WINONA, Minn. — An “extreme heat” warning was issued for southeast Minnesota until 9 p.m. For what it’s worth, the status then eases downward to a “heat advisory” bt still in the 90s through 9 p.m, Monday. This all occurs with expectations for severe storms. Highs reached 91 degrees in Winona over the weekend. With heavy humidity, the real feel was 101. Smoke from wildfires has creates high-altitude haze but with lesser effects on the ground.

A smaller riverside life form.  A magic moment that almost everybody missed at the Minnesota Marine Art Museum’s prairie garden. To the right flank of the impossible-to-miss giant yellow duck that dominated the grounds for the museum’s 20th anniversary weekend event. Image: Andy Frank

Earlier: Quacking it up for MMAM’s 20th year

ROCHESTER, Minn. — Two persons were injured. albeit not seriously, when two vehicles collided at the long-troubled U.S. Highway 14 intersection with Chester Road east of Rochester. The crash was about 4:55 p.m. In a 2021 Ford Escape, whose airbag deployed:

> Ella Rae Kirtz, age 18, of Eyota, the driver, who was uninjured.

> A Kirtz child, 14, Eyota, who was taken to a Rochester hospital.

In a 2021 Ford Escape, whose airbag also deployed:

> Donna Lynn Steffenhagen, 73, of Red Wing, the driver, who also was taken to a Rochester hospital.

WABASHA, Minn. — A motorcyclist climbing the steep State Highway 60 grade out of Wabasha slid off the shoulder and struck a guardrail. Noah Allen Raatz, age 19, of the Freeborn County village of Glenville, was airlifted 35 miles to a Rochester hospital. His injuries were described as sustainable. The accident was about 4:20 p.m. near the entrance to the bluff-top Coffee Mill golf course. Raatz was helmeted. He was on a Honda CBR1000.

WINONA, Minn. — Police tried to stop a bicyclist for neither lights nor reflectors about 1:15 a.m., but he kept on pedaling. At the railroad crossing on Franklin Street, his front wheel caught the tracks at a twisted angle. He fled on foot, the officers in pursuit, also on foot. Matthew Joseph Marek, age 38, of Winona, didn’t explain his behavior. He was charged with fleeing police.

ZUMBROTA, Minn. — A Wisconsin man was arrested after fleeing police and crashing into the North Fork of the Zumbro River. Zumbrota police, without explanation, withheld the man’s name. They confirmed, however, that the man was from LaCrosse and 31 years old. He was unhurt. The police chase began just before midnight. The Goodhue County police dispatcher received several calls about a pickup truck crashing into other vehicles on Highway 52 north of Zumbrota. Officers located the vehicle southbound at Sherwood Trail. The driver failed to halt. The chase ended when driver went into the median on the four-lane divided highway and down an embankment into the river.

Taillights still aglow. Also the back-up lights. Driver all right but faces multiple charges: Driving drunk, hitting other vehicles and running, fleeing police, and possessing a firearm while under the influence of alcohol. Image: Zumbroa police

WINONA, Minn. – After stopping a motorcyclist for speeding on Mankato Avenue, the police officer sensed the guy had been imbibing too much. Michael Edward Calteaux, 51, of Winona, admitted to two drinks at a downtown bar, the officer said.  Later he changed his recollection to three drinks at a downtown bar and remembered them as at a different downtown bar. Calteaux failed roadside sobriety exercises, the officer said. At jail a breath test showed his blood-alcohol level at 0.10%, two points more than allowed. The stop was about 11:50 p.m. near the Mankato-Sarnia roundabout.

Earlier: Winona hunter fined for illegal moose kill

A lovely and calm summer’s evening. The Line Dancing in the Street event in downtown Winona drew people of all ages. Some were practiced and expert. Some were having fun learning new steps with the occasional grin of “Oops, I messed up.” The next Dancing in the Streets will be in September. Image: Helen Nordby

WINONA, Minn. — Former Minnesota Vikings football player Everson DeWayne Griffen may have bad memories into the future about Winona. And Winona bad memories about him. After a night in the the county jail, he was led next door to appear before a judge on a bevy of charges related to a speeding stop. Griffen was driving a 2026 black Cadillac. It was not established. what Griffen was doing in Winona. The arrest had been about 1:40 in the afternoon. Bail was set at $3,000, which he paid and left town. The misdemeanor was Griffen’s latest in a growing list of brushes the law:

> July 2023: Driving under the influence in the Minneapolis suburb of Chanhassen.

> December 2023: Driving 55 mph in a 30 zone.

> October 2023: Crashing his car into a fence and gazebo in the Minneapolis suburb of Mound.

> May 2024: Driving under the influence and cocaine possession in, as well as speeding 82 mph in a 55 zone.

> Also May 2024: Two petty misdemeanor convictions.

> Also May 2024: His driver license was revoked, and he was ordered to to abstain from alcohol and careless driving.

Griffen. Age 38. At his prime 6-foot-3 and 273 pounds.

Griffen profile

Griffen was selected by the Minnesota Vikings in the fourth round of the 2010 NFLdraft.  He played 10seasns fir the Vikings, then to the Dallas Cowboys in 2020. He was traded to the Detroit Lions later in 1920, then re-signed with the Vikings in 2021. His record back with the Vikings was marked by erratic behavior:

> September 20, 2018: The team banned Griffen until he underwent a mental health evaluation.

> September 25:  Griffen was taken to a hospital for a mental issue.

> October 1: Griffen allegedly threatened to shoot someone because he was not allowed in his room at the elegant Hotel Ivy in Minneapolis.

More recently:

> November 24, 2021: Griffen called 911 that intruders were attempting to enter his home. Police were unable to find any intruders. Griffen initially refused to leave his home; after several hours of contact with both law enforcement and team psychologists from the Vikings, he finally left his home and was transported to a health care facility. While holed up in house, he posted videos that showed a pistol that he purported Vikings teammate his teammate Dalvin Cook had helped him purchase.

> December 3: Word leaked that Griffen been diagnosed with bipolar disorder.

Earlier: Driver held: No license, no interlock

Ducks are aquatic right? So hence. This weekend is the Minnesota Marine Art Museum’s 20th anniversary. The 61-foot duck, the world’s largest, dropped in for the party. Admittance to the gallery is $6, a throwback to the museum’s beginning.  The parking lot was full with people waiting turns for ictures with the duck. Image: Helen Nordby

ROCHESTER, Minn. — A driver was retrieved unhurt but wet after running off South Bradway Avenue and 20 feet down an embankment into the Zumbro River. The vehicle laned upside down in two to three feet of water. Police said the driver was unhurt. Police delayed releasing her name without explanation. Rescuers used ladders down the embankment to  reach the car. Once out of the vehicle, the woman waded to a bike path on other side. She arrested on suspicion of drunken driving. This was about11:30 p.m. between downtown Rochester and U.S. Highway14.

Long boom. Vehicle winched back to South Broadway after roof-top dunk in Zumbro River. Image: Rochester Fire Department

ELBA Minn. — An Elgin driver was arrested on State Road 26 climbing out of Elba after weaving across the center line, said the deputy who made the stop. Brian Iverson, age 52, was charged the drunken driving and also for refusing to allow being tested for his blood’s alcohol level. This was about 10:30 p.m. The deputy said Iverson admitted to three or four Bud Lights over the previous 2-1/2 hours. The deputy said Iversion failed a roadside test for controlling his gaze. Four other standard sobriety y tests weren’t possible due to the man’s previous injuries.

Iverson.  Stopped heading home from Elba.

WINONA, Minn. — Police injected the opioid antidote Narcan to stall a man’s suspected overdose. This was on the street near Huff and Fourth about 4:40 p.m. Medics were called to take him to the hospital. Police said the man, age 48, was familiar to them as a drug-user.

WINONA, Minn. – Police stopped a driver who had been clocked at 62 mph in the 40 zone on Riverview Drive and then learned the driver had deeper problens. He didn’t have a court-ordered ignition interlock in place.  Also: His driver license had been revoked. The driver acknowledged not having a license but explained that  he took the test to get his license restored. Not good enough, the arresting officer said. The stop was beyond Riverview near Fourth and Pelzer streets on the Far West End. This was about 8:10 p.m. Held to see a judge was Emerson DeWayne Griffen, age 38, of the southwest Minneapolis suburb of Excelsior.

Griffen. Arrest began as a speeding stop.

MINNEAPOLIS — The assassin Vance Luther Boelter as sentenced to two consecutive terms of life plus a consecutive 40-year term for the stalking and murders of state House Speaker Melissa and her husband. The sentence also covered the stalking and attempted murders of state Senator John Hoffman, his wife and their daughter Hope. These crimes were last summer. Boelter avoided a death sentence through a plea feal. Boelter was sentenced by U.S. District Judge John Tunheim, a Bill Clinton appointee. Judge Tunheim said the sentence was the longest he’s ever imposed. The sentencing was n was on Boelter’s 59th birthday. Noted the judge: “This is truly a life sentence.”

Not done with him yet

The Hennepin County’s attorney, Mary Moriarty is moving forward with its casef or first-degree premeditated murder. Conviction would also carry a mandatory sentence of life. The state sentence also woud preclude the possibility of release.

A season of violence

The Minnesota shootings were amid growing political violence that has characterized the Trump era in American life  A month earlier an arsonist firebombed the home of Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro. In September, a gunman fatally shot conservative activist Charlie Kirk at an event at Utah Valley University.

Where next

Through his attorney, Boelter requested to serve his sentence at the 1,200-inmate Coleman federal prison 50 miles northwest of Orlando, Florida. Although a maximum security facility, the prison has an adjacent mnimum security camp.

Earlier: Feds urge double life terms for assassin

Firefighters deep in smoke. Can you see them? They are among 950 personnel sent into the wilderness following lightning-ignted fires  in the wilderness.

Greatest losses on Minnesota side of Canada border

ELY, Minn. — Fifteen fires remained volatile in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, including the stubborn Little Knife Fire within 10 miles of the west end of the Gunflint Trail.  Foresters hoped to have every fire under control Friday. Meanwhile, adventurers are bding parts allowed again into parts of the 1.1 million-acre backcountry along the Canada border. The burned acrege exceeded 63,000 acres on the Minnesota side of ghe  border. Canada lost 8,400 acres\.  The public was still asked to refrain from flying drones, which endanger firefighting aircraft. The public also was asked to keep to keep boats off the water in areas where water-gathering aircraft were scooping water for aerial drops.

Earlier: Up North wildfires thickening our air

Earlier: National Guard to Boundary Waters for wildfires

WINONA, Minn. — Somebody rang up $7,000 in unauthorized purchases on a debit that had been lost — or stolen — within the past week. The purchases were at establishments in Rochester. The usual police procedure includes viewing check-out counter surveillance video where unauthorized purchases have been made. The card-holded advised Winona police of the loss about 9:40 a.m.