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- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - FYI: News Items of Interest, 04/28/2005 (2 items) Compiled by Rose Soza War Soldier Additional information about sources available at the end of the message. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - [1] “Bill Granting Tax Breaks for Tribal Resorts Clears Panel,” Evan Halper, The Los Angeles Times, April 28, 2005, pg. B3. Copyright 2005 Los Angeles Times, All Rights Reserved. [“Sacramento, CA: A bill that would allow wealthy Indian tribes to use millions of dollars worth of tax breaks to finance the expansion of gambling resorts was approved Wednesday by a key state Senate committee. The controversial measure would make California the first state to extend the tax breaks to tribes seeking to build hotels, golf courses and restaurants around casinos, potentially fueling the expansion of Las Vegas-style resorts. Supporters of the bill, who have collected hundreds of thousands of dollars in contributions from the tribes, are pushing the measure even as the Internal Revenue Service tries to stop the sale of tax-exempt bonds to finance resorts. ‘I'm not quite sure why there is all this angst about allowing tribes to do exactly what cities can do,’ said the bill's sponsor, Sen. Dean Florez (D- Shafter). He said cities currently use the bonds to subsidize hotels and convention centers. ‘If a city and county can do it, we believe a tribe should be able to do it as well.’ Members of the Senate Revenue and Taxation Committee agreed and with little discussion voted unanimously to approve the measure, SB 995. At issue is whether tribes can raise money by selling state- authorized tax-exempt bonds for construction projects. Such bonds are typically used by governments to pay for sewers, roads and other public improvements. The bill would allow tribes to use them for those purposes, but Florez said it would also let investors claim the tax exemption to build amenities, such as golf courses and hotels, around their casinos. . . .Meanwhile, the IRS is going in the other direction. It says the bonds are off-limits for resort projects, that they are for ‘essential government functions’ only. IRS auditors declared earlier this month that the bonds used at Fantasy Springs should not have been exempt from taxes and that they will be seeking to collect from those investors.”] [2] “Church Founder Sues for the Return of Peyote Seized in Utah County,” Pamela Manson, The Salt Lake Tribune, April 28, 2005, pg. B2. Copyright 2005 The Salt Lake Tribune, All Rights Reserved. [“Salt Lake, UT: An American Indian church and its founder filed suit Wednesday against Utah County authorities. It seeks the return of peyote seized in a 2000 raid and a court order blocking any interference with the use of the hallucinogenic in religious ceremonies. James "Flaming Eagle" Mooney said he wants to resume use of the "medicine" after more than four years of legal battles over the right of all members of his Oklevueha Earthwalks Native American Church to take part in ceremonies, regardless of ethnicity. . . .Mooney's lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Salt Lake City, names as defendants Utah County Attorney Kay Bryson, Deputy County Attorney David Wayment and several other individuals he says deprived him, his wife, Linda Mooney, and other church members of their constitutional rights. In addition to return of the peyote, the suit seeks unspecified monetary damages. The Mooneys were charged in state court with a dozen first-degree felony counts after police seized 12,000 peyote buttons during an October 2000 raid at the Utah County church. The criminal charges were dismissed after the Utah Supreme Court ruled unanimously last June that members of the Native American Church cannot be prosecuted for using peyote as part of their religion.”] - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - FYI: News Items of Interest is a daily resource compiled by the H-AMINDIAN staff. It features a sampling of news stories concerning Native issues in Canada, the United States and Mexico. In order to comply with Academic Fair Use and copyright laws, only a summary of the news articles is offered here. We will not reproduce articles in whole. Only stories from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) offer a direct link to the article in question (the link follows immediately after the summary). However, online links to all of our sources are available at our website: http://www.asu.edu/clas/history/h-amindian/list.html. Your college, university, or public library may provide access to online data bases and services (such as Lexis-Nexis, ProQuest, or Dialog) with full-text versions of these and other stories. H-AMINDIAN is part of the H-NET family and is housed in the Department of History, Arizona State University.
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