From the Western Michigan Business Review (H/T Indianz):
Thursday, December 06, 2007By Lynn Stevens
lynns@mbusinessreview.com
Both the Nottawaseppi Huron Band and the Gun Lake Tribe see the opening and continued success of the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians’s Four Winds Casino as inspiration. They are sure that it’s only a matter of time until they, too, can open financial engines.
From the Leelanau Enterprise (H/T Indianz):
County receives 10 applications for aid from tribal program.
Requests for “2-percent” casino revenue funding from the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians will be considered for endorsement by the Leelanau County Board of Commissioners at the board’s executive committee next week.
From the Petoskey News Review:
By Ryan Bentley News-Review Staff Writer
A more specific framework has been crafted for how Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians casino proceeds should be shared with the local community.
From the Las Cruces Sun-News (h/t Indianz):
ALBUQUERQUE – Months before the Navajo Nation’s first casino is scheduled to open, a group is planning to sue over the validity of legislation that provides for financing the development of that casino and others.
From Mlive:
NEW BUFFALO TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) — The American Indian tribe that owns the new Four Winds Casino Resort in extreme southwestern Michigan is withholding its first revenue-sharing payments from local governments and school districts.
The Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians says it has concerns about the organization of the board that is to oversee the distribution of the estimated $3 million a year in payments.
From Indianz:
The Florida Supreme Court will hear oral arguments December 12 on a lawsuit that challenges the ability of Gov. Charlie Crist (R) to sign a Class III gaming compact with the Seminole Tribe.
In short, not much. From the article, “evidence of a measurable impact of casino gambling on crime is inconclusive.” And, “While there may be a perceived increase in crime by the public, it cannot be attributed directly to the state’s casinos.” However, it seems clear that the researchers here looked hard to find a link and are no friends to Indian gaming. It appears their research started with the 1999 National Gambling Impact Study Commission Report — anti-tribal gaming as anything — and went from there.
Here are the materials in the Soaring Eagle v. Teamsters case:
Saginaw Chippewa Labor Ordinance
From Indianz:
The National Labor Relations Board will oversee a union election at the casino owned by the Saginaw Chippewa Tribe of Michigan. The election takes place December 20. Teamsters Local 486 wants to organize about 300 housekeeping employees. This the second NLRB-overseen election at a tribal casino since the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the board’s ability to assert jurisdiction at tribal enterprises. Dealers at the casino owned by the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation of Connecticut agreed to a union this past weekend.
Get the Story:
Union election date set for casino workers (The Mt. Pleasant Morning Sun 11/29)
From the Bay City Times:
Sunday, November 18, 2007By Helen Lounsbury
STANDISH – Rumored for decades, Northeast Lower Michigan’s first casino stands just six weeks from its scheduled Dec. 31 opening.
Yet even as construction crews put finishing touches on what has finally become a certainty for rural Arenac County, little else here is certain. Questions and few answers, loom about how the casino will change this industry-poor, farmland-rich community. Here, in open pasture, the casino marks Arenac’s biggest development project in years.
”People hope it creates good jobs. People hope it makes us a destination. People hope it means more revenue for the area,” muses Curt Hillman, a Standish businessman who has spent a lifetime serving on local economic development boards.
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