Indian Gaming

Thank you, George Skelton, for your support of Prop. 5, the initiative which seeks to protect Indian gaming ("After 150 Years Indians Are Still Facing Long Odds," Sept. 21). Indian gaming has been crucial in Indian self-determination and self-reliance, a long-sought goal of Native Americans. As a result of the revenues from gaming, California Indians are finally beginning to eradicate the severe poverty, inadequate health care and poor schooling that are characteristic of many reservations.

Not long after he took office in 2003, former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger offered Indian tribes a deal his administration believed was a win for both sides: They could add hundreds of slot machines to their casinos if they paid a double-digit percentage of their earnings to the state's general fund. Although some tribes leaped at the offer, generating about $350 million a year for the state, the Rincon Band of Luiseño Indians argued that it amounted to an unlawful tax. The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals agreed last year, and on Monday the Supreme Court declined to hear the state's challenge to that ruling.

Fred Dickey's excellent account of tribal gaming assumed that Gov. Gray Davis would negotiate new compacts that could deliver cash to the state and ensure more environmentally responsible casinos ("Who's Watching the Casinos?" Feb. 16). A section of the compact empowers the state to initiate negotiations for amending provisions that are meant to control off-site environmental impacts of Indian gaming. Since 2000 these provisions have failed to prevent glaring problems of traffic, crime, fire control, water table drawdown, sewage leaking, etc. But it's dismaying that Davis has ignored the outraged appeals from counties, cities and citizens asking for a shred of justice, and prepares to discuss only how much of the gambling bonanza should go into the state's coffers.

When Anna Prieto Sandoval became leader of the Sycuan Band of Mission Indians in 1972, its reservation near El Cajon was a tumbledown settlement of wooden shacks with outhouses, a 100-year-old Catholic church and a cinder-block meeting hall. About 80 members lived on the tribal land, and none had a steady job. When she stepped down two decades later, the Sycuan had risen from abject poverty to become a national model of tribal self-sufficiency, a transformation that Sandoval was largely responsible for ?

George Skelton's Oct. 8 Capitol Journal on Prop. 5 and the Cache Creek casino was well worth reading. I have been to Cache Creek; it is a pleasant, easy drive from Sacramento, and a beautiful casino. I can understand why the folks who run it don't want competition. But that is the whole point of Prop. 5. I understand those who oppose any gambling; it is logical for them to oppose Prop. 5. But the tribes who have agreements with Gov. Pete Wilson don't oppose gambling; they oppose letting other tribes have it. Would you let Wilson sign an agreement with Chevrolet so that there could be no Ford or Toyota dealers in California?

The House passed and sent to the Senate a bill creating a federal commission to regulate gambling on Indian reservations and imposing a four-year moratorium on all casino-type gaming and track betting not operating as of Jan. 1. The bill, approved by voice vote, allows games operating as of Jan. 1, 1986, to be "grandfathered in." Bingo and social games such as poker and Indian traditional games are excluded from the moratorium.

The growth of Indian gaming in the United States poses a threat not only to Nevada's lifeblood but could lead to federal regulation of all casinos, officials are warning. "You have this wide-open thing here with nobody regulating it," Reno gaming analyst Don McGhie said. And Reno attorney Brian McKay, a former state attorney general, said that if the government follows the recommendation of Sen.

When Anna Prieto Sandoval became leader of the Sycuan Band of Mission Indians in 1972, its reservation near El Cajon was a tumbledown settlement of wooden shacks with outhouses, a 100-year-old Catholic church and a cinder-block meeting hall. About 80 members lived on the tribal land, and none had a steady job. When she stepped down two decades later, the Sycuan had risen from abject poverty to become a national model of tribal self-sufficiency, a transformation that Sandoval was largely responsible for ?

Reputed San Diego mobster Chris Petti and nine other men, including a top local defense lawyer and the alleged bosses of the Chicago mob, were named Friday in a federal indictment charging that organized crime tried to infiltrate gambling operations at the Rincon Indian Reservation.

Arizona Gov. Jane Dee Hull on Monday signed into law a ballot proposition approved by voters to expand Indian gambling. However, Proposition 202 won't take effect until Hull gets the go-ahead from the state Supreme Court to sign gambling agreements with individual tribes. On Monday, the high court was still considering whether to grant an injunction requested by horse and dog racetracks to block the agreements.

Who would believe that the best old-fashioned audience picture of the year, a Hollywood-style romantic melodrama that delivers major studio satisfactions in an ultra-modern way, was made on the streets of India with largely unknown stars by a British director who never makes the same movie twice? Go figure.

When charities went up against casino-owning Indian tribes in Sacramento recently, they got schooled in who wields the real political power. The outcome raises serious questions about whether Californians meant to forever guarantee tribes that there would be no meaningful competition to their gambling operations. A bill by Sen. Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento) to allow nonprofit fundraisers to install electronic bingo machines was dropped right after tribes went to work against it, protesting that it would violate a pact with the state giving them the sole right to slot machines.

-- -- -- Statewide 100% precincts reporting Votes % 91 -- Transportation funds Yes 2,744,075 42 No 3,789,705 58 92 -- Community college funding Yes 2,880,368 43 No 3,850,944 57 93 -- Term limits Yes 3,159,658 46 No 3,646,035 54 94 -- Indian gaming (Pechanga) Yes 3,859,196 56 No 3,043,051 44 95 -- Indian gaming (Morongo) Yes 3,856,530 56 No 3,036,495 44 96 -- Indian gaming (Sycuan) Yes 3,837,736 56 No 3,039,286 44 97 -- Indian gaming (Agua Caliente) Yes 3,838,826 56 No 3,034,934 44 -- -- Los Angeles County 100% precincts reporting Votes % 91 -- Transportation funds Yes 664,943 42 No 925,720 58 92 -- Community college funding Yes 789,592 48 No 861,122 52 93 -- Term limits Yes 809,168 48 No 861,829 52 94 -- Indian gaming (Pechanga)

Arthur James Welmas, who chaired the Cabazon Band of Mission Indians when the small tribe won a case before the U.S. Supreme Court in 1987 that laid the foundation for the Indian gaming movement, has died. He was 77. Welmas, who led the Riverside County tribe for a decade, died of kidney failure and complications from diabetes Dec. 17 at an Escondido hospital, his wife, Elma, said.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger announced plans Friday that could allow two Indian tribes to open Las Vegas-style casinos in Barstow, far from their aboriginal land -- to the dismay of other tribes with gambling operations. Under the tentative deals, the Big Lagoon band, from far Northern California, and the Los Coyotes Band of Cahuilla and Cupeno Indians of San Diego County would be able to open separate casinos, each with 2,250 slot machines.

Representatives of 23 Native American tribes gathered here Tuesday for a summit with the Western governors to discuss Indian gaming and potential changes to the federal law that oversees the industry. With Congress pondering increased oversight, tribal leaders were eager to point out the benefits of gambling -- not just to their own people, but also to surrounding communities.

The California Supreme Court on Wednesday blocked Proposition 5, the Indian gaming initiative passed by voters last month, pending a decision on its constitutionality. The court, meeting in closed session, temporarily blocked enforcement of the initiative in response to petitions filed by a labor union and by residents who live near Indian casinos. Proposition 5 probably will remain blocked for several months until the court holds a hearing and issues a written decision.

It was the waning days of Rick Schroder's run on "NYPD Blue." The blond-haired, blue-eyed former child actor faced an uncertain future. The meaty acting roles he craved rarely seemed to come his way. Worse, he and his wife were still struggling with the bottomless grief of a late-term miscarriage. Drawing on this reservoir of anger and pain, Schroder picked up a pen and his journal and began writing a screenplay, in longhand.

Michael Hiltzik seems to have missed some important points in "Look at the Initiatives Money Can Buy" (Golden State, Nov. 4). First of all, according to the results reported in The Times the same day, Proposition 68 went down with 84% against, and Proposition 70 was rejected with 76% against. I would venture to say that a lot more cash was thrown at these two measures to get them passed than defeated. And they still went down. The people aren't stupid. Second, and more to Hiltzik's point, when elected officials are faced with term limits, they become unable to process any issues into the system that they will not gain any political clout from.