Guilty By Fracking

Nearly two dozen people who slowed down the frack-sand business in Winona

County last year have been convicted and fined.  A jury took three hours to find the 20 demonstrators guilty of trespassing.  All were placed on probation, and ordered to pay 200 dollars in restitution to the companies targeted by the protests.  More than 30 arrests were made last April, when the protesters either blocked a semi that was loading sand onto a barge, or set up a table to block a truck scale.  Twenty-three demonstrators faced charges at the beginning of this week’s trial in Winona.  Charges against three of the defendants were dropped when a policeman could not make it to court to testify.