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The Rio Grande Valley has built its reputation on many things. Following trends with religious devotion ranks high on that list. The Dubai chocolate. The matcha lattes. Those have passed. Welcome to the Biscoff craze. You can see it everywhere: Biscoff conchas, Biscoff tres leches cake, Biscoff coffee, Somewhere between pumpkin spice season and the great oat milk revolution, Biscoff cookies infiltrated the RGV's consciousness like a paletero's bell on a Sunday afternoon. You

Sunday was brutally cold. Most people stayed inside. Food Not Bombs RGV showed up at Archer Park anyway with hot plates, used clothing, and a small pantry. Archer Park sits at 101 N Main Street in downtown McAllen. The 1.8-acre space features a gazebo, benches, and sidewalks where the city hosts community events. Online reviews describe it as well-maintained but note "occasional homeless individuals nearby" as something visitors should expect. It's not that the park has a spe

Block Walking "Good afternoon," she greeted the man. "My name is Letty Garza-Galvan. I am running for Starr County Judge." Simple. Humble. To the point. The man took a sticker and a concha from the candidate. He politely nodded his head as she explained her platform. Political campaigns have become lazy. Somewhere between crafting the perfect Instagram story and tracking TikTok analytics, candidates forgot that voters exist in three dimensions. They have doors. Those doors ca

ICE agents dined at a family-run Mexican restaurant in small-town Minnesota, paid their bill, then returned hours later to detain three hardworking employees. The January 14 operation at El Tapatio in Willmar illustrates the expanding reach of immigration enforcement under President Trump's intensified crackdown. Beyond the immediate arrests, it affects the very contributions of workers who sustain our communities, tamale wrappers, salsa stirrers, and table bussers whose labo

In the tight-knit communities of the Rio Grande Valley, where familias stick together through floods, freezes, and the endless uncertainties of border life, the idea of someone exploiting foster children for profit strikes at the heart of our deepest values. Abuelas sharing tamales across fences, primos playing lotería late into the night—these are the bonds that define us. Yet, this betrayal isn't imported from distant cities; it's unfolding right here in the Valley, conceal

The Rio Grande Valley is running out of digits, and the cultural implications cut deeper than logistics. The 956 area code, synonymous with Valley identity since its 1997 assignment, will exhaust its available number combinations by early 2027, according to the North American Numbering Plan Administration. State regulators plan to announce a new overlay code sometime in 2026, forcing the region into a telecommunications identity crisis that residents never requested. The mech

Federal lawsuits are piling up against ICE agents, Customs and Border Protection, and Kristi Noem. The constitutional violations aren't ambiguous. Quick civics refresher for anyone who slept through high school: The Fourth Amendment says the government can't search you, seize you, or break into your house without a warrant signed by a judge. Not a suggestion. Not a guideline. A constitutional requirement. The ACLU just filed a federal class action in Minnesota. The defendants

Congressman Vicente Gonzalez delivered an impassioned defense of immigrant construction workers during a January 21 hearing, emphasizing their indispensable role in America's housing market. The next day, he voted to fund the very agency responsible for deporting them. The contradiction speaks volumes about the performative nature of border district representation. "We have to be honest about that because while we talk about immigrants, 30% of construction workers in this cou

Webb County Sheriff Martin Cuellar appeared in federal court Thursday to answer charges that he transformed his law enforcement office into a personal profit center during the pandemic. The five-term sheriff faces allegations of conspiracy, theft of federal funds, and money laundering stemming from a scheme prosecutors say ran for more than two years. According to federal prosecutors, Cuellar and his assistant chief, Alejandro Gutierrez, launched Disinfect Pro Master in April

Rio Grande City Grulla ISD spent Wednesday patting itself on the back for fixing problems it should have addressed years ago. Superintendent Guadalupe Garza delivered what the district branded as a "state of the district" address, chronicling twelve months of tackling basic infrastructure failures that accumulated under previous leadership. Garza opened with calculated bluntness. "One year ago, Rio Grande City Grulla ISD began a reset, not with slogans, not with excuses, but

Picture South Texas politics as your favorite telenovela, unfolding across the ranchos of Rio Grande City, the bustling streets of McAllen, and the colonias from Roma to Brownsville. The general election in November? That’s the dramatic season finale everyone tunes in for. But the primary election is the crucial “casting episode”—the one where we, the viewers in every colonia corner, decide which characters even make it to that finale. The dramatic series of Doña Política La

Americans worship college degrees like they mean something beyond passing tests and writing papers. A diploma hanging on the wall supposedly proves intelligence, leadership ability, critical thinking. During election season, this assumption becomes genuinely dangerous when candidates treat their educational résumés as qualification enough for public office. Education and intelligence share a relationship, but they are not the same thing. Research shows schooling can improve c

The 25th Amendment has resurfaced in political discourse with the fervor of a bad penny, and this time the calls are coming from inside the Democratic house. Senator Ed Markey of Massachusetts sparked the latest round, posting a terse directive to social media after Trump sent a text message to Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre. The message linked Trump's aggressive pursuit of Greenland to his failure to win the Nobel Peace Prize. Trump's message to Støre read: "Consi

Beto O'Rourke confirmed he hasn't endorsed a candidate in the Texas Democratic Senate primary between James Talarico and Jasmine Crockett. The clarification came during an interview with the Houston Chronicle's Texas Take podcast, where O'Rourke framed his current neutrality as respect for democratic process rather than personal preference. "No, no. Look, we're the party that says it believes in democracy and self-government and the ability for people to freely and fairly cho

At Dr. Daria Milton’s clinics, care starts with the staff—not just the patients. On Friday morning, the phones go quiet. Calls are transferred, screens light up, and 47 employees across four South Texas offices—Rio Grande City, Escobares, Zapata, and the posh Pediatric Care Center Corporate Office—log into Zoom for an in-house training. Lili Ojeda, the Administrative Director, is what happens when you mix tough love with just a sprinkle of casual Friday. She has a pleasant BR

Country music singer John Rich showed up on Tucker Carlson's podcast in December 2025 and butchered scripture like someone who's never read past a single verse. "Another misconception that a lot of Christians have is that Jesus wants everybody to get along," Rich announced during the December 1st interview. "He did not say that. Jesus said, I came not to bring peace, but to bring a sword, to divide mother against father, father against son, brother against brother, because wh

As Secretary of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem now presides over one of the most powerful bureaucracies in the federal government. An agency tasked with security, law, and human consequence. What a show. Kristi Noem is not governing so much as managing a lie that has grown too large to control. It is the lie that toughness is leadership, that cruelty is clarity, and that repeating something loudly enough—no matter how false—eventually turns it into truth. Her administration d

The internet exploded when Taylor Swift and Blake Lively's private text messages surfaced in court documents, but everyone focused on the wrong scandal. Forget Justin Baldoni. The real revelation is watching two best friends navigate the brutal reality that sometimes your ride-or-die is also kind of a nightmare, and you love her anyway. Blake Lively accused Baldoni of sexual harassment during filming of "It Ends With Us" and claimed he orchestrated a smear campaign. Baldoni c

President Trump stood in the White House briefing room Tuesday, marking his first anniversary back in office, and dropped a statement that was resounding. While defending his administration's aggressive immigration enforcement operations in Minnesota, he noted that Border Patrol agents are predominantly Hispanic. According to Customs and Border Protection data, over half of Border Patrol agents serving on the southern border identify as Hispanic. Applications surged 70 percen

Thousands of people rang in 2025 standing on the Brooklyn Bridge in freezing temperatures, phones out, waiting for fireworks that were never going to happen. The show they came for existed only in their feeds. Days before New Year's Eve, TikTok and Instagram accounts flooded social media with videos showing spectacular fireworks exploding over the Brooklyn Bridge. Some footage was pure AI fabrication. Other videos recycled genuine clips from Fourth of July celebrations, repac