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Coalition to Gaming Board: give us the records NOW
By Ed Goppelt
Tuesday, 10/31/06
(1162308050196)
A loose coalition of community groups faxed an ultimatum to
Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board chair Tad Decker yesterday: give us
the casino records we've been asking for or face the prospect of civil
disobedience.
Speaking for Casino-Free Philadelphia neighborhood activists Jethro Heiko, Daniel Hunter and the Rev. Jesse Brown announced the roll-out of "Operation Transparency" at a 1:00 pm press conference outside City Hall. The group plans a series of weekly events culiminating in "a non-violent document search" at the PGCB's Harrisburg offices.
"On December 11th, six weeks after the Ultimatum deadline -- and if the casino planning documents still have not been released -- we resort to nonviolent direct action. We now attempt to retrieve the documents ourselves," states the group's web site.
Among other documents Casino-Free Philadelphia is demanding the complete release of the voluminous applications submitted by the would-be casinos in December of last year. The PGCB released heavily censored versions of the applications last Wednesday.
A template used by Board staff in preparing the files for public viewing and obtained by Hallwatch shows that the Board removed the following information on the grounds that is confidential:
View a copy of the template used by Gaming Board staff to censor the applications. Note: it may take up to 2-3 minutes to download this document.
About a dozen people attended the press conference.
Licensing hearings for the Philadelphia casinos will take place November 13-15. The PGCB has announced that it will award licenses for the stand-alone casinos on December 20, 2006.
| Paper | Reporter | Words |
|---|---|---|
| Philadelphia Inquirer (10/31/06) | Jeff Shields | 412 |
| Philadelphia Daily News (10/31/06) | Chris Brennan | 0 |
| KYW Newsradio 1060 (10/31/06) | Mike Dunn | 167 |