FEATURED: Sen. Phil King, R-Weatherford, addresses his colleagues on Tuesday, January 28, 2025, from the floor of the Texas Senate at the State Capitol in Austin. King led the way to create a new state law designed to help ensure the safety and security of top leaders of public and private universities and colleges in Texas, according to South Texas attorney and Edinburg Mayor Omar Ochoa.
FEATURED, FROM LEFT: Edinburg Mayor Omar Ochoa; First Lady Leah Wise; Roxanne Lerma, Director of Communications and Media, City of Edinburg; and U.S. Judge Ricardo H. Hinojosa. Hinojosa congratulates Ochoa after administering the oath of office to the new mayor, who is an attorney, before a standing-room only audience on Wednesday, November 12, 2025 at the Edinburg Arts, Culture & Events Center (ACE), located at 315 W McIntyre Street. Ochoa won 62 percent of the vote during the Tuesday, November 4, 2025 mayoral race which also included former Mayor Richard Molina, former Mayor Pro Tem Johnny García, and writer and community activist Jonathan Salinas.
FEATURED: The City of McAllen, led by Mayor Javier Villalobos, supported a new state law by the Texas Legislature, which went into effect on Friday, June 20, 2025, intended to provide local governments and state agencies, boards and commissions more protection against cybersecurity breaches of their critical infrastructure, such as computer systems that make vital public services run effectively, according to South Texas attorney Omar Ochoa. Villalobos is seen here during the 4th annual Mexico-United States Binational Convention held in Mexico City in September 2025. During that event, Villalobos joined other leaders to discuss collaboration and investment between the two nations.
FEATURED, FROM LEFT: Sen. Juan Hinojosa, D-McAllen, The Vaquero (skilled horseman), who is the mascot of the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley sports teams, and Rep. Terry Canales, D-Edinburg. The two state lawmakers were on hand on Wednesday, October 8, 2025, for the grand opening of the $145.7 million UT Health RGV Cancer and Surgery Center, located at 1400 N. Commerce Center Street in McAllen.
FEATURED: Longtime State Rep. R.D. “Bobby” Guerra, D-McAllen, seen here with his wife Leslie Yoder-Guerra at the Texas Capitol in Austin, has become the most recent member of the 150-member Texas House of Representatives to announce he will not seek reelection – in his case, to an eighth two-year term that would have begun in January 2027. Guerra said he would complete his current term, which ends on Tuesday, January 12, 2027.
FEATURED, FROM LEFT: Former U.S. Congressman (1997-2017) Rubén Hinojosa, D-Mercedes, and his wife, Martha López Hinojosa, and Sen. Juan Hinojosa, D-McAllen, at the 46th Annual International Museum of Art & Science Collage Gala held in McAllen on Saturday, September 6, 2025.
FEATURED: Dr. Leonel Vela, a Valley native and the first physician in his family, is retiring after years of service as Division Chief for Population Health at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley School of Medicine, where he helped turn the long-standing dream of a South Texas medical school into a transformative reality for the region.
FEATURED: From a decade-long career as an IDEA Public Schools counselor, Executive Director of Rio Grande Valley LEAD (Linking Economic and Academic Development) to now Executive Director of the South Texas College Foundation and External Affairs, Marcos Silva, Ed.D., has made it his mission to serve his community through education. STC recently welcomed Silva to the higher education system, tasking him with the duty of raising funds that will provide life-changing scholarships to students. Silva is seen here on Friday, May 3, 2024 at the City of McAllen’s MXLAN International Economic Summit, which was held at the McAllen Convention Center.
Photograph Courtesy RIO GRANDE VALLEY LEAD FACEBOOK
Rep. Janie López, R-San Benito, was a coauthor of House Bill 1522, which is intended to improve government transparency by extending the notice posting requirement for open government meetings from 72 hours to three business days and requiring notices about budget meetings to include a publicly accessible copy of the budget, reports South Texas attorney Omar Ochoa. House Bill 1522 will become state law on Monday, September 1, 2025. She is featured here during a gathering of the Texas Counseling Association in Austin on Tuesday, March 11, 2025.
FEATURED, FROM LEFT: U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Texas Sen. Adán “Adam” Hinojosa, R-Brownsville, celebrate the passage of Hinojosa’s Senate Concurrent Resolution 13 on Wednesday, April 30, 2025 by the Texas Senate, which urged the U.S. Department of State and International Boundary and Water Commission (IBWC) to take immediate diplomatic action to ensure Mexico fulfills its obligations under the critical 1944 US-Mexico Water Treaty. SCR 13 was then approved the House of Representatives and signed into law by Gov. Greg Abbott.
