Category Archives: Industry

SBA Funds Service-Disabled Veterans Training

training

The U.S. Small Business Administration is now providing a new funding opportunity to provide entrepreneurship training to service-disabled veterans. The funding is available to non-profit organizations, state and local government agencies, private sector firms, and institutions of higher learning. The awarded organization(s) can use the funding to market, deliver and scale existing service-disabled veteran entrepreneurs’ training programs for veterans, service-disabled veterans, and Reserve component members who intend to start new…

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Commercial Gulf Shrimp Season Opens July 15

shrimp

The Gulf of Mexico commercial shrimp season for both state and federal waters will reopen 30 minutes after sunset on July 15. Biologists evaluate the biological, social and economic impact when deciding the opening date to maximize the benefits to the industry and the public. In making its determination, the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department’s Coastal Fisheries Division used the best available data from samples collected during routine trawls and…

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Improvement Project Signing Ceremony Propels Port Forward

The Brownsville Navigation District and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers signed a joint agreement on July 6 for Phase 2 of the Brazos Island Harbor Channel Improvement Project. The agreement advances the project’s timeline to begin work on deepening the ship channel from 42 feet to 52 feet. This will result in significant navigational safety improvements for commercial shipping in South Texas. The BIH project will further increase the…

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TWC Takes Action to Address Healthcare Worker Shortages

healthcare

The Texas Workforce Commission recently voted to suspend multiple program rules that only allowed private sector apprenticeships and limited Skills Development Fund grants to private industry, citing public necessity with a critical shortage of healthcare workers. These changes will permit the agency to provide funds to train apprentices and other employees in public sector healthcare occupations previously exempted from participation. “This is another vital step in bridging the middle skills…

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Caterer Takes Baking To Higher Level

A food truck featuring goodies from Peggy's Cakes & More sets up shop at a Harlingen market.

Peggy Harris offers a full-catering menu from her rural Cameron County on a farm-to-market road that still looks like the Rio Grande Valley of citrus groves and sorghum fields. A mother cow with its young calf munch in a pasture near the garage space-turned-commercial kitchen where Harris has set up her Peggy’s Cakes & More. She said her business has outgrown the compact and efficient kitchen from which she caters…

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Sheriff’s Office: Being Prepared Saves Lives

The primitive reaction to a crisis is to run, hide, fight. However, without a proactive plan in place, recent events have shown a complete failure to use these primitive instincts.

Seconds matter. Awareness and preparation matter.  The Hidalgo County Sheriff’s Office, in partnership with DHR Health, invited the public to a free, two-hour Active Shooter/Critical Incident Training on June 8 at the Edinburg Conference Center at Renaissance. Senior deputy Rick Garcia stressed the importance of awareness and preparation in his presentations.  Hidalgo County Sheriff Eddie Guerra said over 45,000 civilians across the state have been trained with sessions done at…

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Cinemark Brings Moviegoers Back In RGV

Cinemark theaters in the Rio Grande Valley are gradually seeing a return of moviegoers.

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…

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Rusteberg Dedicated Life & Work To Brownsville

A wall of honor at IBC-Brownsville lauds the legacy of Fred W. Rusteberg.

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…

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Large Travel Center & New Restaurants Coming To Mercedes

A new travel center in Mercedes will feature a 12,000-square-foot main area with a Wendy's, a deli, store and a large number of bathrooms. (Courtesy)

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…

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Comics Store ‘Pops’ At Brownsville Mall

Collectibles lead the way when it comes to revenues generated at The Comic Cave.

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…

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