From DOI.gov:
Update: Assistant AG Perrelli’s Remarks — ASG – Cobell 12.8.09
News
Profile Article of Kenny Pheasant and the Anishinaabemdaa Program
Here.
NYTs Slideshow on Inuit Hunters in Greenland
Here.
Possible Michigan Suit against Illinois re: Asian Carp
From the Freep via How Appealing:
Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox plans to file a federal lawsuit, possibly in the U.S. Supreme Court, as soon as the paperwork is done to try to shut down canal locks leading to Lake Michigan, through which Asian carp could escape into the Great Lakes.
“Our attorneys are working on it as we speak” and will continue through the weekend, Cox spokesman John Sellek said Saturday.
The legal action is to be filed in federal court, but Sellek couldn’t give a precise timetable. It also could be filed directly in the U.S. Supreme Court or under a decades-old federal case concerning the diversion of water from the Great Lakes through the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal. In 1925, the federal government challenged Chicago’s right to divert water from the Great Lakes, through the canal, without consulting its neighbors, including Canada. Several Great Lakes states, including Michigan, also filed lawsuits arguing that the water diversion through the canal could lead to economic losses.
Second Greektown Reorganization Plan to Be Considered
A second plan to speed Greektown Casino’s exit from bankruptcy protection could go out to creditors for a vote next week.
U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Walter Shapero told lawyers for the casino and its creditors Friday that he expected to sign an order Monday to approve the disclosure statement. That would clear the way for the plan to be sent out next Friday for creditor voting.
The confirmation hearing is scheduled for Jan. 12. The goal is for plan confirmation by Jan. 31 and for the casino to emerge from bankruptcy by June 30.
Greektown Casino still needs to get the City of Detroit’s approval before it can approach state regulators for a 15% tax rollback.
Mohegan Sun Officials Assuage Financial Community
From the New London Day via Pechanga:
The Mohegan Tribal Gaming Authority reduces stipends to tribal members when changes like the current economic downturn warrant it, casino officials told the financial community today.
Mohegan Sun also has a stable management team that is continuing to work to improve the product it offers patrons, despite the effects of the recession.
Casino officials made the comments this morning during a Webcast presentation at the Bank of America Merrill Lynch 2009 credit conference in New York City. Participants in the Webcast included a broad range of members of the financial industry.
The tribe’s Mohegan Sun casino is one “you could put anywhere and it would be a category killer and a market leader,” said Mitchell Etess, the casino’s president and chief executive officer.
Study on Sexual Assault of Native Women Published
From Minn. Public Radio via Dan:
Duluth, Minn. — A three-year Duluth study finds Native American women, victimized by sexual assault, tend to get lost and overlooked in the legal system.
A coalition of victim advocacy groups and public safety agencies undertook the study. They wanted to address problems related to high rates of sexual assault among Native American women. Forty-one victims took part in focus groups, and none of their cases resulted in prosecutions.
Rebecca St. George, with the group Mending the Sacred Hoop, said the women felt investigators didn’t believe them.
“Pretty much all of them felt that they hadn’t been believed,” St. George said. “We certainly saw parallels in the police reports that we read; sort of a general ‘not sure if this is what really happened.'”
News Coverage on Criminal Charges in U.P. Illegal Gillnetting Case
From the Escanaba Daily Press:
ESCANABA – Sentences will be handed down within the next six weeks for two men arrested in connection with illegal gill netting on Big Bay de Noc earlier this month, according to Delta County District Court officials.
Kerry Todd Johnson, 27, Cooks, and Daryl John Tatrow, 48, Garden, each pleaded no contest to a charge of using illegal fishing devices. The misdemeanor carries a maximum punishment of 90 days in jail, $1,000 fine, and revocation of one’s fishing license for three years.
Tatrow, who appeared in district court Wednesday, also pleaded no contest to one count of attempted assaulting/resisting/obstructing a law enforcement officer for fleeing during his arrest. The charge carries a maximum sentencing of one year in jail and a $1,000 fine.
Johnson is scheduled to be sentenced in district court on Dec. 21. Tatrow will be sentenced on Jan. 4.
A third man arrested in connection with the alleged illegal gill-netting operation, will be charged in the Sault Ste. Marie Band of Chippewa Indians Tribal Court for subsistence fishing without a license, according to officials from the Department of Natural Resources. His name was unavailable.
Greektown Reorganization Agreement Reached
Here is the reorganization plan referenced in the article below — Greektown Reorganization Plan
From Fox Business via Pechanga:
Greektown Holdings, L.L.C. announced today that beneficial holders of a majority of the principal amount of its pre-petition bank debt have reached agreement to support the plan of reorganization filed on November 2, 2009 by plan sponsors MFC Global Investment Management, OppenheimerFunds, Inc., Brigade Capital Management and Solus Alternative Asset Management LP. That agreement has been supplemented by a stipulation adopted by the Bankruptcy Court on November 19, 2009 among the Debtors, the plan sponsors, an ad hoc group of certain of the Debtors’ pre-petition bank lenders, the indenture trustee for the holders of the Debtors’ 10.75% Senior Unsecured Notes due 2013, the administrative agent for the Debtors’ pre-petition bank debt and DIP Debt and the official committee for the Debtors’ unsecured creditors.
Under the plan which will be amended pursuant to the stipulation, the pre-petition bank lenders would be paid in cash in full on the effective date of the plan, and the holders of the Debtors’ 10.75% Senior Unsecured Notes due 2013 will receive the equity of the reorganized Debtors, subject to dilution by the rights offering provided for in the plan. The holders of the Senior Unsecured Notes would also have the right to subscribe for approximately 78% of the equity at an aggregate purchase price of $185 million in the rights offering. The four plan sponsors have agreed to purchase any equity in such rights offering that is not subscribed for by the holders of the Senior Unsecured Notes in the rights offering. In addition, Solus Alternative Asset Management LP would make a direct investment in the equity of the reorganized Debtors.
ATL Interview with Amanda Blackhorse, Lead Plaintiff in New Trademark Case against Redskins
Here, via Leiter and the Lounge:
An excerpt:
We interviewed the lead petitioner, Amanda Blackhorse, last week. Blackhorse, now 27, grew up on the Navajo Reservation, went to Nations University in Kansas, and is now a social worker in Phoenix working with mentally ill adults. Here’s a synopsis of our Q and A:
ATL: What was your reaction to the Harjo decision?
Blackhorse: I was saddened by it. But our case is now going to move forward. For legal questions, please talk to our attorney, Philip Mause [partner at Drinker Biddle].ATL: When did you start thinking about team mascots this way?
Blackhorse: During my sophomore year at Nations University, [a university for all Native American tribes], I started to become aware of my history as a Native American. I grew up on a Navajo reservation but never learned my history. The only thing shared between tribes is oppression. I literally cried when I realized our social problems stemmed from this.ATL: How did you get involved with the case against the Redskins?
Blackhorse: In 2005, my friends and I decided to protest at a Redskins – Kansas Chiefs game in Kansas City. I was shocked to see the way people thought we were. They didn’t consider us human beings. People threw beers at us, told us to go home, yelled racial slurs. After that, I knew I needed to do something.
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