News Articles

Sometimes, it seems the two cities are a thousand miles apart.

In reality, it's little more than 20 miles from downtown Buffalo to downtown Niagara Falls.

Apparently, the elected officials down south -- at least in terms of Western New York -- haven't taken a drive around the Cataract City in a while.

Erie County Executive Joel Giambra, desperate to latch on to any issue that doesn't stem directly from his own mismanagement, is pushing the proposal of a Las Vegas company, Pinnacle, to build a casino complex on Buffalo's long-neglected waterfront. It would be the third and final casino operated by the Seneca Nation in Western New York as part of the 2002 compact with New York State.

"We have desperately needed something to spark outer harbor development and I think this is exactly what we've been waiting for," Giambra told the Buffalo News.

The Seneca Niagara Casino, which opened in the former Niagara Falls Convention and Civic Center on Dec. 31, 2002, has certainly sparked development in Niagara Falls.

Oh, sorry. I meant to say, in the portion of Niagara Falls that isn't Niagara Falls anymore. Since Mr. Giambra and whoever else might be supporting the idea of a Buffalo casino apparently hasn't visited in a while, Citycide graciously provides a quick tour.

The hotel under construction behind the casino marks the biggest single development in Niagara Falls since Urban Renewal -- maybe ever. Unfortunately for the local tax base, the hundreds of rooms inside will never produce a penny of sales or bed tax, barring a drastic change in the compact's terms. Nor will the City of Niagara Falls, State of New York or any other government entity that tries to chisel itself a taste get anything out of all that Seneca development, other than the relatively paltry share of slot-machine revenues negotiated by Gov. George Pataki during an election year.

Things are quite different once you leave Seneca property. The biggest non-casino development to date is Conference Center Niagara Falls. You might remember it as Falls Street Faire, a long-vacant edifice refurbished into a high-tech meeting center by New York State's development agency, USA Niagara. Then there's the ongoing renovation of Third Street, also funded by USA Niagara and some of the city's casino money. Hopefully, the new streetscape will give a boost to existing businesses and attract some new ones to a long-dormant area.

There are a few old buildings with new owners trying to inject life into them.

And that's pretty much it.

If the positive spinoff from the arrival of Seneca Niagara hasn't been all that was promised, it certainly beats the complete inertia that existed before it opened. As far as new, privately financed construction in downtown Niagara Falls, though -- it doesn't exist.

Furthermore, none of the projects listed above hinges on the casino alone. Both the state and private developers are also counting on that little wonder of the world up the street from Seneca Niagara to help bring bodies through their doors.

Try venturing a few blocks from the casino and see its impact for yourself -- boarded-up buildings, vacant lots, shamefully maintained streets and all-but-empty restaurants and bars, their onetime regulars eagerly spending their money in a place they can gamble and smoke simultaneously.

Buffalo has much to recommend it to visitors -- the zoo, the Philharmonic, the Albright-Knox, terrific architecture and fine restaurants. What it doesn't have is Niagara Falls, no matter how hard a handful of diehards try to rename the region "Buffalo-Niagara."

And if there's one thing this region already has enough of, it's casinos.

Pinnacle officials claim the area has an untapped demand for more places for people to lose money, but then again, they're trying to get themselves hired to run that additional gambling den. The only other people who seem willing to believe that we need one more are elected officials like Giambra who are desperate to see something, anything, get accomplished on their watch.

Which brings us to Buffalo Mayor Tony Masiello, who still pushes to build a Seneca casino downtown, where good friends like Carl Paladino own land. And unlike the United Office Building, which Paladino "bought" for $1 in 2002, his company actually holds title on those Buffalo properties.

Unlike Niagara Falls, where most everybody was willing to see if a casino might make something happen, few in Buffalo without a self-interest seem much interested in filling that supposed demand for another one.

Buffalo's waterfront has been the subject of any number of misguided ideas during the half-century it has been mysteriously owned by the Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority, from a domed theme park to a taxpayer-funded mini-city.

Thanks, Joel, for giving us one more.

Documents made available to the Niagara Falls Reporter last week show that Third Street properties owned by Smokin' Joe Anderson escaped the harsh reassessments levied against other properties in the city's newly crowned "entertainment district."

Additionally, the cancellation of this year's Hyde Park Community Faire and the likelihood that the Niagara Wine, Food and Music Festival will not take place all but ensure that the money for those events will be funneled into a strictly for-profit Maid of the Mist Pageant that will be held on property Anderson controls.

"I give up," said Frank Smith, owner of Third Street Liquors and organizer of the festival there. "I've got a passion for this city. Nobody's been a bigger cheerleader for Niagara Falls than me. But you can't do business with City Hall anymore."

Records show that the assessment was raised on the 435 Third St. building that houses Smith's store from $88,900 to $200,000 as of Feb. 28. In stark contrast, the former Niagara Mohawk building at 500 Third St. had its assessment cut from $250,800 to $240,000. That building is owned by Anderson.

The Club Malibu, also owned by Anderson, is best known for the number of arrests it has generated for underage drinking. Located at 512 Third St., it sustained an assessment increase from $111,400 to $196,000. But that hike was largely offset by a pair of grants totaling $90,000 that came from the city and the state's USA Niagara Development Corp. fund, records show.

In any event, the increase was paltry compared to that slapped on Steve Fournier's Cafe Etc., located at 466 Third St., where the assessed value of the property jumped from $95,000 to a whopping $240,000.

Anderson's biggest tax bonanza was the former Wintergarden, now known as Smokin' Joe's Family Fun Center. Located at 304 Rainbow Boulevard North, the assessed value of the property dropped from $1,605,000 to $1 million as if by magic.

In his lucrative dealings with the administration of Mayor Vince Anello, Anderson is represented by attorney Paul Grenga, a lifelong friend of City Administrator Daniel Bristol.

Grenga is also associated with Rick Winter, a well-known Republican consultant who is currently lobbying to have the city's Off-Track Betting parlor moved into one of Anderson's Third Street buildings.

Grenga and Winter previously surfaced as bit players in the controversial Hyde Park Golf Course giveaway and the highly questionable bidding process surrounding the city's new public safety complex.

The golf course deal resulted in months of expensive litigation against the city, which may have been for naught in light of last week's collapse of the domed indoor driving range under heavy snow. In the case of the public safety complex, more than one of the unsuccessful bidders have told the Reporter they were directed to the offices of Grenga and his law partner Brian Meilleur by the city's acting economic development director, Donald Zuchelli, for help in securing the lucrative contract.

Additionally, Anderson employs Michael Gawel, a disbarred attorney and disgraced former city councilman with a lengthy criminal record that includes a stretch in federal prison for money laundering. Most recently, Gawel was arrested in December of last year on domestic violence charges.

Gawel's involvement in the 2003 Niagara Wine, Food and Music Festival led to an investigation by Niagara County District Attorney Matt Murphy's office, a probe later dropped for lack of evidence.

But despite his problems with law enforcement, Gawel will play a leading role in this year's upcoming Friday at the Falls and East Mall Walkway events. Last year, the city signed a 30-year lease agreement with Anderson for the East Mall, a pedestrian thoroughfare that runs from Third Street to Anderson's Family Fun Center.

While the city had invested millions over the years in brick paving, landscaping, ornamental wrought-iron benches and lighting fixtures on the mall, Anderson was able to pick it up a year ago under a bargain-basement lease agreement calling for initial payments of just $7,500 a year.

Gawel will oversee some 30 events on the mall between June and October, including the city-subsidized Maid of the Mist Pageant and the Taste of Niagara Food and Wine Festival.

At least $35,000 in city tax money set aside for the Community Faire will instead be diverted to Anderson and his crew for the Maid of the Mist event. Ironically, when Anello signed the sweetheart deal with Anderson for the East Mall last March, he said he did it in order to save tax dollars.

Asked whether the City Council had been informed of the diversion, Councilman Babe Rotella said no.

"We've heard nothing about it, which is pretty much par for the course," he told the Reporter.

In addition to the taxpayer subsidy and the favorable lease agreement from the city, Anderson stands to make a killing on the East Mall this summer. He is currently soliciting sponsors for the various events at rates ranging from $500 to $20,000. In contrast, the Reporter was able to sponsor the 2003 Niagara Wine, Food and Music Festival in exchange for a couple of free ads.

In a March 14 letter sent out to local businesses, Gawel shills shamelessly for the former city property Anello let go for a pittance.

"In 2004, there were over 600,000 people walking down this Walkway, between the Niagara Casino (sic), which had in itself over 3 million visitors, and the natural wonder of the Falls, which drew 10 million visitors last year," he wrote. "We have the exclusive opportunity with this built-in crowd while we give them something to do as they stroll along the Walkway."

Anderson is a businessman. It would be stupid of him not to take advantage of Grenga's relationships with Bristol and the Anello family, Bristol's relationship with Zuchelli or Rick Winter's ties to state government. And stupid he is not.

The tangled web of shady real estate transactions, personal financial dealings and insider handshakes that have resulted in the city's Third World form of government under the Anello administration will be further detailed in upcoming issues of the Reporter.

It's not a pretty picture.

ALBANY -- Gov. George Pataki Friday withdrew a sweeping proposal to settle longstanding Native American land claims in exchange for permission to build casinos in the Catskills because of a recent landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision regarding Indian property and taxation.

In what's known as the Sherrill decision, the court ruled that a tribe could not expand its tax-exempt property holdings by buying up land that has been outside its control for decades.

That means that lands recently acquired by tribes can't be considered as reservation land and, therefore, are not sovereign and off limits to taxes.

That undercut a major provision of the land claim/casino settlement that Pataki had touted since December, which would have given tribes more tax-exempt land.

The fallout was swift. Legislators in land-claim areas recently said they would not support the Pataki proposal as currently drawn. Meanwhile, two key tribes, the Oneidas and Cayugas, indicated they would ask the federal government to place their land holdings in trust -- lands in trust are not subject to taxes or regulation -- as a way of going around state government.

The latest twist was the governor's decision to essentially scrap his proposal. For now.

"In light of the Sherrill decision, it became clear that certain elements ... of the settlement were not going to be approved by local officials or state legislators," said Pataki spokesman Todd Alhart. "The governor remains committed to settlement of these longstanding Indian land claims. Nonetheless, in spite of his good faith efforts to obtain legislative approval, it has become clear that it would no longer be productive to continue to advance the settlement legislation."

At issue is a tentative agreement between Pataki and five Native American tribes, with each getting rights to one casino: the Oneida Tribe of Wisconsin, the St. Regis Mohawks, the Stockbridge-Munsees, the Cayuga Nation of New York, and the Seneca-Cayuga Tribe of Oklahoma. It also would have cleared disputed land titles covering roughly 300,000 acres in Seneca, Cayuga, Madison, Oneida, Franklin and St. Lawrence counties.

Counties in the disputed areas would have received annual payments in the millions of dollars and the state government would have been in line for 20-25 percent of slot-machine revenues at the casinos.

The court decision rattled the terms of the agreement in several ways. Legislators said it reduced the value of the Native American land claims.

It also meant the New York Oneidas' sprawling Turning Stone casino and resort near Utica was on land that was in limbo - some said it could be viewed as operating illegally. In fact, just days ago the Oneidas moved to transfer title of more than 17,000 acres it owns in Madison and Oneida counties to the federal government to be held in trust for the tribe. If the feds agree, the tribe would hold sovereignty over the land.

The Cayugas and the Seneca-Cayugas, whose claim covers about 64,000 acres in Cayuga and Seneca counties, indicated they might make the same request.

Elected officials have criticized the potential move.

"It's a backdoor way to sovereignty," said Sen. Michael Nozzolio, R-Fayette, Seneca County. "I'm calling on our federal officials to reject any end run on the courts."

Nozzolio and other state legislators have called for tribes to pay taxes on newly acquired lands and to pay sales taxes on cigarettes and gasoline sold in reservation stores to non-Indian customers. Also, some Republican senators vowed that, following the Supreme Court decision, the Pataki proposal would never make it to the Senate floor for a vote.

"The settlement proposal had become unworkable," said Sen. Raymond Meier, R-Western, Oneida County.

In contrast, some tribes expressed disappointment at the announcement - while saying the settlement terms were still fair.

"We negotiated our land claim agreement in good faith and we expect that the governor and the State Legislature will stand by it," Bob Chicks, President of the Stockbridge-Munsees, said in a statement.

Only one tribe, the Mohawks, isn't directly affected by the court decision, largely because the Mohawks' lands are governed by a treaty separate from all the others, Alhart said. Therefore, Pataki will submit a settlement proposal that singles out the Mohawks, their land in St. Lawrence and Franklin counties, and a Catskill casino, Alhart said.

The New York Oneidas - separate from the Wisconsin Oneidas - would have received an expanded reservation but no Catskill casino under the agreement. However, they repeatedly called on legislators to reject the package, saying it would reward tribes that left New York long ago.

"The Nation is gratified that the governor has come to the realization that out-of-state tribes make no sense," Oneida spokesman Mark Emery said in a statement.

Local officials say Gov. George Pataki's decision to withdraw a proposed land-claim settlement with five Indian tribes Friday could actually bring the long-standing dispute closer to a final resolution.

"I'm pleased with what he's done in light of the Sherrill decision," Assemblywoman RoAnn Destito, D-Rome, said of Pataki's decision to withdraw his proposal. "I don't think it was a well-thought-out plan. I certainly wasn't going to support it."

Pataki proposed settling the claims by offering casinos in the Catskills to five out-of-state tribes, along with additional reservation land.

Oneida County Executive Joseph Griffo said the end of the land-claim battle may be nearer now than ever before.

The Sherrill decision, the New York Oneidas' recent application to transfer its non-reservation property into a tax-exempt federal land trust and a 2003 state Supreme Court decision that outlawed the Nations' gaming compact with New York state have brought the issue clearly into the public's eye, he said.

"Most of the things that could have happened, have happened by now," Griffo said. "It gives everybody a chance to look and say 'How do we resolve this.'"

Sherrill City Manager David Barker was pleased to hear the case he and his attorneys pushed to the nation's highest court affected Pataki's legislation.

"It will get us back to the negotiating table on a more-equitable basis to settle the land claim," he said.

ALBANY -- The leader of a Catskills gambling company Tuesday blasted Assembly Democrats for "playing '60 Minutes' " and stymieing economic development in a blighted upstate region.

The comments of Empire Resorts Chief Executive Robert Berman came during the second of a series of hearings on Gov. George Pataki's proposed bill to allow up to five Sullivan County casinos in the Catskills.

Deals between five tribes and Pataki's Indian affairs lawyers would settle land claims over some 300,000 acres in six counties in exchange for the Catskills gambling rights.

The hearing at the Legislative Office Building drew more than 300 people, perhaps the biggest turnout of four hearings held separately by the Senate and Assembly statewide. It followed a landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision last week that threw into doubt the legality of the Oneida Indian Nation's Turning Stone Casino.

Berman's outburst followed accusations by an Oneida leader against all the development companies proposing to partner with tribes on casino projects, particularly Empire Resorts, which is teaming with the Cayuga Tribe of New York and the Seneca-Cayuga of Oklahoma.

Under questioning from Assemblyman James Brennan, D-Brooklyn, into financial arrangements and the backgrounds of Empire Resorts investors indicted on tax fraud charges, Berman blew up.

"Do you want to talk about jobs and the economy and saving Sullivan County, or do you want to play '60 Minutes'?" Berman said.

Berman's company owns Monticello Raceway in Sullivan County and has attempted over the past decade to build a casino there with the New York Oneida, the St. Regis Mohawks and, most recently, the Cayuga.

Oneida Council member Keller George, testifying as president of the United South and Eastern Tribes Inc., said his group opposes tribes moving their reservations hundreds of miles to take advantage of lucrative gambling markets.

"In most cases, these efforts are ... funded by shadowy developers who underwrite litigation expenses, lobbyist fees and even the cost of land in exchange for a cut of the profits," he said, adding that many of the casino development teams have people with ties to Pataki.

"The introduction of new tribes in the state will create more problems and controversies for local governments, and it will poison the state's relationship with New York's Iroquois nations," George said.

Bernadette Hill, a Cayuga clan mother, added her tribe would pay Empire Resorts huge sums, and details of the deal were never disclosed to tribal members.

"Tens of millions of dollars are being traded in secret deals among lawyers, casino developers and lobbyists, while traditional ways and government are being severely threatened," Hill said, urging the Assembly to delve more into the casino deals.

Other New York Cayuga and Mohawk leaders differed with George. Lobbyists and developers were outraged at his message.

"It's frankly irresponsible to go through these issues," Berman told the panel of a dozen Assembly members.

Outside the hearing, Richard Fields, a developer working with the Oneidas of Wisconsin, called George a "fraud."

"The Oneidas are so concerned about out-of-state tribes, ... but they're not so concerned about paying taxes within the New York state borders," he said.

Officials with the governments of Madison and Oneida counties said the New York Oneidas should not be allowed to gain up to 35,000 acres of central New York -- a provision in the governor's bill -- because of last week's Supreme Court ruling. The high court ruled that 17,000 acres of land bought by the tribe, including the Turning Stone site in Verona in Oneida County, is taxable and not Indian land.

Madison County Attorney John Campanie and Oneida County Legislator William Croll testified that Pataki's settlement legislation needs to be reworked, given the Supreme Court ruling. Oneida businesses, they said, should pay taxes. Pataki has worked out a less formal solution, under which tribes would raise prices to be less competitive with non-Indian stores. Tribes say state taxes infringe on their sovereignty.

George and an Oneida lawyer said the court decision is still being reviewed.

Also at the hearing, Taxation and Finance Commissioner Andrew Eristoff revealed that the Pataki administration has redrafted proposed regulations that would set up a system for collection of taxes from wholesalers that supply Indian retailers. Eristoff advanced that plan a year ago, but Pataki shelved it. Eristoff emphasized the administration still prefers to negotiate resolutions with each tribe and avoid confrontation.

A faction of traditional Mohawks testified that Iroquois nations are being sold out by federally recognized "puppet" tribal governments. "You are committing treason," said Kahentinetha Horn, who lives on Mohawk territory in Quebec. "This whole scheme is a complete fraud."

Labor groups applauded the plan and several Sullivan County residents turned out to oppose the legislation.

James M. Odato can be reached at 454-5083 or by e-mail at jodato@timesunion.com.

Press Release, University of Buffalo, 6/28/05
Contact: Kathleen Weaver, weaver@ria.buffalo.edu
Phone: 716-887-2585
Fax: 716-887-2252

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Individuals who live within 10 miles of a casino or in a disadvantaged neighborhood are more likely to experience problem gambling, according to new research from the University at Buffalo's Research Institute on Addictions (RIA).

A casino within 10 miles of home has a significant effect on problem gambling and is associated with a 90 percent increase in the odds of being a pathological or problem gambler, said John W. Welte, Ph.D., principal investigator on the study.

The likely reason for the increase, he added, is that the availability of an attractive gambling opportunity can lead to gambling pathology in some people who otherwise would not develop it.

The study, involving a national telephone survey of 2,631 U.S. adults, was reported in a recent issue of Journal of Gambling Studies.

While geographic location nearly doubled the risk, Welte stressed the importance of placing the study results in perspective.

"Individual traits have a stronger relationship to gambling pathology than geographic factors," he added. "For example, in another analysis of this survey that previously was reported, we found that problem drinkers had 23 times the odds of having a gambling problem than individuals who did not have a drinking problem."

According to Welte, "Gambling behavior and problem gambling behaviors are multi-faceted. Social and environmental influences on gambling behavior and pathology are interesting in themselves. They have a special relevance to public policy debates. Because localities can control the location and density of gambling opportunities, such as casinos or lottery outlets, policy makers have some influence over the rates of problem gambling in our society."

Welte said respondents living in disadvantaged neighborhoods reported much higher rates of problem gambling than those who do not live in disadvantaged neighborhoods. Ten percent of those who live in the most disadvantaged neighborhoods are problem gamblers as compared to about one percent of those who live in the least disadvantaged neighborhoods.

"We know that this is not simply an effect of poverty at the individual level," explained Welte, a senior scientist at RIA and a research associate professor in the Department of Social and Preventive Medicine in the UB School of Public Health and Health Professions. "Acceptance of gambling by family and friends, unrealistic expectations from gambling combined with a financial desperation, might be the explanation."

Welte added that it also must be acknowledged that some of the problem gamblers interviewed in the study might have been forced to move to disadvantaged neighborhoods by financial setbacks.

Past-year gambling was more common in states with two or more forms of legal gambling, and the average number of times gambled per year also was higher in those states with more forms of legal gambling. In fact, the odds of gambling for study respondents during the past year increased by 17 percent for every additional form of legal gambling in their state.

For the purposes of this study, levels of gambling behavior were labeled as "any gambling in the past year," "frequent gambling" (defined as gambling 104 or more times in the past year), and "problem gambling" (manifesting problem gambling symptoms such as preoccupation with gambling and needing to gamble with increasing amounts of money to get the same excitement).

The other researchers involved in the study were Grace M. Barnes, Ph.D., senior research scientist with RIA and adjunct associate professor in the Department of Sociology in the UB College of Arts and Sciences; William F. Wieczorek, Ph.D., director of the Center for Health and Social Research at Buffalo State College, and Marie O. Tidwell, Ph.D., project director on the study.

Funding for the study was provided by a $1.2 million grant from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.

The Research Institute on Addictions (RIA) has been a leader in the study of addictions since 1970 and a research center of the University at Buffalo since 1999.

The University at Buffalo is a premier research-intensive public university, the largest and most comprehensive campus in the State University of New York.

A pox on all their houses.

The continuing stalemate over the city's $12 million share of slot-machine revenue from the Seneca Niagara Casino would be laughable on the stage but is tragic in reality. And there's not a single elected official who isn't partially responsible.

State Sen. George Maziarz insists he won't allow the money to be released until the city comes up with a specific plan on how to spend it. State Rep. Francine Del Monte says all of the money should immediately be turned over to the current denizens of the Niagara Falls City Hall. She's running for re-election next year, is expected to face challenges in both the primary and general election and needs every Falls vote she can get.

And state Sen. Byron Brown? He's busy running for mayor in Buffalo and hasn't given this old town much thought in months.

Out in Lockport the predatory county Legislature is suing to capture a full 75 percent of the money. Remember when the county received $43 million in tobacco settlement money and couldn't see its way clear to spending a dollar of it in Niagara Falls?

The mayor and the City Council, essentially powerless in the situation, preside over crumbling infrastructure, bare-bones services and a populace that grows increasingly restless by the minute.

Remember when they all told us how the casino and the cash that it brought would signal a new day dawning? Remember the ribbon cuttings and check presentations? The backslapping and self-congratulation?

Because of the impasse, the Niagara Tourism and Convention Corp., which received $1 million from the casino last year, is now nearly broke.

Another million went last year to the Niagara Falls Housing Authority. Went missing might be a better way to put it. It was earmarked for the rebuilding of the Center Court housing project, a scheme dependent on receiving a $20 million grant this year from the federal government under the Hope VI program.

The chances of that happening are slim and none, with none heavily favored. And the project is one of the major obstacles in the disbursal of this year's revenue, as Maziarz has said he will block any proposal that includes money for Center Court.

Yet another million went to the Niagara Falls International Airport. If the Pentagon gets its way and closes the air base, that might just be enough to cover plowing the runway next winter.

WASHINGTON, April 10 - Jack Abramoff, one of Washington's most powerful and best-paid lobbyists, needed $100,000 in a hurry.

Mr. Abramoff, known to envious competitors as "Casino Jack" because of his multimillion-dollar lobbying fees from the gambling operations of American Indians, wrote to a Texas tribe in June 2002 to say that a member of Congress had "asked if we could help (as in cover) a Scotland golf trip for him and some staff" that summer. "The trip will be quite expensive," Mr. Abramoff said in the e-mail message, estimating that the bills "would be around $100K or more." He added that in 2000, "We did this for another member - you know who."

Mr. Abramoff did not explain why the tribe should pay for the lavish trip, nor did he identify the congressmen by name. But a tribe spokesman has since testified to Congress that the 2002 trip was organized for Representative Bob Ney, an Ohio Republican and chairman of the House Administration Committee, and that "you know who" was a much more powerful Republican, Tom DeLay of Texas, the House majority leader and old friend of Mr. Abramoff's. Both lawmakers have said they believed that the trips complied wi th House travel rules.

The e-mail message of June 7, 2002, is part of a mountain of evidence gathered in recent months by the Justice Department, the Interior Department and two Senate committees in influence-peddling and corruption investigations centered on Mr. Abramoff, a former college Republican campaigner turned B-movie producer turned $750-an-hour Washington super-lobbyist.

Although there is no suggestion in public documents that any lawmaker is the target of a federal grand jury that is investigating Mr. Abramoff, disclosures about his lobbying activities have become embarrassing to prominent members of Congress.

In recent weeks, Mr. Ney, Mr. DeLay and other lawmakers have gone on the offensive against the suggestion that their actions on Capitol Hill were influenced by foreign travel or other gifts from Mr. Abramoff.

Disclosures about Mr. Abramoff and the grand jury investigation in Washington have come at an especially awkward time for Mr. DeLay, who is facing scrutiny by a state grand jury in Texas that has indicted two of his chief political operatives, including the director of his political action committee, on charges of illegal fund-raising. Mr. DeLay has blamed Democrats and the "liberal media" for stirring up old - and, he says, discredited - ethics accusations against him.

House Republican leaders say they stand behind Mr. DeLay, although there are signs of concern elsewhere in the party. A moderate Republican who has often tangled with the majority leader, Representative Christopher Shays of Connecticut, called on Mr. DeLay to step down from his leadership post, telling The Associated Press in an interview on Sunday that "Tom's conduct is hurting the Republican Party, is hurting the Republican majority, and it is hurting any Republican who is up for re-election."

In an interview on ABC, Senator Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania, the third-ranking Republican in the Senate, said Mr. DeLay needed to answer questions about his conduct. "I think he has to come forward and lay out what he did and why he did it and let the people then judge for themselves," Mr. Santorum said. "From everything I've heard, again, from the comments and responding to those, is everything he's done was according to the law."

A spokesman for Mr. DeLay, Dan Allen, was quoted by The Associated Press on Sunday as saying that the majority leader "looks forward to the opportunity of sitting down with the ethics committee" in the House "to get the facts out and to dispel the fiction and innuendo that's being launched at him by House Democrats and their liberal allies."

Members of the Senate are also feeling pressure over their ties to Mr. Abramoff. Last month, Democratic leaders in Montana demanded that Senator Conrad Burns, a Republican who is considered vulnerable in his re-election bid next year, return $137,000 in donations from Mr. Abramoff and his American Indian clients.

In the House, several Republicans have been forced to explain why they and their senior staff members accepted gifts from Mr. Abramoff, including the use of his skyboxes at Washington sports arenas, trips to the Super Bowl, and meals at Signatures, Mr. Abramoff's restaurant on Pennsylvania Avenue.

Mr. DeLay played golf with Mr. Abramoff at St. Andrews Links in Scotland in 2000 as part of a $70,000 trip that included Mr. DeLay's wife and staff. The trip was paid for by a conservative group close to Mr. Abramoff, who was once described by Mr. DeLay as being among his "closest and dearest friends." Mr. Ney golfed at St. Andrews two years later.

Government investigators say the Justice Department is leading a task force that is trying to determine if Mr. Abramoff and a business partner, Michael Scanlon, a former spokesman for Mr. DeLay, bilked the Indian tribes, in part by having them make extravagant gifts to members of Congress, as well as to their favorite charities and political action committees.

Neither Mr. Abramoff nor Mr. Scanlon would comment, although a spokesman for Mr. Abramoff said he was being singled out for actions that are common in Washington.

The Senate Indian Affairs Committee, which has been investigating Mr. Abramoff and Mr. Scanlon for months, has determined that the two men received $66 million in lobbying fees and other payments from six tribes across the country, a sum that has drawn outrage from committee members. "For these two men, it was seemingly all about the money," said Senator John McCain, an Arizona Republican and chairman of the panel.

Government investigators say that more than 30 F.B.I. agents have worked with the task force, which also involves the Treasury Department, the Interior Department and the Internal Revenue Service, and that the work of the grand jury has accelerated in recent weeks. Although Indian tribes are allowed to make donations to lawmakers and their political committees, a donation or other gift arranged by Mr. Abramoff to buy a vote or other specific action on Capitol Hill could be a crime.

Investigators say a separate inquiry is being conducted by the inspector general's office at the Interior Department, which is trying to determine if Mr. Abramoff improperly pressured the department on behalf of Indian clients through donations to a conservative lobbying organization established by Interior Secretary Gale A. Norton before she joined the Bush administration.

The scrutiny of Mr. Abramoff and Mr. Scanlon began in late 2003, when a newspaper in Alexandria, La., The Town Talk, reported that a local Indian tribe had paid Mr. Scanlon $13.7 million for a year's public relations work. The report drew the attention of other news organizations, notably The Washington Post and The National Journal, as well as the Senate Indian Affairs Committee.

Mr. Ney, known as "the mayor of Capitol Hill" because his committee oversees Congressional staff payrolls and office space, has said he was "duped" by Mr. Abramoff, while Mr. DeLay has said that "if anybody is trading on my name to get clients or to make money, that is wrong and they should stop it immediately." Mr. Abramoff, he added, "has never been on my payroll."

Mr. DeLay's 2000 trip to Britain, which included a meeting in London with former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, was paid for by the National Center for Public Policy Research, a Washington-based group that says it was "honored" that Mr. DeLay accepted its invitation for the trip to Britain.

The center has long been affiliated with Mr. Abramoff, who served on its board of directors, and has received large donations from his Indian clients, including $25,000 that arrived at the center within days of Mr. DeLay's departure for Britain. The center has said the money for the trip was drawn from its general budget, not specifically from donations from tribes.

Other overseas trips by Mr. DeLay have also drawn scrutiny, including a six-day visit to Moscow in 1997 that, according to his disclosure statements, was also paid for by the center. Documents gathered by public-interest groups suggest that the trip may actually have been paid for through donations to the center from business interests connected to Mr. Abramoff, another possible violation of House rules.

In financial disclosure forms, Mr. Ney said the center paid for his trip to Scotland, a statement that he said was based on assurances from Mr. Abramoff. But in response to news reports, the center said last month that it had nothing to do with Mr. Ney's trip, suggesting that Mr. Abramoff paid the bills himself.

Andrew Blum, a spokesman for the law firm that is representing Mr. Abramoff, would not answer detailed questions about the investigations. But he said in a statement that Mr. Abramoff was "being singled out by the media for actions that are commonplace in Washington and are totally proper."

Asked about the golf trips, Mr. Blum replied, "The tradition of lobbyists traveling with members of Congress to visit various jurisdictions so that they could learn about issues that impact the Congress and government policy is well known." A lawyer for Mr. Scanlon did not return phone calls.

While Mr. Abramoff and Mr. Scanlon are not answering questions posed by Congressional investigators and news organizations, a flood of e-mail traffic between the two men is doing some of the talking for them, much to the discomfort of their lawyers.

E-mail messages subpoenaed from their files show that Mr. Abramoff and Mr. Scanlon mocked tribal leaders as "monkeys," "morons" and "troglodytes,"' and manipulated tribes into making large donations to Congressional Republicans and their political action committees, as well as to private charities that Mr. Abramoff and Mr. Scanlon controlled.

The messages document how they maneuvered secretly in 2001 to organize a campaign to pressure the Texas state government to shut down a casino owned by the Tigua tribe of western Texas, only to then turn around and present themselves as the casino's savior. Mr. Abramoff offered his services to the tribe for a suggested monthly lobbying fee of $125,000 to $175,000 a month.

There is no evidence to prove that a member of Congress promised a vote to Mr. Abramoff in exchange for gifts, although in his e-mail messages, the lobbyist wanted to leave the impression that Mr. Ney's 2002 golf trip would produce a clear benefit to the Tiguas in reopening their casino.

On March 26, 2002, Mr. Abramoff wrote to Marc Schwartz, a political consultant for the tribe based in El Paso, urging him to make $32,000 in donations to Mr. Ney's campaign and political action committees.

On June 7, he sent the e-mail message to Mr. Schwartz about the Scotland golfing trip, asking the Tiguas to pay half its cost. "I have to start planning this now to make sure they can get tee times," Mr. Abramoff wrote.

After Mr. Ney's trip, Mr. Abramoff sent an e-mail message to Mr. Schwartz on Aug. 10, describing a planned meeting between Mr. Ney and tribal leaders. "BN had a great time and is very grateful but is not going to mention the trip to Scotland for obvious reasons," he said, using Mr. Ney's initials. "He said he'll show his thanks in other ways, which is what we want."

Brian Walsh, Mr. Ney's spokesman, said the lawmaker had never offered any favors to the Tiguas in exchange for gifts or campaign donations, despite the suggestion in the e-mail message. "Obviously it's frustrating because it's become apparent that Jack Abramoff said a lot of things to a lot of different people that were simply not true," the spokesman said.

SHERRILL -- To attorney Charlie King, the city's historic victory in U.S. Supreme Court last week can only be described as "magic."

"It's a tremendous American story," he said, basking in the afterglow of the case he stumbled upon while stumping for public office.

The state's smallest city is hardly a place known for making national news, but if there's one thing residents are hard-headed about, it's land.

King was running for state lieutenant governor when he met Sherrill City Manager Dave Barker and then-Mayor Dwight Evans in 1999. They took King and another attorney, Ira Sacks, on a tour of the land-claim region and told their story.

When the Oneida Indian Nation, owner of the Turning Stone Resort and Casino, purchased property for two businesses in the late 1990s, city officials decided it wouldn't get any breaks. After all, they reasoned, the Nation's businesses weren't any different than Ebeneezer's Cafe and Creamery, where babies are encouraged to utter "Ebeneezer's" before any other word, or Booksprite, where a resident hound rumbles at visitors from behind the counter.

The city sent a bill for property taxes, launching a legal battle that ended last week with the historic Supreme Court decision that every Nation-owned property off its 32-acre reservation is subject to public taxes and regulations.

County, city, town and village officials read the opinion, rubbed their eyes, and realized the impossible had come true: Taxes could be collected on every Nation-owned gas station. Agricultural standards could be enforced for the farmland that grows ceremonial crops. Most of all, sales and property tax could be collected on the Turning Stone Resort and Casino.

King called Sherrill a tight-knit community torn apart over a gas station and a T-shirt factory -- the Nation's two businesses within the city limits. They brought jobs and discounted fuel, but shaved about $8,000 each year off the city's tax base.

"It wasn't just the taxes," Evans said. "They wouldn't obey local ordinances, they wouldn't obey zoning regulations and the quality of life in Sherrill would be put in jeopardy. We really had no choice but to join this legal battle."

With a city budget already stretched thin, he knew a lengthy battle with the wealthy Nation would drain the city's coffers and frustrate its residents. But King and Sacks, refreshed with the city's insistence that justice be served and inspired by working for the underdog, offered to work for free.

"We said, 'Why don't we stand up for the citizens of Sherrill and see what happens?'" King said. "'If we believe Sherrill's entitled to these taxes, let's go out and collect them.'"

King left the case in 2000 when President Bill Clinton appointed him to a federal job, but Sacks continued to carry the torch.

When the city began foreclosure proceedings, the Nation took the dispute to court. U.S. District Court Judge David Hurd in Utica heard oral arguments in March 2001 and ruled that Nation property is not subject to taxes and issued an injunction against the city's collection attempts.

The Second Circuit Court affirmed Hurd's ruling, but city officials believed the losses could actually work in their favor. If the U.S. Supreme Court accepted the appeal, it would only be to reverse the decision, Evans said.

The city rejoiced the day its case went on the docket. That was the turning point, city advocates say, and Nation advocates say that was the day they realized things had changed.

"The only reason they took the case, it seems to me, was to reverse it," said Robert Odawi Porter of Syracuse University's Center for Indigenous Law, Governance & Citizenship. "It just highlights the degree to which the court is intent on doing what it wants to do."

Many landowners were just as certain Sherrill would win, said David Vickers, president of Upstate Citizens for Equality, a group long critical of the Nation's tax exemptions.

"For anybody's who's really been following the case, as we have, it didn't come as a surprise," Vickers said.

Neither lower court considered the city's arguments, he said. Hurd said the land in question was Indian country and was therefore tax exempt. The Second Circuit Court ruled only that Hurd did not abuse his discretion in his ruling, and didn't consider the arguments.

When the Supreme Court heard the case, Vickers said, it was the first time the city's arguments were truly considered.

"They made a decision based on equitable considerations and common sense," Vickers said.

That decision came months before anyone expected it -- in late March, instead of May or June. Vickers believes the decision was in fact made when the court went against the advice of the U.S. Solicitor General and accepted the case.

"This kind of patchwork, checkerboard jurisdictional tax evasion stuff is not what Indian sovereignty was meant to be all about," he said. "I think they already had their minds made up about that."

Advocates for Indian tribes say the ruling is a sign of a changing paradigm toward Indian issues.

"I've been in this business 35 years, and I would certainly say that over the last 20 years, the courts have been less sympathetic to Indian issues," said Tim Weaver, an attorney for the Yakima Indian Tribe in Washington state who has argued on Indian issues before the Supreme Court twice.

As Indian tribes succeed economically, many people believe they no longer need the protection of the federal government, he said.

"That's mistaken," he said.

Indian land was stolen, and now that steps are being taken to remedy that, no one wants to pay the bill, Odawi Porter said. The ruling criticized the practice of "checkerboarding" Indian Country, but Odawi Porter said the court has, in the past, affirmed the practice.

"I think that's the inherent bias of a system that is designed to further the interests of settlers," he said.

But King says there's no bias.

"To come on now and say, 'We're going to take it off the tax roll,' that's not the equitable thing to do," he said.

With the decision in hand, communities are making plans to start collecting taxes from the Oneidas. The Verona Town Board voted Tuesday to hire a private appraiser to estimate the value of Turning Stone Resort and Casino so the town can collect property taxes on the complex.

"It's to be continued," said King, now a Democratic candidate for state attorney general. "This is America's history. Sherrill made America's history."

To contact Krista J. Karch, e-mail kkarch@utica.gannett.com