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WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 29, 2014
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Analysis
Thin path narrows Obama’s ambitions BY JIM KUHNHENN The Associated Press
SEE ANALYSIS | A8
By Thomas Moriarty, The World
A packed house listens as Bandon resident Reese Bender voices his opinions on the Coastal Multi-Species Management Plan on Tuesday night at an open house at the North Bend Community Center.
Not taking the bait Fish and Wildlife’s open house draws stiff opposition to fish management plan BY THOMAS MORIARTY TheWorld
TheSouthCoast’sfuturelieswiththefish. AtleastthatwasthesentimentexpressedTuesdaynight in North Bend at the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife’s public input session for the Coastal MultiSpeciesManagement Plan. More than a hundred people packed the North Bend Community Center to weigh-in on the controverPublic review sial proposal, which state managers say is intended to Read the public review draft of the Coastal Plan online: balance the needs of sportshttp://www.dfw.state.or.us/fish/ men with wild fish CRP/coastal_multispecies.asp conservation by shifting releases of hatchery fish in river systems including the Still time Coos,CoquilleandElk. Didn’t make it to the meeting? Among the proposed You can still comment until Feb. changes is ending the release 10 by sending an email to of hatchery-raised Chinook ODFW.CoastalPlan.state.or.us. salmon on the West Fork MillicomaRiver. Many audience members held small signs that read “Stop CMP,” and the attitude of mostcommenterstowardtheplanwasdecidedlynegative. Bruce Bertrand, president of the South Coast Anglers STEP Association, told ODFW staff that the group wanted implementation of the plan suspended until more research couldbedoneonitsimpacts. “We’renotaskingforsomehuge,expensivesocioeconomic impact statement,” Bertrand said. “But we need you to go
Commissioners discuss county’s strategic plan The World
INSIDE
COQUILLE — Coos County commissioners held a work session Monday to discuss how they would create their strategic plan — what programs would be cut or where extra money would go should the need arise. The commissioners decided last fall to create a contingency plan to run parallel to the strategic plan. The two are meant to complement each other, said consultant Vanessa Becker, founder of Vconsulting in Roseburg. Commissioners hired Becker to
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help create the strategic plan. She said contingency planning was part of the larger strategic planning process. “We don't know how we are doing if we don’t know where we are going,” said Commissioner Melissa Cribbins in an email. “Also, Vanessa is heavily invested in rural Oregon, and that makes her a much better fit for us than a Portland or Seattle firm.” Becker has more than 20 years experience consulting nonprofit and government entities, according to her company’s website.
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DEATHS
BY EMILY THORNTON
Anna Brueckner, Coos Bay Elsie Parrish, Coos Bay Carl Pollin, Bandon Janet Roberson, Coos Bay Scott Young, Coos Bay
throughwhatthelawsays.” Bertrand was referring to a requirement that state agencies study the potential impacts of suchaplanonsmallbusinesses. The South Coast Anglers havebeenoneofthemostvisible and well-organized voices opposing the hatchery release changes since the stakeholder process beganthisspring. At the heart of the opposition to changing the emphasis of rivers from hatchery fish to wild fish is the way the state’s fishing regulationsarestructured. The Salmon and Trout Enhancement Program was started in the 1980s to bolster depletedwildfishstocks. Tothisday,anglersonmanyriver systems are only allowed to retain salmon or steelhead that have a clipped fin, identifying them as hatcheryfish. SEE FISH | A8
A sign protesting the Coastal Multi-Species Management Plan sticks out of the pocket of an audience member.
McLauchlin trial is set to begin today without a jury THE WORLD COQUILLE — A trial is set to begin Wednesday for a former Bandon teacher and coach who has been charged with sexually abusing a student. Charles Eugene McLauchlin Jr., 55, waived his right to a jury trial, so is scheduled for a bench trial, according to Coos County Assistant District Attorney Mark Monson. McLauchlin is charged with 25 counts of second-degree sex abuse and 10 counts of online sexual corruption of a minor. A former science teacher at Harbor Lights Middle School for many years, McLauchlin had also worked as a cross
James Phelan Jr., Gold Beach Marjorie Wilson, Bandon
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FORECAST
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama’s year of action could amount to a lot of running in place. The constitutional constraints on his authority and lack of cooperation in Congress are a recipe for low-yield initiatives with limited reach. But modest executive actions, such as the ones he announced Tuesday night, might be all government can bear to do in an election year when Congress’ balance of power is on the line. The president renewed his call for Congress to increase the national minimum wage, to overhaul immigration laws, to broaden access to preschool education, to expand international trade. These were all features of his 2013 State of the Union address and remain unmet goals of his second term. This time, Obama presented them as pieces of a larger whole, parts of an overarching opportunity agenda that acknowledges that even in a recovering economy, not all Americans are reaping the benefits. “Let’s make this a year of action,” Obama declared, in what has become the rallying cry of his sixth year in office. “What I offer tonight is a set of concrete, practical proposals to speed up growth, strengthen the middle class and build new ladders of opportunity into the middle class.” But the new packaging can’t mask the hard slog Obama still faces in Congress. And his path might be obstructed not just by adversaries, but by allies as well. Certainly Republicans, who control the House, can do much to thwart him on efforts such as immigration. House GOP leaders say they want to act on legislation this year, but conservative lawmakers have been mounting stiff opposition. Republicans will continue to make an issue of Obama’s health care law, seeking to undo it or roll it back, and it remains to be seen whether they will initiate a showdown over increasing the
country and track coach in the district. The charges stem from an alleged incident involving a student who also was a runner. The Bandon Police Department began investigating McLauchlin in August 2012. He was placed on paid administrative leave in September 2012,and was arrested in July 2013 following a search of his home by police. McLauchlin’s second-degree sex abuse charges are an upgrade from the thirddegree misdemeanor crime, triggered by his status as the victim’s coach. He has been living out of the area, awaiting the trial. If convicted, he would face a maximum sentence of five years in prison on each count.
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