Accord Scales Back Indian Casino Deal
/A deal reached last week between Gov. Arnold
Schwarzenegger and a small Indian tribe to bring the largest urban
casino in the country to a small city near here has been significantly
scaled back. Mr. Schwarzenegger's office announced Monday that the
governor had signed the agreement but that a major provision had
been changed. Instead of allowing the Lytton Band of Pomo Indians to
build a casino with 5,000 slot machines in San Pablo, about 15 miles
north of Oakland, the final agreement allows 2,500. The reduction had
been proposed in a letter to the governor from Margie Mejia, the Lytton
Band tribal chairwoman. The change was a last-minute effort to save the
deal, which needs approval by the State Legislature and the
Department of Interior. Mr. Schwarzenegger and the Lytton Band had come
under intense criticism from elected officials for agreeing to such a
large casino, which would have been the third largest in the United
States after two rural Indian casinos in Connecticut. [more 
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