“Being tribally owned on the Rincon Tribe’s sovereign land, Harrah’s Southern California was not obliged to adhere to state COVID-19 orders,” reported Casino.org in a June 21 account of the death of ex-senior vice president and general manager Darrell Wayne Pilant.

Rincon’s splashy suicide

Big time gambling interests are playing a major role in the Republican-based Lincoln Club’s hit-piece effort to take down Democratic County Supervisor Terra Lawson-Remer. On October 12, fresh money rolled into the club’s Neighborhood Action Council Against Terra Lawson-Remer for County Supervisor committee in the form of a $10,000 check from Valley Center’s Rincon Band of Luiseno Mission Indians of the Rincon Reservation, per an October 14 filing.

Rincon Indians spend to defeat Terra Lawson-Remer

The tribe’s sprawling casino and resort complex is run by Harrah’s Southern California, whose ex-senior vice president and general manager Darrell Wayne Pilant killed himself in Georgetown Lake, Montana this past summer following a bruising legal fight with the company over opening the casino too soon after the Covid epidemic. “Being tribally owned on the Rincon Tribe’s sovereign land, Harrah’s Southern California was not obliged to adhere to state COVID-19 orders,” reported Casino.org in a June 21 account of the death.

“On May 19, just three days before Harrah’s Southern California reopened, California had recorded its deadliest coronavirus day to date with 132 deaths. Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) subsequently wrote the Rincon Tribe and other tribal casinos prepping their reopening plans to reconsider. Pilant refused to side with his employer and said his hand was forced to resign. In his obituary, his family, including his wife, Jenna, said he struggled to recover from the pandemic.”

The county health department, overseen by supervisors including Lawson-Remer, has long been at center of controversy over withheld reporting of Covid-19 numbers. “Public health officials have confirmed that more than 300 of the county’s residents who contracted COVID-19 reported visiting a casino shortly before testing positive,” says an October 16, 2020 online post by INewsource.com. “But the county won’t disclose whether any community outbreaks occurred at local casinos because they’re on tribal lands.

The tribal governments have released little information and aren’t subject to federal and state disclosure laws as sovereign entities.” Adds the account: “The casinos began reopening in May with new cleaning, social distancing and face covering policies, but some of their employees have raised concerns. In late August, the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration launched an investigation into Hurrah’s Resort Southern California in Valley Center following a complaint. The case remains open and no further public details are available.”

To strike or not to strike

Union workers at 11 newspapers of the Southern California News Group, whose 12th and most recent member is the San Diego Union-Tribune, have voted to authorize a strike against the chain and its owner, Alden Global Capital, which is widely accused of being a vulture investing operation.

“Over 90% of the 125 professional reporters, photographers, digital, social media and production staff across 11 newsrooms represented by SCNG Guild, a unit of Media Guild of the West, participated in the strike vote. A landslide 94% voted to authorize union leaders to call for a strike,” per a September 24 news release by the union. “This vote should serve as a wakeup call for management who for more than two and a half years of bargaining has failed to offer acceptable wages and benefits,” Sean Emery, an SCNG reporter and Guild Unit Chair, was quoted as saying.

“The patience of our members is wearing thin. They are tired of struggling to survive on low wages that have remained stagnant for years. They are tired of waiting more than a decade for raises that never come. We are dedicated to covering our communities. But we will not stand by and watch the leaders of our company drag their feet when it comes to offering a fair contract.” Added a statement by Matt Pearce, President of Media Guild of the West: “Alden Global Capital still thinks paying less than $20 an hour is an acceptable wage for reporters serving hundreds of thousands of Southern Californians.”

SDG&E funnels more money to Todd Gloria

Pearce also lashed out at the state’s Democratic governor and plans to subsidize jobs at the state’s troubled daily newspaper business. “We also don’t think Gov. Gavin Newsom and our state lawmakers should give a cent of taxpayer money to large employers like Alden Global Capital unless these employers have agreed to a fair contract. Public dollars shouldn’t support news companies that don’t support their own journalists and news workers.”

The U-T, which was acquired by Alden from Los Angeles billionaire Patrick Soon-Shiong in a murky July 2023 deal, is not affected by the Guild action. Back in June, 1998, the then-850 editorial, advertising, and back office workers at the paper voted by a margin of 52% to 48% to toss the union, at the time known as the Newspaper Guild, out of the plant at the urging of management, led by then-editor Karin Winner. “The interests of working people have suffered a setback,” then-business reporter and union leader Craig Rose was quoted as saying at the time. “People felt it’s very difficult to resist a large corporation, and in the short term it’s better to submit than stand up for their rights. People felt a sense of futility.”

More Gloria Sempra money

As noted here back on July 3, a political committee calling itself New San Diego shut its doors on June 21, transferring its remaining $15,717.06 to a newly formed committee called California Progress for All, which had been registered with the California Secretary of State’s office just weeks before on June 6. New San Diego, many insiders observed, had apparently become a bad brand in local politics, having failed in its stealthy spring mission to pave the way for the success of Todd Gloria’s Democratic mayoral re-election bid by backing the primary campaign of neophyte GOP mayoral hopeful Jane Glasson over staunch Gloria foe Larry Turner. Despite heavy spending for Glasson by New San Diego, Turner ultimately made it into this November’s runoff against Gloria.

Now California Progress for All is going all out for the incumbent mayor, revealing in an October 16 filing with the city clerk’s office that it has spent a total of $84,500 on the mayor’s cause, $15,000 of that for an October 15 “media buy,” on Gloria’s behalf. Besides the five figure cash rollover from defunct New San Diego, the newly minted California Progress for All’s biggest donations include $10,000 on October 10 from utility giant Sempra Energy, whose SDG&E San Diego city franchise has greatly benefited under Gloria’s protection. In addition, on September 21, $50,000 rolled into California Progress for All from the Asian Business Association Candidate PAC of Encinitas. Recent donors to that group have included Marco A. Sessa, senior vice president of Mission Valley developer Sudberry Properties ($5000, August 14) and the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce PAC ($10,000, September 3). An apartment investors group, the California Apartment Association — Independent Expenditure PAC, came up with $35,000 on September 17. Government subsidized housing outfit Affirmed Housing, another beneficiary of Gloria’s reign, gave $10,000 on September 20.

— Matt Potter

(@sdmattpotter)

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