Category Archives: Industry

TWC Grant Funds Medical Training

e-Brief Features Education Healthcare News Comments

The Workforce Development and Continuing Education department at Texas State Technical College, in partnership with Valley Baptist Medical Center in Harlingen, is the recipient of a Skills Development Fund grant for customized job training. The $301,238 Texas Workforce Commission grant currently provides technical skills training for 155 Valley Baptist Medical Center employees. Customized raining will continue for one year for positions such as certified nursing assistants, registered nurses and nurse managers. The training focuses…

Read More

Rio Grande LNG On Track

e-Brief Features Featured Manufacturing/Industrial News Comments
Rio Grande LNG

Rio Grande LNG recently announced a major milestone that puts the project on track to receive federal authorization in July 2019 to proceed with construction. This timing is based on the Notice of Schedule released Aug. 31 by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. The federal agency reviews and permits all liquefied natural gas projects in the United States. This Notice of Schedule sets the dates for the final steps leading…

Read More

Symposium Addresses Healthcare Disparities

Education Events Featured Healthcare News Comments
Students are able to show their research at the School of Medicine Research Symposium. (photo Silver Salas, UTRGV)

From advances in studying determinants of health, to public health initiatives to combat obesity and patient case studies, researchers from across the country and world gathered recently at The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley School of Medicine’s second annual Research Symposium to discuss how they are addressing disparities in healthcare. “Health Disparities 2018: Closing the Gap” featured keynote speaker Maria Elena Bottazzi, associate dean of the National School of…

Read More

Venue Gives Valley Boost

Arts Featured Food & Entertainment News Recreation & Tourism Transportation & Travel Comments

Welcomed with great fanfare and full houses, the $88-million, 219,000-square-foot Bert Ogden Arena opens a new chapter in the Rio Grande Valley as the largest entertainment venue in South Texas and a boon for regional economic development. An estimated 5,000 people turned out for grand-opening ceremonies and arena tours in August, entertainer Luis Miguel performed a sold-out concert in September, followed by a near sell-out for a WWE wrestling card.…

Read More

Comeback in Brownsville

Food & Entertainment News Recreation & Tourism Comments
Mariachis perform at Noche de Garibaldi in downtown Brownsville. The musical event was patterned after the music scene in Mexico City’s Garibaldi Plaza. (VBR)

Downtown Brownsville is a happening place again. The once thriving central business district is undergoing a major transformation, and much of the credit is going to the city’s leadership and to the progressive vision of some of its residents. Brownsville’s downtown used to be a place bustling with people shopping for a variety of merchandise, ranging from fashionable clothes to ropa usada to household goods to furniture to gadgets of…

Read More

Love of Golf Drives Business

Recreation & Tourism Retail Comments
Elliott’s Custom Golf owner Tim Elliott replaces the grip on a customer’s golf club. (VBR)

A bad motorcycle accident changed Tim Elliott’s life, sending him down a new road toward owning his own business. After almost losing a leg and unable to return to work as part of the Walmart management team, the once-athletic Elliott immersed himself in the study of golf and golf equipment. It was the only sport he thought he would ever be able to play again. “I read Golf Digest and…

Read More

Floods and Fighting Back

Professional Services Comments
SS Auto Body Solutions owners Rachel Hinojosa and Rene Moreno next to a classic car in their shop. (VBR)

“In life you have to take chances. Sometimes the biggest risk you can take is not taking one,” said Rachel Hinojosa. Last year, she and her husband Rene Moreno opted to take a more active risk with their business SS Auto Body Solutions. In November 2017, one year after the couple had opened SS Auto Body Solutions in Harlingen, they jumped at the opportunity to lease a Mercedes building with…

Read More

Merger Opens New Markets

News Professional Services Real Estate Comments
Michael Blum and Edward Villarreal in front of their new McAllen office following the merger of their commercial real estate companies. (VBR)

After years of discussion and negotiation, a new merger has created one of the largest independently owned full-service commercial brokerage real estate firms in South Texas. Michael Blum, partner and managing broker of NAI Rio Grande Valley; Charles Mueller, managing partner of Synergis Realty Group, LLC, owner of NAI Rio Grande Valley; and Edward Villarreal, owner of South Texas Commercial Real Estate, recently signed off on the merger that has…

Read More

Mesquite Delivers Flavor

Agriculture Food & Entertainment News Comments
Victoria Cappadona harvests mesquite beans from South Texas ranches to make Cappadona Ranch products. (Courtesy)

Looking out over drought-parched ranchlands in 2012, Victoria Cappadona noticed one native type of vegetation holding forth, keeping its green amidst the dryness. It was the mesquite, the indestructible and ubiquitous South Texas tree with its golden string of bean pods hanging down like ribbons. Cappadona, a McAllen native now living in the Linn-San Manuel ranch country of northern Hidalgo County, remarked to her father-in-law about the tenacity of the…

Read More

Historic Home Finds New Life

Food & Entertainment Transportation & Travel Comments
The historic home was a winter retreat for three-time Democratic presidential nominee William Jennings Bryan and his family. (VBR)

The landmark house on the corner of Bryan Road and 2 Mile Line in Mission was long a source of interest for Ariel King, as it is for many area residents. The stately home with its early 1900s architecture and style has been part of Mission for nearly as long as the city has existed. It was just after the turn of a long bygone century that William Jennings Bryan,…

Read More