Category Archives: News

Working on the Dock of the Bay

When the first cargo vessel was docking at the new Port of Brownsville in 1936, a young Richard L. Ostos was there to catch a line thrown from the vessel. Eighty years later, his grandson R. Lee Ostos is a major presence at the same port as president of Dix Shipping, the region’s largest and oldest stevedoring and steamship agent. In the years between, what began as Dick’s Shipping made…

Conversation with an executive coach

Jose Cruz Jr. is the executive coach with Sotelo & Associates LLC. He has 22 years of experience in higher education administration and was vice president at South Texas College. Cruz, who holds an MBA and also provides corporate training and retreat facilitation, talked with VBR’s editor about his work. Q What do you do as an executive coach? A I’m a sounding board, a mirror and a confidant for…

Apartments — At home in a community

Helping people dream

Dr. Noel Lopez, board certified in Family Medicine, developed obstructive sleep apnea, a condition where a person stops breathing repeatedly while sleeping. The lack of oxygen wakes them up for a second or two, sometimes hundreds of times each night. People with sleep apnea never achieve quality sleep or reach a point where they actually get rest. As Dr. Lopez studied apnea and other sleep disorders, he realized that many…

Digging deep to shed light

When SpaceX decided to build their rocket launch site at Boca Chica Beach, as good corporate citizens the company ordered an archeological survey of the entire area around the control facility and launch parcels. For Jack Keller, principal investigator for Southern Archeological Consultants Inc., the job was a short drive from his office in Bayview. Two bridges once ran from Boca Chica Island to the mainland: Gen. Zachary Taylor’s wagon…

Closing the doors after 95 years

Just before Thanksgiving, Tom Weekly learned that the building Whalen’s Furniture leased on Business 83 in McAllen had been sold and the lease lost. He made a tough decision: after 95 years, Whalen’s, the oldest family-owned, continuously operated furniture store in the Valley, would close Jan. 31. That date marked the end of an era which comprised four generations of customers and begin with a store that grew from a…

Marketing to Millennials

UTRGV SBDC

Did you know that the Rio Grande Valley has over 330,000 Millennials? This is approximately 25% of the local population, according to the Texas State Data Center. In 2015, Millennials — individuals between the ages of 18-34 — also became the largest, generational segment in the United States, numbering 83.1 million, per the U.S. Census Bureau. As a small business owner, it is important to note that Millennials exert significant…

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