Something Smells in Kirk Texas Race: Hicks. [But first let's have a little fun]

Kirk: Fighting the Klingon terrorists is wrong. It will unfairly hurt minorities. Anyone proposing this attack on Klingons doesn't care about minorities. Sulu, set course for home. Full warp speed, Mr. Sulu. We don't want any sneak attacks as we gain ground to a safe port. Keep minorities in safety pods.

Mr. Spock: Captain. Your statement is most illogical. Logic dictates that minorities in the Federation benefit from fighting terrorism even more than non-minorities. The large urban areas are prime terrorist targets.

Kirk: Don't confuse me with the facts! As I see it, we are not retreating from the war. We are simply advancing to a safer location. Get to your safety pod, Mr. Spock. Your Vulcan blood makes you a minority. Right Bones?

Bones: Captain, I'm a doctor, not a shrink. But I think you're a raving lunatic.

Kirk: Are you questioning my patriotism Bones? Just because some of my friends visit the Klingons and lobby for them? It is wrong to call me unpatriotic! I demand an apology!

Mr. Spock: No Captain. The good doctor was simply making an astute hypothesis I happen to agree with. You are, as best we both can tell, missing a few dylithium crystals.

Kirk: I'm the Captain here! Don't you forget it! [sudden shift]. Sorry, sorry. I am just a bit concerned. That war with the Klingons 30 years ago was such a disaster. Minority groups were being exterminated.

Bones: That war, Jim? This seems to be an obsession with you. And your grip of the facts is grossly innaccurate. In my professional medical opinion, you are not fit to run this ship.

Kirk: Mutiny! Mutiny! I thought you were my friend, Bones. Spock! You are a minority! Surely you understand?

Mr. Spock: Your illogic, Captain, continues to elude me. I almost feel a human emotion to smack you around.

Bones to Spock: Don't be ashamed, Spock. Liberals have that affect on many sane people.

Scotty: Cap'n! This campaign is falling apart! I can barely hold her together! We must have some winning issues!

Scotty: But Cap'n! Clinton is a terrorist pardoner. If the voters think you are dealing with terrorist pardoners...

Kirk: Good point, Bones. Scotty! Tell Clinton that if he shows his face in Texas, I'll kill him. Tell him I only want the money!

Scotty, shaking head in despair: Yes, Cap'n. But I do this under protest. Spock is right. If voters remember Clinton's pardon of the eleven FALN bomb terrorists...

Kirk: People forgot about that, Scotty. You ... must... get.... that money... from Clinton!

Mr. Spock: People forgot about the FALN pardons, Captain? 95 senators condemned Clinton for it. That is a highly illogical statement.

Bones to Spock: You just don't understand, you pointy eared brainiac. The captain is crazy, all right-- like a fox. [Bones flashes grin.] You think Texans are serious about terrorism? They don't care if Kirk gets cash from bin Laden himself.

Spock: I believe that logic will prevail on this, Doctor. Not even humans are that illogical. Perhaps it would be safer if Kirk got more money from Hicks.

Bones, shaking head: It's safer to get cash from a terrorist-pardoner. Please don't ask me to explain why. It's just a hunch.

Sunday, June 7, 1998

Ties to Hicks helped Kirks boost fortunes $500,000
DALLAS (AP) -- Mayor Ron Kirk's family is benefiting financially from a company owned by radio and sports mogul Tom Hicks, whom Kirk supported in his plans to build an arena near downtown Dallas.

The value of stock options in Chancellor Broadcasting Co. granted to Kirk's wife, Matrice Ellis-Kirk, have increased in value by more than $500,000 in the last two years, The Dallas Morning News reported in Saturday's editions.

Ms. Ellis-Kirk received the stock options for serving one year on Chancellor's board of directors. Hicks interviewed her for his company board in July 1995, one month after her husband was elected mayor, and formally invited her aboard the following month. She accepted.

Kirk and Dallas city manager John Ware negotiated the city's $230 million arena deal with Hicks, who owns the Dallas Stars, and Ross Perot Jr., who owns the Dallas Mavericks basketball club.

Taxpayers will pay $125 million under that deal, which was narrowly approved by voters in January. Kirk led that campaign.

On Friday, Ware announced he will leave his city post to head a new investment company backed by Hicks.

Critics immediately questioned whether Kirk and Ware were influenced in their negotiations with Hicks.

"The issue is, is Tom Hicks buying Dallas?" state Rep. Domingo Garcia, D-Dallas, told the Morning News. "It just appears that this guy is buying influence at City Hall and using that influence to dip into taxpayers' dollars and get his pet projects built."

Garcia, a former council member, lost the mayor's race to Kirk in 1995.

Suzie Woodford, executive director of Common Cause of Texas, said the relationships Hicks created with Kirk and Ware raise concerns.

"It may not be against the law, and it may not be against the code of ethics. But it certainly is a huge appearance of impropriety," Woodford said. "It certainly does not pass the smell test."

Kirk, Ware and Hicks all denied any impropriety. The city officials' arrangements with Hicks were cleared by the city attorney.

"There's no prohibition against us investing in stocks or making a living," Kirk said recently, according to the Morning News. "I strenuously object" to any implications "that my wife is unethical or corrupt."
In a recent interview, Ms. Ellis-Kirk told the newspaper, "I didn't get any favorable treatment. I can guarantee you I'm not a millionaire."

Hicks said he put Ms. Ellis-Kirk on his media company's board of directors because of her business talent and to bring racial diversity. He said Ms. Ellis-Kirk gave up her board seat after he bought the Dallas Stars because there could be "a perception of a conflict."

Upon her appointment, Ms. Ellis-Kirk was granted the right to buy 9,166 shares at a price equal to the initial public offering price -- $20 per share.

The $20 price was low enough to give Ms. Ellis-Kirk an immediate profit of about $40,000 when she paid $50,000 to buy 2,500 shares in mid-1996. The market price was about $36 per share, making 2,500 shares worth approximately $90,000.

At current prices and adjusting for a 2-for-1 split in January, the shares Ms. Ellis-Kirk owns are worth approximately $200,000 on a $50,000 investment. If she exercises all her options, she would have a net gain of approximately $530,000 on an outlay of $183,000.

"There was no legal conflict; there was not ethical conflict," Kirk said. His wife "resigned from the board, and we paid a hell of a financial price for that," the mayor said.

http://www.dallasarena.com/v020822kirk.htm

AUSTIN -- A lucrative corporate board appointment for Ron Kirk's wife, which raised questions while Kirk was mayor of Dallas, is being resurrected as an issue in Kirk's race for the U.S. Senate.

Matrice Ellis Kirk served only 13 months on the board of Chancellor Broadcasting Co. and resigned in February 1997, after Tom Hicks, the Dallas businessman who appointed her to the board, became involved in negotiations with her husband and other city officials for a new sports arena.
But Matrice Kirk kept her stock options and cashed in more than $275,000 worth through a successor company last year, according to income tax information released by her husband's senatorial campaign last week. . . .

The Kirks have denied any impropriety in Matrice Kirk's part-time service on the board of Chancellor, which later became part of Clear Channel Communications Inc. And Justin Lonon, a spokesman for the Kirk campaign, said on Monday that she was well-qualified for the appointment. . . .

Hicks in 1999 told the Dallas Morning News that he gave Matrice Kirk the board seat because of her gender and race -- the Kirks are black -- and because her family was having "trouble adjusting without her income."

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