Hoodnotes6

In 1993, most Tigua lived in poverty. The tribe's school dropout and unemployment rates exceeded 50%. With economy in shames, the tribe opened the Speaking Rock Casino & Entertainment Center.

By 2000, profits from gaming topped $50 million. The Tigua built homes, set up a health care system and built a modern education center. Unemployment fell as tribal members found jobs in their gaming industry.

Despite this success, the tribe could not overcome the objection of Southern conservative Baptists in Texas and ambitious politicians, including a governor with presidential aspirations and an attorney general with his eye on a seat in the US Senate. Republican attorney general John Cornyn, who is currently a US Senator, filed a lawsuit against the Tigua casino contending the tribe needed the state's consent for gaming.

Hired by Jack Abramoff to oppose the casino on moral grounds, former Christian Coalition leader Ralph Reed used his influence with Texas ministers to stir up public opposition and lobby the Texas legislature. The court ordered the Speaking Rock closed, a decision that became final following several appeals in 2002.

Tigua tribal members and their neighbors lost an estimated 600 jobs. The casino's closure proved to be a windfall for Republican politicians that used it as a campaign issue and an area Republican campaign contributor with gaming interests in nearby New Mexico.

Within days of the casino's closing, Abramoff contacted the Tigua, offering his service in getting Congress to reopen it. Abramoff and his partner Michael Scanlon received $4.2 million from the Tigua.

As a result of Senate Indian Affairs Committee hearings, widely publicized e-mails show links between Abramoff, Reed, who received $4 million for his work in getting the casino closed, and Cornyn. In one email to Reed, Abramoff wrote, "I wish those moronic Tiguas were smarter in their political contributions. I'd love us to get our mitts on that moolah!! Oh well, stupid folks get wiped out." Reed responded, "Got it."

Abramoff and Scanlon swindled the Tigua. They secretly worked with Reed to close the casino, and then collected millions from them in a failed attempt to reopen the gaming facility. Abramoff and Scanlon refused to answer questions from the Indian Affairs Committee, citing their constitutional right against self-incrimination.

Housing Bubble Issue (801)

Fibroids: Menace or Malign Issue (802)

Books for Blacks Issue (803)

Academic Freedom or Neocon Agenda Issue (805)

CBC on Privatizing Social Security Issue (806)

Exercise and Depression Issue (807)

The Quilt: Road Map to Freedom Issue (809)

Housing Discrimination Issue (810)

Depleted Uranium: A Misnomer Issue (811)

Racism in Public Education Issue (812)

NAACP Image Awards Issue (813)

Missing the Point Issue (814)

Engel v. Vitale (1962): Establishment Clause Issue (815)

Falling Consumer Confidence and Rising Prices Issue (816)

Appraisal Inflation Issue (817)

Three Strikes and Mandatory Minimums Issue (819)

Reality TV Issue (820)

Drowning in Sea of Debt Issue (821)

Hotel Rwanda Issue (822)

The Watergate Scandal Issue (823)

Contemporary Texas Lynching Issue (824)

Abramoff’s Tigua Ripoff Issue (825)

The Drama in Drama Issue (827)

Venus: A Person of Soul Issue (828)

Toxic Waste Tsunami Issue (829)

Voting Rights Act (VRA) Re-Authorization Issue (830)

Black Mega-Church Disaffection Issue (831)

Sheehan Says “No More!” Issue (832)

Pump Pain Issue (833)

Disparities in Medicare Services Issue (834)

Wal-Mart, USA Issue (835)

Cracker Barrel Issue (836)

Blackwater KKK Without Sheets Issue (838)

Childhood Poverty in the USA Issue (839)

Hard Prejudice: Now You Know! Issue (840)

Jury Selection Plan Overturned Issue (841)

Some Sobering Statistics Issue (842)

Mr. Conservative Issue (843)

Tobacco Dangers Issue (844)

School Discipline and Dropout Rates Issue (845)

Minimum Wage Holiday Issue (846)

Doomsday Loans Issue (848)

A Revolutionary Reality…By John Burl Smith Issue (849)

Counterintelligence Program (COINTELPRO) Issue (851)

Volume 7…………………………………….2004

******

Stereotyping Africa Issue 1

Classic While Black Issue 2

Pimping Black Church Issue 4

Classic While Black: NY Update Issue 5

3/5 Compromised Electability Issue 6

Controversial Dress Code Issue 8

"Hoovervilles" 2004 Issue 9

Keeping the Promise of Social Security Issue 10

Grandparents Raising Grandchildren Issue 11

Quotas Issue 12

Criminalizing Childhood and Choking Creativity Issue 13

Race Riot Reparations Lawsuit Dismissed Issue 14

Constitutionally Strict Scalia? Issue 15

Brazil Issue 16

Cheney's Resistance to FACA Rules Issue 17

Lynching or Suicide?...By John Burl Smith Issue 18

Toombs' Segregated Proms Issue 19

Lethal "Beauty" Regime Issue 20

Preserve Public Broadcasting Issue 21

Times' Lies and Media Blind-Sides Issue 22

Juneteenth Issue 24

Standard Oil Legacy: US Business Practices Issue 25

Oil Companies' Complicity Issue 26

Mass Transit: Taxation and Opposition Issue 27

Innocent Tease or Intentional Put Down Issue 28

Feith: An Israel Firster? Issue 29

Defining Edwards Issue 31

Operation Iraqi Liberation (OIL) Issue 32

Majette: Making Senate History Issue 33

Legacy of Discrimination in Higher Education Issue 34

Families Protesting Bush’s Wars Issue 35

Poverty in the USA Issue 37

Aspartame Lawsuits Issue 39

Sprawl Study Issue 40

Cheap Tricks Issue 42

Olives on Mount Olives Issue 45

Soul Food Issue 46

The Birth of a Nation (1915) Issue 48

The Matrix: Stolen Property Issue 49

A Pig with Lipstick Issue 50

Threats, Challenges and Change Issue 52

Volume 6…………………………………….2003

******

Issue 1

Exporting Exploitation

The United States, international financial institutions and Europe were identified in separate reports as partly responsible for the famine in Africa. Food First/Institute for Food and Development Policy and the United Nations, charged the World Bank (WB) and International Monetary Fund (IMF), backed by US muscle, with exacerbating African hunger through programs that fatten the coffers of multinational corporations at the expense of poor people.

IMF/WB economic structural adjustment plans force indebted nations to pay down debt by cutting services for their citizens, exporting crops, dismantling crop reserves and devaluing their currencies. The reports condemned the US for causing the hardship then providing aid that amounts to a de facto means of product support for US farmers. Europe and the US keep Africans in poverty by perpetuating a system of closed markets and heavily subsidized agriculture.

Exporting Exploitation Issue 1

Testing Overboard Issue 2

Fatal Formula Issue 3

Oil and Gas Issue 4

Peeping Poin Issue 5

Minority Report (2002) Issue 6

UN: Body for World Peace Issue 7

The Inevitability of War Issue 8

African HIV/AIDS Issue 9

Syphilis-AIDS Connection Issue 9

Academic and Athletic Admissions at UGA Issue 10

MOAB - Massive Ordnance Air Blast Bomb Issue 11

Pondering Prospects Issue 12

Every Child Every Bomb Issue 13

License to Kill: Contemporary Lynching Issue 14

Cornelius P. Rhoads Memorial Award Issue 18

Annual Malcolm X-Day Issue 19

Bush to World: "Drop Dead!" Issue 22

"Afro-Descendant Minorities" Issue 23

A Sin Against God! Issue 24

"Flag Wars:" A POV Gentrification Documentary Issue 25

Lockheed Equal Opportunity? Issue 30

Misery Index 2003 Issue 31

Food Additives and Contaminants Issue 32

The Theft of Your Vote Is Just a Chip Away Issue 33

A Shameful Betrayal…By John Burl Smith Issue 34

Globalization Issue 36

Democratization of United Nations Issue 38

The Life of David Gale Issue 39

What Could Not Be Said…By John Burl Smith Issue 40

Update Cobell v Norton Issue 41

The Inquisition of Moussaoui Issue 42

Reject Ramadan Repast Issue 43

Natural Locks and Lawsuits Issue 44

Propagandizing Lynch Issue 45

Tubman's Posthumous Pension Issue 46

Response to Email on MARTA Issue 47

Slave Reparations Scams Issue 48

Gay Rights vs. Civil Rights Issue 49

Stress on Health Issue 50

Driving While Black in Georgia Issue 51

Homelessness and Hunger Issue 52

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