The coalition, which will grow further, includes former state Senate Republican Leader John McKinney of Fairfield Mickey Herbert, a longtime local civic leader and business executive who recently ended a stint as CEO of the Bridgeport Regional Business Council and Richard Velky, chief of the Kent-based Schaghticoke Tribe, which has been trying to regain federal recognition since it had the status granted briefly, then taken away in 2005. Looking at the big picture, MGM senior vice president Uri Clinton said, “This is not just MGM speaking into the wind. That bill, with more newly elected co-sponsors coming, has sticky legal problems - Attorney General George Jepsen called it a bad idea that could leave Connecticut in the lurch - and MGM will rightly call East Windsor a quagmire. To break that logjam, Osten and 14 other eastern Connecticut lawmakers have rolled out a bill under which the federal nod wouldn’t be needed. Department of the Interior has refused to approve a change in the tribes’ agreement with the state.

* Progress at the tribes’ planned East Windsor casino remains stalled and in legal limbo as the U.S.

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