Construction at two Seneca Gaming Corp. projects in New York State has ground to a halt. The stoppage is blamed on "challenging economic and capital market conditions, greater demands on the company's available cash and increased competition and construction costs.''

Sound familiar? What happens at Echelon not only doesn't stay there, it may be coming to a casino market near you sometime soon. In the Senecas' case, the National Indian Gaming Commission is threatening to cut off their part of the flow of casino cash altogether. But it still adds another casualty to the list of scrapped, frozen, delayed, bankrupt or scaled-back casino projects around the country.

Newest casualty: Seneca Allegany Casino

It's been a longstanding fundamental of casino development that it was self-sustaining: the more supply, the greater the demand. Wall Street analysts never thought there was anything wrong with Las Vegas that wouldn't cured by "the next round of megaresort openings." (If they had their druthers, we'd be opening a new one every week.) Hence the long queue of states wagering greater and greater amounts of their fiscal health on casino taxes.

As the state of Nevada is learning the hard way, the elasticity of casino-revenue growth is finite -- and tightening. Since that's the lone arrow in the Silver State's financial quiver, we're going to feel the pain worse than other states, but other legislatures and governors are going to wake up the fact -- if they haven't done so already -- that the casino industry isn't just some magical pump from which an infinite and ever-larger gusher of money doth spout.

Speaking of matters tribal, it'll be a poke in the eye with a sharp stick to Native Americans if Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty is the GOP veep pick. During his tenure -- I was going to follow that with "in the governor's mansion," but Pawlenty refuses to live there, actually -- he's been a divisive figure on the tribal scene, pitting Indians against other Minnesotans and against each other. It would be difficult to find a White House more inimical to tribal interests than the current one, but Pawlenty's ascendancy hardly augurs well for the future.

Media event done right. With much grumbling and many misgivings, I tagged along to media night at BLT Burger (and thus finally got to meet lovely MGM Mirage PR stalwart Sandy Zanella, after many years of e-communication). Surprise, surprise: The event wasn't overbooked, the music wasn't too loud, there was plenty of space to sit down, and the food offerings were actually representative of the restaurant's menu. (I'm looking at you, Brand.)

Admittely, the fried pickles didn't come around nearly often enough ... well, only once, actually. But there were generous portions of everything else, and the service was both frequent and solicitous (something that evidently has not always been the case). I'm still unsure what to make of BLT's upscaled versions of diner favorites -- falafel burgers, anyone? -- but it put its best Buffalo wing forward.

"Self righteousness is its own reward." That's what my Dad always told me and it's certainly true of this wretched documentary. By the way, the unidentified woman in the photo is Darlene Jesperson, the bartender that Harrah's Entertainment fired because she wouldn't wear makeup (a requirement, it goes without saying, that was imposed only on female employees). Harrah's beat the rap, freeing it and the rest of the industry to carry on with a plantation mentality that should have been swept out decades ago.