Apparently this past week; Malik's Blue Water Resorts LLC has filed a lawsuit against fellow casino syndicator and competitor Tony DeFeo trying to block DeFeo's competing casino scheme in the Port Huron area. Malik and Ilitch have been attempting to site an off-reservation casino for the Bay Mills Indian Tribe in Port Huron for the last 15 years with little progress.
Ilitch/Malik spokesman Tom Shields flew half-way across the Country last week to attend the Barstow City Council meeting where he attacked Southern California's established gaming tribes, a Barstow area Citizen Activist and TheVerifiableTruth.com. He made outrageous claims against all three -- claims and half-truths he manufactured in a desperate attempt to defend his clients. Shields' made allegations and innuendos without ever providing any verifiable resources to back up his claims; or addressing his clients own shortcomings.
Shields and his Detroit clients have been pushing casinos in Barstow since 2001, and have failed to ever sit down with or negotiate with any of Southern California's existing tribes or any San Bernardino County tribes; rather the out of state casino syndicators have gone on the attack and have shown blatant disregard for the tribes' ancestral heritage.
Shields is so frazzled these days that in an interview regarding the Big Lagoon Rancheria, a tribe Shields' clients have adopted and want to relocate to Barstow some 750 miles from its reservation, he told the San Bernardino Sun:
"It's a settlement of this lawsuit for them to go to Barstow. That is the furthest thing from reservation shopping," Shields said. "They're not looking to be millionaires, they're just looking for an opportunity to become self-sufficient."
A) Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's negotiators made it clear previously that Big Lagoon shopped around for 20 acres in Humboldt County near its own Reservation but it couldn't find anything "suitable" -- read that as "as lucrative as Barstow." That's "reservation shopping." The Big Lagoon Rancheria doesn't need a casino on the Big Lagoon or anywhere else for its 20 members to be self-sufficient.
B) The 20 members for the Big Lagoon Rancheria, all part of tribal Chairman Virgil Moorehead's immediate family stand to become Millionaires -- Yes, Millionaires -- if they open a casino like Tom Shields' clients hope to build in Barstow. The Tribe already operates a million dollar hotel in Arcata, California and has purchased land valued at several million dollars in recent years. The Big Lagoon Rancheria has annual revenues that should provide each of its members with annual incomes far exceeding (four times) the median household income for California.
- A desperate Tom Shields was compelled to fly to Barstow in the middle of Summer to attack TheVerifiableTruth.com
- Barstow Attorney Dennis Whittlesey says tribes can't build casinos outside of their ancestral territories
- DOI Associate Secretary encourages Big Lagoon Rancheria to re-consider casino location closer to reservation; discourages Barstow scheme
- Big Lagoon Rancheria has received $1.9 million in federal grants since 2000
- 'Disadvantaged' Tribe has amassed additional property valued at $2.65 million
- Even without Casino, Humboldt Tribe’s Standard of Living is four times greater than most California families
- Casino developer's fear of competition drives them to push for Barstow
No comments:
Post a Comment