When it comes to Texas citrus, the Rio Grande Valley has no competitors. While consumption of Valley red grapefruit is growing nationally, sales of Florida and California grapefruit are decreasing. This season, Valley packing houses expect to ship between nine and ten million cartons of citrus, primarily grapefruit. Marketed under the names Ruby Red, Rio Star and Rio Red, Texas grapefruit attracts consumers because of its color, but the naturally…
Every Human Resources Department writes employment advertisements that paint the same dream candidate. In one way or another, every job posting looks and sounds like this. GREAT EMPLOYEE WANTED “Top company is looking for a person who wants to work! Someone who understands workplace values, like showing up on time, respect for authority and meeting deadlines. We expect our employees to dress appropriately, be goal oriented and follow through on…
The bottom line is not the only measure of a successful business. Keeping more than 13 million pounds of waste annually out of a landfill means success to Ruben Guerrero Jr., plant manager of his family-owned business, Brownsville Scrap Paper, Inc. The dynamics are two-fold, no matter how you say it – reuse, repurpose, recycle, upcycle. Trash comes in; trash goes out. The lucrative business has plenty of markets in…
When a Genco Energy Services salesman realized a generator belonging to the oil-field-service company had disappeared overnight from a site near Encino, he notified the main office in McAllen. President Murray Meggison, who started Genco in 1996, called Equipment Deport in Donna which had leased him the generator. Equipped with a GPS unit, the missing generator was easily tracked to a Hidalgo warehouse and found that day at a freight…
The rigid businessman’s dress code of 50 years ago — dark suits, hats, cuff links, long socks — has faded away. Today business clothing for men and women seeks to convey tasteful, effortless style. The goal still is to look professional, confident and worthy of clients’ trust. Business attire is trending to natural shoulders, flexible collars and comfort, with greater leeway accepted in the creative fields and on Casual Fridays. …
A kitchen accident requiring emergency room stitches led Sam Shipp and his wife Jen to invent the Knife Glider, a tool designed to prevent injuries while using a sharp knife. To raise money to develop and fine tune their kitchen accessory, Sam Shipp, who has an MBA, turned to non-traditional resources: crowd funding and venture capital funds. Shipp choose Indiegogo, an international crowd funding platform, to solicit $10,000 in contributions…
Be afraid. Or even better, be afraid and alert. You and your computers are vulnerable to cybercrime: hacking and viruses, which lead to crashes and the loss of your data, sensitive information and money. If your computer is running slower than before, you probably have a virus, according to Victor Leal, owner of CyberNation. Even with reliable antivirus software from AVG, Norton or MacAfee, computer viruses along with malware, worms…
Donna farmer John Billman read a farm magazine story that changed his life. “I was trying to find ways to bring more customers to my vegetable stand,” he said. The article on corn mazes intrigued him enough to call the family it profiled. “For the next two years, my farmer friends all said I was crazy, talking about mazes and that no one was going to pay money to go…
Hunting season seems to start in the Rio Grande Valley when brothers Justin and Chris Curl put on their annual Texas Hunters and Sportsman Expo. While whitewing dove season officially opens in September, the three-day, mid-July expo ramps up the anticipation for hunters the way that Christmas decorations get kids excited for Santa Claus’ arrival. Hunters begin to prep their gear and consider upgrading to the newest products on the…
For Chuck Kennedy, the hot new field of 3D printing is not that new. He has been in the industry for 20 years, going back to the days when the process was known as rapid prototyping. Originally an engineering technician for the earliest machines, Kennedy started his own equipment service company specializing in Polyjet ™3D printers in 2006. In May 2012, Kennedy launched his EDGE PDM in Oregon and began…