RIDGEWAY, Minn. — A youth was airlifted out of remote terrain after falling from the back of a four-heeler. This was off County Road 13 near the Houston County line. The youth, age 18, suffered face cuts, said Winona County deputies. The youth was out looking for a fellow teenager who was late coming home on her own four-wheeler. This was after dark, about 9:30 p.m. The missing teen, a girl, age 13, who had overturned, was found later by deputies and taken by ground ambulance to a hospital. Deputies said the youth with the face injuries was riding in t he back rack of a four-wheeler driven by family member. As he scanned for signs of the missing girl, the door of the rack flung open. He was struck in the face. Neither his injuries nor those of the missing girl appeared life-threatening, deputies said.

LACROSSE, Wis. – Developers have a green light to replace the atrophying Bridgeview Plaza strip mall with a four-story apartment complex of 200 units. Until seven years ago, the mall had been anchored by discount retailer ShopKo, which went out of business. Now the LaCrosse City has rezoned the northside location on Rose Street for a major overhaul. The ShopKo building, now occupied by Blue Zone pickleball courts, will reman. So too the Harbor Freight tool store. New will be two major apartment structures and several outlying buildings. The plan calls for relocating North Country Steak Buffet, now next door. The new apartments will be a mix of studio, one-bedroom, two-bedroom, and three-bedroom units.  Concept drawings show 90 underground parking stalls.

Good-bye, Bridgeview. The LaCrosse City Council liked what it saw in concept sketches from the Madison-based architectural firm Knothe-Bruce. Pickleball courts, Harbor Freight to remain

RUSHFORD, Minn. — With afternoon highs expected at 100 degrees, the utility MiEnergy declared a “peak alert.” Customers were asked to conserve electrical use from 2 to 6 p.m.to help keep electricity rates stable and affordable.

WINONA, Minn. — Police talked an apparently suicidal man to come down from a railing on an apartment building, where he had climbed. He was taken to the hospital for psychiatric evaluation. This was about 9:35 a.m. in the 300 block of West Howard Street. Police quoted the man that druggies were hacking his phone and following and harassing him. He had a folder with suicide notes, police said,

PEPIN, Wis. — Three person who died when their \pontoon boat overturned Saturday night on Lake Pepin were from Wabasha, a few miles away in Minnesota. They were:

> Manuel De Angel-Sola, age 52.

> Nicholas Loechler, 46

> Ashley Monson, 37.

Two of them were volunteers with the Wabasha Fire Department. Besides Wabasha, the Department serves outlying Minnesota townships and Alma and Nelson in Wisconsin. In total the Fire Department had 30 active members. The names of three survivors, one of who, was hospitaziwed, haven’t been released. The lead accident investigator, Pepin County Sheriff Curt Struwe, has been slow with updates  on what happened. The accident was reported at 10:30 p.m. on Saturday, 2-1/2 days ago.

Earlier: Wabasha firefighters died in Lake Pepin tragedy

Earlier:Three bodies recovered from Lake Pepin

Earlier: Pepin boaters missing in pontoon wreck

WINONA, Minn. — Police arrested a man well known to them, Christoher Wayne Swinger, after a man reported being followed by Swinger, who had rummaged through his trash outside and then come inside. An argument ensued. This was about 1 a.m. in the 150 block of East Fifth Street. Police classified the incident as “an active disturbance.” Because Swinger is known to carry knives and machetes, officers attempted a pat-down  for weapons. They said Swinger bristled and cursed and refused, all while sweating profusely. They managed to cuff him. In a pants pocket, they said, was a meth pipe. A fuller search found 1.9 grams. Swinger, age 50, who is homeless, was booked at jail for drug possession.

Earlier: Cops bust squatters from Broadway house

Swinger. Didn’t want pat-down.

WINONA, Minn. — Police found a 19-year-old Winona man flat on the ground near Fifth and Center streets with a banged-up face. A breath test showed Reilly Joseph Larson’s blood was almost 0.26% alcohol — more than triple the state’s base intoxication level. He had no idea he was at, where he lived, or which direction to go to get there, officers said. Medics were called to determine whether he needed transport to the hospital to have his stomach pumped. After being cleared medically, he was turned over to a friend to take home — and issued a ticket for underage consumption. About his face injuries, the friend said they werevslow to heal from a from a fall at Steamboat Days 1-1/2 weeks ago.

What about July 14th? The corn is tasseling at seven-plus feet along Engen Road in Wisconsin’s southern Trempealeau County. Image: Steve Lunde

WINONA, Minn. — Police logged the season’s first “unwanted vistor” report on a rattlesnake in the city limits. The call was at 8:40 p.m. from the Michaelwood Drive subdivision off Gilmore valley Road — in the 200 block, about as far up the coulee as  homes have been built. A snake handler was called to corral  and relocate the snake.

Rattlesnake profile

Timber rattlesnakes once were abundant in southeast Minnesota and southwest Wisconsin but now are relatively rare. They require active conservation and protection to ensure their continued existence. When notified of a snake in a human habitat area, police call in a snake wrangler to remove the snake and relocate it to an area that is safe for people and safe for snakes. Advice: A coiled rattlesnake can strike as much as four feet. Walk away, not around the snake, says Steve Winter of Winona, with the Minnesota Rattlesnake Responders team.

WINONA, Minn. — During a stop for running a red light, a police officer spotted open containers of potable alcohol inside the vehicle. “Been drinking?” Yes, responded Asher Allen Merkel, 25, of Winona, the officer said. He wasn’t surprised. Merkel’s eyes were bloodshot and watery and his speech slurred. A roadside test showed a blood-alcohol level of 0.l9%, almost 2-1/2 what’s allowed. This was about 9 p.m. at Second and Wilson streets on the Near West Side.

Merkel. DWI charged at elevated recidivist level

LAKE CITY, Minn.  — Two of the boaters who died in a late-night collision on Lake Pepin over the weekend were off-duty firefighters from Wabasha, according to Lake City Mayor Brian Quinn.  The mayor deferred to Pepin County Sheriff Joel Wener in Wisconsin on releaseing the names. Wener is leading the investigation because the accident occurred on the Wisconsin side of the 24-square mile lake. Wener has not released names of either the three who died or of the three others who survived. The usual custom in policing is to withhold names until next of kin are notified but not more than 24 hours, which affords authorities plenty of time to make contact. It was believed the people on the capsized pontoon boat had set out from Lake City, which has the largest marinas on Lake Pepin. The firefighters’ homes, in Wabasha, is 12 miles away at Lake Pepin’s outlet on the Minnesota side.

Earlier: Three bodies recovered from Lake Pepin

Earlier: Pepin boaters missing in pontoon wreck

LEWISTON, Minn. — A Winona man was killed when he drove into a dump truck in a road construction zone southwest of Lewiston. This was about 9 a.m. Zackary Wayne Ford, 43, was unresponsive when first-responders arrived. Winona County deputies said the dump truck had stopped for a a flagger who was holding a stop sign in the construction zone. Ford, in a 1992 Mazda MX-5, hit the rear of the truck.

WINONA, Minn. – The Fire Department reported 25 emergency medical calls plus 11 fire calls in recent days:

> Monday, July 13: No medical calls plus no fire calls.

> Sunday, July 12: 5 medical calls plus 5 fire call.

> Saturday, July 11: 7 medical calls plus no fire calls.

> Friday, July 10: 6 medical calls plus no fire calls.

> Thursday, July 9: 3 medical calls plus 4 fire calls.

> Wednesday, July 8: 4 medical calls plus 2 fire calls.

Earlier: Emergency, fire crews make 47 calls

WINONA, Minn. — A patient at the Winona hospital’s intensive-care unit left a trail of destruction — with damage estimated at $50,000 — and stormed down a stairwell into the street. This was about 5:20 a.m. There were no injuries.  Damage would have been worse had not a hospital security officer wrestled a fire extinguisher from the man as he attempted to foam up the ICU unit. The man continued his rampage on his way out, knocking over every ICU computer monitor.  A heart-beat monitor was also smashed. Police found the man outside and took him into custody. He was Kyle Thomas Abraham Snyder, age 38. Snyder was known well to police as a troubled member of the Winona homeless community. Police had been dealing with him almost daily, mostly for alcohol-related incidents. Snyder had been hospitalized at the recommendation of social workers who declared he was unable to care for himself. Over the past few days he had walked out five times. Each time he was located quickly and returned. Snyder also was disruptive in the emergency room four days earlier, police said. He threatened to grab a doctor and throw her out the window. He begged her to call police so he could grab an officer’s gun and kill her.

Snyder. Charged with violent threats, felony damage  to property.

DAKOTA, Minn. — A traveler was injured when he struck a guardrail at the Interstate 90 interchange where Highways 14 and 61 converge from Winona. Brian Fitzgerald Jackson, age 62, of Peshastin, Washington, suffered non-life threatening injuries. This was about 10 p.m. Jackson was taken seven miles to a LaCrosse hospital. He was driving east toward Wisconsin in a 1998 Subaru Forrester. First-responders from Dakota said he was belted and his airbag deployed.

PEPIN, Wis. — Three bodies have been recovered from Lake Pepin, where a pontoon pleasure craft with six persons aboard capsized overnight.  Three of the victims were rescued from the water within an hour. Searchers took most of Sunday to locate and retrieve the bodies of the other three victims. An armada of rescue boats, helicopters and drones from 10 agencies on both the Wisconsin and Minnesota sides of the lake were mobilized for the search. Authorities declined to release the names of the victims or where they were from. Wabasha County Sheriff Curt Struwe confirmed that one survivor was hospitalized. The other two survivors didn’t require medical attention, he said.

Mississippi River barge array. Each barge is 95 feet long. Piloting is from a towering wheelhouse  atop the pusher towboat.

The three recovered bodies were taken to St. Paul for autopsies by the Minnesota state medical examiner.  The U.S. Coast Guard, which licenses commercial watercraft on the Mississippi River, including Lake Pepin, was expected to lead an investigation. Among many questions:

> Did the pontoon boat ram a consist pf barges traversing the lake ahead of a pusher towboat. Some barge consists are 500 feet long. Barge arrays typically move at 5 to 8 mph on the lake.

> Or did the pontoon boat ram the barges?

> Or was turgid wake from the towboat’s twin screws a factor?

> Was the towboat crew, at the rear of the barges, aware of what happened? Pusher tows, some with 6,000-horseppower diesel engines, drown out ambient noise.

> What were lake conditions? Lake Pepin can range from placid in light breezes to turbulent in storms. Also: Small craft are especially vulnerable to wakes from other vessels, such as from twin-screw towbars.

Earlier: Pepin boaters missing in pontoon wreck