Governor Greg Abbott has stayed quiet on a debate invitation while his Democratic challenger keeps talking. Texas Rep. Gina Hinojosa, the Austin Democrat trying to unseat him this November, has accepted a one-hour debate slot for Oct. 15 in Fort Worth, hosted by NBC Universal Television Stations Texas and Hearst Newspapers Texas and set to air in both English and Spanish. It's the first real test of whether Abbott will face her directly, and it comes eight months into a campa

For more than a decade, immigration agents largely avoided entering places of worship to make arrests, under a "sensitive locations" policy formalized by ICE Director John Morton in October 2011. The Department of Homeland Security rescinded that policy on January 21, 2025, removing the restriction entirely. Sister Letty Ugboaja's detention this past Sunday, while walking to morning Mass in McAllen, shows what enforcement looks like without it. Sister Letty Ugboaja returned h

A man who has not set foot in Hidalgo County voluntarily in thirteen years is finally coming back, and not by choice. Omar Guerrero, 49, was arrested in Mexico on Tuesday and is now in U.S. custody, according to a news release from the Hidalgo County Sheriff's Office. District Attorney Toribio "Terry" Palacios said Wednesday that Guerrero will be back in the county within two days, the result of a joint effort between the DA's office, the sheriff's office, the U.S. Marshals,

I was looking for a book and found a newspaper article by R. Daniel Cavazos, editor of The Monitor, called "Starr: diamond in the rough," written sometime around 1994, mas o menos. A Rio Grande City businessman, Lauro Lopez, gets quoted in it, joking that the new Wal-Mart and H-E-B "SOO-PER" centers were coming because of trade with Mexico, not drugs. Decades later, Rio Grande City still has its Walmart and HEB, along with a Marshalls, a Ross, a Chick-fil-A and three differen

Pop psychology has found a new favorite scapegoat, and dad no longer holds the title. For years, "daddy issues" served as the all-purpose explanation for a woman's relationship problems, her attachment style, her taste in unavailable men. A newer contender has entered the discourse now, the mother wound, framed as far deeper and more spiritually loaded. Daddy issues counted as the easy diagnosis. The mother wound counts as the real excavation. The mother wound theory circulat

Bureau of Engraving and Printing's Mutilated Currency Division A cat once met a $100 bill at the wrong end of its claws, shredded it into confetti, and turned what should have been a minor household disaster into a six-month federal investigation. The owner gathered every scrap, mailed them to Washington, and wrote a full account of the cat's crime for government examiners who take animal-versus-currency disputes more seriously than most people would expect. Half a year later

Obama Presidential Center Chicago's South Side hosted the grand opening ceremony of the Obama Presidential Center on Thursday, an event landing on the eve of Juneteenth weekend. The livestream began at noon Eastern time, broadcasting the proceedings to anyone with an internet connection and a passing interest in presidential pageantry. The event brought together politicians, A-list celebrities, athletes, and other internationally known figures, with three former presidents jo

Japan's men's national football team failed to win its World Cup opener against the Netherlands on June 14. The match ended in a 2-2 draw. The headline that traveled faster than the highlight reel involved garbage bags. Footage of Japanese fans staying behind in the stands after the match to collect trash instead of rushing out to celebrate spread across social media within hours. American commentators praised the gesture. Many people watching the cleanup unfold in Arlington,

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. stood before a House committee in April and told the country that families getting paid to care for their disabled relatives are defrauding Medicaid. In Starr County, where more than a dozen home health agencies employ local residents and a third of families already live below the poverty line on a median household income near $38,000 a year, that accusation lands differently than it does in Washington. Kennedy singled out programs that pay relatives to

Why We Keep Trying Anyway A woman in her late thirties stands in front of a justice of the peace for the second time. She knows the odds. Sixty percent of marriages like this one end in divorce, worse than the 41 percent shot she had the first time. Nobody hands her that statistic at the altar, but she's read it, because women like her read everything before they sign anything. She signs on the dotted line, because that's what ink is for, to seal contracts that are meant to l

Saturday night at the Washington Hilton Saturday night at the Washington Hilton was supposed to be Washington's most famous dinner party. It became something else entirely. Cole Tomas Allen, 31, charged a security checkpoint at 8:36 p.m. armed with a shotgun, a handgun, and multiple knives, firing at a Secret Service agent before being tackled and arrested at the scene. A Secret Service officer was struck by at least one round but was protected by a bulletproof vest and is ex

Guillen has appeared on the ballot in Starr County for more than two decades. Ryan Guillen grew up working at his family's feed store in Rio Grande City. That was his first education in how Starr County works — who needs something, and who has it. He went on to earn a bachelor's degree in agriculture from Texas A&M University, briefly taught high school agriculture, and then pursued public office. Guillen was elected to the Texas House in 2002 at 24 years old and took office

USDA has confirmed six cases of New World screwworm in Texas livestock Ken Paxton has spent the last year positioning himself as the Trump administration's most reliable Texas ally. That positioning now sits alongside an active screwworm outbreak spreading through South and Central Texas ranch country. USDA has confirmed six cases of New World screwworm in Texas livestock since June 3, with confirmed infections in Zavala, La Salle, Gillespie, and Edwards counties. The Texas A

Jeff Bezos Says Billionaire Taxes Won’t Save the Working Class During the conversation with CNBC’s Andrew Ross Sorkin, Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, rejects claims accusing him of avoiding taxes and says he pays “billions of dollars” in taxes. Bezos also argues larger taxes on billionaires fail to resolve broader economic pressures facing working Americans. Later in the interview, he rejects claims tying Airbnb to rising rent prices and points toward New York City’s rest

Flying to Cabo San Lucas usually belongs in a different budget than driving to South Padre Island. Rio Grande Valley families have long treated one as an international vacation and the other as the beach trip close enough to happen on short notice. Holiday pricing blurs that distinction, and a Facebook post by George Rice captures the surprise by arguing a Fourth of July trip to Cabo costs about the same as spending the holiday weekend on South Padre Island. A search for July

Rio Grande City Mayor Gilberto Falcon has issued two public denials in response to a Facebook Reel that referenced a 2017 Starr County district court docket bearing his name, calling the allegation "fraudulent" and "fake." Falcon was elected mayor of Rio Grande City in 2024, defeating incumbent Joel Villarreal with 52 percent of the vote as part of the Independent Leadership slate. He is a licensed attorney who has practiced law in Rio Grande City for roughly 17 years, with h

Gina Hinojosa Takes the School Fight Statewide Texas school districts are closing campuses at a pace public school advocates describe as a crisis. Gina Hinojosa, the Democratic nominee for Texas governor, launched Team Texas Public Schools on Monday, a nonpartisan organizing program designed to mobilize parents, teachers, and administrators across party lines to fight school closures statewide. Hinojosa unveiled the program at Pease Elementary in Austin, a campus opened in 18

The Outgoing Commissioner and the Democrat Who Agrees With Him Sid Miller has never been mistaken for a political moderate. The three-term Texas agriculture commissioner built his career on MAGA loyalty, Trump endorsements, and a public persona that thrived on confrontation. His announcement that he would share a stage with Clayton Tucker, the Democratic nominee running to replace him, landed accordingly. The two are scheduled to appear together at a forum on June 11 at the M

On the morning of July 4, 2025, the Guadalupe River rose 26 feet in 45 minutes. Girls as young as 7 were asleep in cabins fewer than 225 feet from the riverbank. Camp Mystic had no written evacuation plan, no emergency drills, no walkie-talkies, and a policy prohibiting campers from keeping phones in their cabins. Twenty-five children and two counselors were killed in the flood. For about two weeks, the country was inconsolable. This is not a new story. It is, by now, a patte

In 2009, Chris Brown pleaded guilty to felony assault after beating Rihanna on the eve of the Grammy Awards. She filed a restraining order. Three years later, she took him back. By 2013, they split for the final time. Forgiveness did not save her from the cycle. It extended it. The behavior did not stop with Rihanna. In 2017, his then ex-girlfriend, actress Karrueche Tran, obtained a five-year restraining order against him after alleging he had threatened her with violence. A