photo credit: Town of Windsor
Aerial image of the planned Koi Nation Casino on Shiloh Road on Windsor's 
southern edge.

The new administration in the White House and new power brokers in Washington D.C. have, intentionally or otherwise, introduced new jeopardy into two hotly contested North Bay legal fights.

One is over cattle and dairy ranching in Point Reyes National Seashore.

The other is about the Koi Nation's proposed new casino resort near Windsor.

For the past few months, KRCB News has been reporting on a new agreement that will see cattle and dairy ranching leave the national park on the Marin County coast.

Now opposition to that agreement has apparently made strange bedfellows between sustainability-focused producers like Albert Straus and eccentric individuals close to Trump administration leaders.

Meanwhile, the conflict over the Koi Nation's proposed new casino resort has been playing out in federal court in San Francisco, and lots of big names, both local and national, have joined the proceedings.

The State of California and Governor Gavin Newsom have both challenged the Department of the Interior's decision to approve the Koi Nation plans for a casino on Shiloh Road in Windsor.

And in recent weeks, Sonoma County Supervisor Lynda Hopkins and Windsor Town Manager Jon Davis have both added briefs on behalf of the board of supervisors and Town of Windsor respectively, in opposition to the Koi tribe's plans.

The primary opponents of the Koi Casino, the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria, owners and operators of Rohnert Park's Graton Casino, have also raised the stakes in recent months.

The tribe has not only made major donations to Republican party political actors in recent months, according to reporting in the Press Democrat, they've also brought on Neal Katyal, former United States Solicitor General during the Obama Administration, to represent the Graton tribe in the federal court case against the US Department of the Interior.