Indiana — a process expected to be compelted in August. The company made no mention of labor costs as an issue. Indiana has lax labor laws. Workers at Goodview have the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers as their collective bargaining agent.

Acuity profile

Acuity is the largest lighting company in North America. Headquartered iin Atlanta, Georgia. Globally it has 12,000 employees at scattered sites in North America, Europe and Asia. Its annual sales are $3.8 billion. These days the company operates as Acuity Brands. Its stock s traded publicly on the New York Stock Exchange as AYI. The president and chief executive, Neil Ashe, earns $12.5 million a year. His compensation package  includes $1 million in salary, $8.6 million in stock, $1.5 million in performance incentives, and $1.4 million in miscellany.

ROLLINGSTONE, Minn. — U.S. Postal detectives staged a sting and claimed to have caught a Rollingstone mail worker red-handed opening a package and stealing prescription pills. Miranda Diane Tesch of St. Charles faces two counts of felony theft of mail. The sting was in November, although she was charged only Thursday through a summons. Here’s what happened: Alerted to theft reports over several months, agents put together a package made to resemble a prescription delivery from a VA hospital. Inside they put a bottle with fake pills and a sensor designed to trigger upon opening. An undercover agent took the package to the Rollingstone post office, where Tesch was working alone. The agent told her that a relative had died. The agent requested the package be returned to  the VA hospital. The agent left and waited outside with a fellow agent. The sensor in the decoy package went off. They rushed in. They read Tesch a Garrity warning that advised her she was compelled as a federal employee to answer their questions. At first, they said, Tesch claimed she opened the package to find identifying information because she could not make out what was the label. Eventually, they said, she admitted to opening the pill bottle. Agents found the 28 fake pills in her own prescription bottle, which was in her purse.

Crime scene at Zip 55969. An unassuming and quaint presence on Main Street in Rollingstone. Image: Steve Lunde

Case profile

Throughout 2025 the Winona County sheriff’s office received reports of mail theft or tampering in Rollingstone. In February one man received packages missing prescription pills. In June there were packages that clearly had been opened. One contained the prescription opioid Tramadol. In August, a woman reported mailing two greeting cards, each with $50 cash, which were delivered with the cash missing.

Winona irregularities

The Winona postmaster, Sherri Genkinger, pleaded guilty in 2019 after several years of reported irregularities. Postal detectives found 1,300 pieces of undelivered mail in a bag of shredded greeting cards in Genkinger’s office. She was sentenced to two years of probation.

AUSTIN, Minn. — An Austin man pleaded guilty to impregnating a child who gave birth at age 12. Miguel Sebastian Domingo, age 62, entered the plea in Mower County court. He’s been locked since September after the girl told authorities that he raped her multiple times. The guilty plea was contingent on the judge dismissing one of four chagres of criminal misconduct with a minor. The agreement also asks that sentences be served concurrently. Sentencing was scheduled for September.

Domingo. Accused of multiple rapes of barely pubescent girl.

WINONA, Minn. – Police continued trying to trace the recent history of a handgun retrieved from a small fire in the street in front of a home near Center and Howard streets five days ago. The home-owner, who called firefighters to the fire, said he was inside and heard popping, and saw the fire out in the street.  In the debris from the fire, police found casings from eight shells that exploded, apparently from the heat. No one was injured. Eighteen unexploded live projectiles were with the gun.  Plastic components of the 9-millimeter Luger, had melted. Police said there was no reason to believe anyone was being targeted. Unanswered questions: Whose gun was it? Who set the fire? Why? And why on Howard Street?

Earlier: Mystery street fire yields melted gun, ammo

WINONA, Minn. — A police officer said that to see Aaron Patrick Devorak wheeling around town on a shiny new Trek bicycle didn’t look right The Trek matched the description of a bike stolen the previous evening from a home garage on Carimona Street, Also Devorak was dressed just like the thief who was recorded on a neighbor’s doorbell cam. Devorak, age 48, of Winona, was arrested. The bike, valued at $880, was returned.