By Miriam Raftery

June 14, 2017 (Alpine) – Viejas Casino and Resort has lined up chart-toppers from every genre, past and present for its summer-long open air concerts in the park.  The season opens with country music superstar sensation Martina McBride on July 3^rd.

By Miriam Raftery

June 14, 2017 (San Diego) -- A Native American religious group is heading to court over a dispute with a landlord in El Cajon over sale of marijuana for use in hallucinogenic sacraments.

East County News Service

May 18, 2017 (San Diego) - Sycuan Casino is pleased to announce this year’s Summer of Sycuan concert series. Kicking off the summer series is world-famous drummer Sheila E. performing at Sycuan on Friday, June 9. Multi-platinum music group Bell Biv DeVoe will follow with three shows on consecutive nights, June 26, 27 and 28.

Broken bones and rocks yield evidence that pushes back the record of early humans in North America by more than 100,000 years

Source: Natural History Museum

Photo:  Richard Cerutti, retired PaleoServices Field Paleontologist (left) and Dr. Tom Demere, Curator of Paleontology, San Diego Natural History Museum (right), with mastodon tusk

April 27, 2017 (San Diego) -- Discovery of a 130,000-year-old mastodon skeleton in San Diego with bones altered by early humans dramatically revises the timeline for when humans first reached North America, according to a paper to be published in the April 27 issue of the prestigious science journal Nature.  The Cerutti Mastodon site is the oldest well-documented site with evidence of human presence in the Americas—and analysis reveals some startling findings.

By Miriam Raftery

March 31, 2017 (El Cajon) –“This is truly our day. We’re here to celebrate,” Sycuan Tribal Chairman Cody Martinez told a packed house during a groundbreaking on the Sycuan reservation for the tribe’s casino expansion.

The ambitious project will include a 12-story hotel resort with 300 rooms,  adult pool with swim-up bar, kids pool,  gardens including a 420-foot-long “lazy river,” new restaurants , spa,  60,000 in additional gaming space, and a spacious 11,401 square foot ballroom that can double as concert hall seating 1,200 or banquet room  with capacity for 700. The $226 million, 500,000 square foot project is slated to open in 2019.

East County News Service

March 21, 2017 (Alpine) -- Chairman Robert Welch of Viejas Band of The Kumeyaay Indians today announced the hiring of Thomas McCartney in the role of President and General Manager of Viejas Casino and Resort. The veteran casino and gaming executive will begin his new position November 1, 2016.

East County News Service

March 18, 2017 (Jamul) -- Leading up to what could be a busy fire season in San Diego County, the Jamul Indian Village will officially hand over the keys and deliver a new $1 million ladder truck and $500,000 pumper truck to the San Diego County Fire Authority on Tuesday.

East County News Service

March 9, 2017 (Alpine) -- Forbes Travel Guide has  unveiled its annual Star Rating list, naming Viejas Casino & Resort in Alpine as a new Forbes Travel Guide Four-Star hotel. Viejas Casino & Resort will be showcased with all of the Star Rating recipients on ForbesTravelGuide.com. Read the Forbes review here:  http://www.forbestravelguide.com/san-diego-california/hotels/viejas-casino-resort.

By Miriam Raftery

Photo: McCain Valley, before construction

February 16, 2017 (McCain Valley) – The Department of the Interior temporarily shut down construction of the Tule Wind Energy project in McCain Valley  on January20th due to six confirmed violations of the right-of-way grant conditions, including “three incidents of ground disturbing work without a cultural monitor present and three incidents of clearing beyond the disturbance limits at four different locations,”  according to the notice of temporary suspension issued January 20^th.

East County News Service

January 24, 2017 (San Diego) – Tonight, over 100 San Diegans including members of the Kumeyaay Nation and local climate activists, will rally outside the Federal Building (880 Front St.) to oppose President Donald Trump's decision to move ahead with the Keystone and Dakota Access Pipeline. This is one of several actions across the country.

East County News Service

January 4, 2017 (El Cajon) - The Native American Student Alliance at Cuyamaca College will host its 3rd Annual Powwow on Saturday, February 4^th from  10:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. in front of the Communication Arts complex (Building B).

By Brian Trautman

December 8, 2016 (Cannonball, North Dakota) -- Over the past eight months, the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe of North Dakota have been joined by more than 200 allied tribes and tens of thousands of non-Native activists for a nonviolent resistance campaign against Energy Transfer Partners’ (ETP) $3.8 billion Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL). The pipeline, which has been projected to transport at least 470,000 barrels of oil per day over 1,100 miles from the Bakken oil field to an existing hub in Illinois for delivery to refineries on the Gulf Coast, was rerouted in 2014 from north of Bismarck to the south, taking it through unceded treaty lands of the Sioux. Pipeline construction over this altered route desecrated sacred ancestral sites, and, until last Sunday, was slated to cross the Missouri River at the Lake Oahe reservoir, which would have threatened the safety of the drinking water of the Standing Rock Sioux and millions of people downstream.

By Miriam Raftery

Newsflasher photo courtesy Bobby Wallace

December 4, 2016 (Cannonball, North Dakota) — In a victory for the Standing Rock Sioux tribe and thousands of people who have converged in Cannonball, North Dakota to opposed the Dakota Access oil pipeline, the federal government has announced that it will not grant an easement to allow completion of the pipeline underneath Lake Oahe, a reservoir of the Missouri River.

By Miriam Raftery

“Bring body armor, gas masks, earplugs (we may be facing a sound cannon) but no drugs, alcohol or weapons…if we don’t stop it, who will?”—Wesley Clark Jr., a veteran and son of retired four-star U.S. Army General Wesley Clark Sr., former Supreme Allied Commander in Europe

November 23, 2016 (Cannonball, North Dakota) – Nearly 1,000 U.S. military veterans have signed to join  Veterans for Standing Rock December 4-7 to support Native American tribes standing up to protect clean water and halt the Dakota Access oil pipeline that they fear will burst and contaminate the Missouri River.  The pipeline also desecrates sacred Standing Rock Sioux sites.

The water protector activists have faced brutality at the hands of a militarized police force in recent days, including spraying a water cannon in below-freezing temperatures.  Three hundred people have been injured and 26 hospitalized, including a 21-year-old girl hit by a concussion grenade whose bone was shattered and now faces possible amputation of her arm.

East County News Service

November 9, 2016 (Jamul) --  This Friday, November 11th on Veteran’s Day Hollywood Casino Jamul is kicking off a military appreciation program that will honor veterans 52 weeks out of the year.  Each week on Thank You Thursdays all who served our great country will receive a 20% discount on their meal in any of the eight restaurants at the Hollywood Casino Jamul property as well as 15% off at the gift shop.