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Wednesday, July 19, 2017

Beacon Hill Genuflects to More Drunks on the road


Beacon Hill Prostitution disregards PUBLIC SAFETY!

No debate, no fanfare, no discussion! Just slip it in?

What happened to  Senator Stanley Rosenberg opposition?

Review the costs of:  HAPPY HOUR

FROM MASSterlist:

Casinos’ last-call perk has its share of critics
Public safety officials and casino opponents are among those sounding warnings after the state budget process resulted in the state’s future casinos being able to request the right to serve alcohol until 4 a.m., then start serving again at 8 a.m. Local bars and restaurants say the carve-out puts them at a competitive disadvantage. Dan Atkinson and Jordan Graham of the Herald have more.  
Boston Herald

Interesting budget tidbits: 4 a.m. liquor hours for casinos and T pension transfer
Gov. Baker yesterday signed, amended or rejected a number of policy riders within the state budget, two of which caught our attention, via the Globe: “Baker approved language, sought by the casino industry, to extend alcohol service at the gambling palaces until 4 a.m., two hours past what is permitted at the latest-serving restaurants and bars. Baker’s budget message also includes authorization for the state to transfer control of the MBTA employees pension fund into the state’s general pension program, a measure lawmakers have rejected previously.”


MASSACHUSETTS DRUNKS ON THE ROAD? Conn. ended push for 24-hour bars at casinos after crash


EXPANDED FREE ALCOHOL IS NOT  ''another little change'! 
Massachusetts has only Plainridge Slot Barn open at this time and already CHANGES?



How many DRUNKS do you want on the road? 
Masachusetts is unable to reduce ALCOHOL RELATED fatalities now. 




Reported by MASSterlist 04/14/2017:


Rosenberg ‘not a fan’ of extending casino last calls to 4 a.m.
The House budget unveiled earlier this week has an outside section that would allow casinos to sell liquor to gamblers an extra two hours till 4 a.m. But Shira Schoenberg at MassLive reports that Senate President Stan Rosenberg is “not a fan of the idea,” in his words. "We said we're not going to chip away at the statute because this is how it happens in state after state,"Rosenberg said. "First there's one little change, then another little change and before you know it the commonwealth loses control of the industry."
MassLive



Conn. ended push for 24-hour bars at casinos after crash

State had hoped to collect more slot machine profits

DRIVER CHARGED A sailor, Daniel E. Musser, 24, is charged with manslaughter and driving under the influence and faces up to 19 years in prison.DRIVER CHARGED
A sailor, Daniel E. Musser, 24, is charged with manslaughter and driving under the influence and faces up to 19 years in prison.
By Gregory B. Hladky
Globe Correspondent / March 22, 2009

HARTFORD - Officials looking to help solve Connecticut's multibillion-dollar deficit thought they had found an easy way to raise another $5 million a year: allow casinos to serve alcohol 24 hours a day.

A sailor, Daniel E. Musser, 24, is charged with manslaughter and driving under the influence and faces up to 19 years in prison.
DRIVER CHARGED
More hours of bar service would mean more gambling, they figured, which would mean the state could collect more slot machine profits.
But the proposal by Governor M. Jodi Rell's administration came to a sudden end at about 3:30 a.m. on March 7, when a car leaving the Mohegan Sun casino turned the wrong way down Interstate 395, headlights off, and slammed into a van full of college students on their way to Logan International Airport. They were scheduled for a flight to Uganda, where they had plans to help out at an orphan age over spring break.
Elizabeth Durante, a 20-year-old pre-med student at Connecticut College in New London, was killed.
The car's driver, Daniel E. Musser, 24, a sailor from the Naval Submarine Base in Groton, was charged with manslaughter and driving under the influence and faces up to 19 years in prison.
The next day, Rell called Durante's death "an unconscionable tragedy" and pulled back her budget proposal to make alcohol available 24 hours at the casinos.
"Even though this accident occurred under the laws as they have been for many years, the governor said it does give one pause to question the wisdom of extending liquor service hours at the casinos," Christopher Cooper, Rell spokesman, said recently. "We don't believe the bill is going to move forward this session."
Chuck Bunnell, chief of staff for the Mohegan Tribal Council, agreed.
"The Tribal Council in general has taken the position that it's time to pause and mourn the loss of this very bright light of humanity," Bunnell said, "that it's not appropriate to have those discussions right now."
Bunnell said the tribe was originally "approached on a bipartisan basis" by lawmakers looking for ways to increase state revenue.
Lori A. Potter, a spokeswoman for the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation, said analysts at the tribe's Foxwoods Resort Casino stand by their prediction that extending casino bar hours would result in an increase in state revenue.
"It is important to note that it would be impossible to find a more heavily regulated serving establishment in the state of Connecticut than the two casinos," Potter said.
Connecticut law requires the casinos' bars to stop serving by 1 a.m. Sunday through Thursday and by 2 a.m. Fridays and Saturdays. One of the arguments originally used in favor of allowing longer serving hours was that their competitors in Atlantic City serve alcohol 24 hours a day.
Legal hours for bars to serve alcohol vary greatly across the United States, according to Steven Schmidt, vice president for public policy at the National Alcohol Beverage Control Association.
In Massachusetts, for example, state law allows service until 11 p.m., but local governing bodies can extend the hours to 2 a.m. In states such as New Jersey and Nevada, Schmidt said, local authorities are allowed to set bar closing hours.
Charles H. Gartman, one of the students with Durante in the van that night, has difficulty understanding why anyone thought round-the-clock liquor at the casinos was a good idea.
"Twenty-four-hour bar service is a little bit ridiculous," Gartman said last week in a phone interview from his New York City home. "You can't trust everyone to drink and drive safely."
Gartman, 19 and a sophomore at Connecticut College, has not yet recovered from injuries he suffered in the crash.
The five other passengers also suffered injuries, some minor.
"Both my legs were pretty banged up, and at first I couldn't walk," he said. "I have pretty severe lacerations on my chin."
Nor has he recovered from the loss of Durante, of West Islip, N.Y. Gartman said it was Durante who got him interested in going to Uganda to aid orphaned children. "It was her enthusiasm for helping people," he recalled.
Stephanie Hinman, who was Durante's roommate and one of the students on the Uganda trip, finds it ironic that her friend would die at the hands of an accused drunk driver.
"Neither Liz nor I ever drank," Hinman said from her home in Norfolk, Conn.
"We lived together in the substance-free dorm."
In a 2007 interview with a college publication, Durante said she wanted to become a surgeon and work in Africa with Doctors Without Borders.
For Janice Heggie Margolis, executive director of the Connecticut chapter of Mothers Against Drunk Driving, Durante's death provided tragic evidence of why casino liquor hours should never be expanded.
She said the potential price to society of more fatal crashes is simply too high, no matter how much money might flow to the state. "This is exactly the reason why," Heggie Margolis said.
"You can never put on paper the cost of a life."


http://archive.boston.com/news/local/connecticut/articles/2009/03/22/conn_ended_push_for_24_hour_bars_at_casinos_after_crash/

Thursday, July 6, 2017

Casino tax winds up with state’s well-heeled horse owners





The only source for this fund at this time is the Plainridge Slot Barn.

Casino tax winds up with state’s well-heeled horse owners

Jack EncarnacaoMatt Stout Thursday, July 06, 2017



Credit: John Wilcox

COMPETING INTERESTS: Horses leave the gate at Suffolk Downs, above, which has received millions in casino taxes that critics would like to spend elsewhere.

Taxpayers have been fattening the winning purses of wealthy horse owners at Suffolk Downs the past two years thanks to the Bay State’s horse racing fund, which is fueling their six-figure payouts at a time critics are howling for the money to go to better priorities for the budget-strapped state government.

The cumulative winnings, detailed in a Herald analysis of payouts from the East Boston track, have been financed entirely by the $35 million in tax dollars the Race Horse Development Fund has taken in since 2015, when the state’s first slots parlor opened.

The fund was meant to bolster the purses — the winnings paid out to horse owners — that struggling Massachusetts tracks can offer to attract top thoroughbreds. The fund is made up mostly of taxes on casino revenues, and is parceled out to tracks by the Massachusetts Gaming Commission.

The fund has become a popular target for lawmakers facing a potential $1 billion budget shortfall, including a Senate proposal to tap it for $13 million for “pressing environmental, conservation and recreation needs.”

The well-heeled owners of winning horses at Suffolk Downs since 2015 include:

• Patricia Moseley ($176,350 in winnings), the widow of former Suffolk Downs owner James
B. Moseley and daughter of Crocker Snow, who founded one of Boston’s first commercial airlines. She lives on the family estate in Hamilton;

• Teresa Horky ($160,900), the CEO of Pegasus Solutions, a successful tax preparation, health care consulting and financial consulting firm she founded; and

• Joseph DiRico ($157,950), a VP at his family’s third-generation company, Hub Folding Box in Mansfield. His late father, Alfred, also took home $45,000 in purse winnings from Suffolk Downs in 2015.

Greg Sullivan, a former state inspector general now with the Pioneer Institute, said it “makes no sense” for casino taxes to end up in wealthy horse owners’ pockets, especially after Suffolk Downs lost a bid to build its own casino and in May, cashed in on the $155 million sale of the property.

“Now here we are, Suffolk Downs is being sold, and they’re sitting on this pile of money, which is winding up in the pockets of millionaires at a time when Massachusetts is essentially broke,” Sullivan said.

“This should be terminated immediately, and those funds should be used for important purposes in Massachusetts.”

State Rep. Brad Jones, who has proposed diverting a portion of the fund to community preservation, said the payouts illustrate how the racing industry plays to wealthier residents.
“Generally speaking, it’s an older clientele and a more affluent clientele,” Jones, the House minority leader, said of horse racing. “That’s a very finite universe. And I think it does raise the question, is that the best place to put these resources from gaming?”

Where were you when GAMBLING LEGISLATION was proposed? Silent? 

The owners defended the six-figure hauls, arguing the data don’t show how much they are investing to support local horse farms and related trades with the winnings.

Paul Umbrello, executive director for the New England Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association, said it could often take $35,000 to $50,000 to breed and train just a single horse.

“They’re not going to put (purse winnings) in their pocket and buy a car — they’re going to turn it back into whatever it takes to raise these horses, which is considerable,” Moseley told the Herald. “I don’t know what form racing’s going to take, if any, but it won’t take any if they don’t have some of this support.”

Horky argued that in her 20-plus years in the industry, she’s lost money the vast majority of the time, adding that she’s “paid more to Massachusetts farms than I won.”

“You put it all back into that industry in hopes to keep it open and running, and having some space for children to see there’s something with four legs besides a dog,” she said.

Commission spokeswoman Elaine Driscoll said tracking who ends up winning money from the purse fund “suggests a misunderstanding of its purpose and operation.” She said it helps support an entire network of breeders, trainers, veterinarians and jockeys.

Since 2015, the fund has taken in $35.4 million and paid out $22.4 million, 80 percent of which is earmarked for purses. Prior to the that, when Suffolk Downs ran scores of races each year, purses were funded by whatever was left of the money wagered — dubbed the “handle” — after taxes were taken out and the track took its cut.

Suffolk Downs is hosting six days of racing this summer, with the first scheduled for Saturday and, again, the fund supporting all the purses.

http://www.bostonherald.com/news/local_coverage/2017/07/casino_tax_winds_up_with_state_s_well_heeled_horse_owners


Tuesday, July 4, 2017

Police chief: Tribal chairman asked to leave powwow after ‘altercation’


SEE:
REEL WAMPS




Police chief: Tribal chairman asked to leave powwow after ‘altercation’


By Haven Orecchio-Egresitz
By K.C. Myers
Posted Jul 3, 2017 


FALMOUTH — Mashpee Wampanoag Tribal Council Chairman Cedric Cromwell, a security guard and a third man were asked by tribal elders and the tribe’s police chief to leave the second night of the powwow Sunday after a “verbal altercation,” according to Falmouth Police Chief Edward Dunne.
But a spokesman for the tribe and Mashpee Wampanoag Police Chief Kevin Frye said Monday that Cromwell left the powwow on his own and was not asked to leave.
Falmouth officers responded at 5:15 p.m. to the Cape Cod Fairgrounds main gate after a man called police and said his life had been threatened, Dunne said.
The man said Cromwell and a security guard had been involved in the altercation, Dunne said.
“The Chairman left the powwow on his own accord to diffuse the situation and keep the focus of the celebration on honoring the Tribe’s rich history and culture,” said George K. Regan, spokesperson for the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe. “The 96th annual powwow has been a great success for the Tribe and the community.”
Frye declined to comment on the details of the altercation.
“It wasn’t my case,” he said.

Interior Department wants one more go at Mashpee Wampanoag land ruling






The day after this article below was published, the site was hacked. 
When the site reappeared, the article was missing. 
Not only was the article retained in its entirety, copies were distributed. 

No one ever asked for details. 

Genting Connected to Islamic Extremists?



CHECK OUT: 

REEL WAMPS

It is doubtful the TRIBE will live long enough to benefit. 
No one is asking. 


FROM MASSTERLIST:

Fed letter rekindles tribe’s Taunton casino hopes
 
Just when it looked like the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe was down to its last few chips in its bid to win the right to open a casino in Taunton, a letter from the U.S. Department of the Interior has brought renewed hope for a jackpot. Charles Winokoor of the Taunton Gazette reports the feds still want a chance to review the tribe’s request to use an alternative avenue to have land in Taunton and Mashpee placed into reservation. 
Taunton Gazette



Interior Department wants one more go at Mashpee Wampanoag land ruling

By Charles Winokoor 
Taunton Gazette Staff Reporter
Posted Jul 2, 2017

TAUNTON — The key counsel for two dozen plaintiffs who have managed to block construction of a resort casino in East Taunton says an email sent Friday by the U.S. Department of Interior does little more than delay the inevitable.
“It’s their only chance, and it will be denied,” said Nixon Peabody attorney David Tenant, referring to the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe and its ongoing attempt to secure a favorable Interior Department ruling to retain 151 acres in Taunton and 170 acres in Mashpee as tribal, sovereign land.
Taunton Mayor Thomas Hoye Jr., a staunch supporter of the tribal casino — which potentially would create thousands of construction jobs and 2,600 permanent jobs — said the email from Interior Department associate deputy secretary James Cason is to some extent encouraging.
“It appears the DOI wants to see them (the tribe) succeed in their quest,” Hoye said. “They haven’t said no, which leads me to believe there is hope.”
Taunton stands to collect at least $8 million annually in lieu of property taxes once First Light Resort & Casino opens.
The email came three days after the tribe asked the Interior Department “to suspend its remand proceedings,” according to Cason.
Work on the Stevens Street casino project — which the tribe has described as a $1 billion investment by Malaysia-based Genting Group — ground to a halt in 2016, after a U.S. District judge in Boston sided with plaintiffs, when he ruled that the Interior Department’s 2015 decision placing the Taunton and Mashpee land “in trust” had been faulty.
Judge William G. Young did not order that the 321 acres be taken out of trust, but he remanded the case back to the Interior Department for final reconsideration.
Young, who said his decision was “not a close call,” concluded that to qualify for land in trust, the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe — which wasn’t recognized as an Indian tribe by the federal government until 2007 — would, by federal statute, need to have been under “federal jurisdiction” in 1934 when the Indian Reorganization Act was enacted.
A press release issued Friday night on behalf of tribal chairman Cedric Cromwell said he is “grateful” that the Interior Department “has provided a pathway forward in securing our reservation lands.”
Cromwell, in the Regan Communications statement, also notes that ”(b)ecause the DOI has not concluded its process, no decision is appropriate at this time, and none has been issued.”
That statement contradicts a communication from Cason, who, in a June 19 draft emailed to Cromwell, indicated he had reached a decision not favorable to the tribe.
Cason wrote that “evidence submitted by the Tribe on remand provides insufficient indicia (indications) of federal jurisdiction,” and “does not show that the Tribe was under federal jurisdiction in 1934.”
“I must also conclude that the Tribe cannot meet the Indian Reorganization Act’s first definition of ‘Indian,’ or its second definition as interpreted by the Massachusetts U.S. District Court in the Littlefield litigation,” referring to lead plaintiff Michelle Littlefield.
“I therefore cannot grant the Tribe’s land-into-trust application under either of those definitions,” Cason wrote.
His land-in-trust decision, Cason said, was to have been issued “at the tribe’s urging” on or before June 19.
But “because of continuing concerns” regarding his department’s “analysis,” Cason notified the parties that issuance of a final decision would be delayed until June 27, which fell one day after Cromwell asked the DOI to suspend its remand proceedings.
Cason’s email indicates he’s had second thoughts about the decision he was prepared to release first on June 19 and then on June 27.
In addition to denying a request by the tribe to suspend his review, Cason says he’s also withdrawn his prior decision for failing to devote “full consideration of complex issues” related to “the unique, historical relationship” between Massachusetts, the Mashpee Wampanoag and the federal government.
Cason is now asking both sides to submit supplemental material so he can render a decision in consideration of a 1975 First Circuit Court of Appeals ruling.
In that Passamaquoddy Tribe v. Morton case, Cason said, the court found that before admission in 1820 to the Union as a state, Maine comprised a district within Massachusetts — which by extension exercised authority over Indian affairs in what was to become the state of Maine.
“This fact raises a potentially important issue for the remand analysis that neither the Tribe nor the Littlefield plaintiffs explored,” Cason said.
Cason said he needs to consider whether the exercise of authority over the tribe by the commonwealth “could be considered a surrogate for federal jurisdiction” in context of the Indian Reorganization Act’s definition of “Indian.”
Both parties, he said, have until Aug. 31 to submit material in anticipation of a decision to be rendered no later than Oct. 30.
“The Mashpee and Taunton parcels remain in trust status, unless a court orders otherwise,” Cason said, while the Interior Department completes its review, to decide if the tribe was under federal jurisdiction in 1934 and is eligible for having land taken into trust.
Tennant called Cason’s request “a novel, unprecedented and absurd motion.”
“It’s a complete non-starter and a specious argument,” he said, adding that the parties cited the case for purposes other than arguing the case at hand.
Tenant says he expects any such decision will go against the tribe, which at that point he predicts will give up the fight.
And if the Interior Department rules that the Mashpee Wampanoag was under federal jurisdiction in 1934, Tenant says the plaintiffs will quickly appeal the decision.
“The courts will not hesitate to reverse such an absurd thing,” he said.
Tenant acknowledges that chairman Neil Bluhm of Rush Street Gaming, the Chicago company that tried unsuccessfully to establish a commercial casino in Brockton, has contributed to paying for the services of Tennant and a co-counsel from Nixon Peabody’s Boston office.
The state of Massachusetts allows for three casinos, including one in southeastern Region C.
Tenant said he’s not surprised Bluhm is siding with his clients and provides financial assistance.
He points out that if the Mashpee Wampanoag loses land-in-trust status it would still be listed as fee title holder of the Taunton land, for which it paid nearly $35 million.
Tenant says it’s even conceivable the tribe someday would entertain commercial-casino, land-use offers including from Rush Street.
“Who knows what could happen to Region C,” he said.