RESORTS- East Chicago Indiana

[magoo]

http://nwitimes.com/articles/2006/11...210001a3e3.txt

E.C. casino case gets boost from state AG

BY PATRICK GUINANE

INDIANAPOLIS | Indiana Attorney General Steve Carter has asked the Indiana Court of Appeals to cut off a politically connected East Chicago company that has reaped $16 million in casino cash under a controversial side deal brokered by former Mayor Robert Pastrick.

This isn't the first time Carter has advocated ending the $2 million annual subsidy that flows to East Chicago Second Century, a private, for-profit development firm headed by Pastrick allies Thomas Cappas and Michael Pannos.

"This private company has eluded public scrutiny and avoided accountability, despite being paid millions of dollars in riverboat-gambling revenue that the Legislature intended to benefit communities and citizens," Carter said Wednesday. "The agreement between the riverboat entity and this organization should be declared void."

The local casino -- currently owned by Resorts East Chicago -- has sent Second Century a 0.75 percent cut of its annual revenue under an agreement that Pastrick brokered in 1994. Second Century received $16 million during the last decade but has built only 61 low-income apartments, six homes and a dozen townhouses in East Chicago, Carter said in a June report that led the Indiana Gaming Commission to cancel the firm's casino subsidy.

The amicus -- or friend-of-the-court -- brief Carter filed this week is not a significant development in the case, said Second Century attorney J. Lee McNeely. Carter filed a similar brief when the case was before a lower court.

East Chicago, led by current Mayor George Pabey, is appealing a Marion County's judge's decision in June to uphold the Second Century subsidy, as well as two others that flow to a pair of nonprofits collectively known as Foundations of East Chicago.

All told, the deals are worth roughly $8 million a year. Pabey argues that his administration could put those economic-development dollars to better use.

The Second Century subsidy was frozen after the Gaming Commission's action in June. Since then, about $1 million has gone into an escrow account pending the court case's outcome, Carter said.

The Indiana Court of Appeals is not expected to hear arguments in the case until sometime next year.

[captZEEbo]

what does this mean?

[StepBangin]

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what does this say?

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[shaniac]

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what does this mean?

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I think some mobbed-up developers in chicago, or indiana or somewhere, didn't build as much low-income housing as they were supposed to in return for the casino profits the old corrupt mayor had secured for them.

[magoo]

You got it right. East Chicago Indiana's former Mayor Robert Pastrick, in office when the deal was cut with (then) Harrah's. Pastrick who is retired, and Mike Tyson have the same criminal defense lawyer, (who has managed to keep the ex-mayor a free man). East Chicago Indiana is one bizarre town...For example, it's apparent (documented news accounts) cops who get promoted in East Chicago Indiana, frequently go into the cocaine business. Harrah's is involved in interstate commerce. I don't see how that deal slipped by the feds.

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what does this mean?

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I think some mobbed-up developers in chicago, or indiana or somewhere, didn't build as much low-income housing as they were supposed to in return for the casino profits the old corrupt mayor had secured for them.

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[chicagoY]

You know it's stuff like this that makes me wonder how people can actually think politicians aren't corrupt.

[shaniac]

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East Chicago Indiana is one bizarre town...For example, it's apparent (documented news accounts) cops who get promoted in East Chicago Indiana, frequently go into the cocaine business

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What does this mean? When they promote a cop up the rank, they give him a new uniform and a kilo of coke?