Legal trouble is threatening two mega-casino projects proposed by tribes from Lake County. The Koi Nation and the Scotts Valley Band of Pomo Indians are aiming to build separate casinos in Windsor and Vallejo. The project’s approvals are being challenged in federal court by other tribes and the communities where they would go. Among the opponents–tribal groups near the proposed sites, which say the casinos have nothing to do with ancestral land, and everything to do with cashing in on lucrative gaming markets near the Bay Area. Lake County News also reports that residents in the communities nearby also argue that the Department of the Interior steamrolled the process, only approving the casinos in the waning days of the Biden Administration. Also lining up against the gaming facilities–the Newsom administration, which has written to the Interior Department urging it to reconsider its ruling. The Koi and Pomo tubes have 60 days to respond to the latest lawsuits filed last week.
The state is out with its latest child vaccination numbers, and they show that the California rates for kindergarten students are above the national average. The assessment for the last school year shows 95 percent of students entering kindergarten have the required measles, mumps, and rubella shots. Some states have reported those rates as low as 82 percent, below what experts say prevents the viruses from spreading. An outbreak of measles in the southwest has been spreading–primarily among unvaccinated kids. Two children have died. Doctors say the vaccines are safe and effective and that there is no credible evidence that they cause autism
