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http://www.inforum.com/event/article/id/229256/

http://zerogossip.com/2009/01/27/search-for-gina-anderson-continues-this-weekend.aspx

http://www.grandforksherald.com/articles/index.cfm?id=104601&section=homepage

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http://www.grandforksherald.com/articles/index.cfm?id=105757&section=homepage

http://www.inforum.com/event/article/id/231922/

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Published October 12 2009

GINA ANDERSON: TRF lowers reservoir level in search of missing woman

City workers began raising the gate in the dam on the Red Lake River in Thief River Falls on Monday to lower the level of the city’s reservoir. The idea is to aid the search for Gina Anderson, the Thief River Falls woman missing since last Oct. 23 when she last was seen leaving her home in her yellow Pontiac.

By: Stephen J. Lee, Grand Forks Herald

City workers began raising the gate in the dam on the Red Lake River in Thief River Falls on Monday to lower the level of the city’s reservoir. The idea is to aid the search for Gina Anderson, the Thief River Falls woman missing since last Oct. 23 when she last was seen leaving her home in her yellow Pontiac.

Law enforcement investigators, including city police, the Pennington County Sheriff’s Office and the state Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, have searched the river several ways the past year. The searches included a remote-controlled mini-sub equipped with hi-tech sensors and drilling holes in the ice last winter.

Nothing has been found of Anderson or her car and no information of her whereabouts. The reservoir where Red Lake River and Thief River meet in the city is a natural place to search, according to investigators.

Lowering the level of the city’s river reservoir 5 feet or so will provide investigators more certainty.

A gate in the dam on the Red Lake River in the city began being raised gradually at 7 a.m. Monday, increasing the flow downstream, said Cory Delap, a power plant operator for the city. By about 3 p.m., it appeared the reservoir level behind the dam had lowered about 2 feet, Delap said. The increased flow through the dam will continue probably until Wednesday, when investigators plan on beginning to search the river.

Anyone with information about the case should call the Pennington County Law Enforcement Center at (218) 681-6161.

Reach Lee at (701) 780-1237; (800) 477-6572, ext. 237; or send e-mail to slee@gfherald.com.

In the year since Gina Lin Anderson went missing, her family suffered a second blow - another sister died in a car crash.

Gina Anderson

Almost a year after Gina Lin Anderson disappeared in Thief River Falls, Minn., authorities and her family refused to stop looking for her. They had held benefits and put up billboards and searched for her by air and even in rivers and lakes with a high-tech mini-sub.

The Herald's top stories of 2009

The top stories of 2009 were not so much individual stories as series of stories, some of which stretched over months, and some of which are yet unfinished.

By: Tu-Uyen Tran, Grand Forks Herald

The top stories of 2009 were not so much individual stories as series of stories, some of which stretched over months, and some of which are yet unfinished.

Some are memorable not because they were monumental in some way, but because we followed every twist and turn. Some stories were memorable because they were so unusual.

Without further ado, these are the 10 series of stories the Herald newsroom found memorable or compelling during 2009.

No. 10: The economy

The economy. The economy. The economy. Everybody was talking about it this year, and in the Grand Forks region, we did, too. Part of what we talked about, though, was how it really wasn’t that bad here compared with places such as Michigan or California. That’s probably why it’s No. 10 on our list instead of No. 1.

Unemployment here remained low compared with the national average. In the Grand Forks metropolitan area, for instance, it was 3.7 percent last month, compared with 10 percent nationwide. The real estate market continued to defy downward trends elsewhere in the country, in part, because reckless subprime mortgages were never widespread here. Retail sales have not slumped. The city of Grand Forks reported the year’s sales tax collection has been about the same as previous year.

Some credit has gone to the state’s strong oil economy, though the oil fields are far to the west. Rising crude oil prices recently prompted the state to project a higher budget surplus in coming years, an unusual thing when many other states, including neighboring Minnesota, are fighting budget deficits.

Still, not all the economic news is positive. Major industrial employers such as Cirrus Design and LM Glasfiber in Grand Forks and New Flyer in Crookston downsized during the year.

No. 9: Porn from a window

What could she have been thinking? Authorities said Nicole Altendorf, 37, had been playing a pornographic video from the window of her Grand Forks home with the volume cranked all the way up. She just happens to live across from Lake Agassiz Elementary.

School officials complained, and police said that when an officer went to talk to her, she kicked him in the groin, bit him and spat on him. The case hasn’t gone to trial yet, so the answer to the question above isn’t clear.

This wasn’t the most sensational crime of the year, but it was so inexplicably odd that it stuck out in the minds of Herald staff, who voted it the year’s No. 9 story.

No. 8: The flu pandemic

Flu season started way early this year because of the emergence of the swine flu or H1N1 virus in Mexico City around April. The Grand Forks region watched anxiously as the disease spread throughout the U.S. and abroad. Public health officials here were kept busy trying to procure vaccines and explaining to the public why this pandemic isn’t cause for panic even though it’s been known to have killed people who seemed perfectly healthy.

But those are rare cases, and for the most part, the swine flu has been significant because it spreads so easily and affects the young more so than seasonal flu.

It’s also significant because, unlike the seasonal flu, authorities have had a lot of trouble making enough swine flu vaccines. As late as this month, there continued to be long lines whenever public health agencies around here — and elsewhere — offer shots.

This story ranked No. 8 for the attention it grabbed from readers, who, understandably, worried about catching it.

No. 7: Trouble at the Alerus Center

The year started on a sour note for the Grand Forks events center and ended about the same way.

That the city-owned building has lost money, requiring bigger than expected subsidies, has been a surprise to no one for quite some time. What was evidently a surprise was how much those subsidies totaled: $872,000 as of February. That was the total amount the city had passed on to the building beyond its dedicated sales taxes. A good chunk of the $872,000 came out of a concert fund that Alerus Center officials once thought could be replenished from profitable concerts. Those turned out to be not as common as they’d hoped. A shocked City Council began an inquiry, demanding more financial reporting from the events center. Some events center officials noted that the $872,000 had long been included in the city’s yearend financial report, but that no one noticed them.

Midway through the year, questions arose about the Britney Spears concert when the Herald learned that the Alerus Center had guaranteed promoters would earn $850,000 from ticket sales or it would pay them the difference. Sales came close to that level, but other concert costs caused a loss of $97,000. Alerus Center critics were hardly placated when building management said it estimated concertgoers spent $1.9 million while they were in town, “estimated” being the key word.

By year’s end, the Herald learned that even though the building’s management firm, VenuWorks, lost money on concerts, the firm would not suffer cuts to its fees as indicated by the contract with the city. Alerus Center officials had made the decision to exempt concert losses largely behind closed doors. Once more, the City Council launched an inquiry, this time in the form of a 13-member task force that included all of the council and six members of the public. The task force’s work will continue next year. For causing such a political ruckus, the Alerus Center stories were ranked No. 7 for the year.

No. 6: The bank job in Gilby, N.D.

Two masked gunmen pulled off a classic bank robbery in May in a place most people in these parts would least expect. Gilby, population 243, was big enough to have one bank, and that’s where the robbers struck, traumatizing the teller, the only Bremer Bank employee at that branch. They made off with $50,000 in a stolen SUV, which they later abandoned. One of the robbers was memorable because of the T-shirt he was seen wearing that said “I (heart) .38.”

Authorities arrested Clifton Patterson, 63, in Mississippi. His co-defendant, William Randall Collins, 46, was arrested later. Both men, in their court hearings, have acted in ways that have made some question their mental fitness; prosecutors say it’s just an act. Also arrested was Debra Kay Jensen, 47, accused of buying a shotgun for the alleged robbers at Wal-Mart. The men are scheduled to go to trial next month and Jensen in February. For the memorable robbery, Herald staff voted the story the year’s No. 6 because it was so unexpected.

No. 5: Gina Anderson is found

Gina Anderson, 32, drove out of Thief River Falls on Oct. 23, 2008, in a bright yellow Pontiac Sunfire and disappeared. She left behind seizure medication, her purse and few if any clues for investigators. They couldn’t tell if she’d been a victim of foul play. They couldn’t tell if she’d run away. Thus began a series of searches for any signs of the missing woman. Planes and all-terrain vehicles combed the land. Divers and even a remote-controlled submarine combed rivers in Thief River Falls and a pond in West Fargo. Her family, the Lappegaards, took an active role in the search, offering a $5,000 reward, buying billboard space and conducting their own searches.

Almost a year later, on Oct. 14, authorities recovered her car with her body in it. They told the family that they may never be able to explain why the accident happened, but some family members believe she suffered a seizure and accidentally drove into the river.

No. 4: Tom Clifford dies

Tom Clifford, a legendary former president of UND, died Feb. 4 at age 87. His tenure from 1971 to 1992 were some of the best years for the university, as enrollment and research programs grew. The university’s famed aviation program emerged during those years, and the medical school converted to a four-year degree-granting program. He’d been a student, professor, dean and vice president before taking the presidency, and he was the first North Dakotan to hold the office. In 2002, he won the state’s highest honor, the Theodore Roosevelt Roughrider Award. More than this, he’d left a tremendous impression on many people he met, from faculty members who praised his warmth and leadership to an underachieving undergrad who went on to become a bank president because Clifford gave him a second chance and he didn’t want to disappoint.

After his death, though, details emerged of a family squabble. First, the Herald revealed what it knew about a January accusation by children and grandchildren with his first wife, Florence, that his second wife, Gayle, had put some pills in his fruit salad. Investigators ultimately determined nothing was amiss. The pills were prescribed to Clifford and were not lethal at the dosage found in the salad.

Then, Clifford’s sons by Florence challenged the validity of their father’s 2007 will, which left his estate largely to their stepmother. A jury is scheduled to decide in May if Clifford had been “unduly influenced” by Gayle when he wrote the will.

No. 3: Holiday heists

Yet another masked gunman made it to our Top 10 list. This time, it was a lone gunman who struck the Fairfield Inn in Grand Forks on Dec. 9. It was the first in a series of eight robberies that continued until last week, when authorities charged Kyle Steven Pederson, 23, in the Fairfield Inn robbery. He is suspected in another. Most of the robberies happened in Grand Forks, but one happened in East Grand Forks and one in Mayville, N.D.

For two weeks, the robber or robbers — not all the crimes have been linked — seemed to strike with impunity. The robber walked into a store with a handgun and left with cash before police arrived. In at least one case, a nearby school went into lockdown. The robber or robbers seemed to prefer small businesses such as Discontent and Orton’s Point Tesoro gas station in East Grand Forks. Police haven’t charged anyone else yet in the crimes. The story was unusual enough that it made it to No. 3.

No. 2: UND nickname dispute

The dispute over UND’s Fighting Sioux nickname simmered and boiled into yet another year. True to form, it continued to defy anyone’s guess at how it might end. In theory, the university has until Nov. 30, 2010, to win approval from both the state’s Sioux tribes. That’s what it says in the settlement between the state and the NCAA, which opposes American Indian nicknames.

One of the tribes, the Spirit Lake Dakotah Nation, voted overwhelmingly in April to grant that approval. Yet the following month, the State Board of Higher Education put a crimp in their victory by imposing its own September deadline for the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe to grant the same approval. The stated reason is UND wants to join the Summit League, but that athletic conference won’t consider an application until the nickname issue is settled.

With little movement from Standing Rock even to have a public vote, the board moved its deadline to Oct. 31 to see if the tribe would show any sign of granting approval. The board was on the verge of retiring the nickname in November when Spirit Lake nickname supporters sued the board to force it to abide by the original deadline. They lost, but the appeals process means the nickname issue will continue into next year.

No. 1: Flood fight 2009

We all saw it coming. A wet fall, a snowy winter and by January, major flooding on the Red River and its tributaries was on everyone’s mind. All eyes were on the Fargo-Moorhead area, but the threat to other cities downstream were just as dire. Oslo, Drayton, Pembina all saw their risk of major flooding rise. Grand Forks, though protected by tall dikes, was also nervous about what might be the biggest flood since the 1997’s Flood of the Century. Just to be safe, the city piled extra clay on its levees.

When the flood fight did begin in March, it united valley residents like few things could. Thousands volunteered to fill and place sandbags. Those not threatened with flooding flooded to communities that were threatened to offer their help. On at least one night, a bus load of college students from the Twin Cities spent the night and early morning hours filling sandbags at the Grand Forks Public Works building. Grand Forks Air Force Base once again became a hub for the flood fight, hosting the National Guard and various federal agencies, from Customs and Border Protection’s Predator B recon drone to the Coast Guard with its fan boats and choppers

In the end, all the cities got by with minimal damage. Even Valley City, N.D., parts of which had been evacuated during the flood fight, got by.

The flood’s legacy remains, though, as it set the stage for the next fight, this time over what kinds of flood control project Fargo-Moorhead will build.

Reach Tran at (701) 780-1248; (800) 477-6572, ext. 248; or send e-mail to ttran@gfherald.com.