Featured: Sen. Judith Zaffirini, D-Laredo, on Wednesday, April 25, 2019, reads a resolution in honor of the City of San Marcos from the floor of the Texas Senate chamber at the Texas Capitol in Austin. On Saturday, November 9, 2019, she filed her candidacy for reelection to represent Texas’ 21st Senatorial District, which includes all of Starr County. Her priorities include early and higher education and health and human services, especially for the very young, the very old, the very poor, persons with disabilities and veterans.
Featured: Hidalgo County 464th District Court Judge Ysmael Fonseca, who was appointed to his current judicial position by Gov. Greg Abbott on Wednesday, August 28, 2019, on Wednesday, November 6, 2019, announced he will be seeking election to that court in 2020. District courts have original jurisdiction in felony criminal cases, divorce cases, cases involving title to land, election contest cases, civil matters in which the amount of money or damages involved is $200 or more, and any matters in which jurisdiction is not placed in another trial court.
Featured, from left: Dr. Mani Skaria, Founder and CEO of US Citrus, LLC, and Dr. Adolfo Santos, Assistant Provost of the Texas A&M University Higher Education Center at McAllen, on Monday, October 21, 2019, during the first-anniversary celebration of the A&M campus located at 6200 Tres Lagos Boulevard. More information on US Citrus, LLC is available online at https://uscitrus.com
Featured: Sen. Joan Huffman, R-Houston, the author of Senate Bill 1259, which was co-sponsored by Rep. Terry Canales, D-Edinburg, who serves as Chair, House Committee on Transportation. Senate Bill 1259, which went into effect on Sunday, September 1, 2019, changed the Code of Criminal Procedure and Penal Code to expand the conduct that constitutes the offense of sexual assault. The measure is designed to prevent and prosecute the deceptive use of artificial insemination practices.
Featured: Sen. Eddie Lucio, Jr., D-Brownsville, addresses fellow state lawmakers and other area leaders during a welcome home reception, sponsored by the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley Division of Governmental & Community Relations, held on Thursday, July 16, 2019 at the UTRGV Center for Innovation and Commercialization in Weslaco.
Featured: Phyllis Whittaker of McAllen, who has volunteered for the past 15 years to lead a popular exercise program for fellow retired Valley residents at the Lark Community Center in McAllen. Photograph by MARY VILLARREAL
Featured: Former Edinburg Mayor Joe Ochoa, featured left, with Edinburg City Manager Juan Guerra on Thursday, February 14, 2019 at Edinburg City Hall. Since Ochoa’s first of his three terms, which began in the early 1990s, the city’s elected and appointed leaders have continued to emphasize transparency in government, which is openness, accountability, and honesty. (https://ballotpedia.org/Government_transparency)
Featured, from left: Manish Singh, MD, Chief Executive Officer, DHR Health; McAllen City Commissioner Verónica Whitacre; Dr. Guy Bailey, President, The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley; McAllen Mayor Jim Darling; John H. Krouse, MD, Executive Vice President for Health Affairs, University of Texas Rio Grande Valley and Dean, UTRGV School of Medicine; McAllen City Commissioner Javier Villalobos; and Carlos Cárdenas, MD, Chairman, Board of Managers, DHR Health. This image was taken on Wednesday, March 13, 2019 during the ribbon-cutting ceremony for the University of Texas Health Rio Grande Valley Biomedical Research Building on the DHR campus site in northeast McAllen.
Featured, from left: Sen. Juan “Chuy” Hinojosa, D-McAllen; Rep. Terry Canales, D-Edinburg; Rep. Sergio Muñoz, Jr., D-Mission; and Pharr Mayor Ambrosio Hernández, MD, Chief Medical Compliance Officer, DHR Health. The South Texas officials were on hand for the ribbon-cutting, held on Tuesday, October 8, 2019, of the Pharr Public Safety Communications Building.
Featured: Rep. Sergio Muñoz, Jr., D-Mission, on Friday, October 4, 2019, announced that he is seeking a sixth two-year term in the Texas House of Representatives for House District 36, which includes all or parts of the cities of Hidalgo, Granjeño, McAllen, Mission, Palmview and Pharr. Muñoz is one of only two Rio Grande Valley lawmakers who serve on the powerful House Committee on Appropriations, which shaped the two-year $250.7 billion state budget that went into effect on September 1, 2019.
