For people with evil in their hearts, the Las Vegas Strip represents a target-rich environment. Most vulnerable are the pedestrians who clog the 
sidewalks, prey for all manner of harm. Last weekend, it took the form of a rampaging automobile with Lakeisha Holloway at the wheel. Ramming her vehicle into the crowds from Planet Hollywood to Bally’s Las Vegas, Holloway killed one woman and injured 35 more people. Holloway had been lurking in Vegas for several days with her small daughter in tow, living in her car in casino garages, which ought to be a loud wake-up call to casino security throughout Sin City. How was this missed?
“She didn’t appear to be distressed due to her actions,” said Sheriff Joe Lombardo of Holloway, who got as far as Tuscany Suites & Casino on a flat tire before being arrested, having already confessed her crime to a Tuscany parking attendant. (Had that tire not gone flat, God only knows whether Holloway might have gotten away with her mass assault.) “I anticipate a great number of charges to be filed,” said Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson. The litany of victims included tourists from Canada to Mexico, whose vacations took a twist for the macabre. “It’s the wrong time to have this happen,” said one bystander. It always is. Let’s hope Holloway’s malefic actions don’t give ideas to other people.
Sunday was curtain time for $200 million Desert Diamond Casino, the placeholder facility for the Tohono O’odham Nation until it can get its permanent casino up and running. The Class II facility, which will open with 1,089 electronic-bingo machines will eventually be converted to back of house space for the permanent casino. But by getting something opened, the tribe puts the state in the ugly position of trying to shut down a fait accompli. Due to the absence of a compact, the Tohono O’odham can’t serve liquor, let alone provide Class III games, let alone poker.
“I don’t know if I should say this or not — we shopped our competitors and saw where we had opportunities to be better. I spent a lot of time in every 
one of them and saw the good things that they do and saw the things where there were opportunities for us to maybe do a little better, to be innovative,” says slots boss Don Ayers. Gila River Gov. Stephen Roe Lewis claimed that the opening of Desert Diamond would galvanize opposition to the Tohono O’odham across Arizona, wailing, “Sadly, the Nation has built its casino on a foundation of broken promises and fraud.”
Not so much, according to the vox populi. A Moore Information poll showed 58% of Arizona voters supporting the casino and only 22% against it. This poor showing by Desert Diamond’s opponents prompted Arizona Republic columnist E.J. Montini to write, “It’s not the tribes that have broken faith, 
it’s your own elected officials. The ones you sent to Washington, D.C. and to the State Capitol.” Indeed, Rep. Trent Franks‘ reprehensible “Keep the Promise Act” died in the House of Representatives a month ago, lacking the two-thirds vote it needed to move forward. Franks exposed himself as a tool of anti-gambling forces when he fulminated, “They try to say what a tremendous economic boon this is going to be, but the nature of this type of business is to redistribute revenue rather than to actually create goods and services that bolster the economy long-term.” Yeah, damn those entrepreneurial Native Americans, right Trent?
Even with the entire Arizona congressional delegation and the administration of Gov. Doug Ducey arrayed against them, the Tohono O’odham have prevailed against The Man. More power to them.
* The Westin Lake Las Vegas has changed hands again and for a pittance — it cost only $25 million to obtain it out of foreclosure. Although locals avoid Lake Las Vegas like the plague, one person who can’t go there enough is President Barack Obama (D). Future historians will record that the Westin was a favorite presidential hangout during the Obama administration.
