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In The Hoop
THURSDAY, JULY 11, 2002

Welcome to In The Hoop, Indianz.Com's occasional column about assorted Indian issues.

You Might Be a Corporate Evildoer...
What do you do when your stock is in the dumps, your tribal clients are facing $20,000 in daily fines and your former accountant is in legal trouble?

If you answered, "Hire Redneck Comedian Jeff Foxworthy," then you just might be an executive for Multimedia Games Inc of Texas.

With alleged savior Liz Homer gone from the National Indian Gaming Commission and regulations affecting the definition of casino games being held back, there's might not be much else Multimedia (NASDAQ: MGAM) can do but try and ride out the storm. "Mr. Foxworthy's enduring popularity will add a fun and familiar dimension to our exciting electronic bingo games," the company said in a press release yesterday.

Get ready for a barrage of bad jokes.

But This Isn't One of Them
Alleged anti-Indian regulator Montie R. Deer is going to stick around the Bush administration well into 2003, a source close to the NIGC chairman relayed to In The Hoop recently.

That makes the Creek tribal member and former Department of Justice prosecutor one of the longest political holdovers from the Clinton administration. Well, next to Special Trustee Tom Slonaker whose office, advisory board and standing with Bush officials and a certain House subcommittee are on the skids.

What About Trustee Responsibility?
President Bush got major press coverage for his get tough stance on corporate misdeeds and cooked books, even if half of his suggestions are already in force and the others are weaker than what many hoped for.

But what about mishandling and accounting failures over at the Department of Interior? Well don't count on Secretary Gale Norton -- or her deputy J. Steven Griles, whose broken record rhetoric about "priority" of trust reform we've all heard too many times now -- to jump at calling for herself and other officials to be hauled off to jail like Bush suggested.

And don't expect Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill, whom U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth said was still in breach of trust to more than 500,000 American Indians, to seek independent accountability of his obligations to Indian Country. At a luncheon yesterday, though, he heaped plenty of criticism at corporate criminals.

"In their greed and their gluttony, these crooks sacrificed the retirement years of teachers, truck drivers, nurses and farmers to enrich themselves," he said, The Washington Post reported.

We guess Indians don't count when it comes to responsibility.

In Your Hoop
Should Auntie Gale be sent to jail? Email In the Hoop and let us know.