A federal judge granted California a short stay after it appealed a quick win handed to five tribes that claim it negotiated gaming compacts in bad faith, though he denied a full stay after finding the state did not demonstrate it would be harmed by complying with the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act's remedial procedures.
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Researchers from the University of California, Davis, are studying Clear Lake in order to understand how nutrients and water circulate within the lake system. From their research vessel the R/V Ted Frantz, the scientists take water quality samples at seven sites every six to eight weeks. Their results will inform state and local responses to the harmful algal blooms.
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The Big Valley Band of Pomo Indians has a sliver of land on the flat, fertile western shores of Clear Lake. The tribe’s Environmental Protection Agency began a cyanobacteria monitoring program in 2014 after an exceptionally bad year for toxic blooms on the lake. The monitoring program has influenced a number of additional state studies as well as drinking water testing requirements for utilities that use the lake as a supply source.
In a victory for five California gaming tribes, a federal district court ruled on March 31, 2021, in favor of five Indian tribes who argued that the State of California negotiated gaming compacts in bad faith. Negotiations between the State of California and many of the 74 gaming tribes began in 2014. In 2019, the Chicken Ranch Rancheria of Me-Wuk Indians, Blue Lake Rancheria, Chemehuevi Indian Tribe, Hopland Band of Pomo Indians, and Robinson Rancheria sued the state over the stateâs insistence that the tribes include provisions in their new compacts that were improper under federal law.
âThe Tribe had a compact with the state that had worked since 1999, so the Tribe was hopeful that a new compact would be negotiated fairly quickly,â said Lloyd Mathiesen, Chairman of Chicken Ranch Rancheria of Me-Wuk Indians. âWe tried, but after five years of negotiations it was painfully clear that the state wanted more from the Tribe than it had a right to ask for. The state�