A driver died in a single-vehicle crash early Saturday in Scandia, authorities say.

Emergency personnel responded at about 3:30 a.m. to a report of a crash in the 22600 block of Olinda Trail North.

The driver, James Raymond Lowe Jr., 23, of Lindstrom, was found dead at the scene, according to the Washington County Sheriff’s Office.

Distracted driving appears to be a factor in the crash, which remains under investigation, the sheriff’s office said.

— Staff report

Gunshots heard after graduation ceremony

Gunshots followed a graduation ceremony Friday night at Burnsville High School, according to police.

There were reports of multiple altercations west of Burnsville High School at about 8:30 p.m., about 30 minutes after the end of a graduation ceremony at the school. Burnsville police officers on site for the ceremony heard and immediately responded to reports of gunshots, police said.

No injuries were reported and four people were arrested, according to Burnsville police.

The incident remains under investigation.

— Staff report

Treadle Yard Goods fabric shop closes

Treadle Yard Goods, a fabric shop with a nearly half-century-long history on St. Paul’s Grand Avenue, has closed as its owner undergoes cancer treatment.

Michele Hoaglund, who bought the store about a decade ago from its founding owners, was diagnosed with ovarian cancer around Christmas, she wrote on the store’s social media page. The shop’s final day was June 1.

“My focus must be on my health and getting well,” she wrote in the store’s farewell message on its website. “I have enjoyed getting to know so many of you over the years and loved seeing and hearing about your sewing projects.”

Hoaglund could not be reached for comment this week.

Hoaglund, a longtime employee who had initiated the store’s class program, took over the store in 2015 from Mary Daley, who had founded it in 1976 with her late husband, Paul.

The shop was known not just for its wide fabric selection but also for its employees’ skill at supporting and advising customers’ projects, and for its community outreach efforts. In 2020, the store provided free kits for sewists to make their own COVID-19 face masks. Then, in 2022, amid the Russian invasion in Ukraine, Hoaglund organized community sewing sessions to produce more than 200 handmade baby blankets for Ukrainian refugees in Poland.

— Jared Kaufman

UW-Parkside changes

its college structure

The University of Wisconsin-Parkside is gutting its current college structure and will put all programs under a single college as it contends with continued enrollment declines and budget shortfalls.

UW-Parkside leaders presented the plan to the UW Board of Regents on Thursday, making the case that their university of 3,948 students is simply too small to justify having four distinct colleges, all with their own dean and three associate deans shared between them. It leads to serious competition between the four colleges for resources and gets in the way of educating students, UW-Parkside Provost Matt Cecil told the Regents.

The reductions are expected to save UW-Parkside between $200,000 and $300,000 each year, Cecil said. The university expects to keep all of its academic and advising departments and move them under the purview of a single vice provost and faculty dean.

Current deans will return to their tenured faculty positions later this summer. The changes are a “gamechanger” for Parkside and will equip it to be nimbler, Cecil told the Regents.

UW-Parkside, located between Racine and Kenosha, has largely seen declining enrollment for more than 15 years. Enrollment has dropped about 25% since a recent high in 2009 and the university has lost 500 students in the last five years.

In 2023, Parkside was facing a $5.3 million budget gap it was ordered to close by 2028. It cut 50 people, or about 10% of its employee rolls, through layoffs and voluntary retirements, eliminated vacant positions and reduced its budget for student employees.

Less than six months later, UW-Parkside was one of three Universities of Wisconsin schools that had cut its budget gaps by 80% or more, but it started the fiscal year expecting to have a $1 million shortfall

— Wisconsin State Journal