Free Republic

SACRAMENTO — Assemblywoman Nicole Parra and her father traveled to Cuba in early December on what has reportedly become an annual event organized by one of California’s most powerful lobbyists and political fundraisers. Parra, D-Hanford, and other participants said the trip was arranged by Darius Anderson, founder of one of Sacramento’s premiere lobbying firms and a top fundraiser for former Gov. Gray Davis. Since travel to communist Cuba is generally prohibited except under a license from the U.S. government, Anderson’s repeated trips there with lawmakers, business people and others raise a number of questions. Why is a lobbyist arranging religious...

The party has an outside chance of winning the five or six seats it needs to retake control, but needs to find top-tier recruits in several states and is running out of time to do so. ....Here are five states where the party needs to land strong candidates to broaden the battleground and have a hope of winning back the Senate. Michigan Iowa Montana Arkansas New Hampshire

In 2006, Democrats successfully won back control of Congress by highlighting corruption scandals involving Jack Abramoff, a lobbyist specializing in Indian tribes. But does one Democrat in particular have a problem of her own with her interventions on behalf of a California tribe that now operates a casino just outside of San Francisco? Barbara Boxer pushed a bill reinstating a tribe designated as “defunct” by the BIA 40 years earlier through legislation that she also amended to remove a prohibition on gaming on any land the tribe owned. Rick Manning at The Hill says the deal — and what ensued...

RIVERSIDE Two recent shootouts between law officers and several members of the Soboba Indian tribe have prompted the Riverside County Sheriff's Deputies Association to warn the public that it considers the tribe's casino to be unsafe, it was reported on Saturday. The 3,700-member union considers the tribal reservation to be "unstable" as a result of "recent violence against Riverside County deputy sheriffs," the Los Angeles Times and Riverside Press-Enterprise reported. Tribal leaders shot back that the deputies union has brought the shootouts into the poitical arena, and said in an e-mail that "the recent tragic events were unrelated to the...

As state lawmakers Thursday voted to allow four of California's richest casino gambling tribes to add a total of up to 17,000 slot machines, the vote was a humbling defeat for organized labor. Before the final vote, Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez declared that he had extracted verbal promises that unions could organize workers on tribal lands. But securing the last-minute statements -- which have no force of law -- was merely a face-saving gesture for many Democratic lawmakers long allied with labor. The result left Art Pulaski, executive secretary-treasurer of the California Labor Federation, fuming. Even before the final vote,...

Accords bring Assembly Democrats on board as unions cry 'betrayal.' Four of California's wealthiest Indian gambling tribes and Assembly Democrats broke a prolonged stalemate Wednesday, striking a controversial deal that could trigger thousands of new casino slot machines and billions of dollars for the state treasury.The tribes, lawmakers and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed off on side agreements that appear to provide political cover for the Legislature's approval of gambling compacts negotiated last year.Organized labor, which had lobbied Democrats to force union-friendly provisions on the tribes, criticized Wednesday's signing of separate "memorandum of understanding" accords as "an unbelievable betrayal." But the...

-U.S. auditors claim relations with state tribes still good- Federal auditors fear they are losing the authority to regulate newer, fast-paced gaming machines that are taking over some Oklahoma tribal casinos. Tribal casinos in other states have started shutting out government inspectors after an October federal court ruling that limited the National Indian Gaming Commission's authority over certain games. However, the commission's chairman, Philip Hogen, said the ruling hasn't soured his agency's relationship with Oklahoma tribes. "There have been a lot of tribes that said ‘don't bother coming here,'" Hogen said, but such a move would be unlikely for an...

In the waning hours of August's legislative session, labor leaders successfully persuaded majority Democrats to defeat the expansion of six Indian casinos. The compacts Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger negotiated with the tribes, they argued, failed to include more collective bargaining rights for casino workers. Now most of the same tribes from Southern California are flexing their political muscle in a big way, pouring $9.1 million into an independent campaign committee that has largely backed casino-friendly candidates. One analyst says the tribes' move so late in the campaign sends a strong warning to Sacramento politicians, particularly Democrats who chose to side with...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, Dennis Hastert, is under investigation by the FBI, which is probing corruption in Congress, ABC News reported on Wednesday. ABC, citing high level Justice Department sources, said information implicating Hastert was developed from convicted lobbyists who are now cooperating with the government. Part of the investigation involves a letter Hastert wrote three years ago, urging the Secretary of the Interior to block a casino on an Indian reservation that would have competed with those of other tribes. Hastert's Press Secretary told ABC in a statement: "We are not aware...

The FBI and Capitol Police are investigating the vicious attack of a top Senate staffer at her home last week amid concerns that the assault might be related to her work on the Finance Committee. Emilia DiSanto, chief investigator for committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), arrived at her suburban Virginia home after work Wednesday about 6:30 p.m. As she was unloading belongings from her car, a 6-foot-1-inch white man dressed in black struck her repeatedly with an unidentified object believed to be a baseball bat. After she screamed to her family inside the house, the assailant fled. DiSanto was transported...

As U.S. Indian tribes are urging the government to authorize the opening of tribal casinos closer to cities where gamblers reside, Arizona Senator John McCain reportedly argues that the Interior Department should produce regulations that would help authorities oversee the development of off-reservation gaming venues. Currently, tribal proposals regarding off-reservation casinos are ruled on according to certain exceptions to the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act adopted 17 years ago. According to a department official, off-reservation gaming projects have stirred conflicts in numerous communities across the U.S., but the Interior Department has yet to finalize clarifying regulations regarding Indian gaming. McCain, chairman...

Indian Givers The tribal-casino scandal. Political contributions from Indian tribes soaked in gambling revenues have increased exponentially in recent years, from a mere $2,000 in 1999 to more than $7 million in 2004. But the trend has suddenly reversed. Now it's the politicians giving money to tribes, as dozens of pols who happily took dollars from Jack Abramoff-associated tribes hurriedly return the cash or hand it over to charity. This strange turnabout was predictable to anyone who has followed the connection around the country between wads of gambling money and sleazy practices in government. "We're seeing what has happened at...

NEW YORK — The Southampton, N.Y.-based Shinnecock Indians (search) on Tuesday fired the first arrow in their battle to reclaim ancestral lands — filing a federal lawsuit seeking the return of 3,600 acres of prime real estate "stolen" by the state a century and a half ago. The 1,300-member tribe also is asking for monetary damages — conservatively estimated at $1.7 billion — and 150 years of back rent and interest in what it called "the largest Indian land claim ever filed." The suit is seen by many locals as an attempt to force favorable action on the Shinnecocks' bid...

TESTIMONY SOUGHT ON GAMBLING - INDIAN CASINO RESERVATION SHOPPING A House committee is considering gambling law changes and wants your input by today Thursday, although even if its late they STILL want it. There is an easy questionaire that is pretty self explanatory. Way cool way to get your ideas to Congress. http://www.family.org/cforum/feature/a0036864.cfm A House committee is considering gambling law changes and wants your input. Congress is currently accepting public testimony about off-reservation gambling. Rep. Richard Pombo, chairman of the Committee on Resources, held an oversight hearing on the issue last week in Sacramento — one outcome was a request...

ONE OF THE biggest problems with Indian gaming in California is that the state's fastest-growing industry has expanded with little oversight at the local, state or federal level. Nowhere was that more true than in San Pablo, where federal legislation authored by Rep. George Miller, D-Martinez, paved the way for urban gambling. The bill allowed a former card room to be taken into federal trust so that an Indian tribe could build a casino alongside Interstate 80 -- at one of the most congested points of one of the most congested highways in the state. The proposal unveiled last year...

MADISON - A state appeals court Thursday asked the Wisconsin Supreme Court to take up again a lawsuit from owners of a Kenosha dog track seeking to end casino gambling by American Indian tribes. Dairyland Greyhound Park's lawsuit sought to stop the renewal of compacts allowing American Indian tribes to operate casinos. The track argued that a 1993 amendment to the Wisconsin Constitution outlawed casino gambling. The state Supreme Court heard the case and split 3-3 on the lawsuit last March, sending it back to the 4th District Court of Appeals for further review. But the appeals court said Thursday...

After losing three efforts to expand gambling in the past quarter century, supporters of a state constitutional amendment that could put slot machines at seven South Florida racetracks and frontons claimed victory on Thursday. Buoyed by the results of absentee and provisional ballots and the repair of a glitch in Broward County's counting machinery, Amendment 4 passed by a more than 93,000-vote margin. "This is a great day because education was a big winner today, $500 million a year to help our schools and to help our kids," said former state Education Commissioner Jim Horne, chief spokesman for the proponents....

SACRAMENTO -- No one knows how much money is plunked into slot machines and passed across blackjack tables each year at California's 54 Indian casinos, but events last week provided a breathtaking clue. When representatives of five gaming tribes sat down with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and signed new compacts that could usher in an era of unlimited gambling at Indian casinos, they promised to pay a combined $100 million a year to secure a bond that would pump $1 billion into the state this year. How was that $100 million figure arrived at? It represents at least 10 percent of...

During the recall campaign, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger slammed his opponents for taking Indian gaming money -- but according to state filing reports, a new campaign committee set up to help cover the governor's living and travel expenses just took $21,200 from a company with ties to a number of California Indian casinos.

<p>BATON ROUGE - Louisiana Gov. Mike Foster will end two scandal-free terms Jan. 12, leaving an eight-year legacy of clean government and improved funding and attention to public schools. But he likely will be remembered for failing to address major problems in health care and missing key economic development opportunities for a state still struggling with intense poverty and joblessness.</p>