LocalLocal newsnews at your at your ngertips everyevery weekweek fingertips $1.00 JustJust $1!.00!
Greyounds sports Greyounds sports section teaser section teaser Sports,Sports, Page XPage X
at the newsstand at the newsstand
$1 at$1the at newsstand the newsstand
TheHealdsburg HealdsburgTribune Tribune The Enterprise & Scimitar Enterprise & Scimitar
Visit for daily updates on local news views www.healdsburgtribune.com for daily updates on local news andand views Our 160th year,Visit Number 3 www.healdsburgtribune.com Healdsburg, California
Our 155th year, Number 00© ur 155th year, Number 00©
SURPRISE IMMIGRATION RAID IN KERN COUNTY FORESHADOWS WHAT AWAITS
Healdsburg, California Healdsburg, California
January 16, 2025 Date, Date, 20202020
Image courtesy Koi Nation & Dale Partners Architects
FARMWORKERS DETAINED, BUSINESSES FEAR ECONOMIC CATASTROPHE By Sergio Olmos
Acres of orange groves sat unpicked in Kern County this week as word of Border Patrol raids circulated through Messenger chats and images of federal agents detaining laborers spread on local Facebook groups. The Border Patrol conducted unannounced raids throughout Bakersfield on Tuesday, Jan. 7, descending on businesses where day laborers and field workers gather. Agents in unmarked SUVs rounded up people in vans outside a Home Depot and gas station that serves a breakfast popular with field workers. This appears to be the first large-scale Border Patrol raid in California since the election of Donald Trump, coming just a day after Congress certified the election on Jan. 6, in the final days of Joe Biden’s presidency. The panic and confusion, for both immigrants and local businesses that rely on their labor, foreshadow what awaits communities across California if Trump follows through on his promise to conduct mass deportations. “It was profiling; it was purely field workers,” said Sara Fuentes, store manager of the local gas station. Fuentes said that at 9am, when the store typically gets a rush of workers on their way to pick oranges, two men in civilian clothes and unmarked Suburbans started detaining people outside the store. “They didn’t stop people with FedEx uniforms, they ➝ Farmworkers, 2
GAMING CHIC The proposed Shiloh Resort & Casino east of Windsor.
Feds Greenlight Windsor Casino DECISION PITS ‘INDIAN AGAINST INDIAN,’ SAYS LOCAL TRIBAL LEADER By Simone Wilson
One of the Biden administration’s final moves of its 2021-25 term will likely be felt in Northern Sonoma County for years to come. On Monday, just one week before the Jan. 20 inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump, the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs approved a bold request from the Koi Nation, a small but mighty Southeastern Pomo tribe from Lake County. Koi leaders asked that around 70 acres of vineyard land they own along the southeastern edge of Windsor be placed in “federal trust”—and the Bureau obliged. This means the Koi are allowed to move forward with their plan to build a giant new Wine Country casino on the plot. Darin Beltran,
chairman of Koi Nation, called this “a historic moment of opportunity and justice” for his tribe, which has for decades sought to secure a chunk of its own federally protected casino land. He added in a statement: “The Koi Nation has been afforded for the first time in over a century a real opportunity to build a sovereign land base that will provide economic development, self-governance, and a bright future for current and future generations of our tribal citizens.” The Koi’s plans call for a $600 million complex to be known as the Shiloh Resort & Casino to be built at the intersection of Shiloh Road and Old Redwood Highway—filled with 2,500-plus slot machines; a five-story, 400-room hotel; six restaurants and bars; a large event center and more. And much to the chagrin of Windsor residents who live nearby, this new gaming campus would butt up against the town’s quiet Shiloh neighborhood
and Esposti Park, a popular family hub. Windsor Town Manager Jon Davis said Tuesday that while he is supportive of any Indigenous people’s efforts to become sovereign and support themselves, the placement of this particular casino feels inappropriate. “We’ve never seen one approved this close to a neighborhood community—directly adjacent,” he said. “It came as a surprise.”
‘A Black Box’
Sonoma County Supervisor James Gore, whose jurisdiction includes the proposed site of Shiloh Resort & Casino (or used to, until it became federal Indian land this week), was less surprised by Monday’s decision. He’s seen it happen before, he said, and predicts it will happen again. “The Bureau of Indian Affairs process is a black box,” Gore said. “You never know if it’s based on process or politics.” (On Wednesday, Gore announced his intention to run for the state senate seat being vacated by
END OF THE WINE BOOM? NEW HEALTH ADVISORY SPURS SOBER-CURIOSITY By Daedalus Howell
Photo by Matej Bizjak/Pexels
CELEBRATION? Champagne, traditionally a beverage of happiness, may soon carry warning labels about the dangers of drinking alcohol.
In 2010, then-California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed into law AB1798, which mandated conjunctive labeling of Sonoma County-made wines to include both their American Viticultural Area (AVA) designation and “Sonoma County” on their labels. It was proudly seen as a boon for the local wine industry. Now, that same label may soon include a surgeon general’s warning that wine causes cancer. Earlier this month, U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy issued a new
Mike McGuire at the end of his current term.) In the nearly two-anda-half years since the Koi first unveiled their Windsor casino concept, government officials at the town, county and even state levels have made long lists of all the things they’re worried about. Chief among them: heavy strain on the water supply, increased traffic on local roadways, clogged wildfire evacuation routes, and the potential security and crime issues that might arise from a gambling emporium with millions of visitors per year. Windsor neighbors, too, submitted hundreds of comments and letters during an environmental review process held by the Bureau of Indian Affairs last year, according to Gore. But now that the feds gave their blessing, the Koi have free reign to take or leave the community input. Gore said he and other local officials will try to hammer out terms with the Koi that best serve the surrounding area. However, he predicts that “neighborhood people
advisory highlighting the connection between alcohol consumption and a higher risk of cancer. Alcohol use ranks as the third leading preventable cause of cancer in the United States, following tobacco use and obesity, and is linked to an increased risk for at least seven different types of cancer. To wit, as one of his final acts under the outgoing Biden administration, Murthy has called for cancer warnings to be added to alcoholic beverages in a manner akin to cigarette packaging. For imbibers who may be reevaluating their rates of consumption, it’s enough to make the sober-curious sober-furious. Thanks to the popularity of the so-called French Paradox—the theory that wine consumption may contribute to lower rates of coronary heart disease in France despite a diet high in saturated fat and cholesterol—and resveratrol,
will come to us and ask us to negotiate with authority that we don’t have.” The supervisor added: “We’re going to have to honor the decision of the federal government—there’s no other way.”
‘Preposterous’
Perhaps most outraged of all are the five Native American tribes that claim Sonoma County as their original homeland, most of them Southern Pomo: the coastal Kashia Band, the Cloverdale Rancheria, the Lytton Rancheria, the Graton Rancheria and the Dry Creek Rancheria Band of Pomo Indians. These tribes wield significant financial and political power around here. And the latter two run the county’s existing tribal casinos, both huge moneymakers: the Graton Resort & Casino to the south in Rohnert Park, and River Rock Casino to the north in Geyserville. Greg Sarris, head of the Graton Rancheria band, has ➝ Windsor Casino, 4
a naturally occurring compound in red wine once believed to have health benefits, many bought into the notion that, in moderation, drinking wine could be a healthy lifestyle choice. This, at best, is a medical misapprehension and, at worst, marketing. Younger generations may already have intuited this possibility. Recent years have seen a generational trend away from alcohol in general and wine in particular. This past September, the Guardian ran a story headlined, “Stuffy, unhealthy or ‘just mid’—are young people over wine?” “The surgeon general’s announcement underscores a growing awareness that alcohol consumption can have negative health impacts,” said Sean Goldsmith, CEO and co-founder of Atlanta-based The Zero Proof, a maker of ➝ New Health Advisory, 4