You’re reading the Essential California newsletter <\/p>\n
The brand\u2019s six-story guitar will be hard to miss as you\u2019re driving the Grapevine.<\/p>\n
The $600-million development is on Tejon Indian Tribe lands in Mettler, near the convergence of Interstate 5 and Route 99. The property is owned by the Tejon tribe and is managed by Hard Rock International.<\/p>\n
One of SoCal\u2019s largest casinos<\/p>\n
With 150,000 square feet of gaming space \u2014 including 58 table games and more than 2,000 slot machines \u2014 the Central Valley Hard Rock is among the largest casinos in SoCal, The Times\u2019 Christopher Reynolds writes<\/a>, on par with many along the Strip in Las Vegas.<\/p>\n The Hard Rock venture includes four restaurants, serving Asian street food, tacos, pizza and American comfort food, and at select hours, a fancier \u201cspeakeasy restaurant\u201d emphasizes steak and seafood.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is something that no other Hard Rock Cafe has \u2026 a restaurant within a restaurant,\u201d company President Chris Kelley told Christopher.<\/p>\n Pop music artifacts are also on display in the casino, in keeping with the company\u2019s iconic memorabilia collection. Artifacts include the blue hooded velvet mini dress Sabrina Carpenter wore in her \u201cPlease Please Please\u201d music video, signed guitars from Sheryl Crow and Bonnie Raitt, Beck\u2019s tambourine and Natalie Cole\u2019s orange high heels.<\/p>\n A new chapter for the Tejon Indian Tribe<\/p>\n Hard Rock International\u2019s native ownership \u2014 it has been owned by the Seminole Tribe of Florida since 2007 \u2014 was a \u201cmajor influence\u201d on the Tejon tribe\u2019s decision to team up, Tejon Tribal Chairman Octavio Escobedo III told Christopher.<\/p>\n The casino\u2019s opening starts a new chapter for the tribe, which struggled for generations to gain federal recognition.<\/p>\n As my colleague Suhauna Hussain wrote last month, the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs left it off its list of tribes<\/a> that had formal government status. After gaining federal recognition under the Obama administration in 2011, the tribe began talks with casino operators. Five years later, the tribe acquired the casino site.<\/p>\n The casino has brought economic growth to the area, including thousands of construction jobs and about 1,100 new jobs for Greater Bakersfield.<\/p>\n Escobedo said 52 tribal members had signed on to work at casino jobs, and he\u2019d \u201clove to see that number double over the next year or so.\u201d<\/p>\n In addition to gaming space, the facility will have a tribal government center, a medical facility and housing for tribe members.<\/p>\n The casino\u2019s second phase<\/p>\n Although officials declined to share a timeline for the next installment, plans for the second phase of the project will include a 400-room hotel and spa on site and a 2,800-seat live venue that will host concerts and sporting events. <\/p>\n The ultimate goal is to make Kern County a premier destination for travelers and fans.<\/p>\n Today\u2019s top stories A federal agent stands guard outside the Metropolitan Detention Center in downtown L.A. on June 10 as protesters gather to denounce Trump administration immigration policies.<\/p>\n (Eric Thayer \/ Associated Press)<\/p>\n California Republicans are divided on Trump\u2019s immigration enforcement policiesA new poll shows that Latino Republicans, with whom Trump made historic gains during the 2024 elections, are the group that most disagrees<\/a> with the party\u2019s aggressive stance on immigration.Of Latino Republicans surveyed, 46% disagreed with deporting immigrants who had resided in the country for a long time, compared with 30% of their white counterparts.The indictment of a former Newsom aideGov. Newsom\u2019s former chief of staff and two political operatives face federal corruption charges for fraud<\/a>, including misusing campaign funds.Two of the operatives indicted had ties to the video game company Activision Blizzard, which was investigated earlier by the state over sexual discrimination allegations.Here\u2019s what to know about Dana Williamson<\/a>, the former Newsom aide tangled in a corruption probe.An Amazon climate summit creates unease for California delegatesThousands of delegates at the United Nations\u2019 COP30 climate conference stayed on diesel-powered cruise ships, embodying a key contradiction<\/a> at this year\u2019s global event in the Amazon.Infrastructure rushed for the summit reshaped parts of Bel\u00e9m, including new roads that cut through forest, raising concerns about environmental trade-offs.Local residents celebrated the global attention and economic investment while worrying the improvements would disappear once the summit ended.McDonald\u2019s is losing its low-income customersMcDonald\u2019s prices have risen so high<\/a> that traffic from one of its core customer bases has dropped by double digits.The low-income customers at McDonald\u2019s are quickly being replaced by higher earners, according to company officials.The change demonstrates the pressure facing low-income consumers, who are being squeezed by higher costs for housing, clothes and child care.What else is going onCommentary and opinionsThis morning\u2019s must readsOther must readsFor your downtime Kim Abt of Pwrgrls shows off her strength.<\/p>\n (Travis Shinn\/For The Times)<\/p>\n Going outStaying inA question for you: What\u2019s one special dish your family makes for Thanksgiving?<\/p>\n Dan Saborio said, \u201cA few years ago, I came across a recipe from chef Tim Love<\/a> for a turkey brined with chiles and topped with pancetta. I\u2019m not much of a cook and was afraid to try it, but my brother and sister-in-law are great cooks and agreed to give it a go. The results were fantastic and it became a family favorite. The turkey is more flavorful than most, and people fight over the crispy pancetta. I heartily recommend it!\u201d<\/p>\n Email us at essentialcalifornia@latimes.com<\/a>, and your response might appear in the newsletter this week.<\/p>\n And finally … your photo of the day (Myung J. Chun \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n Today\u2019s great photo is from Times photographer Myung J. Chun in Pacific Palisades, where volunteers defied a strong winter storm to restore a beloved community mural<\/a> \u2014 the 552-foot-long \u201cHistory of the Palisades\u201d \u2014 created by Palisades Charter High School students in the early 1980s.<\/p>\n Have a great day, from the Essential California team<\/p>\n Jim Rainey, staff reporter How can we make this newsletter more useful? Send comments to essentialcalifornia@latimes.com<\/a>. Check our top stories<\/a>, topics<\/a> and the latest articles<\/a> on latimes.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For Southern Californians who love Hard Rock casinos, there\u2019s no need to drive seven hours north to Yuba…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":56953,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8,2299,1085,891,2300,2297,340,2303,63,2302,1086,1459,2301,2298,74,225,315,688],"class_list":{"0":"post-56952","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-california","8":"tag-california","9":"tag-california-headlines","10":"tag-california-news","11":"tag-civic-revolt","12":"tag-covid","13":"tag-covid-19","14":"tag-days","15":"tag-essential-california","16":"tag-israel","17":"tag-l-a","18":"tag-los-angeles-times","19":"tag-may","20":"tag-pandemic","21":"tag-part","22":"tag-president-biden","23":"tag-red-county","24":"tag-san-diego","25":"tag-state","26":"tag-time","27":"tag-years"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56952","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56952"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56952\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56953"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56952"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56952"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56952"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}} <\/a> <\/p>\n
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Hugo Mart\u00edn, assistant editor, Fast Break desk
Kevinisha Walker, multiplatform editor
June Hsu, editorial fellow
Andrew Campa, Sunday writer
Karim Doumar, head of newsletters<\/p>\n