Editor's note: Effects of a deep, ugly recession dominated national and state headlines in 2009, a year also marked by the inauguration of America's first black president, continued war in Iraq and Afghanistan, and contentious debate over a national health care policy.
In Michigan, the financial picture went from weak to bleak, and politicians from both major parties postured for months over the state budget. In the end, cuts to services and decreased education spending -- amid declining state revenue -- confront Michigan residents in the coming year.
The Grand Traverse region witnessed significant, challenging events, as well. Meijer Inc. and a development partner paid millions to settle lawsuits filed by current and former Acme Township officials, and a state appeals court approved a local prosecutor's request to pursue a criminal case against the Michigan-based retailer.
A Benzie County woman awaits trial on charges she killed her husband, a state police sergeant, and a local woman in 2009 was accused of shooting her teenage son to death.
The region hacked and wheezed its way through a nasty bout of swine flu, and the winter of '08-'09 left us chilled and longing for sun and warmth. Grand Traverse officials finally approved a probe of its problematic septage plant, and a spate of drug overdose deaths focused community attention on a growing problem.
Those stories and more comprise the region's Top 10 stories for 2009, as selected by the Record-Eagle news staff.
No. 1: Meijer settles civil suits, court OKs criminal probe.
The settlement of long-running civil suits, rebirth of a proposed store in Acme, and resurrection of an all-but-dead criminal investigation pushed Meijer Inc.'s ongoing saga in Acme Township to the head of the 2009 Top 10 news stories.
The Grand Rapids area-based retailer spent over $1.6 million in 2009 to settle outstanding lawsuits and potential civil claims against it and development partner The Village at Grand Traverse LLC. The lawsuits stemmed from Meijer's admitted campaign finance law violations and other actions to influence Acme Township elections in 2005 and 2007.
Company operatives ignored campaign laws and secretly funded citizen front groups that harassed township officials for almost three years over Meijer's bid to build a store at two locations near Lautner Road and M-72.
A lawsuit filed by former Acme Township Treasurer Bill Boltres against Meijer in 2007 uncovered the illegal campaign activity. Meijer settled the suit confidentially; its objections helped quash a criminal investigation launched by Grand Traverse County Prosecutor Alan Schneider early in 2008. Schneider appealed 13th Circuit Judge Philip Rodgers' decision that freed Meijer from criminal scrutiny.
But a three-judge appeals court panel in November unanimously overturned Rodgers, who had ruled county prosecutors lacked authority to enforce campaign finance laws.
The appeals court said Meijer's 2008 settlement with Michigan's Secretary of State -- Meijer paid $190,000 in fines and costs -- covered only civil penalties and that Schneider had the right to probe possible criminal acts.
Meijer has until 5 p.m. Monday to appeal that decision to the Michigan Supreme Court, at which time the appeals court decision becomes official and Schneider can restart his investigation.
Meijer attorneys also stayed busy settling civil suits in 2009.
Acme Planning Commissioners Robert Carstens and Clare David, as well as Trustees Ron Hardin, Erick Takayama, and Frank Zarafonitis accused Meijer, the Village, and their former attorneys, Dickinson Wright PLLC, of malicious prosecution for personal lawsuits filed against them and Boltres in 2005. The five officials settled in March for $1.5 million.
Meijer then cut a deal with opposition group Concerned Citizens of Acme Township in July for $75,000 in a preemptive move to prevent further litigation.
Meijer also intervened in Boltres' separate suit against the Village and forced a settlement after Boltres' attorney Grant Parsons sought confidential documents from attorneys who represented both the Village and Meijer in alleged illegal campaign activities. The amount the Village paid Boltres was not entered in the public record.
Meijer in September also filed an updated application to build a store on property owned by the Village of Grand Traverse.
No. 2: Michigan State Police sergeant killed
Benzie County resident Joni Holbrook picked up the phone in August and calmly told a 911 dispatcher she shot and killed her husband, Michigan State Police Sgt. Melvin P. Holbrook.
The months that followed featured squabbling attorneys, unflattering accusations about Melvin Holbrook's behavior and a motion that sprung Joni Holbrook from jail several weeks after she was charged with an open count of murder.
Authorities believe Holbrook, 48, shot her husband with his service weapon as he slept Aug. 10. She didn't give investigators a motive, though her attorneys allege Melvin Holbrook abused her.
Melvin Holbrook, 53, was a 23-year state police veteran who served as a desk sergeant at the Traverse City post at the time of his death. He previously served at posts in Coldwater, Ionia and elsewhere.
Joni Holbrook is free on bond as she awaits trial. Benzie District Judge Nancy Kida granted her bond after her attorneys said she had a serious heart condition, though Benzie Circuit Judge James Batzer ordered her to provide a note from a doctor explaining why she can't be incarcerated.
Her attorneys recently provided such documents, and Batzer is expected to make a ruling on the matter shortly.
The case was bound over to circuit court for trial after a preliminary examination in front of Kida wrapped in October. During the exam, a forensic pathologist said it's possible Melvin Holbrook was awake when he was shot, though there's no way of knowing for sure.
Police records show one of Melvin Holbrook's previous wives shot at him with his weapon during a 1987 incident in Coldwater. Starr Ann Holbrook wasn't charged with a crime after that incident, and Melvin Holbrook didn't request charges.
No. 3: Swine flu rips through area
We learned about it in April. It grew to a pandemic by June.
But the H1N1 influenza strain known as swine flu didn't truly reach the region until October, when schools closed for days because of absences and businesses offered hand sanitizer to employees while planning for sick days.
For most people, the virus wasn't more severe than the seasonal flu. Health professionals, both locally and nationally, urged more stringent hygiene practices to curb the contagion.
But two people -- a Grand Traverse County man and Bellaire resident Dustin Robinson, 23 -- died of H1N1-related complications this fall.
And hundreds more are believed to have fallen ill. Traverse City, Benzie County, Kingsley and Frankfort-Elberta school districts closed, as did Grand Traverse Academy, Traverse Bay Area Career-Tech Center, Traverse City College Preparatory Academy and Traverse Bay Christian School.
Researchers scrambled to develop a vaccine, but supply at first was limited to select groups, including pregnant women, young children and health care workers. It since has opened to anyone.
The first confirmed H1N1 case in Grand Traverse County was found June 23 in a 29-year-old woman, with a total of six positive cases by mid-July. All were in people younger than 30, and four were younger than 18.
Two were students at an Interlochen Center for the Arts summer camp.
The illness tended to affect young people more than other age groups.
Fred Keeslar, director of the Grand Traverse County Health Department, said this summer he had not learned any confirmed cases were present in the county until two weeks after the first.
He later asked his staff to update him weekly about the flu strain and schools this fall submitted daily attendance reports.
No. 4: Court referee Mikko charged with child porn
A 13th Circuit Court employee responsible for overseeing child abuse and neglect cases faces five felony charges after authorities discovered a briefcase containing pornographic photos under his desk.
Dennis P. Mikko, 53, a former family division referee, was charged this fall with five counts of possession of child sexually abusive materials. He resigned Aug. 21 before he was charged, but after being placed on paid administrative leave.
The case began after police were tipped that Mikko allegedly discussed sex acts on social networking Web site MySpace.com with someone described as a 14-year-old boy.
A search warrant in August turned up the briefcase in his office while Grand Traverse County sheriff's detectives looked for his computer.
Police reports reveal that alleged photos of girls formerly on probation in Grand Traverse County, all wearing clothes, were inside, along with nude pictures of separate girls and other pornographic material.
Because the case concerns a former employee of their court, 13th Circuit Judges Thomas G. Power and Philip E. Rodgers recused themselves. Circuit Judge Richard Pajtas, of Charlevoix County, will preside when Mikko's trial begins in March.
His attorney, Craig Elhart, sought this month to toss the briefcase evidence because, he argued, it was outside the scope of the warrant.
Pajtas instead ruled that because it was possible computer equipment could have been inside, Detective Todd Heller acted "lawfully" and discovered the items in plain sight.
Mikko was released on a personal recognizance bond after his arraignment in September.
He worked with juvenile offenders, custody disputes and child support cases as a court referee since 1997.
No. 5: County OKs septage plant probe
Four years after its septage plant collapsed, and amid continuing financial losses, Grand Traverse County agreed to hire a firm to investigate possible professional negligence by the plant's designers and project manager.
The plant faces a projected $2.4 million shortfall over the next five years because septage volume is far below what developers estimated.
East Bay Township Supervisor Glen Lile asked the county Board of Public Works in May to undertake an independent investigation of Traverse City engineering firm Gourdie-Fraser Inc. and long time BPW attorney Michael Houlihan.
Houlihan was project manager, and he and Gourdie-Fraser made the septage volume projections that led to an oversized facility.
Houlihan resigned after Lile's request for a probe.
The start of the probe was delayed while the county board and townships that guaranteed $7.8 million in bond payments for the plant bickered over how to fund the review. Rural townships, facing a possible septic tank tax on their residents to fund the plant, began applying pressure on the county board to complete the probe.
The BPW complied in late October, and hired Grand Rapids-based engineering firm Prein & Newhof for up to $19,500. A report is due out in early January.
No. 6: Methadone deaths spike
Prescription drug abuse has long been a problem throughout northwest Michigan.
But that problem reached the forefront this year when four Traverse City residents died of prescription drug overdoses.
Three people died from methadone overdoses between February and June, and another died with a mixture of methadone and another drug in his system.
The deaths of Jaime Lynnelle Gadberry, 31, Steven Paul Doherty II, 33, Laura Page Kluko, 21, and Nicholas Adamski, 26, remain under investigation. None of the victims had a prescription for the drug.
Traverse City Police said they know who provided the prescription drug to each victim, but charges have yet to be filed.
Methadone is used in clinics to help combat illegal drug addictions, but also is commonly prescribed by physicians for pain management.
"It's definitely being prescribed locally," said Becky Lelito, director of detox at Addiction Treatment Services in Traverse City. "It's coming out of our local physicians and dentists."
It can be viciously addictive, and local treatments for methadone abuse have roughly tripled in the past few years.
Munson Medical Center in Traverse City and its affiliates attempted to curb prescription drug abuse by sending letters to more than 1,000 regional physicians that requested they use a system that allows them to check what prescriptions patients have received in the past.
No. 7: 2008-09 winter pummels region
It snowed and snowed and snowed some more.
Last winter's blustery weather conditions kept a stranglehold on the region as snowflakes continued to fall well beyond spring's arrival on the calendar. Weather officials recorded above-average snowfall across northern Michigan, as both system and lake effect snow accumulated.
Traverse City collected 123.3 inches of snow over the duration of last winter, more than 23 inches above average. Gaylord soared above average snowfall levels by 32 inches with last winter's 183 inches of accumulation, according to National Weather Service records.
Perhaps the most notable snowfall amount was in Leelanau County's Maple City, where 200 inches fell. The average there is 146.6 inches, records show.
"It was a real active weather pattern that set in and didn't let up. It just kept coming," said Andy Sullivan, NWS meteorologist.
Grand Traverse Bay froze over in March, something that hadn't happened since 2003. The time before that was in 1996, records show.
Area road commission officials struggled to keep up with the brutal winter that put additional strains on their snowplow equipment and budgets. Private plow drivers had a banner year, even if some weren't fully paid for their services until well into summer months.
Then there was the positive impact for businesses that depend on money spent by snow enthusiasts, whether they be skiers, snowmobile riders or ice-anglers. The constant barrage of snowfall kept area motels, restaurants, ski hills and snowmobile shops busy through the lengthy winter months.
In fact, snowfall continued into April, the traditional start of Michigan's annual wildfire season.
Traverse City received a half-inch on April 8 and a trace snowfall on April 21. Gaylord received two-fifths of an inch of snow on April 22 and a trace amount the following day, records show.
No. 8: Old Town parking deck OK'd
Discussions about building a second city-owned parking deck culminated in the approval of such a structure in Traverse City's Old Town neighborhood.
The $10 million Old Town deck is under construction on the block between Lake Avenue and Union, Cass and Eighth streets. It will have three stories and 522 parking spaces.
The public project required the city to sell $8 million in construction bonds that will be repaid with tax-increment finance dollars within six years. State officials dedicated a $1 million federal grant to the project and Grand Traverse County has a $1 million grant available, if needed.
Construction is expected to be completed this summer.
Low bidder Colasanti Construction Services Inc., of Detroit, won the deck construction contract at about $7.8 million, with the remainder of costs spent on engineering and design services.
City commissioners approved the deck's construction in October in a 5 to 2 vote, with Commissioner Jim Carruthers and former Commissioner Deni Scrudato opposed. The vote was followed by a loud round of applause from dozens of city residents who attended the meeting, many of whom spoke in favor of the project.
Carruthers said he voted against the deck because no affordable housing development was combined with the project, while Scrudato criticized the deck as being built primarily to benefit the expansion plans of one company, Hagerty Insurance Agency.
Hagerty will directly benefit from the new and nearby parking structure as part of its efforts to grow its employee numbers. The company intends to invest $7.7 million in a new office building in 2010 and committed to the city to maintain 350 current jobs and create as many as 226 in the next seven years when the deck received final approval.
No. 9: Avery-Miller charged with murder
Authorities charged an Elk Rapids woman with murder in the 2007 shooting death of her teenage son, again focusing a spotlight on a town absorbed by the twisting investigation for nearly two years.
Anne Avery-Miller was charged in November with an open count of murder in the Nov. 7, 2007 shooting death of Sam Avery, 16, an Elk Rapids High School student. Avery was found dead from a single gunshot wound to the back of the head in an upstairs bedroom of the U.S. 31 home where he lived with his mother.
A one-man grand jury consisting of 13th Circuit Court Judge Philip E. Rodgers charged Avery-Miller with the death. The indictment indicates Avery-Miller confessed to a fellow patient in a mental health facility that she shot her son, and that Sam Avery also allegedly told a close friend shortly before his death that his mother discussed killing him.
Authorities used a grand jury because they had trouble with witness cooperation, Antrim County Prosecutor Charles Koop said. A grand jury has the power to compel witness testimony.
Avery-Miller disappeared for about a month in January and February 2008, leading friends, family and authorities on a lengthy search. She eventually returned and revealed she went to a women's shelter in Nevada.
Then, she spent about three months in jail after pleading guilty to a larceny charge tied to a 2004 insurance fraud case.
She filed an insurance claim for three tanning beds damaged in a residential fire. She told the insurance company the beds were destroyed, when in fact she gave two to another business and had one in storage at a relative's house.
All the while, people buzzed about Sam Avery's death. Koop for months said a charging decision was forthcoming, and some Elk Rapids residents expressed relief when the decision was finally made.
Avery-Miller was bound over for trial after a December preliminary examination before 86th District Judge Thomas J. Phillips.
No. 10: Tendercare problems exposed
Complaints of physical and sexual abuse at the Tendercare Health Center-Birchwood nursing home led to an investigation by the state Attorney General's office.
Along with the criminal probe, Birchwood received close to $38,000 in fines in 2007-08 from state inspectors, and the Garfield Township facility was cited for keeping incomplete records and not properly treating bedsores, among other violations.
In November 2008, the facility, on LaFranier Road, was added to a national list of problematic nursing homes.
The alleged assaults stem as far back as 2006, but records indicate that staff members failed to check into and report them to state regulators.
Among the allegations were multiple sexual assaults of female residents by male residents, as well as physical altercations.
A man with schizoaffective disorder in 2007 physically assaulted other residents at least 13 times in three months, according to records.
After news of Birchwood's investigation circulated this spring, a Mancelona woman said her 86-year-old father, then a resident there, was taken to Munson Medical Center in Traverse City with "extreme" bedsores.
But that wasn't her only complaint: She said she was told by an employee that her father was asleep after he already had been taken to the hospital, and another employee was silent when she again asked about his condition.
Extendicare Health Services Inc., based in Milwaukee, owns the local Birchwood facility. Administrator Kim Kloeckner would not discuss specifics of the complaints with the Record-Eagle for stories this spring.
"We've taken every precautionary measure and put it in place and trained the staff," she said at the time.
Staff writers Brian McGillivary, Art Bukowski, Lindsay VanHulle, Alex Piazza and Sheri McWhirter contributed to this report.
