thursday, april 8, 2004
state
the university daily kansan
9A
Wyandotte Nation fights Kansas to keep casino
The Associated Press
TOPEKA - For the third time in a week, a federal judge has denied a request from the Wyandotte Nation of Oklahoma for a temporary restraining order that would allow the tribe to keep its Kansas City, Kan., casino open.
U. S. District Judge Julie Robinson said yesterday that the Wyandotte Nation has not shown that it would suffer irreparable harm if the casino were to remain closed, nor did it show convincing evidence it would win a legal fight to keep its casino operation open.
Last week, a federal judge in Washington, D.C., denied a request from the tribe for a temporary restraining order, and the same judge denied a similar request this week.
Local and state officials last Friday closed the downtown casino — located in narrow trailers that are encased in paneling and attached to a renovated Masonic Lodge building—and hauled off more than $1 million in cash and property, including about 150 gambling machines.
The Wyandotte Nation said the state has no jurisdiction on what the tribe says is tribal land. An attorney for the tribe asked
Robinson yesterday to prohibit the state from taking any further enforcement action and to order the return of the seized property.
Conly Schulte, representing the tribe, called the state's closing of the casino an egregious violation of tribal sovereignty.
"Even if we were to assume that gaming is unlawful on that land, it's solely up to the federal government to prosecute," Schulte said. "It's not in the state's jurisdiction."
Kansas Attorney General
Phill Kline sued the National
Indian Gaming Commission
and the U.S. Department of the
Interior last fall after the Wyan-
dotte Tribe of Oklahoma opened the casino.
Late last month, the gaming commission ruled the casino was operating illegally and gave the tribe a week to respond. After that week passed, state and local officials stepped in and closed the casino.
"The state has no jurisdiction to enforce any of its gambling laws on land owned by the Wyandotte Indian Nation," Schulte told Robinson.
Assistant State Attorney General Steve Alexander said the state disagrees that the property can be classified as tribal land, an issue he said was left up in the air by a 1996 federal
appeals court ruling that allowed the land to be placed in trust for the tribe.
Jackie Rapstine, an attorney representing the gaming commission and the U.S. Department of Justice, said that if the property is tribal land, the state did not have the authority to act.
There is a difference between land purchased by a tribe and "tribal land," the attorney general's office said. Gambling is allowed on traditional tribal land, so long as it meets certain criteria, but generally isn't permitted on land that's only owned by a tribe.
Alexander said it could take several years to resolve issues
such as jurisdiction and legality of the casino, and in the meantime the state would have no authority over an unregulated gambling operation.
"Is it reasonable to expect Kansas to sit there twiddling its thumbs for the next five years while the Wyandotte tribe opens and runs an unregulated casino?" Alexander said.
Robinson gave both sides two weeks to respond to a motion by the federal government to dismiss the Wyandotte case, and set a May 4 hearing on whether to issue a preliminary injunction against the gaming commission and Kansas officials.
Soldiers' deaths mourned at Ft. Riley
The Associated Press
FORT RILEY — With skies overcast and the noise of a distant artillery practice in the background, several hundred mourners filled a chapel on the Fort Riley Army post to honor five soldiers who died in Iraq.
The service occurred as troops still in Iraq faced the fiercest fighting since Baghdad fell last year.
During the ceremony's quietest moments, the deep rumbling of fire from artillery practice on base could be heard.
The five soldiers, killed March 31 in a roadside bombing, were 1st Lt. Doyle M. Hufstedler, 25, of Abilene, Texas; Spc. Sean R. Mitchell, 24, of Youngsville, Pa.; Spc. Michael G. Karr Jr., 23, of San Antonio, Texas; Pfc. Cleston C. Raney, 20, of Rupert, Idaho; and Pvt. Brandon L. Davis, 20, of Cumber-
"As I look at these young faces, I think that they could be my young sons or their friends."
Kathleen Sebelius Kansas governor
Several officers who spoke during the ceremony made reference to the ongoing fighting in Iraq.
Lt. Col. Tim Willoughby, chaplain for the Army's 1st Infantry Division, noted that a year ago, Fort Riley saw its first casualty from the war in Iraq, Sgt. Jacob Butler. Thirty-five of the post's soldiers have died.
"This has become a familiar experience for us at Fort Riley,"
Willoughby said during the service. "It's painfully familiar but it certainly has not become routine, nor will it ever be so."
Hufstedler's wife, Leslie Mitchell's wife, Denise, and an aunt of Raney's, Gloria Trivitt, attended and met with Maj. Gen. Dennis Hardy, the post's commander, before the service began.
Hufstedler was to be a firsttime father. His daughter's birth is expected later this spring.
Gov. Kathleen Sebelius also attended the service, along with area legislators.
After the service, Sebelius noted that she is the mother of two sons, ages 19 and 22.
"As I look at these young faces, I think that they could be my young sons or their friends," she said.
About 4,400 Fort Riley soldiers remain in Iraq. The men who died were members of the 1st Engineer Battalion, 1st Brigade of the 1st
Infantry Division. Their unit denoted in September.
The battalion, organized in 1846, has fought in every American war since, except the Korean War in 1950-53. Ten soldiers from the battalion have died in Iraq.
In all, at least 600 U.S. troops have died in Iraq since the war began March 20, 2003.
President Bush declared an end to major combat on May 1.
However, in Iraq yesterday, troops were dealing with an intensified uprising involving both Sunni and Shiite Muslims.
American Marines fought a fierce battle for Fullujah, a Sunni Muslim stronghold, firing rockets that hit a mosque. Also, the U.S. military's deputy head of operations said U.S. forces were trying to hunt down members of an army loyal to a radical Shiite Muslim cleric.
Gates foundation aides upgrades
The Associated Press
HARTFORD — Elmendaro Township Library is the only place within a 20-minute drive to check out a book.
It's small—just a couple of rooms in a former restaurant-coin laundry in Hartford, in east-central Kansas.
It's open 20 hours a week for the 500 people who live in Hartford and the 500 others who live in the surrounding township.
It operates on an annual budget of less than $20,000.
But it has two personal computers that the public can use for free.
Students in Elmendaro Township can use them to connect to the World Wide Web to help with their homework.
Their parents regularly use the machines for such things as
sending e-mail and getting driving directions.
Like other libraries across the country, Hartford got its computers for free, through grants.
But experts are worried that U.S. libraries - especially smaller ones with nickel-thin budgets - will have a hard time paying for software upgrades and hardware replacements that are needed every few years.
The Gates Foundation has been making "sustainability grants" to state libraries to help them through the rough economy.
These require matching funds.
The foundation also is funding self-sustaining programs that will help librarians get computer training.
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