Rio Grande Guardian's Podcast

EDINBURG, Texas - The chief medical officer for DHR Health says politics does not always sit well with health and science. Dr. Robert Martinez urged residents of the Rio Grande Valley to continue adhere to guidelines issued by the Centers for Disease Control. “The (COVID-19) vaccine is the light at the end of the tunnel, however, that tunnel continues to be long. Fresh this morning some new guidel...

MCALLEN, Texas - The McAllen Area Rotary Clubs recently held a virtual McAllen mayoral candidate debate. All five candidates appeared. They are: Othal Brand, Jr., Michael Fallek, Dr. Shahid Rashid, Veronica Vela Whitacre, and Javier Villalobos.  The candidates explained who they are and why they are running for mayor. They were asked what challenges McAllen faces and also took a question about the...

PHARR, Texas - At a recent function to launch the Pharr EDC Foundation, Pharr Mayor Ambrosio Hernandez mentioned how his city is ahead of the curve. He said he had read a story in a local newspaper about how Gov. Greg Abbott was supporting a plan to have the elderly and infirm vaccinated against COVID-19 in their own home. The advantage of this being that this population would not have to wait for...

PHARR, Texas - Pharr International Bridge sponsored a webinar recently to discuss what happened to world trade in 2020 and to gaze into the crystal ball. The host was Ken Roberts, president of WorldCity. Roberts produces an annual book for the City of Pharr called Trade Numbers. The 2020 version analyzes Pharr’s $36.68 billion worth of trade with the world. Another key speaker on the webinar was G...

MCALLEN, Texas - Michael Fallek says he will continue McAllen’s historic connections to international trade and commerce if he is elected mayor of the city.  The businessman and community leader made clear his support for the maquiladora industry in an exclusive audio interview. The podcast is part of the Rio Grande Guardian’s Meet the Candidates series. “It (cross-border trade) is a absolutely cr...

BROWNSVILLE, Texas - Brownsville Community Improvement Corporation’s second annual StartUp Texas Pitch Summit will take place on March 11. It was to have taken place on Feb. 26 but last week’s storms affected some of the applicants. The seed fund program is part of BCIC’s ongoing efforts to cultivate a culture and ecosystem of entrepreneurship in Brownsville and the greater Rio Grande Valley.  “Th...

RIO GRANDE CITY, Texas - Starr County leaders want to know why the state is allocating them a small amount of coronavirus vaccines.  The county has a population of around 70,000. It is only getting about 1,000 vaccines a week. So, at this rate it will take more than a year to vaccinate everyone.  The leaders say it cannot be that they are getting such a miserly amount of vaccines because they are...

RIO GRANDE CITY, Texas - Going forward, state Rep. Ryan Guillen wants to see hospitals and nursing homes given priority when power is switched off during extreme weather conditions. The Rio Grande City Democrat spoke about the deadly winter freeze during a roundtable discussion held at Starr County Memorial Hospital and organized by U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar. The event was organized to discuss the r...

LAREDO, Texas - Congressman Henry Cuellar held a news conference with local Webb County shelters on Friday to discuss an increase in migrant individuals released at the southern border. The news conference went out live as a webinar on Zoom and Facebook so that Cuellar’s constituents in other parts of the district could watch. Among those on the webinar was Sister Norma Pimental of Catholic Charit...

MCALLEN, Texas – Three topics will be featured during an international trade webinar being hosted next Thursday by the McAllen Economic Development Corporation. The topics are: an update on how USMCA is working, the impact of COVID-19 on cross-border commerce, and the agenda the Biden Administration might follow for international trade. “This webinar is free. It is a service to our companies or ou...

AUSTIN, Texas - A recent Senate Special Committee on Redistricting hearing designed to hear testimony from Rio Grande Valley residents only heard from two. The two were Harlingen Mayor Chris Boswell and Brownsville community leader Michael Seifert. Their testimony has been covered by the Rio Grande Guardian. Click here to read about Boswell’s remarks. Click here to read what Seifert said. The rest...

EDINBURG, Texas - Dr. Linda Villarreal, president elect of the Texas Medical Association, says she supports Medicaid Expansion. Villarreal, a practicing physician based in Edinburg, Texas, recently spoke on a webinar hosted by the Mexican American Legislative Caucus.  On the subject of access to healthcare, Villarreal said: “We have a problem and it has been a problem for over a decade or more. I...

WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Rep. Vicente Gonzalez said he is confident the new Biden Administration can deliver on its promise to pass comprehensive immigration reform. Success with such a bill would finally allow around 11 million undocumented residents to come out of the shadows and enter a pathway to citizenship that could take eight years to complete. The pathway would likely be limited to those w...

PHARR, Texas - Reflecting the increased market share the Pharr International Bridge has gained for the import of fruits and vegetables from Mexico, the city’s 92-acre Pharr Produce District is now almost full. When the park opened a few years ago there were 32 lots available for development. Now, just a handful remain. This and other information related to the import and export of fresh produce at...

HARLINGEN, Texas - President-elect Joe Biden is reported to be considering a $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief plan that will include $1,400 for most Americans. In the waning days of the 116th Congress a smaller stimulus bill was passed worth $900 million. It included giving most Americans $600. In the attached podcast, Rev Torres of the Texas Taxpayer Assistance Project discusses this smaller stim...

WESLACO, TEXAS - A shift in shopping habits brought about by the coronavirus pandemic has boosted sales tax revenues for smaller communities in the Rio Grande Valley. Matt Ruszczak, executive director of Rio South Texas Economic Council, analyzed these developments in an 2020 end-of-year report. His report was based on information released by the Texas Comptroller’s Office. “The COVID shift, looki...

WESLACO, Texas - Matt Ruszczak’s end of year report for sales tax revenue activity in the Rio Grande Valley shows the region outperformed the state of Texas.  Every month the executive director of Rio South Texas Economic Council analyzes numbers put out by the Texas Comptroller’s Office.  His December report looked at sales tax revenue collections from November 2019 to October 2020. While Texas a...

HARLINGEN, Texas - Immediately following a news conference hosted by Harlingen Mayor Chris Boswell, Valley Baptist Health System CEO Manny Vela asked for forgiveness for being so impassioned. In his remarks from the podium, Vela had made an impassioned plea for Cameron County residents to adhere to best practices in the fight to stem the surge of COVID-19. He noted that hospitalizations for the vi...

LAREDO, Texas - U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar says he intends to bring at least four cabinet secretaries to the South Texas border region once President-elect Biden is sworn into office. Cuellar is critical of the way President Trump’s cabinet secretaries, when visiting the border region, would not meet with the business community or environmental leaders. Instead, he said, they only focused on the bord...

MISSION, Texas - U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar says Congress is pumping an additional $7 billion into broadband connectivity. The Laredo Democrat welcomed the appropriation, arguing that the funding is needed along the U.S.-Mexico border and in rural areas. He said improving internet access will be one of his top issues in 2021. “We added about $7 billion for broadband connectivity,” Cuellar said. “I th...

EDINBURG, TEXAS - Dr. Ivan Melendez, Hidalgo County’s local health authority, has given his wrap-up on 2020, a year like no other for his profession. At times during the year, Hidalgo County led the nation in deaths and hospitalization rates caused by the coronavirus pandemic. Indeed, at one point, Melendez, a frontline healthcare hero, himself tested positive for COVID-19. While things appear to...

EDINBURG, Texas - During a recent press conference, the dean of the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley School of Medicine, Dr. John Krouse, announced that the first priority of distribution for the COVID-19 vaccine will be the frontline health professionals.  I asked Internal Medicine Physician with UT Health RGV, Dr. Chelsea Chang, if there were any side effects from the vaccine so far. I also...

BROWNSVILLE, Texas - State Rep. Terry Canales, chair of the House Committee on Transportation, says he intends to launch a port caucus when the 87th legislative session starts next month. The Edinburg Democrat made the announcement during a virtual town hall meeting he hosted recently with the Port of Brownsville. He said more funding needs to be made at ports of entry.  “We know that 18-wheelers,...

MCALLEN, Texas - McAllen City Manager Roy Rodriguez says Anzalduas International Bridge will be “game changer” for the Rio Grande Valley and the state of Texas - once it can take trucks carrying cargo. At the moment, Anzalduas can take empty trucks going southbound into Mexico. That should change soon, Rodriguez said, during a webinar hosted by the Rio Grande Valley Partnership. The webinar showca...

EDINBURG, Texas - Dr. Manish Singh, MD, chief executive officer of DHR Health, says Wednesday, Dec. 16, 2020, will go down in history in the Rio Grande Valley. It was the day his hospital started inoculating frontline healthcare workers against COVID-19 with the new vaccine produced by Pfizer. “This is an historic moment we all are witnessing. Fifteen or 20 years from now we will all look back and...