Construction update. The steel walls in currently stylish gray are in place on the new $3.4 million Lewiston home for home for fire, police and ambulance services. Off U.S. Highway 14. Image: Steve Lunde

Earlier: Aiming skyward: Lewiston firehall takes form

Earlier: Final goodbyes soon for Lewiston fire station

Earlier: Lewiston replacing squeezed emergency quarters

WINONA, Minn. —A Winona woman on a motorized foot scooter was injured in a Mankato Avenue roundabout when she and a car collided. Ariel Chelsea Alaspa, age 21, was taken to the Winona hospital, a couple blocks away, to be checked over. Her injuries appeared sustainable, deputies said. The accident was about 9:30 a.m. Alaspa was heading east off Sarnia Street. The driver of the car, Lance Jacob Glover, 30, of Winona, was unhurt. The airbag of his 2019 Nissan Rogue did not deploy. He had entered roundabout headed toward the Sugar Loaf. landmark.

CALEDONIA, Minn. — Mud slides, washed-out trails and slipperiness have forced the weekend closure of outdoor venues across flood-stricken southern Minnesota. Among closures ordered by the state Natural Resources Department:

> Beaver Creek Valley State Park near Caledonia.

> Mystery Cave State Park and Forestville near Preston.

> Root River State Trail and the Chatfield Trail, Snake Creek Trail   and the Southeast Minnesota Trail in Richard J. Dorer Memorial Hardwood State Forest.

Many campgrounds also are closed.

WINONA, Minn. — The last food-delivery robot at Winona State University has left the station. George Micalone, who oversees campus food services, confirmed that Starships Technologies of San Francisco has packed up its Winona robot to refurbish for deployment elsewhere. Micalone said campus caterer Chartwells is exploring other ways to deliver take-out meals from its Panda Express and Starbucks shops to dorms and around the neighborhood.

Verbatim

Starship: “We’ve made the decision to wind down all U.S. campus operations as we shift our strategic focus to retail grocery chains and hot food delivery in cities across Europe and the United States. Grocery delivery is on a 10-times growth trajectory for us over the next two years. In Finland alone, roughly one in five grocery deliveries is already completed by a Starship robot.”

Earlier: Campus food robots to new duty

WINONA, Minn. — The ultra-light airplane that crashed and killed the pilot at the Winona airport last week had a parachute system that didn’t activateate, investigators  said. Police ,who were first to arrive at the crash, recognized the ballistic parachute system mounted on the lower aft section. A Fire Department team was called to determine if the system was armed. The manufacturer then was called and advised that the system could be rendered safe by cutting the activation pull cord. Rather than risk an explosion, however, the firefighters called a state bomb squad to disarm the device.

Earlier: Cause of fatal Winona plane crash still unknown

Earlier: R.I.P.: Wayne Ledebuhr

Earlier: Winona aviation hobbyist dead in crash

Earlier: Pilot dead in crash at Winona airport

On a spent geranium blossom. Smaller than a thumbnail, green crab spiders feed on bugs. They bite and suck thm dry. Females can switch colors, sometimes even to white. They are venomous but the poison is too weak to affect humans. They are common in summer, although a full albino is not often seen. Image: Andy Frank

WINONA, Minn. — Overnight storms took down a few trees and tore off lot of limbs around Winona but blocked n ostreets nor caused any injuries.  In the county: Up East Burns Valley one tree blocked County Road 15.  There was also a tree down on U.S. Highway 14 near St. Charles.

Not a welcoming moment. A giant tree, uprooted by winds from soggy soil, blocks the entrance to Winona County’s premier park at the confluence of Garvin Brook and Peterson Creek. Crews later sawed the tree for hauling away. Winds also toppled a second tree in park. A few miles away near the Winona Sportsman’s Club a downed tree blocked Garvin Ridge Road.  Image: Steve Lunde

DEXTER, Minn. — Flooding forced the closure of 3-1/2 miles of transcontinental Interstate 90 between Rochester and Austin. The flooding was between the Dexter and Elkton interchanges. This is mostly flatland where I-90 was engineered above the terrain.

WINONA, Minn. – The Fire Department reported 54 emergency medical calls plus 19 fire calls in recent days:

> Tuesday, Mune 30:  15 medical calls plus 4 fire call.

> Monday, June 29: 2 medical calls plus 5 fire calls.

> Sunday, June 28: 5 medical calls plus 3 fire calls.

> Saturday, June 27: 8 medical calls plus no fire call.

> Friday, June 26: 12 medical calls plus 2 fire calls.

> Thursday, June 25: 6 medical calls plus 1 fire call.

> Wednesday, June 24: 9 medical calls plus 4 fire calls.

Earlier: Emergency, fire crews make 38 calls

Low-level flooding.  Torrential rains swelled Winona County creeks, including usually tranquil Garvin Brook out of Farmers Park upstream from Stockton. In places the creek-side golden rod, six feet highand in full July bloom, was mowed flat by the fast and swollen un-off. Image: Steve Lunde

Earlier: Flash floods possible around Winona

ONALASKA, Wis. — An early morning fire on the roof of the Baymont Hotel in this La Crosse suburb forced guests into the street. The evacuation was orderly with no injuries. The Wyndom hotel chain which does bookings at its Baymont-branded hotels, didn’t respond to news inquiries about how many guests were staying at the hotel. Fire Chief Jeremy Southworth said the dislocated guests were shuttled to another hotel. The Onalaska Baymont, built in 1999, has rooms in the $120 range. The cause of fire was not known immediately. Lightning from severe thunderstorms had been in the area. Fire Chief Southworth said he called firefighters off the roof because of renewed lightning in the area. They focused on extinguish the fire from the inside. The fire broke about 3:30 a.m. Not until 5:15 was it out.

Baymont. Off Interstate 90 at 3300 Kinney Coulee Road.

No room at the inn. Guests book stays at Baymont hotels through the parent Wyndom chain. Wydnom has failed to ackowlwdge there was a fire. The Wyndom booking site the says reservations are not available because the hotel is fully occupied, which is a lie.

WINONA, Minn. —  A National Transportation Safety Board worksheet on a fatal crash at the Winona shows   that the pilot, Wayne Ledebuhr, was landing after a 32-mile flight upriver from LaCrosse. The Board investigator who visited he site, said a fuller report will be completed in 30 days . At this point, according to the investigator’s worksheet, the crash was “under unknown circumstances.” The plane, an Airborne Windsports Edge numbered XT-912-, was destroyed. It was categorized as a weight-shift-control aircraft.”

Earlier: R.I.P.: Wayne Ledebuhr

Earlier: Winona aviation hobbyist dead in crash

Earlier: Pilot dead in crash at Winona airport

RUSHFORD, Minn. — For a second consecutive day the co-op MiEnergy called on customers to unplug and dial down to conserve electricity. The alert was for the same peak usage period as the day before, from 2 to 6 p.m. Waves of severe morning thunderstorms , with as much as three inches of rain in parts of the MiEnergv service area, failed to cut continuing heat and oppressive humidity.

Earlier: Excess power draw expected on MiEnergy network

WINONA, Minn. — Police arrested a Winona man based on terroristic telephone threats against his girlfriend’s former boyfriend. Arrested was Tyler Eugene Kingsley, age 37, of Winona. The threat: “I’ll come to your house and kill you and your wife and your oldest child and burn your house down.” Police had been called about 8:15 a.m. to the girlfriend’s place, in the 150 residential block of East Fifth Street, to sort out a confused child custody exchange. While there, police learned of the call with the threat. The children in the house are 16 and 13, one of whom is subject to shared custody. Police believed the custody mix-up was innocent enough and due to the estranged father being in the process of moving.

Kingsley. Charge: Reckless terroristic threat. Jailed roughly three hours after police were called to unravel child custody issue.

Vulnerable. Northern Winona County mostly north of Intersatte 90 from western border to Mississippi River. Image: National Weather Service

Forecasters: Thunderstormms dropped “excessive rain”

WINONA, Minn. — Early morning thunderstorms roared through northern Winna County with torrential rains for almost three hours. The National Weather Service issued alerts for urban areas where overwhelmed storm sewers could back up into city streets. Vulnerable too were creek-side rural roads in low-lying areas. Specifically warned:

> Areas around Locks and Dam 5 and 5A.

> County Road 28 along Speltz Creek into Rollingstone.

> County Road 31 north of Altura.

> The communities of Altura, Bethany, Elba, Goodview, Lewiston, Minnesota City ,Rollingstone, St. Charles, Stockton, Utica, Whitman,  Wilson, Winona and Wyattville

WINONA, Minn. — Police rescued a woman from a garage in which she said she locked herself to escape from an abusive boyfriend. Officers said the woman, age 41, was swollen and bruised. This was about 12:50 a.m. in the 400 block of Mankato Avenue. The assault, she said, had been in the house  — that she was pushed backward onto bed, grabbed by the feet and pulled forward, and fell to the floor. Her elbow still hurt, she told officers. She said she kicked the boyfriend and ran to the detached garage in the alley and locked herself in. From there she called 911. Within an hour police located James Robert Hernstine, age 46, a couple blocks away on Chatfield Street. He denied any physical assault and said he had been locked nut and left for some fresh air. He was booked for domestic assault.