Category Archives: News

Free Tax Preparation At STC Returns

Community Events e-Brief Features Featured News Comments
STC’s Volunteer Income Tax Assistance office is now open until March 10 by appointment. (photo STC)

South Texas College’s longest-standing community events, the Volunteer Income Tax Assistant program for taxpayers, returns this year after a two-year hiatus.  The program has long assisted Rio Grande Valley community residents by offering free tax preparation for those who make $60,000 or less. People with disabilities or limited English-speaking taxpayers also qualify. The STC VITA office at the Pecan campus, Building T, Room 1.702, is now open from 9 a.m.…

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TSC Opens New Diesel Mechanics And Pipefitting Labs 

e-Brief Features Education News Comments

Texas Southmost College is upping the game when it comes to hands-on career training at the ITEC Center on Mexico Boulevard in Brownsville. Last month, the 96-year-old institute of higher learning cut the ribbon on two new learning labs for diesel mechanics and pipefitting. The labs will bolster the offerings for students looking to get trained, certified and start a high-paying career fast. The college has invested in the ITEC…

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Boutique Hotel Highlights PI Charm 

Featured News Recreation & Tourism Comments

The Lighthouse Boutique Hotel is “coastal but subtle.” It’s a description of the Port Isabel hotel as given by one of its owners, Ana Martha Diaz. The two-story, 8,000-square-foot building sits across the street from an 1850s-era lighthouse, providing a name and sense of place for the specialty hotel. It stands on the land that was the site of a military depot built during the U.S.-Mexican War of the mid-19th…

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Clinics Feature Connection To Patients

Healthcare News Comments
Angela Menchaca, a PA, cares for a young patient at her Weslaco clinic. (Courtesy)

Angela Menchaca was a busy physician assistant, rotating among cardiac clinics in Edinburg when she felt the pull to be closer to her Weslaco home with a young daughter to raise. Her best option was one she knew well. Her husband, Michael, is a family nurse practitioner who has opened a direct primary care clinic in Harlingen. It’s not a clinic like many others with long patient waits. There are…

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National Honor Caps Career For SPI Businessman

News Real Estate Comments
Arine Creinin with family members and friends at a late 2022 convention in Las Vegas, where was honored for being a top chief executive officer. (Courtesy)

A letter from a former president said it all in expressing appreciation for a job well done. “Nancy and I know how much work goes into the preparation of such wonderful meals, and we greatly appreciate all you did,” wrote Ronald Reagan in an August 1992 letter to Arnie Creinin. “Thanks to you and your staff, our stay was delightful!” It wasn’t the first time Creinin had cooked for President…

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Place Eggs In Carton Carefully

Business Advice News Comments

Entrepreneurs are hustlers, multitaskers and at least slightly hyper — go, go, go and sleep deprived. The number of projects in full motion simultaneously would cause a non-entrepreneur to have stress attacks. For many, no two projects are in the same stages. A drawing illustrating active phases would replicate a spaghetti hurricane model five days before landfall. A seasoned and successful entrepreneur is in control of a limited number of…

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Developers Adding To Growth In North McAllen

News Retail Comments
Sam’s Trenton Plaza leads the way from Sam’s Club to Trenton Road.

Banners began appearing in late 2022 above storefronts at Sam’s Trenton Plaza Phase II in McAllen. The west side of Phase I faces Trenton and then wraps around as if highlighting the path for customers heading to Sam’s Club. Phase II rests immediately to the north of Phase I. It’s all part of the bustling growth and traffic in north McAllen. In this case, it’s the broad area of 10th…

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Consulting Company Rises To Success From Mercedes

News Professional Services Comments
Dr. Barbara Baggerly-Hinojosa says being based in Mercedes and the Valley is a key part of her company's success with statewide and national clients.

A stately and historic home on Missouri Avenue in Mercedes needed work after years of neglect. Beyond its then-rough exterior, Dr. Barbara Baggerly-Hinojosa and her husband, C.A., saw great potential.  Baggerly-Hinojosa was looking for a corporate office for her Leadership Empowerment Group. Hinojosa, a Mercedes native, encouraged his wife to look at the city as a Mid-Valley hub to grow her business. They would settle on 805 S. Missouri –…

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Chamber Leader Rises To National Honor

Community News Comments
Danielle Rodriguez is one of the Association of Chamber of Commerce Executives's top 40 under 40 chamber executives.

Danielle Rodriguez’s first job is the one she currently holds. Technically, Rodriguez’s initial job at the Brownsville Chamber of Commerce held a different title, but she views it as a continuation of the opportunities given to her by Esmeralda Villarreal, the chamber’s chief executive officer. Starting as an intern in college, Rodriguez has worked her way up, diligently, learning and growing in a rising career. She is today the Brownsville…

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STC And Matamoros University Enter Partnership

Education Featured News Comments

South Texas College continues to expand its partnerships across the border with a new letter of intent for collaboration with the Universidad Tecnológica de Matamoros that could promote the economic development of the region. “Texas and the Valley, like the rest of the country, are facing a manpower shortage and Mexico and the border partnerships we forge may well be the solution to the continued prosperity of our region,” said…

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