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manny mann 08/24/2009 11:28:00 PM
I want to know how Rasputin survived being poisoned, shot and drowned and became a lawyer in Dallas almost 100 years later. Insane.
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monika 08/17/2009 8:03:00 PM
Why is everyone on this website so full of hate. Lucky for you, you don't have to leave your home and family and go to another country in order to make a living! Also please tell me, do you want to work a "high paying" construction job in 100 degree summer weather? What? can't hear you! Ahhhh, just what I thought, just blowing a bunch of hot air. STFU you stupid yahoo !!!!
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Dallas County Voter 08/15/2009 9:04:00 PM
Mr. Garcia has come a long way. He now appears to be in the cleaning up corruption mode. I can almost see his cape and mask as he dodges those smear campaigns and false rumors. But he does it anyway. Somehow the little issue of Laura Miller stating she would not buy him lunch and that Texas Monthly article calling him a one-man leper colony at the Texas House of Representatives several years ago still resonate.
Fort Worth DA to investigate Dallas mayoral election dispute
By: The Associated Press
Posted: 2/1/02
DALLAS - Whoever wins the race for mayor Dallas could take office under an ethical cloud.
The district attorney in neighboring Fort Worth has been called in to investigate allegations the two candidates offered to buy the endorsement of a third, defeated contender by paying off his campaign debt.
Laura Miller and Tom Dunning will meet in a runoff Feb. 16 for the right to succeed Democratic Mayor Ron Kirk, whose legacy in the nation's ninth-largest includes big projects like a $420 million sports arena and the redevelopment of blighted south Dallas.
The two candidates - both Democrats - had been promoting a more back-to-basics approach that emphasized street repairs, parks and crime-fighting. But that was before the money-for-endorsement accusations overshadowed the campaign.
In the five-way mayoral election Jan. 19, Miller, a muckraking former newspaper columnist and City Council gadfly, led with 49 percent, while Dunning, an insurance executive, got 38 percent. State Rep. Domingo Garcia was third with about 11 percent.
Because no one got the 50 percent required to win the mayor's office outright, the top two vote-getters advanced to a runoff.
The money-for-endorsement controversy erupted about a week ago after a Garcia supporter told a Spanish-language radio station that before Garcia would endorse Dunning, white business leaders would have to make a commitment to help retire Garcia's campaign debt.
Garcia later endorsed Dunning; both men denied that they had cut any deal.
Garcia then countered that Miller and her husband, state Rep. Steve Wolens, had offered to pay off Garcia's debt in return for his endorsement. They denied it, with Miller declaring: ''I would never, ever offer anything to Domingo Garcia. I wouldn't even buy him lunch.''
Tarrant County District Attorney Tim Curry opened an investigation, saying he was asked by the Dallas district attorney to take the case after the D.A. withdrew to avoid any conflict of interest.
Dunning, 59, and Miller, 43, said they welcome the investigation and will open their personal and campaign records.
Texas Monthly - The Best and the Worst Legislators
by Paul Burka and Patricia Kilday Hart; July 2001
. . . THE WORST . . .
Domingo Garcia
Domingo Garcia is a one-man leper colony. Nobody wants to be around him. What's worse, the disease is self-inflicted. He set out to make himself the most despised member of the House, and it is about the only thing of note he has accomplished in his three terms.
To achieve absolute-zero status, you have to do something really special. Garcia was up to the challenge. In the spring of 2000 he set out to end the careers of four of his Democratic colleagues from Dallas and one from Fort Worth. He sought Hispanic opponents in the Democratic primary for Steve Wolens, Dale Tillery, Harryette Ehrhardt, and Lon Burnam, all of whom are white, and Terri Hodge, who is African American. None of Garcia's agents were successful, but it didn't matter: He had violated an ancient legislative taboo against actively seeking the defeat of one's colleagues. The taboo exists for a good reason, which is that the legislative process cannot function without underlying goodwill and civility, and nothing destroys goodwill and civility faster than trying to end someone's career.
The contempt for Garcia erupted for all to see during the debate over the ill-fated campaign-finance bill. He offered an amendment to impose a $500 fine on candidates who published or broadcast false information about an opponent. Uh-oh. Up came Wolens to the microphone with a question: "Can I make your amendment retroactive fifteen years, to the last time you ran against me?" Uh-oh again. Up came Hodge: "Are you saying that if I put on my campaign literature that you are a great guy and an outstanding representative that I could be charged a five-hundred-dollar fine?"
The irony is that Garcia, who apparently believes that Hispanics ought to represent Hispanics, cannot effectively represent his constituents. He wants a law school and a pharmacy school for South Dallas; he wants state universities to de-emphasize standardized test scores in admitting students; he wants the state's electoral votes in presidential elections to be awarded by congressional district instead of winner-take-all. But he is such a marked man that he has no hope of getting anything done; indeed, he acknowledged to the Dallas Morning News that he had to farm out several of his bills to other legislators. And he has no one to blame but himself.
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Domingo Garcia 08/15/2009 1:09:00 PM
Cleaning up corruption is never easy,you become the target of smear campaigns and false rumors.But you do it anyway.The article has several false allegations and fails to deal with the real issue,the corruption that effects people who go for help at the consulate and are taking advantage of. Mexico removing Dallas consul general amid financial investigation
11:10 PM CDT on Friday, August 14, 2009
By ALFREDO CORCHADO / The Dallas Morning News
acorchado@dallasnews.com
MEXICO CITY � The Mexican government will remove Enrique Hubbard, the Mexican consul general in North Texas, from his post amid an internal investigation into financial irregularities at the Dallas consulate, Mexican officials say.
Hubbard is facing allegations that he tolerated staff members personally profiting from selling passport-size photos and photocopying documents and from skimming money from passport fees, according to a senior Mexican official with knowledge of the Dallas investigation, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Enrique Hubbard The allegations of financial misconduct in the consulate were verified by three other Mexican officials on both sides of the border.
"At this point it's unfair to say the man is corrupt," the senior Mexican official said of Hubbard. "Maybe he's just a bad manager, but the bottom line is that the activities in the Dallas office are unacceptable and unbelievable."
Hubbard, who is popular among immigrants in Dallas, said he had heard "rumors and speculation" of his pending departure "but nothing at this point is confirmed. Nothing is official."
"I haven't been told a word. I'm speechless," he said.
The senior Mexican official said that an internal investigation of the Dallas consulate by the Mexican attorney general's office and Foreign Ministry had uncovered "tens of thousands of dollars" in missing fees.
Hubbard denied the official's account. "Some small complaints were raised, but those issues have been taken care off," he said. "We have annual audits, and I have not been told of any problem."
The Foreign Ministry issued a statement late Friday saying: "We are verifying processes and accounting of fees for services at the consulate in Dallas, with the help of internal auditors and other accounting agencies." The ministry said the procedure is standard practice.
The attorney general's office denied having knowledge that an investigation was under way.
A Foreign Ministry spokesman said a statement would be released shortly.
In terms of activity and the size of the local Mexican population, Dallas is the third-most-important consulate in the United States, after Los Angeles and Chicago and followed closely by New York City and Houston. Daily fees collected generate thousands of dollars.
The Mexican Consulate in Dallas, with about 45 employees, issues more than 50,000 Mexican identification cards a year. An average of 700 people visit the office daily. North Texas is home to 1.7 million Mexicans, Mexican officials say.
During his three years as consul general in Dallas, Hubbard gained a reputation as a strong advocate of immigrant rights. He took what many considered to be tough and bold stances against groups who painted Mexican immigrants as villains. He was also vocal against policies that targeted illegal immigrants living and working in Farmers Branch and Irving.
"Enrique Hubbard has been the best consul general we've had since I've been here, and we're talking 1984," said Gustavo Bujanda, vice president of public relations for the Axis Agency and a board member of Casa Ciudad de Mexico, a group of hometown organizations that serves as bridge between the United States and the immigrants' hometowns in Mexico. "He's been very accessible and open to the entire Mexican community that resides in Dallas. He's been a great spokesman for our community."
During a recent meeting with immigrant groups, Hubbard said he would be leaving, Bujanda said, adding that the consul general's departure was "the worst-kept secret in Dallas."
"Ambassador Hubbard will be tremendously missed," Dallas Mayor Tom Leppert said. "We worked closely together building ties here in the community as well as with our neighbors to the south. He also played an instrumental role in planning two economic mission trips to Mexico and bringing President [Felipe] Calder�o Dallas. We wish him well."
Asked whether he had asked for a transfer, Hubbard replied: "No, I didn't. I'd very much like to stay in Dallas, but as a career service diplomat, we have no choice in the matter. When we're told to leave, we leave. But again at this time there is nothing official."
Hubbard is expected to move to Washington, where he is to be reassigned as a diplomatic resident at American University to teach and conduct research, a Mexican official said. The move is expected in the weeks to come. The program is coordinated between Mexico's Foreign Ministry and American University.
A spokesman for the Mexican Embassy in Washington said he had no comment on an investigation into the Dallas office or on Hubbard's reported transfer to Washington.
It remains unclear who would succeed Hubbard, but one name that has emerged is Juan Carlos Cue Vega, the ambassador to Kenya and former consul general in El Paso, a Mexican official said.
Hubbard, a native of Rosario, Sinaloa, is a diplomat with 35 years of experience and the rank of ambassador since 1988. He has previously been posted in the Philippines, Belize, Brazil, Miami and Brownsville.
Skimming passport fees is suspected at other Mexican consulate offices in the United States, two Mexican officials said, though the suspected fraud in Dallas was acute.
The passport scheme works the following way, the officials said: Employees would receive processing fees from people applying for a five-year passport that costs $100. But employees would report that they had issued a one-year passport costing $30. The difference would be pocketed.
Officials said they believed the scheme had been in place prior to Hubbard's arrival.
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Harry 08/14/2009 7:44:00 PM
Sounds like a classic case of pure greed on the part of two attorneys.
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CitizenKane 08/14/2009 4:25:00 PM
By the term "Mexican Citizens" do you mean illegal mexicans who are not suppose to be in the US working and are taking good paying construction jobs away from US citizens?
Send them (illegals) back across the borders and charge them for the expenses of doing so.
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El Tejano 08/13/2009 6:10:00 PM
It could all be avoided if we send them all back and don't hire any illegals in the first place.
