Familiar faces stay despite overhauls
Howard Stutz INSIDE GAMING
The near financial collapse of several Las Vegas-based gaming companies didn't shake the system.
Gaming revenues in the Las Vegas locals market have spiraled downward some 15 percent since 2008, pushed by the recession, record unemployment, a declining housing market and the diminished construction industry.
The lost business compounded the already shaky corporate financial structures that several casino operators brought upon themselves through leveraged buyouts, development projects or other ill-timed decisions.
Creditors and banks, however, didn't want to run the casinos.
For the most part, debt was restructured and financing was acquired. Management, however, remained in place.
That's why it's not shocking that George Maloof will continue to operate the Palms.
Maloof's ownership in the 1,300-room off-Strip hotel-casino will drop from 85 percent to 2 percent once gaming regulators approve a restructuring of $400 million in debt. The casino's creditors, investment firms TPG Capital and Leonard Green & Partners, will each own 49 percent of the property.
Without Maloof's marketing skills and vision, the Palms is just another attractive Las Vegas casino. The private equity firms are banking on Maloof keeping the Palms on track while the economy recovers.
The same scenario holds true for Station Casinos. The company emerged from bankruptcy last month largely intact.
Creditors had ample opportunity through bankruptcy to dump the founding Fertitta family and break up the 18-casino company. Boyd Gaming Corp. stood ready to acquire all or part of Station Casinos during the restructuring proceedings. Regional gaming operator Isle of Capri Casinos was prepared to manage several of the company's resorts on behalf of the lenders.
In the end, the banks and unsecured bondholders decided to stick with brothers Frank Fertitta III and Lorenzo Fertitta and their existing management.
The Fertittas put $200 million into the deal and own 45 percent of the new company, their largest stake ever. When Station Casinos was publicly traded, the Fertittas held 9.9 percent. Following a $5.4 billion deal to go private in November 2007, the Fertittas had 25 percent.
But the brothers are not in control. It's presumed Deustche Bank AG (25 percent), JP Morgan Chase & Co. (15 percent) and the former bondholders (15 percent) would vote as a bloc on any matter.
The lenders forgave $4 billion of the company's previous $6 billion in debt through restructuring. So it's likely they have the Fertittas on a leash. How long or short is anyone's guess.
The lenders are wagering that the Fertittas and their management team will do what they have done best -- operate the casinos. Before the economy fell apart, the Fertittas were known as decent managers.
That's what the debtholders want to see again, which is why Southern Nevadans have been inundated with the company's "We Love Locals" advertising campaign and a hefty promotional environment. Station Casinos is trying to win back the love of the consumer.
Same with M Resort.
Anthony Marnell III and his family spent close to $1 billion to build M Resort, opening the stylish property during the heart of the recession. The first few months -- helped by a heavy promotional effort -- provided a false sense of security.
Penn National Gaming bought M Resort's $860 million in debt for $230.5 million, a nearly 75 percent discount, less than two years after the resort opened.
At first, it seemed Marnell was out of the picture. Penn executives, however, liked the way he ran the property and gave him a reported five-year deal to serve as the casino's president. Marnell told Nevada gaming regulators he was negotiating with the company for an equity position in M Resort.
Herbst Gaming is the only troubled company that didn't follow the model.
The Herbst brothers, facing $1.15 billion in debt, proposed keeping 90 percent of their slot machine route business while giving creditors 100 percent of the company's casinos. The noteholders objected and the bankruptcy court approved a reorganization that gave senior lenders control of the entire company. The brothers were removed and Herbst Gaming is now Affinity Gaming.
Recently, family patriarch Jerry Herbst formed a slot machine route business -- JETT Gaming -- with the idea of reclaiming the slot machine operations at his company's Terrible Herbst convenience stores.
The more things change, the more they stay the same.
Monday, July 4, 2011
Gilley Sick; His Testimony Delayed in Gambling Corruption Trial
Gilley Sick; His Testimony Delayed in Gambling Corruption Trial
by News Team
MONTGOMERY, AL (WAKA) – Country Crossing casino owner Ronnie Gilley is ill, which has taken Alabama’s gambling corruption trial in a new direction.
Gilley was supposed to testify for the fifth day Wednesday, but prosecutor Louis Franklin announced Gilley was ill. Later he told the court that Gilley was dehydrated and under doctor’s orders to rest for 24 hours.
With Gilley sidelined, prosecutors called as their next witness Bryant Raby, who operates four political action committees.
Raby testified that Gilley contributed $200,000 to his PACs in six days before the state Senate passed pro-gambling legislation pushed by Gilley. Raby said he later met with David Mowery, a campaign consultant for indicted state Sen. Harri Anne Smith, and as a result of that meeting he wrote $200,000 in checks to other PACs.
by News Team
MONTGOMERY, AL (WAKA) – Country Crossing casino owner Ronnie Gilley is ill, which has taken Alabama’s gambling corruption trial in a new direction.
Gilley was supposed to testify for the fifth day Wednesday, but prosecutor Louis Franklin announced Gilley was ill. Later he told the court that Gilley was dehydrated and under doctor’s orders to rest for 24 hours.
With Gilley sidelined, prosecutors called as their next witness Bryant Raby, who operates four political action committees.
Raby testified that Gilley contributed $200,000 to his PACs in six days before the state Senate passed pro-gambling legislation pushed by Gilley. Raby said he later met with David Mowery, a campaign consultant for indicted state Sen. Harri Anne Smith, and as a result of that meeting he wrote $200,000 in checks to other PACs.
Family admits son's gambling is 'out of control'
Post office worker traced after placing €40,000 bet
Family admits son's gambling is 'out of control'
By Tom Brady Security Editor
THE family of a senior post office manager who went missing as a suspected €1.76m fraud was uncovered at his branch admitted yesterday that their son has a gambling addiction.
Tony O'Reilly (36) was tracked down in Belfast after he placed a winning €40,000 bet on an odds-on shot to win €27,000. He placed the bet with a bookie in the city on Saturday.
In a statement issued exclusively to the Irish Independent last night, Mr O'Reilly's family said his gambling in recent months had been secretive and uncharacteristic and had spiralled out of control.
He is now undergoing medical treatment in the south east.
Gardai told the PSNI to be on the lookout for Mr O'Reilly after he was reported missing by his family when he left his home in Carlow on Wednesday morning but failed to turn up for work at the post office in Gorey, Co Wexford.
His family were concerned he might have suffered a breakdown after an internal audit by An Post had discovered the alleged financial irregularities at the Gorey branch.
Mr O'Reilly was captured on CCTV cameras in Belfast and his missing Volkswagen car was located near the home of a friend in the city. PSNI officers spoke to Mr O'Reilly to confirm his identity and medical attention was then sought for him.
Extensive investigations by gardai and An Post officials are to be carried out before detectives seek to hold a detailed interview with Mr O'Reilly.
Other staff members in the post office are expected to be interviewed shortly as part of the investigation.
Local gardai have called in the assistance of detectives from the garda national bureau of fraud investigation to help them determine how the suspected financial discrepancies occurred and over how long a period the money had gone missing.
In their statement issued by Mr O'Reilly's father, Tony Snr, the family said they were relieved their son had been found.
"Tony's mental health and well-being have always been the most important thing to us.
"We are very grateful to all of the people who helped us to find Tony and to the gardai and the PSNI. We also thank his friends in Carlow who have sent messages of support to us.
"Many people in Ireland are reluctant to talk about mental health concerns but we believe Tony is suffering from a gambling addiction.
Illness
"We are seeking help for him to recover from this illness, which is plaguing families across the country," his family added.
"Tony is a family man, first and foremost, and his gambling in recent months was secretive, uncharacteristic and spiralled out of control.
"We firmly believe our son would not be in the predicament he is today were it not for the temptations of phone and online betting.
"This does not, in any way, excuse him from personal responsibility but it is only right to mention this matter as it is a serious issue, which should be highlighted to prevent other families experiencing this trauma and torment.
"We are very grateful to the people of Carlow town, who have rallied behind our family. We are finding it difficult to talk about private family matters but we decided to issue one detailed statement to the Irish Independent so that all sides of the story are heard."
Gardai are expected to seek to interview bookies, with whom Mr O'Reilly had placed substantial bets, to examine his gambling patterns.
Mr O'Reilly, the father of a 10-month-old girl, left his home at 6.30am on Wednesday. His wife, Lorraine, became concerned when she received a text message from his work mobile phone, indicating that he had been involved in a car crash near Tullow on his way to work.
It was later confirmed that he had travelled north.
Meanwhile, garda inquiries into the alleged irregularities were stepped up on Friday after An Post issued a second and more detailed complaint to local officers in Gorey.
- Tom Brady Security Editor
In the Dublin newspapers, the Irish Independent covers the story about a missing post office manager and a suspected 1.7m euro (£1.4m) fraud.
His family have been speaking to the newspaper and they say he has a gambling addiction.
He was tracked down in Belfast on Saturday when he placed a winning 40,000 euro bet on an odds-on shot to win 27,000 euros.
His family say his gambling has been secretive and had spiralled out of control. They say he is now undergoing medical treatment.
Family admits son's gambling is 'out of control'
By Tom Brady Security Editor
THE family of a senior post office manager who went missing as a suspected €1.76m fraud was uncovered at his branch admitted yesterday that their son has a gambling addiction.
Tony O'Reilly (36) was tracked down in Belfast after he placed a winning €40,000 bet on an odds-on shot to win €27,000. He placed the bet with a bookie in the city on Saturday.
In a statement issued exclusively to the Irish Independent last night, Mr O'Reilly's family said his gambling in recent months had been secretive and uncharacteristic and had spiralled out of control.
He is now undergoing medical treatment in the south east.
Gardai told the PSNI to be on the lookout for Mr O'Reilly after he was reported missing by his family when he left his home in Carlow on Wednesday morning but failed to turn up for work at the post office in Gorey, Co Wexford.
His family were concerned he might have suffered a breakdown after an internal audit by An Post had discovered the alleged financial irregularities at the Gorey branch.
Mr O'Reilly was captured on CCTV cameras in Belfast and his missing Volkswagen car was located near the home of a friend in the city. PSNI officers spoke to Mr O'Reilly to confirm his identity and medical attention was then sought for him.
Extensive investigations by gardai and An Post officials are to be carried out before detectives seek to hold a detailed interview with Mr O'Reilly.
Other staff members in the post office are expected to be interviewed shortly as part of the investigation.
Local gardai have called in the assistance of detectives from the garda national bureau of fraud investigation to help them determine how the suspected financial discrepancies occurred and over how long a period the money had gone missing.
In their statement issued by Mr O'Reilly's father, Tony Snr, the family said they were relieved their son had been found.
"Tony's mental health and well-being have always been the most important thing to us.
"We are very grateful to all of the people who helped us to find Tony and to the gardai and the PSNI. We also thank his friends in Carlow who have sent messages of support to us.
"Many people in Ireland are reluctant to talk about mental health concerns but we believe Tony is suffering from a gambling addiction.
Illness
"We are seeking help for him to recover from this illness, which is plaguing families across the country," his family added.
"Tony is a family man, first and foremost, and his gambling in recent months was secretive, uncharacteristic and spiralled out of control.
"We firmly believe our son would not be in the predicament he is today were it not for the temptations of phone and online betting.
"This does not, in any way, excuse him from personal responsibility but it is only right to mention this matter as it is a serious issue, which should be highlighted to prevent other families experiencing this trauma and torment.
"We are very grateful to the people of Carlow town, who have rallied behind our family. We are finding it difficult to talk about private family matters but we decided to issue one detailed statement to the Irish Independent so that all sides of the story are heard."
Gardai are expected to seek to interview bookies, with whom Mr O'Reilly had placed substantial bets, to examine his gambling patterns.
Mr O'Reilly, the father of a 10-month-old girl, left his home at 6.30am on Wednesday. His wife, Lorraine, became concerned when she received a text message from his work mobile phone, indicating that he had been involved in a car crash near Tullow on his way to work.
It was later confirmed that he had travelled north.
Meanwhile, garda inquiries into the alleged irregularities were stepped up on Friday after An Post issued a second and more detailed complaint to local officers in Gorey.
- Tom Brady Security Editor
In the Dublin newspapers, the Irish Independent covers the story about a missing post office manager and a suspected 1.7m euro (£1.4m) fraud.
His family have been speaking to the newspaper and they say he has a gambling addiction.
He was tracked down in Belfast on Saturday when he placed a winning 40,000 euro bet on an odds-on shot to win 27,000 euros.
His family say his gambling has been secretive and had spiralled out of control. They say he is now undergoing medical treatment.
Tragic death of gambling addict dad
Tragic death of gambling addict dad
A GAMBLING addict hanged himself after running up debts and losing his cafe, an inquest heard.
The body of Alan Lockhart, aged 40, was found at his rented home in Burns Road, Maltby, Rotherham.
He left a suicide note saying: “The biggest regret I have is starting to play fruit machines as a teenager which led to a gambling addiction which I was unable to control.”
Just four months previously, Mr Lockhart, who was separated from his wife and lived alone, lost a cafe he ran in Thorne after he could not pay the bills.
A Rotherham inquest heard he once bet £500 on a snooker game but lost the match and the money.
His daughter Hayley Leach said: “My father’s death came as a big surprise as I wasn’t aware of any medical problems.”
She saw him every few days and would frequently see him popping into a bookies on Maltby High Street.
Hayley said: “For many years he had a gambling addiction which got out of control.”
She had loaned him money over the last six months of his life which he said he needed to buy food. She said: “I’m not sure if he gambled this.”
Hayley said he would not speak about losing the cafe. “I think he was ashamed of letting it go down.”
She sobbed and said: “That’s why I can’t believe what happened. He was never ever down.”
Mr Lockhart’s close friend Cherie Rumbelow, who worked at the cafe, said he could not keep up with the bills or rent on the premises and had run up arrears.
He liked to bet on the horses and she too had loaned him cash. In the last few months before his death in June, 2010 he had become untidy and did not look after himself.
She said: “He became quiet and was not the Alan I had known for the last 23 years.”
Landlord Khaled Boussabat said Mr Lockhart had paid him 12 months rent but nothing after November, 2009.
Coroner Nicola Mundy recorded a verdict of suicide and said Mr Lockhart had seemed to “lose interest” in caring for himself.
He was a private man and ‘likely to be ashamed’ at losing the cafe. He also had a gambling addiction and drank heavily.
“He plainly had many difficulties and up to a month before his death was asking one of his daughters for money,”
A GAMBLING addict hanged himself after running up debts and losing his cafe, an inquest heard.
The body of Alan Lockhart, aged 40, was found at his rented home in Burns Road, Maltby, Rotherham.
He left a suicide note saying: “The biggest regret I have is starting to play fruit machines as a teenager which led to a gambling addiction which I was unable to control.”
Just four months previously, Mr Lockhart, who was separated from his wife and lived alone, lost a cafe he ran in Thorne after he could not pay the bills.
A Rotherham inquest heard he once bet £500 on a snooker game but lost the match and the money.
His daughter Hayley Leach said: “My father’s death came as a big surprise as I wasn’t aware of any medical problems.”
She saw him every few days and would frequently see him popping into a bookies on Maltby High Street.
Hayley said: “For many years he had a gambling addiction which got out of control.”
She had loaned him money over the last six months of his life which he said he needed to buy food. She said: “I’m not sure if he gambled this.”
Hayley said he would not speak about losing the cafe. “I think he was ashamed of letting it go down.”
She sobbed and said: “That’s why I can’t believe what happened. He was never ever down.”
Mr Lockhart’s close friend Cherie Rumbelow, who worked at the cafe, said he could not keep up with the bills or rent on the premises and had run up arrears.
He liked to bet on the horses and she too had loaned him cash. In the last few months before his death in June, 2010 he had become untidy and did not look after himself.
She said: “He became quiet and was not the Alan I had known for the last 23 years.”
Landlord Khaled Boussabat said Mr Lockhart had paid him 12 months rent but nothing after November, 2009.
Coroner Nicola Mundy recorded a verdict of suicide and said Mr Lockhart had seemed to “lose interest” in caring for himself.
He was a private man and ‘likely to be ashamed’ at losing the cafe. He also had a gambling addiction and drank heavily.
“He plainly had many difficulties and up to a month before his death was asking one of his daughters for money,”
Alabama: More Indictments Possible
Attorneys say more charges possible in Alabama gambling corruption probe
PHILLIP RAWLS Associated Press
MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Two brief exchanges in Alabama's gambling corruption trial indicate more charges and more trials may be coming.
One involved evidence that a federal grand jury kept meeting after indicting the nine people currently on trial in Montgomery. The other involved a star witness saying he may be testifying in more trials.
"There could be what we call in the business a second wave of indictments coming," said Jim Parkman, defense attorney for state Sen. Harri Anne Smith, I-Slocomb.
Smith is among nine people being tried on charges accusing them of buying and selling votes on legislation designed to protect electronic bingo casinos from police raids. The trial will begin its fifth week Tuesday after a hiatus for the holiday weekend.
When a federal grand jury issued indictments against the defendants in October, the Justice Department said the investigation was ongoing. But department officials have given no updates since then.
Defense attorneys say it is clear that federal investigators are still busy and the current defendants may not be the last to go to trial.
One important exchange occurred during the trial last week when the judge was considering issues while the jury was out of the courtroom. A defense attorney for VictoryLand casino owner Milton McGregor objected to a chart of campaign contributions that the prosecution wants to present later in the trial. The defense attorney said the chart involved political action committees operated by Rudy Davidson of Birmingham, and the grand jury received the information after it issued the indictments against McGregor and the other defendants in October.
"In some of these public court hearings, we have raised a question: Have they used this grand jury for the discovery process? That's inappropriate," defense attorney Joe Espy said.
The other exchange involved Country Crossing casino developer Ronnie Gilley, who testified for the prosecution last week. Gilley pleaded guilty in April to offering bribes to legislators to vote for the pro-gambling legislation and he's scheduled for sentencing on Nov. 15. His plea agreement calls for a prison sentence of 20 to 27 years, but prosecutors can recommend a shorter sentence based on his cooperation.
Susan James, attorney for former Country Crossing spokesman Jay Walker, questioned Gilley on the witness stand about what's ahead.
She told the casino developer that she had subpoenaed tapes of phone calls he made while an inmate at the Montgomery City Jail in April. She asked him if he told an employee in one call "that you would not be sentenced in November."
"I probably did," Gilley replied.
"You may be on the witness stand in a lot of cases in the future, is that correct?" James asked.
"Possibly," Gilley replied.
In an interview later, James said she asked the question because it appears the grand jury is still working and Gilley is still providing assistance. She said the government doesn't want to sentence Gilley until it has received all the cooperation it can get, and Gilley doesn't want to be sentenced until he has done everything he can do to shorten his sentence.
"I assume he's got a lot to say about a lot of people. The more he says the better things work out for him because he's cooperating with the prosecution," she said.
When asked about an ongoing investigation, the Justice Department took the same position it has taken since announcing the indictments in October.
"The department would decline to comment," spokeswoman Laura Sweeney said.
PHILLIP RAWLS Associated Press
MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Two brief exchanges in Alabama's gambling corruption trial indicate more charges and more trials may be coming.
One involved evidence that a federal grand jury kept meeting after indicting the nine people currently on trial in Montgomery. The other involved a star witness saying he may be testifying in more trials.
"There could be what we call in the business a second wave of indictments coming," said Jim Parkman, defense attorney for state Sen. Harri Anne Smith, I-Slocomb.
Smith is among nine people being tried on charges accusing them of buying and selling votes on legislation designed to protect electronic bingo casinos from police raids. The trial will begin its fifth week Tuesday after a hiatus for the holiday weekend.
When a federal grand jury issued indictments against the defendants in October, the Justice Department said the investigation was ongoing. But department officials have given no updates since then.
Defense attorneys say it is clear that federal investigators are still busy and the current defendants may not be the last to go to trial.
One important exchange occurred during the trial last week when the judge was considering issues while the jury was out of the courtroom. A defense attorney for VictoryLand casino owner Milton McGregor objected to a chart of campaign contributions that the prosecution wants to present later in the trial. The defense attorney said the chart involved political action committees operated by Rudy Davidson of Birmingham, and the grand jury received the information after it issued the indictments against McGregor and the other defendants in October.
"In some of these public court hearings, we have raised a question: Have they used this grand jury for the discovery process? That's inappropriate," defense attorney Joe Espy said.
The other exchange involved Country Crossing casino developer Ronnie Gilley, who testified for the prosecution last week. Gilley pleaded guilty in April to offering bribes to legislators to vote for the pro-gambling legislation and he's scheduled for sentencing on Nov. 15. His plea agreement calls for a prison sentence of 20 to 27 years, but prosecutors can recommend a shorter sentence based on his cooperation.
Susan James, attorney for former Country Crossing spokesman Jay Walker, questioned Gilley on the witness stand about what's ahead.
She told the casino developer that she had subpoenaed tapes of phone calls he made while an inmate at the Montgomery City Jail in April. She asked him if he told an employee in one call "that you would not be sentenced in November."
"I probably did," Gilley replied.
"You may be on the witness stand in a lot of cases in the future, is that correct?" James asked.
"Possibly," Gilley replied.
In an interview later, James said she asked the question because it appears the grand jury is still working and Gilley is still providing assistance. She said the government doesn't want to sentence Gilley until it has received all the cooperation it can get, and Gilley doesn't want to be sentenced until he has done everything he can do to shorten his sentence.
"I assume he's got a lot to say about a lot of people. The more he says the better things work out for him because he's cooperating with the prosecution," she said.
When asked about an ongoing investigation, the Justice Department took the same position it has taken since announcing the indictments in October.
"The department would decline to comment," spokeswoman Laura Sweeney said.
Jaromir Jagr's Gambling Addiction
Jagrwatch. The whereabouts and future plans of a one Jaromir Jagr captivated the hockey world for the better part of the week. No one, not even his agent, knew exactly where the former five-time Art Ross Trophy winner was this week or where he was going. On Friday Jagr stunned everyone when he spurned the Penguins, his former team, for their cross-state rival, the Philadelphia Flyers. Pennsylvanians can still take solace that Jagr landed in the state as he will surely be a boon to the state’s new casino industry. Jagr admitted in 2003 to settling gambling debts of $950,000.
Sunday, July 3, 2011
Massachusetts Corruption
In view of the recent conviction of former House Speaker Sal DiMasi, the Democrats, some Democrats, seem convinced 'same old, same old' will do.
Not so!
DiMasi's conviction was preceded by Dianne Wilkerson, a legislator who showed great promise and City Councilor Chuck Turner and others.
For reasons unknown, Beacon Hill has been content to pretend transparency reigns, even as casino deals are being discussed behind closed doors and the People's Business remains paralyzed.
There is no budget. Legislation has been stalled.
Human Trafficking legislation was only recently passed.
Beacon Hill has become the definition of dysfunction - held hostage by House Speaker "Racino" DeLeo's Gambling Obsession, as if nothing else existed.
Recently, Republicans proposed reforms.
This is a Democrat's wrong headed response:
Representative John J. Binienda, a Worcester Democrat who has served in the Legislature since 1987:
On Wednesday, Binienda, who heads the House Rules Committee, called the proposal revolting and went on to make the historical analogy.
Hitler, during the concentration camps, tattooed all of the Jewish people so he would know who was a Jew and who wasn't, and that's something that I just don't go along with, Binienda told State House News Service for an article posted yesterday.
From:
House leader apologizes for Holocaust remarks
Badge analogy˜inappropriate™
By Noah Bierman, Globe Staff
When voters elect grown adults, the assumption is made that they behave like adults and are capable of thinking independently, not supporting 'leadership' that is tone deaf to the scandals swirling around him.
Not to be outdone, Tom Keane felt the need to liken badges for lobbyists to Nathanial Hawthorne's Scarlet Letter:
Power on
Punish corruption, but don’t weaken the Legislature
By Tom Keane
Sorry! But I've witnessed the LOBBYISTS, stroking egos, dictating policy and legislation, voters be damned!
It's time for change.
And it begins with an Independent Cost Benefit Analysis that has NEVER been conducted to consider the costs and impacts of Predatory Gambling. Otherwise, one must wonder what is being concealed.
It begins with a serious debate and consideration of taxpayers subsidizing wealthy investors, destroying local businesses and theaters, the cost of regulation and enforcement, and a transparent discussion.
One need only consider the Vote Buying Scandal trial currently underway in Alabama to see the similarities.
Not so!
DiMasi's conviction was preceded by Dianne Wilkerson, a legislator who showed great promise and City Councilor Chuck Turner and others.
For reasons unknown, Beacon Hill has been content to pretend transparency reigns, even as casino deals are being discussed behind closed doors and the People's Business remains paralyzed.
There is no budget. Legislation has been stalled.
Human Trafficking legislation was only recently passed.
The People's Business is ignored. Where's 'Right to Repair,' the 'Bottle Bill,' and numerous other matters that are stalled?
Beacon Hill has become the definition of dysfunction - held hostage by House Speaker "Racino" DeLeo's Gambling Obsession, as if nothing else existed.
Recently, Republicans proposed reforms.
This is a Democrat's wrong headed response:
Representative John J. Binienda, a Worcester Democrat who has served in the Legislature since 1987:
On Wednesday, Binienda, who heads the House Rules Committee, called the proposal revolting and went on to make the historical analogy.
Hitler, during the concentration camps, tattooed all of the Jewish people so he would know who was a Jew and who wasn't, and that's something that I just don't go along with, Binienda told State House News Service for an article posted yesterday.
From:
House leader apologizes for Holocaust remarks
Badge analogy˜inappropriate™
By Noah Bierman, Globe Staff
When voters elect grown adults, the assumption is made that they behave like adults and are capable of thinking independently, not supporting 'leadership' that is tone deaf to the scandals swirling around him.
Not to be outdone, Tom Keane felt the need to liken badges for lobbyists to Nathanial Hawthorne's Scarlet Letter:
Power on
Punish corruption, but don’t weaken the Legislature
By Tom Keane
Sorry! But I've witnessed the LOBBYISTS, stroking egos, dictating policy and legislation, voters be damned!
It's time for change.
And it begins with an Independent Cost Benefit Analysis that has NEVER been conducted to consider the costs and impacts of Predatory Gambling. Otherwise, one must wonder what is being concealed.
It begins with a serious debate and consideration of taxpayers subsidizing wealthy investors, destroying local businesses and theaters, the cost of regulation and enforcement, and a transparent discussion.
One need only consider the Vote Buying Scandal trial currently underway in Alabama to see the similarities.
Don't place all hopes, dreams on casino
Guest Column: Don't place all hopes, dreams on casino
By David A. Sidney
SPECIAL TO RRSTAR.COM
[Rockford Register Star]
Casinos are the buzz in the Midwest, not just Rockford. I am not a gambler but have been to communities that have casinos in their downtowns.
When you talk with officials in these communities some say that without the casino, they would not be able to leverage other economic development projects. Others say the results are mixed. And so here we are in Rockford weighing in on the next possible wave of casinos for several communities in Illinois.
It is easy to be judgmental about casinos from a moral and ethical perspective. And depending on where you fall theologically or philosophically, it can become a very polarizing debate. I’m not interested in doing that. What I am interested in is the understanding how casinos lead to economic shalom (prosperity) for communities. Boosters are touting the economic benefits of job creation, attracting more tourists, and increasing foot traffic to local stores and hotels.
The construction jobs would certainly inject another round of activity in a stagnant construction industry. The land and building would add to the property tax roll for local taxing bodies. Those who are seeking income to supplement or fully supply household income would have another option. And it would satisfy the desires of some who are seeking another form of entertainment and leisure.
The University of Illinois has equally produced reports showing the economic benefits and social costs with casinos. Both sides can easily make the case for their perspective. Richard Longworth, a senior fellow at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs recently cited in his June 8, 2011 blog post the economic benefit in taxes for the nine communities in Illinois with casinos is $84.7 million per year. The proposed casino in Chicago estimated to generate $130 million per year. He argues that a casino in Chicago (and elsewhere) might see an increase in gamblers but would likely steal customers from other communities.
What concerns me about the current climate is the treatment of a casino as key ingredient for economic solvency and flourishing. This is a traditional line of thinking that comes with all big projects.
It is only years and decades later do we have to grapple with the physical, social, and economic costs associated with big projects. A cost-benefit analysis would help us gain clarity. Such analysis helps to understand demand side – impact on local goods and services, employment, cost of labor, government services, and health care.
Casinos are destination oriented venues, no different from a convention center or sports arena. No matter how well you design them, they generally do not generate the promised “added shoppers” to the stores around them. They are like elephants – big, peak your curiosity, and slow. I am not convinced this (or most big projects) lead to healthy wealth building for the masses.
Rarely are casinos part economic development strategies for community wealth building in places like Portland, OR, Asheville, NC, and Charlotte, NC.
If I were a betting person, I would place my bets more on initiatives like Rockford City Market, EIGERlab and the aerospace economic sector for community wealth building.
These initiatives are like rabbits. They multiply entrepreneurs, businesses, cutting edge spinoff industries and human and cultural capital faster than the big elephant projects. These initiatives foster the innovative and inclusive culture necessary for a flourishing economy.
There is a place for elephant type projects but let’s not place all of our hopes, dreams and desires in them.
David A. Sidney, AICP, is principal planner at Gary W. Anderson & Associates and associate minister at Pilgrim Baptist Church
By David A. Sidney
SPECIAL TO RRSTAR.COM
[Rockford Register Star]
Casinos are the buzz in the Midwest, not just Rockford. I am not a gambler but have been to communities that have casinos in their downtowns.
When you talk with officials in these communities some say that without the casino, they would not be able to leverage other economic development projects. Others say the results are mixed. And so here we are in Rockford weighing in on the next possible wave of casinos for several communities in Illinois.
It is easy to be judgmental about casinos from a moral and ethical perspective. And depending on where you fall theologically or philosophically, it can become a very polarizing debate. I’m not interested in doing that. What I am interested in is the understanding how casinos lead to economic shalom (prosperity) for communities. Boosters are touting the economic benefits of job creation, attracting more tourists, and increasing foot traffic to local stores and hotels.
The construction jobs would certainly inject another round of activity in a stagnant construction industry. The land and building would add to the property tax roll for local taxing bodies. Those who are seeking income to supplement or fully supply household income would have another option. And it would satisfy the desires of some who are seeking another form of entertainment and leisure.
The University of Illinois has equally produced reports showing the economic benefits and social costs with casinos. Both sides can easily make the case for their perspective. Richard Longworth, a senior fellow at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs recently cited in his June 8, 2011 blog post the economic benefit in taxes for the nine communities in Illinois with casinos is $84.7 million per year. The proposed casino in Chicago estimated to generate $130 million per year. He argues that a casino in Chicago (and elsewhere) might see an increase in gamblers but would likely steal customers from other communities.
What concerns me about the current climate is the treatment of a casino as key ingredient for economic solvency and flourishing. This is a traditional line of thinking that comes with all big projects.
It is only years and decades later do we have to grapple with the physical, social, and economic costs associated with big projects. A cost-benefit analysis would help us gain clarity. Such analysis helps to understand demand side – impact on local goods and services, employment, cost of labor, government services, and health care.
Casinos are destination oriented venues, no different from a convention center or sports arena. No matter how well you design them, they generally do not generate the promised “added shoppers” to the stores around them. They are like elephants – big, peak your curiosity, and slow. I am not convinced this (or most big projects) lead to healthy wealth building for the masses.
Rarely are casinos part economic development strategies for community wealth building in places like Portland, OR, Asheville, NC, and Charlotte, NC.
If I were a betting person, I would place my bets more on initiatives like Rockford City Market, EIGERlab and the aerospace economic sector for community wealth building.
These initiatives are like rabbits. They multiply entrepreneurs, businesses, cutting edge spinoff industries and human and cultural capital faster than the big elephant projects. These initiatives foster the innovative and inclusive culture necessary for a flourishing economy.
There is a place for elephant type projects but let’s not place all of our hopes, dreams and desires in them.
David A. Sidney, AICP, is principal planner at Gary W. Anderson & Associates and associate minister at Pilgrim Baptist Church
Alabama: Repugnant practice
Advertiser Editorial: Repugnant practice
One good thing already has come out of the gambling corruption trial now ongoing in Montgomery -- the disclosure of the use of "referral fees" given by lobbyists to legislators.
Of course, ultimately the disclosure is only a good thing if it leads to the repugnant practice being stopped.
Testimony has shown that Republican state Rep. Barry Mask of Wetumpka and former Democratic Rep. Terry Spicer of Elba received such fees for years.
A lobbyist for the Country Crossing casino testified that he was funneling $1,000 to $2,000 in cash each month for six or seven years to Spicer while he was in the Legislature. The money supposedly was for referring clients to the lobbyist. Spicer failed to win re-election last year.
Mask was receiving "between $10,000 and $50,000" per year from Steve Windom, the former lieutenant governor who turned to lobbying as a career after leaving office. Those fees apparently started while Mask was himself a lobbyist. But they clearly should have ended as soon as Mask took public office.
It is bad enough that these two lawmakers were taking regular payments from lobbyists while serving in the Legislature. But the public may never have known about the payments without the issue coming up in the corruption trial.
And that raises a crucial and fundamental question -- how many other legislators are getting such payments?
The disclosure of the fees has prompted some calls for the Legislature to adopt reforms to prevent them. But it appears that such payments are already banned by the Ethics Act.
Jim Sumner, executive director of the Alabama Ethics Commission, said Friday that "these kind of relationships certainly appear to be the use of their office for personal gain."
For instance, other than certain exceptions spelled out in the law, the Ethics Act bars public officials from taking "a thing of value" in connection with their public office. And if $10,000 or more a year isn't a "thing of value," what is?
Earlier Sumner told The Associated Press: "I don't think a member of the Legislature should be paid for recommending a client to a lobbyist."
Years ago, the Alabama Legislature was dominated by lawyers. And many of those lawyer-legislators were paid hefty retainers by special interest groups. But when the law was changed to require those retainers to be disclosed, the number of lawyers in the Legislature started to disappear like bunnies at a magic show.
If lobbyists or organizations that lobby are allowed to start paying "referral fees" to legislators, it won't take long before the practice infects the entire legislative process.
The Ethics Commission should come down hard on any lobbyist or legislator involved in such a relationship.
It appears the current law would support strong enforcement, but if it proves ineffective the Legislature should amend it to ensure that "referral fees" and all similar practices are stamped out forever.
One good thing already has come out of the gambling corruption trial now ongoing in Montgomery -- the disclosure of the use of "referral fees" given by lobbyists to legislators.
Of course, ultimately the disclosure is only a good thing if it leads to the repugnant practice being stopped.
Testimony has shown that Republican state Rep. Barry Mask of Wetumpka and former Democratic Rep. Terry Spicer of Elba received such fees for years.
A lobbyist for the Country Crossing casino testified that he was funneling $1,000 to $2,000 in cash each month for six or seven years to Spicer while he was in the Legislature. The money supposedly was for referring clients to the lobbyist. Spicer failed to win re-election last year.
Mask was receiving "between $10,000 and $50,000" per year from Steve Windom, the former lieutenant governor who turned to lobbying as a career after leaving office. Those fees apparently started while Mask was himself a lobbyist. But they clearly should have ended as soon as Mask took public office.
It is bad enough that these two lawmakers were taking regular payments from lobbyists while serving in the Legislature. But the public may never have known about the payments without the issue coming up in the corruption trial.
And that raises a crucial and fundamental question -- how many other legislators are getting such payments?
The disclosure of the fees has prompted some calls for the Legislature to adopt reforms to prevent them. But it appears that such payments are already banned by the Ethics Act.
Jim Sumner, executive director of the Alabama Ethics Commission, said Friday that "these kind of relationships certainly appear to be the use of their office for personal gain."
For instance, other than certain exceptions spelled out in the law, the Ethics Act bars public officials from taking "a thing of value" in connection with their public office. And if $10,000 or more a year isn't a "thing of value," what is?
Earlier Sumner told The Associated Press: "I don't think a member of the Legislature should be paid for recommending a client to a lobbyist."
Years ago, the Alabama Legislature was dominated by lawyers. And many of those lawyer-legislators were paid hefty retainers by special interest groups. But when the law was changed to require those retainers to be disclosed, the number of lawyers in the Legislature started to disappear like bunnies at a magic show.
If lobbyists or organizations that lobby are allowed to start paying "referral fees" to legislators, it won't take long before the practice infects the entire legislative process.
The Ethics Commission should come down hard on any lobbyist or legislator involved in such a relationship.
It appears the current law would support strong enforcement, but if it proves ineffective the Legislature should amend it to ensure that "referral fees" and all similar practices are stamped out forever.
Alabama: McGregor Dictates Legislation
In Massachusetts, the Gambling Industry prepared legislation in 2010 behind closed doors. During the sham legislative debates, the Industry dictated the contents and terms.
How different is Massachusetts from the Vote Buying scandal in Alabama?
Gambling Trial Jury Hears Casino Owner's Calls
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) -- The jury in Alabama's gambling corruption trial has heard tapes of phone calls between indicted casino owner Milton McGregor and indicted legislative employee Ray Crosby, where McGregor told Crosby what changes he wanted made in a pro-gambling bill.
In one call played in court Thursday, McGregor told Crosby not to tell the bill's sponsor, state Sen. Roger Bedford, that he had called about changes. Crosby worked at the Legislature as an attorney who wrote bills for lawmakers.
Prosecutors said Crosby was getting $36,000 a year from McGregor
at the same time he was drawing a state salary of $160,000 annually.
An FBI agent testified Thursday that McGregor had Crosby on his payroll for two years, but Crosby did not report on the income initially on his state ethics forms.
How different is Massachusetts from the Vote Buying scandal in Alabama?
Gambling Trial Jury Hears Casino Owner's Calls
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) -- The jury in Alabama's gambling corruption trial has heard tapes of phone calls between indicted casino owner Milton McGregor and indicted legislative employee Ray Crosby, where McGregor told Crosby what changes he wanted made in a pro-gambling bill.
In one call played in court Thursday, McGregor told Crosby not to tell the bill's sponsor, state Sen. Roger Bedford, that he had called about changes. Crosby worked at the Legislature as an attorney who wrote bills for lawmakers.
Prosecutors said Crosby was getting $36,000 a year from McGregor
at the same time he was drawing a state salary of $160,000 annually.
An FBI agent testified Thursday that McGregor had Crosby on his payroll for two years, but Crosby did not report on the income initially on his state ethics forms.
Alabama: FBI Agent Explains Taped Calls in Gambling Trial
FBI Agent Explains Taped Calls in Gambling Trial
(MONTGOMERY, Ala.)(AP) - An FBI agent who helped lead the investigation of gambling corruption in Alabama is scheduled to return to the witness stand to testify about wire taps.
Agent John McEachern began testifying Wednesday afternoon about phone calls intercepted by the FBI. He will continue his testimony Thursday. The calls involve indicted casino VictoryLand owner Milton McGregor, who's accused of buying and selling votes on pro-gambling legislation.
One call played in court Wednesday was between McGregor and Monica Cooper, who until recently was the top assistant to the Senate Republican Caucus. In the call on March 2, 2010, they discussed how some Republican senators would vote on bringing up McGregor's gambling legislation for consideration. McEachern said Cooper was being paid $2,000 a month by McGregor in addition to her legislative job.
(MONTGOMERY, Ala.)(AP) - An FBI agent who helped lead the investigation of gambling corruption in Alabama is scheduled to return to the witness stand to testify about wire taps.
Agent John McEachern began testifying Wednesday afternoon about phone calls intercepted by the FBI. He will continue his testimony Thursday. The calls involve indicted casino VictoryLand owner Milton McGregor, who's accused of buying and selling votes on pro-gambling legislation.
One call played in court Wednesday was between McGregor and Monica Cooper, who until recently was the top assistant to the Senate Republican Caucus. In the call on March 2, 2010, they discussed how some Republican senators would vote on bringing up McGregor's gambling legislation for consideration. McEachern said Cooper was being paid $2,000 a month by McGregor in addition to her legislative job.
Crime of the Week: Casino Robbery
Crime of the Week: Casino Robbery
The Sioux Falls Police Department would like the public’s help finding those responsible for the armed robbery of Dollar Bill’s Casino, located at 4914 North Cliff Avenue, on Wednesday June 15th. The suspect entered the casino armed with a gun and demanded the money at about 8:30am. The suspect is described as a white male in his thirties, about 5’-9” and 165 pounds with scruffy blond hair, wearing a red and white plaid shirt and blue jeans.
The Sioux Falls Police Department would like the public’s help finding those responsible for the armed robbery of Dollar Bill’s Casino, located at 4914 North Cliff Avenue, on Wednesday June 15th. The suspect entered the casino armed with a gun and demanded the money at about 8:30am. The suspect is described as a white male in his thirties, about 5’-9” and 165 pounds with scruffy blond hair, wearing a red and white plaid shirt and blue jeans.
Alabama: Gambling trial week 4: Calls, cussing and country music
Gambling trial week 4: Calls, cussing and country music
Written by
Sebastian Kitchen
There were some interesting quotes and information from the fourth week of the high-profile federal corruption trial of Victo ryLand owner Milton McGre gor, his lobbyists and current and former state legislators. The week included the playing of more than three-dozen phone conversations secretly recorded by the FBI.
The following are some of those quotes, comments and tid bits:
More info offline
"There is no question Ronnie is our friend." McGregor said of gubernatorial candidate Ron Sparks. " ... I will tell you a cou ple of things in person, but there is no question he is our friend."
The Indian-casino operator war
"We go to war with the Indi ans," Gilley said to McGregor about passing the bill in the Sen ate despite opposition from Na tive American gambling inter ests.
Jammed
Gilley said he was the found er of BamaJam music festival. He said he was proud of it, but it was never financially success ful. He said he is trying to re- vive the festival.
Owen lobbyist
"He's got time and money invested" McGregor tells lobby ist Tom Coker about singer Randy Owen of the band Alaba ma. Owen was calling state sen- ators to personally lobby them to vote for the gambling legisla tion.
Good phone
McGregor, in a taped conversation with Country Crossing developer Ronnie Gilley after the Senate passed the electronic bingo bill, said: "Hey Big Boy."
Gilley: "Congratulations Mr. Mac."
McGregor: "Call me back on your good phone."
When a prosecutor asked Gilley why McGregor wanted him to call from his "drop phone," Gilley said "because we didn't want you listening to it."
Fighting for survival
In the conversations, McGregor made it clear he was fighting for the future of his establishments. "It's a survival bill for me, for us," McGregor said. He said he was the one "taking the biggest risk." McGregor added: "I've got more invested than Gilley, Lowndes and Greene all put together."
Better to ask forgiveness
"Forgive my language again everyone" Gilley said to the court before he read the text of a conversation he had about McGregor that is laced with profanity.
Unexpected switch
Coker said then Gov. Bob Riley, a Republican, and Sen. Del Marsh, R-Anniston, were pushing Sen. Jim Preuitt of Talladega to switch parties and said Preuitt didn't think he could vote for gambling if he switched parties.
"I think he is comfortable now that he is going to run as a Democrat. That freed up that thing for him," Coker said. Democrats expected Preuitt to file to run as a Democrat in 2010, but he filed paperwork to run as a Republican on the last day to register. He later dropped out of the race.
Subtle and mature
Greenetrack CEO Luther "Nat" Winn, operator of Greenetrack, told McGregor he wanted a "subtle mature white person" to talk to then-Sen. Bobby Denton, D-Muscle Shoals, about voting for the bill. McGregor asked him if he had "some good white person or couple to go." Winn reiterated that he wanted a "good solid church person." McGregor and Denton are white. Winn is black.
Riley's arm
When asked by Sen. Quinton Ross, D-Montgomery, about the prospects for the gambling legislation, McGregor said, "I feel pretty good about the legislative process. I don't feel good about the state court process. The Alabama Supreme Court has proven they're like an arm of the governor's office."
Admonished
"It is essential that you not learn from any other source what has occurred in this case outside of your presence," U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson told Gilley after he said in court that he knows other people in the case had referred to him as a con man. Gilley said he was told by friends and not by attorneys in the case. Thompson said he should cut off any future conversations about the case.
Migrating westward
"If we don't pass this damn bill, my project is going to Mississippi," Gilley said. He continued, in a conversation with a consultant secretly recorded by the FBI: "We have an offer almost too damn good to pass up."
Jamey Johnson fans
Preuitt, according to Gilley, was a big fan of country musician Jamey Johnson. Johnson was reaching out to Preuitt on the vote and had offered to spend time with Preuitt at the BamaJam music festival, according to Gilley, who also is a fan. On the wiretapped conversations taped by the FBI that are played in court, people can hear Gilley's ringback tone of Johnson's "In Color" repeatedly before people would answer the phone.
School of hard math
"I'm not a real educated guy. You might want to check my math," Gilley said when asked about the total on some invoices in court.
A flunky and a friend
Gilley referred to Mark Sheldon, a friend who was president of one of his companies and still works for him, as his "general flunky."
Business experience
Gilley said he wouldn't argue the statement that he has had more than 100 companies in the past 20 years from lawn care to real estate development.
The Bold and the ...
Susan James, attorney for defendant Jay Walker, who was the spokesman for Country Crossing, asked Gilley if he was bold and arrogant during the time of the crimes. He responded "I was not arrogant. I was bold."
Round 1
When asked, Gilley said he could be a witness in a lot of cases in the future. He did not elaborate.
At it again
Gilley said he is currently pursuing a project in Coffee County called Keystone. "I have a family that has to eat and we are in the process of working on our original project in Coffee County. I have been given permission by my probation officer to do such," Gilley said.
Not playing (or paying) possum
Country legend George Jones was not an investor in Country Crossing, Gilley said. He said Jones was paid $50,000 at times to be the national spokesman for the project. In a secretly recorded conversation, someone reminded Gilley about $50,000 due to Jones in February and another $50,000 in August. When asked if they were trying to stiff Jones, Gilley said, "George didn't let us forget when we owed him money."
Judge and jury
U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson informed jurors and others in the court that his court reporter had a diabetic episode Monday and passed out briefly. Thompson said this is not a trial, and with Gilley, especially not a witness, that people would fall asleep during. "Whether you like (Gilley's) language or not, it is colorful,"
Thompson said.
Telecommunications
FBI Special Agent John McEachern said on the stand Friday 12,000 phone calls and text messages were intercepted during the investigation. About 5,000, he said, were gathered from two phones used by Milton McGregor.
'This pretty good strong scheme'
"I ain't backing off that son of a b----," Barron said on one conversation about Preuitt, adding: "We need to get into this pretty good strong scheme that I am against this damn bill. That Lowell won't do it. That he's acting like he's for this bill but doing everything he can to get you p----- off to kill the bill."
Barron later tells McGregor to "cuss me and give me hell," and adds later "I'll do whatever it takes to make my part look authentic. Anything to show my p----- offness, I will do it."
'Pretty funny'
"I thought it was pretty funny," McGregor attorney Joe Espy said of the conversation between McGregor and Barron. "It was a story. I do think it clearly shows nobody tried to buy Jim Preuitt. If he'd been bought, no one would try to come up with a story of a feud going on."
Musical appreciation
During a lengthy cross examination Friday, Jimmy Judkins, an attorney for lobbyist Robert Geddie, told McEachern they could make the process more interesting. "I'll sing my part, you sing yours," he said.
Written by
Sebastian Kitchen
There were some interesting quotes and information from the fourth week of the high-profile federal corruption trial of Victo ryLand owner Milton McGre gor, his lobbyists and current and former state legislators. The week included the playing of more than three-dozen phone conversations secretly recorded by the FBI.
The following are some of those quotes, comments and tid bits:
More info offline
"There is no question Ronnie is our friend." McGregor said of gubernatorial candidate Ron Sparks. " ... I will tell you a cou ple of things in person, but there is no question he is our friend."
The Indian-casino operator war
"We go to war with the Indi ans," Gilley said to McGregor about passing the bill in the Sen ate despite opposition from Na tive American gambling inter ests.
Jammed
Gilley said he was the found er of BamaJam music festival. He said he was proud of it, but it was never financially success ful. He said he is trying to re- vive the festival.
Owen lobbyist
"He's got time and money invested" McGregor tells lobby ist Tom Coker about singer Randy Owen of the band Alaba ma. Owen was calling state sen- ators to personally lobby them to vote for the gambling legisla tion.
Good phone
McGregor, in a taped conversation with Country Crossing developer Ronnie Gilley after the Senate passed the electronic bingo bill, said: "Hey Big Boy."
Gilley: "Congratulations Mr. Mac."
McGregor: "Call me back on your good phone."
When a prosecutor asked Gilley why McGregor wanted him to call from his "drop phone," Gilley said "because we didn't want you listening to it."
Fighting for survival
In the conversations, McGregor made it clear he was fighting for the future of his establishments. "It's a survival bill for me, for us," McGregor said. He said he was the one "taking the biggest risk." McGregor added: "I've got more invested than Gilley, Lowndes and Greene all put together."
Better to ask forgiveness
"Forgive my language again everyone" Gilley said to the court before he read the text of a conversation he had about McGregor that is laced with profanity.
Unexpected switch
Coker said then Gov. Bob Riley, a Republican, and Sen. Del Marsh, R-Anniston, were pushing Sen. Jim Preuitt of Talladega to switch parties and said Preuitt didn't think he could vote for gambling if he switched parties.
"I think he is comfortable now that he is going to run as a Democrat. That freed up that thing for him," Coker said. Democrats expected Preuitt to file to run as a Democrat in 2010, but he filed paperwork to run as a Republican on the last day to register. He later dropped out of the race.
Subtle and mature
Greenetrack CEO Luther "Nat" Winn, operator of Greenetrack, told McGregor he wanted a "subtle mature white person" to talk to then-Sen. Bobby Denton, D-Muscle Shoals, about voting for the bill. McGregor asked him if he had "some good white person or couple to go." Winn reiterated that he wanted a "good solid church person." McGregor and Denton are white. Winn is black.
Riley's arm
When asked by Sen. Quinton Ross, D-Montgomery, about the prospects for the gambling legislation, McGregor said, "I feel pretty good about the legislative process. I don't feel good about the state court process. The Alabama Supreme Court has proven they're like an arm of the governor's office."
Admonished
"It is essential that you not learn from any other source what has occurred in this case outside of your presence," U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson told Gilley after he said in court that he knows other people in the case had referred to him as a con man. Gilley said he was told by friends and not by attorneys in the case. Thompson said he should cut off any future conversations about the case.
Migrating westward
"If we don't pass this damn bill, my project is going to Mississippi," Gilley said. He continued, in a conversation with a consultant secretly recorded by the FBI: "We have an offer almost too damn good to pass up."
Jamey Johnson fans
Preuitt, according to Gilley, was a big fan of country musician Jamey Johnson. Johnson was reaching out to Preuitt on the vote and had offered to spend time with Preuitt at the BamaJam music festival, according to Gilley, who also is a fan. On the wiretapped conversations taped by the FBI that are played in court, people can hear Gilley's ringback tone of Johnson's "In Color" repeatedly before people would answer the phone.
School of hard math
"I'm not a real educated guy. You might want to check my math," Gilley said when asked about the total on some invoices in court.
A flunky and a friend
Gilley referred to Mark Sheldon, a friend who was president of one of his companies and still works for him, as his "general flunky."
Business experience
Gilley said he wouldn't argue the statement that he has had more than 100 companies in the past 20 years from lawn care to real estate development.
The Bold and the ...
Susan James, attorney for defendant Jay Walker, who was the spokesman for Country Crossing, asked Gilley if he was bold and arrogant during the time of the crimes. He responded "I was not arrogant. I was bold."
Round 1
When asked, Gilley said he could be a witness in a lot of cases in the future. He did not elaborate.
At it again
Gilley said he is currently pursuing a project in Coffee County called Keystone. "I have a family that has to eat and we are in the process of working on our original project in Coffee County. I have been given permission by my probation officer to do such," Gilley said.
Not playing (or paying) possum
Country legend George Jones was not an investor in Country Crossing, Gilley said. He said Jones was paid $50,000 at times to be the national spokesman for the project. In a secretly recorded conversation, someone reminded Gilley about $50,000 due to Jones in February and another $50,000 in August. When asked if they were trying to stiff Jones, Gilley said, "George didn't let us forget when we owed him money."
Judge and jury
U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson informed jurors and others in the court that his court reporter had a diabetic episode Monday and passed out briefly. Thompson said this is not a trial, and with Gilley, especially not a witness, that people would fall asleep during. "Whether you like (Gilley's) language or not, it is colorful,"
Thompson said.
Telecommunications
FBI Special Agent John McEachern said on the stand Friday 12,000 phone calls and text messages were intercepted during the investigation. About 5,000, he said, were gathered from two phones used by Milton McGregor.
'This pretty good strong scheme'
"I ain't backing off that son of a b----," Barron said on one conversation about Preuitt, adding: "We need to get into this pretty good strong scheme that I am against this damn bill. That Lowell won't do it. That he's acting like he's for this bill but doing everything he can to get you p----- off to kill the bill."
Barron later tells McGregor to "cuss me and give me hell," and adds later "I'll do whatever it takes to make my part look authentic. Anything to show my p----- offness, I will do it."
'Pretty funny'
"I thought it was pretty funny," McGregor attorney Joe Espy said of the conversation between McGregor and Barron. "It was a story. I do think it clearly shows nobody tried to buy Jim Preuitt. If he'd been bought, no one would try to come up with a story of a feud going on."
Musical appreciation
During a lengthy cross examination Friday, Jimmy Judkins, an attorney for lobbyist Robert Geddie, told McEachern they could make the process more interesting. "I'll sing my part, you sing yours," he said.
Gambling addiction cost Steve Masterton
Gambling addiction cost Crawley footballer Old Trafford chance
A footballer has spoken about his ten-year gambling addiction hell that ruled him out of the biggest game in Crawley Town's history.
Former Red Devil Steve Masterton said his addiction had robbed him of the chance to join his team-mates at Old Trafford during their heroic FA Cup battle in February.
The 26-year-old is now attempting to rebuild his career in Scotland after being released by the Football League newcomers.
Masterton says the birth of his son Charlie nine weeks ago has strengthened his resolve to turn his life around and he has recently checked in to Gamblers Anonymous.
Speaking to a Scottish newspaper, he said: "I'm not the first player to admit my weaknesses but hopefully this is a fresh start now I have told my own story of what gambling has cost me.
"I'll never forget when I hit rock bottom.
“It arrived as I sat at home in Crawley watching my club play against Man United at Old Trafford.
"I should have been there on the pitch with my team-mates as I was perfectly fit and part of the squad but just wasn't taken to the game.
"There I was sitting on my couch and realising the chaos my life was in through gambling and it was a heavy price.
"But now my focus is on repairing the damage my addiction has caused."
Masterton said he had been clear of gambling for some time and is looking to revive his playing career north of the border.
“We are pleased that Steve is now confronting his off-the-field problems and we wish him and his family every possible success for the future. “ BOX Former Albion player Warren Aspinall helped to launch a Samaritans campaign after admitting he was seconds away from taking his own life after gambling away £1 million.
Another former Seagull and ex-Whitehawk manager, George Parris, admitted he considered suicide after gambling away thousands of pounds over 20 years.
A footballer has spoken about his ten-year gambling addiction hell that ruled him out of the biggest game in Crawley Town's history.
Former Red Devil Steve Masterton said his addiction had robbed him of the chance to join his team-mates at Old Trafford during their heroic FA Cup battle in February.
The 26-year-old is now attempting to rebuild his career in Scotland after being released by the Football League newcomers.
Masterton says the birth of his son Charlie nine weeks ago has strengthened his resolve to turn his life around and he has recently checked in to Gamblers Anonymous.
Speaking to a Scottish newspaper, he said: "I'm not the first player to admit my weaknesses but hopefully this is a fresh start now I have told my own story of what gambling has cost me.
"I'll never forget when I hit rock bottom.
“It arrived as I sat at home in Crawley watching my club play against Man United at Old Trafford.
"I should have been there on the pitch with my team-mates as I was perfectly fit and part of the squad but just wasn't taken to the game.
"There I was sitting on my couch and realising the chaos my life was in through gambling and it was a heavy price.
"But now my focus is on repairing the damage my addiction has caused."
Masterton said he had been clear of gambling for some time and is looking to revive his playing career north of the border.
“We are pleased that Steve is now confronting his off-the-field problems and we wish him and his family every possible success for the future. “ BOX Former Albion player Warren Aspinall helped to launch a Samaritans campaign after admitting he was seconds away from taking his own life after gambling away £1 million.
Another former Seagull and ex-Whitehawk manager, George Parris, admitted he considered suicide after gambling away thousands of pounds over 20 years.
Twin River: Scare Tactics Backfire
Adding slot machines at "Twin River" was supposed to save the dying greyhound racing industry in Rhode Island, much like the false promises elsewhere.
In bankruptcy court, local control was lost - hours of operation extended, greyhound racing abolished, debts absolved and much else.
Much like Massachusetts, the Rhode Island legislature willingly accepts rhetoric from the Gambling Industry, no questions asked.
But not U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Arthur N. Votolato!
The judge noted that, in contrast to the “good news” Twin River executives repeatedly shared in court with him, they described the slot parlor’s situation to legislators in recent weeks as “desperate.”
“Twin River’s owners contend the ability to offer traditional casino fare, such as blackjack, is the slot parlor’s only hope of remaining competitive if Massachusetts enters the casino and slot business,” the judge quotes from one media report.
In bankruptcy court, local control was lost - hours of operation extended, greyhound racing abolished, debts absolved and much else.
Much like Massachusetts, the Rhode Island legislature willingly accepts rhetoric from the Gambling Industry, no questions asked.
But not U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Arthur N. Votolato!
The judge noted that, in contrast to the “good news” Twin River executives repeatedly shared in court with him, they described the slot parlor’s situation to legislators in recent weeks as “desperate.”
“Twin River’s owners contend the ability to offer traditional casino fare, such as blackjack, is the slot parlor’s only hope of remaining competitive if Massachusetts enters the casino and slot business,” the judge quotes from one media report.
Saturday, July 2, 2011
The Human Costs of Illinois's Political Corruption
The Human Costs of Illinois's Political Corruption
By Whet Moser
Chicago contributing editor Carol Felsenthal stopped by WBEZ's 848 yesterday to talk about Lura Lynn Ryan and Patti Blagojevich, the wives of Illinois's consecutively indicted ex-governors. To paraphrase Felsenthal put it, it's almost too weird for fiction: one on her death bed as the other prepares for her husband to go away for years. Which reminded me of how depressing it is, when these things go down—and they go down a lot in these parts—and how trivial the fruits of corruption seem compared to the human cost for the guilty.
Christopher Kelly
What he took (ok, he took a lot, actually):
In fact, Kelly later admitted in a 28-page plea agreement that between 1998 and 2006, he had worked with an insider to steer $8.5 million in O’Hare contracts to his company, BCI. Kelly used the proceeds for a variety of personal purposes, including paying more than $370,000 in gambling debts and repaying a $700,000 loan from Rezko to buy the Burr Ridge house. About $450,000 went to pay off the person—unnamed in the affidavit—who had helped him rig the bids.
What he lost: Everything. And killed himself in a trailer at 173rd and Cicero.
Kelly was clearly a high roller, though in the service of what seems like a serious addiction.
By Whet Moser
Chicago contributing editor Carol Felsenthal stopped by WBEZ's 848 yesterday to talk about Lura Lynn Ryan and Patti Blagojevich, the wives of Illinois's consecutively indicted ex-governors. To paraphrase Felsenthal put it, it's almost too weird for fiction: one on her death bed as the other prepares for her husband to go away for years. Which reminded me of how depressing it is, when these things go down—and they go down a lot in these parts—and how trivial the fruits of corruption seem compared to the human cost for the guilty.
Christopher Kelly
What he took (ok, he took a lot, actually):
In fact, Kelly later admitted in a 28-page plea agreement that between 1998 and 2006, he had worked with an insider to steer $8.5 million in O’Hare contracts to his company, BCI. Kelly used the proceeds for a variety of personal purposes, including paying more than $370,000 in gambling debts and repaying a $700,000 loan from Rezko to buy the Burr Ridge house. About $450,000 went to pay off the person—unnamed in the affidavit—who had helped him rig the bids.
What he lost: Everything. And killed himself in a trailer at 173rd and Cicero.
Kelly was clearly a high roller, though in the service of what seems like a serious addiction.
Alabama Corruption: Senators asked McGregor for money just before bingo vote
Senators asked McGregor for money just before bingo vote
Written by
Sebastian Kitchen
Two state senators on trial for their alleged role in a scheme to pass pro-gambling legislation requested financial help for their campaigns from VictoryLand owner Milton McGregor about the time he needed their vote on the gambling proposal.
Sen. Quinton Ross, D-Montgomery, asked McGregor for a contribution March 29, 2010, the day before the Senate vote.
Sen. Larry Means, D-Attalla, also told McGregor that he expected a tough fight from Republicans and would need his help.
Both men let McGregor know they supported the legislation, which would have legalized electronic gambling in the state, taxed it and created a state gambling commission.
"People out here want to vote on it," Means told McGregor in the conversation secretly taped by the FBI. "They might vote to kill it."
McGregor's conversations with the men were played in federal court Thursday. The three men are among nine defendants in an alleged scheme to pass pro-gambling legislation.
"If you can give me some more help, that would help ... me out tremendously," Ross said to McGregor the day before the Senate approved the legislation with the exact number of votes required.
McGregor, when he called Ross back the next morning, told the senator he already had contributed significantly to Ross.
"The level I helped you, I can't do that level for everybody. I can't afford it," McGregor said.
He said: "My income was cut off. We're in a heck of a predicament."
VictoryLand and other casinos in the state, including Country Crossing and Greene-
track, were fighting to try to stay open in the wake of raids or attempted raids by a task force created by then-Gov. Bob Riley, who believed the games were played on slot machines, which are illegal in the state.
McGregor told Ross he would push his lobbyists, Tom Coker and Fine Geddie and Associates, to encourage their other clients to help Ross.
"I'll do ... everything I can to get other people to help you some more," the casino owner said.
In a conversation March 31, Coker told McGregor he would give Ross checks from the "medical association" and from the "soft drinks folks."
The Alabama Medical Association contributed to Ross's campaign.
Coker said Ross had helped the medical association.
"I think everybody I know of is going to help Quinton," Coker said.
Ross and McGregor's conversations were just before the deadline for candidates to file to enter the 2010 race.
McGregor asked Ross if he had an opponent. Ross said he did not but had heard rumblings about a possible opponent.
Lewis Gillis, an attorney for Ross, said they will present evidence from the Alabama Ethics Commission, from the secretary of state's office, and from a man who said he considered running against Ross, although ultimately no one ran against Ross.
Gillis said there was nothing incriminating in those conversations and that it was obvious from the tone of the conversation that Ross was not pressuring McGregor, but that the men were very cordial.
"He was not trying to squeeze them right before the vote," Gillis said.
Attorneys for McGregor and Ross also have contended that Ross, as an educator, was a longtime supporter of gambling and supported the revenue going to education.
Joe Espy, lead attorney for McGregor, said there was nothing wrong with McGregor's conversations with Ross and Means.
FBI Special Agent John McEachern, who was on the witness stand Thursday, said that McGregor had deposited $1.9 million into political action committees in December 2009.
'This is your life'
In a March 22 conversation, Means told McGregor he knew the situation was dire for him.
"This is your life," Means said to McGregor.
And then he added, "There is nothing I want to do more than help you."
But Means said he expected a retired lieutenant colonel with the Alabama National Guard to run against him.
"So I'm going to need some help from y'all," Means told him. "... The Republicans think they smell blood in the water."
Means lost the November election, which was just a month after he and the other defendants were arrested, to Republican Phil Williams of Rainbow City.
Delivering Mitchell
A deciding vote in favor of the gambling legislation was cast by Sen. Wendell Mitchell, who was very ill at the time and who tried to arrive about the time of the vote, according to a secretly recorded conversation between McGregor and a campaign consultant for Mitchell.
Joe Perkins, the consultant, told McGregor that day that he had offered to drive Mitchell, but that the senator was going to drive himself. Country Crossing developer Ronnie Gilley, through Perkins, had offered substantial campaign help to Mitchell if he could get to the Senate to vote. Gilley already has pleaded guilty in the case.
"Coker said (Mitchell) just looked bad," McGregor said to Perkins.
Mitchell, a Democrat from Luverne who lost in November, has told the Montgomery Advertiser he never was offered anything improper for his vote.
AEA
McGregor asked Paul Hubbert, the head of the Alabama Education Association, not to go after a state senator he needed to vote with him on the gambling legislation, according to a conversation played in court Thursday.
Sen. Jim Preuitt, according to testimony, told a lobbyist for McGregor that he was not opposed to legislation supported by casino owners in the state, but knew that money would benefit Alabama schools and did not want the AEA to use its resources against him in his 2010 election.
McGregor, after talking to Coker, then called Hubbert to ask for his help. McGregor said he had told Coker, "Dr. Hubbert is going to do what he wants to do. ... He'll tell me the truth. He'll tell me where he is."
Hubbert, who has been considered one of the most powerful figures in Alabama politics for years, said he would think about it.
"I'll give it some thought and maybe talk with him sometime next week," Hubbert said.
Preuitt, a Republican from Talladega who switched parties about the time of the vote, had allegedly told Coker he did not expect the AEA to support him but did not want the association putting money into the campaign of his opponents. He wanted AEA to remain neutral.
Joe Espy said Preuitt never asked McGregor for any money and that McGregor never offered any.
"He doesn't offer Jim Preuitt anything," Espy said.
Bob Geddie, another lobbyist for McGregor, said at the time they had 19 senators who said they would vote for the legislation, but they needed 21 to pass the proposed change to the state constitution.
Geddie and McGregor talked about pushing Sens. Bobby Denton, Ben Brooks and Paul Sanford to try to vote for the bill.
"We got enough people there that's gettable," McGregor said to Geddie.
Consulting
Prosecutors played other audio secretly recorded by the FBI that indicated the inner workings of the push to pass the bill that would have helped casinos in the state, but ultimately died in the House of Representatives. McGregor, in the calls, talked to fellow casino owners about bills, how to proceed, and which senators supported their proposals, his lobbyists, and with Ray Crosby, an analyst for the Legislature that McGregor was paying as a consultant.
McEachern, at the request of the prosecutor, showed that Crosby did not report his income from McGregor, as required, to the Alabama Ethics Commission until after the investigation became public.
McGregor gave Crosby a 1099 tax form for his consulting work in 2008-2010, according to evidence presented Thursday. McEachern acknowledged, when asked by McGregor attorney Ben Espy, that those 1099 forms would have been submitted to the federal government.
Coker, Crosby and Geddie are defendants in the case.
Written by
Sebastian Kitchen
Two state senators on trial for their alleged role in a scheme to pass pro-gambling legislation requested financial help for their campaigns from VictoryLand owner Milton McGregor about the time he needed their vote on the gambling proposal.
Sen. Quinton Ross, D-Montgomery, asked McGregor for a contribution March 29, 2010, the day before the Senate vote.
Sen. Larry Means, D-Attalla, also told McGregor that he expected a tough fight from Republicans and would need his help.
Both men let McGregor know they supported the legislation, which would have legalized electronic gambling in the state, taxed it and created a state gambling commission.
"People out here want to vote on it," Means told McGregor in the conversation secretly taped by the FBI. "They might vote to kill it."
McGregor's conversations with the men were played in federal court Thursday. The three men are among nine defendants in an alleged scheme to pass pro-gambling legislation.
"If you can give me some more help, that would help ... me out tremendously," Ross said to McGregor the day before the Senate approved the legislation with the exact number of votes required.
McGregor, when he called Ross back the next morning, told the senator he already had contributed significantly to Ross.
"The level I helped you, I can't do that level for everybody. I can't afford it," McGregor said.
He said: "My income was cut off. We're in a heck of a predicament."
VictoryLand and other casinos in the state, including Country Crossing and Greene-
track, were fighting to try to stay open in the wake of raids or attempted raids by a task force created by then-Gov. Bob Riley, who believed the games were played on slot machines, which are illegal in the state.
McGregor told Ross he would push his lobbyists, Tom Coker and Fine Geddie and Associates, to encourage their other clients to help Ross.
"I'll do ... everything I can to get other people to help you some more," the casino owner said.
In a conversation March 31, Coker told McGregor he would give Ross checks from the "medical association" and from the "soft drinks folks."
The Alabama Medical Association contributed to Ross's campaign.
Coker said Ross had helped the medical association.
"I think everybody I know of is going to help Quinton," Coker said.
Ross and McGregor's conversations were just before the deadline for candidates to file to enter the 2010 race.
McGregor asked Ross if he had an opponent. Ross said he did not but had heard rumblings about a possible opponent.
Lewis Gillis, an attorney for Ross, said they will present evidence from the Alabama Ethics Commission, from the secretary of state's office, and from a man who said he considered running against Ross, although ultimately no one ran against Ross.
Gillis said there was nothing incriminating in those conversations and that it was obvious from the tone of the conversation that Ross was not pressuring McGregor, but that the men were very cordial.
"He was not trying to squeeze them right before the vote," Gillis said.
Attorneys for McGregor and Ross also have contended that Ross, as an educator, was a longtime supporter of gambling and supported the revenue going to education.
Joe Espy, lead attorney for McGregor, said there was nothing wrong with McGregor's conversations with Ross and Means.
FBI Special Agent John McEachern, who was on the witness stand Thursday, said that McGregor had deposited $1.9 million into political action committees in December 2009.
'This is your life'
In a March 22 conversation, Means told McGregor he knew the situation was dire for him.
"This is your life," Means said to McGregor.
And then he added, "There is nothing I want to do more than help you."
But Means said he expected a retired lieutenant colonel with the Alabama National Guard to run against him.
"So I'm going to need some help from y'all," Means told him. "... The Republicans think they smell blood in the water."
Means lost the November election, which was just a month after he and the other defendants were arrested, to Republican Phil Williams of Rainbow City.
Delivering Mitchell
A deciding vote in favor of the gambling legislation was cast by Sen. Wendell Mitchell, who was very ill at the time and who tried to arrive about the time of the vote, according to a secretly recorded conversation between McGregor and a campaign consultant for Mitchell.
Joe Perkins, the consultant, told McGregor that day that he had offered to drive Mitchell, but that the senator was going to drive himself. Country Crossing developer Ronnie Gilley, through Perkins, had offered substantial campaign help to Mitchell if he could get to the Senate to vote. Gilley already has pleaded guilty in the case.
"Coker said (Mitchell) just looked bad," McGregor said to Perkins.
Mitchell, a Democrat from Luverne who lost in November, has told the Montgomery Advertiser he never was offered anything improper for his vote.
AEA
McGregor asked Paul Hubbert, the head of the Alabama Education Association, not to go after a state senator he needed to vote with him on the gambling legislation, according to a conversation played in court Thursday.
Sen. Jim Preuitt, according to testimony, told a lobbyist for McGregor that he was not opposed to legislation supported by casino owners in the state, but knew that money would benefit Alabama schools and did not want the AEA to use its resources against him in his 2010 election.
McGregor, after talking to Coker, then called Hubbert to ask for his help. McGregor said he had told Coker, "Dr. Hubbert is going to do what he wants to do. ... He'll tell me the truth. He'll tell me where he is."
Hubbert, who has been considered one of the most powerful figures in Alabama politics for years, said he would think about it.
"I'll give it some thought and maybe talk with him sometime next week," Hubbert said.
Preuitt, a Republican from Talladega who switched parties about the time of the vote, had allegedly told Coker he did not expect the AEA to support him but did not want the association putting money into the campaign of his opponents. He wanted AEA to remain neutral.
Joe Espy said Preuitt never asked McGregor for any money and that McGregor never offered any.
"He doesn't offer Jim Preuitt anything," Espy said.
Bob Geddie, another lobbyist for McGregor, said at the time they had 19 senators who said they would vote for the legislation, but they needed 21 to pass the proposed change to the state constitution.
Geddie and McGregor talked about pushing Sens. Bobby Denton, Ben Brooks and Paul Sanford to try to vote for the bill.
"We got enough people there that's gettable," McGregor said to Geddie.
Consulting
Prosecutors played other audio secretly recorded by the FBI that indicated the inner workings of the push to pass the bill that would have helped casinos in the state, but ultimately died in the House of Representatives. McGregor, in the calls, talked to fellow casino owners about bills, how to proceed, and which senators supported their proposals, his lobbyists, and with Ray Crosby, an analyst for the Legislature that McGregor was paying as a consultant.
McEachern, at the request of the prosecutor, showed that Crosby did not report his income from McGregor, as required, to the Alabama Ethics Commission until after the investigation became public.
McGregor gave Crosby a 1099 tax form for his consulting work in 2008-2010, according to evidence presented Thursday. McEachern acknowledged, when asked by McGregor attorney Ben Espy, that those 1099 forms would have been submitted to the federal government.
Coker, Crosby and Geddie are defendants in the case.
Governor Patrick: I'm disappointed!
Truly disappointing!
In view of the Alabama Vote Buying Trial, involving promises
of campaign contributions in return for favorable legislative votes
to support 'electronic bingo' [which is constitutionally illegal in Alabama],
the recent DiMasi conviction and the Probation Dept. Scandal that
has immersed the legislature in a shroud, Governor Patrick needs
to do better than this.
http://wampaleaks.blogspot.com/
Thursday, June 30, 2011
Deval Patrick tells Boston Globe 'no gaming interest contributions' - really?
Boston Globe: Patrick says he does not meet with gambling lobbyists, but political adviser tied to the industry, June 30, 2011
by Noah Bierman
Governor Deval Patrick said this morning that he does not meet with gambling lobbyists, but one of his top political advisers and closest confidants is a registered lobbyist for a gambling equipment company. “I don’t take contributions from gaming interests,” Patrick said. “I haven’t engaged with any of the gaming lobbyists and so on. That’s a very complicated issue and so I’ve got staff who are dealing with that directly.”
Is the Governor lying, confused or misinformed? It is a very complicated issue if you are easily confused or misinformed - which if we grant that the Governor doesn't lie, then he must be easily confused or seriously misinformed about who he's meeting with and from whom he's raising money.
The Massachusetts Secretary of State tracks all registered lobbyists and anyone can do a public search on these lobbyists, their clients (by industry - e.g., "Gaming") and see to whom they've made campaign contributions.
A simple search shows lobbyists who reported representing gaming interests and lobbying on gaming-related legislation have donated over $15,000 to Governor Patrick. Here is a sampling of gaming lobbyist contributions to Deval Patrick:
Click on the LINK for the spreadsheet of contributions
So c'mon Governor, don't tell us you're not taking money from special interests in the gaming industry who are seeking special carve outs for groups like the Wampanoag or Mohegan Indians who want tax-exempt gaming, free from local jurisdictions and law enforcement and other perks which don't benefit the state budget or people in the communities where these casinos might be built.
In view of the Alabama Vote Buying Trial, involving promises
of campaign contributions in return for favorable legislative votes
to support 'electronic bingo' [which is constitutionally illegal in Alabama],
the recent DiMasi conviction and the Probation Dept. Scandal that
has immersed the legislature in a shroud, Governor Patrick needs
to do better than this.
http://wampaleaks.blogspot.com/
Thursday, June 30, 2011
Deval Patrick tells Boston Globe 'no gaming interest contributions' - really?
Boston Globe: Patrick says he does not meet with gambling lobbyists, but political adviser tied to the industry, June 30, 2011
by Noah Bierman
Governor Deval Patrick said this morning that he does not meet with gambling lobbyists, but one of his top political advisers and closest confidants is a registered lobbyist for a gambling equipment company. “I don’t take contributions from gaming interests,” Patrick said. “I haven’t engaged with any of the gaming lobbyists and so on. That’s a very complicated issue and so I’ve got staff who are dealing with that directly.”
Is the Governor lying, confused or misinformed? It is a very complicated issue if you are easily confused or misinformed - which if we grant that the Governor doesn't lie, then he must be easily confused or seriously misinformed about who he's meeting with and from whom he's raising money.
The Massachusetts Secretary of State tracks all registered lobbyists and anyone can do a public search on these lobbyists, their clients (by industry - e.g., "Gaming") and see to whom they've made campaign contributions.
A simple search shows lobbyists who reported representing gaming interests and lobbying on gaming-related legislation have donated over $15,000 to Governor Patrick. Here is a sampling of gaming lobbyist contributions to Deval Patrick:
Click on the LINK for the spreadsheet of contributions
So c'mon Governor, don't tell us you're not taking money from special interests in the gaming industry who are seeking special carve outs for groups like the Wampanoag or Mohegan Indians who want tax-exempt gaming, free from local jurisdictions and law enforcement and other perks which don't benefit the state budget or people in the communities where these casinos might be built.
Massachusetts: The Future is Writ Elsewhere
There is no legal mechanism in Massachusetts to limit in any way or fashion the future expansion on Class III Gaming - Slot Machines!
Should Beacon Hill in its back room dealings produce another folly for legislators to consider, nothing is set in stone.
Next year, next Governor, next legislative session, next financial crisis, the legislation will change.
The numbers of Slot Barns will increase.
Consumer protections, as limited as they are, will be dismissed.
Gambling Addiction funding will be slashed - just as Massachusetts recently attempted.
When the overstated revenues fail to appear...when the regulatory costs are revealed...when more cash is needed to fund the Folly of Predatory Gambling, all promises are off - just as they now know.
This highlights the issues:
Additional Casino Gambling Vote Close, But Turned Away In Iowa
Residents in Wapello County rejected the idea of a new casino on Tuesday, although the vote was a lot closer than some expected.
Wapello is one of the counties in Iowa that does not have a casino, but proponents have been pushing the idea for the past year. Voters were not yet ready to commit, turning away the proposal by a fifty-two to forty-eight margin. It was a defeat, but it also offered hope for the future.
"We may have lost the battle this year, but that does not mean we are going to stop trying," said casino proponent Frank Billst. "Eventually, with the proper exposure and the ability to educate voters on the advantages of having a casino, we will be able to bring a casino to Wapello in the future." The Casino Vultures unwilling to ever take NO! for an answer will hound the voters, spend the money until they WIN! Gambling is EXTREMELY PROFITABLE - for the owners.
.... states, such as Ohio, have watched voters legalize casinos for the first time in their history.
In Ohio:
After Ohio voters said NO to casino gambling 4 times, $50 million was spent to persuade them otherwise. Who would think their money was wasted?
The Casino Vultures NEVER give up!
Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Colorado have made significant changes to their gaming industries, including longer hours of operation, additional games, and higher loss limits. Florida did away with their poker limits completely this Spring.
In Pennsylvania, and elsewhere, the tale is similar.
Should Beacon Hill in its back room dealings produce another folly for legislators to consider, nothing is set in stone.
Next year, next Governor, next legislative session, next financial crisis, the legislation will change.
The numbers of Slot Barns will increase.
Consumer protections, as limited as they are, will be dismissed.
Gambling Addiction funding will be slashed - just as Massachusetts recently attempted.
When the overstated revenues fail to appear...when the regulatory costs are revealed...when more cash is needed to fund the Folly of Predatory Gambling, all promises are off - just as they now know.
This highlights the issues:
Additional Casino Gambling Vote Close, But Turned Away In Iowa
Residents in Wapello County rejected the idea of a new casino on Tuesday, although the vote was a lot closer than some expected.
Wapello is one of the counties in Iowa that does not have a casino, but proponents have been pushing the idea for the past year. Voters were not yet ready to commit, turning away the proposal by a fifty-two to forty-eight margin. It was a defeat, but it also offered hope for the future.
"We may have lost the battle this year, but that does not mean we are going to stop trying," said casino proponent Frank Billst. "Eventually, with the proper exposure and the ability to educate voters on the advantages of having a casino, we will be able to bring a casino to Wapello in the future." The Casino Vultures unwilling to ever take NO! for an answer will hound the voters, spend the money until they WIN! Gambling is EXTREMELY PROFITABLE - for the owners.
.... states, such as Ohio, have watched voters legalize casinos for the first time in their history.
In Ohio:
After Ohio voters said NO to casino gambling 4 times, $50 million was spent to persuade them otherwise. Who would think their money was wasted?
The Casino Vultures NEVER give up!
Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Colorado have made significant changes to their gaming industries, including longer hours of operation, additional games, and higher loss limits. Florida did away with their poker limits completely this Spring.
In Pennsylvania, and elsewhere, the tale is similar.
When the overstated revenues fail to appear, the cash cow of Slot Barn continues to lure all commonsense.
Mayors: Don't put slots at horse tracks
As the Illinois insanity unfolds to compensate for poor fiscal management, voices of reason are drown out, as this archived article points out.
Mayors: Don't put slots at horse tracks
November 15, 2010 (WLS) -- Opposition to gambling is building in Illinois, with some mayors urging rejection of a proposal to put slots at horse racing tracks.
The mayors are from nine Illinois communities with casinos.
The state senate is expected to consider a bill that would expand casino gambling.
It was proposed by State Sen. Terry Link (D-Waukegan), and would add four new casino locations.
A group of religious leaders is staunchly opposed to expanding gambling.
"It will not make money for the state budget," said First United Methodist Church Senior Minister Phil Blackwell. "Gambling's not a growth industry. The gambling proposal is about power."
Casino owners say gaming revenue in the state is flat because the smoking ban is keeping people away.
Mayors: Don't put slots at horse tracks
November 15, 2010 (WLS) -- Opposition to gambling is building in Illinois, with some mayors urging rejection of a proposal to put slots at horse racing tracks.
The mayors are from nine Illinois communities with casinos.
The state senate is expected to consider a bill that would expand casino gambling.
It was proposed by State Sen. Terry Link (D-Waukegan), and would add four new casino locations.
A group of religious leaders is staunchly opposed to expanding gambling.
"It will not make money for the state budget," said First United Methodist Church Senior Minister Phil Blackwell. "Gambling's not a growth industry. The gambling proposal is about power."
Casino owners say gaming revenue in the state is flat because the smoking ban is keeping people away.
More than 20 years of addictions awareness
More than 20 years of addictions awareness
Jeanne Gagnon
Northern News Services
KUGLUKTUK/COPPERMINE - Gambling, drugs, alcohol and smoking are addictions many people in the North and across Canada are struggling to overcome.
But awareness around the issues has increased in the more than 20 years since Kugluktuk inspired the National Aboriginal Addictions Awareness Week.
This year, from Nov. 14 to 20, many communities across Canada, including the North, will hold events to raise awareness around addictions as the battle to conquer those issues is ongoing.
Addiction - whether it is alcohol, drugs or gambling - is an entrenched problem in Inuit communities, said Dianne Kinnon, director of Inuit Tuttarvingat at the National Aboriginal Health Organization. A lot more work is needed to conquer them, she added.
"The more we can make those issues visible, and not just as individual problems but as community problems, as social problems, the more we can do about them because it breaks down some of those stereotypes ..." she said.
"To me, it's still very valuable work to do and until we actually do start to see some significant results, it's one of many tactics I think we have to undertake."
Awareness around alcohol abuse has increased, for instance, Kinnon said, but options for services and support are few. She added that a lot of drugs, such as marijuana, are entering the North, perhaps replacing alcohol, so people need to be educated that drugs and gambling can be equally destructive.
"I think we have better awareness now - there are more people looking for treatment, there (are) more people going into counselling for alcohol abuse, but not enough services," she said. "Marijuana is an increasing concern and perhaps, say they have conquered an alcohol addiction, they might switch to marijuana because they don't think it's dangerous or serious."
Kinnon said since the awareness week started more than 20 years ago, a lot more co-operation and partnerships between organizations exist.
NAHO's focus is youth, as Kinnon said it is quite "alarming" the age kids start getting involved with drugs and alcohol and the earlier you can get the message out and educate them about the dangers of addictions, the better. But she added many youths are also taking it upon themselves to raise awareness of the issue.
"Many of them (youths) are leaders themselves in saying 'alcohol has really affected my family; I see my friends using drugs and dropping out of school.' There is a real potential there if we can just get more and more youths to get involved in the issues, the better," said Kinnon.
At Kugluktuk High School, school community councillor Ken Taptuna said he got involved in addictions awareness two years ago when he started in his post. He added he feels personally responsible to help because several years ago a youth march provoked a plebiscite and an alcohol education committee. This reined in the amount of alcohol coming into the community.
"The more we are vocal about making the wrong decisions and making the wrong choices that leads you down the wrong path, the more apt (youth) are to see the negatives outcomes that they have once they do take that path," he said.
Addictions are not so prominent in the school but in the community, it's a different story. He said some addictions, notably gambling and drugs, are prominent. On the other hand, he said alcohol addiction is less prominent, as education committees brought the numbers down.
"There are ones that are visible in the community that do take precedence over numerous family obligations that should be upheld," he said. "As for visibility, I'd say drug addictions and the gambling addictions are more prominent in our community than any other problem addictions."
Jeanne Gagnon
Northern News Services
KUGLUKTUK/COPPERMINE - Gambling, drugs, alcohol and smoking are addictions many people in the North and across Canada are struggling to overcome.
But awareness around the issues has increased in the more than 20 years since Kugluktuk inspired the National Aboriginal Addictions Awareness Week.
This year, from Nov. 14 to 20, many communities across Canada, including the North, will hold events to raise awareness around addictions as the battle to conquer those issues is ongoing.
Addiction - whether it is alcohol, drugs or gambling - is an entrenched problem in Inuit communities, said Dianne Kinnon, director of Inuit Tuttarvingat at the National Aboriginal Health Organization. A lot more work is needed to conquer them, she added.
"The more we can make those issues visible, and not just as individual problems but as community problems, as social problems, the more we can do about them because it breaks down some of those stereotypes ..." she said.
"To me, it's still very valuable work to do and until we actually do start to see some significant results, it's one of many tactics I think we have to undertake."
Awareness around alcohol abuse has increased, for instance, Kinnon said, but options for services and support are few. She added that a lot of drugs, such as marijuana, are entering the North, perhaps replacing alcohol, so people need to be educated that drugs and gambling can be equally destructive.
"I think we have better awareness now - there are more people looking for treatment, there (are) more people going into counselling for alcohol abuse, but not enough services," she said. "Marijuana is an increasing concern and perhaps, say they have conquered an alcohol addiction, they might switch to marijuana because they don't think it's dangerous or serious."
Kinnon said since the awareness week started more than 20 years ago, a lot more co-operation and partnerships between organizations exist.
NAHO's focus is youth, as Kinnon said it is quite "alarming" the age kids start getting involved with drugs and alcohol and the earlier you can get the message out and educate them about the dangers of addictions, the better. But she added many youths are also taking it upon themselves to raise awareness of the issue.
"Many of them (youths) are leaders themselves in saying 'alcohol has really affected my family; I see my friends using drugs and dropping out of school.' There is a real potential there if we can just get more and more youths to get involved in the issues, the better," said Kinnon.
At Kugluktuk High School, school community councillor Ken Taptuna said he got involved in addictions awareness two years ago when he started in his post. He added he feels personally responsible to help because several years ago a youth march provoked a plebiscite and an alcohol education committee. This reined in the amount of alcohol coming into the community.
"The more we are vocal about making the wrong decisions and making the wrong choices that leads you down the wrong path, the more apt (youth) are to see the negatives outcomes that they have once they do take that path," he said.
Addictions are not so prominent in the school but in the community, it's a different story. He said some addictions, notably gambling and drugs, are prominent. On the other hand, he said alcohol addiction is less prominent, as education committees brought the numbers down.
"There are ones that are visible in the community that do take precedence over numerous family obligations that should be upheld," he said. "As for visibility, I'd say drug addictions and the gambling addictions are more prominent in our community than any other problem addictions."
Richmond, California: Community Slot Barn Opposition
Looking forward to the next election prompted revisiting last year's election. Slot Barn opposition had a major impact on the outcome in this election:
A Green Victory in Richmond, California
David Helvarg.President, Blue Frontier Campaign
While the recent elections were seen as a setback for national environmental advocates, for the small city of Richmond in San Francisco's East Bay, it marked a tidal shift in a seven-year battle to protect Point Molate, the last large undeveloped headland on the bay from a mega-casino. Here, at least, the election demonstrated that poor communities can assert their right to control their own shorelines and perhaps their own destinies -- despite outside pressure.
On the winning side were local activists of Citizens for a Sustainable Point Molate and the Richmond Progressive Alliance, which includes the Green Party Mayor of this low-income, predominantly African-American and Hispanic city of just over 100,000.
On the side that didn't win was a Berkeley developer with plans for a billion dollar casino resort at the headlands, a small band of Pomo Indians hoping to break into urban gaming, and an even smaller band of environmentalists willing to cut a multi-million dollar deal with them just before Richmond was to vote on the casino.
Also, never to be left out of local politics was the Chevron corporation that, with a major oil refinery in the city, put a million dollars behind three city council candidates who were not only pro-Chevron but also pro-casino (though one who had voted for the development while on the council opposed the casino in the election).
The 422 acres of spectacular bay-facing green space, wildlife habitat and submerged eel grass meadows known as Point Molate is the site of an historic wine port and village that later became part of a Navy fuel oil depot before the Navy sold it to the city in 2003 for one dollar. From a historic point of view, I guess you could argue that after alcohol and oil, gambling might make sense in terms of human addictions.
Upstream LLC, the consortium put together by Berkeley developer Jim Levine, promised to build the most eco-sustainable "destination resort" casino this side of Vegas. Levine, who originally had financial backing from Harrah's, now claims backing from one of California's major gaming tribes (attributing any lack of financial transparency to issues of tribal sovereignty). Still, his support on the city council had slipped during the economic slowdown from 5-2 to 4-3 with Mayor Gayle McLaughlin leading the opposition.
After years of promises and delays, the city council finally agreed to a non-binding Ballot Measure U this fall that for the first time let the citizens of Richmond vote on whether they support a casino complex on their waterfront.
One concern has been that Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar would have to agree to convert Point Molate into reservation land for a small tribal band with no anthropological links to the Bay Area (a legal requirement). Senator Feinstein opposes this conversion. Local Representative George Miller, a long-time environmental champion and former Chair of the House Natural Resources Committee, had been eerily quiet on the issue although he did attend a pre-election pro-Casino press conference put on by the Building Trades Council.
From its inception Measure U was heavily fought over with close to a million dollars spent on the initiative both by the "destination resort," casino developer ($500,000) and local card rooms and smaller Indian gaming interests (over $450,000) who didn't want competition from a monster casino with 4,000 slot machines.
Two weeks before the election, a press conference was held on the headlands where Upstream, the Guidiville Band of Pomos and three green groups announced an agreement to drop a longstanding environmental lawsuit in exchange for a promised $48 million pay out from the slots to buy up additional shoreline for conservation (that could mostly be outside of Richmond). "When you have money, you draw money. It's a major shoreline protection agreement," claimed Robert Cheasty, president of Citizens for East Shore Parks that was dropping its suit. The San Francisco Chapter of Sierra Club and local Audubon also endorsed the deal and added their names to a pro-casino flyer that went out to voters a few days later.
The Richmond-based Citizens for a Sustainable Point Molate claimed the agreement "threw Richmond under the gambling bus," and released a letter from twenty other Bay Area environmental groups opposed to the Casino, calling instead for a world-class park at the point similar to San Francisco's Presidio and Marin County's Fort Baker.
When the people finally got their say they rejected the pro-Casino Measure U by a vote of 57.5 percent to 42.5 percent. Mayor Gayle McLaughlin, despite being outspent by her opponent almost two to one, was re-elected along with two anti-casino candidates, her fellow Progressive Alliance running mate Jovanka Beckles, a children's mental health provider and long-time city hall gadfly Corky Booze. None of the Chevron backed candidates won.
The new city council majority taking over in January will likely be voting 5-2 against the Casino at Point Molate. "People want to see something better there," explained Jovanka Beckles. Of course, lots of mischief could still take place during the old council's lame duck session.
Still, Richmond shows what a dynamic, community-tied coalition of environmentalists and political progressives can achieve when working outside the traditional two-party system, unafraid of entrenched corporate interests.
Meanwhile Citizens for a Sustainable Point Molate has begun working with a pro-bono group of young urban planners to envision what a working park on the headlands and offshore might look like. They will soon start engaging others in the community in the long process of turning that vision into a third major jewel of Bay area waterfront parks that can provide jobs, recreation and natural wonder for all.
A Green Victory in Richmond, California
David Helvarg.President, Blue Frontier Campaign
While the recent elections were seen as a setback for national environmental advocates, for the small city of Richmond in San Francisco's East Bay, it marked a tidal shift in a seven-year battle to protect Point Molate, the last large undeveloped headland on the bay from a mega-casino. Here, at least, the election demonstrated that poor communities can assert their right to control their own shorelines and perhaps their own destinies -- despite outside pressure.
On the winning side were local activists of Citizens for a Sustainable Point Molate and the Richmond Progressive Alliance, which includes the Green Party Mayor of this low-income, predominantly African-American and Hispanic city of just over 100,000.
On the side that didn't win was a Berkeley developer with plans for a billion dollar casino resort at the headlands, a small band of Pomo Indians hoping to break into urban gaming, and an even smaller band of environmentalists willing to cut a multi-million dollar deal with them just before Richmond was to vote on the casino.
Also, never to be left out of local politics was the Chevron corporation that, with a major oil refinery in the city, put a million dollars behind three city council candidates who were not only pro-Chevron but also pro-casino (though one who had voted for the development while on the council opposed the casino in the election).
The 422 acres of spectacular bay-facing green space, wildlife habitat and submerged eel grass meadows known as Point Molate is the site of an historic wine port and village that later became part of a Navy fuel oil depot before the Navy sold it to the city in 2003 for one dollar. From a historic point of view, I guess you could argue that after alcohol and oil, gambling might make sense in terms of human addictions.
Upstream LLC, the consortium put together by Berkeley developer Jim Levine, promised to build the most eco-sustainable "destination resort" casino this side of Vegas. Levine, who originally had financial backing from Harrah's, now claims backing from one of California's major gaming tribes (attributing any lack of financial transparency to issues of tribal sovereignty). Still, his support on the city council had slipped during the economic slowdown from 5-2 to 4-3 with Mayor Gayle McLaughlin leading the opposition.
After years of promises and delays, the city council finally agreed to a non-binding Ballot Measure U this fall that for the first time let the citizens of Richmond vote on whether they support a casino complex on their waterfront.
One concern has been that Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar would have to agree to convert Point Molate into reservation land for a small tribal band with no anthropological links to the Bay Area (a legal requirement). Senator Feinstein opposes this conversion. Local Representative George Miller, a long-time environmental champion and former Chair of the House Natural Resources Committee, had been eerily quiet on the issue although he did attend a pre-election pro-Casino press conference put on by the Building Trades Council.
From its inception Measure U was heavily fought over with close to a million dollars spent on the initiative both by the "destination resort," casino developer ($500,000) and local card rooms and smaller Indian gaming interests (over $450,000) who didn't want competition from a monster casino with 4,000 slot machines.
Two weeks before the election, a press conference was held on the headlands where Upstream, the Guidiville Band of Pomos and three green groups announced an agreement to drop a longstanding environmental lawsuit in exchange for a promised $48 million pay out from the slots to buy up additional shoreline for conservation (that could mostly be outside of Richmond). "When you have money, you draw money. It's a major shoreline protection agreement," claimed Robert Cheasty, president of Citizens for East Shore Parks that was dropping its suit. The San Francisco Chapter of Sierra Club and local Audubon also endorsed the deal and added their names to a pro-casino flyer that went out to voters a few days later.
The Richmond-based Citizens for a Sustainable Point Molate claimed the agreement "threw Richmond under the gambling bus," and released a letter from twenty other Bay Area environmental groups opposed to the Casino, calling instead for a world-class park at the point similar to San Francisco's Presidio and Marin County's Fort Baker.
When the people finally got their say they rejected the pro-Casino Measure U by a vote of 57.5 percent to 42.5 percent. Mayor Gayle McLaughlin, despite being outspent by her opponent almost two to one, was re-elected along with two anti-casino candidates, her fellow Progressive Alliance running mate Jovanka Beckles, a children's mental health provider and long-time city hall gadfly Corky Booze. None of the Chevron backed candidates won.
The new city council majority taking over in January will likely be voting 5-2 against the Casino at Point Molate. "People want to see something better there," explained Jovanka Beckles. Of course, lots of mischief could still take place during the old council's lame duck session.
Still, Richmond shows what a dynamic, community-tied coalition of environmentalists and political progressives can achieve when working outside the traditional two-party system, unafraid of entrenched corporate interests.
Meanwhile Citizens for a Sustainable Point Molate has begun working with a pro-bono group of young urban planners to envision what a working park on the headlands and offshore might look like. They will soon start engaging others in the community in the long process of turning that vision into a third major jewel of Bay area waterfront parks that can provide jobs, recreation and natural wonder for all.
Effects of war, gambling addiction.....
Effects of war, gambling addiction plagued ‘Mario Brothers bandit’
By Jameson Cook
Macomb Daily Staff Writer
Brodak spared tougher sentence, gets 10 years for second series of bank robberies
Untreated post-traumatic stress disorder due to Vietnam combat combined with financial and gambling problems led to the “Mario Brothers bandit” committing a series of bank robberies in the mid-1990s.
Those problems were never resolved and Joseph Brodak resumed those criminal deeds more than a decade later.
A judge sympathized with the plight of Brodak, 65, formerly of Clarkston and Rochester Hills, and approved a downward departure from federal sentencing guidelines, ordering him to spend 10 years in federal prison for the robbery of a Warren bank in January 2009.
After learning he likely will get help for his issues, Judge Marianne Battani of U.S. District Court in Detroit sentenced him below the minimum guideline range of between 15½ and 19½ years up to 25 years. Brodak will spend five years on supervised released following the 10-year term, and he must receive treatment for gambling addiction, if deemed necessary by probation officials.
Brodak, when he was known as the Mario Brothers bandit, also spent about six years in prison and three years on parole related to robbing 11 financial institutions in Macomb and Oakland counties in the summer of 1994.
For his recent sentencing for robbing three Macomb County banks, Brodak’s attorney, David Steingold, said he requested leniency based on Brodak’s age, mental condition, service to the country and the fact that in the guidelines scoring he was penalized double for the same series of crimes, with convictions in federal court and Oakland County Circuit Court.
Steingold noted that Brodak, a 17-year General Motors employee, is not assaultive and was described as a good, hardworking family man who financially supported loved ones.
“It’s easy to look at these charges and understand how terrorized these bank tellers must have been and say, ‘Oh my, throw him in jail and throw away the key,’” Steingold said. “But that’s why we have individualized sentencing. To go that way would be to ignore the symptoms of PTSD suffered by many veterans of wars before and after Vietnam.”
The sentence didn’t sit well with Warren Police Chief William Dwyer, whose department helped capture Brodak in January 2009 with the help of Hazel Park resident Stephen Pasden Jr., who received a commendation from Warren police.
“This is a career criminal,” Dwyer said. “The fact that the judge went below the guidelines is disconcerting.”
Dwyer said Brodak’s senior citizen status doesn’t guarantee he will be law abiding.
“I will predict right now that when he gets out he will rob again,” he said.
With credit for time served and 15 percent off for good behavior, Brodak could be released into a halfway house in about seven years, Steingold said.
Dr. Steven Miller, a Grosse Ile forensic psychologist who interviewed and studied Brodak, recommended the lighter sentence. He said Brodak can be free without reoffending.
“His mood swings and erratic behaviors can be adequately stabilized and controlled with appropriate medications and regular ongoing psychological counseling,” Miller says in a report. “He has a good prognosis for reintegrating back into the community and, ultimately, for becoming a productive, law-abiding member of the community.”
Brodak spent 13 months in Vietnam in 1966 and 1967 before he was honorably discharged. He told Miller he killed many Viet Cong in battle.
Brodak showed “common symptoms” of clinical depression and signs of PTSD and high-risk behavior, and acted out in many ways, including gambling, cocaine use and dangerous motorcycle riding, in the years before his first series of robberies, Miller said. His main vice in recent years before the 2009 robberies was gambling.
“It’s all about risk-taking, playing Russian roulette with your life like he and others were forced to do in Vietnam,” Steingold said.
He was married twice, had three daughters and had been living with a woman the past several years before his 2009 arrest.
Brodak said in a letter to the judge that PTSD affected him.
“At first I was not aware of my illness and later, after it was diagnosed, there was no treatment available,” he said. “The PTSD contributed to ruining both of my marriages and it prompted me to gamble uncontrollably.”
He said his criminal solution to financial woes conflicted with his religious beliefs.
“I must say that all my life I have believed in God. … My deeply rooted moral/religious values were particularly compromised whenever I was faced with financial chaos that threatened the status quo of my family life which I value more than anything in the world,” he said.
Brodak’s downfall began after he got fired from his good-paying job as a tool and die maker at the General Motors Tech Center in Warren in 1993 for stealing a fellow employee’s Chevy Corvette from the parking lot.
“At the time I suffered the trauma of a job loss and feared for the status of providing support for my children,” Brodak said.
His children all attended college and have had successful careers, according to Steingold. One has a master’s degree and one is a college professor and book author, he said.
Brodak’s series of bank robberies over several weeks in 1994 baffled police. Law enforcers dubbed him the Mario Brothers bandit due to his resemblance to the video game’s character, “Luigi.” Brodak donned a fake mustache, large-rimmed glasses and a baseball cap. His spree drew media attention.
Brodak evaded police with the help of his disguise and method in which he ate at a restaurant after a robbery until “things cooled off,” Warren police said. He also transferred a stolen license plate onto various rental cars.
He was caught in August 1994 after two Shelby Township police detectives saw a car matching the description of the getaway vehicle for a robbery at a Citizen’s State Bank on Hayes Road in Shelby Township parked at the now-closed Tee-J’s Golf Course on 23 Mile Road in Macomb Township. Brodak was arrested after having a sandwich and a couple of beers at Tee-J’s. He was found with betting chips from the Windsor casino and betting slips from Hazel Park Raceway.
Accused of robbing eight banks in Macomb and three in Oakland, he spent more than six years in prison. After his release in about 2000, he got his skilled trades job at GM back and took early retirement in 2008. He told Miller he gambled away $60,000 of his $65,000 buyout proceeds.
His third bankruptcy attempt was denied, he said. He was “faced with home foreclosure as well as a great deal of credit card debt,” he said.
“It was at this time that I made a horrible mistake and robbed a bank in order to save my home,” he said.
Brodak’s request for leniency at his Nov. 2 sentencing was backed by comments in letters from his family, including one of his three daughters, his live-in girlfriend, siblings and nieces and nephews. All described him as a nonviolent, responsible individual who cared for and took care of his loved ones.
They said he never talked about his Vietnam service, and upon returning from his military service was quieter and more withdrawn. He never received treatment for PTSD. At age 20, he married his high school sweetheart.
“He is a troubled, tortured soul, perhaps overwhelmed with life and its responsibilities, but he is no criminal,” said his brother, Casimir Brodak, 73, of Sterling Heights.
His live-in girlfriend, Carol Kepler of Clarkston, said he frequently experienced nightmares about his combat experience and migraine headaches.
“He would never talk about it so I ceased to ask,” she said in a July 1 letter.
Kepler, who met Brodak in 2001, said no one including Brodak told her about his prior bank robbery convictions. She said Brodak had “some weird mood swings,” but called him “very caring, giving and hardworking.”
“He is very meticulous, extremely organized and a wonderful person who needs some professional help,” she said in asking for leniency.
Brodak was most recently caught in January 2009 after Pasden, who was with his wife, daughter and daughter’s boyfriend, saw Brodak scurry past him amid red smoke from an exploding dye pack at the TCF Bank on 10 Mile Road in Warren. Pasden followed Brodak’s getaway Chevy Blazer, and called police. Brodak was captured by police when he stopped at a Dequindre Road parking lot.
Also that month, he robbed the now-defunct Warren Bank branch on 19 Mile Road in Sterling Heights, and the Comerica Bank branch in a Kroger store, near 12 Mile and Dequindre roads in Warren.
By Jameson Cook
Macomb Daily Staff Writer
Brodak spared tougher sentence, gets 10 years for second series of bank robberies
Untreated post-traumatic stress disorder due to Vietnam combat combined with financial and gambling problems led to the “Mario Brothers bandit” committing a series of bank robberies in the mid-1990s.
Those problems were never resolved and Joseph Brodak resumed those criminal deeds more than a decade later.
A judge sympathized with the plight of Brodak, 65, formerly of Clarkston and Rochester Hills, and approved a downward departure from federal sentencing guidelines, ordering him to spend 10 years in federal prison for the robbery of a Warren bank in January 2009.
After learning he likely will get help for his issues, Judge Marianne Battani of U.S. District Court in Detroit sentenced him below the minimum guideline range of between 15½ and 19½ years up to 25 years. Brodak will spend five years on supervised released following the 10-year term, and he must receive treatment for gambling addiction, if deemed necessary by probation officials.
Brodak, when he was known as the Mario Brothers bandit, also spent about six years in prison and three years on parole related to robbing 11 financial institutions in Macomb and Oakland counties in the summer of 1994.
For his recent sentencing for robbing three Macomb County banks, Brodak’s attorney, David Steingold, said he requested leniency based on Brodak’s age, mental condition, service to the country and the fact that in the guidelines scoring he was penalized double for the same series of crimes, with convictions in federal court and Oakland County Circuit Court.
Steingold noted that Brodak, a 17-year General Motors employee, is not assaultive and was described as a good, hardworking family man who financially supported loved ones.
“It’s easy to look at these charges and understand how terrorized these bank tellers must have been and say, ‘Oh my, throw him in jail and throw away the key,’” Steingold said. “But that’s why we have individualized sentencing. To go that way would be to ignore the symptoms of PTSD suffered by many veterans of wars before and after Vietnam.”
The sentence didn’t sit well with Warren Police Chief William Dwyer, whose department helped capture Brodak in January 2009 with the help of Hazel Park resident Stephen Pasden Jr., who received a commendation from Warren police.
“This is a career criminal,” Dwyer said. “The fact that the judge went below the guidelines is disconcerting.”
Dwyer said Brodak’s senior citizen status doesn’t guarantee he will be law abiding.
“I will predict right now that when he gets out he will rob again,” he said.
With credit for time served and 15 percent off for good behavior, Brodak could be released into a halfway house in about seven years, Steingold said.
Dr. Steven Miller, a Grosse Ile forensic psychologist who interviewed and studied Brodak, recommended the lighter sentence. He said Brodak can be free without reoffending.
“His mood swings and erratic behaviors can be adequately stabilized and controlled with appropriate medications and regular ongoing psychological counseling,” Miller says in a report. “He has a good prognosis for reintegrating back into the community and, ultimately, for becoming a productive, law-abiding member of the community.”
Brodak spent 13 months in Vietnam in 1966 and 1967 before he was honorably discharged. He told Miller he killed many Viet Cong in battle.
Brodak showed “common symptoms” of clinical depression and signs of PTSD and high-risk behavior, and acted out in many ways, including gambling, cocaine use and dangerous motorcycle riding, in the years before his first series of robberies, Miller said. His main vice in recent years before the 2009 robberies was gambling.
“It’s all about risk-taking, playing Russian roulette with your life like he and others were forced to do in Vietnam,” Steingold said.
He was married twice, had three daughters and had been living with a woman the past several years before his 2009 arrest.
Brodak said in a letter to the judge that PTSD affected him.
“At first I was not aware of my illness and later, after it was diagnosed, there was no treatment available,” he said. “The PTSD contributed to ruining both of my marriages and it prompted me to gamble uncontrollably.”
He said his criminal solution to financial woes conflicted with his religious beliefs.
“I must say that all my life I have believed in God. … My deeply rooted moral/religious values were particularly compromised whenever I was faced with financial chaos that threatened the status quo of my family life which I value more than anything in the world,” he said.
Brodak’s downfall began after he got fired from his good-paying job as a tool and die maker at the General Motors Tech Center in Warren in 1993 for stealing a fellow employee’s Chevy Corvette from the parking lot.
“At the time I suffered the trauma of a job loss and feared for the status of providing support for my children,” Brodak said.
His children all attended college and have had successful careers, according to Steingold. One has a master’s degree and one is a college professor and book author, he said.
Brodak’s series of bank robberies over several weeks in 1994 baffled police. Law enforcers dubbed him the Mario Brothers bandit due to his resemblance to the video game’s character, “Luigi.” Brodak donned a fake mustache, large-rimmed glasses and a baseball cap. His spree drew media attention.
Brodak evaded police with the help of his disguise and method in which he ate at a restaurant after a robbery until “things cooled off,” Warren police said. He also transferred a stolen license plate onto various rental cars.
He was caught in August 1994 after two Shelby Township police detectives saw a car matching the description of the getaway vehicle for a robbery at a Citizen’s State Bank on Hayes Road in Shelby Township parked at the now-closed Tee-J’s Golf Course on 23 Mile Road in Macomb Township. Brodak was arrested after having a sandwich and a couple of beers at Tee-J’s. He was found with betting chips from the Windsor casino and betting slips from Hazel Park Raceway.
Accused of robbing eight banks in Macomb and three in Oakland, he spent more than six years in prison. After his release in about 2000, he got his skilled trades job at GM back and took early retirement in 2008. He told Miller he gambled away $60,000 of his $65,000 buyout proceeds.
His third bankruptcy attempt was denied, he said. He was “faced with home foreclosure as well as a great deal of credit card debt,” he said.
“It was at this time that I made a horrible mistake and robbed a bank in order to save my home,” he said.
Brodak’s request for leniency at his Nov. 2 sentencing was backed by comments in letters from his family, including one of his three daughters, his live-in girlfriend, siblings and nieces and nephews. All described him as a nonviolent, responsible individual who cared for and took care of his loved ones.
They said he never talked about his Vietnam service, and upon returning from his military service was quieter and more withdrawn. He never received treatment for PTSD. At age 20, he married his high school sweetheart.
“He is a troubled, tortured soul, perhaps overwhelmed with life and its responsibilities, but he is no criminal,” said his brother, Casimir Brodak, 73, of Sterling Heights.
His live-in girlfriend, Carol Kepler of Clarkston, said he frequently experienced nightmares about his combat experience and migraine headaches.
“He would never talk about it so I ceased to ask,” she said in a July 1 letter.
Kepler, who met Brodak in 2001, said no one including Brodak told her about his prior bank robbery convictions. She said Brodak had “some weird mood swings,” but called him “very caring, giving and hardworking.”
“He is very meticulous, extremely organized and a wonderful person who needs some professional help,” she said in asking for leniency.
Brodak was most recently caught in January 2009 after Pasden, who was with his wife, daughter and daughter’s boyfriend, saw Brodak scurry past him amid red smoke from an exploding dye pack at the TCF Bank on 10 Mile Road in Warren. Pasden followed Brodak’s getaway Chevy Blazer, and called police. Brodak was captured by police when he stopped at a Dequindre Road parking lot.
Also that month, he robbed the now-defunct Warren Bank branch on 19 Mile Road in Sterling Heights, and the Comerica Bank branch in a Kroger store, near 12 Mile and Dequindre roads in Warren.
Right Here, Right Now
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United to Stop Slots in Massachusetts
Right Here, Right Now with Mara Dolan Guest: Kathleen Conley Norbut from Mara Dolan on Vimeo.
For further information:United to Stop Slots in Massachusetts
The casino government should go
Jordanians want 'parliament of shame' dissolved
(AFP)
AMMAN — About 2,000 people demonstrated across Jordan on Friday to demand the dissolution of the "parliament of shame," over a suspected corruption case involving a gambling casino.
More than 1,000 Jordanians took part in a demonstration organised by the Islamist opposition in central Amman after midday prayers, also calling for the resignation of the government and the "downfall" of parliament.
MPs on Monday failed to impeach Prime Minister Maaruf Bakhit for his alleged role in a suspected graft case about a multi-million-dollar deal that his government singed with a British-based company to build a casino, between 2005 and 2007 when he first served as premier.
"The casino government should go. No to the casino parliament," read one of the banners carried by the demonstrators.
"Down with Bakhit and his gambling government. A dishonest broker cannot protect the country," they chanted.
At least three MPs have resigned in protest against the lower house's decision not to impeach Bakhit, local news reports have said.
MPs have cleared Bakhit despite a parliamentary committee report which has found the premier partially responsible.
"The people want reform and change. No immunity to the corrupt," nearly 1,000 people chanted in the southern city of Tafileh, branding the assembly a "parliament of shame."
In Karak, near Tafileh, at least 200 people demonstrated, demanding the "sacking of government and dissolution of parliament."
Police on Thursday clashed briefly with demonstrators outside parliament in central Amman before dispersing an anti-corruption protest, which called for the "imprisonment" of Bakhit over the casino issue.
Since January, Jordan has faced a protest movement demanding political and economic reforms and an end to corruption.
(AFP)
AMMAN — About 2,000 people demonstrated across Jordan on Friday to demand the dissolution of the "parliament of shame," over a suspected corruption case involving a gambling casino.
More than 1,000 Jordanians took part in a demonstration organised by the Islamist opposition in central Amman after midday prayers, also calling for the resignation of the government and the "downfall" of parliament.
MPs on Monday failed to impeach Prime Minister Maaruf Bakhit for his alleged role in a suspected graft case about a multi-million-dollar deal that his government singed with a British-based company to build a casino, between 2005 and 2007 when he first served as premier.
"The casino government should go. No to the casino parliament," read one of the banners carried by the demonstrators.
"Down with Bakhit and his gambling government. A dishonest broker cannot protect the country," they chanted.
At least three MPs have resigned in protest against the lower house's decision not to impeach Bakhit, local news reports have said.
MPs have cleared Bakhit despite a parliamentary committee report which has found the premier partially responsible.
"The people want reform and change. No immunity to the corrupt," nearly 1,000 people chanted in the southern city of Tafileh, branding the assembly a "parliament of shame."
In Karak, near Tafileh, at least 200 people demonstrated, demanding the "sacking of government and dissolution of parliament."
Police on Thursday clashed briefly with demonstrators outside parliament in central Amman before dispersing an anti-corruption protest, which called for the "imprisonment" of Bakhit over the casino issue.
Since January, Jordan has faced a protest movement demanding political and economic reforms and an end to corruption.
Alabama: Defense grills FBI agent in gambling trial
Defense grills FBI agent in gambling trial
Written by Brian Lyman
Defense lawyers had no shortage of topics to bring up Friday while cross-examining an FBI agent in a trial over alleged corruption in a scheme to pass pro-gambling legislation.
The five lawyers discussed everything from legislative procedure to FBI regulations on investigative sources, and played a tape in which VictoryLand casino owner Milton McGregor and former Senate Rules Committee chairman Lowell Barron were heard trying to use reverse psychology to secure the support of then-Sen. Jim Preuitt, a defendant in the case.
FBI Special Agent John McEachern, who began testifying Wednesday and remained on the stand all day Fri- day, was questioned closely at the beginning and end of the day, but at times appeared to be an afterthought in the arguments in U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson's courtroom.
Ben Espy, an attorney for Milton McGregor, was rebuffed in an attempt to question whether McEachern and the FBI had adequately investigated the motives of three legislators who taped their colleagues during the investigation.
The agent was on the stand Thursday, when tapes were played in which then-Sen. Larry Means, D-Attalla, and Sen. Quinton Ross, D-Montgomery, asked for financial assistance from McGregor shortly before a vote on bingo legislation. The bill would have submitted a constitutional amendment to voters on whether to approve bingo.
"Mr. McEachern has been allowed to testify broadly to his knowledge of the case," Espy said after prosecutors objected to the questioning. "I think we're allowed to test the boundaries of his knowledge and his credibility in interpreting these tapes."
Prosecutors objected that those questions suggested nullification issues, and should have been raised in pre-trial filings. Thompson allowed limited questioning on the issue but stopped Espy when he asked about whether McEachern had properly investigated those motivations, saying the quality of the FBI's work was not at issue.
McEachern testified that he did not believe the legislators who wore wires -- Sen. Scott Beason, R-Gardendale, Rep. Barry Mask, R-Wetumpka and former Rep. Benjamin Lewis, R-Dothan -- were politically motivated.
'All the exposure ... is on our side of the table'
Espy and attorney Bill Baxley, representing lobbyist Tom Coker, argued that McGregor had few guarantees under the bill that passed and put his business at risk after the legislation was revised following a defeat in early March 2010.
"It's amazing to me, it's disgusting to me we have reacted to what the opposition wanted," Espy quoted McGregor saying in a March 20, 2010, conversation. "We changed a 46-, 47-page bill to eight. We took out controversial stuff . . All the exposure, the risk is on our side of the table."
Espy also cited conversations in which McGregor seemed willing to delay a fight over tax rates on bingo in a special session that would have been called had voters approved the amendment. "He had no guarantees the tax rate wouldn't be 25 percent, 27 percent or 97 percent," Espy said.
McEachern, however, cited other phone conversations in which McGregor said a tax rate over 25 percent would be ruinous to his business.
"There are other telephone conversations where McGregor said he was not going to stand for 27 percent," McEachern said.
A 'strong scheme'
Baxley played a tape in which Milton McGregor and former Senate Rules Committee chairman Lowell Barron, D-Fyffe, tried to use reverse psychology to secure Preuitt's support for the legislation.
In the tape, recorded on March 23, 2010, McGregor tells Barron that he had 20 votes to pass the legislation, but was working on securing Sen. Jim Preuitt, R-Talladega. Twenty-one votes are needed to pass a constitutional amendment through Senate.
McGregor adds that he's told Preuitt the vote is a "matter of survival" for him.
"The risk is on the operator," McGregor told Barron. "I don't know if under this proposal if I'll get license or not."
Barron responded that he "ain't backing off that son of a b-----."
"We need to get into this pretty good, strong scheme that I am against this damn bill," Barron said. "That Lowell won't do it. That he's acting like he's for this bill but doing everything can to get you p----- off to kill the bill."
Barron recommended that McGregor "cuss and give me hell" to make it convincing. "I'll do whatever it takes to make my part look authentic," Barron said.
Baxley played additional tapes in which McGregor called Coker later that day and told him Barron was furious with him for not contributing to the Democratic caucus, while asking him to go "eyeball to eyeball" with Preuitt to secure his vote.
McGregor attorney Joe Espy said he thought the tape was "pretty funny."
"It was a story," he said. "I do think it clearly shows nobody tried to buy Jim Preuitt. If he'd been bought, no one would try to come up with a story of a feud going on."
Preuitt voted for the legislation on March 30.
Preuitt attorney Ron Wise said during his cross-examination of McEachern that the situation resembled "two children on a playground."
"Mr. McGregor and Senator Barron were playing on his heart and emotions, because they wanted him to vote for the bill," he said.
Bill Clark, an attorney for Means, argued that Means became a supporter of the bill only after it was shortened and protections for Etowah County, a portion of his district, were included.
"Legislators can have many legitimate reasons for either not voting one time and then voting another time," said Clark, such as legislation being changed or constituents providing input.
Under questioning from Clark, McEachern said that no contributions were made from McGregor to Means following a March 22, 2010 conversation between the men.
Wise also asked McEachern if he had tapes of Preuitt soliciting money or any other objects in exchange for his vote. McEachern said no.
Defense attorneys will continue to cross-examine McEachern when the trial reconvenes Tuesday. Gilley, whose testimony was interrupted this week after he suffered dehydration, is expected to resume the stand afterward.
Written by Brian Lyman
Defense lawyers had no shortage of topics to bring up Friday while cross-examining an FBI agent in a trial over alleged corruption in a scheme to pass pro-gambling legislation.
The five lawyers discussed everything from legislative procedure to FBI regulations on investigative sources, and played a tape in which VictoryLand casino owner Milton McGregor and former Senate Rules Committee chairman Lowell Barron were heard trying to use reverse psychology to secure the support of then-Sen. Jim Preuitt, a defendant in the case.
FBI Special Agent John McEachern, who began testifying Wednesday and remained on the stand all day Fri- day, was questioned closely at the beginning and end of the day, but at times appeared to be an afterthought in the arguments in U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson's courtroom.
Ben Espy, an attorney for Milton McGregor, was rebuffed in an attempt to question whether McEachern and the FBI had adequately investigated the motives of three legislators who taped their colleagues during the investigation.
The agent was on the stand Thursday, when tapes were played in which then-Sen. Larry Means, D-Attalla, and Sen. Quinton Ross, D-Montgomery, asked for financial assistance from McGregor shortly before a vote on bingo legislation. The bill would have submitted a constitutional amendment to voters on whether to approve bingo.
"Mr. McEachern has been allowed to testify broadly to his knowledge of the case," Espy said after prosecutors objected to the questioning. "I think we're allowed to test the boundaries of his knowledge and his credibility in interpreting these tapes."
Prosecutors objected that those questions suggested nullification issues, and should have been raised in pre-trial filings. Thompson allowed limited questioning on the issue but stopped Espy when he asked about whether McEachern had properly investigated those motivations, saying the quality of the FBI's work was not at issue.
McEachern testified that he did not believe the legislators who wore wires -- Sen. Scott Beason, R-Gardendale, Rep. Barry Mask, R-Wetumpka and former Rep. Benjamin Lewis, R-Dothan -- were politically motivated.
'All the exposure ... is on our side of the table'
Espy and attorney Bill Baxley, representing lobbyist Tom Coker, argued that McGregor had few guarantees under the bill that passed and put his business at risk after the legislation was revised following a defeat in early March 2010.
"It's amazing to me, it's disgusting to me we have reacted to what the opposition wanted," Espy quoted McGregor saying in a March 20, 2010, conversation. "We changed a 46-, 47-page bill to eight. We took out controversial stuff . . All the exposure, the risk is on our side of the table."
Espy also cited conversations in which McGregor seemed willing to delay a fight over tax rates on bingo in a special session that would have been called had voters approved the amendment. "He had no guarantees the tax rate wouldn't be 25 percent, 27 percent or 97 percent," Espy said.
McEachern, however, cited other phone conversations in which McGregor said a tax rate over 25 percent would be ruinous to his business.
"There are other telephone conversations where McGregor said he was not going to stand for 27 percent," McEachern said.
A 'strong scheme'
Baxley played a tape in which Milton McGregor and former Senate Rules Committee chairman Lowell Barron, D-Fyffe, tried to use reverse psychology to secure Preuitt's support for the legislation.
In the tape, recorded on March 23, 2010, McGregor tells Barron that he had 20 votes to pass the legislation, but was working on securing Sen. Jim Preuitt, R-Talladega. Twenty-one votes are needed to pass a constitutional amendment through Senate.
McGregor adds that he's told Preuitt the vote is a "matter of survival" for him.
"The risk is on the operator," McGregor told Barron. "I don't know if under this proposal if I'll get license or not."
Barron responded that he "ain't backing off that son of a b-----."
"We need to get into this pretty good, strong scheme that I am against this damn bill," Barron said. "That Lowell won't do it. That he's acting like he's for this bill but doing everything can to get you p----- off to kill the bill."
Barron recommended that McGregor "cuss and give me hell" to make it convincing. "I'll do whatever it takes to make my part look authentic," Barron said.
Baxley played additional tapes in which McGregor called Coker later that day and told him Barron was furious with him for not contributing to the Democratic caucus, while asking him to go "eyeball to eyeball" with Preuitt to secure his vote.
McGregor attorney Joe Espy said he thought the tape was "pretty funny."
"It was a story," he said. "I do think it clearly shows nobody tried to buy Jim Preuitt. If he'd been bought, no one would try to come up with a story of a feud going on."
Preuitt voted for the legislation on March 30.
Preuitt attorney Ron Wise said during his cross-examination of McEachern that the situation resembled "two children on a playground."
"Mr. McGregor and Senator Barron were playing on his heart and emotions, because they wanted him to vote for the bill," he said.
Bill Clark, an attorney for Means, argued that Means became a supporter of the bill only after it was shortened and protections for Etowah County, a portion of his district, were included.
"Legislators can have many legitimate reasons for either not voting one time and then voting another time," said Clark, such as legislation being changed or constituents providing input.
Under questioning from Clark, McEachern said that no contributions were made from McGregor to Means following a March 22, 2010 conversation between the men.
Wise also asked McEachern if he had tapes of Preuitt soliciting money or any other objects in exchange for his vote. McEachern said no.
Defense attorneys will continue to cross-examine McEachern when the trial reconvenes Tuesday. Gilley, whose testimony was interrupted this week after he suffered dehydration, is expected to resume the stand afterward.
Cost associated with increased gambling outweighs benefits
In the Spotlight: Cost associated with increased gambling outweighs benefits
Journal Star
Should Illinois' legalized gambling industry be expanded via the addition of five new casinos, plus slot machines at race tracks and airport terminals?
This hot button issue has generated considerable discussion throughout the state in recent months. A primary argument in favor of the expansion centers on the possible generation of additional revenue for needed capital projects such as roads and schools.
However, there is a pronounced downside to adding more gambling venues in Illinois. A noted authority on the adverse effects of legalized gambling - John W. Kindt, professor of business administration at the University of Illinois - has done extensive research on the economic impact of gambling both in Illinois and elsewhere. His view on the effects of gambling was set forth in an article, "Playing The Numbers: The Economic Impact of Legalized Gambling." He states:
1. The social costs of legalized gambling far outweigh any benefits.
2. Traditional businesses in areas where casinos are located incur increased personnel costs due to rising absenteeism and declining productivity.
3. Economic benefits created diminish rapidly, and in many cases casinos actually stall regional activity.
4. Gambling revenue substitutes for, rather than augments tax support of education, leading to decreased educational funding in "real" dollars.
5. In Illinois no more than 35 percent of casino revenues are returned to state and local governments and at a minimum two-thirds of the money lost by Illinois gamblers goes back to Las Vegas.
Kindt concludes, "Simply put, you don't have to expand gambling in Illinois to raise more tax money. Just raise the taxes on casinos in operation, and you'll get revenues right away."
Gov. Quinn will be taking the high ground if he vetoes Illinois Senate Bill 744.
E. Garrett Stone
Peoria
Journal Star
Should Illinois' legalized gambling industry be expanded via the addition of five new casinos, plus slot machines at race tracks and airport terminals?
This hot button issue has generated considerable discussion throughout the state in recent months. A primary argument in favor of the expansion centers on the possible generation of additional revenue for needed capital projects such as roads and schools.
However, there is a pronounced downside to adding more gambling venues in Illinois. A noted authority on the adverse effects of legalized gambling - John W. Kindt, professor of business administration at the University of Illinois - has done extensive research on the economic impact of gambling both in Illinois and elsewhere. His view on the effects of gambling was set forth in an article, "Playing The Numbers: The Economic Impact of Legalized Gambling." He states:
1. The social costs of legalized gambling far outweigh any benefits.
2. Traditional businesses in areas where casinos are located incur increased personnel costs due to rising absenteeism and declining productivity.
3. Economic benefits created diminish rapidly, and in many cases casinos actually stall regional activity.
4. Gambling revenue substitutes for, rather than augments tax support of education, leading to decreased educational funding in "real" dollars.
5. In Illinois no more than 35 percent of casino revenues are returned to state and local governments and at a minimum two-thirds of the money lost by Illinois gamblers goes back to Las Vegas.
Kindt concludes, "Simply put, you don't have to expand gambling in Illinois to raise more tax money. Just raise the taxes on casinos in operation, and you'll get revenues right away."
Gov. Quinn will be taking the high ground if he vetoes Illinois Senate Bill 744.
E. Garrett Stone
Peoria
Friday, July 1, 2011
The Massachusetts' Obsession
Massachusetts' State House is perched atop Beacon Hill and houses the legislature and the Governor.
Each year, elected officials, State Senators and State Representatives, the local officials we elect in our cities and towns, elect 'leadership.'
In the Senate, it is currently Senate President 'Cha Ching' Murray.
In the House, it is currently House Speaker 'Racino' DeLeo, mired in the Probation Dept. Scandal, carefully groomed by now convicted former House Speaker Sal DiMasi.
Mr. DeLeo has held the People's House and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts hostage to his obsession: Expanded Gambling.
The Commonwealth has no budget while the Speaker has campaigned for Expanded Gambling which would benefit his district.
Legislation that has been stalled is barely trickling out, such as the bill discussed below. Is anyone asking why our elected officials support this?
Mass. Senate passes anti-human trafficking bill
By Colleen Quinn
State House News Service
Posted Jun 30, 2011 @ 06:39 PM
BOSTON —
The Senate unanimously passed an anti-human trafficking bill Thursday, approving legislation that differs significantly from a House proposal and putting Massachusetts closer to offering new tools to deal with horrific sex and labor trafficking cases.
The Senate bill increased the mandatory minimum sentences for human trafficking from 15 to 20 years, added new criminal penalties for organ trafficking, and imposed fines up to $1 million on businesses found engaging in human trafficking.
Sen. Mark Montigny, the lead sponsor of the bill, said he was pleased to see the bill advance “after years of frustration and pessimism.” He said he was confident it would finally become law.
Montigny, a New Bedford Democrat, has filed the bill for the past six years. It has passed in the Senate before, but never made it through both branches. Senators said it’s likely headed for a six-member conference committee, which would be charged with producing a single bill.
“I really think for the first time both branches are determined to get this done,” Montigny said. “I feel very strongly we won’t have a break down in conference.”
In June, the House unanimously passed an anti-human trafficking bill that would give prosecutors new tools to target prostitution and forced labor networks. Attorney General Martha Coakley has also pushed lawmakers to pass human trafficking legislation.
During debate in the Senate Thursday, Montigny said he was “sad” for the victims of human trafficking that it took so long to pass. He said it is time for Massachusetts residents to realize human trafficking occurs in this state so more people can be vigilant about stopping it.
“We need to convince people in every neighborhood of this commonwealth that this is going on,” Montigny said. “Some of the most horrendous cases have been in wealthy suburbs.”
The Senate adopted an amendment instituting a $1,000 fine for so-called “Johns” convicted of a first-time offense. Senators said they hope the stiff fines will convince individuals involved in soliciting prostitutes that they contribute to human trafficking.
Both the House and Senate bills include so-called "safe harbor" provisions that would allow juveniles under 18 to avoid prosecution in certain cases if a judge determines they were victimized by trafficking.
The Senate bill also provides state-funded social services to victims of sexual exploitation or forced labor.
If signed by Gov. Deval Patrick, Massachusetts will join 47 other states with trafficking laws already on the books. The governor of Hawaii recently signed a trafficking law.
Copyright 2011 The Enterprise. Some rights reserved
Read more: http://www.enterprisenews.com/archive/x1721561432/Mass-Senate-passes-anti-human-trafficking-bill#ixzz1Qq4b9VkS
Each year, elected officials, State Senators and State Representatives, the local officials we elect in our cities and towns, elect 'leadership.'
In the Senate, it is currently Senate President 'Cha Ching' Murray.
In the House, it is currently House Speaker 'Racino' DeLeo, mired in the Probation Dept. Scandal, carefully groomed by now convicted former House Speaker Sal DiMasi.
Mr. DeLeo has held the People's House and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts hostage to his obsession: Expanded Gambling.
The Commonwealth has no budget while the Speaker has campaigned for Expanded Gambling which would benefit his district.
Legislation that has been stalled is barely trickling out, such as the bill discussed below. Is anyone asking why our elected officials support this?
Mass. Senate passes anti-human trafficking bill
By Colleen Quinn
State House News Service
Posted Jun 30, 2011 @ 06:39 PM
BOSTON —
The Senate unanimously passed an anti-human trafficking bill Thursday, approving legislation that differs significantly from a House proposal and putting Massachusetts closer to offering new tools to deal with horrific sex and labor trafficking cases.
The Senate bill increased the mandatory minimum sentences for human trafficking from 15 to 20 years, added new criminal penalties for organ trafficking, and imposed fines up to $1 million on businesses found engaging in human trafficking.
Sen. Mark Montigny, the lead sponsor of the bill, said he was pleased to see the bill advance “after years of frustration and pessimism.” He said he was confident it would finally become law.
Montigny, a New Bedford Democrat, has filed the bill for the past six years. It has passed in the Senate before, but never made it through both branches. Senators said it’s likely headed for a six-member conference committee, which would be charged with producing a single bill.
“I really think for the first time both branches are determined to get this done,” Montigny said. “I feel very strongly we won’t have a break down in conference.”
In June, the House unanimously passed an anti-human trafficking bill that would give prosecutors new tools to target prostitution and forced labor networks. Attorney General Martha Coakley has also pushed lawmakers to pass human trafficking legislation.
During debate in the Senate Thursday, Montigny said he was “sad” for the victims of human trafficking that it took so long to pass. He said it is time for Massachusetts residents to realize human trafficking occurs in this state so more people can be vigilant about stopping it.
“We need to convince people in every neighborhood of this commonwealth that this is going on,” Montigny said. “Some of the most horrendous cases have been in wealthy suburbs.”
The Senate adopted an amendment instituting a $1,000 fine for so-called “Johns” convicted of a first-time offense. Senators said they hope the stiff fines will convince individuals involved in soliciting prostitutes that they contribute to human trafficking.
Both the House and Senate bills include so-called "safe harbor" provisions that would allow juveniles under 18 to avoid prosecution in certain cases if a judge determines they were victimized by trafficking.
The Senate bill also provides state-funded social services to victims of sexual exploitation or forced labor.
If signed by Gov. Deval Patrick, Massachusetts will join 47 other states with trafficking laws already on the books. The governor of Hawaii recently signed a trafficking law.
Copyright 2011 The Enterprise. Some rights reserved
Read more: http://www.enterprisenews.com/archive/x1721561432/Mass-Senate-passes-anti-human-trafficking-bill#ixzz1Qq4b9VkS
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