Adam Liptak at the New York Times thinks so (here).
Will Justice Stevens Soon Retire?
Adam Liptak at the New York Times thinks so (here).
News
NYTs on Tohono O’odham Nation and Mexican Drug Cartels
Here.
An excerpt:
A long-insular tribe of 28,000 people and its culture are paying a steep price: the land is swarming with outsiders, residents are afraid to walk in the hallowed desert, and some members, lured by drug cartel cash in a place with high unemployment, are ending up in prison.
“People will knock on your door, flash a wad of money and ask if you can drive this bale of marijuana up north,” said Marla Henry, 38, chairwoman of Chukut Kuk district, which covers much of the border zone.
The tightening of border security to the east and west, which started in the 1990s and intensified after the Sept. 11 attacks, funneled more drug traffic through the Tohono O’odham reservation, federal officials said, and especially more marijuana, which is hard to slip through vehicle crossings because of its bulk.
A record 319,000 pounds of marijuana were seized on the reservation in 2009, up from 201,000 pounds the previous year, along with small amounts of cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine.
Hundreds of tribal members have been prosecuted in federal, state or tribal courts for smuggling drugs or humans, taking offers that reach $5,000 for storing marijuana or transporting it across the reservation. In a few families, both parents have been sent to prison, leaving grandparents to raise the children.
“People are afraid that if they say no, they’ll be threatened by the cartel,” Ms. Henry said.
Greektown Reorganization Plan Approved; Sault Tribe Out
From the Detroit News:
A plan approved Friday to lead Greektown Casino out of bankruptcy protection will repay most creditors and strip ownership from the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians.
Judge Walter Shapero of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Detroit confirmed the plan, pending state and city approvals on other issues that must be obtained by June 30. The plan, the third proposal since Greektown filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in May 2008, was approved by creditors last week.
“Greektown Casino is now approaching the finish line for its exit from bankruptcy,” said Charles Moore, the casino’s lead restructuring adviser with Conway MacKenzie Inc. in Birmingham.
News Coverage Update of Lac du Flambeau/Wells Fargo Debacle
From the News of the North via Pechanga:
A Mississippi resort-casino venture has turned out to be a bad bet for the Lac du Flambeau Indian Tribe, which as a minority partner sunk an estimated $25 million on the Grand Soleil project in Natchez, only to see it headed for the auction block in three weeks.
According to a trustee’s notice of foreclosure and sale, parts of the Grand Soleil Casino Resort property, including three separate tracts, will be sold to the highest bidder on Feb. 12. at the Adams County (Miss.) courthouse. The notice was published this week in the Natchez Democrat newspaper. click here to read published notice
Two previous attempts to initiate the foreclosure process by United Mississippi Bank and other lenders and creditors were averted by deals struck last year. United Mississippi Bank designated Natchez lawyer Bruce M. Kuehnle, Jr. as its trustee in the latest foreclosure proceedings, according to the legal notice. Continue reading
Colorado Legislator “Sorry” about Proposing End of Tuition Waiver at Fort Lewis College
Here.
Russian Skaters Exploit Aboriginal Culture to Win Russian Championship
From the Independent (U.K.) (thanks to E.D.):
It was certainly an arresting performance: the Russian world figure skating champions, clad in dark-toned bodysuits and red loincloths, performing a routine based on an Aboriginal dance. It won Oksana Domnina and Maxim Shabalin a gold medal at their national competition last month. But in Australia, Aboriginal leaders were not amused.
Russia’s Oksana Domnina and Maxim Shabalin perform their Aboriginal ice skating dance that has outraged Aboriginal leaders in Australia
Kennecott Mine Permits Okayed
From Michigan Messenger (h/t to A.K.) [DEQ press release here]:
Two days before the DEQceases to exist and a week after its director stepped down, DEQ moved to wrap up a long standing fight over permits for a planned nickel sulfide mine by concluding that only buildings may be considered “places of worship.”
A rock that is sacred toAnishnabe people need not be considered when issuing a mining permit because state law only recognizes buildings as places of worship, the Department of Environmental Quality announced Thursday.
This decision cleared the way for DEQ to finalize permits for a mine planned for public land on the Yellow Dog Plain northwest of Marquette.
The resolution comes at a time of great tumult for the department. Director Steven Chester resigned last week, and the department is slated to come under the leadership of DNR director Rebecca Humphries when it is rolled into the new Michigan Department of Natural Resources and Environment on Jan. 17.
For seven years the Kennecott Eagle Minerals Company, a subsidiary of London-based Rio Tinto, has been trying to develop the mine project. The company promised hundreds of construction and mining jobs but has faced opposition from groups that are concerned that acid drainage from the mine will damage the nearby Salmon Trout River and Lake Superior.
The National Wildlife Federation, Keweenaw Bay Indian Community, Yellow Dog Watershed Preserve, and the Huron Mountain Club together filed an administrative appeal of DEQ’s 2007 approval of mining and groundwater discharge permits for the mine. Continue reading
A Friend of TurtleTalk in NY Times
Prof. Stephen Gasteyer wrote this letter to the editor in response to a David Brooks column about Haiti:
To the Editor:
David Brooks should be congratulated for stating that greater attention to poverty reduction is needed. He is also correct that systemic poverty reduction will result neither through small, nongovernmental efforts alone nor neoliberal macroeconomic policies. There is a growing body of development research now focusing on the importance of cultural change.
But I take issue with his call for more paternalism. United States foreign policy in Haiti has been nothing if not paternalistic. Over the last 20 years the United States has ousted, reinstated, then ousted again Haiti’s leadership. We have consistently worked with international financial institutions to impose neoliberal governance — leaving the Haitian government impotent before the earthquake, and largely invisible since.
Paternalist cultural development policy has led to some of our most shameful legacies (like Indian boarding schools). Cultural change must be locally led to have positive effects — not based on self-righteous proclamations.
Stephen Gasteyer
East Lansing, Mich., Jan. 18, 2010
The writer is an assistant professor of sociology at Michigan State University.
Additional News Coverage of Asian Carp Debacle
From How Appealing:
“Asian carp DNA found in Lake Michigan; High Court inaction angers Mich. leaders”:The Detroit News has an update that begins, “On the same day the U.S. Supreme Court announced it would not take immediate action to prevent Asian carp from reaching Lake Michigan, DNA samples indicate the fish may already be there.”
The Detroit Free Press has a news update headlined “Granholm: White House summit about carp needed.”
The Chicago Tribune has a news update headlined “Army Corps: Asian carp DNA found in Lake Michigan.”
And James Vicini of Reuters reports that “Michigan request denied in Great Lakes carp case; High court won’t order closing of two Chicago-area locks; Federal government said Michigan was unlikely to prevail; Closing locks would hurt shippers.”
AP Article on Asian Carp Case
From the AP via How Appealing:
TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (AP) — The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to order immediate closure of shipping locks near Chicago to prevent Asian carp from infesting the Great Lakes.
The court rejected a request by Michigan for a preliminary injunction to close the locks temporarily while a long-term solution is sought to the threatened invasion by the ravenous fish. The one-sentence ruling didn’t explain the court’s reasoning.
Asian carp, primarily bighead and silver varieties, have been migrating up the Mississippi and Illinois rivers toward the Great Lakes for decades. They have swarmed waterways near Chicago leading to Lake Michigan.
Scientists fear that if they reach the lakes, they could disrupt the food chain and endanger the $7 billion fishery.
The biggest Asian carp can reach 4 feet in length and weigh 100 pounds while consuming up to 40 percent of their body weight daily in plankton, the foundation of the Great Lakes food web.
Many scientists say they could starve out popular species such as trout and salmon.
They also are spooked by passing motors and often hurtle from the water, colliding with boaters forcefully enough to break bones.
Officials poisoned a section of the canal in December after discovering genetic material that suggested at least some carp might have eluded an electric barrier on the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal and could be within six miles of Lake Michigan. If so, the only other obstacles between them and the lake are shipping locks and gates.
Last week, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said additional carp DNA – but no live fish – had been found in three different spots along the Chicago River within a mile of where it flows into Lake Michigan.
Michigan, joined by Minnesota, New York, Ohio and Wisconsin and the Canadian province of Ontario, asked the high court to order the locks closed as a stopgap measure while considering a permanent separation between Lake Michigan and the Mississippi River basin. Continue reading
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