SALISBURY After learning that California is billions of dollars in debt and pays some of its bills in IOUs, Massachusetts House Speaker Robert DeLeo recently sent a letter off to Facebook mogul and Harvard University alumnus Mark Zuckerberg.

I wrote him a note and told him he should come back and run his business back here, and bring all those jobs back to the commonwealth, DeLeo told members of the Salisbury Chamber of Commerce last night. Thats what its all about for us; its jobs.

DeLeo said that after spending time traveling across the state speaking to chambers of commerce, whats struck him the hardest are the problems blue-collar workers have had over the past few years getting jobs after losing them when the economy faltered.

Massachusetts has been in a recession for the past few years, but for blue-collar workers, its been a depression, said the Winthrop Democrat and 21-year veteran of the House.

DeLeo said his successful push to legalize gambling in the state was all about jobs, as well as keeping billions of dollars in gambling revenue in Massachusetts instead of losing it to out-of-state venues. In the not-too-distant future, three casinos and one slot machine parlor will be built in the state, bringing thousands of construction and hospitality industry jobs with them, he said.

According to the gambling legislation, some of the revenue realized will be put aside so that educational institutions like community colleges can apply for funding to create programs that will help students learn the skills needed for the industry, he said.

Another piece of legislation announced recently is an economic development bill titled talent pipeline that will stop the states brain drain, DeLeo said.

Were trying to take talented kids from our colleges and put them together with creative state corporations to keep (the students) in Massachusetts, he said. If you cant tell, I really hate that Mark Zuckerberg left the state.

DeLeo also praised the Houses unanimous passage yesterday of a foreclosure bill championed by state Rep. Michael Costello, D-Newburyport.

Intended to prevent unlawful and unnecessary foreclosures, the bill establishes a procedure requiring banks to offer a loan modification option to borrowers prior to foreclosure in cases where the lender knew, or should have known, that the borrower would not be able to repay. In addition, it prohibits lenders from foreclosing without proper documentation, including written proof that the foreclosing party currently holds the mortgage.

This bill takes an important step to protecting homeowners from the dangers of predatory mortgages by forcing banks to converse with borrowers and evaluate the best possible solution for the family, the bank and the community, DeLeo said upon the bills passage earlier in the day.

Costello said that even banks have acknowledged it often makes more financial sense to create an affordable payment plan rather than foreclosing and selling a home at a substantial loss.

This bill gives us a fair and reasonable approach to do just that for more than 100,000 Massachusetts borrowers who hold these type of mortgages, he said in a press release. We can keep people in their homes without sacrificing the banks bottom lines and save families and communities.

Last night, DeLeo credited Costello for his efforts creating and shepherding the bill through the House. Costello is chairman of the House Committee on Financial Assistance, which DeLeo called one of the most powerful on Beacon Hill, overseeing banking, insurance and business issues.

That should show you the high regard I have for Costello, since I appointed him to chair that committee, DeLeo said.

Before stepping down from the podium, DeLeo took a moment to praise Salisbury as a place where he spent some wonderful summers growing up, visiting with his uncle, who worked as a maitre d at the former Frolics nightclub.

Salisbury Beach is not a foreign territory to me, DeLeo said. I consider it to be one of the most beautiful parts of our commonwealth.

You can accept Wayne Rooney needs to console himself after Manchester United conceded the Barclays Premier League crown to rivals City… but is this the best preparation for the forthcoming European Championships?

While the Germans, Dutch, French and Spanish all meet up for pre-tournament training, Englands best player has been spotted hitting the gambling tables and sinking beers in Las Vegas.

Granted, Rooney will sit out the opening two matches in Poland and Ukraine through suspension, but these pictures do little to suggest the United striker is focused on the job this summer.

They say what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas. The money you put down on the gaming tables – perhaps. The calories you pick up at the dinner table – no way.

Theres no shortage of things to do, at or away from either kind of table. With nearly 40 million visitors a year, each budgeting an average of $466 for gambling while in Las Vegas, the slot machines and blackjack tables continue to be big attractions.

But increasingly, visitors are spending time – and money – away from the tables, enjoying some of the best food, entertainment and shopping on the planet.

Some of all three can be found at CityCenter, a 30-hectare, $9-billion complex in the south-central portion of the Strip. Some of Las Vegass highest-end shopping can be found in the opulent Crystals mall – Tiffany, Prada and Dior – as well as a selection of restaurants. Go inside – even if all you can afford is a look.

CityCenter also offers a number of hotel options. On this trip, the luxurious, 4,000-room Aria resort was home.

While its an exaggeration to say anywhere is a short walk in this bigger-than-life town, Arias location is as good as any for walking to most of the other hotels and attractions. The Aria also hosts the Cirque du Soleils Viva Elvis show.

If a few hours in a world-class restaurant is your idea of a great night out, there are many options for about the same price as a couple of tickets to a top-end show.

We dined at Mix on the 64th floor of the hotel at Mandalay Bay. Even at $300 with tip for dinner for two, it was worth it for the food and ambience. Have a pre-dinner cocktail in the Mix Lounge, which overlooks the Strip.

If your preference is a seat in a showroom or theatre, there are lots of great options.

Donny and Marie Osmond are resident headliners at the Flamingo. Their high-energy show is the culmination of five decades of experience in show business.

Its an entertaining 90 minutes of song, dance and self-effacing humour, complete with a powerful band and a talented troupe of backing dancers. Tickets: $95 to $260 (VIP), plus taxes and fees.

If you have a particular show on your must-see list, its best to book ahead for the best prices and seats.

For fashionistas, the Fashion Show mall in the heart of Vegas (across from the Wynn) is a must. One of the largest shopping centres in the US, the upscale mall features seven flagship department stores, including Saks Fifth Avenue, Neiman Marcus, Dillards, Macys, Nevadas only Nordstrom, Bloomingdale Home and Forever 21, plus more than 250 shops and restaurants. Fashion Show also features local attraction ticket sales and visitor information.

People gathered in a protest against the Eurovegas project in Madrid, Spain, Saturday, March 17, 2012. Poster reads Welcome Mister Adelson?, Eurovegas no!, Labor reform is Eurovegas, Eurovegas shows the country what the Popular Party wants, Vulnerability of the children, Prostitution, Gambling addiction and Criminality. Eurovegas is a US billionaires proposal that promises to build six casinos, 12 hotels and create jobs in a country on the brink of its second recession in four years and an unemployment rate near 23%. Madrid has been selected by Sheldon Adelson, 78, and his company Las Vegas Sands to be the site of Eurovegas, a project which protesters say would cost Spain more in grants, concessions and problems than it would yield benefits.
Photo: Andres Kudacki
/ AP

AIRWAY HEIGHTS, Wash.

A big casino that the Spokane Tribe of Indians is proposing has cleared a major regulatory hurdle, but the project is drawing bitter opposition from a rival tribe and from some area business and political leaders.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs recently issued a draft environmental impact statement that allows the Spokane Tribes proposal to continue moving forward. The proposal is opposed by the Kalispel Tribe of Indians, who fear their nearby Northern Quest Casino will lose business to the new competitor.

Area politicians and business leaders also worry about the new casinos impact on nearby Fairchild Air Force Base, and on the Spokane community.

We dont want to become Spo-Vegas, said Irv Zakheim, a business leader who co-founded Citizens Against Casino Expansion. It would expand gambling and the problems that come with it, threaten Fairchild Air Force Base, harm our local economy.

The draft environmental impact statement is now the subject of a 45-day public comment period and what is likely to be a contentious public hearing on March 26.

The issue goes back more than a decade, when the Kalispel Tribe won rare federal approval to build an off-reservation casino because its tiny reservation in northeastern Washington was unsuited to such a big project.

The glitzy Northern Quest, located in this suburb west of Spokane, has been a huge moneymaker for the tiny tribe.

The Spokane Tribe, which claims the Spokane area as an ancestral homeland, wants to build its own resort complex just a few miles from the Northern Quest.

But the Spokanes also need special permission for the off-reservation casino, and the environmental statement is a first step in that complicated process.

Spokane Tribe chairman Greg Abrahamson said he believes a second casino in the area will build business for both tribes.

A key finding of the environmental review is that the proposed casino will not impact Fairchild Air Force Base, one of Eastern Washingtons largest employers.

Some Spokane business leaders are not so sure. They worry that a crowded casino under the flight line of the air tanker base might prompt the military to close Fairchild in the future.

We remain committed to protecting Fairchild Air Force Base from encroachment, said Rich Hadley of Greater Spokane Inc., the regions economic development agency, which opposes the Spokane Tribes project.

The base has some 5,700 employees and is worth $793 million a year to the Spokane economy, the business group said. The Spokane Tribe is proposing to spend $400 million for a casino and resort complex which they contend will provide 2,800 jobs when fully completed. Opponents dispute the employment projections.

Abrahamson said the Spokane tribe has worked closely with military officials in Washington, DC, to make sure their proposal does not hurt the base. And military officials have not publicly stated any concerns about the proposed casino.

The tribes project includes 98,000 square feet of gambling area with 2,500 slot machines, a 300-room hotel, several restaurants, parking garage, retail space, a tribal cultural center and tribal police and fire station.

Opponents take issue with the environmental review.

It doesnt speak to how this casino would threaten the character of our community and it doesnt examine the full costs that the Spokane Tribe could transfer to local taxpayers, Zakheim said.

Indian gambling is a major business in Washington. A recent study, Casino Citys Indian Gaming Industry Report, found that Washingtons 32 tribal casinos ranked fifth in gaming revenue in 2010 with $2.03 billion, up 7.5 percent from the year before. The state was third in the number of gaming machines at tribal casinos, with 27,358, behind only California and Oklahoma.

Critics contend approving an off-reservation casino strictly on the grounds of generating higher revenues for a tribe could lead to an explosion of Indian gambling sites near large cities.

The Obama administration in 2009 launched a review of federal rules that dramatically limited off-reservation gambling. Only five off-reservation casinos, including the Northern Quest, have been approved in more than 20 years.

Few tribes have benefited from gaming as much as the Kalispels, a band with 416 members and a reservation that is just 8 miles long and 1 mile wide. The reservation sits mostly on a floodplain near Usk, 50 miles north of Spokane.

With few options for generating money, the Kalispels in the early 1990s bought land in Airway Heights and launched a seven-year effort to get it designated as part of their reservation to allow gambling. The effort required the approval of both the federal government and former Washington Gov. Gary Locke.

The Northern Quest Casino, near Spokanes airport, opened in 2000 and has been continually expanded since.

It is the Kalispels only casino, but the revenues allow the tribe to provide clean drinking water, medical and dental care, a wellness center, fire and ambulance service, higher education scholarships and jobs in various fields for every member who wants one. The casino employs about 2,000 people.

By contrast, gambling has not been so good to the Spokane Tribe, which has 2,655 members and a much larger reservation about 30 miles northwest of Spokane. The Spokanes at one time operated five modest rural casinos on their reservation, but only two are left.

The opening of the Kalispel casino cut revenues at the Spokane Tribes venues by 80 percent, Abrahamson said. The revenue drop forced the Spokanes to reduce their social programs, aid to elders and youth and education programs and unemployment among the Spokanes is around 50 percent, he said.

Youths today are bombarded with media images that depict gambling as exciting and glamorous. They are exposed to messages about the benefits of gambling and the belief that they can make a lot of money in a short time.

As parents, it?s important to give a balanced message about the realities of gambling, the potential risks and the consequences.

In New York state, approximately 140,000 adolescents have experienced problems due to their gambling. An additional 10 percent are at risk for problem gambling.

Unlike other problem behaviors, gambling is the ?silent addiction? with no physical signs to detect whether your child either has or is at risk for developing a gambling problem. One in five compulsive gamblers have attempted suicide.

We know teens are at greater risk than the general population for developing a gambling problem due to their vulnerability to a variety of social issues and stressors.

Consider the following warning signs and see whether you recognize any of these behaviors in your teen:

Do they experience mood swings based on winnings and losses?

Do they neglect other responsibilities in order to concentrate on gambling?

Do they show impatience with loved ones because they are interrupting their gambling?

Are they willing to eat less or go without food so that they can gamble?

Do they gamble with money intended for necessary expenses?

Do they fantasize about big winnings and believe that they will win back all of their losses?

If the answer is ?yes? to four or more of the above risks, problem gambling may be affecting your teen and your family. Other important risk factors that affect our youths include favorable attitudes toward gambling by parents and other significant adults, having friends that gamble, having a family history of gambling, starting to gambling at an early age.

The increasing availability of gambling venues as well as community attitudes that both minimize the risks of gambling and are favorable to gambling negatively affect our youth.

To learn more or to schedule a parent presentation for your school or community group, call National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence-Rochester Area at (585) 719-3480 or (585) 719-3485 or go to ncadd-ra.org.

Judges have delayed the sentencing dates for the four people who pleaded guilty in Alabamas gambling corruption investigation and agreed to help prosecutors.

Casino developer Ronnie Gilley, his lobbyists, Jarrod Massey and Jennifer Pouncy, and former state Rep. Terry Spicer were scheduled for sentencing in April and May. But federal prosecutors said their cooperation was needed beyond those dates and they sought a delay.

US District Judge Myon Thompson issued an order Friday setting the sentencing of Gilley, Massey and Spicer for July 16. US District Judge Keith Watkins scheduled Pouncys sentencing for Aug. 29.

A federal court jury in Montgomery acquitted six defendants in the case March 7, including casino owner Milton McGregor and three present and former state senators. There are currently no defendants awaiting trial.

– The Associated Press

Executives of Caesars Entertainment, the leading bidder for a slots parlor in Baltimore, gave lawmakers explicit assurances Friday that their company will not abandon the city for Prince Georges County if the General Assembly approves a casino there.

But a rival casino company described the Caesars position as nonsensical.

The exchange came after Baltimore lawmakers fired questions at Caesars executives during a city delegation meeting in Annapolis, with some expressing doubt about the companys motives for supporting an expansion of gambling in Maryland.

New York state is one step closer in a years-long process that could bring non-Native casino gaming to seven locations statewide.

Only one member of the north countrys legislative delegation, Assemblyman Kenneth D. Blankenbush, R-Black River, voted against the constitutional amendment in the early morning Thursday. The measure must pass the Legislature again in 2013, and then must be approved by a public referendum.

Even those who supported the measure were quick to add caveats about the potential pitfalls, which include gambling addictions and other community concerns.

Theres a tremendous opportunity to create jobs and bring revenue into the state through tourism, said state Sen. Patricia A. Ritchie, R-Heuvelton. At the same time, there are concerns.

Mrs. Ritchie based her position, in part, on a survey that she posted to her website. A majority of respondents not only support an expansion of casino gambling, they support a casino in Alexandria Bay.

Though a developer is trying to secure the right to build a gaming facility in the village, there appears to be little support in Albany for the move, according to sources with knowledge of the gaming industry.

Assemblywoman Addie J. Russell, D-Theresa, supported the constitutional amendment because of the fruit the negotiations bore: The state will open only seven casinos. There are seven so-called racinos, with video gambling machines but no live tables, in the state.

It looks like its lining up along the lines that we might just convert existing racinos to full-fledged casinos, Mrs. Russell said.

Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo rebutted the suggestion that racinos would be converted into casinos at a news conference in Albany on Thursday.

State Sen. Joseph A. Griffo, R-Rome, voted to approve the measure despite what he described as a lack of specificity.

Mr. Griffo noted that a second vote in the Legislature would allow time to flesh out some of the details for example, where the casinos would be located. He added it would be a good idea to avoid saturation of the gaming market.

I agree that gaming is here, and that were not going to make it go away by saying were not going to deal with it, Mr. Griffo said. It already exists.

Mr. Blankenbush told the Times in December that he would support letting a constitutional amendment to allow casino gambling go to public referendum, which requires two yes votes in the Legislature.

But he ended up voting no on the bills Thursday morning.

He said the way the constitutional amendment was written was too vague; it didnt specify where the casinos would be located, it didnt give local residents a say in the placement of those casinos and it didnt specify where the casino revenue would go. Lottery revenue, for example, goes toward education.

Mr. Blankenbush rejected the suggestion that redistricting might have affected his decision. Turning Stone, a Native casino that could stand to lose if non-Native casino gambling were allowed in the state, is in the new district Mr. Blankenbush would run for in November.

No, he said simply, and wouldnt elaborate.

He didnt dismiss the possibility of voting yes on the amendment when it came up in 2013.

Maybe next year, when that bill comes out and its more specific, maybe Ill be happier with that bill, Mr. Blankenbush said. I just thought it was loosely written.

Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich speaks after receiving an endorsement from national Hispanic leaders at the Doral Golf Resort and Spa in Miami on Friday.

By Bill Boyarsky

With financial and political interests ranging from Las Vegas to Israel to China, Sheldon Adelson, who is bankrolling the super PAC supporting Newt Gingrich, is a powerful illustration of the dangers of unlimited campaign contributions.

Casino magnate Adelson donated $5 million to the super PAC Winning Our Future, which helped Gingrich defeat Mitt Romney in the South Carolina Republican presidential primary. Then Adelson’s wife, Miriam, gave the pro-Gingrich PAC $5 million more for the Florida primary. These gifts provide sweet revenge for Gingrich, beaten in Iowa and New Hampshire with the help of ad campaigns funded by the pro-Romney super PAC, which is now operating in Florida.

Such unlimited contributions are permitted by 2010 federal court decisions. In Citizens United, the US Supreme Court ruled that corporations and unions could give unlimited amounts to political action committees supposedly independent of candidates. Following up on that, a federal appeals court in the SpeechNow case extended the privilege to individuals. Because of their ability to sweep up huge amounts so quickly, these political action committees have well earned the name super PAC.

Worth $22 billion, according to Forbes, Adelson owns casinos in Las Vegas and the Chinese gambling haven of Macau. He also operates in Singapore. Miriam Adelson is a physician, specializing in substance abuse rehabilitation.

Many of Adelson’s activities are influenced by federal government policy.