When might such a forum might be held? How about right after Cohen and Juliand are sent packing like their mentor and former national police chief Dale Jones? Or perhaps after the agency reimburses fishermen and waterfront businesses excessively penalized by Cohen's and Juliand's heavy-handed tactics? The leaders of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration have a poor track record when it comes to simply ignoring the concerns of local fishermen and even to their elected representatives, from the local to the federal level. But they apparently heard the hue and cry after Gloucester Mayor Carolyn Kirk and others urged a boycott of a ludicrous NOAA law enforcement forum that had been set for Monday, since it was due to involve both a federal fishery enforcement agent and a NOAA prosecutor whose actions were among those at the center of a federal investigation. NOAA announced Wednesday that the forum had been postponed, and would be rescheduled "to a date and format to be worked out with (Kirk)." [read the editorial in full in the Gloucester Daily Times]
EDITORIAL: Congress must stand up to NOAA’s lack of accountability on Jones
Lubchenco and her colleagues must deliver answers to the questions about Jones' status now. To do otherwise proves that Lubchenco holds Congress, the fishing industry and the American people in the same contempt as Jones. And it's time Congress held her accountable as well.
It's been two weeks since Dale J. Jones, police chief for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, was reportedly ousted from his post.
But since then, there has not been a word from NOAA head Jane Lubchenco about his status. In fact, it is not even official that he has been dismissed.
That lack of transparency has become characteristic of Lubchenco's administration. But it is not acceptable. Such stonewalling smacks more of the days of President Nixon than President Obama's promise of open government.
Indeed, the only indication that Jones may be out came April 8, when Eric Schwaab, chosen in February by Lubchenco to lead the National Marine Fisheries Service, issued a statement that said nothing about Jones — it did not even mention him — but announced that Alan Risenhoover, who has no law enforcement experience, would be taking the post temporarily.
Has Jones been fired? Suspended? Allowed to "retire"? Is he still on the payroll? If so, in what capacity?
Those are all very legitimate questions to which fishermen long abused at the hands of Jones and Gloucester-based henchmen Andrew Cohen and Chuck Juliand are entitled to answers. Indeed, all American taxpayers who may well be still paying Jones and his jack-booted comrades have every right to know if that's the case.
Yet, there have been no answers from Lubchenco.
Read the editorial in full at The Gloucester Daily Times.
NOAA ‘forum’ shows agency’s contempt for Congress, IG
There are ways the "new" NOAA of Lubchenco, Schwaab, and interim police chief Alan Risenhoover could make this forum valuable. That's to drop Cohen from the program, and announce to fishermen that he, Juliand and other enforcement thugs tied to this agency's shameful legacy are out the door — without honor.
Then, they could add a truly meaningful workshop: One that tells fishermen wrongly driven to bankruptcy or out of business how to sign up to recoup their money, especially from NOAA's Asset Forfeiture Fund.
According to the agenda for the big "NOAA Fisheries Service Enforcement Forum" — set for a week from tonight at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration building in Gloucester's Blackburn Industrial Park — the three-hour program will include a presentation by Gloucester-based Agent-in-Charge Andy Cohen on "the agents' role in the fishery enforcement process and communicating with fishing industry members."
That sounds interesting, but only if Cohen and his heavy-handed sidekick, Chuck Juliand, address the real issues at hand, like:
Justification for their agents' wrongfully entering a local business — the Gloucester Seafood Display Auction — without any authorization, as outlined in a 2006 Gloucester Police report.
Sending two armed agents to "visit" another Gloucester waterfront businessman, Intershell's Monte Rome, in late February 2010 to "ask" about his testimony on behalf the auction in a pending court trial.
Even better, maybe Cohen — especially in the wake of a scathing Inspector General's report about excessive Northeast fishery fines and penalties — can explain his thuggish bid to sock a New Jersey family with fine of $270,000 — $10,000 per page — for routine reporting violations, only to have his proposed "penalty" scoffed at and reduced to a fraction, even by a judge within the Coast Guard's usually-rigged administrative law system.
Best of all, Cohen and Juliand — who told the Times he certainly "plans to be there" — should try to explain how they still have jobs now that their supervisor and mentor, NOAA national enforcement chief Dale Jones, has apparently been sacked. The IG's report, among other things, found Jones misused an $8.4 million fund built on the fines and penalties paid by fishermen, created a culture that has treated fishermen like criminals. And Cohen and Juliand are indeed poster boys for that culture.
Read the complete story at The Gloucester Daily Times.
EDITORIAL: Call NOAA actions what they truly are: obstruction of justice
Dale J. Jones, police chief for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, appears to have been fired. But based on what NOAA head Jane Lubchenco and various congressmen know about his actions in recent months, he deserves a much harsher punishment than simply losing his job.
The chairman of a U.S. House oversight subcommittee revealed this week that Jones had reportedly shredded 75 percent of the material in his files last November — during the final stages of an active national investigation into claims that his agents had been both vindictive and unfair in their enforcement of commercial fishing regulations in the New England region.
That information came in a letter from Congressman Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, chairman of the House Domestic Policy Subcommittee of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, to Lois Schiffer, new general counsel for NOAA, and Barbara Fredericks, assistant general counsel for the Commerce Department.
Read the complete story at The Gloucester Daily Times.
Dale Jones’ Removal is Not Enough
The public has a right to see the review by the inspector general of the shredding of documents by Dale Jones. Members of the Massachusetts delegation have requested the review, but so far, NOAA has not cooperated.
While NOAA took a positive step by showing its document-shredding enforcement chief the door, the matter is not resolved.
The public has a right to see the latest review by the Commerce Department's inspector general of the shredding of documents by Dale Jones, the ousted enforcement chief.
Expected to come as an addendum to the earlier IG's report implicating Jones, the review cannot be released by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration without a congressional request. Members of the Massachusetts delegation have made the request, but so far, NOAA has not cooperated.
The agency certainly has no ethical choice but to release the review of Jones' conduct. The review should delve more deeply into the outrageous finding in the earlier report that, during a federal investigation into his treatment of northeastern fishermen, Jones shredded documents.
What were those documents? Were they incriminating? Did they illustrate his intent? Did they prove a cover-up of what was behind all those steep fines? We can only hope the IG's review answers some of those questions.
Read the Standard-Times' Editorial.
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NOAA’s handling of Dale Jones’ ouster only adds to problems
It's bad enough we've been paying this ocean police commandant to treat fishermen like criminals and drive small businesses and businessmen right out of the industry. Now, NOAA leaders won't tell us if we're still paying him or not.
Nothing screams "corruption" and "coverup" like a good ol' governmental document-shredding party.
So when the Department of Commerce's Inspector General last month added accusations of shredding to the already-documented mismanagement of an $8.4 million penalty fund and the grossly inequitable fines thrust upon Gloucester, New England and Northeast fishermen, it was obvious that Dale Jones, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's law enforcement chief, had to go.
But when Jones' long-overdue ouster came last Thursday at the hands of NOAA chief administrator Jane Lubchenco and her National Marine Fisheries caddy, Eric Schwaab, there was barely a sigh of relief from a fishing industry abused far too long by Jones and his rogue agency's thugs, especially out of NOAA enforcement's Northeast regional offices in Gloucester.
That's because Lubchenco's and NMFS chief Schwaab's handling of all this has raised even more questions rather than providing answers. The fact that NOAA "leadership" spent Friday stonewalling any release of information on Jones' exit — or any other disciplinary actions against NOAA policing agents — is an insult to Congressmen John Tierney and Barney Frank and U.S. Sen. John Kerry, let alone to every American taxpayer.
Claiming protections under federal privacy statutes, NOAA's chiefs declined to immediately give Kerry and other lawmakers the latest report from Inspector General Todd Zinser outlining his findings regarding the Jones document-shredding allegations. Plus, Lubchenco and Schwaab have refused to make public whether Jones is suspended, fired, placed on paid or unpaid leave, or even facing criminal charges, as he no doubt should.
Read the complete editorial at The Gloucester Times.
Fed lawmakers must put legislative clamps on runaway NOAA push
The Obama administration consistently says it is focused on job creation. But there are more signs than ever that just doesn't apply to the fishing industry.
There are just weeks to go before the start of a new regulatory regime, imposed by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, that could put as many as half of the region's current commercial fishermen out of business.
The net effect is expected to reduce the revenue from the ground-fishery by 32 percent, according to the government's own numbers.
Estimates of business failures in the industry, largely based in New Bedford and Gloucester, are 50 percent or higher.
This impending disaster has prompted U.S. Sen. John Kerry and five congressmen, including John Tierney, D-Salem, to petition the U.S. Secretary of Commerce for an emergency executive action to bring economic relief, at least through 2014, when stocks are expected to be rebuilt and the industry rebounds. The letter also has the outspoken support of Massachusetts' new Republican U.S. senator, Scott Brown.
Read the complete editorial at The Gloucester Daily Times.
Mayoral letters to NOAA spotlight Magnuson mandate on community impact
They mayors' letters just ask Lubchenco to do one thing; to abide by a key provision of the federal Magnuson-Stevens Act, something that she and other NOAA officials conveniently ignore. That is the law's "National Standard No. 8.
So far, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration chief Jane Luchenco has dismissed — virtually ignored — calls from two congressional subcommittees, a growing number of U.S. House representatives, and even one of her staunchest backers, U.S. Sen. John Kerry, to oust the head of her thuggish NOAA Office of Law Enforcement.
So there's no reason to think she'll suddenly recognize any need for accountability and pay any mind to two important and well-crafted letters sent to her last week by Gloucester Mayor Carolyn Kirk and New Bedford Mayor Scott Lang.
But beyond Kirk's call for relief from extremely tight catch limits given fishermen by NOAA's National Marine Fisheries Service, and Lang's noting that NOAA officials themselves have said the landmark conversion to a catch share format remains "a work in progress" just five weeks before it begins sending many New England fishermen to the unemployment lines, the mayors' letters really just ask Lubchenco to do one thing.
They call for her to abide by a key provision of the federal Magnuson-Stevens Act, something that she and other NOAA officials conveniently ignore.
That is the law's "National Standard No. 8," which requires regulators to "take into account the importance of fishery resources to fishing communities …" And to say that Lubchenco has ignored that federal regulatory standard to date is merely stating the obvious.
Read the complete editorial at The Gloucester Daily Times.
Don’t delay in ousting NOAA agents
When people sworn to serve the American people and uphold the public trust abuse that trust, they should not be rewarded with fat severance checks and comfortable pensions.
So, is the head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration just doing what the inspector general told her to do?
That is the latest explanation from NOAA administrator Jane Lubchenco in response to questions from both the public and members of Congress about why she has taken no action against those NOAA enforcement leaders and agents whose regulatory misconduct has thoroughly ruined the credibility of her agency — and brought unwarranted financial hardship on the fishing industry.
In a scathing, 28-page report released last month, U.S. Department of Commerce IG Todd Zinser cited multiple instances of misconduct by Dale Jones, law enforcement director for the past decade of the NOAA's National Marine Fisheries Service. And other attention has focused on the heavy-handed tactics of Andrew Cohen, agent in charge of the Gloucester regional office; and Charles Juliand, head of the NMFS regional Office of General Counsel.
So far, none of them has been reprimanded, disciplined, suspended or fired. And the calls for firing are not partisan.
They come not only from fervent Democrats — such as U.S. Sen. John Kerry and Congressmen John Tierney and Barney Frank — but also from Republicans, such as North Carolina Congressman Walter Jones.
Yet, at a hearing before a U.S. House oversight subcommittee earlier this month — and again at a closed meeting on Monday of this week — Lubchenco had said Zinser advised her "against making personnel decisions until his reports are complete."
Zinser is still investigating alleged document shredding by Jones and his staff — and is continuing to look into specific abuses by agents on fishermen and the industry.
Read the complete editorial at Newbury Port News.
Media Boogeyman: If Activists Scare You Away from Fish Oil, They Save the Fishes! by Lawrence Meyers
It’s a sad state of affairs when a “non-profit” activist group can get a grant from the federal government to launch a campaign to put commercial fisherman – who actually do hard work for a living – on the unemployment line. It’s an even sadder state of affairs when the media assists in this effort.
Here’s the story for all of you folks out there who love your Omega-3 (Hint: go ahead and take it. There’s nothing to worry about).
There’s a wee little fishy in the Chesapeake Bay called the menhaden. Humans don’t eat them, but they are harvested because they are a great source of omega-3. The menhaden also eat a lot of phytoplankton and zooplankton, which makes them a good source of food for other predators. The activists would have you believe that commercial fisherman are running amok, gobbling up all the poor little menhaden and soon, there will be none left! With them gone, predators who live on menhaden will vanish, and the entire Chesapeake environment will be destroyed!
Except that’s not true at all.
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