...from a comprehensive timeline on the proposed Port Huron Casino compiled by Mike O'Connell and previously published in the Port Huron Times Herald.
July 13, 1993 - Developer Mike Malik (Michael J. Malik, Sr.; Michael Malik), a native of Clay Township, works with Harrah's Casino Hotels and the Bay Mills Indian Community on a proposal for a $60 million casino at the old Sears building in downtown Port Huron. In a casino-advisory referendum, city voters reject the proposal, 5,120 to 4,751.
May 17, 1994 - Casino Windsor opens.
August 1994 - Detroit voters approve casino gambling after having opposed it in three earlier referenda.
Sept. 8, 1994 - The Governor's Blue Ribbon Commission on Michigan Gaming recommends the legalization of casino gambling in Detroit and as many as five other cities. It calls for land-based casinos rather than riverboat gambling.
Nov. 8, 1994 - Malik, Harrah's and Bay Mills propose a casino in Port Huron Township, where voters reject the plan, 1,835 to 1,300. A similar advisory vote also fails in Flint, 18,626 to 17,695.
June 25, 1995 - Gov. John Engler announces he will not support off-reservation casino gambling anywhere in Michigan.
Nov. 5, 1996 - Michigan voters approve Proposal E, which authorizes the development of three casinos in Detroit.
Dec. 20, 1996 - Engler appoints the Michigan Gaming Control Board to regulate casinos.
April 18, 2000 - Point Edward Charity Casino opens and in its first year draws more than a million visitors, 70% of them Americans.
Nov. 10, 2000 - Greektown Casino opens in Detroit.
October 2000 - Don Reynolds, owner of the Thomas Edison Inn in Port Huron, forms a casino committee with the support of Richard Cummings of the St. Clair County AFL-CIO.
June 26, 2001- In an advisory vote, Port Huron voters approve a casino at the Thomas Edison Inn, 3,111 to 2,628.
July 9, 2002 - Malik and Bay Mills commit to helping develop the Edison Inn casino.
Aug. 23, 2002 - Engler and the Bay Mills tribe settle a long-standing controversy over land rights in Charlotte Beach. As part of the deal, Engler signs off on the Thomas Edison casino.
September 2002 - U.S. Rep. Dave Bonior and Sen. Debbie Stabenow, both Democrats, introduce bills in Congress that would grant the required federal approval for the Thomas Edison casino.
Sept. 25, 2002 - Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick publicly pledges to fight a Port Huron casino.
November 2002 - Bonior's bill fails to pass before the House adjourns for the year. Stabenow's bill dies in the Senate after Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., says it would set a bad precedent.
Dec. 19, 2002 - Engler writes to President Bush in support of a Port Huron casino.
Dec. 30, 2002 - Engler, in one of his final acts as governor, makes a deal with the Sault Chippewas for casino rights in Romulus and Vanderbilt in exchange for the tribe dropping its Charlotte Beach claims. The Soo, with 31,000 members and a 90% stake in Detroit's Greektown casino, is larger than Michigan's other 11 Indian bands combined.
Feb. 13, 2003 - U.S. Rep. Candice Miller, R-Harrison Township, and Rep. Don Young, D-Alaska, introduce legislation to authorize the Thomas Edison casino. Miller and Stabenow also attach legislation to a spending bill for the Department of Interior.
May 8, 2003 - Five Republican members of Michigan's congressional delegation block Miller's bill.
December 2003 - Casino advisory vote passes in Romulus.
February 2004 - Reid, the powerful Nevada senator, meets with Stabenow and reportedly drops his opposition to a Port Huron casino.
March 2004 - Casino projects in Port Huron and Romulus are attached to a major transportation bill.
April 1, 2004 - U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Brighton, kills the Port Huron-Romulus amendment. Miller blames gaming interests in Detroit and Nevada, saying, "They want every toy in the sandbox."
June 24, 2004 - House Natural Resources Committee holds a hearing on another Miller casino bill.
July 2005 - It is reported that Malik and business associate Marian Ilitch, wife of pizza magnate Mike Ilitch, have been underwriting efforts to develop casinos in Shinnecock Hills, N.Y., and Barstow, Calif. for several years.
August 2005 - Promoter Tony DeFeo approaches City Manager Tom Hutka with a proposal for a casino in downtown Port Huron.
December 2005 - House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, blocks Miller's bill. DeLay is a close friend of disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff, whose clients included the Saginaw Chippewas. The Saginaw band, whose ancestors once had a 1,287-acre reservation in what is now Port Huron, oppose the Bay Mills casino.
Dec. 9, 2005 - Port Huron's city attorney calls on DeFeo to cease and desist issuing marketing documents that suggest the city is endorsing his project.
March 6, 2006 - DeFeo's team makes a public presentation to City Council for a casino, resort hotel and water park in downtown Port Huron. DeFeo also seeks to take over management of McMorran Place.
November 2006 - DeFeo moves his casino proposal from downtown Port Huron to a site adjacent to the Horizon Outlet Center in Kimball Township.
December 2006 - City Manager Karl Tomion urges Stabenow to push for quick approval of the Thomas Edison casino as partial compensation for the damage the federal government will do to the city's tax base by expanding the Customs Plaza at the Blue Water Bridge.
May 3, 2007 - U.S. Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Menominee, introduces a bill, H.R. 2176 to allow the Bay Mills tribe to build a casino at the Edison Inn. It is referred to the House Natural Resources Committee.
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