Without a properly-drafted Texas will, the cost of administering your estate will be expensive and time consuming. Texas has a unique system of independent administration that makes the cost of probating an estate relatively inexpensive.  But this independent administration process is available only if you have a properly-drafted will that contains the necessary language.  With a properly-drafted will, a single court filing and appearance can lead to issuance of documents that authorize your administrator to pay your debts and dispose of…

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With hard work, penny-pinching and a goal, Janie Garza and her friend Angie Moreno were able to open Advanced Barber College & Hair Design Inc. in Weslaco nearly 30 years ago. Success hasn’t come easily. At age 14, Garza was kicked out of school for talking back to a school secretary. “The state required that my mom put me in school. The only school that would accept me was beauty school,” Garza said. She…

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Hurricane season brings an annual flurry of disaster mangement forums focused on being prepared to respond when a disaster overwhelms a community.   In contrast, disaster resiliency emphasizes a proactive rather than a reactive approach to a weather-related calamity by trying to avoid or lessen the impact on humans and the built landscape. The Disaster Resiliency Symposium, organized by the FIRE (fire, insurance and real estate) students of UTPA’s College of Business Administration, addressed topics such as hazard mitigation planning, cross-border resilience, and examples of successful resilience strategies and policies. “We flood…

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Who hasn’t passed an old building and wondered what it was like in its heyday, when shop owners lived above their stores?  To highlight contemporary loft living on Jackson Avenue, Downtown Harlingen Manager Cheryl LaBerge partnered with the Harlingen Board of Realtors for a Living It Up Downtown tour. Harlingen is the only Valley city developing and promoting loft living, which is popular in big city downtowns. Downtown Harlingen is a destination with family-owned restaurants,…

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When you notice a car with Cazares Driving School lettered on its side, you tend to give the student drivers plenty of leeway. But the students, who range in age from 15-72 years old, are learning driving skills from a corps of skilled instructors. Jose Luis Cazares had retired from careers as an Army master sergeant and a teacher before he opened the Cazares Defensive Driving School in 2000.  The next year, he asked his daughter Aida Martinez, a teacher, to…

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The 500,000 backyard citrus trees in the Rio Grande Valley represent the biggest problem facing the Rio Grande Valley’s citrus industry as it tackles the devastating disease known as citrus greening.  The annual farm-gate value of the Valley’s citrus crop is $72 million.  Associated businesses  — packers, shippers, implement and crop care suppliers — bring the industry’s overall economic contribution to the region to $134 million “If we go by Florida’s experience since 2004, 100% of their citrus has been infected” with citrus greening, said…

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