Banana Town

What is Banana Town?

Station and Culinary have been at odds for many years, and this has included everything from back-and-forth barbs in the media to complaints before Nevada regulators and ultimately a number of court challenges. The December 2019 Red Rock election has proved to be perhaps the most significant development in their relationship thus far.

Station’s corporate leadership had approved and announced a new benefits overhaul for all of its 14,000 employees across ten properties on 19 November 2019. Two days later, Culinary, which represents workers at seven other Station properties besides Red Rock, petitioned to represent workers at that casino.

Red Rock employees rejected unionisation the following month by a 627-534 vote, although the NLRB and the DC appeals court have held that the company took steps to prevent a fair and honest election. The timing of the benefits rollout and unionisation petition have been a central issue in the matter in the years since.

How to play Banana Town

The initial batch of FSPIs launched with NHL performance gauges, triggering a wave of filings from exchange-traded fund (ETF) issuers seeking to launch futures-based funds for each professional hockey team. One issuer even filed plans for leveraged ETFs tied to the NHL indexes.

A similar scenario is playing out on the back of the MLB index introduction. Both LeagueShares and RexShares filed plans for ETFs tied to the FutureSports MLB indexes.

If approved, the funds would hold baskets of the CME-traded derivatives. LeagueShares went a step further by adding a filing for 2x leveraged MLB futures funds.

What is Banana Town?

The commission also agreed with the state Department of Commerce’s assessment that the cooperative’s actions were driven by concerns over lost electricity sales rather than legitimate safety risks.

Commissioners pointed to evidence suggesting the tribe may have already been overcharged compared to other member customers.

The Upper Sioux Community also argued that, as a sovereign tribal nation, it is not subject to Minnesota utility regulations. The commission declined to rule on the sovereignty question, concluding it was unnecessary to resolve that issue to determine that Minnesota Valley could not prevent the casino from generating its own power.