"It turns out that, for the purpose of funneling $54 million in federal stimulus money to the sovereign Mohegan Indians, you have to first define the tribe's reservation, which, on a slow day attracts tens of thousands of people, arriving on the tribe's own interstate highway connection, as a rural area.

That's right, it's the U.S. Department of Agriculture, through its rural development program, that has agreed to lend the tribe the money to finish its stalled community center project.

"Through our programs, we touch rural America in many ways," the USDA says on its website about the rural development program.

In this case, the USDA is touching rural America by helping to develop, among other things, new executive offices for a tribal government that manages one of the world's largest casinos.

This is not a Tea Party fantasy. It's really true. The USDA announced the $54 million in loans to the Mohegans, money from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, in a press release last week.

Since then, no one has had a lot to say about the loans."

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David Collins: A $54 million USDA loan to the Mohegans? (The New London Day 6/2)