Rural America must be like low hanging fruit to many corporations. Bent on resource extraction, companies riding into areas with high unemployment rates promising jobs find red carpets beneath their feet and local newspapers providing them with glowing accolades.

Iluka Resources did just that in Brantley County Georgia. They promised jobs and prosperity and responsible mining practices and just like The World, local journalists helped seed the spin machine with upbeat and carefully crafted ‘news’ and editorials. Sadly, it didn’t work out that way for Brantley County.

Iluka Resources filed bankruptcy and the few locals working for the company were out of jobs. Iluka also left a mess after mining in the flat wetlands and local individuals and groups had to bring suit against the company and the Army Corps of Engineers to enforce conditions of the mining permits.

Local union leaders saw a presentation of these details recently including pictures of the mining sites this week. Already upset that local labor is not being adequately tapped for the construction of the processing plant the unions were very concerned to hear the bad economic impact Iluka left behind it.

Like ORC, Iluka was owned by an Australian company and four of the senior ORC management worked for Iluka. ORC management has a checkered history but one thing is certain, they know how to manipulate commissioners and council members and most definitely, the local press.

They are players and Coos County is being ‘played’ and The World is helping them.

On July 2 an incident occurred at the Bunker Hill construction site of a new processing facility for Oregon Resources Corp. Three contractors were involved, West Coast Contractors, CCC Electrical out of San Antonio and a concrete pumping firm from Bandon (sorry don’t have name) that caused serious electrical shock to a worker. OSHA is conducting an investigation and will release no further details until complete.

As of Monday, ORC has been building the ten story steel structure without the benefit of a permit or third party inspections. Leslie Berri of State Buildings and Codes in Salem responded to the matter in this email.

Thanks for your call – To-date, the project has approved permits for concrete and piling…….project managers have applied for and are awaiting their building permit. BCD and project staff are still negotiating about some of the plan details.

Last weekend, one of the project subcontractors began erecting steel without permission from the project superintendent. The superintendent immediately stopped the work and to our knowledge no unpermitted activity has occurred since. They are currently pouring concrete for which they have a permit.

Building Codes staff is in discussions with the project managers about assessing a fine related to the unpermitted steel work but no decisions have been made.

This image and several others taken yesterday morning were forwarded to BCD this morning.

Naturally, the big question for residents near the proposed mining sites is if ORC is willing to ignore Oregon laws regarding construction, will they comply with all the conditions of their various mining, storm water and land use permits? Dan Smith, Joseph Drew and Todd Lessard were all involved in another strip mining operation in Georgia in 2003 called Iluka Resources. Like ORC, Iluka was owned by an Australian company. If the best management practices and behavior of Iluka are any indication of what we can expect in Coos County, the answer is NO!

Residing on my and several other local computers are gigabytes of photos, lawsuits and press clippings all related to the environmental and economic mess Iluka left behind when it filed bankruptcy after three years eliminating the handful of local jobs it provided and tried to slink out of Brantley County, Georgia.

Over the next few weeks several of us will be wading through these documents and presenting pertinent information here and offering it to other local media.

The World has two good pieces up, the first reveals more specifics about the process of bringing charges against Nicholas McGuffin and moving forward.

Although McGuffin hopes to be released while he awaits trial, Frasier said he can’t recall a single case in his 26 years in prosecution in which a judge released a homicide suspect on his own recognizance.

He also said a motion for a change of venue from the defense would be expected in such a case. However, he has withheld information – including Leah’s cause of death – to improve prospects of gathering an impartial and fair jury.

“The more I talk about the facts – the more people learn – it becomes harder to pick a fair and impartial jury,” Frasier said.

The second article also takes note of the exchange between McGuffin’s mother and Cory Courtright, mother of the victim.

On Tuesday prior to McGuffin’s arraignment, Courtright was waiting outside Judge Michael Gillespie’s courtroom when she saw corrections officers lead McGuffin to the defendant’s table. She began to shake and cry.

From behind her, Kathleen McGuffin – the defendant’s mother – said, “Cry all you want, Cory, he’s innocent,” in front of family members and some reporters.

“Don’t talk to me ever,” Courtright recalled responding.

Thank goodness I am not the only person writing about or recording the arraignment to witness it. This makes three different references to the exchange besides this blog so clearly I am not alone in questioning the conduct of Kathleen McGuffin.

Coquille is spinning with the news of the arrest, ten years later, of Nicholas McGuffin for the murder of fifteen year old Leah Freeman. Emotions ran high today as McGuffin plead not guilty and requested a hearing to reduce the $2M bail and possibly be let out on his own recognizance.

Cory Courtright, having kept her daughter’s long cold murder case alive by sheer will these last ten years alternated back and forth between tears and relief and tears again.

Nicholas McGuffin, the former boyfriend charged with Leah’s murder, shook uncontrollably and his eyes were red with crying and he sniffled throughout the hearing.

Some members of both families cried during the proceeding.

All of these emotions displayed were natural and to be expected but the one display of emotion I can’t get my head around is that of McGuffin’s mother. Before entering the courtroom she spoke to Cory’s back saying, “Cry all you want, Cory. Nick is innocent”.

Honestly, what was that? Cory didn’t indict or charge her son with murder. Why confront the grieving mother of a long dead child? Why make it personal, like it was between the two of them? What was that?

Does McGuffin blame Cory for not letting the case go cold? Does she believe Cory influenced the grand jury?

Hours later I am still chilled by that act. As pitiful as Nicholas McGuffin appeared today in court, after witnessing his mother’s behavior I could almost imagine her spawn being capable of disregarding another human life enough to take it.

Having said all that I, of course, can only speculate upon how I might behave in the same situation and hope it wouldn’t be the same.

The Freeman family and the McGuffin family took up residence outside the courtroom in separate sections of the hallway in advance of the 1PM arraignment. The arrangement was in place before I got there so I had no way of knowing one group of persons were members of the McGuffin family so when I started to shoot a picture of the group I was sternly rebuffed. (Later, I sat with the press in the jury box and got a couple shots off)

McGuffin was visibly shaking and in tears when I passed by him, already seated, to the press area. His lawyer and DA Paul Frasier arrived minutes later to begin the proceeding. A hearing is set for next month to hear a plea for reduction of bail. McGuffin is not considered a high flight risk and may be let out on his own recognizance, although Frasier states he will try to keep him in jail. McGuffin thanked the judge for considering his requests stating he was a family man and hard working.

As the families were entering the Judge Gillespie’s courtroom, Cory Courtright, Leah Freeman’s mother, was in tears at the entrance and McGuffin’s mother standing a few feet behind her said, “Cry all you want, Cory. Nick is innocent”. Much to Cory’s credit she responded only that Mrs McGuffin should not speak to her, ever.

Clearly, the McGuffin family is under terrible stress but they did not behave especially well, in my opinion. Mrs McGuffin’s complete lack of empathy for Cory’s loss was just plain ugly.

Long suspected in the murder of Leah Freeman, Coquille PD Sgt Pat Smith and Officer Ray McNeely arrested Nicholas McGuffin today at his home in Green Acres. The grand jury voted to indict McGuffin after hearing evidence and testimony from more than 100 witnesses. Bail has been set at $2M.

McGuffin, according to DA Paul Fraser, has never married but is the father of little girl and works as a chef at The Mill Casino. Trial will probably be late next year or early 2012.

The room was packed with well wishers and media. Not present were former Coquille PD Chief, Mike Reaves nor City Manager, Terence O’Connor (that I could see anyway).

Kudos again to Coquille PD for resurrecting this long dormant case, having the vision to work with other law enforcement agencies and hopefully bringing some peace to the Freeman family.

UPDATE: From KCBY

Commissioner Kevin Stufflebean is perhaps most famous, (on this blog anyway), for his ability to confuse things. During the road department layoffs he presented to the public information suggesting the department had been operating in the red for eight years. When this was exposed as false, he blamed the press for, well, quoting from his own press release.

Keeping track of Stufflebean is a little like watching someone spinning three cups around and trying to keep track of which one holds the pea. His latest innovation, the local improvement districts, has been a dizzying display of spinning cups and it just seems to get worse all the time.

A letter to the editor this week explains the perspective of a Stage Road LID resident and the confusion that arises from Stufflebean’s projects.

As a resident of Stage Road, I was glad to read that Kevin Stufflebean and John Rowe learned their lesson with the Wallace Road project. What they did not learn, however, was how to get their facts straight….

As far as the driveway paving, Stage Road residents did not make this request; therefore no legal obligation existed to respond. Stufflebean offered that option to us at the first meeting when the county had 22 extra on its road crew. The offer was withdrawn after the Wallace Road fiasco.

At the first meeting, we were told the county had all the equipment and manpower to do the work. This was reiterated at the next meeting, after the county laid off most of the road crew.

We were assured that the county still had the manpower, knowledge and equipment to do the work. It was not until after the feasibility study was done that we were told it was more ‘cost effective” to put the project out to bid because ‘contractors were hungry.”

It doesn’t help that the paper doesn’t pin Stufflebean down on these claims and commit to one story or the other. What is with Nikki Whitty that she has followed Stufflebean’s lead so many times considering how often people have stood before the commission to point out inconsistencies in his statements. What is she thinking, or does she?