Stand Up for California! is a statewide organization with a focus on gambling issues including tribal gaming, card clubs, horse racing, charitable gaming and the state lottery.

SHOOTING
REPERCUSSION
San Jacinto asks Soboba Band to drop effort to add land to its reservation5/28/2008, The Press-Enterprise
Citing a recent string of violent incidents on the reservation, the San Jacinto City Council is asking the Soboba Band of Luiseņo Indians to halt its proposed annexation of hundreds of acres the tribe wants to use to build a hotel and casino complex. The May 20 letter, signed by Mayor Jim Ayres, said the city would be forced to "actively oppose the application" if the tribe did not withdraw its request for the federal government to add the 535 acres to the reservation."Unless the City Council can be assured that the residents of San Jacinto, the public who would be visiting the Reservation, and the Tribe's own residents of their personal safety, the City Council believes that any expansion of the Reservation would be inappropriate," the letter stated.

 Illegal Slots?

Sycuan's bingo slots draw focus of regulators5/29/2008, San Diego Union Tribune
A small change in the way some gambling machines work at the Sycuan casino has attracted the attention of regulators who wonder whether the tribe has skirted the limits on how many slots it can offer. At issue are bingo-based slot machines, which are counted differently than Las Vegas-style slots and don't require licenses or payments to the state.

Tribe isn't acting as steward of land5/28/2008, High Desert Star
I am not opposed to casinos and while I don't think putting a casino in Twentynine Palms is a good idea for a variety of economic and sociological reasons, my letter is not about that. I'm also not going to address the millions of dollars of necessary infrastructural upgrades that Twentynine Palms taxpayers will have to pay for to facilitate this project (the widening of Sullivan and Hatch, for instance).

Top BIA post filled by career employee
5/28/2008, Indianz.Com
With just eight months left in the Bush administration, the Interior Department. continues to search for a new leader of the Bureau of Indian Affairs , a top official said on Tuesday. But in the meantime, deputy secretary P. Lynn Scarlett, the second-in-command at Interior, assigned the duties of the assistant secretary for Indian Affairs to a longtime employee. George Skibine, a member of the Osage Nation of Oklahoma, took over the post on Friday, when former BIA head Carl Artman left office.

American Indians protest H.B. development5/28/2008, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
HUNTINGTON BEACH - A group of American Indians and its supporters united Wednesday against a developer they said isn't allowing their ancestors to rest and instead building a 300-home community on top of what is believed to be an ancient burial ground. About two dozen people waved signs reading "Sacred site here" and "Ban Hearthside," in front of the Brightwater-Hearthside development on Warner Avenue and Bolsa Chica Street. The group-made up of Juaneņos, Gabrielino-Tongva and others-protested what they called the disrespect of their ancestors and secrecy surrounding the archeological findings on the Bolsa Chica Mesa site. "We'd like to preserve the history we have here for our grandchildren, so they can say this is where my culture started instead of a plaque in a corner," said Lloyd Valenzuela, a Juaneņo elder.

 
Tribal Agreement Reached in Lemoore5/28/2008, KMPH.com
A Native American tribe made history Wednesday in Lemoore. In front of about 100 witnesses, 1,160 acres transferred into trust for the Tachi Yokut Native American tribe in Lemoore. That means, according to tribal officials, the size of their reservation more than doubled. The land the tribe's 776 registered members live on now is called the Santa Rosa Rancheria. Now that the tribe has much more land, they say they will think about changing that to the Santa Rosa Reservation rather than Rancheria.



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Upcoming Hearings

Comments Due: Off Reservation  228.04 acre trust acquisition and construction of casino project to be located within the City of Plymouth in Amador County, California.Mail comments to Amy Dutschke, acting Regional Director, Pacific Regional Office, BIA, 2800 Cottage Way, Sacramento, CA. 92825. Written comments will be accepted through July 2, 2008,
 

Upcoming Conference

North American Regulators Association June 10-13, 2008  Register on Line:  www.nagra.org

 
NCLGS - National Council of Legislators from Gaming States
Summer Meeting - June 13 -15, 2008 Napa Valley Marriott Hotel and Spa Napa, California. www.nclgs.org  sign up online.
Presentations will include: bingo and charitable gaming, lottery, off reservation gaming 
 

22nd National Conference on Problem Gambling.   June 26-28, 2008, Long Beach, California.  Register online:www.ncpgambling.org/conference

 
INDIAN COUNTRY'S WINNING HAND, October 16-17, 2008, Radisson Fort McDowell Resort & Casino Scottsdale/Fountian Hills, Arizona. Register online: www.law.asu.edu/ilp
 
 

LINKS and Legislation

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State Legislation to Watch

AJR 39 -  Assembly Member Huffman

Reaffirmation of the Winneman Wintu.  

AB 1924 - Assembly Member Jeffries Changes the amount of charitable BINGO  funds that may be used for overhead and other operational expenses. Bill has been pulled.

AB 2026 - Assembly Member  Levine -

The California Gambling Control in conjunction with the Department of Justice, shall perform a study and report its findings to the legislature by June 30, 2009, regarding authorizing interstate Internet Poker.

SB 62 - Sen. Florez - Permits the transfer of funds from the General Fund to the Revenue Sharing Trust Fund for eligible recipient tribes should there be insufficient funds in the Special Distribution Fund.

SB 331 -Sen.  Romero - Imposes a state mandated local program to address tresspassers on tribal lands

SB 996 Sen. Florez - This bill would require each tribal state gaming compact entered into between the State of California and a federally recognized Indian Tribe to be ratified by the Legislature in Separate Statute. 

 SB 1201 - Sen. Battin Increases the aggregate limit of gaming devices licenses available for issuance under the 1999 compacts to 122,000 slot machines without tribal state compact renegotiations. Veto Bait.
SB 1328 - Sen.  Cedillo - deletes the $250 limitation on bingo game payouts, thereby allows for an award of any denomination. BILL HAS BEEN PULLED
SB - 1570 - Sen. Vincent - Requires the Governor to use best efforts to ensure that satellite wagering on horese racing is one of the forms of gaming offered at any gambling facility authorized under a compact.
SB 1626 - Sen. Steinberg -Game of Bingo to be played by machine with electronic cards.  Slot machines?    BILL HAS BEEN PULLED                                                                                             SB 1679 - Sen. Florez - Lottery Reform Bill:  requiresthat not less than 87% of revenues be used for prizes and to benefit education, 13% for lottery expenses. Total revenue to education will be decided by the Commission but not less than 1,200,000,000. Requires 1 million to be committed to the Office of Problem and Pathological gambling. Defines, expands and loosens restrictions of lottery game themes.
SB 1695 - Sen. Florez - Prohibits the Governor from negotiating or concluding a gaming compact with a tribe that does not have land held in trust on which the gaming is to occur and that is not federally recognized. Bill passes the Senate.
SCA 20 -Sen.  Vincent - Constitutional Amendment authorizes Roulette and Craps on California Indian lands for compact tribes.

 

Federal Legislation to Watch 

H. R. 2963 - Congressman Issa Transfers without regulatory environmental process 1,178 ac. in Riverside and San Diego Counties to the Pechanga Band.  Why?
H.R. 3490 - Congressman Radanovich
Declares that specificed federal lands are to be held in trust by the US for the benefit of the Tuolumne Band of Me-Wuik Indians  for non gaming purposes.
H.R. 5608 Congressman Rahall - mandates that adminstration directly consults with tribes on policies that directly affect their lives.
H. R. 5680 Congressman Grijalva - A bill to extend leases for Morongo and transfer money to CRIT.
S. 2676 - Senator Vitter - Common Sense Indian Gambling Reform Act of 2008. To make technical corrections to IGRA. Consultation with local government.
 

http://thomas.loc.gov/