Quick hits: Rural education needs more attention, cities pressure rural water sources, Mueller report has coal connection

Here's a roundup of stories with rural resonance; if you do or see similar work that should be shared on The Rural Blog, email us at heather.chapman@uky.edu.

National conversations about education often center on the needs of urban students, but the nation must focus more on the needs of rural schools and students, according to a panel convened by The Aspen Institute, a non-partisan think-tank. The panel gathered on April 11 to discuss a new book about rural education called "No Longer Forgotten: The Triumphs and Struggles of Rural America".

Growing city populations worldwide will continue to put pressure on rural water sources, including North America, according to a new study from the University of Oxford. Read more here.

The Mueller report revealed that Russians sought to exploit division among Americans over coal jobs. "The report cites a series of pro-Trump rallies organized by the Internet Research Agency, a Russian organization charged with interfering in the U.S. election, included one in Pennsylvania with a poster featuring a coal miner reading 'bring back our jobs'," Rebecca Beitsch reports for The Hill. "The rallies were hosted in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia in October 2016."

Rural hospitals have benefitted from a change to Medicare and Medicaid readmission rules. "The research, published Monday in JAMA Internal Medicine, found 44.1% of teaching hospitals and 43.7% of rural hospitals experienced a lower penalty in 2019 compared with 2018 from the readmissions program," Maria Castellucci reports for Modern Healthcare. "The smaller penalties were the result of changes made to the readmissions program this year in which hospitals were separated into five groups by similar proportion of patients who are dually eligible for Medicare and Medicaid."

A proposed "mini-casino" in rural Pennsylvania is causing consternation for locals, Andrew Maykuth reports for The Philadelphia Inquirer.

Likewise, residents in rural Wisconsin are divided over a wind turbine proposal, Sarah Whites-Koditschek reports for the Minneapolis StarTribune.

Rural Nevada town goes on sale for $8 million

For $8 million, a rural town along the Nevada/California/Arizona border could be yours, Henry Brean reports for the Las Vegas Review-Journal. The town, Cal-Nev-Ari (US-Zip.org map), located in Clark County, Nevada, about 70 miles south of Las Vegas, was built in the 1960s as a town for pilots. "The sale includes just about everything: the dirt airstrip, restaurant, bar, convenience store, post office with ZIP Code, mobile home park, 10-room motel, RV park, and the casino, which has been open since 1968 with a non-restricted gaming license. The only things not offered are the town's roughly 350 residents, some privately owned homes, the small community center and a volunteer fire station built by Clark County after the original one 'burned to the ground,'" said Slim Kidwell. Kidwell and his wife Nancy own the town.

"Kidwell is selling a full square mile along U.S. Highway 95, and more than 500 empty acres are ready to be developed, he said," Brean writes. "The Kidwells already did the hard stuff, building infrastructure and and bringing in utilities. The water system can draw from three wells and is only at about 20 percent of capacity." Based on a few of the inquiries received so far, "prospective buyers see potential for a retirement community, a renewable energy project, a motorsports park, a dude ranch, a survival school, a shooting range or a 'marijuana resort,' assuming that sort of thing becomes legal some day."

University of Nevada study looks at the national county-level impact of legalized gambling

Revenue increased in non-Indian counties that opened casinos from 1987 to 2007—a period in which the number of states to legalize gambling went from 2 to 33—says a study by the University of Nevada published in SAGE Journals, Vyasan Radhakrishnan reports for Journalist's Resource. For all counties—many of them rural—"when a commercial casino is opened, the county showed an increase of 7.8 percent in per-capita revenues and 8.1 percent increase in per-capita expenditures. However, for all counties with Indian casinos, the opening of Indian casinos led to a decrease in per-capita county revenue by 3.6 percent and a decrease of 4.6 percent in per-capita county expenditure."

"Casino counties had significantly lower per capita sales tax revenues irrespective of the presence of casinos," Radhakrishnan writes. "Casino openings in those same counties had no significant association with county sales tax revenues. Casino counties showed a decrease in per-capita education expenditures by 6 percent when Indian casinos were opened in these counties. There is, however, no statistically significant impact on education expenditures when commercial casinos are opened in casino counties."

"Researchers did not find that opening casinos improved the fiscal condition of the counties," Radhakrishnan writes. "However, when a positive effect of commercial casinos was found, it was primarily through revenue sharing legislation. In these cases, local laws mandated states to share revenues from casino taxes with counties. For these states, the opening of casinos increased the sales tax revenues by more than 75 percent and increased revenues and expenditures by more than 11 percent and 12 percent respectively." (University of Nevada graphic)

Land wars between Native Americans, Washington leaving poorer tribes in the dust

While richer Native American tribes are fighting what they call a hostile Supreme Court and Congress over lands Indians want to reclaim, poorer tribes are the biggest losers in the battle over whose pockets get lined with money, David Rogers reports for Politico. "The fight is less about the justice of returning historic territory and more simply cash—whether measured in the revenues gained from casinos or property taxes lost for local counties. From Oklahoma to California, rich tribes play the political system to protect their share of the gaming markets. Lost is any perspective on the hundreds of poorer tribes just trying to establish some economic foothold and homeland for themselves."

At the center of the debate is the Indian Reorganization Act, Rogers writes. Billed as a "New Deal" by President Franklin Roosevelt, IRA sought to promote "self-governance and tribal sovereignty. Stop-loss provisions were put in place to protect the remaining lands. Most important to the current debate in Congress, the Interior Department was charged with supervising a new lands-to-trust process by which tribes could bring lands under their control. In the decades since, about 8 million acres have been added to Indian land holdings." But in 2009 a Supreme Court "ruling said IRA only narrowly applied to those tribes that can prove they were both recognized and 'under federal jurisdiction' in 1934." (Atlantic Wire map; for a larger version, click on the image)

"The central question most often is where to draw the line between state and tribal authority, two competing sovereigns," Rogers writes. "It’s here where Native American professionals and legal experts say there has been a decided shift beginning with Chief Justice William Rehnquist and now his former clerk, Chief Justice John Roberts. In fact, the 2015 edition of the casebook, American Indian Law: Cases and Commentary, found that the Roberts court had decided 11 Indian law cases thus far and ruled against tribal interests in all but two of them, an 82 percent loss record."

The Obama administration "has sped up approvals for restoring lands to Indian sovereignty; more than 305,000 acres have been approved since 2009," Rogers writes. "And alarm bells are going off now in Congress over new proposed rules drafted by Interior to update the process by which tribes can seek recognition from Washington."

The main problem is that a few powerful tribes control all the money, Rogers writes. For example, in Oklahoma, the Chickasaw, Cherokee and Choctaw "account for almost two-thirds of the market shared with 27 other" tribes. Richard Grellner, an attorney with a long history of representing the Plains Indian tribes, told Rogers, “They essentially created a land rush for the preferred tribes who were given special locations to start to grab the market way ahead of everybody else and before the rules were equally applied. Everything since then has been to move the goal posts to protect what was previously done.”  (Read more)

Native American casino wars heating up in a new 'mini-Las Vegas' in Western North Carolina

Native American land in Western North Carolina has turned into a mini-Las Vegas, drawing 3 million visitors in 2013 to Harrah's Cherokee Casino, which raked in $513 million, reports John Frank of the Raleigh News & Observer and Rock Rothacker of the Charlotte Observer. And while the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians is expanding the operation, with plans for a second casino in 2015 that is expected to bring a net revenue increase of $50 million, they are facing possible competition from another tribe, the Catawba Indian Nation, which has plans to open a $339 million casino two and a half hours away, near Charlotte and Interstate 85. (News & Observer photo by Chuck Liddy: Cherokee Casino)

At stake are yearly profits that have helped improve the quality of life for the 15,000 Cherokee, 8,000 of whom live on the reservation, Frank and Rothacker write. About 3,000 employees work at Harrah's Cherokee and half of all casino profits go to tribal members. In 2012 that amounted to $7,700 per person. "For tribal members younger than age 18, the money is collected and held in trust until they earn a high school diploma or receive an equivalency degree and take a financial management course. Otherwise, the money is not distributed until age 21."

The other half of profits goes to fund "local government operations and services to address persistent problems on the reservation, such as financial illiteracy and diabetes," Frank and Rothacker write. It also includes the new $75 million hospital; a $5 million downtown revitalization initiative, a $13 million affordable housing project and a $20 million justice center. Three years ago, the tribe added a $130 million school for grades kindergarten through 12th grade, with a 3,000-seat arena and a football stadium. In July, the tribe opened a $4.1 million youth center.

That's big business, considering that nationwide revenues for tribal casinos went up just $100 million in 2013, or less than 0.5 percent, to $28 billion Frank and Rothacker write. The difference in North Carolina is location; ambling is illegal in adjoining Tennessee and Georgia, and the casinos are an easy drive from cities like Atlanta, home to many of the big-dollar players.

In response to the Catawbas’ application, the Eastern Band—which has donated more than $1.3 million to candidates, and hosted the state Republican Party convention this year—"filed a formal letter in March to protest the Catawbas’ application, or the first time detailing its opposition to the project on legal grounds and suggesting the proposal is not allowed under state and federal law," Frank and Rothacker write. "In Cherokee, the expansion was made possible by state lawmakers, who allowed the games as part of a new 30-year compact with the tribe."

That has helped stall the Catawbas’ proposed Kings Mountain casino, Frank and Rothacker write. The casino "has drawn strong support from local officials in Cleveland County, who see it as a source of potential jobs in an economically depressed area. But the project has faced a backlash from a bipartisan group of elected officials in the legislature. (Republican Gov. Pat) McCrory’s office said in September that the governor 'remains unconvinced that any new casino proposal is in the best interest of North Carolina'.” (Read more)

Read more here: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2014/08/23/5124117/new-casino-games-fuel-growth-in.html#emlnl=Todays_Headlines#storylink=cpy

Weekly newspaper tells amazing tale of two hugely successful expatriates who died in the same week

By Al Cross
Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues

Some of the best stories to be told in rural news media are those of successful expatriates, those who found success elsewhere but built it on the values, experiences and knowledge they gained growing up in small towns. All too often, their inspiring stories are condensed or even ignored in standard obituaries. But when two remarkable expats from a poor Appalachian foothills county of 10,000 people die in the same week, that's a news peg not to be missed, even if it takes a "citizen journalist" to do it.

William Russell Miller

This week's Clinton County News, in my hometown of Albany, Ky., has a 1,500-word tribute written by my brother, attorney David Cross, to William Russell Miller, who was the first African American vice president of a major rubber company, and John G. Woodrum, who became one of the best-known casino and hotel operators in Las Vegas and first ran electricity to the iconic "Welcome to Las Vegas" sign, across from his business at the end of the Strip.

John G. Woodrum (Las Vegas Sun photo)

They didn't forget their hometown. Woodrum sponsored three reunions of his high-school class; Miller tried to start a small Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. plant in Albany, and after his retirement from the company, established a small factory in the town. "That didn’t work out either, but he tried," my brother writes. "The man who wasn’t allowed to go to high school here [because of segregation] still tried to help his home town, and its people."

He concludes, "Both J.G. Woodrum and Russell Miller used their rural raising in Kentucky as an advantage, not as an escape. They learned how to deal with people, and to appreciate people, big and small, but with a love for the little people. . . . Their success stories, as well as the stories of those who have chosen to return home, should help motivate our young people to see what they too can achieve when they put their mind to it.

"J.G. Woodrum and Russell Miller both came from similar origins: large, poor families that lived at the end of their roads in rural Clinton County. Ironically, both of those roads now bear their family names of Miller Road and Woodrum Road, but those roads were not dead-ends for them. It was the beginning of their separate journeys. They both used it to help them achieve success, and to help others along the way. These are two stories of The American Dream, fulfilled and achieved, by two country boys from Clinton County who never forgot where they came from." (Read more)

Tribe divided over tapping their lands' resources

There is great beauty on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation in Montana, writes Jack Healy of The New York Times. "But there is also oil, locked away in the tight shale thousands of feet underground," and tribal leaders of the Blackfeet Nation "have decided to tap their land’s buried wealth. The move has divided the tribe while igniting a debate over the promise and perils of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, in a place where grizzlies roam into backyards and many residents see the land as something living and sacred. All through the billiard-green mesas leading up to the Rocky Mountains are signs of the boom."(NYT photo by Rich Addicks)

"Oil exploration here began in the 1920s, largely on the plains along the eastern edge of the reservation, but it died off in the early 1980s. Over the last four years, though, new fracking technologies and rising oil prices have lured the drillers back, and farther and farther west, to the mountains that border Glacier National Park," Healy reports. "It is an increasingly common sight for tribes across the West and Plains: Tourist spending has gone slack since the recession hit. American Indian casino revenues are stagnating just as tribal gambling faces new competition from online gambling and waves of new casinos. Oil and fracking are new lifelines. One drilling rig on the Blackfeet reservation generated 49 jobs for tribal members — a substantial feat in a place where unemployment is as high as 70 percent. But as others watched the rigs rise, they wondered whether the tribe was making an irrevocable mistake."

 “These are our mountains,” Cheryl Little Dog, a new member of the Blackfeet Tribal Business Council, the reservation’s governing body, told Healy. Pauline Matt told him, “Ity threatens everything we are as Blackfeet.” But tribal leaders think "Oil wealth could be more lucrative and reliable than any casino," Healy reports. But to find the opposing view, Healy drove just five miles toward the mountains. The divisions are more than disputes over the economy and environment — they represent two visions of the land where Blackfeet members have lived for centuries. It is a division without compromise. (Read more)

Once destitute Calif. tribes fight to keep others from benefiting from off-reservation casinos

Thomas  Lozano at the planned
Enterprise Rancheria Casino site
(NYT photo by Max Whittaker)

To pull itself out of poverty, the Maidu Indian Tribe of California in 2002 applied to build an off-reservation casino about 35 miles south of the few acres of reservation land where a handful of the tribe's people live in broken-down trailers. The federal government has approved the plan, but the final decision rests with California Gov. Jerry Brown, who is expected to decide on the fate of the planned Enterprise Rancheria casino and another tribe’s off-reservation proposal by an Aug. 31 deadline. But, reports Norimitsu Onishia of The New York Times, "Plans for the two casinos are drawing fierce opposition and last-minute lobbying in the state capital from an unexpected source: nearby tribes with casinos that they say will be hurt by the newcomers. Leading the fight against Enterprise is the United Auburn Indian Community, whose casino, Thunder Valley, has become one of America’s most profitable and has brought the formerly destitute tribe unimaginable riches."

How unimaginable? Onishia reports that "with 80 percent of its revenues coming directly from gambling, Thunder Valley is so profitable that it has transformed the lives of its owners, the 400-member United Auburn tribe, most of whom received welfare benefits until the casino opened in 2003. The tribal council has provided housing for members, built group homes for troubled children and connected residential areas to water and sewer systems. All members receive free health care and dental benefits. Children making the honor roll receive hundreds of dollars in incentives. The tribe’s 200 adult members each get a share of the casino’s revenues, which local news media have reported as $30,000 per month, and which industry experts have estimate is more. Douglas G. Elmets, a spokesman for the tribe and a former White House spokesman during the Reagan administration, said only that members did not need to work for financial reasons, but that many did in tribal affairs."

Since Indian gambling was legalized in the United States in 1988, only five tribes have gotten final clearance to build casinos off their reservations.  The issue in California now has raised larger issues in Indian communities across the nation about the goals of gambling. A decade ago, tribes were united in their efforts to further Indian gambling, which was supposed to give them the means to become self-sufficient, said Steven Light, co-director of the University of North Dakota’s Institute for the Study of Tribal Gaming Law and Policy. But he said that talk of “fairness and justice” has given way in an increasingly competitive market. (Read more)

N.C. lets Cherokees expand casino, build two more

Sequoyah Fund map shows Cherokee land (Qualla
Boundary) in red next to Great Smoky Mountains
National Park. Heavy black line is Interstate 26.

North Carolina is allowing the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians to have live card games in the tribe's casino in the Great Smoky Mountains, and giving it the right to open two casinos on tribal lands near the state's southern border west of Interstate 26. The legislature gave final approval to the 30-year deal today, and Gov. Bev Perdue signed it into law minutes later, reports John Frank of The Charlotte Observer.

"The gambling compact now goes to the U.S. Department of the Interior for review but Chief Michell Hicks expects quick approval," Frank writes. "Hicks said the tribe hopes to offer live-dealer games, such as blackjack, roulette and poker by July 4th, a big tourism weekend in the mountains." (Read more)

Read more here: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2012/06/06/3296410/perdue-signs-cherokee-gaming-bill.html#storylink=cpy

Despite new rules, lots of race horses keep dying

Twenty-four horses a week die at racetracks across the country, and many are inexpensive horses racing with little regulatory protection, a New York Times investigation discovered. Horses are euthanized and shipped to rendering plants or landfills, rather than kept for examination about why they broke down. (NYT photo by Jakob Schiller: Horse dumped in junkyard after a race injury and euthanasia)

After Kentucky Derby horse Eight Belles was euthanized on national television in 2008, Congress banned anabolic steroids in horses, but through analysis of more than 150,000 races, injury reports, drug-test results and interviews, the Times found that the industry is "still mired in a culture of drugs and lax regulation and a fatal breakdown rate that remains far worse than in most of the world." About 3,600 horses died racing or training at state-regulated tracks over the last three years. A Times interactive map highlights death rates in each state.

Trainers have more incentive to race unfit horses because of increased casino gambling, which raises purse sizes. Since 2009, trainers have been caught illegally drugging horses 3,800 times, the Times reports. During the same period, 6,600 horses broke down or were injured. The highest number of incidents in a single day happened on the day of the Kentucky Derby last year. Two horses fractured legs, and seven jockeys at other tracks were thrown after their horses broke down.

The Times found that horses in smaller, less publicized races have a 22 percent higher chance of injury or breaking down than those in higher-profile races. Race officials often hide breakdowns and refuse to disclose track accident rates. Five of the highest incident rates last year were in New Mexico, with the highest rate at Ruidoso Downs. In one race at Charles Town in West Virginia, seven of eight horses that started fell. Most incidents are linked to drug abuse in horses, with the most dangerous drugging coming from pain killers that mask pain and make it hard for experts to spot injury, the Times reports. (Read more)

Greyhound track owners, reliant on casino games, want relief from state rules on number of races

Greyhound racing parks are losing millions because casino gambling in track basements, which owners lobbied for and won years ago, is drawing more people than the races they were founded on. Despite the lost revenue, tracks are required to maintain a certain level of greyhound racing, such as six days a week in Iowa, reports A.G. Sulzberger of The New York Times. (NYT photo by Steve Hebert)

More than half the greyhound tracks in the U.S. have closed over the last decade, but a few survived by adding slot machines and poker tables under the condition that some of the profits go to the races, subsidizing one form of gambling for another, Sulzberger writes. According to Grey2K USA, a nonprofit focused on ending greyhound racing, there are 22 tracks in seven states, with some in rural areas or supported by rural people.

Greyhound track owners in Iowa, Arizona and Florida have been lobbying for changes in the law that would allow them to cut the number of races or shut down tracks while keeping the gambling operations open. Sulzberger reports a legislative win in any state is unlikely in the short term, but the effort "has intensified concern that the end may be near for a century-old pastime." The move is being seen as a betrayal by "those who earn their paychecks -- or lose them -- at the greyhound tracks."

Many say the sport can't survive financially without expanded gambling, but argue track's shouldn't be allowed to abandon racing for greater profits after using it to justify expanded gambling. Animal-rights advocates say the newfound alliance with track owners, whom they've fought for decades about the mistreatment of greyhounds, has broadened their case from a moral argument to a business-focused one against government mandates. (Read more)

As Derby looms, Thoroughbred industry suffers

As the Thoroughbred industry approaches its crowning event, Saturday's Kentucky Derby, it has a grim outlook. Over the past two years The Jockey Club reports the number of mares bred nationally is down 20 percent and the number of stallions standing stud has dropped 25 percent, racing writer Joe Drape of The New York Times reports. (NYT graphic) The industry's troubles are particularly evident in Kentucky, where 265 farms of over 20 acres in the leading Thoroughbred counties of Bourbon, Fayette, Woodford and Scott are for sale, up from 199 last year.

"Kentucky is also the heart and soul of the nation’s thoroughbred industry, and when it hurts, so do farms across the country," Drape writes. The upcoming Triple Crown events won't be spared from the trouble. Early favorite Eskendereya, who was pulled from the Derby this week because of a swollen leg, is owned by a bankrupt stable. The owners of Pimlico Race Course, host of the Preakness Stakes, are going through bankruptcy, and the New York Racing Association is looking for a loan from the state government after saying it would run out of money around June, the same month as the crown's final leg, the Belmont Stakes.

The problems in the thoroughbred industry aren't that different than those that brought about the housing crisis, Drape writes: "no-money-down lending and a breeding market based on the assumption of ever-rising prices." Arnold Kirkpatrick, a horseman and president of the Lexington real estate firm Kirkpatrick & Co., explained, "We ignored the notion of supply and demand. We bred too many horses, overborrowed to do it, and are now caught trying to sell them to people who don’t want them." (Read more)

Illinois casino seeks 2nd tourism grant from city

A small Illinois town with a big name is again planning to use part of its tourism budget to bring big-name musical acts to the local casino. Metropolis, Ill., population under 7,000, will spend less money on the effort this year after hosting six concerts in 2009. The city council is expected to vote on a proposal from Harrah’s Metropolis Casino and Hotel  requesting $30,000 from the city's hotel-motel room tax fund to subsidize three outdoor summer concerts, Steve Vantreese of The Paducah Sun reports. Metropolis, across the Ohio River from the Kentucky city of 30,000, approved a $150,000 request from Harrah's in 2009 for six concerts. Lynyrd Skynyrd and Gary Allan have been booked already.

"$150,000 was a lot of money, although it served its purpose by bringing people to Metropolis," Alderman Charles Barfield, city representative on the Massac County Tourism Commission, told Vantreese. Harrah’s said it cut its grant request because funds were less plentiful this year. City tourism director Angie Shelton told Vantreese the fund is in better shape now after being depleted by the 2009 grant. Metropolis promotes itself as "hometown of Superman," with this statue, and the local paper (owned by the Paxton family that owns The Paducah Sun) is The Metropolis Planet. (Read more, subscription required)

Alabama electronic bingo facilities spark debate about what kind of jobs rural areas need

An attempt by Alabama Gov. Bob Riley to rid the state of electronic bingo has put rural county officials on the defensive for one of the few industries they say has created jobs in their jurisdictions. "This fight might have its roots in the legality of electronic bingo, but the tussle also has taken on an economic development angle in areas that see gaming establishments ... in the same light as the state's Mercedes-Benz and Honda factories," Michael Tomberlin of The Birmingham News reports.

"It comes down to the fact that desperate people do desperate things," Larry Lee, a former economic developer in Covington County and other parts of the state, told Tomberlin. "Whatever it is we have called 'rural development' for years in Alabama has failed miserably. We've just not taken a meaningful approach to it, and those chickens are coming home to roost." Neal Wade, the executive director of the Alabama Development Office, disagrees telling Tomberlin the "state's economic development efforts must be attached to safer bets."

Proponents of the facilities say they account for nearly 5,000 jobs, while the Alabama Department of Industrial Relations reports the figure is fewer than 2,200. Local officials tell Tomberlin "by either measure, those are jobs those counties can't afford to lose." But one of the governor's spokespersons told Tomberlin the casinos have been no economic cure for those counties. Federal data shows the unemployment rate in December was 15.6 percent in Lowndes County, 15 percent in Greene County and 12 percent in Macon County. Houston County's 9 percent rate made it the only county with a large bingo facility and an unemployment rate less than the state's 11 percent average. (Read more)

First tribal solar plant to be built in New Mexico

The 3,000-member Jemez Pueblo tribe in northern New Mexico is on the verge of building the nation's first utility-scale solar energy plant on tribal land. The project, which could bring millions of dollars to the tribe, is moving ahead with the site selected and the contract to sell outsiders the four megawatts of electricity at hand, Susan Montoya Bryan of The Associated Press reports.

"Experts say tapping into the sun, wind and geothermal energy on Indian land could generate the kind of wealth many tribes have seen from slot machines and blackjack tables," Bryan writes. "We don't have any revenue coming in except for a little convenience store," James Roger Madalena, a former tribal governor who now represents the pueblo in the state Legislature, told Bryan. "It's very critical that we become innovative, creative, that we come up with something that will last generations without having a devastating impact on the environment."

Renewable energy presents a new revenue option for Indian tribes, which control more than 55 million acres, Bryan reports. The U.S. Department of Energy's Tribal Energy Program estimates those lands are capable of producing 535 billion kilowatt hours of electricity per year from wind power and 17 trillion kilowatt hours per year of electricity from solar power. The Pueblo plant will feature 14,850 solar panels than can supply enough electricity for about 600 homes. "Not every tribe is a gaming tribe, but every tribe is an energy tribe," Roger Fragua, a consultant working with the Council of Energy Resource Tribes, told Bryan. (Read more)

Bill would recognize seven Indian tribes in Virginia and North Carolina, but they couldn't build casinos

A bill passed by the U.S. House this week would recognize seven Indian tribes in North Carolina and Virginia, but would not permit them to build casinos. If passed, the tribes would be eligible for up to $800 million in federal funds for housing, education and health benefits, Mary Clare Jalonick reports for The Associated Press.

The six Virginia tribes, which have been seeking recognition since the 1990s, have around 3,000 members. They are the Eastern Chickahominy, Chickahominy, Upper Mattaponi, Rappahannock, Monacan and Nansemond. The Lumbee tribe in North Carolina claims 55,000 members. Its effort for federal recognition, which began in 1899, has recieved support from President Barack Obama and several members of Congress. But some other tribes say the Lumbee haven't proven their historical status. (Read more)

Thoroughbred interests blame Va.'s anti-gaming attitude for decline of their industry in the state

Virginia once had a thriving thoroughbred industry, but since 1996, no Virginia-bred horse has raced in the Kentucky Derby. “Breeder funds” of neighboring states that are dispensed from gambling revenues are a key reason for the decline, Tara Bahrampour reports for the Washington Post. (Post photo of thoroughbreds at Spring Hill Farm in Virginia by Andrea Bruce)

In several states, percentages of intake from gaming helps sustain breeder funds. Virginia breeders say their fund is meager because of an aversion to gambling among many Virginia legislators. Many horse trainers have moved their stables to take advantage of higher payouts from breeder funds in Maryland, West Virginia, Pennsylvania and Florida. Access to betting is also a problem. Bahrampour writes that Virginia has nine betting venues, but the closest for Northern Virginia residents are in Richmond, “prompting many fans to travel to off-track venues in Maryland or West Virginia.”

The economic result of the situation is dire, compounded by encroaching development that has also threatened the horse culture. Glenn Petty, executive director of the Virginia Thoroughbred Association, told Bahrampour that he estimated Virginia loses $100 million a year in gambling revenue. "It's a $500 million industry [in Virginia], and yet the gaming that fuels a lot of it is seen as problematic. You see West Virginia and Maryland, if you'll pardon the expression, racing past us.” (Read more)

Kentucky governor gives up on casino proposal

Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear, a Democrat who ran last year on a platform of casinos at racetracks, including those in rural areas, said today that he has abandoned the idea at least until 2010, the next opportunity to put constitutional amendments on the state ballot. The idea was hampered by early disagreements over details, never got the 60 votes needed to pass the 100-member state House, and had poor prospects in the Senate.

"Beshear said he hasn’t thought about another, likely controversial option to expand gambling by executive order to allow slots at racetracks," The Courier-Journal reports. "That option hasn’t been seriously discussed in recent years but was mentioned previously as a possible way to expand gambling through the Kentucky Lottery."

Tracks want casinos to compete with those in adjoining states, and the state's budget crisis prompted various interest groups to support the idea, but their involvement also came too late to have much effect. (Read more)

Cockfighting probe accuses 63 people of taking part in contests in rural Oregon and Washington

A sting operation that involved 500 law enforcement officers has led to 63 people being accused of taking part in a dozen cockfight derbies in rural parts of Oregon and Washington over the past two years, reports Bryan Denson of The Oregonian.

"A mammoth task force of federal, state, county and city police agencies -- more than 500 law enforcement officers and support staffs -- took part in some aspect of the two-year investigation and weekend raids in both states," Denson writes. "The investigation was dubbed 'Operation Red Rooster' in Oregon and 'Operation Tattered Wing' in Washington."

Five of the mean accused of being part of the cockfighting contests also are accused of being involved in drug trafficking. During a raid last weekend in southern Oregon, police "seized more than 700 roosters in Klamath County, at least $100,000 in cash, 50 guns, 2.5 pounds of meth, 1.5 pounds of cocaine, 6 pounds of marijuana and 48 marijuana plants, authorities said," Denson writes. (Read more)

Ky. governor proposes 12 casinos, some rural

Kentucky would have up to 12 casinos, some in rural areas, under legislation proposed today by Gov. Steve Beshear. The plan is being pushed by the state's influential horse interests, mainly racetracks being hurt by competition from casinos in adjoining states, most recently West Virginia.

Fleshing out his major platform plank of last year's campaign, Beshear proposed a constitutional amendment to allow seven track-operated casinos in counties with tracks and five elsewhere, and enabling legislation specifying the eligible counties.

Two tracks are, by definition, in rural areas -- Franklin and Prestonsburg. Another, at Paducah, population 30,000, is also outside a metropolitan area. Tracks "could build off-site in their county ... subject to the approval of a local legislative body," writes Greg Hall of The Courier-Journal (which produced the map). One non-track casino would be allowed in either Laurel or Whitley counties, on Interstate 75 in southeastern Kentucky, a rural area. All other sites would be in metropolitan areas, though in some cases they might involve counties with many rural residents -- such as Christian in southwestern Kentucky and Greenup at the state's northeast corner. The reaction from rural areas was not favorable, reports The C-J's Joseph Gerth.

A countywide referendum would be needed to approve a non-racetrack casino, which could prevent approval of one in socially conservative southeastern Kentucky. Passage of constitutional amendments in Kentucky requires a three-fifths vote of both the House and Senate, and majority approval of voters in a statewide referendum. Prospects for the Democratic governor's proposal are dicey, to say the least (pun intended). Leaders of the Republican-controlled Senate oppose it, despite a state budget crisis that has left the state with less money to spend in each of the next two fiscal years than the legislature appropriated for the current year. Whitley is the largest and easternmost county in the district of Senate President David Williams of Burkesville, who predicted that the plan would not even pass the Democratic-controlled House.

Hall writes, "Tax proceeds from the new gambling would be divided with 50 percent for education; 20 percent to health care; up to $2 million for treatment of compulsive gambling; 3 percent to host jurisdictions and 5 percent each to support city and county programs, with 17 percent divided among other programs ranging from substance abuse to wildlife."(Read more)