The Bismarck Tribune from Bismarck, North Dakota • 9

Bismarcktribune.com Bismarck Tribune Tuesday, August 28, 2007 Page 9A Gas: Relief from shortage may not come until October FROM 1A supply the upper Midwest at the Mandan refinery." And Rud said some marketers or jobbers are going as far as Wyoming to get product; those freight costs add up at the pump, too. Rud added that hours for truck drivers have been extended in North Dakota as well as a couple of surrounding states to account for the longer searches for gasoline. "We just don't have any product in North Dakota right now," he said. "But our marketers are doing a heck of a job keeping the ground wet." refineries have to supply their long-term contracts first; unbrand-ed stations may be left to find gasoline in the open market. "It's all based on supply it's as simple as that.

We only produce so much," Peterson said. "There's big demand, short supply. We can't Rud said the problem could be long term, and that relief may not come until October or so. There are other states around North Dakota facing the same issues but with lower prices for gas, LaDoucer said. Montana gas, for example, averaged $2.91 a gallon for regular unleaded on Monday.

Minnesota gas was $2.88 a gallon and South Dakota averaged $2.94 a gallon. "The industry owes the consumers in North Dakota an explanation," LaDoucer said. (Reach reporter Crystal R. Reid at 250-8261 oratcrystal.reidbismar-cktribune.com.) Northwood: School canceled for week 4 )i -M i I 1 Jf FROM 1A I -J' It AP Attorney General Alberto Gonzales Dauses while announcing his resignation at the Department of Justice in Washington on Monday. Gonzales: Reid says investigation goes on town's emergency operations center said early Monday.

"There's virtually nothing that hasn't been damaged." As the day wore on, the extent of the damage started to sink in for Northwood residents. Amy Mastrud fought back tears. She said a tree fell on her house and the windows were blown out. "It's starting to hit me, the more I look at it," she said. She had huddled with her three children in the basement during the storm, she said.

Kent Gronlie, who lives seven miles northeast of Northwood, said he found debris in his yard. Residents of the town's health center, which includes a small hospital and a 77-bed nursing home, were moved into corridors before the storm struck and none was injured, said nursing director Carla Sletten. Windows were broken on one side of the nursing home, she said. Mayor Richard Johnson said officials have received offers of assistance from towns throughout North Dakota. Officials estimate that damage at the Northwood School will be well over $1 million.

shortly before 9 p.m. Sunday. Grand Forks County Sheriff Dan Hill said Larry Weisz, 57, a resident of the mobile home park on the north side of town, was killed after he was pinned between the base of a mobile home and a tree. The injuries of 18 others were not considered life-threatening, officials said. "On the way into town, I saw a lot of incredible sights that just floored me," Hill said.

"There were cars that 4 AP looked like they went through a crusher." Wreckage and fallen power lines blocked streets. Electricity was cut off to the entire city as a precaution, and authorities set up barricades to keep people out of the town. "The city is not safe right now," Hill said late in the morning. "This town is a mess. This town is a disaster," said Kevin Dean, a spokesman for the Gov.

John Hoeven issued an emergency declaration and ordered the National Guard to help with cleanup. Forecasters said North Dakota could get more severe weather Monday, due to a mass of warm, unstable air followed by a strong cold front. State Insurance Commissioner Jim Poolman said the hardest-hit building in Northwood was the school, which he said suffered "well over $1 million" in damage. The roof was torn off and water was inside the classrooms. Monday was supposed to be the first day of classes for the school year.

Classes were canceled for the rest of the week. The Guenthner Super Valu grocery store and Agvise Laboratories, which provides soil testing and plant analysis and is one of the city's major employers, also were damaged. National Weather Service meteorologist Greg Gust said the tornado winds were in the range of 150 mph to 170 mph, and the twister was nearly a mile wide. It struck Tornadoes: Second was northeast of Napoleon FROM 1A Foster farm, and another about 30 minutes later at 8:35 p.m. Wetzel said Logan County Sheriff Steve Engelhardt witnessed the latter, which touched down about four miles northeast of Napoleon, downed a couple of cottonwood trees in a field and caused several hay bales to roll across a county road.

He said there were no reports of damage to buildings from the tornadoes, but didn't know if there might have been some damage from grapefruit-sized hail that reportedly fell in two areas a little north of the intersection of county roads 30 and 34, as well as about four miles west of that intersection. Foster, who is the tiiird generation on his family farm, said he has never seen a tornado that close. He said he was nervous, but curiosity "overwhelmed that" and kept him out in his yard with a camera and his hired man for the roughly 45 minutes that elapsed as they watched the tornado "coming down, touch down, going up." He kept telling his wife, Sandra Foster, 55, to go into the basement, but she kept coming back to stand with him and not because she TOM STROMMETribune A large thunderhead looms in the sky east of Bismarck on Sunday evening. Later, it wreaked havoc on the southern and eastern areas of the state. FROM 1A Sen.

Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, added, "Even after all the scrutiny, it doesn't appear that Attorney General Gonzales committed any crimes, but he did make management missteps and didn't handle the spotlight well when they were exposed." Democrats were less charitable. Under Gonzales and Bush, "the Department of Justice suffered a severe cri-sis of leadership that allowed our justice system to be corrupted by political influence," said Sen. Patrick Leahy, who has presided over the investigation into the firings of eight prosecutors whom Democrats say were axed for political reasons. Majority Leader Harry Reid, said the investigation would not end with Gonzales' leaving. "Congress must get to the bottom of this mess and follow the facts where they lead, into the White House," said the Nevada Democrat.

Gonzales also has struggled in recent months to explain his involvement in a 2004 meeting at the hospital bedside of then-Attorney General John Ashcroft, who had refused to certify the legality of Bush's no-warrant wiretapping program. Ashcroft was in intensive care at the time. More broadly, the attorney general's personal credibility has been a casualty of the multiple controversies. So much so mat Sen. Arlen Specter, senior GOP member of the Judiciary Committee, told him at a hearing on the prosecutors that his testimony was "significantly if not totally at variance with the facts." The speculation about a successor began immediately, and included Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff; Asa I Iutchinson, former head of the Drug Enforcement Administration; former solicitor general Ted Olson; and Larry Thompson, who was the second-ranking official at the Justice Department in Bush's first term.

Gonzales made a brief appearance before reporters at the Justice Department to announce his resignation. "Even my worst days as attorney gen- ji in i 1 Grantier at 250-8254 or at virgin ia.grantier&bisma N.D. SENATORS APPROVE OF RESIGNATION WASHINGTON (AP) North Dakota's two Democratic senators are praising the resignation of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. "The Department of Justice is a critically important department, and it has lost a great deal of credibility during the tenure of Attorney General Gonzales," Sen. Byron Dorgan said in a statement Monday.

Dorgan said the resignation is the right thing for the country. Sen. Kent Conrad said the resignation is long overdue. "When the person chiefly responsible for the administration of justice in America can no longer be believed, it is time for him to go," Conrad said. "That line was crossed a long time ago with Attorney General Gonzales." Dorgan said he hopes Bush will select a replacement "who is extremely qualified and who will engender a great deal of confidence as we go forward." eral have been better than my father's best days," said the son of migrants.

Gonzales told the Senate Judiciary Committee as recently as July 24 that he had decided to stay in his post despite numerous calls for his resignation. Several officials said the attorney general called Bush last Friday to offer his resignation. Bush did not attempt to dissuade him but accepted with reluctance, they said. Gonzales was one of the longest-serving members of a group of Texans who came to Washington with Bush more than six years ago at the dawn of a new administration. Karl Rove, the president's chief political strategist, announced his resignation last week.

Presidential counselor Dan Bartlett and Harriet Miers, the former White House counsel who was forced to withdraw her nomination for the Supreme Court, left earlier in the year. 1655NGrandview Lane Bismarck, ND 58503 223-6707 (800)437-1762 www.eckroth.com i 5 ISs jl was curious, he said. She told him if he was "going to leave with it, she's going to go with me." Sandra Foster said Monday that she kept expecting him to follow her. But she said she understands why he was so stubborn. "You have to understand, this is his livelihood.

This is the house he was born in. To watch this we thought for a while it was coming straight toward us," she said. When the roaring started, she headed for the basement again, and he followed her for part of the way, but when the roaring didn't get louder, he went back out and so did she. Foster said he sustained a loss of "a couple thousand" dollars. He said some of what was lost was cattle feed, but he'll be OK.

He said this year's bountiful harvest in other fields will compensate, and that if this had happened last year a poor, dry year it would Submitted photo Farmer Allen "Spike" Foster, 60, who lives eight miles northwest of Napoleon, was in his yard when he took this picture Sunday of a tornado that was about a half-mile north of him that leveled his four-acre cornfield and destroyed about a dozen of his straw bales as well as a neighbor's bales. of a LiftMaster Garage Door Opener from Midwest Doors, Inc. have been a problem for him. (Reach reporter Virginia Lightweight Easy 3-Yr. Warranty Long 25-ft.

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