Fred W. Rusteberg was known as a gentleman, a soft-spoken and persistent advocate for his banking company and community. Rusteberg could also bring it, when need be, a steely resolve emerging when he saw an injustice or inequity that required a challenge. One of those times occurred about 20 years ago when the chancellor of the University of Texas System visited Brownsville. It was to be a festive occasion in…
For Steven Rodriguez, there’s streaming television viewing at home – and then there’s the movies. “The experience of the big screen is something you can’t get at home,” Rodriguez said recently at the Cinemark 16 in Harlingen. “Any big movie, a Marvel or DC, we make a date and we’re here. Let’s get our popcorn and watch it on a big screen.” It’s the movie-returning demographic that the Plano-based Cinemark…
The Expressway 83 space near the Rio Grande Valley Premium Outlets will soon have a major restaurant and fueling stop development as a 12,000-square-foot travel center comes to Mercedes. Waxahachie-based Victron Energy Inc. has broken ground on the development, which will be located on the intersection of the expressway’s frontage road and Mile 2 E Road. The travel center will serve as the centerpiece of the development, which will also…
The Incredible Hulk towers over the entrance of The Comic Cave Sunrise Mall. Walk into the store and it’s a visual delight of historic comic books mixed in with newer versions along with an array of collectibles, figurines and playing cards. Stroll through the aisles and discover how superheroes like Batman, Superman and Spider-Man have changed over the years in the comic books of different eras. Go to one corner…
The Brownsville Community Improvement Corporation hosted its third annual StartUp Texas Pitch Summit on June 16 and selected one grand prize winner among nine competitors. Valley Tire Recycling took home the top honors and $25,000 in seed funding for their new venture in Brownsville. The other eight candidates will each receive six months of incubation and business support services from the BCIC. By design, the Pitch Summit recognizes emerging startup…
The Rio Grande Valley has increasingly developed and opened nature and wildlife parks that draw eco-tourists from around the country in their search for native and migrating birds. Many wildlife enthusiasts recognize the Valley as the top birding spot in the United States. The uniqueness of the region as a premier wildlife area is something many of the region’s parks and community birding centers are working to convey to local…
Richard Kline surveyed a patch of the Gulf of Mexico about 15 miles northeast of the South Padre Island jetties and found a mostly watery lifeless bottom. “There were almost no fish in that whole 2.5-square-mile area,” said Kline, a professor of marine sciences at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. “Now, there are hundreds of thousands or more.” The difference between back then – before 2015 – and…
In family photos, she is the proud little girl, standing by her father, the skillful fisherman. Diamond Hernandez beams in the photos, helping her Dad, Rick Martinez, hold up a big catch of fish bunched up at the end of a line. “I remember my dad winning contests and getting TVs,” Hernandez said of his dad’s prize-winning fishing. “I’d think, ‘I want to do that.’” The family that fishes together…
The South Texas Chile Co. is on a dual-track mission that sets it apart from other Rio Grande Valley nurseries. The first goal is to grow all the chiles, “from jalapeno to the wild chiles like chile de monte,” as the nursery’s website states. The Raymondville nursery does offer more standard plant choices such as cucumbers and beans, but it has set out to be the chile specialty nursery of…
Finding a new entertainment option on South Padre Island that can gain traction isn’t easily pulled off. A former oilfield worker with an infinity for Island life decided to give it a try. Homer Garcia reached into his bag of ideas and came up with a 15-seat bicycle rig where peddling is shared and fun is had. “It’s pretty much a moving bar,” Garcia said of what’s experienced at his…