Area News

Citing a concern in the rise of new COVID-19 cases in the county, Hidalgo County Judge Richard F. Cortez signed an order requiring all Hidalgo County businesses to mandate the use of facial coverings by all employees and customers to slow the spread of COVID-19. The order goes into effect at midnight Wednesday and remain…

Two Mission women became the latest people to die after testing positive for COVID-19. The unidentified women, aged in their 40s and 70s, make it 17 total COVID-19 deaths in the county. Hidalgo County Judge Richard F. Cortez first announced the deaths in a Wednesday virtual press conference where he said the county is seeing…

A major milestone was reached last week at the DHR Health Transplant Institute. Surgeons Philip Thomas, MD and Jose Almeda, MD, successfully performed the institute’s 50th kidney transplant surgery Friday, June 12, reaching a milestone that had been anticipated by the DHR Health Transplant Institute since the program’s inception in 2016. The transplant was done to…

Three Pharr residents died Monday from COVID-19 complications, the county announced in a news release. There is now a total of 15 COVID-19 deaths in the county. The three cases, all women who were in their 40s and 80s were unrelated and all had underlying medical conditions. Both of the older women were part of…

Though students at Sharyland Advanced Academic Academy are receiving their high school diplomas Thursday, June 11, almost all of them will also be receiving their associate’s degree from South Texas College. Out of the 85 graduating seniors in SA3’s graduating class, 65 of them are earning an associate’s degree in the fields of interdisciplinary studies,…

Two sets of twins in SPHS’ Top 10 When Joshua Gaytan was a student at Donna Wernecke Elementary School, his twin brother, Joseph, was placed in the school’s Gifted and Talented Program. “It led to a lot of people assuming that he was the smarter one,” Joshua recalled. “I don’t really beat him in a…

As drum majors for the Sharyland High School marching band, Jadon Geathers and Jorge Osvaldo Guerra Jr. were expected to set an example for their bandmates on and off the marching field as the faces of the organization. During the previous marching band season last fall, Geathers and Guerra Jr. orchestrated the 200 marching band…

The weekend saw 83 new COVID-19in Hidalgo County, officially pushing the number of know cases past the 1,000 mark. The total now stands at 1,050, according to a Sunday news release from the county. “This is not a moment that I like seeing,” Hidalgo County Judge Richard F. Cortez said in a statement. “But it is…

The Palmview city council appointed a Corpus Christi-based architectural firm to look into the possibility of a multipurpose facility for the city. During a Tuesday special meeting, Palmview council members approved engaging with Gignac Architects to study the needs assessment of the city. “Our primary focus was the fire station and the repairs needed there,…

The city of Mission held a regular and special meeting this week, discussing the distribution of CARES Act funding. The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, signed into law on March 27, was enacted to address the economic fallout caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Hidalgo County was awarded over $151 million – and…