Word: rivers
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1990-1999
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...flame that first lit Grey's fuse was a riverboat casino in Galena, Illinois, the quaint Mississippi River town where he lived quietly with his wife and served as the local Methodist pastor. In 1991, 81% of the townspeople voted against playing host to the boat, but the referendum was nonbinding, and local officials, thirsting for revenue, invited it to dock anyway. "I got mad," recalls Grey. Now, with this nationwide campaign, he adds, "I'm getting even." This hometown fight led to invitations to speak in Iowa, Indiana, Missouri and other states grappling with a riverboat onslaught. Grey...
...recent landing in Mississippi, however, the road-warrior reverend found his path strewn with obstacles. Few states have embraced gambling so wholeheartedly. Since 1992, when the first riverboat casino floated down the Mississippi River to Tunica, the desperately poor county that Jesse Jackson once called "America's Ethiopia," 28 casinos have sprung up from the Tennessee border to the Gulf Coast. These garish palaces employ 27,300 people and last year put $189 million into state and local coffers. "Hey, look, Tom Grey, gaming is working here in Mississippi!" declares host Rip Daniels, welcoming Grey to his talk show...
...city hall to settle a lawsuit. Garbage lay uncollected in the streets. Businesses fled. Today half the 40,000 residents, in a town that used to be integrated but is now 98% black, qualify for public assistance. Drugs are rampant. Where better than this slum on the Mississippi River to build a glittering $45 million floating casino...
...while the riverboat in Council Bluffs, Iowa, lives off bettors from Omaha, Nebraska. And although most Illinois casinos attract few out-of-staters, East St. Louis is an exception. On two recent nights some 70% of the Casino Queen's patrons were white, many of them from across the river in Missouri. "Casino gambling is a shell game," explains Earl Grinols, a University of Illinois economics professor, "attracting dollars from one person's pocket to another and from one region to another...
Weinstein, 45, was on her way to an exam at Toms River High School South on March 14 when she got out of her gold 1995 Toyota Camry to buy a sandwich at the busy Toms River Shopping Center. That's where her path crossed that of Michael LaSane, who, police say, wanted just such a car to celebrate his 17th birthday. Grabbing the diminutive Weinstein by the jaw, the assailant told her he had a gun and forced her into the Camry. The car was then driven to Manitou Park, about two miles from the shopping center...