Barstow Politics

Barstow man building solar farm

2010-08-10T22:25:00.000-07:00

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Barstow man building solar farm near Lenwood Road

Lynn Potter challenging city stipulation to pave road

August 10, 2010 3:11 PM

By JESSICA CEJNAR, staff writer

BARSTOW • A Barstow man is moving forward with development of a solar farm about a quarter mile off Lenwood Road, but he’s challenging a city requirement that he build a road on the border of the project.
Lynn Potter, owner of Barstow Prosthetics, received a conditional use permit Monday to build a 1.5 megawatt solar farm — which will power about 1,000 homes — on Tortoise Road north of Lenwood Road. He plans to appeal the road requirement to the City Council.
Potter’s solar farm will be located on about 12 acres of land and will be built in five phases. The project cost is expected to be between $3.5 million and $4 million. He is currently pursuing a federal grant that will cover 30 percent of the project cost if Potter can get 5 percent of the solar farm built by the end of 2010.
Now that he has his conditional use permit, Potter can pursue a power purchase agreement with Southern California Edison and take other steps to build out his project. He hopes the Council will agree to a deferred improvement agreement, which will allow him to pave the road at a later date. Building a road at that site now would create a safety hazard and open the city up to a lawsuit, he said.
“It’s a quarter-mile-long straight flat road, and if anybody got hurt on it a good lawyer would sue this town for every penny it’s got stashed away,” he said Tuesday.
The city would need financial assurance on the part of the developer before it entered into a deferred improvement agreement, said City Planner Mike Massimini. City staff is reluctant to issue deferred improvement agreements because many property owners don’t make those improvements. The city has to come in, make the improvements and place a lien on the property, Massimini said.
Although he couldn’t put a number on it, Massimini said the Planning Commission has granted many deferred improvement agreements in the past. Deferred improvements agreements can also be approved by the city engineer.
Potter told the Planning Commission he would be willing to start an escrow account, put up a bond or make annual deposits to the city for paving the road if the city granted the deferred improvement.
It would be up to the City Council to review Potters’ documents, Massimini told planning commissioners. The Council on Aug. 2 discussed deferred improvement agreements in connection with the First Samoan Full Gospel Pentecostal Church, which wants to build a church at Vineyard Street and Avenue J.
When asked if Potter would have to pay a development impact fee on his project, Massimini said that would be up to the city’s building official. Development impact fees pay for an increased demand on city services, such as public safety, due the building of a structure like a hotel or a house, Massimini said.

Contact the writer:
or jcejnar@desertdispatch.com

Major Solar Project for Barstow Region

2009-06-23T13:46:00.000-07:00

Public voice concerns, questions about solar project

By Jessica Cejnar, Desert Dispatch

BARSTOW • Representatives from local businesses, higher education, conservation groups and individual residents asked questions and gave their opinions on a proposed solar power project that will be built east of Newberry Springs.

Tessera Solar and Stirling Energy Systems transported two busloads of people 37 miles down Interstate 40 to the proposed site for their Calico-Solar One power project Monday afternoon. What is now an empty stretch of desert may soon house 24,000 to 34,000 mirrored solar dishes. The proposed project will have the capability of generating between 500 and 850 megawatts of electricity, powering up to 425,000 homes. The site visit was followed immediately by a public hearing.

Tessera representatives said they estimate needing 100 to 700 workers during construction, which is planned for late 2010, and 140 full time workers once the project is complete. About 75 percent of those workers will be local, they said.

The proposed 8,200-acre facility is bordered by the Cady Mountains to the North and the Pisgah Crater Area of Environmental Concern to the east. When folks were given an opportunity to step off the busses, their concerns ranged from road access to air and water pollution to concerns about potential impacts to endangered species. People were also concerned with how many jobs this project would bring the community.

“People in the Greater Barstow community have a very earned suspect about energy companies based on past experiences,” said Yermo resident Joe Orawczyk, referencing Hinkley’s prior experience with Pacific Gas and Electric.

Orawczyk visited the site on his own Saturday and did his own research in addition to perusing Tessera Solar’s application for certification that was submitted to the Bureau of Land Management and California Energy Commission. He brought almost 19 pages of questions and comments with him to the meeting.

Among Orawczyk’s concerns was whether or not Tessera’s project would deplete the underground aquifer.

“The water table is 310 feet below (ground),” he said. “My concern is that the aquifer will run out eventually.”

Jeff Aardahl, California representative for Defenders of Wildlife, recommended additional analysis be done on the impacts the project could have on the desert tortoise and desert big horn sheep populations.

“Data needs to be much more detailed and disclosed to the public,” he said.

Not everyone was concerned about the projects, Allen Malloy was there in the hopes of developing a relationship between Tessera and the company he works for, Goodspeed Distributing, a fuel and lubricant supplier based in Hesperia.

Malloy and Goodspeed lubricant Sales Manager Jaime Diaz said they hope that instead of getting their fuel and lubricant needs from another company outside of the high desert, Tessera Energy will work with them.

“Our sales dollars go a long way in the community,” Malloy said. “If there’s an opportunity for my company to grow, we will try to make that business relationship (work).”

For those who weren’t able to make the public hearing and want to comment about the project, they can e-mail their comments to docket@energy.state.ca.us. The docket number for the project is 08-AFC-13.

The Obama Eight: and CA 25 CD

2009-06-15T21:33:00.000-07:00

FROM:

The Obama Eight: CA-25

by Packherd

Thu Jun 11, 2009 at 03:57:59 PM PDT

Second in our series: California's 25th

Only 1% registration disadvantage!
One-third Hispanic population!
Strong base of activist Democrats!

What could possibly go wrong...?

Packherd's diary :: ::

GOP incumbent: Buck McKeon

Registration:
Dem : 38%
GOP : 39%
DTS : 18%

Obama's performance (margin / vote):
+1.1% / 49.5%

2008 results
Jackie Conaway : 42.2%
McKeon : 57.8%

The Congressman:

I can't really freak out about Buck McKeon. He doesn't jump to mind when I think of GOP Congressmen who give me the willies. Nonetheless, he is staunchly conservative. He's a member of the Republican Study Committee, he's LDS, and he stands by the obnoxious drilling-for-more-oil-is-an-alternative energy policy. That last one's especially curious since the district he represents has some of the country's best solar and wind resources, but zero oil and natural gas.

Oh well. I'm sure he has his reasons.

CA-25 is one of California's big weird districts where a conservative suburban area is attached to a vast rural region. Rural voters are all conservative, right? Whatever, I'm not driving all the way to Bridgeport to find out. But for CA-25 that grueling six hour excursion could make the difference.

Unlike the other Obama Eight districts, CA-25 is not a red district. The registration margin has halved since just last November (Swing State Project has the raw numbers). The GOP's advantage is now only a little more than one percent, so let me repeat myself:

CA-25 is not a red district.

Obama's mediocre showing and McKeon's strong win make this look like a safe seat. Obama did okay in the Santa Clarita Valley, or SCV, and only narrowly lost in the High Desert, but he took a 10 pt. thumping in Inyo County, pulling down his margin. When the Dem registration actually catches up next summer, however, that will be the local meme. Every time Buck McKeon or his prospective challengers get mentioned in the news, it will be along side some boilerplate about how the district recently became purple.

The Dems:

This is where it gets heavy. Bob and Jackie Conaway are a husband and wife team from Barstow who have been going after Buck McKeon for over a decade. In 2008, it was Jackie's turn to take a shot and she raised $5,800 for her campaign. The online record of her effort is basically non-existent. At this time no one, not even the Conaways, have declared for 2010.

The bright spot is that there seems to be a good base of Democratic organization all across the district. That organization was working hard to get Obama elected and I suppose they deserve credit for making CA-25 one of the Obama Eight. There are several groups in the SCV and CSU Northridge is in the next district over. The Mojave Desert Dems in Barstow have recently gotten onto Facebook – good for them.

And up Highway 395 is the Owens River Democratic Club. They are a consolidation of the Inyo and Mono Counties' Dem communities, and their website is well put together. I recommend their blog, which will give you a good sense of the rebellious temperament of liberal mountain folk. For example, there's this prescient post from way back in October:

The Democratic leadership, Obama, Reid, and Pelosi, are badly misreading the public mood on the bailout. Never have I seen the American people so united in outrage over a proposal. This is sadly reminiscent of the vote on the Iraq war and Kerry's spineless defense that he would have done "everything differently".

This is a phenomenal opportunity to show real leadership, limit the power of investment banks and put forward a real progressive agenda. Obama is playing not to lose and has left a huge opening for the republicans to put forward a populist bill.

Those who love wildlife will note that the Full-Throated Eastern Sierra Democrat shares its territory with the bighorn sheep, and like the bighorn, it is a stubborn, unique specimen.

The Outlook:

The situation in CA-25 is curious and frustrating. It's only 2,000 Democrats away from being a purple, 36% Hispanic district represented by an arch-conservative. How is that not a recipe for victory? I'm tempted to berate the Dems of L.A. County for not sending assistance up I-5, but in this case, the locals need to do it themselves

Oh, and $5,800 dollars is barely more than two max donations for a Congressional campaign. Just two! That is not acceptable.

Some mix of Dem registration drives, party apparatus development, and improved performance in the suburban areas could put a candidate over the top. David Dayen sums up the challenge:

There is certainly a profile of a Democratic candidate that could attract serious votes out here. But that person does not yet exist.

Candidates:
...

News:
SCVTalk
I Heart SCV

Party:
SCV Dem Club
Democratic Alliance for Action

Mojave Desert Dem Club
(website / Facebook)

Owens River Dem Club

Barstow's Nitrate Problem Being Addressed?

2009-05-11T11:25:00.000-07:00

City prepares to begin groundwater cleanup pilot project

By ABBY SEWELL, staff writer

May 10, 2009 - 8:42AM

BARSTOW • City officials are expecting to begin construction this week on a pilot project they hope will lead to the clean-up of contaminated groundwater in the Soapmine Road area.

By Nov. 30, the city must provide the Lahontan Regional Water Board with a plan outlining how it will remediate nitrate-laden groundwater in the Soapmine neighborhood. Lahontan determined that the contamination was largely caused by the city irrigating a field west of the Soapmine area with about 1.2 million gallons of treated wastewater per day from 1982 to 2003.

The pilot project would involve pumping up to 100,000 gallons of contaminated groundwater a day through a pipeline across the river to a treatment facility to be built next to the city’s existing wastewater treatment plant. If successful, the system could be expanded to handle about 500,000 gallons a day.

City officials estimated the pilot portion of the cleanup project could cost about $1 million, with the expansion costing another $1 million or more, and ongoing operations and maintenance costs of about $250,000 a year until nitrate levels meet Lahontan’s standards.

Construction on the pilot project can begin Tuesday if the Barstow Planning Commission approves an environmental document declaring the pilot project will not have a significant negative environmental impact at its meeting Monday, according to city Senior Management Analyst Mark Murphy.

City officials had previously hoped to have the pilot project construction completed in March, but the start date was held up in order to complete the environmental documentation.

Some in the city had also discussed a possible alternative that would have involved working with developer Brad Ducich and a group of Virginia-based researchers to create an operation in which ponds full of algae would eat the nitrates, while the algae could be harvested for biofuels and fertilizer.

Murphy said Friday that the algae option is not currently under consideration. Ducich said his team had not heard from the city since a meeting in March, where they outlined their proposal to some city representatives and residents of the Soapmine neighborhood.

Mayor Joe Gomez said, however, he is still hoping to bring Dr. Patrick Hatcher, executive director of the Virginia Coastal Energy Research Consortium, to talk to the City Council about the algae plan and determine whether it would be a viable option.

Christina Byrne, a Soapmine Road resident who has been outspoken on the issue of the nitrate pollution, said she would prefer to see the algae option used if it is viable but was unsure whether the city would have enough time to plan and test it before the remediation plan is due.

The city is also planning to build three more monitoring wells in the Soapmine area in an attempt to determine whether there is one large area of nitrate pollution emanating from the former irrigation field or several smaller areas of pollution. Murphy said the city is currently negotiating easement agreements with the property owners.

Contact the writer:
(760) 256-4123 or asewell@desertdispatch.com

Undoing the damage of the previous administration

2009-04-01T22:17:00.000-07:00

Desert Dispatch,
Letters to the editor,
April 2, 2009

Undoing the damage of the previous administration

A lot of letters written to the editor from Republicans lately are full of rattlesnake venom and poison. Their letters are directed toward people who rightfully express their opinions on the way our former president plunged our nation into such a big hole. That hole is so deep that it will take us a long and hard time to dig ourselves out.

The Republicans are showing their true colors by acting like a bunch of crybabies (boo-hoo) because they lost a lot of congressional seats and the presidency as well. They are calling people, such as Carol Jensen, fascists, Nazis, communists, and other vile names.

Thank God the American people sent a very strong message to our country and the Republican party that we are ready to take back our great country. We can once again hold our heads high and let the rest of the world know that America is back. Our new administration is not a bully, like the former “holier than thou” group who occupied the White House, compliments of the Supreme Court.

I feel like a huge burden of the lower wage earners has been lifted since the national election, last November. This president will not use pressure tactics to scare the American people the way Bush did. Ex-President Bush tried to set himself up like a king or dictator.

Whatever he wanted done, his “brown-nosers” took care of it and also, took the blame for all the bad deeds. The Republicans claim to be such great patriotic citizens, but our last president used political influence to keep from serving his military obligation. He used religion to fool a majority of people to believe that he had compassion for them. He sure showed it after Katrina and the stock market crash and unemployment roll.

Just like all the Republican presidents since President Richard (Watergate) Nixon — President Ronald (Iran-Contra, union busting) Reagan ‚ George (Savings and Loan) Bush — and George (Enron, big oil, Iraq, Afghanistan, Bid Laden, WMD’s, torture) Bush Jr. It takes a really compassionate Democrat to straighten out the messes that the Republicans left behind. Look at the biggest mess of all — it took the Bush Administration only eight years to throw out the laws of the land. If a law didn’t fit his agenda, he and his lawyers and cronies change it to fit his position whenever and whatever it happened to be.

Wake up, America, our new President Obama has been in office for only two months. He is working hard to try and dig us out of the monstrous mound of manure that was left behind by President Bush and his party.

I feel so much more optimistic now that the Democrats are in office.

Mary E. Boyce, Barstow

HelpHinkley.org Host Candidate Forum

2008-10-08T19:58:00.000-07:00

Local candidates oppose proposed sludge composting site

By Aaron Aupperlee, city editor

October 8, 2008 - 4:23PM

“We found some good ones here. We see a couple of people who are willing to stand up.” Bill Thomlinson, Barstow resident

HINKLEY • They had different names for it — poop plant, hazardous waste site, human feces dump. The had different solutions — cover it, run it out of town, legislate it into impossibility. But all the candidates, from school boards to the U.S. House of Representatives, strongly opposed the proposed sludge composting plant in Hinkley.

Twenty-two candidates who will appear on the Nov. 4 ballot spoke to Hinkley and residents from the surrounding communities Tuesday night during a candidate forum at the Hinkley Fire Hall. Hinkley residents cannot vote in many of the races represented Tuesday night, but forum organizer and moderator Norm Diaz said he wanted the night to highlight the relationship between Barstow and the surrounding rural communities of Hinkley, Daggett, Yermo and Newberry Springs.

Most pressing to many residents in Hinkley is the Nursery Products composting site proposed for the old Hawes Airfield outside of the town. Spearheaded by the group HelpHinkley.org, residents and supporters from Barstow and other communities have been fighting to keep the plant out of the community for years. Carmen Hernandez and others said that since Barstonians breathe the same air and drink the same water as Hinkley, the composting plant is Barstow’s problem as well.

“You shouldn’t be calling it sludge,” said Nathaniel Pickett, a candidate for mayor. “Call it hazardous waste. If you want to defeat something, you have to call it what it is.”

Pickett stopped short of promising Hinkley to rid the community of the proposed plant, saying he could offer advice and guidance on how to fight it. Other candidates also pledged support for Hinkley in fighting the plant.

Some candidates proposed solutions to the plant. Gene Deaton, running for City Council, said that if Nursery Products does not enclose the plant, they should not be allowed to build it. Marvin Ellis suggested pushing for legislation that would make it illegal to ship sludge long distances.

Erika Schneider has lived in Hinkley for 40 years and liked hearing all the candidates speak against the composting plant. Norm Sheppeard, who lives in Barstow Heights but feels the proposed composting plant will pollute the air around him, said that he too appreciated the support from all the candidates.

“They all sounded good,” said Hinkley resident Floyd Burns. “Everybody is against it, but...”

Floyd and his wife Jean worried that the candidates lacked plans to stop the facility from coming. What they liked hearing, they said, was plans from the school board candidates to start more vocational education training and the prospects for the area’s economy.

“Kids need to be prepared for jobs,” Jean said.

“We need more jobs here,” Floyd replied.

In attendance

MAYOR
Joe Gomez
Nathaniel Pickett
(Mayor Lawrence Dale had a prior commitment to Tips for Tots, a fund-raiser for the Toys for Tots program, and could not attend. A letter from Dale addressing the people of Hinkley will be available at www.helphinkley.org.)

CITY COUNCIL
Gene Deaton
Marvin Ellis
Carmen Hernandez
Tim Saenz
Richard Villegas

BUSD BOARD
Ace Acevedo
Julie Clemmer
Mary Rodriguez
Paul Wilkey

BCC BOARD
Fred Baca
Ted Baca
Bob Conaway
Linda Wyman-DeWald
Marcia Zableckis

BARSTOW FIRE PROTECTION DISTRICT
Eddie Garcia

MOJAVE WATER AGENCY
Kimberly Cox
Ellen Johnson

36TH DISTRICT STATE ASSEMBLY
Linda Jones (D)

25TH US HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
Jackie Conaway (D)

Contact the writer:
(760) 256-4121 or aaupperlee@desertdispatch.com

Mayor Dale, Ron Rector Inflate Values to Benefit Friends

2008-07-26T19:05:00.000-07:00

From theverifiabletruth.com

Thursday, July 24, 2008

Barstow's Mayor & his aide artificially inflate real estate values to benefit pals

In late 2000, Lawrence Dale defeated Barstow's incumbent Mayor Katy Yslas-Yent. Dale had never ran for political office but was a very loyal retiree of BNSF Railroad and a candidate of the local good ol' boys -- the Barstow area's establishment ... businessmen who've controlled things in Barstow for years and who meet every morning in Leonard Purdy's auto garage at Barstow Tire & Break.

In 2001, Dale immediately hired Ron Rector as Economic Development Director for the City of Barstow. Rector was previously executive director of a failed Hi-Desert economic development consortium.

While the turn over at Barstow City Hall has been unusually high since Dale's been Mayor; Ron Rector, despite his failure to make any measureable progress in Barstow's economic development the last seven years, has remained on the payroll.

Since 2001, Dale & Rector have used their positions to manufacture circumstances that articially inflate property values to the advantage of the local land speculators, some of whom are among the contingent of those who meet each morning for coffee and Purdy's garage.

In particular, Dale & Rector have unfairly helped their friends obtain land in tax foreclosure and bankruptcy for pennies on the dollar -- land their friends flipped to wealthy investors from outside the area for thousands more than they paid.

They've promoted public works projects that require state agencies to acquire land at inflated prices owned by their pals.

Frequently involved in their schemes are real estate broker Joseph W. Brady and real estate syndicator Quang Pham (or Pham Quang). Also involved are Santa Clarita-based intimates of Rep. Buck McKeon including Hunt Braly.

Since 2003, Dale & Rector have used the city's PR machine to suggest that Barstow would be home to a casino resort and a large Wal-Mart distribution center, plus large-scale residential real esate developments among other things -- but nothing ever materializes.

These projects have yet to be built, let alone break ground -- and in fact, the casino project has been turned down multiple times in Sacramento and Washington, D.C. There has been no official word from the Wal-Mart corporation on the future of the 1 million square feet distribution center.

But the Mayor's continued promotion of these two projects has grossly inflated land values in and around Barstow to the benefit of the Mayor's friends. And among others, the business partners and family members of Barstow City Councilman Steve Curran have benefited financially from artificially inflated real estate sales prices.

In 2006, an entity known as Barstow Industrial Park LLC acquired land from Overland Lenwood LTD near the proposed Wal-Mart facility and took out a $22.5 million mortgage to do so. The same property had a previous assessed value of just $2.8 million. Property in Barstow generally ranges from $5,000 - $25,000 and acre.

In 2004, Quang Pham (or Pham Quang), with the City's help, obtained land through tax sale for pennies on the dollar and then one year later sold it to Irvine-based National Trails Properties LLC for nearly $7.3 million. The property's assessed value is only $1.2 million.

And Dale has served as lobbyists for BNSF. Dale's made frequent trips to BNSF headquarters in Kansas & Texas but never reported any gifts or travel paid for by BNSF; and Dale's used his official capacity and title as Mayor lobbying on Capitol Hill for BNSF's benefit. It's not clear if the Barstow City Council ever officially gave Dale the authority to lobby on BNSF's behalf.

Mitzelfelt must amend campaign forms

2008-07-07T18:15:00.000-07:00

Mitzelfelt must amend campaign forms

By Ryan Orr, staff writer
Desert Dispatch
July 7, 2008 - 4:55PM

SACRAMENTO — The California Fair Political Practices Commission has advised San Bernardino County 1st District Supervisor Brad Mitzelfelt that he must amend his campaign statements following a complaint made during his campaign.

A complaint filed in early May alleged that a developer had set up phony corporations to make contributions to Mitzelfelt.

The complaint was filed by Apple Valley citizen Sharon Gilbert, who operates a blog that regularly criticizes county government.

“It appears that Young Homes has set up phony corporations to make campaign contributions so that it does not appear that those contributions are coming from a developer,” Gilbert states in her formal complaint.

The letter from the FPPC does not allege any violations by Mitzelfelt’s campaign.

“Advisory letters inform people of their requirement under the political reform act and how to meet those requirements,” said Roman Porter, spokesman for the FPPC.

According to the advisory letter, the FPPC has closed the matter without further investigation but has advised Mitzelfelt he must amend his campaign statements to include the full name of the major donor for the contributions from Young Homes, Avenal Finance LLC and Neoteric Entertainment, Inc.

That major donor is Reggie King, who said he supports Mitzelfelt through every company out there. King said he is a minority partner in Young Homes, 100 percent owner of Neoteric Entertainment, a Nevada Corporation, and Avenal Finance.

“There’s never been any attempt by me to hide what we give to whom,” King said at the time the complaint was filed.

Furthermore, King said that Young Homes has never done a project in the 1st District.

He said that he signed his name on all the checks and tends to consolidate contributions.

On the California Secretary of State’s Web site the contributions made are listed under Young Homes and affiliated entities, which include Neoteric Entertainment and Avenal Finance.

In all, since 2007 the consolidated companies have given $110,000 to Mitzelfelt’s campaign.

Court orders county to re-examine proposed Hinkley composting facility

2008-07-07T00:56:00.000-07:00

Court orders county to re-examine proposed Hinkley composting facility

By ABBY SEWELL, staff writer

July 6, 2008 - 10:16AM

BARSTOW — A Barstow judge finalized his order to San Bernardino County to revisit its approval of a proposed composting facility near Hinkley. The order means that the county will begin work on a new study of the environmental impacts of the facility, which has been the subject of a court battle for more than a year.

Judge John Vander Feer of the San Bernardino County Superior Court in Barstow issued a judgment on June 23, which made official the ruling he had issued on April 11. The order stated that the county must prepare a new environmental impact report on the Hawes Composting Facility slated to be built by Nursery Products LLC about eight miles west of Hinkley. The open-air facility approved by the county would mix semi-solid waste products, including human waste, with green materials to create compost. Community members in Hinkley have opposed the facility based on concerns about air and water contamination.

Vander Feer ruled that there were two issues with the environmental impact report prepared by Nursery Products that need to be addressed — it did not identify the water source to be used for the composting facility, and it did not examine the possibility of enclosing the composting operation in a building rather than constructing an open-air facility.

He ordered the county to suspend all physical work on the facility and set aside its existing environmental impact report and its approval of the project until those two issues can be resolved to the court’s satisfaction.

Now that the final judgment has been issued, opponents of the composting facility say that the county will be forced to start over in evaluating the proposal. Ingrid Brostrom, an attorney with the Center on Race, Poverty and the Environment, which represents the Hinkley residents, said the judge’s final order means that the county will have to start over from scratch in its evaluation, rather than simply updating the existing environmental impact report and conditional use permit.

“The Board of Supervisors is basically going to have to reapprove the project, if that’s what they’re going to do,” she said. “... Basically, it’s going to give our clients and the county another chance to consider the costs of approving such a project.”

Chris Seney, director of operations with Nursery Products, said he does not anticipate much difficulty in fixing the two issues identified by the judge. The water for the facility will come from a well, he said. As for enclosing the composting facility, Seney said it would not only cost more but would produce more emissions, since an enclosed facility would need to run on electric power rather than solar power, which was expected to power the open-air facility.

Norm Diaz, an organizer with HelpHinkley.org, said that enclosing the facility would alleviate concerns about air and groundwater contamination from the composting operation.

“If you build a state-of-the-art enclosed facility that captures the gasses and the dust, I think we’d take it,” he said.

Nursery Products will pay for the additional work to be done on the environmental impact report, but contractors hired by the county will perform the work, said Nursery Products president Jeff Meberg. The initial environmental impact report cost about $280,000, Meberg said. He did not have an estimate of the cost of reworking the report but said the work will likely go quickly now that the judge has issued his final order.

Bart Brizzee, deputy county counsel with San Bernardino County, said the county still has to determine whether it will need to complete an entirely new environmental impact report or simply update the existing report.

Contact the writer:
(760) 256-4123 or abby_sewell@link.freedom.com

Air board extends deadline to comment on composting rules
BARSTOW — The Mojave Desert Air Quality Management District extended the deadline for public comment on preliminary draft rules that would govern composting facilities until Aug. 8.

The proposed rules, which were mailed out for public comment June 5, would require composting facilities that accept more than 100,000 wet tons of compostable material to be enclosed if the levels of very fine particulate matter in the air of the district rise above a federally-defined level. Under that rule, the Hawes Composting Facility would not currently be required to enclose its facilities, but could be required to in the future, if air contamination levels in the district rise, said supervising air quality engineer Alan De Salvio.

HelpHinkley.org members spoke at several air-board meetings and asked the board to enact a strict rule that would force Nursery Products to enclose the facility.

After the public comment period, the air board will likely hold a public workshop on the rule and will write another draft of the rule, which will be opened up to public comment again before it goes to the board for approval, De Salvio said.

Make public comments in writing by mailing them to MDAQMD at 14306 Park Avenue, Victorville, CA 92392.

To get a copy of the preliminary draft rule, call De Salvio at 760-245-1661 ext. 6726.

Reeb (the Dweeb) parrots GOP's Obama smear campaign

2008-06-18T11:29:00.000-07:00

Desert Dispatch Letters to the editor - June 18, 2008

June 17, 2008 - 9:56AM

Reeb (the Dweeb) parrots

GOP's Obama smear campaign

Ira Gwin

It’s a temptation to refute Mr. Reeb’s latest sly and cunning smear against Senator Barack Hussein Obama point by point (”Obama a risky and cunning candidate,” June 11). The veiled reference to the Senator’s middle name is particularly despicable, especially from someone who reportedly taught journalism and therefore fully understands the impact of innuendo.

After all the revelation on the road to war, the lies from the Bush administration, the erosion of our liberties, the deaths of over 4,000 American soldiers, the murder of countless Iraqi civilians, and the cost of $12 billion every month that we are borrowing from our children and grandchildren, Mr. Reeb is upset that Senator Obama was against the war, does not support this government’s war policies, and has promised to end it and get our troops out as quickly as possible.

But a direct response to Reeb’s desperate defense of the worst Republican Administration since Reagan will not change his mind, or the minds of readers who still believe that another four years of Bush Lite in the guise of John McCain would be just fine. I believe most people have already decided between the two candidates and from now until the elections we will all be plowing the same ground and slinging the same mud.

There may be a few people out there who haven’t made up their minds, and both parties will do what they can to win them over. To help them decide, here are a few points to consider.

One: If you like our energy policy, or lack thereof, if you like paying $5 plus for gas, if you enjoy seeing your president on his knees begging the Saudi Kings for a little more oil, if you are happy that the oil companies are sucking your paycheck right into their pockets, vote for McCain.

Two: If you don’t think it’s really important how many Americans are still in Iraq, if you think we could and should be there for the next 100 years, if you don’t care if we have a plan for the vets and their continued health care, vote Republican.

Three: If you like giving tax breaks to the top one percent of the population, if you really believe that big corporations are your friends, if you don’t mind that your jobs are going overseas, if you believe that unions are un-American, then vote for John McCain. Four: If you really believe the only way to deal with foreign nations, including dictators, is down the barrel of a gun, then stay the Bush/Cheney course with four more years of McCain.

Or you could stand up, take your country back, and vote for change. You could vote for an administration that would honestly work to wean this economy from a dependency on foreign oil to survive. We could make a commitment to leave Iraq and bring our troops home as soon as possible, we would have to negotiate a pull-out with the neighboring countries so everyone would have a stake in a stable Iraq, and we would abandon our bases and imperial designs on the region. We cannot morally nor economically sustain an empire based on military might and fear. The Romans couldn’t, the British couldn’t, and neither can we.

The Republican slander machine is just getting started and in the coming weeks there will be many more articles like the one from Reeb. Karl Rove no longer openly soils the halls of the White House, but his dirty tricks playbook is still being studied by apologists like Reeb and the McCain Republican machine.

Ira Gwin
Barstow

Brad Mitzelfelt is BAD for Barstow !

2008-06-04T23:17:00.000-07:00

Stop Brad Mitzelfelt's Environmental Human Sludge Disaster
No More Crap From Brad Mitzelfelt !
A Video by Larry D. Halstead

Letter to the Editor

7-10-2008
Desert Dispatch

Outdoor Composting
Human Waste Sludge
By
Jeffrey Quillinan

I am very concerned about the proposed Hawes Composting Facility, slated to be built by Nursery Products LLC about eight miles west of Hinkley, just outside of Barstow, to process Las Angeles sewage into fertilizer. If such a facility must come this close to our shared community, I would certainly hope it is an enclosed facility and not an open-air facility. We have very high winds in the Hinkely and Barstow area throughout the year. These high winds can carry human feces particles in the dust all the way from this open-air composting facility to Barstow, thus contaminating our air above any reasonably acceptable levels. We Barstonians know this by dusting our homes daily.

I would only approve of this composting facility if it were an enclosed facility. An enclosed facility would be the only proven way to protect our entire town from unacceptable levels of feces contaminated dust in our air and in our homes. I am very concerned about any level of human waste contamination in our air as well as our water supply. Is this composting facility going to be another problem such as the Soap Mine Road contamination of their drinking water by our sewer plant? If this is so, there should be a lot more studies done to protect the citizens of Barstow before this is built. Let's not forget, Barstow is downstream from Hinkley in our water supply.

Therefore I am asking every concerned citizen reading this to please write to the Mojave Desert Air Quality Management District at the following address: MDAQMD at 14306 Park Avenue, Victorville, CA 92392. Please address your letter of concern to Alan De Salvio. He is the supervising air quality engineer. Please urge him that if this composting facility is going to come this close to our community, be sure that they make it an enclosed composting facility. The MDAQMD has extended the deadline for public comment on preliminary draft rules that would govern composting facilities until Aug. 8.

As a town we should all stand together on this highly important issue effecting us all. The more letters that get written, the more they will realize that the majority of us are very concerned about this situation and the health problems it may cause us. So please write them before it's too late to prevent an open-air composting facility from coming too close to our homes and communities. Thank you.

Jeffrey Quillinan

Barstow railyard emissions seen as increased risk of cancer

2008-06-04T22:58:00.000-07:00

Trains sit in the BNSF Barstow Railyard, which experiences
traffic of about 100 to 130 trains a day. The yard emitted
an estimated 27.9 tons of diesel pollutants in 2005.

Barstow railyard emissions seen as increased risk of cancer

Residents near yards in other cities worse off

May 8, 2008 - 5:11PM
By Abby Sewell, Staff Writer

BARSTOW — Barstow’s railyard emits more diesel pollution than any other yard in the state, meaning that people who live near by are at a heightened risk for cancer, according to a study.

The BNSF Barstow Railyard emitted almost 28 tons of diesel pollutants into the air in 2005, according to a risk assessment completed by the California Environmental Protection Agency Air Resources Board. It was the highest level of emissions found in any of the 17 yards that the air board studied. Air board and BNSF representatives presented the results at a meeting at Barstow’s City Hall on Wednesday night.

People living closest to the railyard face a 25 times higher risk of cancer from air contamination than people living a mile and half away, the study stated. However, Barstow residents are not at the highest risk of the cities studied.

The air board found that people living near the BNSF San Bernardino railyard are at the highest risk of cancer relating to diesel pollution even though the yard emits less pollutants than Barstow’s yard. About 3,780 people in San Bernardino have increased risk of 500 chances in a million or more due to the railyard pollution. That level of risk does not exist in Barstow, said the air board’s engineering evaluation section manager Harold Holmes. San Bernardino also has a higher level of underlying air contamination than Barstow.

Holmes said that the high winds in Barstow, which generally blow from southwest to the northeast, carry most of the air contamination from the railyard away from the residential areas of Barstow.

BNSF representatives said the company is taking measures to decrease its railyard emissions, including installing equipment to reduce the amount of engine idling and making a switch to ultra-low sulfur diesel fuel.

Mike Stanfill of BNSF projected that with the current emissions-reduction plans, total emissions in the Barstow yard will be reduced by 28 percent in 2020, assuming a four percent growth rate in the yard’s operations.

BNSF spokeswoman Lena Kent said that freight trains create less emissions than semi trucks per ton-mile. In the Barstow area, the air board study showed traffic on Interstate 15 and other local roadways emitted about 26 tons of diesel pollutants in 2005. Barstow has one of the busiest railyards in the state, with 100 to 130 trains passing through each day, Holmes said. The locomotive traffic accounts for about 97 percent of the diesel pollution emitted from the yard, with the other 3 percent coming from off-road vehicles, trucks and other equipment.

Andrea Hricko, an associate professor in preventative medicine at the University of Southern California, believes that voluntary measures may not do enough to decrease emissions. Diesel emissions are associated not only with cancer but with asthma and other health issues, she said.

The Environmental Protection Agency lists one in one million as an acceptable level of risk for cancer due to lifetime air pollutant exposure, but cleanup requirements generally only expect contaminants to be brought down to a 10 in one million risk level, according to the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment.

Holmes said that pollution from the BNSF Barstow yard could become more of a concern as the population grows, especially if development occurs to the northeast of the railyard.

Marsha Weasma, who lives off Main Street facing B Hill, said she was not surprised to see that her house’s location puts her at a heightened risk of cancer, but the numbers still cause her some concern. Weasma was one of only four citizens who showed up at the air board meeting on Wednesday. She said more of her neighbors would likely have come if the event had been better publicized.

As for the pollution reduction measures outlined, she said, “It sounds good in theory, but it’s like, is it going to be put into practice? ... It’s probably 20 years too late.”

Holmes said the ARB will be accepting public comments on the draft health risk assessment for the next 30 days and will be releasing a final version of the assessment within 45 days. After that, another meeting will be held in Barstow to help the air board develop a plan for mitigating the health risks.

Contact the writer:
(760) 256-4123 or abby_sewell@link.freedom.com

Tons of diesel pollutants emitted by selected California railyards in 2005:
• BNSF Barstow: 27.9
• BNSF Hobart: 23.9
• BNSF San Bernardino: 22
• Union Pacific Oakland: 11.2
• Union Pacific Los Angeles: 7.3
• BNSF San Diego: 1.7

Number of people experiencing a heightened cancer risk due to diesel pollution from the BNSF Barstow Railyard:
• Cancer risk heightened by 250 or more chances in a million: 860 people
• Cancer risk heightened by 100 to 250 chances in a million: 3,600 people
• Cancer risk heightened by 50 to 100 chances in a million: 5,000 people
• Cancer risk heightened by 25 to 50 chances in a million: 6,500 people
• Cancer risk heightened by 10 to 25 chances in a million: 6,100 people

Risk of cancer due to air pollution in Barstow, not taking into account the railyard: 120 chances in a million.

Source: Draft Health Risk Assessment for the BNSF Barstow Railyard, California Environmental Protection Agency Air Resources Board.

Smith, angry at campaign tactics, suggests supporting Democrat

2008-06-04T21:34:00.000-07:00

Smith, angry at campaign tactics, suggests supporting Democrat

Note-I know Bob personally and have always found him to be a respectful person. More than once I have told him that I appreciate his respectful treatment of me and how I see him as honorable. As the recently elected Chair of the 34th AD Democratic Committee, I am involved with our candidate, Desmond Farrelly. Desmond is an outstanding candidate and we were really looking forward to contesting this seat with Bob because he is someone we felt we could have an honest debate over the issues that are critical to the citizens of Barstow and the entire 34th AD. We need to do a lot more to protect our environment, create jobs through alternative energy, and improve our education, just to name a few.

Now Connie Conway has stooped to a new low in the level of sleaze politics that has hurt Republicans in the past and that has greatly diminished the quality of debate that voters desperately need in order to make an informed decision. It is sad that Connie has now set the tone of her style and what she is capable of doing.

With Bob Smith, I believe that he differs on many of the issues that stand opposite to what I am fighting for. But with Bob, you don't have to question his integrity.Had he become the Republican candidate we would never expect him as our opponent, to be capable of lowering himself or his ethics and engage in lies, deception, or other sleaze politics that we have seen demonstrated by Connie Conway in her campaign.

I called Desmond the morning after the election and found him totally outraged over the actions of Conway. He was still in disbelief at the scummy tactics that Conway would use against another Republicans. Desmond has been involved in supporting law enforcement and knows how devastating these lies can be to a past member of law enforcement like Bob.

Desmond and Bob have campaigned at some of the same events like the Rock The Vote event at the College of the Sequoias in Visalia. Desmond, like me, found Bob to be a very like able person and feels like he enjoys a friendly relationship with him even as an opponent.

Desmond and I both support a complaint being filed and would like to see this kind of sleaze politics eliminated from an honest and straight forward debate on the real issues.

Larry D. Halstead
Chair, 34th AD Democratic Committee

Smith, angry at campaign tactics, suggests supporting Democrat

June 4, 2008 - 6:07PM

By Andrea Goodwin, special to the Desert Dispatch

BARSTOW — Two Barstow area candidates blame low voter turnout, in part, for the disappointing results of Tuesday's election.

Both Bob Smith, a Yermo resident, and Ben Echols, a Barstow attorney who lives in Apple Valley, lost their races Tuesday. Smith, running in the Republican primary for the 34th District Assembly seat, received only 34.2 percent of the vote compared to Tulare County Supervisor Connie Conway's 43.1 percent. Echols, vying for a judge seat on the Superior Court of California, came in second with 24.46 percent of the vote behind Bridgid McCann, with 51.51 percent of the vote.

Turnout was low across Barstow and the county for the election. Only 16.46 percent of San Bernardino County's registered voters cast a ballot in the election. Smith was disappointed that so few of the registered Republicans — only 19.58 percent in San Bernardino County — chose to vote.

"Its unfortunate," Smith said.

Smith was, however, very pleased with his campaign team and their efforts.

"I had a good team; we did everything possible to win the seat," he said.

In November's election Conway will face Democratic candidate Desmond Farrelly for Bill Maze's Assembly seat. Due to term limits Maze cannot run again. Smith said that his first inclination is to back Democratic candidate Desmond Farrelly in the November election, due to a last minute negative campaign ad that he feels Conway made against him.

"I'd rather have a Democrat in office that's honest than a liar," Smith said.

Smith was upset about a mailer that was sent out labeling him as a disgraced deputy. This ad was authorized and paid for by Conway for Assembly.

Conway said that the mailers were sent out in response to negative ads made by Smith's campaign. She would not elaborate on the content of the ads. She was, however, happy with the results of the election.

"I plan on working hard between now and the campaign," Conway said.

Smith said that any negative campaign material used against Conway used direct quotes and cited sources of where the negative information could be found.

Desmond Farrelly said he was disappointed in the result of the election. He had hoped for a Smith victory. He said he was looking forward to working with Smith to make sure that Barstow was well-represented.

Ben Echols was happy with the results of the election, although he believes that if more people in the High Desert would have voted the results of the election may have been different. Echols said that although he lost this election, he may consider running again in the future.

"I love my practice in Barstow, for now I am going to stay here," Echols said.

While he does not know McCann personally Echols said she is well-qualified and thinks she'll do a good job.

Council Member Speaks Out About City Manager's Treatment

2007-12-21T20:17:00.000-08:00

Council Member Speaks Out!
About City Manager's Treatment

By JOE GOMEZ

People of Barstow deserve a response to the separation of the former City Manager Hector Rodriguez, not speculation.

I don’t care if you live in an at-will state in which you can terminate anyone at any time, it is still immoral to fire people without helping them understand what they need to improve and providing the opportunity to do so.
.
Hector did not get fired, although the Mayor told me he wanted him dismissed and tried to call an emergency closed session meeting to terminate his contract sometime during the month of September, which I strongly opposed.

We have lost a good city manager, who cared about Barstow and the citizens in this community. He took the moral high ground because he is a man with integrity.

Hector Rodriguez

To understand how our local government works and my personal opinions of Mayor Lawrence Dale's management style, I felt it necessary to express thoughts in writing.

Barstow is a General Law city . It is the role of the mayor and council to serve as stewards of the city and to establish policy for the city. It is the city manager’s role, along with the support of city staff to implement the policies established by the mayor and council.

In some ways it is part of a system of checks and balances.

The mayor of Barstow isn’t bestowed with powers like the mayor of Los Angeles or New York . The people of Barstow haven’t given the mayor that kind of control.

Consider the following: Since the Mayor took office in 2000, Barstow has had six city managers. Since 2003 Barstow has had four city managers. That’s like having a new city manager every year. That kind of turn over signals deep-rooted systemic problems at City Hall.

And it doesn’t stop there — the turnover among the city’s senior managers and police officers have been equally alarming.

Think about it:

• If things are on the up and up, there’s no need for the mayor or members of this council to meddle behind the scenes in the business of city staff.

• If things are on the up and up, there’s no need for the mayor to convene so many closed-door City Council meetings.

• If things are on the up and up, there’s no need to schedule so many council meetings during the work day when people can’t attend the meetings or outside of our regularly scheduled Monday night Council meetings.

When the independent council majority appointed Hector Rodriguez as city manager in 2006, Mayor Dale opposed us. The mayor was furious!

Since Hector Rodriguez was appointed city manager more than 18 months ago, the mayor has worked behind the scenes to undo the previous council’s decision and undermined Hector’s success and decision-making.

Earlier this year the Mayor tried to dismiss Hector but there was an outpouring of support from the community for Hector. So instead the Mayor has worked behind the scenes to get rid of Hector.

Recognize that Hector wasn’t the mayor’s guy. And if you’re not the mayor’s guy, you’re not going to be in a job for very long.

This past year, the mayor fought against Hector’s choice for police chief and tried to undermine that recommendation. Chief Burns has proven in a short period that Mr. Rodriguez made great choice by hiring her.

When the mayor wanted his friends at Micromedia Filtration to take over the $15 million contract for the sewer treatment facility, he fought against Hector and the concerns of key city staff.

Now we’re back to business as usual.

Mayor Dale has a hungry, unhealthy appetite for control and leverage over the council and over those who manage things at City Hall and in our police department. Anyone who crosses the mayor or his friends, or who is independent in thought, seals their fate; including myself.

Micromanagement of city staff has kept Barstow from moving forward since the Millennium. At best, Barstow has stood still the last seven years. For every step forward, there’s been a step or two back.

At the root of the stagnation is a mayor’s leadership style that is holding Barstow back.

There’s something suspicious about elected leadership that prefers to meet behind closed doors and has to rule with such an iron fist.

He poses the management style of a dictator or director; I compare Mayor Dale’s management style to Al Davis, owner of the Oakland Raiders.

That can’t be in the best interests of the people of Barstow. And after the last seven years, the people of Barstow are smart enough to see that.

Comments Posted
About This Article
DesertDispatch.com

Barstow Citizen - Finally, someone who has spoken the truth. If you doubt the information, go ahead and read it for yourself. Enrich your mind of all that is happening in Barstow.

I am not a Hector fan, but I agree that the mayor was running the show. Why is it that we have had so many city managers? Maybe we should ask Mayor Dale, he runs the show remember?

Why are there so many brown act violations Mayor and city councilmen. Please dont act like we dont see you in the restaurants. Remember this is Barstow, everyone talks and better yet most folks have camera phones. Smile cause you have been caught.

I would like Joe Gomez to run for city council again. We need good people involved to ensure that us Barstow Citizens dont get the short end of the stick.

RECALL DALE
RECALL DALE
RECALL DALE
RECALL DALE

316 - Dale has got to go his Mason brothers all intimidate people they are just like gang members if they don't get what they want they pressure or intimidate you they should be treated just like gang members lets have a mason sweep and press gang enhancement charges

Jeffrey - It is good that someone has come forward with what has been going on in the past couple of months at City Hall.

I also see that every comment appears to have been deleted by the "good old boy" crowd defending this corrupt administration.

Your censorship will not go un-noticed. At any rate, it would be a great idea if more people in the know would come forward and expose the current administration for the crooks they definitely are.

The more information brought to the public the better. Of course the goon squad on the right will always try to censor the truth, but the truth will still prevail in the end.

Rock Hound - Mr. Gomez's honesty is appreciated. Barstow needs honest leadership.

Robert Silva - Watch for Mayor Dale and his local attack dogs to go after Joe Gomez.

The good old boyz who meet down at Purdy's Garage will not stand for this sort of exposure of the truth.

Before you know it, they will start trying to tar and feather Councilman Gomez with their unfounded rumors and innuendo.

Whatever allegations you hear from the good old boyz about other people, you can assume those are actually the dirty deeds that Mayor Dale and the good old boyz are up to themselves.

Ask them for the proof when they feed you gossip and rumor.

Bud Campbell - I called Joe immediately to Thank him for his service. His service to the community.

Under the current Mayor's term:

Drainage problems have been created and covered up with no mention of Flood Insurance,

New residences have been created with no seismic engineering,

Children have been placed within dangerous buildings,

Real estate fraud has run rampant under the cheerleading for a casino,
Soap Mine Road residents and children have been poisoned and lied to,

Good ol' boys have constructed without paying proper fees,

Fees have been waived,

Human excrement is allowed to blow on residents.

And a Dairy watches over our water quality.

God Bless us all. And God Bless Miss California so she doesn't get too involved with these dysfunction backwards egotistical scum. Just look at their own kids.

Nick James - Councilman Joe Gomez made me think about why we have had so many City Managers. Elected members of the City Council, the Mayor included, should let the City Manager do his job and not try to micro manage City Hall.

Savanthar - For those hecklers out there that criticize Joe Gomez I say Joe Gomez would be a far better mayor than Mayor Lawrence Dale. For one thing Joe Gomez is honest and a true statesman. These are two values that run short in the current mayor of Barstow. Dale is neither honest or a statesman. He is in fact in it for himself and his buddies at Micromedia. Mayor Dale only knows how to feather his own nest and the nests of his buddies and everyone in Barstow would be a lot better off if he were out of office. Dale should resign immediately if not sooner. He is as corrupt as the day is long. His corrupt agenda does not benefit Barstow and should be abandoned completely and utterly. Out with Dale!

Olde Meanie - The Mayor needs to be "unvoted" ASAP! He has created a terrible condition within City Hall and hence for the city. His secret letter to BIA about an Indian tribe is just the tip of an iceberg.

Manuel Gurule - It's about time Joe Gomez speaks out on what truly happened with Hector. I know this is all being investigated by the District Attorney's Office Integrity Unit. I hope at the end of their investigation more light will come to this subject. Unfortunately other members of the Barstow City Council are not responsible enough to speak out on this. It harms absolutely no one to tell the truth except those that are lying. Don't get me wrong. I don't believe Hector was a Saint but I do believe he was doing his job and he held his integrity in doing so. The root of this evil begins and ends with Micromedia and the mayor's determination to give them the sewer plant contract. $15 million is a great sum of money and influences and corrupts a great deal.

Veteran - I am so impressed to hear what Joe Gomez had to say. It is about time someone said the truth! I have lived in this town for 25 years, and it seems that our current mayor wants us to be kept in the dark.

He is a sneaky man with a hidden agenda.

Who cares if Joe's article sounds like a campaign speech, at least we are getting to the meat and potatoes of the reality of what is wrong with our city. When I first moved here, we had a JC Penny's, Kmart, Sears, Rudes clothing store, and a bunch of really nice places to go. Now we have Wal-mart! That is it. This town is repressed, and when every else is thriving, we are dormant. Thank-you Joe Gomez for your honesty! It is refreshing. Also, you have my vote no matter what you are running for! Heck, I want to be your campaign manager!

TVT Weighs in on City Manager Scandal

2007-12-04T16:08:00.000-08:00

TheVerifiableTruth.com weighs in on the City Manager Firing Scandal and the Tyranny of Mayor Dale

Tuesday, December 04, 2007

Barstow's Mayor allegedly attempted to interfere with RFP process for $15 million contract

An 11.30.07 story in Barstow's Desert Dispatch suggests that Mayor Lawrence Dale was attempting to manipulate the process in order to guarantee that Micromedia Filtration, Inc. would be awarded a $15 million contract to modify the City's waste water treatment facility despite the City Council's direction to release an RFP and conduct a search for all qualified contractors.

A memo dated Oct. 30, written by Rodriguez and addressed to the council, accuses Mayor Lawrence Dale of interfering with the process, wanting to directly award the $15 million contract to Micromedia Filtration, Inc., instead of reviewing bids from other firms. Rodriguez wrote that he’d been given direction to award the contract to Micromedia in a meeting held on Oct. 18 with Dale and council member Steve Curran. Dale and Curran disputed Rodriguez’ allegations.

“The Mayor told me that the Council’s direction to me in this matter had been to write a (Request for Proposals) that would result in a contract award to Micromedia by effectively eliminating other potential bidders,” Rodriguez wrote in the memo.

Certainly if these allegations are true, this isn't the first time in the Mayor's seven year tenure in office that he has attempted to manipulate outcomes in order that his friends might receieve favorable treatment and even millions in financial gain. Clearly he's perfected that behavior in his quest to win a casino for his Detroit friends behind BarWest LLC.

One must wonder what he gets in return for such rewards to his friends because he doesn't report any campaign contributions or gifts from such individuals as required by California's political reform laws. Is his Railroad Foundation or other "charitable" affiliate benefiting?

Mayor Lawrence Dale has a history of closed doors and backroom secret deals. He's calendared an unprecdented number of closed sessions and previously unscheduled meetings.

When a previous independent Council majority voted against him on various matters, Mayor Dale was relentless behind the scenes trying to undue nearly every one of their decisions.

Mayor Dale often attempts to squash public debate and reigns over Barstow with an iron fist. Anyone who crosses the Mayor will eventually be a victim of his covert attacks and relentless need for revenge. Hector Rodriguez is the latest example.

Previously Congressman Buck McKeon had carried a an ear-mark to secure half a million dollars in new money for this project that would ulltimately be awarded to Micromedia Filtration, Inc.

end

Manuel (Gil) Gurule Tells the Truth About City Manager Rodriguez

2007-12-04T12:32:00.000-08:00

Manuel (Gil) Gurule
Letter to the Editor
Desert Dispatch

Dear Editor,

Surprise surprise, just what I predicted would happen did happen and for the same reasons I mentioned in my letter on November 14th, 2007. It took the Desert Dispatch 2 1/2 weeks after my letter and 2 days after the City Manager was fired to finally reveal the truth on the reasons for his termination.

The memo on October 30th, written by City Manager Rodriguez, has been floating around City Hall for the past month, so it's not that hard for a newspaper that truly wants to inform its public to find. This letter was addressed to the full council concerning the interference of Mayor Dale with awarding a $15 million contract to his friends Micromedia Filtration Inc., who, by the way, was recommended to him by his dear friend, the mayor of Adelanto, who is now being investigated for embezzlement.

Instead of sidestepping the law like the mayor wanted, Mr. Rodriguez was doing the highly ethical thing by reporting this interference by the mayor to the full council. But with Mr. Dale and his puppets, this only ended with the demise of our City Manager and his ultimate and unjustified termination.

I have previously written a complaint to the San Bernardino County's District Attorney's Office and its Public Integrity Unit concerning Brown Act violations with regard to Micromedia and discussions about its contract in closed session. This complaint was sent in when it was made obvious by Councilman Joe Gomez and Councilman Steve Curran that the council had spoken in closed session about the contract with Micromedia when it was not put on the agenda for discussion. That is a direct Brown Act violation.

Hopefully the recent events on the firing of the City Manager Mr. Rodriguez, the head of the city of Barstow, will trigger a deeper investigation into his firing and the possible awarding of a $15 million bid to his friends Micromedia, something the mayor has been pushing for months and is an obvious conflict of interest to the mayor.

The article in the Desert Dispatch mentions a memo sent out by Mr. Rodriguez to the council and city department heads. This memo issued communication guidelines between city employees and city council members. City Council members are not to give direction to staff, subordinates of the City Manager. That is the city manager's job.

The communication guidelines were rescinded by the majority of the council the same day they put the city manager on indefinite leave. Strange, is it not? They now admit that the council is to stay out of the city manager's job duties, like Councilman Curran states in your article of December 1st. To me, Councilman Curran is talking with a forked tongue, or in a nicer term, being deceptive.

Hopefully this article of the Desert Dispatch on internal memos will open some eyes on what is really going on in Barstow.

Manuel Gurule

Letters to the editor, November 14, 2007

Fix Is In On
City Manager's Treatment

I too would like to voice my opinion on the misguided vote by our City Council to put our city manager on indefinite paid leave. This only means firing.

This cannot come as a surprise to anyone. The cards were dealt over two years ago when Mayor Dale and his cohort, Paul Luellig, voted against the appointment of Hector Rodriguez to City Manager. This was a blow to the dictatorship of Mayor Dale and Paul Luellig. But their efforts to stop his appointment failed. They did not get their way and with the recall of Paul, the mayor had to wait until he had his other two votes to remove Mr. Rodriguez. This came when Tim Silva, his crony, and Julie Hackbarth were elected.

One thing that makes this very suspicious is that his suspension was to take effect immediately after closed session on Monday. For those of you that don’t understand this, this was done only to silence Mr. Rodriguez from revealing the true facts behind his suspension in open session. Now that he is negotiating his departure, he’s under strict confidentiality and cannot release anything to the public while negotiating his compensation for his remaining tenure.

He was about to release some information that would not have been favorable to the mayor on what led up to this point. By suspending him, his lips were sealed and the cover-up was in effect. For those in the know, this all stems from the contract dealing with the mayor’s associates vying for building the sewer plant. Nothing more. Mr. Rodriguez held to his ethics, stood up to the mayor and wanted to follow the law. The mayor wants to sidestep the law for his friends MircoMedia.

With the placement of the mayor’s appointee Ron Rector, things will go the mayor’s way. As we have seen in the past, Ron Rector is a yes-man and will never go against the mayor. If there are any legitimate reasons to let our City Manager Hector Rodriguez go and cost the city taxpayers thousands of dollars for doing so, why then wasn’t the public notified of this prior to his suspension? It is our right as taxpayers and citizens of Barstow to know what is going on with our city government.

Manuel Gurule
Barstow

Why the City Manager Was Fired

2007-12-03T16:33:00.000-08:00

It hasn't been much of a secret that Mayor Dale never wanted Hector Rodriguez to be the City Manager from the beginning when he voted against his confirmation.

It is no secret that Dale has been scheming to get rid of him ever since.

Dale didn't like him because he isn't white, isn't Republican, and isn't part of the old crony guard that has been running Barstow for years.

But most importantly, Dale didn't like him because Hector has integrity. He stood up to the Mayor's corruption in general while performing his duties in the most professional and competent manner in recent history.

But at the heart of Dale's contempt for Hector is the issue of MicroMedia. After throwing away 1.7 Million dollars that the City had already spent on the HDR contract, the Mayor tried to railroad the contract into the coffers of his buddies at MicroMedia. Hector wasn't about to compromise himself by going along with the Mayor's questionable schemes and Dale fired him.

Now that Barwest compromised our election process and imposed their puppets on the Council, Dale now has the power to do whatever he wants and treat the city like a cheap whore.

None of this was ever a secret and was in fact quite transparent. But finally Reporter Jason Smith has exercised a little journalistic investigation and the story is now in print for all to read. Here is that story:

November 30, 2007 - 8:53PM

Memos show disagreement between Council, staff preceded city manager’s departure

By JASON SMITH Staff Writer

BARSTOW — Internal city documents show that the termination of City Manager Hector Rodriguez’ employment contract was preceded by disagreements between City Council members and city staff over the city’s wastewater-treatment plant upgrade contract.

A memo dated Oct. 30, written by Rodriguez and addressed to the council, accuses Mayor Lawrence Dale of interfering with the process, wanting to directly award the $15 million contract to Micromedia Filtration, Inc., instead of reviewing bids from other firms. Rodriguez wrote that he’d been given direction to award the contract to Micromedia in a meeting held on Oct. 18 with Dale and council member Steve Curran. Dale and Curran disputed Rodriguez’ allegations.

“The Mayor told me that the Council’s direction to me in this matter had been to write a (Request for Proposals) that would result in a contract award to Micromedia by effectively eliminating other potential bidders,” Rodriguez wrote in the memo.

“(T)his was in direct contradiction of Council’s direction to me. As city manager, it is my charge to carry out the direction of the Council majority. For me to do otherwise would be both illegal and unethical ... Council’s direction to me was to administer an open Request For Proposals process, the ultimate outcome of which is unknown at this time.”
Rodriguez stated in the memo that Dale had spoken directly with members of Buerau Veritas, the consultant which the city hired to assist with the request for proposals process, to select the wastewater contractor.

“The very reason why I requested assistance was due to interference from the Mayor in the negotiations,” Rodriguez wrote. “This interference appears to be occurring again, likely jeopardizing the fairness of the Request For Proposals process and opening up the door to litigation.”

Rodriguez did not return calls seeking comment. Dale and council member Steve Curran disputed Rodriguez interpretation of events, calling it a misunderstanding.

“I did not direct the City Manager to create an RFP that would eliminate potential bidders for the wastewater facility upgrade project,” Dale wrote in an e-mail. “In fact, the City’s consultant Bureau Veritas is now moving forward with an RFP process that will be advertised with all potential bidders.”

Dale wrote that he spoke with the city’s consultant because he worried that the firm is not moving fast enough to choose a contractor. Upgrades to the wastewater-treatment facility were mandated by the Lahontan Regional Water Quality Board because of elevated nitrate levels in the water. The city could face fines from $1,000 to $10,000 per day if it does not meet the July 2009 deadline set by Lahontan.

Citing a contractual settlement, Dale declined to state if the disagreement with the city manager was related to the council’s 4-1 decision on Thursday to terminate Rodriguez’ employment contract.

Curran said the bid-seeking process for the wastewater upgrade contractor is difficult due to the unique nature of the technology that Micromedia uses in its plant.

“The council voted 3 to 2 to go with Micromedia. ‘Go’ is a misused term. When you say ‘go with Micromedia,’ do you mean the firm Micromedia, or the technology behind Micromedia?” Curran said.

He voted against the council’s July 16 decision to cancel the city’s previous contract with contractor HDR Engineering in favor of Micromedia. The city spent $1.7 million on with HDR, but allegations of project delays and rising costs led the council to switch firms. Micromedia says its plan for the facility would save the city $1,183,600 annually in operating costs or potentially reduce each resident’s sewer bill by $11 a month
Curran said he isn’t comfortable with awarding the construction contract to Micromedia because of the young company’s lack of a track record.

“Our hopes are that other companies that use this technology will come up,” he said.

Curran said that some of the concerns outlined in the memo are related to an ongoing disagreement over city staff members’ interactions directly with council members. Curran said that although he’s heard rumors, he’s not aware of council members directly giving instruction to city staff.

“I would appreciate it if the city staff would come to me and say that this is happening. All we’ve heard is hearsay,” he said.

According to the Barstow Municipal Code, the city manager is responsible for day to day
operations of the city and the management of city employees.

“The city manager works for the City Council. The staff does not work for the council, the staff works for the city manager,” Curran said.

An Oct. 26 memo written by Rodriguez to the council and city department heads issued communication guidelines between city employees and council members.

“There have been occasions when Council members have met directly with staff, and when Council members’ expressions of opinion have been interpreted as direction,” he wrote.
The memo continued, “Council members may not give direction to subordinates of the City Manager ... Staff is required to adhere to this directive. Failure to do so will be subject to disciplinary action, up to and including termination.”

The communication guidelines were rescinded by a decision of the council on Nov. 5, the same day that the council voted to place Rodriguez on indefinite paid administrative leave.
City attorney Yvette Abich said that it was necessary to reverse the memo’s guidelines in order to clarify the communication policy so that council members can ask questions of staff members.

“Essentially the City Council is to work with the City Manager in giving direction to city staff, but the city staff is free to talk to city staff on the basis of inquiry,” she said.
She declined to comment further about the termination of Rodriguez’ employment contract or the circumstances surrounding his departure.

“The law says we can’t talk about personnel matters,” she said. “He’s got a right to privacy, and we have to respect that.”

Attorney Bob Conaway Defends Free Speech

2007-12-03T15:56:00.000-08:00

After Robert Vasseur wrote another one of his indiscernible rants in a letter to the editor where he resorts to his usual meandering and always irrelevant attacks on me, local Attorney Bob Conaway responded with a letter of his own.

Mr. Conaway poignantly defended my constitutional rights to free speech and the right to dissent. Just like any elected officials, attorneys take an oath to defend and uphold the U.S. Constitution.

Thank you Bob for taking that oath seriously and being counted on the side of Free Speech!

Letters to the editor,
November 29, 2007

Barstow residents entitled to criticism

Robert Vasseur’s letter to the editor (”City manager’s removal might be justified,” Nov. 19) highlights one of the current problems facing this country — a tendency to try and make dissension and or vigorous debate something which is partisan. That we have dissension at City Council meetings is patriotism in play.

I have met the city manager, Mr. Rodriguez, and I believe he has the qualifications to serve Barstow well based on a solid resume of prior experience. If there are other problems we aren’t being told about, I suppose the Brown Act can be blamed, but whether the blame is somewhere else or not, people like Larry Halstead have a right to voice that opinion.

As long as Larry lives in Barstow, he has a constitutional right in public comment periods to criticize government operations and leaders in Barstow. As a regional director for the California Democratic Party, I have sat in council chambers and have heard Larry make it clear that while he is a member and president of a local democratic club, he does not speak for the state party and as a California Democratic Party state officer, I can assure Mr. Vasseur the Democratic Party is not organizing nor supporting a recall in Barstow nor is there anything going on except for the usual voter education process and the get-out-the-vote drives for the upcoming elections.

Barstow, party affiliations aside, appears to suffer from less than full and honest disclosure of what government is doing or thinks it’s doing in the public interest, of insider dealing that dead-ends the city with nothing to show for it except busted tribal (and or Chinese business) deals and or financing agreements (and a fat bill for attorney fees, costs, spent staff time), a sewage spill that could have been avoided (along with the fat fines the city had to pay) ... and well I could go on.

I do respect the work and dedication of Barstow’s city employees and elected leaders. I only wish Larry Halstead’s first amendment right to criticize was similarly respected, not because he is a Democrat, but because he is a fellow American.

Bob Conaway
Hinkley

"Bob Conaway's letter to the editor here is really good and to the point. The establishment never likes a whistle blower and Larry Halstead is a whistle blower when it comes to the iniquities of the Barstow establishment. Of course there will be name callers who lack substance and couldn't argue their way out of a brown paper bag, but Larry will still be there doing his patriotic duty by blowing the whistle on this crooked city establishment. Dissent is the highest form of patriotism and Larry certainly is dissenting from our current political situation in Barstow. I see absolutely nothing wrong with that and all of Larry's critics can just sit and meditate on what it means to exercise one's constitutional freedoms in this country.

Jeffrey Quillinan

In response to someone hiding behind the pseudo name of Splixx, who left a stupid comment left on the Desert Dispatch website in regard to the above letter, Jeffrey Quillinan left the following comment:

"Larry is no joke and Larry is not just "out for himself" as Splixx alleges here. I vouch for Larry's honesty in his attempts to warn Barstow of the underhanded dealings of our present City Council with regards to Barwest. Larry is a good citizens and true patriot. Splixx doesn't know what he is talking about when he posts negative things about Larry Halstead. That much is truly evident by his vitriolic nonsense here."

Jeffrey Quillinan

Katherine Siva Saubel calls Michael Malik "Devil"

2007-12-03T10:19:00.000-08:00

It is interesting to note that for several years this battle over ancestral rights has pitted me against, not only Barwest and the Barstow Kool-Aid Club, but also the Los Coyotes Tribe. This is not only unfortunate but it pains me greatly as I have always been in favor of Native American rights and the issues that surround them. Throughout this battle I have been maintaining a position that Los Coyotes need a casino project but that it should be on their reservation or at least on their Ancestral Rights.

I have watched as Barwest Liar-in-Chief Shady Shields has manipulated public opinion at large and key participants in this casino drama specifically. When ever Shields is in attendance at the City Council Meetings he can be seen huddled with his followers. Before he was elected by Shields, Tim Silva was often seen connected at the hip with his guru Shields. School Board Member Julie Clemmer is another groupie that can often be seen under Shields wing as he plots her attacks against me.

These local politicians are easily bought off and corrupted but when you see Native Americans falling prey to the Barwest/Shields manipulations it is disheartening as yet another example of white man pulling the wool over Native Americans as they exploit their resources. Then last August the extend to which Shields influence has been able to get the younger Los Coyotes Tribal members, Shane Shapirosa and Tina Johnson, to compromise their integrity and the good name of the tribe as they stood up and repeated the lies against me that Sleezy Shields was able to get them to regurgitate was beyond offensive.

Now he had gotten these younger members of the Tribe to plot a coop against the much beloved and highly respected Katherine Siva Saubel. Corrupting Native Americans and leading a coop against the Tribe's matriarch is at the top of my list as to why I have total contempt for Barwest and the sleezy tactics they employ. These people have no shame and they richly deserve titles such as the "DEVIL". Only now, it is not just that "liberal, radical, activist" Halstead who is using these labels to describe the unsrupulous tactics of the Detroit Demolition Derby we have come to know as BARWEST. Not it is straight out of the mouth of the esteemed Tribal Leader.

From TheVerifiableTruth.com Sunday, December 02, 2007

Los Coyotes tribal leader calls Barwest's Mike Malik "devil;" says he has "seduced" younger tribal leaders

Los Coyotes tribal spokeswoman and tribal elder Katherine Siva Saubel recently called Michael J. Malik, Sr. the "devil" and said he has "seduced" younger members of the tribe to jump aboard Malik's band-wagon. Among other things, Malik's group paid younger members of the tribe to appear in Barstow as "grassroots" volunteers during the 2006 election primary:

11.01.07
"Saubel said there is a council-only meeting today to discuss the casino efforts--a meeting she was not invited to be but plans to attend anyway. A full tribal council meeting is set for mid-November. Saubel claimed the Malik has 'seduced' the younger member of the tribe and called him 'the devil himself.'
" 'I was 83 when we started this. I'm 87 now,' Saubel said. 'I think he's just waiting for me to keel over.' "

Mike Malik and Mrs. Marian Ilitch are the principals behind the Detroit-based casino syndication BarWest LLC. Malik and Ilitch have proposed building several off-reservation casinos for tribes from opposite ends of California on a site that Barwest owns in Barstow, California.

Ilitch and her husband Mike Ilitch are the co-founders of the Little Caesars Pizza franchise. The family also owns the Detroit Tigers, Detroit Red Wings, MotorCity Casino, Detroit's Fox Theater and other sports, entertainment and restaurant operations.

Malik and the Ilitches are behind stalled proposals to build unorthodox off-reservation casinos in Port Huron, Michigan; Barstow, Califorina; and in The Hamptons on New York's Long Island. (see also: Detroit Free Press exposes Malik/Ilitch casino enterprises)

Members of the Bay Mills Indian Community have expressed concerns about Malik's involvement in their casino ventures as well as a business venture involving the research and manufacturing of various plastics products. Rumors have circulated among Bay Mills members to suggest the FBI is investigating the plastics venture.

In 1999 the Michigan Gaming Control Board (MGCB) failed to grant Michael Malik a gaming license and he was forced to transfer his interests in Detroit's MotorCity Casino to Marian Ilitch before the casino could open its doors to the public.

Last year, following a two-year investigation, California's Fair Political Practices Commission (FPPC) fined Malik's Barwest LLC on two counts for failing to report a $26,600 contribution Malik made to the San Joaquin County GOP Committee in 2004 -- Malik paid a $6,500 fine; and TVT has learned the FPPC is investigating numerous unreported political contributions and questionable lobbying payments Barwest's Malik made in 2006.

Barstow is in Crisis with City Manger Firing

2007-11-07T20:04:00.000-08:00

Barstow is in Crisis with City Manger Firing

City Manager Hector Rodriguez

The City of Barstow is under siege and is now in full blown crisis mode, while most citizens are either unaware or just don’t care. For two years or more now, I have been blowing the whistle about the climate of corruption that has been brought on by the influence peddling of Barwest. Now our worst nightmare has come true with the firing of the best City Manager we have ever had and the best asset we currently have going for us - Hector Rodriguez.

We now know that Barwest has spent a total of 19 million on their Barstow project. That is 19 million dollars in influence peddling in a city where most of that influence could have been bought for a fraction of that cost. Some of that money was spent on the purchase of the property for the project from the cronies that have been running this town forever and keeping this town economically depressed with their incompetence and self serving interest. Two of these cronies, the Hackbarths and the Currans, reinvested that money in a speculative manner by purchasing adjacent parcels to the Barwest project. Then Barwest as part of that deal elected their children onto the City Council to protect that investment. Barwest also made a deal with Tim Silva to sell out the City funded Chamber of Commerce in exchange for his seat on the Council.

Now the Barwest project has disintegrated into the toilet as well it should have and as I predicted. But in the process, Barwest and this Council’s blind allegiance has diminished the possibility that we will ever have a casino project. Tom Shields the liar in chief who claims over 300 political campaigns to his credit and boast that he could elect a rock, has proven total lack of any experience is not an obstacle to holding office in Barstow. In their campaign literature designed by Shady Shields, Tim and Julie were billed as “The Turnaround Team for Economic Development.” In reality, neither one of them has squat in the way of experience of any kind and neither has ever entertained an original idea in their life.

As a result, we now have a Council that is totally controlled by this corrupt Mayor. We have replaced local democracy with Dictator Dale and he has used that power to the advantage of his special interests. Canceling the HDR contract and replacing it with MicroMedia (with no proven tract record and not a single model of a waste water treatment system to their name), is an act that should have already cost Dale his job. MicroMedia is his special interest and it was wrong for Dale and his actions on their account have already been adjudicated as illegal by our City Attorney.

Our distinguished and honorable City Manager was the only one standing up to Dale and so our Mayor has been trying for some time to do away with him. With Dale’s buddy Ron Rector as our new City Manager the current level of local corruption will sky rocket and this town is doomed to have a Mayor who treats our city like a cheap whore. There is reason to believe that Hector was also discriminated on because he was NOT white, NOT Republican, and NOT part of the crony politics.

If this action is allowed to stand, this town is in big trouble. It is past time for the good citizens of Barstow to stand up to local special interest and the tyranny of Mayor Dale. It is time to throw the lot of them out and those who participated in Hector’s firing should be recalled and/or indicted. It is time for a citizen revolt to take back this town. I am calling for a protest movement and a boycott of Del Taco and Silva’s mortgage business as a good starting point.

New Updated Index and Home Page

2007-09-22T16:32:00.000-07:00

Welcome to Barstow Politics

Created by

Larry D. Halstead

Political Scientist, Community Activist,
Public Speaker, Writer

All post are archived chronologically in a column on the right. For Your Easy Reference and Access to Current Significant Post they are Indexed Here Below:

Background and Purpose of the Barstow Politics Blog
http://barstowpolitics.blogspot.com/2007/09/welcome-to-barstow-politics.html

This blog was started in late 2006 as a communication tool for issues facing the Barstow community. Now that Indian gaming has come to control and dominate the local political agenda, this blog will reflect that obsession and follow the corruption and cronyism involved.

In The News
(Commentary and Links to Relevant Stories)

Desert Dispatch on Council's Current Brown Act Violations
http://barstowpolitics.blogspot.com/2007/09/desert-dispatch-on-barstows-brown-act.html

Council accused of violating Brown Act over casino meeting Citizen files legal complaint; council reveals details of gathering - By Jason Smith
September 18, 2007

Shackford Apologizes for NOT recognizing Brown Act Violations
http://barstowpolitics.blogspot.com/2007/09/shackford-apologies-for-not-recognizing.html
The Editor of the Desert Dispatch was dismissive when the violation was first brought to his attention, after some consideration he realized that the law was violated and that there are even more serious ramifications of the Council’s Transgressions.

The Latest in this Effort

My Passion for Ancestral Rights and Indian Sovereignty
http://barstowpolitics.blogspot.com/2007/09/my-passion-for-ancesrtal-right-and.html
This is my post explaining why I care about Ancestral Rights and how I see it being consistent with every fight for social justice that I have ever been involved with throughout my life. It includes my three minute statement read under the "Casino Update" portion of the Sept 17 City Council Agenda.

Who I Speak For and Who I Represent
http://barstowpolitics.blogspot.com/2007/09/who-i-speak-for-and-who-i-represent.html
In an effort to discredit me, Tom Shields and the Barwest Kool-aid Club have been accusing me of working for the "other side". Others think I should "tone it down" since I am the President of the local Democratic Club. This is my statement about who I represent when I speak out at Council Meetings and other public events.

September 17 Council Meeting Showdown and viewing schedule
http://barstowpolitics.blogspot.com/2007/09/september-17-council-meeting-showdown.html
For a over a month, the September 17 City Council Meeting has been shaping up to be a real show down and expose on local conflict of interest, influence peddling and the predicted death of the Barwest Compacts. This post outlines those reasons and has the schedule for viewing key sections on the internet.

Breaking News: BarWest Compacts are Dead
http://barstowpolitics.blogspot.com/2007/09/breaking-news-barwest-compacts-dead.html
A full ten days before these Reservation Shopping, Ancestral Rights violating compacts were scheduled to expire, Senator Wiggins, the co-author of the bill kills it on her own as she is investigated for her own illegal contributions from Barwest.

The Fight for Ancestral Rights

The BarWest Scam in Barstow
http://barstowpolitics.blogspot.com/2007/08/barwest-scam-in-barstow.html
This is a comprehensive work on how Barwest bought influence and stole democracy in Barstow. This post will be updated as the story of corruption, reservation shopping, Ancestral Rights violations continue to plague the city of Barstow.

It’s About Ancestral Rights STUPID!
http://barstowpolitics.blogspot.com/2007/08/its-about-ancestral-rights-stupid.html
The myriad of issues involved in Indian gaming have their roots in the fundamental concepts of Ancestral Right and Indian Sovereignty. They are sacred rights to Native Americans and are equivalent of civil rights, human rights, and the Bill of Rights.

Mayor Dale and Tom Shields
(still NOT) the Final Authority on Ancestral Rights
http://barstowpolitics.blogspot.com/2007/09/mayor-dale-and-tom-shields-as-final.html
The Ancestral Rights of Native Americans has been worked out over the past 250 years by the federal government, state government, and the tribes involved. But that hasn’t stopped Mayor Dale and Barwest spin doctor Shields from trying to establish themselves as the final authority.

The True Story of My Involvement in Indian Gaming
http://barstowpolitics.blogspot.com/2007/08/true-story-of-my-involvement-with.html
As I have become increasingly vocal in my opposition to Barwest and the corrupt Barstow politicians that do their bidding, I have come under attack regarding the nature of my involvement. This post sets the record straight once and for all.

Barwest Spin, Lies, Deception, and Influence Peddling

Who is Really Buying Influence in Barstow?
http://barstowpolitics.blogspot.com/2007/09/big-thank-you-to-tvt-for-real-truth.html
The Truth, the whole Truth, and nothing but the Verifiable Truth on who is buying influence in Barstow! Tom Shields and the Barwest Kool-aid Club has been trying to paint me as a paid hack for "the other side" but the truth is out as to who has really been buying influence in Barstow and who has sold out.

My Commentary on the BarWest Media
Blitzkrieg and all out Lobbying Effort
http://barstowpolitics.blogspot.com/2007/09/my-commentary-on-barwest-media.html
In all out effort of lobbying and a media blitz, Barwest tries to salvage their failed compacts that were doomed when the Governor reluctantly signed them against his better judgment.

Please DO Contact Our Leaders in Sacramento
http://barstowpolitics.blogspot.com/2007/09/please-do-contact-our-leaders-in.html
As part of the 11th hour effort to salvage their failed compacts, Barwest urged its supporters to contact leaders in Sacramento. I am also urging concerned citizens to do so but for the opposite goal of exposing the fraud and ending the Barwest corruption in Barstow

Desperate Barwest Launches Media Blitz
Complete Media Coverage in one spot
http://barstowpolitics.blogspot.com/2007/09/operation-desperate-barwest-media-blitz.html
This is a collection of repost of articles of media coverage about the desperate BarWest media blitz and all out lobbying effort to salvage their doomed compacts.

Red Faced Mayor Exposed as Pawn of Barwest
http://barstowpolitics.blogspot.com/2007/08/red-faced-mayor-exposed-as-pawn-of.html
At a Special Meeting of the Barstow City Council on August 28, 07, during the Council Reports’ Mayor Dale was confronted and chastised by Councilman Gomez about his unauthorized letter to the Department of the Interior which is a vicious attack on the Chemehuevi Tribe and their legitimate Ancestral Rights.

The Index of Smoking Gun Letters
http://barstowpolitics.blogspot.com/2007/08/index-of-smoking-gun-letters.html
This is the collection of the letters that were distributed by Councilman Gomez at the 8.28.07 Special Meeting. Besides the unauthorized letter from Mayor Dale, the other letter document the legitimate Ancestral Rights of local tribes.

The BarWest Kool-aid Club Defined
http://barstowpolitics.blogspot.com/2007/09/barwest-kool-aid-club.html
I often use this term in describing Barstow’s sell-out politicians, other leaders in the community, and those citizens who practice blind devotion in a cult like manner toward Barwest and who are complicit in the violation of Ancestral Rights.

Citizen Oversight and Public Participation

Citizen Oversight and Public Participation
http://barstowpolitics.blogspot.com/2007/08/letter-to-editor-desert-dispatch.html
In light of the efforts by the Kool-aid club to stifle my 1st Amendment Rights, I wrote this ‘letter to the editor’ in defense of Cur constitutional rights and the responsibility of citizens to speak out.

Everything You Need to Know about How-TO do
Barstow Citizen Oversight on the Internet
http://barstowpolitics.blogspot.com/2007/08/barstow-citizen-oversight-on-internet.html
Starting on October 16, 2007, the Barstow City Council Meetings are available to watch live on the internet and are also archived on the City of Barstow’s Website along with the Agenda. This post shows you how to access the portion of the Meetings that are relevant to you and to other post referenced here.

Go direct to the City’s Website - Click Here
http://barstow.granicus.com/ViewPublisher.php?view_id=2

Please DO Contact Our Leaders in Sacramento
http://barstowpolitics.blogspot.com/2007/09/please-do-contact-our-leaders-in.html
This post contains pics, phone numbers, and emails for our CA State leaders for your easy, convenient reference all in one location.

For Further Info - Other Relevant Sites

Barstow Indian Gaming - BarstowIndianGaming.blogspot.com
This is my blog dedicated to only Barstow Indian Gaming. It has none of the other issues in Barstow unrelated to Indian gaming and it has additional related stories that I didn’t write for those only focused on Indian Gaming

Real World Politics - RealWorldPolitics.blogspot.com
Politics in Barstow are warped by issues that are often unrelated to the reality of the real world. For this reason, I have recently created this new blog as an outlet for expressing my view on any issue NOT relating to Barstow. It is still under construction but you may want to check out my post on Cesar Chavez there.

The Verifiable Truth (TVT)- TheVerifiableTruth.com
The complete one stop spot for everything about Barwest and their schemes involving Reservation Shopping and other scandals across the nation. To narrow your search to Barstow related stories on TVT, the following hyperlink will allow you to review posts at TVT that are related only to BARSTOW:
Click Here to search TVT for Barstow related stories
http://www.theverifiabletruth.com/search/label/Barstow

Capitol Notes - The Official Blog for KQED’s John Myers
http://www.kqed.org/weblog/capitalnotes/blog.jsp

John Myers is Sacramento Bureau Chief for KQED's "The California Report," heard weekdays and weekends on 24 public radio stations, including 88.5 FM in San Francisco and 89.3 FM in Sacramento.

Shackford Apologies for not Recognizing Brown Act Violation

2007-09-19T18:15:00.000-07:00

Shackford Apologies
for not Recognizing
Brown Act Violation

The Editor of the Desert Dispatch was dismissive when the violation was first brought to his attention, after some consideration he realized that the law was violated and that there are even more serious ramifications of the Council’s Transgressions.

Apparently former Barstow Mayor and City Councilman Gil Gurule had contacted Shackford to give him a heads up that while the four members of the Council were supposed to be attending the League of CA Cities Conference in Sacramento, they were actually playing hooky and spending their time lobbying on behalf of Barwest.

The fact that all four members of the Council were meeting behind closed doors in the Governor’s office, lobbying, setting policy, and negotiating upon their special interests was something that Shackford wasn’t interested in when Gurule first brought it to his attention. But after the matter exploded into view at the Council meeting on Sept 17, Shackford had an awakening and to his credit was man enough to offer up an apology. Here is what the paper’s editor had to say on his "Editor's Blog" at DesertDispatch.com:

http://shackford.freedomblogging.com/2007/09/18/who-watches-the-watchdogs/

Who Watches the Watchdogs?

posted by Scott Shackford

September 18th, 2007 ·

It looks like I owe Manuel “Gil” Gurule an apology.

He called me at the end of last week about the casino happenings (and lack thereof) in Sacramento. His intention was to point out to me that the meetings between the governor’s staff and four City Council members may have been a Brown Act violation. The Brown Act is California’s public meeting law, which is intended to make sure that local governmental meetings and decisions (with some exceptions) happen in a public forum, with the community appropriately notified.

I blame casino outrage fatigue for not listening, though it’s really a lousy excuse. City Council members aren’t supposed to gather in large enough numbers to define a quorum — three or more in this case — without public notification of the meeting. Their meeting in Sacramento is most likely a Brown Act violation, though they amended the situation by reporting out the content of the meeting at the subsequent City Council meeting Monday.

I was dismissive of Mr. Gurule’s call, because I’ve grown tired of folks on both sides finding ways to pick pick pick at their opponents and trying to get the newspaper involved. I’ve also been made increasingly aware by our readership that most folks out there don’t care about the squabbling, just the results.

But while this particular Brown Act violation was fairly mild — they were just there to receive information, it appears, not to plan anything — there are potential serious repercussions when this happens. What other meetings could have taken place in Sacramento without our knowledge? Could there have been strategy sessions to deal with opposition to one project? Could they have discussed dumping the city’s agreement with one tribe or the other? These are all potential discussion subjects that are obligated to happen in public.

So I apologize for letting my frustration with the nature of this debate cloud my perception about what is happening in Sacramento. Gurule was absolutely right to be concerned and I appreciate his call, in retrospect.

Desert Dispatch on Barstow's Brown Act Violations

2007-09-18T23:38:00.000-07:00

Desert Dispatch on Barstow's Brown Act Violations

Jason Smith, staff writer for the Desert Dispatch covered the September 17 Regular Meeting of the Barstow City Council Meeting. The night was highly focused on Indian gaming due in part because of the timing on the Barwest Compacts dying their last and final death at midnight that same night.

Item # 31 on the Agenda was a lame attempt by four members of the Council to "cure" and clean up their Brown Act Violation from meeting with Cynthia Bryant, Legislative Analysis Assistant for Governor Schwarzenegger. The Council got in a heated debate before I spoke on the subject.

During my comments I brought up the immense Conflict of Interest that they all have and that combined with the Brown Act Violations caused me to file a Complaint with the San Bernardino County District Attorney's Public Integrity Unit earlier that same day. At the end of the meeting, Jason was asking me about the complaint and I gave him a copy of the Complaint I had filed. On the next day, Tuesday, Jason wrote the following article which was scheduled to run in Wednesday's paper.

September 18, 2007 - 5:21PM

Council accused of violating Brown Act over casino meeting Citizen files legal complaint; council reveals details of gathering

By JASON SMITH, staff writer BARSTOW — At its Monday meeting, the City Council disclosed that members held a closed-door meeting earlier this month about the Big Lagoon/Los Coyotes casino compacts, leading some to believe that the council violated California’s open meeting law.

While attending the League of California Cities Conference on Sept. 6., four council members met with Cynthia Bryant, the governor’s deputy chief of staff, who handles Indian gaming issues, to discuss the issues holding back the Barstow casino compacts. City Manager Hector Rodriguez and the city’s Economic Development Manager Ron Rector also attended the meeting. No agenda was posted prior to the meeting as is normally done when more than two council members are present.

Barstow resident and frequent critic of the council, Larry Halstead, announced at the Monday’s council meeting that he had filed a complaint with the Public Integrity Unit of the San Bernardino County District Attorney’s office. He accused council members of “corruption” and was upset at what he called city lobbying for a private developer.

“We paid you guys to lobby on behalf of your special interests, that’s what this was,” Halstead said.

The Brown Act, the section of state law which governs how government agencies hold public meetings, states that no more than two council members can gather together outside of a scheduled meeting. Three or more council members at the same meeting would constitute a voting majority and is not allowed under the law except when the event is previously placed on a public agenda or under special circumstances.

Council member Joe Gomez, the only member not to attend the conference, said he was disappointed that the council decided to meet as a group.

Gomez said he chose not to attend the conference because he had attended similar events in the past and said he felt the event was “a waste of taxpayer money.” He accused the Mayor Lawrence Dale of leading the council into violating the Brown Act.

“You clearly led this council, which consists of several new members, to violate the Brown act. … You met without posting a meeting. You met behind closed doors and this clearly violates the Brown Act,” he said.

Council member Julie Hackbarth-McIntyre defended the council’s actions saying that the meeting was not pre-planned and was the result of a last-minute scheduling change

“We had 20 minutes to drop everything to see her,” Hackbarth-McIntyre said.

She said that due to the complexity of the issue and differences of opinions among council members, she felt it was important that all members had the same information.

“There was no vote. We just received information. It was very important for all of us to hear what was discussed by Ms. Bryant,” she said.

Hackbarth-McIntyre said that council members were aware they would have to disclose what was discussed.

“We’re here tonight to let everyone else know what was said and done to cure what went on in that meeting,” she said.

City Attorney Yvette Abich said at Monday’s council meeting that the Sacramento meeting should have been handled differently.

“Should an agenda have been posted? Yes. But it wasn’t. But the Brown Act has a mechanism to cure situations like this,” she said.

She pointed out that the Brown Act has a provision that allows for closed door meetings to be disclosed after the fact, “curing” the violation.

Frank Vanella, Deputy District Attorney with the Public Integrity Unit acknowledged that Larry Halstead’s written complaint of the council’s actions had been received and said his office will review the allegations to determine if further investigation is needed.

He said that assuming the violation was not intentional than a warning would be the most likely penalty that council members would receive. He said that though his office did not keep statistics over Brown Act complaints for individual cities, violations were a common occurrence mostly done by officials unfamiliar with the law.

“There’s a history of Brown Act complaints in almost every city and every board,” he said.

My Passion For Ancesrtal Right and Indian Sovereignty

2007-09-18T20:50:00.000-07:00

My Passion For
Ancestral Rights
and
Indian Sovereignty

For all of my life I have found myself on the front lines of standing up for issues of Social Justice. I often say that I inherited the battle for Environmentalism and Freedom of Choice in Alternative Medicine from my father, Bruce W. Halstead, M.D. From that start, I found myself involved with other issues that included: code enforcement, civil rights, human rights, equal rights, children's issues, government corruption, and corporate wrong doing.

While I received my degree in Political Science from UC Davis in 1976, I have spent my professional life in business. When I met my wife Michelle at the end of 1999, she had already adopted three children who started life as the victims of drug abuse. Together we have adopted five more of these children who would otherwise be at risk of growing up in perpetual foster care where they would be statistically inclined to repeat the sins of their biological parents.

In the process of becoming foster parents, I was exposed to the phenomenal crisis that has been created by the miserably failed war on drugs. We are now creating generations of children who are growing up in the system with little hope for the future. It was this reality that has led us to create the Earth Haven Foundation for Kids to address their needs. The goals for this foundation include educating the public about this crisis, providing methodology for handling their needs, and passing legislation that would open up loving adopted homes for these innocent child victims.

It was the search for affordable housing for these children that brought our family to Barstow. Since it is my nature to practice public participation and citizen oversight, it was only natural for me to get involved with local politics. It didn't take long for me to see what was going on here in Barstow and how this town was being run by the same kind of land baron cronies that ruined by home town of Grand Terrace.

With the advent of Indian gaming as the dominant issue of Barstow, it didn't take long for me to investigate the influence of the billionaire Detroit developer which now runs this small town. It also brought forth an interest in the questions relating to Ancestral Rights which I admit to only having a basic concept of prior to my involvement with this issue. But the more I looked into Ancestral Rights, the more that I came to realize how sacred this was to Native Americans and how it was the same as civil rights and human rights.

But standing up for my beliefs has brought me into conflict with the Barwest machine and the object of their smear campaigns to discredit me. I have always been willing to stand up for Native Americans and I would be honored to represent them in any way that would assist in their fight for self determination and Indian Sovereignty.

But since I have yet to be called upon to represent Native Americans, I highly resent the Barwest, Tom Shields ugly lies that I am acting as a paid political hack for "the other side". I can think of nothing that would offend me more than being accused of being another "Tom Shields". I see him as a sleazy, scumbag lier that would stoop to the lowest form of political manipulations for the big bucks that Barwest pays him. This morally bankrupt slime is the best at what he does which is to buy influence, corrupt politicians, and destroy local democracy. The fact that he has some local leaders like Barstow School Board Member Julie Clemmer participating in perpetuating his lies against me is a sad and pathetic statement about their moral character.

For all of these reasons and more, I felt compelled to write the following statement and read it during the "Casino Update" Item of the Agenda for the September 17 Regular Meeting of the Barstow City Council Meeting.

My Three Minute Comments
On Ancestral Rights
During Casino Update
Barstow City Council Meeting
by Larry D. Halstead

"Make no mistake about it! This battle over Indian gaming here in Barstow is all about Ancestral Rights. To those that don’t understand this simple truth, I wonder what part of Ancestral Rights don’t you understand, Ancestral or Rights? It is almost as if you have never even thought about how we went from Native Americans as the ONLY American citizens on the continent, to the ugly history of genocide and forced exile and onto these god-forsaken lands we call “reservations”.

It is like you never even stopped to think about the deplorable conditions imposed on Native Americans on those reservations. Those deplorable conditions have been undeniably turned around by Indian gaming.

Ancestral Rights and Indian Sovereignty is as sacred to Native Americans as civil rights are to non-Indians because it was paid for by their blood. Ancestral rights are not determined by Dale, Rector, or Tom Shields but was determined over a 250 year history of treaties. These days, Ancestral Rights for lands in Barstow are identified by the Native American Heritage Commission and dictated by Senate Bill 18 to be listed on Barstow’s General plan as belonging to the Serrano, Kaaiisu, Fort Mojave, and Chemehuevi Tribes.

This Mayor’s unauthorized letter to the Department of the Interior attacking the Chemehuevi and their Ancestral Rights is ugly, disrespectful, shameful, and illegal. This Council, except for Gomez, has shown a disregard for their blatant conflict of interest. This Mayor can never again expect even the slightest respect from me after his assault on the great nation of the Chemehuevi and his gross disrespect for their elected honorable leader, Chairman Wood.

Barwest politicians obsessive lobbying and acting like the paid pawns and puppets for Barwest that they are, is counter productive to Barstow ever having a casino. It is also a blatant disregard for Ancestral Rights, the Brown Act, and all laws against conflict of interest.

Barwest specializes in Reservation Shopping which is considered by tribes that respect the Ancestral lands of other tribes as an evil threat to Indian Sovereignty. The Barwest strategy for violating these rights in their greedy quest to profit from Indian gaming is to find these fledging tribes and supply them with the lawyers to fight in the courts, the lobbyist to persuade legislators, and the millions of dollars needed to buy influence and politicians like they have done here in Barstow.

Standing up for Ancestral Rights and against government corruption is something that I am proud to do. It is consistent with every battle for social justice that I have ever been involved with and I will continue this battle until justice rolls down upon Barstow like a mighty river freeing this town of the Barwest influence and the corrupt politicians who run this town."

Who I Speak For and Who I Represent

2007-09-18T20:10:00.000-07:00

Who I Speak For
and
Who I Represent

Lately I have been under attack by the Barwest Kool-aid Club who have been using the lies generated by Barwest Liar-in-Chief Tom Shields that I am a paid political hack for "the other side". They have been using this smear campaign to silence me along with putting pressure on me from Dale supporters who think I should not talk about local corruption at the Council Meetings, due to my position as the President of the local Democratic Club.

In the past, they have been successful in silencing some local gadflys through their employment. Since I am self employed as a consultant, it is more difficult for them to use that leverage. So I wanted to set the record straight and do so at the Council Meeting during the Public Comment segment of the Agenda. I prefer to speak from the heart and not off of pre-written statement. However, when you are limited to three minutes and you have lots of stuff to say, I didn't want to leave it to chance. So here is what I wrote and spoke at the September 17 Council Meeting.

Public Comment
by
Larry D. Halstead

"I want to begin my comments with some much needed clarification as to who I speak for, and who I represent when I speak at this podium. Put simply, I speak only for myself, not the local Democrat Club, or any other person or organizations of any kind. All of my comments are my opinions and mine alone.

From early on, I have made a pattern and practice of speaking out on issues for which I have strong convictions including: the environment, civil rights, human rights, and now Ancestral Rights. In doing so, I have a track record of taking strong views against government corruption, corporate wrong doing, influence peddling, and tyranny at all levels. As such I am a strong supporter of public participation and citizen oversight.

I make these clarifications because in the efforts to silence me those with special interests have attempted to use my positions with civic organizations against me. This tactic will NEVER succeed. For me, speaking out is way more important than any positions I may hold.

To those who are offended by my comments and my accusations of local corruption, I make no apologies and offer only this warning: You are guaranteed to be even more offended by my comments here tonight and from this point forth. To those that would defend local corruption and attack my constitutional rights, I can only say that I have no concern for your opinions or the venom of your letters to the editor. My comments are not meant for your ears and I have no fantasy about winning you over to my point of view.

To those concerned citizens that care about government accountability and local democracy, I have yet another clarification directed to your ears only. You should know the truth of my passion for Ancestral Rights which I will share with you during the casino update.

For now, I want to address the vicious self serving lies about me being generated by Barwest Liar-in-Chief Tom Shields, and perpetuated by school board member Julie Clemmer, along with Los Coyotes representatives Shane Shapparosa and Tina Johnson. None of those lies have any basis in fact whatsoever.

For the record, I do not represent ANY Native American tribes or any gaming interest of any kind, not now, not ever and I have never been paid a single penny to represent them nor have I received any input from them.

To the San Manuel Tribe, I want to publicly apologize that you were dragged into this local battle that you never wanted any part of anyway. You made the one time contribution to my campaign after I solicited your assistance in fighting for Ancestral Rights locally, to offset the hundreds of thousands of dollars Barwest has spent in effecting the outcome of our elections and to control policy here in Barstow.

With these clarification out of the way, it is now time to speak some real truth!"

September 17 Council Meeting Showdown

2007-09-18T16:53:00.000-07:00

Barstow City Council Meeting
September 17, 2007
The Showdown Over Indian Gaming

For a month now, the September 17, City Council Meeting has been shaping up to be a real show down for several reasons:

1. The Barwest Compacts were scheduled to die their last and final death on the 17th, the same day of the Council Meeting which was guaranteed to turn out the masses on all sides of the issue.

2. The last meeting of the Council was a Special Meeting on August 28 wherein the Mayor was exposed for his unauthorized letter to the Department of the Interior attacking the Chemehuevi and their Ancestral Rights.

3..Then we learned that Tom Shields had been planning a major Barwest media blitz and lobbying effort in the days leading up to Sept 17, to salvage the Compacts that were killed prematurely by the Co-author of the bill, Senator Pat Wiggins who is now under investigation by the FPPC along with Barwest partner Michael Malik for contributing twice the legal allowable limit to her campaign.

4. And finally, it was discovered that the Council (all but Gomez) had gone to Sacramento, on tax payer’s money, under the guise of attending the League of CA Cities, from Sept 5-7. What they did instead was to spend the time lobbying the legislature on behalf of their special interest Barwest. On the 6th they all met with Governor Schwarzenegger’s Deputy Legislative Analysis, Cynthia Bryant. This was a major violation of the Conflict of Interest since every one of them has financial ties to Barwest. Worse still, all of this constitutes the worst case of violations of the Brown Act.

I will be posting more information and commentary soon but I wanted to get a schedule of Relevant Comments and Agenda Item for easy reference. The entire meeting lasted over three hours and most people have neither the time nor the interest to watch the entire meeting. So I have compiled this catalogue here for your convenience.

For assistance on how to watch the meeting on the internet, see my post entitled:

Everything You Need to Know about How-TO do
Barstow Citizen Oversight on the Internet

City Council Meetings can be viewed on: the City's Website Here

Internet Viewing Schedule of Key Items
September 17 Council Meeting
Relevant Comments and Agenda Items

Note-Times for items on the video are given by how far into the meeting they occur and are listed as (hours) : (minutes) : (seconds) For example 2:43:18 would be two hours, forty-three minutes and eighteen seconds into the meeting.

Public Comment Start Time -1:11:25
THIS IS THE TIME AND PLACE FOR THE GENERAL PUBLIC TO ADDRESS THE CITY COUNCIL ON MATTERS WITHIN THEIR JURISDICTION THAT ARE NOT CURRENTLY ON THE AGENDA.

1:15:00 Larry D. Halstead
[This is my statement on who I speak for (myself) and who I represent (nobody) when speaking at the Council podium.]

Casino Report Start Time 1:29:30 Finish 2:17:37
Recommended Action: Information Item

1:30:00 to 1:31:40 Chairman Wood of the Chemehuevi Tribe
1:31:45 to 1:54:00 Phil Wyman, Chemehuevi Lobbyist, former State Senator and Assemblyman, and lawyer
[This was a brilliant, definitive presentation on the Ancestral Rights of the Chemehuevi and the political status of Barstow Indian gaming in Sacramento]

1:54:45 to 1:58:25 Katherine Siva Saubel, Los Coyotes
1:58:50 to 2:03:08 Nephew of Katherine Soble, Kevin?
2:03:10 to 2:08:00 Tom Shields, Barwest spin doctor
2:08:00 to 2:11:25 Lance Boldrey, Atty for Barwest
2:11:30 to 2:14:36 Pat Aleman, concerned citizen
2:14:40 to 2:17:37 Larry D. Halstead
[This was my 3 minute lecture on how it is all about Ancestral Rights and why I feel so passionate about it]

Business of the Council Start Time 2:18:30 Finish 2:25:05

2:19:12 to 2:21:23 Councilman Gomez comments about the casino issue

#31 under Business/Action Items Start 2:27:00
City Council Discussion of September 6, 2007 Meeting with Cynthia Bryant, Deputy Chief of Staff and Director For Governor Schwarzenner
Recommended Action: Receive and File

[This was a lame attempt to cure the council’s Brown Act Violations that occurred when four members of the Council met with the Governor’s representative and the conflict of interest involve it was a heated exchange that got into the conflict of interest involved]

2:27:00 to 2:31:35 Mayor Dale
2:31:35 to 2:32:27 City Manager Hector Rodriguez
2:32:30 to 2:41:00 Councilman Gomez with interruptions by Mayor Dale
and Council Member Hackbarth-McIntyre
2:41:05 to 2:44:25 Larry D. Halstead

#14 under Consent Calendar Items Start 3:05:50 Finish 3:10:05
(Pulled from the Consent Calendar by Councilman Gomez)
APPROVAL FOR ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT/RDA MANAGER TO ATTEND THE LEAGUE OF CALIFORNIAN CITIES
Recommended Action: Approve Economic Development/RDA Manager’s trip to Sacramento for September 5 through September 7, 2007.

[This item was put on the agenda to pay for Ron Rector to go to Sacramento over the Sept 5-7 to organize the lobbying effort on behalf of Barwest]

3:05:50 to 3:07:30 Council Discussion of the Item
3:07:38 to 3:10:05 Larry D. Halstead

A Big THANK YOU to TVT for the real truth!

2007-09-15T01:56:00.000-07:00

Thank You TVT!
From the bottom of my Heart!

The Truth, the whole Truth, and nothing but the Verifiable Truth on who is buying influence in Barstow! TVT breaks with the TRUTH again!

It can be a bit overwhelming being on the front lines in the battle against the Barwest corruption. It is hard to sustain all the assaults by the Liar-in-Chief Tom Shields, Mayor Dale, and the entire BarWest Kool-Aid Club when you know they are vicious lies meant to smear you. I have been damaged and my business has suffered as a result. Their libel and slander has consequences and the damages include some despair over the whole experience. I always believe that the truth will eventually come out and in the meantime, having TVT tell the real truth goes a long way to feeling exonerated. Thank You so much TVT! Maybe now good people will recognize the truth and help us bring and end to the Barwest nightmare.

What they need to know is that they are really hurting the children that we are trying to help and protect. I moved to Barstow for the affordable housing for the children that we have taken on and adopted. There are a total of eight children that my wife and I have taken on that are children that are born into a nine month history of drug abuse. My children are but a sample of a couple million nation wide that the true victims of the failed 'war on drugs'. These children are mostly doomed to be living in perpetual foster care where they are likely to repeat the mistakes of their biological parents. My wife and I are the founders of the Earth Haven Foundations for Kids which is dedicated to finding adopted loving homes and together we are committed to ending this crisis and injustice toward children.

I support myself as a consultant in Economic Development, Project Management, Environmental and Natural Health Product Development, Publishing, and as a writer and a speaker.

These Barwest lies have hurt me financially and put my family and home at risk. But in a way, that is not as bad as the total climate of corruption that has hurt the entire community of Barstow economically and throught the loss of local democracy. Lots of Barstow citizens are barely getting by and desperately need the higher living standards that the hope of responsible, progressive development would bring. I know we can do better. Lots better but only if we take back our city from these corrupt politicians and the plague of the billionaire Detroit developers Barwest.

Having a distinguished 'whistle blowing' website like TVT and to whomever is dedicated enough to help expose the Barwest scandals and schemes, I really appreciate the recognition and the truth. I thank you! My kids thank you too!

Larry D. Halstead

Ps: Please support Ancestral Rights and Indian Sovereignty!

Here is the TVT Post!
Here is the Verifiable Truth!

From TheVerifiableTruth.com
http://www.theverifiabletruth.com/2007/09/barwests-buying-political-influence-in.html

BarWest’s Buying Political Influence in Barstow,
Make NO Mistake About That

Friday, September 14, 2007

2006 Barstow Political Cash
Detroit-based BarWest - $200,000
San Manuel Indian Tribe - $2,500

In Barstow recently, there has been much ado about a $2,500 contribution from the San Manuel Indian Tribe to Larry Halstead’s city council campaign in 2006.
It’s merely a BarWest/Dale smokescreen to divert attention away from the more than $200,000 spent by BarWest and directed by Mayor Lawrence Dale on Barstow political campaigns in 2006. And that does not include the more than $100,000 in court costs BarWest was ordered to pay when it tried to stop the re-call campaign of Paul Luellig and block voters from voting on the future of casinos in Barstow.

If you want to know why Mayor Lawrence Dale and his allies on the Barstow City Council won’t back any casinos other than those controlled by BarWest, take a look at the following political payments and campaign contributions made by the BarWest controlled political committee Barstow Citizens for Real Economic Development (BCRED). More than 93% of the approximately $200,000 spent by BCRED in 2006 was paid by BarWest principals, agents and their undisclosed partners (Las Vegas). And this doesn’t even include any gifts, business deals or contributions directly to the campaign committees of any of these officials.

Councilman Steve Curran
$3,883.50 efforts to support Curran for Council
$3,883.50 efforts opposing Gurule for Council
$7,767.00

Councilman Tim Silva
$2705.97 Printing, Newspaper Ad
Councilwoman Julie-Hackbarth McIntyre
$874.31 Newspaper Ad (total cost of ad $2,622.93)

Former Councilwoman Gloria Darling
$2002.17 Desert Signs

Planning Commissioner Mike Lewis
$1,699.93 Printing Solutions
$794.55 Quigley’s Restaurant
$2,494.48

Lint/Krommenhoek Families (Sean Lint, Stacey Krommenhoek, etc.)
$4,113.67

Desert Dispatch
$12,143.25
$3,497.18
$15,640.43

BarWest even had to pay the members of the Los Coyotes Indian Tribe to come to Barstow as “volunteers” for their political campaign. And yet, these same individuals criticize Larry Halstead for taking $2,500 from the San Manuel tribe toward his campaign for city council.

Chapparosa Family (Los Coyotes)
$1,650.00

Kupsch Family (Los Coyotes)
$1,050.00

And all the above represent the “known” payments to these elected officials, individuals and their companies that were required to be disclosed because they were funneled through the political committee BCRED. They don’t have to disclose anything paid to them directly from BarWest or its agents or their friends in Las Vegas who want to control the future of any Barstow casino.

In addition, there have been thousands in luxury jet travel, nights out on the town in Las Vegas, five course meals at the Four Seasons Hotel, tickets to sporting events, and lucrative land sales to family members that aren’t reported in the political campaign disclosures of these Barstow officials.

Friday, September 14, 2007

Hackbarth Family land value dependent on future of Barwest property

Approximately six months before Julie Hackbarth-McIntyre was elected to the Barstow City Council and during the campaign to defeat Measure H, her parents managed to participate in a syndicate that purchased a 2.2 acre parcel on speculation from the estate of Marie DeChellis for $100,000.00. The property is close to the proposed BarWest casino site. Now the future value of the Hackbarth family property is dependent upon what happens to the nearby BarWest property -- Or what a prospective buyer thinks is going to happen to the BarWest property.

Read the whole story here

Curran family land value dependent on future of Barwest property

Just months before Steve Curran was elected to the Barstow City Council and during the campaign to defeat Measure H, his family sold approximately 15 acres of property to BarWest LLC for an undisclosed amount (likely $25,000-$50,000 per acre or more). His family and their partners own another 11.5 acres directly connected to the BarWest controlled property. The future value of their property is directly dependent upon what happens to the adjacent BarWest property -- Or what a prospective buyer thinks is going to happen to the BarWest property.

Read the Whole Story Here

Welcome To: Barstow Politics

2007-09-11T01:32:00.000-07:00

Welcome to Barstow Politics

Created by,

Larry D. Halstead

Political Scientist, Community Activist,
Public Speaker, Writer

Background and Purpose of Barstow Politics

I originally started the blog during my campaign for city council in the November 2006 election for City Council of Barstow. My intention in running was to get a bigger audience for the issues I was already dealing with in Barstow. Therefore I planned to continue the blog as a way to keep on covering the issues I care about and getting my message out.

More and more, the issues of Barstow are being dominated by Indian gaming and the billionaire right-wing Detroit developer Barwest and thier Reservation Shopping, Ancestral Rights violating casino project. Barwest partners Michael Malik and Marrion Illich have holding that include Little Ceasars Pizza, the Detroit Tigers, the Red Wing Hockey Team, Motor City Gaming, and half of down town Detroit. They are deeply involved with disgraced ex-Congressman Richard Pombo who was the primary target of the Jack Abramhoff scandal in Congress.

Through the Barwest political hack, spin doctor and Liar-in-Chief, Tom Shields of and the control they now exert over the Mayor Lawrence Dale, Council Members Julie Hackbarth-Mcintire, and Tim Silva, Economic Development Director Ron Rector, and local leaders such as Barstow Unified School Board Member Julie Clemmer, former Barstow Area Republican Caucus Chair Robert Vassuer, President of the Barwest PAC, Barstow Citizens for Real Economic Development Director Greg Lint, and a host of other local redneck hillbillies that I affectionately refer to collectively as the Barwest Kool-aid Club.

Now that Barwest has a three vote coalition on the Barstow City Council, democracy has taken a vacation and all other matters of corruption, conflict of interest, and bad government policy now have the Barwest factor in common. I will continue to cover other issues as they arise but until we get some investigations, indictments, and recalls, I will focus on the Barwest source of Barstow's crisis over corruption and bad government policy.

For the record, I speak ONLY for myself and not for any other person or organization, PERIOD. Specifically, I have not been paid one penny from any tribe or other gaming interest to represent them in any regard. I have never been asked to say anything or not say anything except from Barwest who has launched a smear campaign against me with false accusations of extortion and that I am a paid hack for San Manual and/or Chemehuevi. While nobody can prove a negative, I will tell you that it would be an honor to assist any tribe in protecting their legitimate Ancestral Rights. If I was retained in any capacity, believe it you would hear it out of my mouth first and with a sense of pride as it would be an honor. I believe that Ancestral Rights are more sacred to Native Americans than Civil Rights and the Bill of Rights are to all Americans.

All of my life I have fought for Social Justice including: Environmental Justice, Freedom of Choice in Alternative/Natural Health, Code Enforcement Justice, Civil Rights, Equal Rights, Human Rights, Anti-War, Equal Access, and against Government Corruption. I don't see a single thing about Ancestral Rights that makes it any less significant or worthy a cause to fight for. In fact if you take the time to study the atrocity of genocide that white folk committed against Native Americans and the despicable history of the Reservation system imposed upon them, how could you not care about Ancestral Rights?

Here is an Index of my various post and a lead in paragraph about each one. There is a link on each one if you want to read the entire post. Many of them are on the long side but at least I have provided as much information as possible for any open minded person to discover the truth for themselves. Feel free to contact me with any information, input of criticisms at HalsteadforBarstow@gmail.com.

Thanks for dropping by,
Larry

Breaking News - BARWEST COMPACTS DEAD

2007-09-09T23:21:00.000-07:00

This just in……..

THE BARWEST COMPACTS
ARE DEAD!!!

As is often the case, The Verifiable Truth had it first. What, you were thinking you would hear about it first from the Desert Dispatch? Yeah right! Snap out of it.

On Saturday, September 08, TVT reported the news under the heading:
BREAKING NEWS: SB 157 has been gutted indicating the Barwest gaming Compacts for Barstow are DEAD!
"As of September 7, 2007, SB 157 "An act to add Sections 12012.53 and 12012.54 to the Government Code, relating to gaming" has been gutted by its author Senator Patricia Wiggins (D-Santa Rosa) and is now "An act to amend Sections 23356.1, 23399.6, and 25503.9 of the Business and Professions Code, relating to alcoholic beverages." [click here for full story]

You didn’t have to be psychic to predict this outcome. The only place that you could find anyone that believed in the ratification of these compacts was in the fantasy land of Barstow, home to the BarWest Kool-aid Club. Only there can you find people that ignore conventional political wisdom and buy into the lying spin being generated by BarWest Liar-in-Chief, Tom Shields.

And I am not sure that even they really believe it but when your under the influence of the greed-tainted Kool-aid, it is too traumatic to recognize reality even when you are being challenged with it from a big mouth like mine. A couple months ago, I challenged the Barstow City Council and the Kool-aid Club to find one single objective person who believed that the compacts stood a snow ball chance in hell of passing.

Watch the video

More recently, even the city’s own lobbyist, Nick Medeiros, was reporting that the compacts would die and was blaming the Governor’s total “lack of enthusiasm” as the principal target for the failure of the compacts. And this despite that the Governor’s signature on the compacts was touted as the number one reason that local redneck hillbillies and sell out politicians were using as their best reason for wanting to violate the Ancestral Rights of legitimate local tribes like the Chemehuevi.

Of course the ONLY real news here is that in an act of euthanasia, one of the two authors of the bill, Senator Wiggins, pulled the plug on the bill a full ten days prior to the compacts natural
death when they were scheduled to expire on September 17.

One can only speculate as to why she held the pillow over this terminal patient and choked the last breath out prematurely. Since we are unlikely to ever get the real story out of Senator Wiggins, and we know we will never get the truth out of the BarWest politicians in Barstow, let us take a moment to speculate shall we?

1. Could it be that the Senator has suddenly come to her senses about her role in the assault on the Ancestral Rights of the legitimate local tribes of Barstow and is now embarrassed that as a Democrat she has abandoned the core Democrat values of standing up for Indian Sovereignty?

2. Could it be that she could no longer justify her involvement in the BarWest schemes after Big Lagoon Chairman Virgil Moorehead announced a couple of months ago that he was pulling out of the BarWest con game in pursuit of a legitimate casino project in Big Lagoon country?

3. Could it be that she no longer wants to be associated with sell out politicians like Mayor Dale, Council Member Hackbarth-Silva, and Councilman Silva or sleazy, lying, political hacks like Tom Shields?

4. Or is it possible that with the on-going investigations into the multiple campaign violations of BarWest partner Michael Malik by the Fair Political Practices Commission (FPPC) which could easily implicate her as the top out-of-state donor to Wiggins 2006 campaign just prior to her signing on as one of the two authors of SB 157 the BarWest Compact legislation?

Fresh after paying a $6,500 fine for failing to report a $26,600 contribution to then Congressman Richard Pombo's County GOP Committee, Malik was desperate to find a last minute stooge to author his Reservation Shopping Bill. Now, amongst other issues, the FPPC is also investigating the fact that Malik made two contributions to Sen. Wiggins campaign in the Fall of 2006 which he again failed to report to the FPPC and which exceeded the aggregate amount he could contribute to Wiggins in the last election cycle. Malik was the top out of state donor to Wiggins 2006 campaign.

All of this has left Barstow officials scampering for cover since any comprehensive investigations will inevitably lead to the City of Barstow. And we have already documented inconsistencies, under reporting and other wrong doing in the BarWest meddling in our election process and the death of local democracy.

But by now, nobody expects that we have seen the last of Tom Shields and the BarWest thirst for Reservation Shopping schemes. As the saying goes: “you break it, you own it”. With hundreds of thousands of dollars that BarWest has spent buying politicians and influence in Barstow, we know that the billionaire Detroit developer doesn’t plan on pulling up stakes this soon.

Many of us have been speculating as to what the ‘Plan B’ will be for the local chapter of the BarWest Kool-aid Club that they have in motion, once it was uncovered that Big Lagoon would no longer be part of their schemes. But even before that, we knew that they were leaving the door open for other possibilities. BarWest was never in any hurry to turn the land over to the tribes and the sign announcing the project never bore the names of the two tribes.

"Barwest Gaming" sign in Barstow but no tribe names
Now Big Lagoon is gone and Los Coyotes
don't qaulify for a 'stand-along' project

Now they have an eleventh hour media blitz that they are running in selective districts where key legislators reside.

Watch the Video

However, even as the Barstow politicians were embarrassing themselves and the city by acting like paid lobbyist and pawns in Sacramento, BarWest and Los Coyotes were working on a stand-alone project for the Los Coyotes tribe. This despite the fact that the Governor is tired of this whole albatross that has dragged him through the BarWest Reservation Shopping mud and has already ruled that the Los Coyotes do not qualify for a stand-alone project in Barstow.

On September 5, while Barstow’s sell out politicians were knocking on doors in Sacramento, John Myers of KQED reported on his “Capitol Notes” that the Los Coyotes has reopened negotiations with Governor Schwarzenegger’s office for a stand-alone project. He also reports confirms what we have been saying for awhile now. The Governor was stuck with this albatross insider deal.

His lack of enthusiasm stems from his strong stance that the Governor took against the evil of Reservation Shopping prior to getting suckered into signing the compacts. Even the Big Lagoon Chairman came to understand that the Governor didn't really want it and neither did the local tribes and that it was a bad idea all along. I feel that by moving ahead on his own Ancestral lands Chairman Moorehead takes the honorable path and restores any integrity that the tribe might have loss due to their mere association with this greedy Detroit developer.

I salute you Chairman Moorehead!

Thanks John for getting the story and getting it right. The following passages from John's blog say the whole story! [Read the full story on John's Blog Here]

"Meantime, the vice-chairman of San Diego's Los Coyotes, Shane Chapparosa, told reporters that his tribe has now begun separate negotiations with the governor's office for a solo Barstow casino. The governor's office won't confirm whether that's the case."

At a news conference this morning at the state Capitol, the tribes announced an 11th hour media campaign, with a TV ad that they say will be broadcast in Sacramento, the Bay Area, and Los Angeles over the next few days.

But there's no indication that the casino deals will be ratified before legislators adjourn for the year early next week. While the two tribes signed formal casino compacts with Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2005, those compacts have been in limbo in the Legislature ever since. Critics say the projects might set a precedent for tribal casinos on non-tribal land. And several politically powerful tribes in southern California say that's why they oppose the casino deal -- even though Los Coyotes and Big Lagoon accuse those tribes of being more concerned about casino competition in the region.

So what's happened since late May?

"A lot's happened," said Big Lagoon chairman Virgil Moorehead, alluding to the ratification of amended casino deals for some of the tribes opposing his project.

"Our [compact] got pushed down, kind of to the bottom of the barrel. Why did it get pushed down to the bottom of the barrel? Because these tribes don't want us down there.

Moorehead also said he thinks Schwarzenegger hasn't done enough to cajole legislators into ratifying the deal, an accusation the governor's office disputes.

Meantime, the vice-chairman of San Diego's Los Coyotes, Shane Chapparosa, told reporters that his tribe has now begun separate negotiations with the governor's office for a solo Barstow casino. The governor's office won't confirm whether that's the case."

Read the full story her on the John Myers, KQED Blog Here.

All of this is going to be great fodder for major fireworks at the up-coming September 17 Barstow City Council which just happens to be the date that the compacts were scheduled to expire on their own. Ah, only in Barstow!

The Barwest Kool-aid Club

2007-09-09T14:27:00.000-07:00

The sign outside the BarWest Kool-aid Club House

The BarWest Kool-Aid Club
Barstow Chapter

Captain 'Kool-aid Shields' explains to his BarWest Kool-aid Club
how he has been lying all along and the compacts are now dead

When speaking out against the BarWest influence of corruption in Barstow and the blind allegiance by which people have been bamboozled into following Tom Shields directives in supporting these compacts, I often use the term “BarWest Kool-Aid Club”. Usually I will be using that expression when at the City Council meetings and I am being limited to three minutes with about an hour of information that I would like to be covering.

'Captain Kool-aid', aka Tom Shields,
explains his strategy to the Kool-aid Club,
for how he plans to deal with anyone
who dares to oppose the BarWest Compacts

When I have used the term, I feel that it should be clearly obvious just from the context even if one is ignorant of what happened with Jim Jones and the Peoples Temple in Guyana or the history of the expression, “drinking the Kool-aid”, that preceded that mass suicide. But as obvious as it is to me, the term still seems to elude many members of the club and even those that do not support BarWest. So it seems incumbent upon me to offer an explanation for those who still haven’t caught on.

Scientific Fact: 98.5%
of all members of the BarWest Kool-aid Club
are also faithful views of Bill O'reilly. The
other 1.5% don't have cable in their trailers

So to those who still suffers from some degree of ambiguity regarding my use of the term “BarWest Kool-Aid Club”, I offer the following explanation of my use, a background on Kool-Aid the product, a brief explanation of the term, “drinking the Kool-aid”, and a rendition of the story of Jim Jones and the People’s Temple in Guyana, complete with a YouTube video on the whole event.

Explanation of my use of the expression: “The BarWest Kool-aid Club”
By definition, a cult’s leader wields tremendous influence over his followers. But as the German people proved in the case of Adolph Hitler, the blind sheep syndrome is not limited to religious cults. Likewise, in the world of big money, greed can be the driving force behind blind allegiance. This is evidenced in situations like pyramid schemes and multi-level marketing. Amway ‘sales associates’ are often made fun of as having a giant A tattooed on their forehead while their product line is the only conversation that they are capable of talking about.

In Barstow we have a phenomena where BarWest comes to town in the form of Tom Shields. The next thing you know, hundreds of thousands of dollars are thrown around and a line forms of local leaders who line up to drink the Kool-aid and they instantly start shouting the praises of BarWest. Next thing you know Mayor Dale is flying around in a BarWest Lear Jet to lobby on their behalf. President of the Chamber of Commerce Tim Silva puts the Chamber up for sale as a public relations firm for BarWest in a deal to become the next City Councilman. Business leaders across town start worshiping at the throne of BarWest. And anyone who dares to speak ill of their god is chastised and ostracized.

Background on the development of Kool-Aid the product

Kool-Aid was invented by a Gerard and Edwin Perkins in Hastings, Nebraska. In Hastings, Nebraska. Its predecessor was a liquid concentrate called Fruit Smack. To reduce shipping costs, in 1927, Perkins discovered a way to remove the liquid from Fruit Smack, leaving only a powder. This powder was named Kool-Ade (and a few years later, it was renamed 'Kool-Aid' due to a change in government regulations regarding the need for fruit juice in products using the term "Ade"). Perkins moved his production to Chicago in 1931 and Kool-Aid was sold to General Foods in 1953. The artificially flavored drink is now owned by the Kraft Foods Company.

A brief explanation of the term, “drinking the Kool-aid”
It seemed as though Kool-Aid could turn water into a yummy drink even though it was obvious Kool-Aid contained no fruit, just sugar and an assortment of preservatives. Kool-Aid’s colors are aesthetically pleasing – bright red, blue, green, etcetera. At around $.25 for a packet which can fill an entire pitcher, the expense for the package of sugar seemed small indeed which was an incentive for mom, of course. Overall, Kool-Aid was the ideal drink for an unknowing kid and because it is saturated with sugar who would notice if a cup of Kool-Aid was laced with bitter cyanide.

Even prior to Jim Jones and 909 inhabitants of Jonestown, 276 of them children, died in what has commonly been labeled a mass suicide, the expression of “Drinking the Kool-Aid” used to connote the dangerous influences over souls by the workers of iniquity and to guard against their wiles. It was a warning of evil into an everyday habit of imbibing whatever nonsense accompanies that which is cheap, looks good and smells good.

Ever since the mass suicide of the followers of Jim Jones in Guyana, “Drinking the Kool-Aid” has now morphed to the point that it represents revolutionary suicide because of the tragedy at People’s Temple.

The story of Jim Jones, the People’s Temple, and the mass suicides in Guyana

James Warren "Jim" Jones was born in 1931, in Lynn, Indiana. He became a preacher in the 1950s. He sold pet monkeys door-to-door to raise the money to fund his own church that would be named Wings of Deliverance, which he later renamed the Peoples Temple and was located in Indianapolis. He gained respectability when he became an ordained minister in 1964 in the mainstream Christian denomination of Disciples of Christ.

After leaving Indiana, the Peoples Temple cult built its home in Redwood Valley, California, because Jones believed it was one of the few places in the world likely to survive a nuclear holocaust. Jones authored a booklet, called "The Letter Killeth" pointing out what he felt were the contradictions, absurdities, and atrocities in the Bible, but the booklet also stated that the Bible contained great truths.

He was particularly fascinated with how he could manipulate people. Rather than quitting after he got what he wanted, Jones pushed the envelope to see just how far he could go before the person objected. Throughout the years the young man perfected his craft and was very skilled in his new found art. He claimed to be an incarnation of Jesus, Akhenaten, Buddha, Lenin, and Father Divine and performed supposed miracle healings to attract new members. Members of Jones' church called Jones "Father" and believed that their movement was the solution to the problems of society and many did not distinguish Jones from the movement. The group gradually moved away from the mainstream.

In the summer of 1977, Jones and most of the 1000 members of the Peoples Temple moved to Guyana from San Francisco after an investigation into the church for tax had begun. Jones named the closed settlement of Jonestown after himself. His intention was to create an agricultural utopia in the jungle, free from racism and based on socialist principles.

People who had left the organization prior to its move to Guyana told the authorities of brutal beatings, murders and of a mass suicide plan, but were not believed. In spite of the tax evasion allegations, Jones was still widely respected for setting up a racially mixed church which helped the disadvantaged. Around 70% of the inhabitants of Jonestown were black and impoverished.

In November 1978, Congressman Leo Ryan led a fact-finding mission to the Jonestown settlement in Guyana after allegations by relatives in the U.S. of human rights abuses. Ryan's delegation arrived in Jonestown on November 15 and spent three days interviewing residents. The delegation left hurriedly on the morning of Saturday November 18 after an attempt was made on Ryan's life by a man armed with a knife. The attack was thwarted, bringing the visit to an abrupt end. Congressman Ryan and his people succeeded in taking with them roughly 15 Peoples Temple members who had expressed a wish to leave. At that time, Jones made no attempt to prevent their departure. However, Peoples Temple survivors reported that a group from Jonestown left shortly afterwards in a truck with the intention of stopping the delegation and members from leaving the country alive.

Surviving delegation members later told police that, as they were boarding two planes at the airstrip, the truckload of Jones' armed guards arrived and began to shoot at them. It was here that Ryan was shot and killed. At the same time, one of the supposed defectors, drew a weapon and began to fire on members of the party. When the gunmen left, six people were dead.

Later that same day, 909 of the remaining inhabitants of Jonestown, 276 of them children, died in what has commonly been labeled a mass suicide. However, there is much ambiguity over whether many who died committed suicide or were in fact murdered. Some followers obeyed Jones' instructions to commit "revolutionary suicide" by drinking cyanide-laced grape flavored Kool-aid. Others died by forced cyanide injection or by shooting. Jones was found dead sitting in a deck chair with a gunshot wound to the head, although it is unknown if he had been murdered or committed suicide. The autopsy on his body showed levels of the barbiturate pentobarbital that could have been lethal to humans who have not developed a tolerance to the drug.

Watch the Video:

PLEASE DO Contact Our Leaders in Sacramento!

2007-09-07T17:43:00.000-07:00

NOTICE
ACTION ALERT!!!

Please Do Contact Your State Representatives: Support Ancestral Rights! Do it TODAY!

As part of the BarWest Media Blitzkrieg and All-Out Lobbying Campaign to resurrect the compacts that were long ago pronounced Dead on Arrival, liar-in-chief Tom Shields is asking Barstow residents to contact the legislature. I agree, but for quite the opposite reasons.

The Big Lagoon Tribe has already pulled out of the project in favor of doing a casino project of their own by their reservation in Humboldt. The Governor has already ruled that the Los Coyotes Tribe did not qualify for the project on their own. The City of Barstow’s own lobbyist, Nick Medieros, has blamed the total lack of enthusiasm on the part of the Governor as the principal factor responsible for the failure of the compacts. Even the two authors of the bill have acknowledge that they are dead and that their support was always reluctant and half-hearted.

Of course we know that it was an insider deal that got the Governor stuck with this Reservation Shopping albatross in the first place. We NOW have the benefit of first hand experience about the BarWest style of buying influence. We NOW know about the corrupting nature of the billionaire Detroit developers that make a practice of violating Ancestral Rights while they peddle their Reservation Shopping schemes.

Please DO Contact our leaders in Sacramento!

TELL THEM: That you want them to say no to the Assault on Ancestral Rights.

TELL THEM: That you want to put an end to the climate of corruption that they have created in Barstow.

TELL THEM: That we support Native Americans and their fight for self determination through Indian gaming on their Ancestral Lands

TELL THEM: That they should ignore our sell-out Barstow Council Members who have been bought and paid for by BarWest and are now doing their bidding as paid lobbyist in violation of the Brown Act and in violation of all ethics and laws against conflict of interest.

AND FINALLY: Tell them that BarWest and these corrupt local politicians have stolen our democracy in Barstow and that we desperately need an investigation to restore ethics and the voice of the people in Barstow. Let them know we need their help so that the corrupt corporate influence is stopped now.

We need their help and the future of our city depends on you contacting them to tell them that BarWest does not speak for you and Mayor Dale, and the other two BarWest pawns do not represent your voice or your future.

For your convenience here is the contact information for the Senate President pro Tem Don Perata; Speaker of the Assembly, Fabian Nunez; and the list of members of the Senate and Assembly Government Organizational Committees:

Please DO Contact Our Leaders!
Let them know we need their help now!!!

Arnold Schwarzenegger
38TH Governor of CA
State Capitol Building
Sacramento, CA 95814
Phone: 916-445-2841
Fax: 916-445-4633
Email the Gov:
http://gov.ca.gov/interact

Cynthia Bryant
Chief Deputy Legislative Secretary
for Governor Schwarzenegger
She is the contact person that Barwest operatives including the Barstow politicians have been meeting with to lobby the Governor. When announcing her appointment, the Gov's 2003 press release described her as follows:

"Bryant has more than twenty years of legislative, political and legal experience. She is currently the director for the Senate Republican Office of Policy where she is the lead policy adviser to the Senate Republican Caucus.
A graduate of the University of California, Hastings College of Law, Bryant served as legal counsel to the Assembly Republican Caucus and as deputy chief administrative officer and legal counsel to the Assembly Rules Committee where she provided written and oral opinions in areas of legislative procedure, public contracts, political reform and civil service to Assembly Members and staff...Bryant’s appointment does not require confirmation. She is a Republican. "

Sabrina Demayo Lockhart,
Spokesperson, Deputy Press Secretary
(916)-445-4571

Senate President pro Tem Don Perata
D-East Bay
Senate District 09
Email: Senator.Perata@sen.ca.gov
Web site: http://dist09.casen.govoffice.com
State Capitol Room 205
Sacramento, CA 95814
(916) 651-4009

Speaker of the Assembly, Fabian Nunez
D-Los Angeles
Assembly District 49
State Capitol
P.O. Box 942849
Sacramento, CA 94249-0046
(916) 319-2046

Assemblymember.Nunez@assembly.ca.gov

CA Senate Governmental Organization Committee
[meets every 2nd and 4th Tuesdays at 9:30 am in Room 31 91.]

Senate GO Committee
(916)651-1530
1020 N Street
Suite 584
Sacramento, CA 95814

JURISDICTION: Bills relating to state government organization, horseracing public gaming, the National Guard, alcoholic beverages, and management of public safety emergencies and disaster response, and legislation permitting the use of state-controlled lands. Bills that have been considered by other committees having jurisdiction of the appropriate subject, for consideration of any question relating to state government.

Members:

Senator Dean Florez
Chair of the Senate Government Organization Committee
Senate District 16th
Email: Dean.Florez@sen.co.gov
http://dist16.casen.govoffice.com/
State Capitol, Room 5061
Sacramento, CA 95814
(916) 651-4016

Senator Jim Battin
State Capitol, Room 3060
Sacramento, CA 95814
Phone: (916) 651-4037
Fax: (916) 327-2187
Email: Jim.Battin@sen.ca.gov

Senator Abel Maldonado
State Capitol, Room
4082 Sacramento, CA 95814
Phone: 916-651-4015
Fax: 916-445-8081
Email: Abel.Maldonado@sen.ca.gov

Senator Gloria Negrete McLeod
State Capitol, Room 2059
Sacramento, CA 95814
San Bernardino Office
357 West Second Street, Suite 1
San Bernardino, CA 92401
Email: @sen.ca.gov

Senator Edward Vincent D-SD 25
State Capitol, Room 5052
Sacramento, CA 95814
Phone:(916) 651-4025
Fax:(916) 445-3712
Email: Edward.Vincent@sen.ca.gov

Senator Pat Wiggins SD-2
D- Santa Rosa
State Capitol, Room 4081
Sacramento, CA 95814
Phone: (916) 651-4002
Fax: (916) 323-6958

Senator Mark Wyland SD-38
N. San Diego Co. & S. Orange Co.
State Capitol #4066
Sacramento, CA 95814
Phone: (916) 651-4038
Fax: (916) 446-7382

Senator Leland Y. Yee, Ph.D. SD-8
D-San Francisco/San Mateo
State Capitol, Room 4048
Sacramento, CA 95814
Phone: (916) 651-4008

Assembly Government Organization Committee

Committee phone (916) 319-2531

Alberto Torrico - Chair Dem-20
(916) 319-2020
Assemblymember.torrico@assembly.ca.gov

George A. Plescia - Vice Chair Rep-75
(916) 319-2075
Assemblymember.plescia@assembly.ca.gov

Charles M. Calderon Dem-58
(916) 319-2058
Assemblymember.Calderon@assembly.ca.gov

Kevin de Leon Dem-45
(916) 319-2045
Assemblymember.deLeon@assembly.ca.gov

Noreen Evans Dem-7
(916) 319-2007
Assemblymember.Evans@assembly.ca.gov

Bonnie Garcia Rep-80
(916) 319-2080
Assemblywoman.garcia@assembly.ca.gov

Kevin Jeffries Rep-66
(916) 319-2066
Assemblymember.Jeffries@assembly.ca.gov

Lloyd E. Levine Dem-40
(916) 319-2040
Assemblymember.levine@assembly.ca.gov

Tony Mendoza Dem-56
(916) 319-2056
Assemblymember.Mendoza@assembly.ca.gov

Anthony J. Portantino Dem-44
(916) 319-2044
Assemblymember.Portantino@assembly.ca.gov

Curren D. Price Jr. Dem-51
(916) 319-2051
Assemblymember.Price@assembly.ca.gov

Jim Silva Rep-67
(916) 319-2067
Assemblymember.Silva@assembly.ca.gov

Nell Soto Dem-61
(916) 319-2061
Assemblymember.Soto@assembly.ca.gov

Van Tran Rep-68
(916) 319-2068
Assemblymember.tran@assembly.ca.gov

My Commentary on the BarWest Media Blitzkrieg

2007-09-06T22:39:00.000-07:00

As the desperate Detroit billionaire BarWest and their partners the Desperate Barstow Politicians Unleash Massive Media Campaign and all out Lobbying Effort

Emails, campaign adds on YouTube, and major lobbying efforts by Mayor Dale, Council Members Hackbarth-McIntire and Silva spreading their distortion, deception, and outright lies in Sacramento. The shameless sell out of our council as the pawns and puppets of BarWest is in full operation.

The Barstow City Council Lobbyist
for BarWest Scramble to State Capitol

King Dale, Prince Silva, and Princess Hackbarth of BarWest fantasyland are busy playing the role of pawns and puppets while they embarrass themselves in front of Sacramento Democrats that are wise to BarWest and not about to compromise their values in favor of these Republican Sell Outs!

Fresh after the recent outing of Mayor Lawrence Dale as the total pawn and spokesperson for the corrupt, right-wing BarWest corporate interest, by Councilman Joe Gomez at a ‘Special Meeting‘ of the Barstow City Council, a massive media campaign by billionaire Detroit Developer BarWest has the Mayor running off to Sacramento with fellow pawns and puppets, Julie Hackbarth McIntire and Tim Silva.

BarWest Pawn Mayor Dale

This BarWest project was a nonstarter all along

This was a nonstarter because Reservation Shopping is the worst violation of Ancestral Rights. Those are sacred rights that Native Americans have shed blood and life over a 250 year history. No matter what people think about gaming, Indian gaming has made major progress in lifting Native Americans our of dire poverty and able to empower them to have a seat at the table and bargain from a position of strength. As far as I am concerned we owe them so much more that this is still just a start of how we can restore these people and preserve their culture. This is why I am in this fight and for no other reason. I have fought hard for other issues involving civil rights and this feels no different in any way.

But Democrat leaders in Sacramento are intimately aware of the sacred nature of Ancestral Rights. They are aware of the strong opposition from the vast majority of Native Americans that are opposed to the threat of Reservation Shopping. Democrats know how Native Americans are a vital part of the core of our party’s base. Most importantly they know how Indian gaming as done much to raise the standard of living for Native Americans and empowered them with a voice at the table to protect their Ancestral Rights from greedy developers, governors, and sell out politicians like we have in Barstow.

BarWest Partners

BarWest had to work over time to find anyone willing to author the last compact bill. After speaking with Senator Ashburn’s office, it was disclosed to me by his staff that the Senator doesn’t really support the idea of Indian gaming in Barstow. He has his arm twisted into authoring the bill only because he believes that it should be decided at the local level and he bought the BarWest lie that 81% of the Barstow residents support these compacts. Still even he was convinced that they would fail even as he reluctantly agreed to author the bill.

BarWest was only able to get Senator Pat Wiggins [D- Santa Rosa] to sign on after contributing thousands of dollars to her campaign. She too has been total lacking in her support her signature on the bill. She has done little or nothing to move the bill along and she predicted the bills failure weeks ago. Nonetheless, as a Democrat she should be held accountable for taking BarWest money and then joining the attack against the Ancestral Rights of local legitimate tribes. She should be ashamed and retract her support sooner rather than later.

Governor’s Signature wasn’t ever worth Squat

Before the governor’s signature was yet dry, BarWest, the Los Coyotes, Mayor Dale, his puppets Tim and Julie, along with the entire BarWest Kool-Aid Club of Barstow have constantly parroting the same phrase over and over again like trained monkeys. “It is the ONLY compact that has the signature of the governor.” Ever since the first chanting of that BarWest mantra, I have been pointing out to the Council that the governor’s signature wasn’t worth the wrapper on a stick of gum. I keep trying to educate them on Poli Sci 101 that if the legislature has to ratify these compacts and the legislature is dominated by Democrats then it is NEVER, NEVER going to happen.

Now we find out from the city’s own lobbyist (a solid member of the Kool-Aid club) Nick Medeiros, in a memo dated August 22, 2007 that the blame for the failure is being laid in large part to the total “lack of interest on the part of the governor”.

So the number one argument in why everyone should drink some Kool-Aid and then line up to support these corrupt Detroit billionaire schemes to assault the Ancestral Rights of local legitimate tribes, turns out to be crumbling into the reality that the signature never represented anything more that a total “lack of interest on the part of the governor.” Such a sting of lies, deception, and distortion of the truth should NEVER be rewarded with the ratification of these fatally flawed compacts. I trust in the strong values and experience from Democrats in Sacramento to see through this extreme case of attempted Reservation Shopping.

Sacramento Democrats Protecting Ancestral Rights Against Reservation Shopping from Greedy Developers and Corrupt Barstow Council

And so far, Democrats in Sacramento (except Senator Pat Wiggans) have not disappointed me. They have stood with the sanctity of Ancestral Rights and against the threat of Reservation Shopping. Chairman Wood of the Chemehuevi Tribe was reporting to the Barstow City Council on August 20 regarding a recent trip he had made to the State’s capitol in Sacramento. After meeting with members of the Democratic and Republican Caucuses, the Governor’s office, and members of the two Government Organization Committees, he was told that there was ZERO support for the failed BarWest compacts and that not only was nobody talking seriously about their passage but that it didn’t even qualify as idle chatter in the hallways.

The Government Organization (G. O.) Committees

In the legislative process, the Senate Government Organization Committee and the Assembly Government Organization Committee are the two gate keeper committees that are designed to vet the issues involved in state bills and decide whether they are worthy to be passed on to the legislature at large for ratification.

Senator Florez

Assemblyman Horton

The Chair of the Assembly G.O. Committee, Assemblyman Jerome Horton and Senator Dean Florez, Chair of the Senate G.O. Committee were both brilliant in their handling of these compacts when they came in front of their respective committees. They saw through the hypocrisy of BarWest arguments and exposed the BarWest schemes of Reservation Shopping. In the end, these compacts were killed by the principals of Ancestral Rights that protect Native Americans from the deceit campaigns of the greedy Detroit billionaire developers.
While the compacts were going through these committees, I made a point of making contact with members of the two G.O. Committees and sending them the relevant information about the BarWest corruption and influence peddling in Barstow.

Last October, just before the November elections, I personally met with Assembly Member Gloria Negrete McLeod, who was on the Assembly Government Organization Committee as the BarWest Compacts were being heard. At that time, she had just received a $2100 campaign contribution from BarWest partner Michael Malik. I wanted to make sure that she was aware of the true right-wing nature of this greedy Detroit billionaire developer. She was not personally aware of the contribution but she was emphatic in letting me know that nobody was going to buy her vote. Furthermore, she confided to me that it was all a mute point because in her words: “members of the G.O. Committee were on to BarWest and were not about to be duped by their tactics”. In other words, these compacts were dead back then and that’s the way they were going to stay - dead and buried.

Assembly Member
Gloria McLeod

Tom Shields, the ‘Carl Rove’ of the BarWest Nightmare in Barstow

The new campaign, which has been secretly in the planning stages for the past several months, was unfurled in a media blitz and all out lobbying effort on the part of these sell-out politicians that have been bought and paid for by BarWest. The comprehensive strategy operation is the work of the chief spin doctor Tom Shields who serves as the ‘Carl Rovian’ mastermind behind BarWest campaigns across the country.

The Liar-in Chief for BarWest is also the bullshit artist behind the anti “Measure H Hurts Barstow” campaign, the distorted, deceptive campaign election of Council Members Julie and Tim and the fantasy campaign of ‘Keep Hope Alive’ that these long dead compacts ever stood a snow ball’s chance in hell of ever being passed.

BarWest Spin Doctor
'Shady Shields'

More recently, ‘Shady Shields’ is the liar who is also master minding the attack against me with a smear campaign to silence me. He said that I tied to extort him into giving me a bunch of money to keep me from going to “the other side”. In a lifetime of fighting for social justice, I am used to dealing with slime like him. What saddens me and makes me angry is that he has played on human greed to bring dishonor upon the Los Coyotes.

Conflict of Interest not a problem for Barstow Politicians -
They live in BarWest fantasy land

The extensive Conflict of interest involved in these shameless politicians, having had their campaigns run by Tom Shields and financed largely by BarWest has NEVER given them a restless night nor dampened their assault on the sacred Ancestral Rights of local legitimate tribes, especially the Chemehuevi. While these Barstow politicians are behind the false allegations of me being a being a paid hack for “the other side”, they make it obvious that there is something in it for them that goes way beyond being given a seat on the council. Their zealous attitude in dropping all other business to run up to Sacramento at the smallest snap of the fingers from BarWest has made them totally transparent that their blind loyalty is light years above any possible real concern for the citizens of Barstow.

BarWest Stooge
Council Member Silva

It begs the question of how much it cost to get a politicians to violate those sacred Ancestral Right of local tribes such as the Chemehuevi. The Native American Heritage Commission is now calling for Attorney General Jerry Brown to get involved. It is way past time for and investigation by his office along with the U. S. Attorney’s Office and the Public Integrity office of the San Bernardino County District Attorney’s Office. And yet these guys are blatantly demonstrating that they have no shame and that their greed will get them running at a moments notice.

BarWest Stooge
Council Member McIntire

This thing is going to DIE a fitting DEATH big time and now these guys are up in Sacramento lobbying as if they were high paid pawns on the BarWest payroll. And they wonder why this town has a history of being economically depressed or why we are the laughing stock of everyone in the real world. Tim and Julie have ZERO qualifications or background that would ever equip them to serve as effective leaders of the people, much less to live up to the promise that BarWest sold them in their campaign literature as “The Turn Around Team”.

Larry Dale, Julie (Del Taco) Hackbarth-McIntire, and Silva have some explaining to do about the details of what’s in it for them. Nobody is so stupid as to believe that you would make yourself vulnerable for indictment, recall, or other prosecution just because you think it is ok to commit gross violations of Ancestral Rights with the most extreme example of the evil of Reservation Shopping to ever be proposed anywhere. Larry, Julie, and Tim, you need to know that everyone in Sacramento is laughing at you playing the role of puppet and pawn for BarWest.

It is time for the truth to come out!
It is Time for Investigations,
Recalls and Indictments!

Operation Desperate BarWest Media Blitz

2007-09-06T02:29:00.000-07:00

HOT OFF THE WIRE
DIRECT FROM
THE PRESS ROOM:

Desperate BarWest, Desperate Politicians Unleash Massive Media Campaign and all out Lobbying Effort

Emails, campaign adds on YouTube, and major lobbying efforts by Mayor Dale, Council Members Hackbarth-McIntire and Silva spreading their distortion, deception, and outright lies in Sacramento. The shameless sell out of our council as the pawns and puppets of BarWest is in full operation.

Here is the Media Coverage of the BarWest’s “Operation Media Blitz and All Out Last Minute Lobbying Campaign”:

INDEX

BarWest/ Los Coyotes ad on YouTube, and select TV markets
The YouTube Video version of the television advertisement

The Desert Dispatch story of 9.5,7
Casino Backers Try Last Minute Effort to Pass Compacts

Business Wire Press Release of 9.5.07
PRESS RELEASE Tribes Fronting for Detroit Billionaires Launch Media Campaign to Urge Passage of Barstow Compacts

TheVerifiableTruth.com Editorial of 9.5.07 and 9.6.07
Who's behind the political ads launched by Detroit-based BarWest in California this week and what's their true motivation?

Billionaire Detroit Casino Syndicators with ties to Las Vegas have launched CA Ad Campaign against Established Gaming Tribes

The Times Standard
Time is Running Out for Barstow Compact by Jessie Faulkner

The San Bernardino Sun
Tribes launch TV campaign for Barstow Casinos

BarWest/ Los Coyotes Commercial
on YouTube, and select TV markets

The Desert Dispatch story of 9.5,7

Casino backers try last minute effort to pass compacts

By JASON SMITH, staff writer With about a week left in the 2007 legislative session, supporters of one proposed off-reservation Indian casino in Barstow are trying one final push to get the state legislature’s approval before the agreements expire.

State senators, Mayor Lawrence Dale, and representatives of the Big Lagoon Rancheria and Los Coyotes Indian tribes met in Sacramento on Wednesday to announce a renewed effort to lobby legislators to pass the compacts with the tribes to build a casino in Barstow. The compacts, signed by the governor on Sept. 9, 2005, will expire if not passed by Sept. 17.

The supporters have created a 30-second television commercial that will air in the districts of Assembly Speaker Fabian Nuñez, D-Los Angeles, and state Senate President Don Perata, D-Oakland, and in Sacramento. The commercial features Francine Kupsch of the Los Coyotes tribe, who originally starred in a 1998 ad used to support Proposition 5, which expanded Indian gaming in California. The ad blames “rich tribes who own casinos” for the stalling the compacts in the legislature and urges viewers to call the offices of Nuñez and Perata.

“We’ll be taking the issue directly to the public,” said Tom Shields, spokesman for the casino’s developer, BarWest LLC. The tribes and BarWest will pay for the commercial, which will be broadcast during the next week. “It’s unfortunate that it’s come to this,” he said.

Alicia Tross, spokeswoman for Senator Perata’s office, said she doesn’t think the efforts will be successful. “There is just no time left in this session to move the compact,” she said. She said that the senate has a rule that compacts must sit at the senate desk before being taken up for a vote.

Steven Maziglio, spokesman for Assembly Speaker Fabian Nuñez’s office, said that the speaker has not decided whether or not to support the compact because the compacts have not reached the Assembly floor.

Shields said that although the deadline will be tight, there is still hope to pass the compacts this year. He said last year at this time the compacts for the TASIN tribes, the Tribal Alliance of Sovereign Indian Nations tribes, passed in one afternoon at the end of the legislative session.

“In Sacramento, where there’s a will there’s a way,” he said.

Nick Medeiros, a lobbyist hired by the city of Barstow, recently wrote a letter to the city of Barstow calling passage of the compacts “doubtful this year. In order for the Barstow casino development to proceed the compacts would have to be approved by Sept. 17 and land for the project would have to be put into federal trust, a lengthy process that is still underway.

Contact the writer:
(760) 256-4126 or jason_smith@link.freedom.com

Business Wire Press Release of 9.5.07

PRESS RELEASE Tribes Fronting for Detroit Billionaires Launch Media Campaign to Urge Passage of Barstow Compacts

Legislators, Environmental & Tribal Leaders Appeal to Legislative Leadership

DETROIT, Michigan.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Tribal leaders from the Los Coyotes Band of Cahuilla and Cupeño Indians and Big Lagoon Rancheria today unveiled a media campaign, funded by Detroit billionaires, urging legislative leaders to ratify the Barstow compacts. (Note: the television advertisement unveiled to the news media may be viewed at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XvipfS9MVPo)
Last Fall, the California Fair Political Practices Commission fined the promoters behind this advertising campaign for two counts of violating California's Political Reform Laws when they failed to report a $26,6000 contribution they made to the San Joaquin County GOP Committee in 2004. While compacts for the richest California tribes have been passed by the State Assembly and Senate, there have been no hearings or any consideration of the Barstow compacts. With compacts set to expire on September 17th and only days remaining in the legislative session, the Tribes were left with no option but to make their case directly to Californians.

"My family was used as the face of Indian poverty in the campaign to pass Proposition 5," said Francine Kupsch, Los Coyotes tribal member. "But a decade later, the wealthy tribes are using their gambling dollars to keep poor tribes like the Los Coyotes from having the same opportunity to succeed." [Prop 5 did not approve of off-reservation casinos like those promoted by Detroit billioaire Marian Ilitch].

Opposition from the state’s richest gaming tribes has been a roadblock to the legislature’s timely consideration of the Barstow compacts, preventing even an informational hearing on this issue from occurring. Given the upcoming deadlines, direct action is needed from Assembly Speaker Fabian Nuñez and Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata.

"Now is the time for our state’s legislative leadership to stand up and fight for all Indian tribes," said Virgil Moorehead, Chairman of Big Lagoon Rancheria. "The future of our people is truly in the hands of Speaker Nuñez and President Pro Tem Perata. Without your leadership, the environment at Big Lagoon will be jeopardized."

Big Lagoon Rancheria’s homeland is located along the environmentally sensitive Big Lagoon and is one of two remaining naturally functioning coastal lagoons left in California. The lagoon has long been recognized as an important natural habitat area, and the State of California has asserted it has a legitimate interest in protecting it. It was the State of California who asked the Tribe to consider moving its proposed gaming facility elsewhere. As part of the compact agreement, Big Lagoon Rancheria agreed to forgo commercial development at the lagoon.

"This is the last opportunity we have to avoid development on an environmentally sensitive habitat in Humboldt County," said Senator Wiggins." If the legislature doesn’t ratify these compacts, the Big Lagoon Rancheria will have the sovereign right to negotiate for gaming rights on their tribal land."

Signed by Governor Schwarzenegger in September 2005, the Barstow compacts are a model for tribal-state gaming agreements in California. The agreements include: significant revenue sharing for the State of California; provisions for labor unions to organize and bargain collectively; mechanisms for independent audits of casino revenues; and systems to enforcement payments of child support. These provisions have been hailed by legislators, labor unions and good government advocates as positive benefits for the State of California.

The City of Barstow has approved Municipal Services Agreements with both tribes that are expected to generate millions of dollars of revenue for the desert community. The compacts will also generate hundreds of good-paying permanent jobs.

"The compacts represent a tremendous partnership that meets the needs of the Tribes, the community of Barstow and the State of California and we hope legislative leaders will do the right thing to pass the compacts immediately," said Barstow Mayor Lawrence Dale.

The Los Coyotes and Big Lagoon have submitted land-into-trust applications to the federal government and the Bureau of Indian Affairs is currently preparing a draft environmental impact statement to identify potential environmental impacts of the project. California lawmakers must pass legislation to approve the compacts, the final state step in proceeding with jointly developing the casino resort.

(Note to news media: High Definition versions of the commercial are available. Please contact Toby Allen at 517-372-4400 or tobya@mrgmi.com to request a copy.)
Last Fall, the California Fair Political Practices Commission fined the promoters behind this advertising campaign for two counts of violating California's Political Reform Laws when they failed to report a $26,6000 contribution they made to the San Joaquin County GOP Committee in 2004.
The Barstow Casinos and Resort are designed to capture some of the market of an estimated 60 million cars that travel through the community on their way to and from Las Vegas each year. The projects will support approximately 900 construction jobs and 1,700 full time positions at the casinos. It is expected that the Los Coyotes and Big Lagoon tribes will contribute to the local community government yearly and generate millions of dollars in new revenue for the Barstow economy. The Barstow community has lagged behind the state in economic development with more than 35 percent of the residents on public assistance. More than 2,000 local residents signed postcards addressed to the Governor asking him to negotiate the compacts. More information is available at www.barstowcasinosandresort.com.
Posted by Verifiable at 4:37 PM
Labels: Barstow, Barwest, Big Lagoon, California, Compacts Rejected, Lawrence Dale, Los Coyotes, Marian Ilitch

TheVerifiableTruth.com Editorial of 9.5.07

Who's behind the political ads launched by Detroit-based Barwest in California this week and what's their true motivation?

Given the lobbyist representing both the Big Lagoon Rancheria and the City of Barstow reported the last week of August that the Big Lagoon and Los Coyotes gaming compacts were officially dead, it begs the question, who's funding the advertising campaign that was launched on Wednesday seemingly to push for approvals of the two gaming compacts and what's their real motivation.

Is this purely a way for Detroit gambling interests and their Las Vegas partners to help lay the ground work for signature gathering by Labor Unions and Race Track owners to referenda the four gaming compacts that were approved by the legislature this year without having to report the expense as a campaign contribution?

The Detroit Gambling syndicators (Mrs. Marian Ilitch and Michael J. Malik, Sr.) behind the Barstow gaming compacts were fined on two counts in 2006 for earlier violations of California's political reform laws when they failed to report a $26,600 contribution they made late in the 2004 Presidential Election to then Congressman Richard Pombo's County GOP Committee. It is rumored that the same individuals are under investigation yet again by the FPPC for similar charges.

Billionaire Detroit Casino Syndicators with ties to Las Vegas have launched California ad campaign against established gaming tribes

This advertisement is funded by Billionaire Detroit Casino Syndicators who are exploiting Native American interests and trying to get a foot in the lucrative California gaming market.

Last Fall, the California Fair Political Practices Commission fined the promoters behind this advertising campaign for two counts of violating California's Political Reform Laws when they failed to report a $26,6000 contribution they made to the San Joaquin County GOP Committee in 2004.

Mrs. Marian Ilitch (founder of Little Caesars Pizza; family also owns Detroit Tigers and Detroit Red Wings) has previously partnered with Mandalay Resort Group and MGM Mirage. Her casino syndicate partner Michael Malik has partnered with Harrah's. The Michigan Gaming Control Board refused to grant her partner Michael Malik a gaming license in Michigan so now they're trying to break into the California market.

Together they're trying to push an unorthodox proposal to relocate two tribes from opposite ends of the state to a location in Barstow where they plan to develop and manage side-by-side off-reservation Indian Casinos for tribes that have no ancestral ties to the Barstow area.

Ilitch, Malik and their Las Vegas friends have spent millions trying to convince the California legislature to approve their Barstow scheme. They failed the last two years to win any legisaltive support so now they're joining with Labor Unions and Horse Racing Tracks in an attempt to beat up California's homegrown gaming tribes.
Several weeks ago their own lobbyist has already reported that their plans for Barstow casinos are dead in this year's legislature (the second year in a row Ilitch's team has failed to win support).

Time is running out for Barstow compact
Jessie Faulkner/The Times-Standard

Patience and extensive lobbying have not moved the Big Lagoon Rancheria's gaming compact any closer to ratification.

On Wednesday, Rancheria Chairman Virgil Moorehead, representatives from the Los Coyotes Band of Cahuilla and Cupeno Indians, state Sen. Patricia Wiggins, city of Barstow officials and others gathered in Sacramento to launch a media campaign designed to get the attention of legislative leaders.

Under the gaming compact, signed by the governor on Sept. 9, 2005, both the Big Lagoon Rancheria and Los Coyotes would be allowed to open casinos in Barstow. The arrangement, the first to allow construction of an Indian casino away from tribal lands, would prevent construction of a casino along the shores of Big Lagoon.

Both tribal entities have applications before the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs to bring the Barstow land into trust.

The gaming compact is the settlement agreement of Big Lagoon's bad-faith negotiating lawsuit against the state. If the gaming compact is not ratified by Sept. 17, Big Lagoon's chairman has pledged to go back to court.

The campaign will begin today with television ads airing on cable television in Sacramento, Oakland and Los Angeles, according to Big Lagoon spokesman Jason Barnett.

Organizers are hoping the campaign will prompt residents to urge Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez and Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata to bring the gaming compact -- Wiggins' Senate Bill 157 -- to the legislative floor for action.

"This is a legislative leadership issue," Barnett said. "If (they) wanted it on floor, they could make it happen."

To date, the bill has not made it out of the rules committee.

"This is the last opportunity we have to avoid development on an environmentally sensitive habitat in Humboldt County,” said Wiggins, who represents the North Coast, in a release. “If the Legislature doesn't ratify these compacts, the Big Lagoon Rancheria will have the sovereign right to negotiate for gaming rights on their tribal land."

During the 2006 legislative session, a bill to ratify the gaming compact -- then sponsored by former state Sen. Wesley Chesbro -- was voted down in the Assembly Committee on Governmental Organization, but with the proviso that the item could be brought back.

The primary stumbling block both during both legislative sessions has been opposition from other gaming tribes opposed to the compact's more liberal labor language and the higher-percentage of casino revenues earmarked for the state.

"We're running out of time,” Barnett said, “we're running out of options."

If the gaming compact is not ratified, Moorehead has pledged to build a casino on the tribal land at Big Lagoon. The first step in that process may be alleging that the state negotiated in bad faith.

Jessie Faulkner can be reached at 441-0517 or jfaulkner@times-standard.com.

Tribes Launch TV Campaign for Barstow Casinos

Joe Nelson, Staff Writer San Bernardino County Sun

Two California Indian tribes launched an 11th-hour media campaign Wednesday with a televised ad they hope will prompt state Legislators to ratify their gaming compacts so they could build casinos in Barstow.

Big Lagoon Rancheria of Humboldt County and the Los Coyotes Band of Cahuilla and Cupeno Indians in San Diego County negotiated gaming compacts with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in September 2005, but the compacts have remained in limbo ever since.

No hearings on the compacts have been scheduled in Sacramento.

"My family was used as the face of Indian poverty in the campaign to pass Proposition 5," said Los Coyotes tribal member Francine Kupsch, referring to a 1998 televised ad that featured her and her children sitting in their trailer on the reservation, reading a book by oil lamp light. "But a decade later, the wealthy tribes are using their gambling dollars to keep poor tribes like Los Coyotes from having the same opportunity to succeed."

With only a week to go before the 2007 Legislative session ends, the clock is ticking.

Both tribes are hoping a public rallying cry will draw attention to their cause.

If not, the tribes are likely to go their separate ways, with Big Lagoon considering a casino or hotel somewhere on their 20-acre reservation off the Pacific Coast and Los Coyotes continuing its push for a Barstow casino.

Both tribes want to open a joint casino - the Barstow Casinos and Resort - that could pull an estimated 60 million cars traveling to and from Las Vegas to the casino, a venture that could mean millions of dollars in new revenue to Barstow and about 1,700 full-time jobs.

An ad posted on YouTube on Wednesday and expected to run on cable television in the next several days in Sacramento, the Bay Area and in Los Angeles shows a snippet of the 1998 televised ad featuring Kupsch and the message for California voters to "Stand up to the greedy tribes" and to "Call your legislative leaders" to support the tribal fairness bill.

Some gaming tribes including the San Manuel Band of Serrano Mission Indians are fighting the move by Big Lagoon and Los Coyotes to build casinos in Barstow, calling it an encroachment on Serrano ancestral lands.

But Los Coyotes and Big Lagoon believe San Manuel and other gaming tribes are more concerned about competition.

San Manuel spokesman Jacob Coin said that while he had not yet seen the YouTube ad or was aware of the news conference the tribes held at the state Capitol, San Manuel's position was still status quo.

Moving so they can have a better market location is just not what we promised the voters would happen," Coin said, referring to Big Lagoon Rancheria, whose reservation lies more than 700 miles northwest of Barstow.

San Manuel also hit a roadblock getting its amended compact ratified this year when the tribe refused to sign a side agreement that would make the compact more palatable to some Assemblymembers.

The compact would allow the tribe to add 7,500 more slot machines to its casino near Highland and would generate $45 million a year in state revenue to start.

Big Lagoon spokesman Jason Barnett said the lack of progress Big Lagoon and Los Coyotes have made in Sacramento in the last two years is an "unfortunate commentary on how much power the big tribes have in Sacramento."

"We've been locked out of the game for months. We can't even get an informational hearing, let alone an up or down vote," Barnett said.

Contact staff writer Joe Nelson at (909) 386-3874 or via e-mail at joe.nelson@sbsun.com

Mayor Dale and Tom Shields (still NOT) the Final Authority of Ancestral Rights

2007-09-01T00:36:00.000-07:00

Not so fast (self appointed) "Professors" Dale and Shields, there is a couple of things you just may have over looked! Next time do some (ANY) research!

It is incredible to think that in the past 250 years since we slaughtered Native American in the worst case of genocide in world history and forced them on to God forsaken reservations, that Native Americans could have ever survived at all without BarWest, Tom Shields, and Mayor Dale to explain their Ancestral Rights to them.

In his letter to the Department of the Interior, (no doubt written by Shields) Mayor Dale clearly establishes himself as the final authority on local Ancestral Rights with his vicious attack on the Chemehuevi. Who died and left you ‘THE Decider’ of matters relating to Ancestral Lands anyway Dale? Here is some of those pesky little facts that you had to overlook in the process:

Never mind the role of the U. S. Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Indian Affairs.

What do they know anyway? Well, this is what their website says:

There “are 561 federal recognized tribal governments in the United States. Developing forestlands, leasing assets on these lands, directing agricultural programs, protecting water and land rights, developing and maintaining infrastructure and economic development are all part of the agency's responsibility.”

Office of Indian Gaming Management
“The Office of Indian Gaming Management, under the supervision of the Deputy Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs for Economic Development and Policy, is responsible for implementing those gaming-related activities assigned to the Bureau of Indian Affairs by the Indian Gaming regulatory Act of 1988 and other Federal laws. The office develops policies and procedures for review and approval of: tribal/state compacts; per capita distributions of gaming revenues; and requests to take land into trust for purpose of conducting gaming. Work is coordinated with the National Indian Gaming Commission and with the state, local and tribal governments that may be impacted by gaming proposals.”

Never mind the role of the role of the National Indian Gaming Association

Mission and Responsibilities
"The Commission's primary mission is to regulate gaming activities on Indian lands for the purpose of shielding Indian tribes from organized crime and other corrupting influences; to ensure that Indian tribes are the primary beneficiaries of gaming revenue; and to assure that gaming is conducted fairly and honestly by both operators and players.
To achieve these goals, the Commission is authorized to conduct investigations; undertake enforcement actions, including the issuance of notices of violation, assessment of civil fines, and/or issuance of closure orders; conduct background investigations; conduct audits; and review and approve Tribal gaming ordinances.

Never mind The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA)

“The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) rquires that any project that causes a substantial adverse change in the significance of an historical resource, that includes archeological resources, is a ‘significant effect’ requiring the preparation of an Environmental Impact Report (EIR). The lead agency should include “all appropriate native American groups culturally-affiliated to the project site. Certainly from the NAHC date, that would include persons and tribes of Chemehuevi, Mojave, Kawaiisu, Vanyume and Serrano decent.”

Never mind California Senate Bill 18

SB 18 places the responsibility of initiating consultation on local governments. The purpose of SB 18 is to provide time for tribal input early in the planning process. Besides city staff and tribal representatives, the process may also include applicants and consultants. The local government should contact the tribe first to determine the appropriate level of private landowner involvement, because there may be occasions where the tribe prefers to maintain strict confidentiality without the inclusion of a private, third-party landowner.

The bill requires that, prior to the adoption or amendment of a city or county’s general plan, the city or county conduct consultations with California Native American tribes for the purpose of preserving specified places, features, and objects that are located within the city or county’s jurisdiction.

Never mind the CA Native American Heritage Commission (NAHC)

In a letter dated, 8-13-07 the Native American Heritage Commission (NAHC), a California government agency, the Commission stated that they “are concerned that state law may have been violated if the Chemehuevi Indian Tribe was not given full and reasonable opportunity to comment on and express concerns on either a project planned under the California Environmental Quality Acti (CEQA) or Government Code Senate Bill 18. If consultation was not provided, under either of these two acts of the California legislature, by the City of Barstow or it’s agent, then the tribe in our opinion, has a right to file a complaint with the California Attorney General and the State Historic Preservation Officer (SHPO). The City ….must offer the tribe the opportunity to make it’s case regarding a project that it feels may have an adverse effect on the Native American cultural resources in the Barstow/Mojave Desert areas.”

Never mind Barstow’s own General Plan that has already complied with SB 18 and CA Native American Heritage Commission

Barstow General Plan/Technical Report
IV.2 Cultural Resources Management Plan
Preface – Native American Concerns
(pages IV.2.6 – IV.2.7)

"Therefore, any project must involve consultation with and involvement from local and regional Native American cultural entities as listed by the Native American Heritage Commission. The local Barstow office of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) maintains a listing of representatives of Native American groups who claim an association with the Barstow area; specifically the Serrano, Kaaiisu, Fort Mojave, and Chemehuevi."

Never mind the Fort Irwin Environmental Impact Report (EIR)

Prepared by Professor David Earl, and commissioned by the military this EIR is hailed as the definitive work on the Ancestral documentation of the presence of the Chemehuevi Tribe. Ft. Irwin sits on a rich archeological site with a history of artifacts that have been unearthed and documented as from the Chemehuevi Tribe. The EIR report and other research on the subject is archived by the Ft. Irwin Base Archeologist, Ms. Lewes Ramirez who can be reached at (760) 380-4865 for confirmation of those findings.

Never mind the Ancestral Rights claims of the Chemehuevi Tribe

Local tribes have historically been carrying the burden of establishing and preserving those Ancestral Claims. Furthermore, under SB 18 and the CA Native American Heritage Commission has empowered tribes as the ultimate authority on these matters. Chairman Wood, of the Chemehuevi tribe, has given the following documentation regarding the history of Chemehuevi presence in the greater Barstow area:

“…the Chemehuevi have used the Newberry Springs, Calico, Daggett, Yermo, Barstow, Silver Lakes, Victorville, Stoddard Valley, Apple Valley, Lucerne Valley, Adelanto and Hesperia areas for thousands of years. Most of these cities are built on the ancient village sites and cemeteries of native peoples. There are ‘sleeping circles’, village sites, individual burials, cemeteries, petroglyphs, and very possibly intaglios throughout the areas. These intaglios are often identifiable from the air and would correspond to those found on the Ft. Irwin Military Reservation just a few miles to the north.

There is the large and ancient village site and cemetery found at ‘Lane’s Crossing’ on the Old Spanish Trail, present day Oro Grande. The “last Indian Battle” in southern California history is said to have occurred at Chimney Rock involving a reported 150 to 200 Chemehuevi, there battles in the Rodman Mountains and the famous Camp Cady military campaign. There is the grave of Maria Chapula who was born in 1856 and lived in a Chemehuevi village now known as Victorville and died at the age of 104, but remembers having lived a short while in a Chemehuevi village in Barstow during her life.

There is the burial site in the Ord Mountains and the Chemehuevi Cemetery near Zyzxx at Soda Lake. There were three cowboys killed in 1856 by 20 to 30 Chemehuevi at the Old Duncan Ranch, which was known as the ancient village of Guapiabit, now knkown as the historic Las Floras Ranch in Summit Valley. According to the US Federal Census, there were 44 Indians living in Hesperia through 1900 to 1910. Further research has shown that 37 were Chemehuevi and the remaining 7 were Kawaiisu. Given all these facts, you can be assured that Chemehuevi lived in and around the present day city of Barstow.”

Finally, Never mind the research BarWest commissioned on the question of local Ancestral Rights

In the hopes of debunking any notion of Ancestral Rights for the Chemehuevi, Barwest commissioned a highly respected local historian to conduct extensive research to try and establish even the most remote connection with either Big Lagoon or Los Coyotes. After thorough studies into the matter, the results of that research revealed the exact opposite findings. Not only was there not a shred of evidence connecting the BarWest tribes to this entire region but in fact the study added even more documentation to the ancestral claims already established by the Chemehuevi Tribe.

But Professors Dale and Shields say: Screw all the facts, laws, Federal, State agencies, and 250 years of history. They are writting their own book on local Ancestral Rights. Just don't confuse them with the facts!

Index of Smoking Gun Letters

2007-08-31T13:48:00.000-07:00

Index of Letters Distributed by Councilman Gomez at 8/28/07 Special Meeting of the Barstow City Council

As of this post, I am still working on an easy way to post Mayor Dale’s letter to the Department of the Interior attacking the Chemehuevi and their previously established Ancestral Rights. This smoking gun reveals Dale as the real pawn of BarWest, the role he has been playing since this Detroit developer first showed up and started buying influence here in Barstow.

In the meantime, if you would like copies of Dale’s letter or any of the letters that Gomez was distributing to the public that night, you can send me an email with your FAX number and I will be happy to send them to you.

You may wish to view the video on Councilman Gomez chastising Mayor Dale. It is posted on YouTube.com, TVT, and here on my blogs under the post entitled: “Red Faced Mayor Exposed as BarWest Pawn”. To see the entire council meeting including the Mayor’s response it is available on the City’s website, see my post entitled: Barstow Citizen Oversight on the Internet.

Here is the Index of the letters that Councilman Gomez released to the public in chronological order:

-TASIAN letter to Barstow City Council
Dated 8/29/05
RE: Opposition to BarWest Compacts

-Analytical Environmental Services letter to Chairman Wood
Dated 7/29/07
RE: “Barstow Scoping Report”

-Chairman Wood letter to Analytical Environmental Services
Dated 8/8/07
RE: “Barstow Scoping Report for BarWest LLC,
the Los Coyotes Band of Cahuilla and Cupeno Indians
and the Big Lagoon Rancheria of Smith River Indians”

-Mayor Dale letter to BIA, US Dept of Interior
Dated 8/21/07
RE: “The Chemehuevi Tribe’s Recent Assault on Barstow”

-Barstow City Lobbyist, Nick Medeiros Memo to City of Barstow
Dated 8/22/07
RE: The BarWest Compact appear dead

For more Information on this subject see the following post:

The BarWest Scam in Barstow
Why BarWest is on the Attack
The True Story of my Involvement with Indian Gaming
TheVerifiableTruth.Com Exposes the Tom Shields Blame Game

Meet Some Friends - Jerry Brown

2007-08-31T03:44:00.000-07:00

Say there Tom Shields, Lawrence Dale, Tim Silva, Ron Rector, Bill Postmus, Brad Mitzelfelt, Nurseries Products, MicroMedia, and Adelanto Mayor Jim Nehmens; I got a couple of friends of mine that I want to introduce you to. Let's start with your new Attorney General.

Meet Jerry Brown

Jerry is a big hero of mine for many reasons. First and foremost because he is the most progressive Governor California has ever head. In fact he was so progressive that he was way ahead of his time. This made him vulnerable to criticism from small minded people like you. I’m sure you didn’t like him any more even when he was Governor. He was our first environmental Governor. He and his Daddy were the only Democratic Governors to ever to serve a full two terms. Because this was before term limits, he is eligible and considering a run for Governor. As somewhat with an appreciation for Civil Rights and Ancestral Rights, you can count on the fact that he would never sign Reservation Shopping Compacts like BarWest. As an environmentalist, I am sure he would never allow the outdoor composting of human sludge.

When I met Jerry Brown at the CA Democratic Convention in San Diego last April, I told him that I was a big fan and that HIS signature as Governor, appeared on my UC Davis Diploma. Before he even shook my hand, he took a step back and gave me a look up and down. He then made the pronouncement that: “Nope, can’t be; you aren’t old enough.” I thanked him for the compliment and said that I finished in 1976.

Jerry Brown was born in San Francisco (as was my father) on April 7, 1938. In 1958, he entered Sacred Heart Novitiate, a Jesuit Seminary, intending to become a Catholic priest.
However, Brown left the seminary and entered UC Berkeley, where he graduated with a BA in Classics in 1961. Brown went on to Yale Law School and graduated with a Juris Doctor in 1964.
When he ran for governor in 1980, his platform slogan was: "Protect the Earth, serve the people, and explore the universe." Three main planks of his platform were a call for a constitutional convention to ratify the Balanced Budget Amendment, a promise to increase funds for the space program, and, in the wake of the 1979Three Mile Island accident, opposition to nucleas power.

After his failed Senate race in 1982, many considered Brown's political career to be over. During the 1980s, Brown traveled to Japan to study Buddhism, studying with Christian/Zen practitioner Hugo Enomiva-Lassalle under Yamada Koun-roshi. He also visited Mother Teresa in Calcutta, India where he ministered to the sick in one of her hospices.

Upon his return from abroad in 1988, he announced that he would stand as a candidate to become Chairman of the CA Democratic Party in 1989. In June 1998, he was elected Mayor of the city of Oakland, where he got high praise for his economic revitalization and bringing solar power to Oakland. In early 2004, Brown expressed his interest to be a candidate for the Democratic nomination for CA Attorney and won the position in 2006.

As the top cop of California, Jerry Brown wants to focus on Environmental issues and government corruption. He recently set his eyes on San Bernardino County by filing suit to make them instigate certain environmental protections against global warming. The County quickly complied and the suit was settled.

I think we need to get focused on government corruption and wrong doing here in Barstow. I also think he needs to investigate our Waste Water Treatment contract with MicroMedia, our continuation violations with Nitrates and the Soap Mine Road, Pacific Holt situation and the ongoing sewage leakage into the Mojave River. Then he could investigate BarWest influence peddling here in Barstow and the corruption that involves. Then we could finally get to the bottom of all the ‘deals’ that have been made and how and why Dale acts like a pawn for BarWest.

And finally, the Nurseries Products company and how they are railroading the good citizens of Hinkley one more time. I just know he could uncover all the reasons that our leaders have taken campaign contributions from Nurseries Products and why they voted against us. I believe in Jerry and I think he could help us get a permanent ban on the outdoor composting of human sludge.

We really need your help Jerry and we know that you will not let us down like all of our other agencies, Barstow City and the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors. We have a lot of hard working people that will be happy to give you all kinds of help cleaning house (and yard) here in the greater Barstow area.

So thank you in advance Jerry!

TheVerifiableTruth.Com Exposes the Tom Shields Blame Game

2007-08-31T01:42:00.000-07:00

TVT Exposes the Tom Shields Blame Game

Ever since I first discovered TheVerifiableTruth.com a few months ago I have come to understand what a thorough professional job they have done tracking and uncovering details regarding BarWest and the Indian gaming issues in Barstow. It is obvious that they are also following me and my efforts to raise consciousness about Ancestral Rights and why BarWest should never be allowed to proceed with their Reservation Shopping projects here in Barstow.

Completely independent of the role that I have played in exposing BarWest in Barstow, TheVerifiableTruth.com has been doing much the same but in a highly thorough and comprehensive way, and with a much larger focus on the BarWest scams across the Nation and in their home town of Detroit, Michigan. In fact, they have done such a thorough job that you have to search their site for all of the stuff relating to just Barstow. Use the following link to do just that:

TheVerifiableTruth.Com

or cut and paste this URL:

http://www.theverifiabletruth.com/search/label/Barstow

Now that the CA compacts are in their final death throws, BarWest has dispatched Tom Shields in an all out sleazy smear campaign to attack any and all of those who would expose their questionable and corrupt practices. That obviously includes me on a local level and TheVerifiableTruth.com on the National level and always the tribes that Shields likes to slander as those pesky, “wealthy and greedy” tribes.

There isn’t much can do to those local tribes with real Ancestral Rights except call them names. But the ‘blame game’ for the failed compacts is levied at all that don’t roll over for Reservation Shopping. Recently, TheVerifiableTruth.com wrote a post exposing the BarWest ‘Blame Game’ and Smear Campaign. The piece they posted is entitled:

Tom Shields is so desperate he's manufacturing conspiracy theories to shift blame for Barstow failures somewhere else

The expose explains how it is “humorous or perhaps even pathetic to know that Ilitch spokesman and political operative Tom Shields is so desperate to find someone to blame for Ilitch's failure to produce a casino in Barstow the last six years that he's manufactured a big conspiracy theory that ties together the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians located in San Bernardino County, California; a Barstow citizen activist who TVT has featured on this blog once or twice; and that "full-time anonymous blogger" TVT. This is an all too frequent strategy for Shields when he has no where else to turn. Shields can't admit his clients' shortcomings or failures.”

The article goes on to identify three objects of Shield’s main focus on the current blame for the failure of their compacts here in Barstow: 1. San Manuel Band of Indians 2. Barstow Citizen Activist Larry Halstead and 3. TheVerifiableTruth.com

Here is what the TVT post says about me:

“Perhaps the loudest opponent of the Ilitch/Malik Barstow casino scheme is a local Barstow activist, Larry Halstead. Apparently Halstead is the chair of the local Democratic Club and he ran for Barstow City Council in 2006. It's quite obvious he wasn't one of the candidates that Ilitch/Malik backed with their $200,000 Barstow campaign budget in 2006. Rather, Halstead raised money from alternative sources and from what TVT has gathered the San Manuel Band of Indians contributed to his campaign. Needless to say, Halstead did not win his race for City Council given his modest campaign budget. Rather than address the numerous questions and concerns Mr. Halstead has raised about the Ilitch/Malik Barstow casino scheme, their spokesman Tom Shields has desperately taken to making personal attacks on Halstead. It's mostly based on hearsay. Because the San Manuel Tribe gave Halstead a campaign contribution, Shields has now stretched that acknowledged truth to accuse Mr. Halstead of being on the tribe's "payroll." TVT encourages Mr. Shields to document his claims with something other than his manufactured rumors! Perhaps Mr. Shields should first reveal who the anonymous donors to his $200,000 campaign fund really are. And then explain why 98% of his $200,000 budget had to come from people who don't live or work in the remote Mojave Desert community.”

Read the Whole Story Here: TheVerifiableTruth.Com

Joke Time!

2007-08-31T00:41:00.000-07:00

Hey, it's not that serious! Time out for a Quick Joke

Letter to the Editor, Desert Dispatch - August 30

2007-08-30T11:43:00.000-07:00

Letter to the Editor
Desert Dispatch
August 30, 2007

Citizen Oversight and Public Participation

If you read the Constitution, the Federalist Papers, or any of the writings of our founding fathers, the over-riding philosophy was about freedom. Their directive to all future generations of Americans was that freedom isn’t free and the price of freedom is eternal vigilance in protecting those freedoms. Freedom of assembly, freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of the press, and all of those freedoms guaranteed under the Bill of Rights, must be preserved through public participation and oversight of their governments at all levels.

Thomas Jefferson said that: “Dissent is the highest form of patriotism!” Ben Franklin urged the people to be protective of your rights at all cost and added that: “Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security, deserve neither!” Our founding fathers even advocated a violent revolution to take back the government from tyrannical leaders, which is the motivation for the Second Amendment with the right to bear arms.

Public Participation is the friend of any politician that is trying to do the people’s business. However, when special interest groups like Barwest start buying up influence, politicians like Mayor Dale start viewing public participation as a nuisance and those that disagree with their agenda as the enemy. Thomas Jefferson addressed this issue when he said: "I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it."

I have had strong differences of opinions with Mayor Dale and his three vote coalition. Top of that list would be Indian Gaming as I am 100% convinced that the Barwest project will never ever succeed. And yet Barwest has bought influence and had some of our local leaders compromise the institutions in the process. They have corrupted our political process and violated our elections.

Whether the issue is economic development, community planning, green energy, youth activities, or environmental concerns such as the Hinkley human sludge threat, I do my research and speak the best educated truth that I can. But those who don’t like what I may have to say have chosen to make personal attacks on me and my family instead of sticking with the facts of the issues involved.

The BarWest Kool-Aid Club is now engaged in an all out campaign to smear me with lies, false accusations, and name calling. Tom Shields is actively involving his local groupies, to spread these lies at City Council meetings and in this forum. Space does not allow me to delve into my response to each and every one of their vicious attacks. But when you see the lies from Robert Vassuer, Charlie Moore, Julie Clemmer, and those that are certain to follow, please know that they are doing the bidding of this outside Detroit developer. You should also know that the truth will be revealed soon enough and the credibility of these attackers will be lost forever in the process.

My definition of treason definitely includes those that would suppress public participation and dissent with financially motivated smear attacks filled with lies. Martin Luther King used to say that: “The only thing necessary for evil to flourish is for good people to do nothing. I would encourage all citizens, Republican and Democrat alike, to become more involved in citizen oversight at all levels of government.

It is imperative that we heed the warning of Thomas Jefferson when he cautioned that: "Experience hath shown, that even under the best forms (of government) those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny."

Larry D. Halstead, Barstow

Note - Letters to the Editor are available on the paper's website starting the night before they appear in the paper. I have been reading them early there for awhile now. This piece did not show up the night before and as of this post is still not available online. Normally I might consider this a simple oversight but back during the campaign, the paper screwed up all of my advertising and my 'Candidate Responses' to their questions that they posed to all the candidates. The screw ups were so blatant and frequent that it was laughable. What makes this all highly suspect is that the paper has received tens of thousands of dollars from BarWest and their PAC not to mention a small fortune from the City of Barstow. Worse yet, Bea Lint, the Advertising Director for the paper, participated in the BarWest election of Tim Silva and Julie Hackbarth McIntire by secretly serving as their Media Adviser. When I confronted her on this, she claimed that she was dispatched by her editor to do so. The fact that this is a right wing oriented paper only reinforces their motives in always seeming to screw on on anything I submit.

Red Faced Mayor Exposed as Pawn of BarWest

2007-08-29T19:45:00.000-07:00

Be careful of what you do in the dark,
as it WILL be revealed in the light!

Mayor Dale held a hastily called 'Special Meeting' on Tuesday, August 28 at 3pm. The word went out through the community that Dale was going to use the power of his three vote coalition to shit-can City Manager Hector Rodriguez. Dale never liked him and voted against his confirmation. He has been working overtime to undermine him ever since. More on this in another post but leave it to say here that the Council Chambers were packed with Rodriguez supporter representing a wide spectrum of the community. Included in the audience was former Council Members Gloria Darling, Helen Runyon, and Gil Gurule. After blasting the Mayor for trying to get rid of our much beloved City Manager the audience went to the lobby to await the outcome of the closed session.

When the Council resumed the open session, it was announced that the matter of the City Manager’s job status would be continued. The Mayor then skipped ahead to another highly contentious issue, the MicroMedia contract which was the real story behind his attempted firing of the City Manager. Between the two of these agenda items the Mayor was well on his way to having the worst meeting of his life if not the worst day of his life.

But then came the big bomb shell of the night during Council Reports. (see 51:45 in the "Following Closed Session" video). Joe Gomez took the mayor to task on his unauthorized letter of August 21 that he unilaterally sent to the U. S. Dept of the Interior. The letter written on City stationary, was referenced as "Re: The Chemehuevi Tribe's Recent Assault on Barstow" The three page letter is a vicious attack on the Chemehuevi and their claims of Ancestral Rights in the Barstow area.

Councilman Gomez reported that he had confronted the Mayor on August 20 when the Mayor had showed him the letter and before it was mailed. He had put the Mayor on notice that he could not send a letter out like that on his own and that he must get approval from the Council at large. This goes way beyond a breach of ethics and may well be a violation of government codes.

Joe continued to chastise the mayor for sending the letter on city stationary for over five minutes. He told him that he had warned him not to send it and that the mayor was getting in the way of Barstow ever getting a casino. Since the BarWest Compacts are DEAD by ALL accounts except within the BarWest Kool-Aid Club, the Chemehuevi casino project is the only hope left for Barstow to ever see a resort casino project in this city. Furthermore, Joe told the mayor that he was inviting a lawsuit from the Chemehuevi. Joe had copies of the letter along with a memo from the Nick Mederios (the city's lobbyist), a letter from Tribal Alliance of Sovereign Indian Nations (TASIN), and a letter from Chairman Wood, which he made available for circulation.

A red-faced, pissed off Dale sat and listened while Councilman Gomez leveled charges that could well be the death blow to Dale’s sorry, and in my opinion, corrupt career. At the conclusion of this explosive revelation, Dale asks: “Are you done with your comments? I intend to respond, I just want to make sure you are done with your comments.” Dale then turns to Councilman Curran for him to give his comments under Council Reports. While Steve had yet had a chance to read the letter, he chimed in that as the head of ethics for the council, he had issues with the mayor sending out the letter and agreed with everything that Gomez had said about it.

When the mayor finally responded (see 1:1:35 in the "Following Closed Session" video).He stood by his decision to send the letter and during the comments he was looking straight at me. I was on the front row and I started laughing at the ridiculous hypocrisy of his comments. The mayor noticed and remarked about my laughing and I can be heard to shout hypocrite at him. He said it wasn't hypocritical and said that he does not regret sending the letter.

The audience was in shock by this whole revelation and everyone sat with their jaw dropped. I believe that this was the beginning of the end for this mayor. It was easily his worse night ever. It was a beautiful thing to witness. There is consensus that it is a total impossibility that the mayor wrote this letter. I have been told that Dale only has a sixth grade education, He simply doesn't have the talent that Tom shields does and the letter reflects Tom's style. If you listen to the mayor, he sounds like a damn hillbilly as he totally slaughters the English languages with poor verb use and sentence structure like: "he done gone and..…”

Led by Shields and his accusations of me extorting him and the tribe, the BarWest Kool-Aid Club has been on a all out attack of me with allegations that I am a paid hack for “the other side” which he also refers to as “those wealthy greedy tribes.” But from the beginning, Dale has been working overtime to violate the Ancestral Rights of the rightful legitimate local tribes. BarWest has been flying him around in a Lear Jet on lobbying junkets. He has totally transformed the Council into a public relations firm for the truly greedy outside Detroit developer that specializes in the vile practice of Reservation Shopping that is the curse of all tribes that respect the concept of Indian Sovereignty.

In the process, Mayor Dale has been complicit with Shields in helping BarWest to buy influence, corrupt local leaders and compromise the institutions they represent. The good people of Barstow have been lied to and deceived at every turn as the mayor has divided the town and put at risk the chances that we may ever have a casino project in this town. As I told Larry that afternoon, he should not be lulled into a false sense of security. Even as we speak, plans are underway to file complaints with the District Attorney, the Grand Jury, the U. S. Attorney, and with the Attorney General of both CA and the U.S. I have ever reason to believe that this will all end with indictments, recalls, or both.

Barstow Citizen Oversight on the Internet

2007-08-29T17:14:00.000-07:00

When it comes to protecting our democracy, the drum I beat the most is Public Oversight. That means you simply pay attention to what your elected officials are up to and that way you know when it is time to take action when things go awry. In Barstow, before the internet and before Councilman Joe Gomez made a push to get our meetings on the internet, the only way to conduct this Public Oversight was to get your butt off the couch, turn off the TV and spend hours at a time watching meetings that can often get boring on many of the agenda items. But after fighting Joe Gomez kept pushing the idea, we now have the luxury of watching the meeting in the comfort of your home or office. Best of all, if you miss them when they are live, you can see them whenever you want. To the technically challenged like myself, I have broken down the steps necessary to do just that.

How to View City Council Meetings

If you live in the City of Barstow and have cable TV, then you can watch the Meetings of the Barstow City Council, Planning Commission, and Fire District, live on Chanel 6 and later as reruns. Otherwise, you can view them on the internet along with the agenda for the next meeting as follows:

1. Go to the Barstow City Website - http://www.barstowca.org/ or Click Here.

2. On the horizontal directional bar, click on “City Government” and then on the drop down menu click on “City Council”

3. On the new window there is a menu at the left of the screen, click on “Agendas and Minutes”.

4a. Regular meetings - On the new window there will be another menu on the left of the screen. Click on “City Council” or Click Here or cut and paste the following:
http://barstow.granicus.com/ViewPublisher.php?view_id=2

4b. Special meetings - On the new window there will be another menu on the left of the screen. Click on “Special Meetings” or Click Here or cut and paste the following: http://barstow.granicus.com/ViewPublisher.php?view_id=3

You will notice that the video for the Special Meeting of August 28, 2007 is broken into two different videos:

Special Meeting - Open Meeting Prior To Closed Session,
Special Meeting - Continued Meeting Following Closed Session

Skipping ahead when watching the video - Underneath the video screen is a time bar that will allow you to move ahead to any point in the meeting. Just below that time bar on the right is a time counter which tells you how many hours, minutes, and seconds into the meeting. Between now and the time that am able to become technically able enough to record and edit relative portions of the video, I will direct you there by giving the exact time at which the comments occur. For example if I mention something that happened and I cite the time as: [2:43:26] In that example, the comments I am directing you to watch would be two hours, forty-three minutes, and twenty-six seconds into the meeting.

For your convenience, there is a drop down window under the video that will allow you to “Skip Ahead” to another agenda item in the meeting. The complete Agenda and other relative documents are on the right of your screen.

Open Letter to Barstow Area Chamber of Commerce

2007-08-29T12:33:00.000-07:00

Clifford Brock
President
Barstow Area Chamber of Commerce
P.O. BOX 698
Barstow, CA 92312-0698

Dear President Brock:

I am contacting you for a policy statement regarding the Barstow Area Chamber of Commerce. I would like to clarify what the Chamber’s current position is in regard to it’s support for BarWest and the compacts they represent on behalf of Big Lagoon and Los Coyotes.

I am the past Vice President of the Grand Terrace Area Chamber of Commerce where I also served as their Treasure. I also sought and received funding from the City of Grand Terrace to launch a twelve page newsletter that was distributed to every house in the city. In that capacity, I was the publisher, editor, writer, advertising director and distribution agent. During my tenure on the Board of Directors, we took the chamber from a do-nothing ‘good ole boys club’ and transformed it into a vital organization for promoting the city’s image and well being.

During that same period, I was also a member and interacted with the chambers of commerce for Colton, San Bernardino, Loma Linda, Redlands, and Riverside. I mention this background as way of saying that I am not unfamiliar with the role and purpose of any chamber of commerce in promoting the business community and the image of the city that they represent.

In my opinion, Barwest is a corrupt developer from Detroit that is attempting the impossible and violating the Ancestral Rights of local tribes with established aboriginal lands in the Barstow region. In my opinion as a Political Scientist, the BarWest never stood a chance at success because of these factors.

In pursuit of a lucrative market, BarWest brought their pattern and practice of buying influence to Barstow. I believe that they understood all along that they had a slim chance and the only way that they could succeed is getting as many local leaders on board as they could.

I found it deeply disturbing that they were able to turn the Barstow Area Chamber of Commerce into a public relations firm for BarWest. At the time that the former President, Tim Silva, fell pawn to their efforts, I confronted Tim on that issue. I told him that the purpose of any chamber of commerce is to promote the business community as a whole and not one business against another competing interest.

At the time that the Barstow Area was allowed to become compromised, I suspected that President Silva had made a ‘deal’ for some personal gain in the process. Those suspicions were confirmed when it was widely rumored that BarWest had offered him a position on the Council in exchange for his support. I had numerous people involved with the Chamber who told me how furious and disappointed they were at Mr. Silva for “selling out the chamber.” Those same individuals refused to endorse the BarWest candidates because of that history.

What followed was Tim as President of the Chamber, making appearances at City Council meetings to ratify the Chamber’s exclusive support for BarWest. It was at one such occasion that I told Tim of my complete disagreement with the Chamber taking such a position. It is especially offensive when the Chamber is funded with $50k of tax payer’s money and cheap rent. I told Tim that if I were the Chemehuevi or any other business interest that was harmed in the process, I would be inclined to take legal action to sue the Chamber and the City in order to stop this practice.

What also followed was all of the various lobbying efforts on the part of the Chamber’s President up in Sacramento and locally here in Barstow. Last November, BarWest fulfilled it’s promise to get Tim and Julie elected to the City Council. We all know that Tom Shields masterminded that campaign and helped bank roll it through their PAC, Barstow Citizens for Real Economic Development (BCRED). We also know that now that they are on the Council, they continue to ratify the City’s support for BarWest and continue to disrespect and violate the Ancestral Rights of local tribes.

In pains me to say this but I was disheartened to see your involvement in the BarWest campaign to elect Tim and Julie. You strike me as a person who is professional in everything you do and maintains a high sense of values and ethics in the process. I believe a lot of good people got innocently caught up in the frenzy of enthusiasm for the BarWest projects. It is my hope that if and when they come to some of these realizations, they will retract their prior support in favor of a neutral position or one that favors legitimate Native American Ancestral Rights.

The nature of my inquiry herein, is to inquire as to the current position of the Chamber in regard to it‘s exclusive support for BarWest. As of this writing, the BarWest website, still caries the following post with a quote from Tim Silva as the “Chamber’s President”:

[ see http://www.barstowcasinosandresort.com/chamber.html ]

From the Barstow Chamber of Commerce

“I think that everyone will tell you that Barstow is struggling economically. The Barstow business community has overwhelmingly supported the Big Lagoon/Los Coyotes casino resort as the economic catalyst necessary for business growth and development. Mere anticipation of the casinos and resort has already generated opportunities and positive developments. The spin-off benefits of this project for Barstow are nearly limitless.”

Tim Silva,
President, Barstow Area Chamber of Commerce & Visitors Bureau

Since you are not listed as the current President with your own quote, it begs the question as to what the Chamber’s current position is now. Has the position of the Chamber changed or does it remain the same as under the previous President? If the position has change, please explain how? If the Chamber’s position has NOT changed, is there any plans to consider that change? Whether there is a change or not, is this by a vote of the Board?

I can tell you for certain, that these issues are foremost in my decision not to get involved in the Barstow Area Chamber of Commerce. As a life long businessman, I have always valued the role of any chamber of commerce in networking and promoting the image of the city it represents.

I am open to discussing these issues in person or on the phone but I would really appreciate a response to my questions ‘for the record’ in writing. Thank you for your cooperation in this matter.

With respect,

Larry D. Halstead

It’s about Ancestral Rights stupid!

2007-08-29T12:23:00.000-07:00

It’s about Ancestral Rights stupid! What part of those two words don’t people understand, Ancestral or Rights? It is almost as if you have never even thought about how we went from Native Americans living in peace and in harmony with nature here as the ONLY American citizens on the continent to the ugly history of genocide and forced exile of Native Americans to barren lands we call “reservations”. It is like you never even stopped to think about the deplorable conditions imposed on Native Americans on those reservations or the countless ways that cultural and sacred sites have been violated and destroyed. It is also that you seem to have turned a blind eye to the dire poverty, alcoholism, school drop out, poor health care, and early death that the history of reservations have brought to Native Americans.

So if you are one of those that never even cared enough to take even a brief moment to ponder that part of American history and government policy then I expect you are totally clueless about totally devastating these elements are to things like: cultural preservation, Tribal pride, Native American independence and self determination or Indian Souvernty.

The concept of “the ugly American” is based on our gross cultural ignorance of traditions and customs of people in foreign countries and how we arrogantly try to impose our customs and values on them. But the truth is that Americans are largely ignorant about their own country. Most Americans have a hard time identifying the three branches of government, the name of a single member of the Supreme Court, or often even things as simple as the name of the Vice President or the Speaker of the House. It is often our obsession with consumerism and our often single minded focus on sports or religion that is the reason for our ignorance. But the struggle to survive and build our careers is definitely part of that equation.

Ancestral Rights, A historical Perspective
Still, if we are to begin to understand any of the issues involved with Indian gaming and bringing a casino project to Barstow, it is imperative to fully examine the history and significance of Ancestral Rights and how that relates to the history of our government’s treaties and other agreements with Native Americans. From the creation of the “Reservation” system, Native Americans had to be coerced, bribed, and rewarded into relocating on to these lands that were usually the most remote, barren, and basically the least desirable real estate. Often they were bamboozled into agreements that our government, only to discover that it would be another broken promise for which our combined history has been disgraced with a long legacy of lies and broken promises with Native Americans.

What developed out of those history of treaties and other agreements, was that we established the principal of Indian Sovereignty which established tribes and independent and separate nations. In exchange for being restricted to reservations, Native Americans were granted rights to self determination and control over their ancestral lands. These rights established by the U.S. Government is hardly compensation for the atrocities we committed or the loss of most of their original ancestral lands. But it did offer a glimmer of hope and a scant glimpse of how Native Americans could, with a lot of hard work and a whole lot of luck, just maybe have the opportunity to enjoy the life style that most other Americans take for granted.

Decades before the advent of Indian gaming, Tribes have been fighting for recognition by Congress in order to enjoy those ancestral rights granted in the history of treaties and other related agreements, along with legislation. Some tribes had to jump through all kinds of hoops, lobbying efforts, and even litigation in order to gain that recognition. In fact in many cases it came to identify the struggle of a given tribe as the primary cause they were fighting for so that they too could enjoy the rights and protection afforded the “officially recognized tribes”.

Even with that recognition, the hope and promise of a better life went largely unfulfilled for most of our combined histories. Mostly reservation had stayed in a state of economic depression, extreme poverty, and with out much hope of escape. It is depressing for an “outsider” to spend even a short time visiting those reservations. After graduating from Davis, I decided to take a break from academics and spent six months traveling the “Great Northwest”. Along the way, I had the opportunity to visit numerous reservation scattered over several different states. This was in 1977 and years before Indian gaming had showed up on the radar.

What I witnessed on those reservations made me sick to my stomach. It caused me to recall the words of Thomas Jefferson, that: “I fear for my country when I consider that God is a JUST God; and that his justice doesn’t sleep forever.” The stereotype of the “drunk, alcoholic, unemployed, Indian” was way beyond just a stereotype. The feeling that came over me was a feeling that my patriotism was tarnished by the knowledge of what we had done to these people and how we continued to neglect and abuse them with these deplorable conditions.

The True Story of My Involvement with Indian Gaming

2007-08-29T12:10:00.000-07:00

The True Story of My Involvement with Indian Gaming

Originally I was project neutral on the issue of Indian Gaming in Barstow. I wasn’t until my research showed the pattern and practice of BarWest buying influence and bullying their way into a process of violating the Ancestral Rights of local tribes as they engage in the despicable practice of Reservation Shopping that I saw the light. I was also turned off by their right wing orientation and their relation to the Jack Abramhoff scandal and Rep. Richard Pombo who I consider one of the worst, most corrupt congressman ever.

Pombo who was soundly defeated in last year’s election was the guy that Tom Delay established as the powerful chair of the House Resources Committee. He used that position to try and abolish the Endangered Species Act, reverse the ban on oil drilling in the protected artic areas, and run interference on the investigations of his mentor Tom Delay. Pombo himself was the number one object of the Jack Abramhoff scandal.

Upon these myriads of revelations, I denounced my support for the BarWest project and for two years or more I started speaking out about all of the influence peddling that BarWest was doing in Barstow. In my opinion, BarWest bought and paid for our Mayor who has been doing their bidding ever since.

During the last election, BarWest made a deal with Chamber of Commerce President Tim Silva that if he would turn the Chamber into a PR branch of BarWest, they would make him the next Councilman. Tim got the chamber to support BarWest and against the Chemehuevi, something that would violate the ethics of any chamber and is undoubtedly illegal when the city gives this chamber $50k in annual support along with cheap rent at the Harvey House.

On the last day before the deadline to file, I was talked into running by some LOCAL activist that felt by doing so I would be able to amplify my voice on issues that I was already speaking out on, such as the environment, local corruption, equal access and economic development. As it turned out, Tom Shields had already secured victory for his two candidates primarily by getting the local caucus and the rest of the BarWest Kool-Aid Club to get out the absentee vote. Shields ran their campaign like the Carl Rove of Barstow and it was financially backed through their local PAC. He ran a slick campaign, the likes of which Barstow had never seen and that their two candidates would never have been able to wage on their own. It was a campaign that did not even rely on the involvement of the candidates themselves. In fact he was instrumental in canceling the only debate that would of exposed the total lack of experience and incompetence of his two candidates.

Initially, I had no expectations of winning but my message of economic development, exposing corruption and protecting our environment, resonated with the community. It also garnished the attention of some highly respectable residential and commercial developers. These were quality 'community planning' oriented developers who had a 50 year history of having been scorned by the local cronies who have held power in Barstow since time immortal. The local cronies use Mayor Dale and Economic Development Director Ron Rector to steal projects away from any developer that is not part of the ‘local cronies’ and move them to the cronies‘ properties.

The developers that supported my candidacy felt that the only way to proceed on their quality projects was to change the political landscape. The irony is that they are all Republican and they supported this strong Democrat leader because I have a background in business and have always worked closely with the business community which is most often Republican in orientation. My parents were both GOP Republicans (NOT neocons) and I was raised in a GOP environment. While I have never been a Republican, I have embraced many of the old values of the GOP such as balancing the budget, less government regulations, protecting privacy rights and civil rights. All of which have been lost on the neocons that are destroying the Republican party in my opinion. Nonetheless, any of the old fashion GOP type people that I have been involved with are those that can relate to my approach and values in business.

Along with some small individual donors, these Republican developers who I highly respect, financed 100% of my campaign. It was not until a week before the election that I made contact with a member of the San Manual Tribe when I was participating in an event of Congressman Joe Baca. I told them that I was fighting the cause for Ancestral Rights and Indian Sovereignty and against reservation shopping. I explained how I was alone in fighting for what is the cause of the true legitimate Native American fight for self determination and that I could sure use some back up. After much deliberation within their tribal leaders, they broke from their long standing policy of NOT getting involved here in Barstow and reluctantly made a one-time campaign contribution of $2500. That much needed contribution was received a month after the campaign and was used to retire some of my campaign debts.

For the record, I have NEVER received a singe penny from any tribe to represent them in any capacity. I have NEVER been asked to represent a particular position or take any action on their behalf. I Have solicited input on how I could support a legitimate project here in Barstow but have yet to get any input or advice whatsoever.

Over the course of the past few years, I have come to know Chairman Wood of the Chemehuevi Tribe and on one occasion I had the opportunity to meet their Vice-Chair Shirley Smith. I have been taken back at how honorable they have been and have always taken the high road. I know for a fact that they did not support either Measure H or the recall of Councilman Luellig. I have NEVER seen nor is their ANY record of the Chemehuevi ever attacking BarWest or engaging in the underhanded tactics that is the hallmark of BarWest.

As a Political Scientist, I have a life long passion for the values and causes of the Democratic party. I have been a community activist on issues such as the environment, alternative medicine, equal right, code enforcement, and civil rights. I have come to view Ancestral Rights as being the equivalent of civil rights for Native Americans.

While I would feel honored to serve as a consultant to any tribe seeking to secure or preserve their Ancestral Rights, this has yet to happen. If it did, you would hear it out of my own mouth first and not something that would be hidden before being leaked by the likes of BarWest and their scumbag spin doctor Tom Shields who is now making false allegations of extortion against me. I would wear a consulting contract with a tribe with legitimate Ancestral Rights like a badge of honor. And I would be anxious to be ‘in the face’ of the Mayor, Tom Shields and the entire BarWest Kool-Aid Club. All of my ‘speaking out’ on this issue has been motivate SOLELY by a desire to expose local corruption and standing up for Ancestral Rights. Also, I feel that by speaking out on this issue it might hasten the day when a legitimate, local tribe can bring a casino project to this historically economically depressed community.

I am currently serving as a consultant on economic development and politics. I do this to support what is my main cause and passion. My wife Michelle and I are the founders of the Earth Haven Foundations for Kids which deals with children who are born with substance abuse to parents that are drug addicted. We are the adopted parents of a total of eight of these children and we will take on more when funding becomes available.

THIS is your 'Verifiable' honest to God truth. In my opinion, Tom Shields and his BarWest Kool-Aid Club are directly attacking these child victims by attacking me with their filthy lies, character assassinations and deceptions which are nothing more than the worst kind of libel and slander. But then we all expect nothing less from these sleaze bags.

Why Barwest is on the Attack

2007-08-19T17:50:00.000-07:00

Why Barwest is on the Attack

TheVerifiableTruth.com
These videos were posted on YouTube.com and on theVerifiableTruth.com. The good people at The Verifiable Truth have been working to expose Barwest lies, deceit, and corruption on the national level as I have been on the local level. The difference is that they are much better equipped to deliver up-to-date coverage in a highly professional manner than my time and resources will allow me. For these reasons, I am deeply grateful to the role that they are playing. I really appreciate all they do and especially for posting these videos and the comments they posted with them.

Barstow Citizen Activist Gets it!
(from 6.4.07 Barstow City Council Meeting)

A citizen activist frequently spotted at Barstow City Council meetings, who often sites TheVerifiableTruth.com as a reference tool and alternative source of information, speaks out on the realities of future dual Indian casinos in Barstow being bankrolled by Detroit-based Barwest LLC.

Activist Challenges Mayor's Failed Casino Strategy
(from 7.16.07 Barstow City Council Meeting)

Mr. Larry Halstead, a citizen activist and former candidate for City Council who frequents the Barstow City Council meetings; rose during the July 16, 2007 Council meeting to challenge City leaders to acknowledge Mayor Lawrence Dale's failed six year Indian Casino strategy.

The activist challenged the Council to identify any independent third parties not under the influence of Detroit-based Barwest or either of its two tribal partners who express confidence that the parties will get their plans approved by the California legislature as Halstead reports he has found no one.

The activist put forth a challenge to the Council which has been silent on the matter following the directions of the Mayor. Halstead suggested they consider tendering their resignations when Barwest fails to win approvals by the latest deadline extension -- September 15th.

The parties have made no progress in the legislature since concluding negotiations on agreements with the Governor in 2005 nor been willing to make any changes to their plans. Their original plans for one Barstow casino owned by the Los Coyotes Tribe were denied by the Governor in 2004. The Detroit casino syndicators first began talking with Barstow officials about an Indian casino in 2001/02.

My Commentary

For two years or more now, I have been trying to bring some fair and balanced perspective on the issue of Indian gaming in Barstow. During that same period I have been up against the giant Barwest machine. Since the Detroit developer first set their eyes on Barstow, they used their money and power to buy up all of the old guard of Barstow as their strategy to do the impossible. As their project has met dire failure at every turn of the road, Mayor Dale has compromised his integrity, violated political ethics, and turned our city government into a public relations firm for the project that has absolutely zero chance for success. Along the way, Barwest started their own local PAC, Barstow Citizens for Real Economic Development (BCRED) and established a local builder with no political background, Greg Lint, as it's President. This PAC became the rallying forum for local leaders to get together and count the money, positions, and power that they were do to get if this project were to ever fly.

There has become an enormous divide between the lies, spin, and deceitful propaganda that is being passed by Tom Shields and the Barwest Kool-Aid Club at every city council meeting on one side. On the other side is the real story of why these compacts will NEVER succeed at the state and federal level. This side include virtually all other tribes (gaming and non-gaming tribes alike), the CA Senate and Assemble Government Organization Committees (that will not allow these fatally flawed compacts to move forward), and all gaming industry analyst. In essence, this side includes everybody that isn't part of the Barwest Kool-Aid Club.

But in the warped perspective which our city council meetings have become, the only representations of the real world have had to come out of my mouth. Chairman Charles Wood of the Chemehuevi Tribe is much to honorable and committed to the high road to ever respond to the sleazy politics of Barwest. The other tribes and gaming interest have been way too reluctant to get involved. They seem to be content to wait it out and watch Barwest go down in flames in the quagmire of false homes and deception that they have created.

Since I know that we will never get started on a legitimate project until the Barwest fantasy bubble has been burst and buried, I have taken it upon myself to use my background in political science and community activism to expose the full extend of corruption now running rampant in our city. Sure I would love some backup help in my efforts to shine some light but until that day, I am willing to be the target of Barwest. While I would have no problem being paid to represent any of the other tribal interest that has legitimate ancestral ties to Barstow, so far that has not happened and what you see on these videos is my volunteer efforts to bring just a little light in the Barwest ocean of dark deceit.