As dismal jobs news continues in Wisconsin, out-of-state casinos hiring hundreds

There’s more dismal employment news in today’s papers:

• The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports that new claims for unemployment insurance benefits in Wisconsin are up 15% from the same time last year.

• The Kenosha News reports a closure and layoffs at two more local companies.

In the meantime, two big employers are holding job fairs looking for hundreds of new employees in Indiana and Florida. Coincidentally, both of those opportunity-rich employers are – you guessed it – casinos.

More proof of the positive difference the Menominee casino – with its 3,000-plus good jobs and billion-dollar economic benefits – can make for Wisconsin.

Support more Wisconsin jobs by supporting casino competition and signing the online petition.

Kenosha County's bleak unemployment news highlights need for casino jobs

There's alarming unemployment news out of Kenosha County - and it shows just how much the Menominee casino's 3,000-plus good-paying jobs are needed in Southeast Wisconsin.

Today's Kenosha News reports that local jobless claims for the week ending Dec. 6 are up a whopping 84% from last year. That's not all - as job listings have plummeted, the number of unemployed people and Kenosha County residents requiring food stamps and other public assistance has skyrocketed.

Sounds like it's time for some positive economic development and job creation.

You can read the full article here.

Casino competition means more jobs in Southeast Wisconsin. Click here to sign the online petition.

Competition would bring good jobs at a time Wisconsin needs them

With unemployment claims skyrocketing in Wisconsin and nationally, it seems like a good time to point out that the Menominee casino in Kenosha will create 3,000 good jobs – with family-supporting wages and benefits – for Wisconsin residents. That’s in addition to the 1,000-plus good union construction jobs building the facility will create.

Good jobs when Wisconsin needs them. That’s another great reason to support casino competition in our region.

Casino competition will bring good jobs an economic support to Wisconsin – help make it happen by signing the online petition.

Kenosha project would help improve Menominee’s dismal health situation

It looks like casino competition would do more than create good jobs and provide multibillion-dollar economic benefits to Wisconsin. It would also help Wisconsin’s least healthy county, and the country’s fourth-poorest Tribe, improve its dismal health picture.

Check out this news release on the topic, or you can read excerpts below:

MENOMINEE CASINO WILL HELP STATE’S LEAST HEALTHY COUNTY

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Kenosha project would help poor Tribe overcome major health challenges as 2008 Wisconsin County Health Rankings put Menominee Reservation at the bottom – again

KESHENA, Wis. – Just weeks after a UW-La Follette School of Public Affairs study determined that the Menominee Indian Tribe’s proposed Kenosha casino could help the impoverished Tribe improve its dismal health picture, a new report has found Menominee County continues to suffer the worst health conditions in the state.

The University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute’s recently released 2008 Wisconsin County Health Rankings ranked Menominee County, which shares its borders with the Menominee Reservation, at the bottom of 72 Wisconsin counties in terms of overall health outcomes and determinants.

Menominee Tribal Chair Lisa Waukau said the new health rankings underscore the benefits of the Kenosha project and the important role it will have in addressing the significant unmet needs of the Menominee, the fourth-poorest tribe in the country.

“Approving the Menominee project will go a long way toward improving the health and well-being of our Tribe,” Waukau said. “Menominee ranks last in the state in terms of mortality, general health status, unemployment, children living in poverty and other factors that have a devastating impact on the health of our community. In addition to creating thousands of good jobs and providing major economic benefits to Kenosha and the State of Wisconsin, the project will generate the revenue our Tribe needs to emerge from this dangerous downward spiral and build a better future for the Menominee people.”

For more, click here.

Help support casino competition in Southeast Wisconsin by signing the online petition.

Menominee Take Quest for Fair and Lawful Kenosha Project Review to Court

Not surprisingly, the Department of Interior – at the direction of Secretary Dirk Kempthorne, a well-known opponent of off-reservation gaming – has denied the Menominee Tribe’s request to temporarily suspend review of the proposed Kenosha casino until a new Administration takes office.

Now the Tribe is taking the next step – in court.

November 7, 2008

Dear Supporters and Friends:

Late last month, we told you that the Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin had formally requested that the Department of Interior temporarily suspend its review of our proposed Kenosha casino. We had learned that Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne was looking to reject our long-pending Kenosha application based on his personal opposition to off-Reservation gaming, and we asked that further review be postponed until a fresh Administration takes office.

The Department has denied our request. As a result, we are taking stronger action.

The Menominee Tribe today filed a federal lawsuit asking a judge to halt the flawed federal review process for the Kenosha project. The lawsuit alleges that Department officials have improperly changed the rules for approving off-Reservation casinos based on Secretary Kempthorne’s personal views. It asks a judge to declare those changes invalid and prevent the Department from using them to reject our application.

The decision to take legal action against the Department was difficult, but we believe it is the best opportunity to make this job-creation and economic development plan a reality for our Tribe, for Kenosha and for Wisconsin. Our trust application is thorough, well-documented and complete. It has the strong support of the local community and the solid recommendation of the Department’s professional staff who say it meets every point of law required for approval.

The Menominee have worked in good faith with the Department for nearly five years, but the Department is not working in good faith with us. Even after we showed how our project fits Secretary Kempthorne’s new rules, we learned from his people that it didn’t matter, he was going to reject the application anyway. That’s illegal, unfair and unacceptable.

Please know that the Menominee Tribe greatly values the strong support the Kenosha and Southeast Wisconsin community have given our project and our Tribe – that’s one of the reasons we are doing everything we can to make the Kenosha casino happen. We believe the court will agree with our position and ensure a fair and honest review of our proposal based on the law. And we are confident that if our project gets a fair and lawful review, it will be approved.

Lisa Waukau, Chair

Laurie Boivin, Vice Chair

Sign the online petition supporting the Kenosha project and casino competition in Southeast Wisconsin.

Change in D.C. means likely change in Potawatomi’s big-money lobbying corps

The presidential campaign was all about “change,” and with a new party set to take the helm, the Potawatomi will likely be looking at change themselves. Changing from GOP to Dem lobbyists, that is.

The latest federal lobbying reports show the Forest County Potawatomi shelled out another $170,000 between July 1 and Sept. 30 to two heavy-hitting DC lobbying firms – Quinn Gillespie & Associates and Barbour Griffith & Rogers.

Combined, the two firms have made more than a half-million dollars from Potawatomi this year alone – lobbying everyone from Congress to the Department of the Interior to the Executive Office of the President of the United States (!) on matters related to gaming reform and land-into-trust issues. The goal is to get the federal government to deny the Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin’s Kenosha casino project, effectively stamping out competition for Potawatomi’s Milwaukee gaming hall and sentencing Menominee, the country’s fourth-poorest tribe, to generations of continued poverty. (You can read more about Menominee’s economic and social struggles in this study by UW-Madison’s La Follette School of Public Affairs.)

But it looks like Quinn Gillespie and Barbour Griffith may soon be looking for new work. Lobbying firms don’t come any more Republican than these two – we’re talking Bush confidantes and former Bush Cabinet advisors. It’s doubtful that they’ll have the pull to accomplish much of Potawatomi’s monopoly work under a Democratic president, a Democrat-controlled Congress, and a Democrat-appointed Interior Secretary.

So now that we’re past the election predictions, we’ll make a prediction of our own. We predict that in their never-ending bid to kill the Kenosha casino, hold Menominee down and preserve their own monopoly, the Potawatomi will start combing the K street corridor (and opening its checkbook) for D-leaning lobbyists. Look for some new Potawatomi lobbyists to register in January or February and file their first reports in March. And we’ll be sure to tell you when they do.

Frankly, we think the new Administration will see through Potawatomi’s monopoly game. Healthy competition makes businesses stronger – and economic studies prove that’s the case with the Milwaukee and Kenosha casinos.

By the way – Quinn Gillespie and Barbour Griffith aren’t the extent of Potawatomi’s D.C. lobbying army. During the most recent reporting period, the Tribe also spent $15,000 with Malcolm Chester, an Illinois-based pro who lobbied Congress and the Bureau of Indian Affairs on the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (the law that allows Tribes like Potawatomi and Menominee to establish off-Reservation casinos in the first place.) Less than $5,000 went to another lobbying firm, Sonosky, Chambers, Sachse, Endreson & Perry.

Tell the new Administration that casino competition is good for Southeast Wisconsin - sign our online petition today!

Milwaukee Newspaper: Department of Interior Should Judge Kenosha Project on Merits and Law

Excellent editorial in this morning’s Milwaukee Business Journal.

Casino should get fair hearing

The Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin took a very unusual step last week when it went after the very agency that will decide if it will be able to develop an $808 million casino and entertainment complex in Kenosha.

But the tribe does deserve a fair hearing into whether it should be able to open the casino at the site of the Dairyland Greyhound Park. The site must be put into federal trust, a requirement for the development of an Indian gaming facility.

Tribal chair Lisa Waukau wrote a letter to George Skibine, acting assistant secretary of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, saying that U.S. Department of Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne will respond to political pressure to issue a “hasty, arbitrary and capricious end-of-term disapproval of our long-pending application.”

The tribe now wants that decision to be delayed until the next administration takes office.

In the past, Kempthorne has made clear his opposition to off-reservation Indian gaming and his department already has rejected 11 applications to allow such projects and ceased review of another dozen.

The Menominee tribe said a rejection by the current administration would be based solely on Kempthorne’s personal opposition to off-reservation gaming “rather than any legal basis for denial.”

That is not right. The casino proposal should be judged on its own merits and applicable federal law.

Hear, hear.

Show your support for the Kenosha project and casino competition by signing the online petition.

Respected Professor Calls for U.S. to Approve Kenosha Casino

As the Menominee Tribe asks the federal government to suspend review of the Tribe’s Kenosha casino application until a new administration takes office, today’s Small Business Times “Milwaukee Biz Blog” features a thought-provoking piece by Professor Dennis Dresang, director of the Center for Wisconsin, State, Local and Tribal Governance for the La Follette School of Public Affairs at UW-Madison.

Dresang is one of the authors of a new study that points to the U.S. government’s termination of the Menominee Tribe’s federal recognition from 1954 to 1973 as the root cause of the economic and social ravages the Tribe continues to face today.

You can read the article here.

Call on the government to do the right thing – sign the online petition for casino competition in Southeast Wisconsin.

Menominee Ask Federal Government to Leave Kenosha Decision to New Administration

See the letter from Menominee Tribal leadership below. You know, it’s amazing that with the U.S. economy in such a downturn, the politicians apparently still can’t do the right thing and approve a project that will create 3,000 good jobs and launch a $1 billion construction project in a region that has experienced major job and business losses.

On the positive side, it’s clear from the letter – as well as the Tribe’s media statement and its letter to the BIA – that Menominee isn’t going to give up the fight.

Dear Supporters and Friends:

As the Bush Administration enters its final days, we have been informed that Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne is looking to reject our long-pending Kenosha casino application. While Secretary Kempthorne's personal opposition to off-reservation gaming is well-known, such a denial would go against the strong recommendation of Bureau of Indian Affairs' professional staff, who have studied the Menominee application in detail and say it should be approved. It would go against the wishes of the Kenosha community, which has twice voted in favor of the casino. And it would go against all of the laws and regulations governing land-into-trust decisions in our country.

To try to stop a capricious, end-of-term rejection - and to ensure our project is judged on its significant legal merits, not anyone's personal politics - our Tribe has asked the Department to temporarily suspend consideration of our application until a fresh presidential Administration takes over in January. We are committed to seeing the Kenosha project through. We believe a new Administration offers the best chance to stop one individual's personal beliefs from unfairly overriding the Bureau officials who recommend approval based on the law and a thorough review of our submission.

We hope the Department grants our request for a temporary suspension, but we are nonetheless prepared for other outcomes. Please know that the Menominee Tribe has a number of avenues at its disposal to fight an improper rejection, and we are strongly committed to pursuing them and making the Kenosha project a reality. We stand firmly by our plans and their major benefits for Kenosha, for the Menominee and for Wisconsin.

We continue to be grateful for the overwhelming welcome and strong support the Kenosha and Southeast Wisconsin community has given our project and our Tribe. In the end - even if we must battle an illegal and politically motivated denial - we are confident that the facts and the law will determine the Kenosha project should and must be approved.

Lisa Waukau, Chair

Laurie Boivin, Vice Chair

Show your continued support for the Kenosha project and casino competition by signing our online petition.

UW Research on Menominee’s Unmeet Needs Gains Media Attention

There’s a good story in today’s Kenosha News on the UW/La Follette School study. Here’s the first part:

Study: Local casino would aid tribe
Menominees say revenue is necessary for them to thrive

BY JOE POTENTE jpotente@kenoshanews.com

A recent study by a University of Wisconsin-Madison professor says a Kenosha casino would help to reverse many of the negative effects that the Menominee Nation has suffered since the federal government terminated the tribe in the 1950s.

The report, commissioned and paid for by the tribe, was submitted to the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs in response to questions about the proposed casino’s effects on the tribe’s unmet needs, a project spokesman said Thursday.

Dennis Dresang, a professor in the UW-Madison’s La Follette School of Public Affairs, wrote that revenue from the Kenosha casino would make “a significant, measurable difference for the Menominee in their struggle to overcome the shattering economic and cultural aftereffects of termination.”

Without the revenue, Dresang said, the tribe’s ability to care for its nearly 8,500 members is severely compromised.

You can read the full story here.

Sign our online petition and say yes to casino competition in SE Wisconsin.

UW Study Finds Kenosha Project Could Right Federal Government’s Wrongs

WisPolitics has a great story this morning about a study of the Menominee Tribe conducted by the researchers at the University of Wisconsin’s prestigious La Follette School of Public Affairs. The story – and the study itself – is especially good reading for anyone who doesn’t realize the economic and social turmoil the Menominee have suffered at the hands of the federal government.

Take a look:

The Menominee Nation continues to struggle economically 50 years after the federal government decided to terminate its status as a recognized tribe and the best option to improve its plight is an off-reservation casino, according to a new report compiled by three UW-Madison researchers.

The study was paid for by the tribe, which is seeking federal approval to turn a Kenosha dog track into a casino. The Forest County Potawatomi have opposed the project, which has been pending before federal regulators for some time.

Co-author Dennis Dresang said the researchers went into the study with no preconceived notions and the study was not influenced by the tribe's desire to win approval for an off-reservation casino.

He said because the tribe is not near any population centers, it has few other options besides an off-reservation casino to generate the kind of money needed to address its needs. Dresang said one other option for the tribe could be exploring more ecotourism considering some of the natural resources in the area. But that would also mean turning culturally important areas into a tourist destination, which some Menominee would be hesitant to do.

"They don't want another Wisconsin Dells springing up in the area," Dresang said. "But even that, considering what a casino-convention center near Chicago is going to generate, man, that's just a no-brainer."'

According to the report, the tribe was prospering in the 1950s with a successful sawmill and a fully functioning government, a law enforcement agency, infrastructure and schools. Because of that success, the federal government targeted the Menominee for an experiment to end rights and protections based on past treaties and strip the tribe of its federally cognized status. Dresang said the experiment was considered a reward at the time for the Menominee's success, but came to be viewed as a mistake.

There’s also a video summary of the study featuring Professor Dresang, as well as a news release from the La Follette School.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jF8t-zdtyEw

As the federal government continues to review the Menominee’s Kenosha casino application, the La Follette School research is yet more proof of the project’s major benefits for Wisconsin.

Say yes to the Kenosha casino and casino competition in Southeast Wisconsin by signing our online petition.

We talked late last week about the utter hypocrisy of the Potawatomi – who have spent millions to hurt the Menominee Tribe and its Kenosha project – being founding members of a group committed to increasing economic opportunities for poor tribes. That group, the Native American Trade Network, has its big kickoff in Washington today, and here’s the statement we released on the irony of it all.

FOREST COUNTY POTAWATOMI PUT HYPOCRISY ON FULL NATIONAL DISPLAY
IN WASHINGTON, D.C., PUBLICITY STUNT
* * *

Multiyear, multimillion-dollar effort to stifle poor Wisconsin tribe’s economic development project is polar opposite of new claim

Evan N. Zeppos, spokesman for the Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin’s proposed entertainment center and casino in Kenosha, Wis., today issued the following statement regarding the Forest County Potawatomi’s membership in the newly created Native American Trade Network. The Network, launched today at the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C, bills itself as a partnership of some of the nation’s wealthiest tribes with the goal of increasing economic opportunities for disadvantaged tribes. The Potawatomi have been vocal opponents of the Kenosha project, which would compete with Potawatomi’s lucrative off-reservation casino in Milwaukee.

“It is reprehensible that the Forest County Potawatomi would stand up in our nation’s capital and claim to be in favor of spreading economic opportunity to disadvantaged tribes.

“Potawatomi’s D.C. appearance is a blatant and duplicitous publicity stunt that conveniently sidesteps the millions of dollars they’ve poured into ads, lobbyists and other political and legal chicanery to preserve the casino monopoly that has made them rich. To now declare they want to help less-fortunate tribes is laughable at best, shameful at worst and supreme hypocrisy any way you look at it.

“If Potawatomi’s leaders really cared about disadvantaged tribes, they’d take a walk across the Mall after their photo-op and ask the BIA to approve the Kenosha casino and its life-changing boost for an impoverished tribe. Unfortunately, with a record of shameful conduct that directly opposes the noble intentions of the Native American Trade Network, the Forest County Potawatomi seem to be content spreading something less admirable than economic opportunity.”

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Speak out against Potawatomi’s hypocrisy and in favor of fair casino competition in Southeast Wisconsin by signing the online petition.

What Potawatomi is spreading doesn’t smell like “economic opportunity”

We thought it had to be the latest headline from The Onion.

But we did some checking around after several Casino Competition for Wisconsin supporters e-mailed us this news flash today, and it’s apparently true.

That’s right. The same Forest County Potawatomi Community that has spent millions upon millions upon millions of dollars to kill the proposed Kenosha casino – a much-needed economic development project that will help lift a very poor, very large Wisconsin tribe out of extreme poverty – is now part of a national consortium dedicated to (emphasis ours) promoting economic development for ALL tribes.

Huh?

According to a press release issued by a Washington, D.C., PR firm, the Potawatomi will travel to Washington next week to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with some of the richest tribes in the nation as they launch the “Native American Trade Network.” The media is invited – of course – and the group’s executive director says the network’s purpose is to “spread economic opportunity in Indian Country.”

Potawatomi’s spreading something, all right – but it’s not economic opportunity. After all, how many “economically advantaged” tribes that truly care about helping their struggling counterparts would:

• Organize front groups -- one, two, and possibly a third – to oppose an impoverished Tribe’s economic development plan.
• Spend more than $1 million on a massive, extremely negative campaign to defeat such a plan at the polls.
• Bus their own casino employees to a hearing to speak out against the other Tribe’s economic development efforts.
• Fund a flawed economic study falsely attacking the other Tribe’s project.
• Spend millions on lobbyists trying to hurt the other Tribe’s efforts in the State Capitol, the U.S. Capitol and even the Executive Office of the President of the United States.
• Drop big bucks on a glitzy TV ad campaign attacking another successful Tribe for helping a disadvantaged Tribe rise out of poverty.

What is Potawatomi doing? Are they really committed to helping disadvantaged tribes? If so, they’ll stop fighting competition. They’ll embrace the Kenosha project and all it would do for a fellow Wisconsin tribe and for Wisconsin as a whole.

But we’re not holding our breath.

Promote real support for disadvantaged Tribes by signing our online petition.

Mohegan commitment to Menominee, Kenosha and Wisconsin draws more praise

A few weeks ago, a great letter to the editor in the Kenosha News effectively shot down the silly criticisms the competition-fearing Potawatomi have been spouting about the Mohegan Tribe, which is helping Wisconsin’s Menominee Tribe get the Kenosha casino project up and running. Today, the letter writer, a Kenosha businessman, outlines his thoughts even further in a thoughtful commentary on Small Business Times’ Milwaukee Biz Blog.

It’s worth reading.

You’ll recall that as part of their multimillion-dollar scheme to fend off competition and hang on to their monopoly, the Potawatomi have taken every possible opportunity to blast the Mohegan Tribe because it is – brace yourself – from Connecticut.

The Potawatomi apparently don’t want outsiders playing in Wisconsin’s business market, making nuisances of themselves by helping:

• create 3,000 jobs for Wisconsin residents
• raise billions of dollars in revenue for state and local governments
• contribute millions to local schools
• purchase hundreds of millions of dollars in local goods and services every year; and more.

Perish the thought.

Fortunately, people like this letter writer and others are seeing through Potawatomi’s anti-competition tactics. They’re recognizing the value a solid corporate citizen like the Mohegan Tribe – and its support of a very large, very poor tribe like Wisconsin’s Menominee – will bring to our state.

Join the call for real casino competition in Wisconsin by signing our online petition.

Does Milwaukee know that Kenosha got a better deal?

A few days ago, the Forest County Potawatomi announced they’d paid the City of Milwaukee and Milwaukee County $5.06 million each as part of an agreement to annually share a portion of the Tribe’s Milwaukee casino proceeds.

Looking at the numbers, we wonder…could the tribe be working so hard to kill the proposed Kenosha casino because they’re worried someone will notice Wisconsin’s Menominee Tribe gave Kenosha a better deal than the Potawatomi gave Milwaukee?

Take a look:

• For the first seven years of operations, the Menominee have agreed to pay 3% of the Kenosha casino’s net win to the City of Kenosha and Kenosha County. It’s the same percentage the Potawatomi pay in Milwaukee, but the similarity ends there. By Year 2, Menominee’s annual payment to Kenosha and Kenosha County is projected to be about $12.6 million – a cool $2 million more than Potawatomi’s latest Milwaukee payout.

• After seven years, Menominee’s payment to the City of Kenosha and Kenosha County jumps to 4% of net win, which will mean even more revenue for the two local governments. Meanwhile, Potawatomi will continue to pay at the 3% level in Milwaukee.

• On top of its yearly, multimillion-dollar payments to the City of Kenosha and Kenosha County, the Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin has agreed to make a separate, $1.5 million annual gift to Kenosha County schools. Schools aren’t a part of the Potawatomi’s revenue-sharing agreement in Milwaukee at all.

One of the great things about tribal gaming in Wisconsin is the positive economic impact it has on local communities and the state as a whole. We’ve never understood why the Potawatomi have taken every opportunity to kill plans for another casino that would be a positive economic contributor in Kenosha, Southeast Wisconsin and statewide.

But now, we might. Could be they’re worried that Milwaukee – once they see the significant contributions Wisconsin’s Menominee will be making in Kenosha – might ask to go back to the bargaining table.

Cast your vote for casino competition by signing our online petition.

Abbott Labs workforce cuts heighten need for good jobs in SE Wisconsin

Disturbing news from Abbott Labs, the largest private employer of Kenosha County residents – they’re cutting 1,000 jobs over the next three years to streamline operations and reduce costs. That’s especially painful in Kenosha County, where the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development reported an unemployment rate of 5.7 percent in July – the highest since March of this year and well above the state average.

Now, more than ever, it seems Kenosha can use the 3,000 good-paying jobs, plus 1,000 family-sustaining union construction jobs, the Menominee Tribe of Wisconsin’s casino project would provide.

Of course, if the Potawatomi had their way, Kenosha and Wisconsin wouldn’t get any of those new jobs. They’ve shown time and time again they’re willing to give up Wisconsin jobs in favor of keeping their Southeast Wisconsin gaming monopoly.

Sign our online petition and support new jobs for Wisconsin.

Competition-free Potawatomi expansion didn’t impress this visitor

There’s a new review of Potawatomi Bingo Casino’s $250 million expansion up on TripAdvisor, which bills itself as the Web’s best source of unbiased travel reviews.

Frankly, we didn’t think it could get any worse than this scathing review we shared last summer. We were wrong.

We urge you to read the latest report in full, but here are some highlights of what “Katie209” of Milwaukee has to say after detailing some negatives about the expanded casino’s design, service and payouts.

• “Unfortunately, this is the only game in town but don’t take any money down there that you can’t afford to lose because chances are you will.”

She then goes on to say,

• “Can’t wait for some competition.”

There’s that word again.

Fact is, competition creates better products and better consumer experiences. Eliminating Potawatomi’s monopoly will make it a better business, a more attractive tourism destination and a stronger community asset. With real competition, everyone wins.

Interestingly, Milwaukee’s convention and visitor’s bureau is actually an accomplice in Potawatomi’s anti-competition, pro-monopoly crusade. We wonder what they have to say about how Potawatomi’s monopoly-based complacency is coloring the way potential visitors view our region.

More than 23 million people from 190 countries visited TripAdvisor in the last week alone, the Web site reports. Is this how we really want them to see our area?

Sign the online petition to help create a thriving, competitive, tourism-friendly gaming marketplace in Southeast Wisconsin.