Area News

In an agreement signed earlier this month, Harlingen school board trustees agreed to pay Superintendent J.A. Gonzalez $264,262.88 to resign and promised to use school district money to hide whatever led to that resignation from the public.     Gonzalez resigned suddenly early this month after a year at the district’s helm.   He signed…

The rain did not stop the celebration of Mission’s 9th annual Noche Mexicana Grito de Independencia last weekend.   The Mission Event Center hosted guests tinted in Mexico’s symbolic colors of green, white, and red. People of all generations, young and old, wore traditional clothes of their home states, walking the Ruby Red Ballroom with…

Hidalgo County hired recently retired McAllen City Manager Roel “Roy” Rodriguez as a consultant Tuesday.     Rodriguez, whose long tenure at the helm in McAllen was lauded everywhere from McAllen City Hall to the halls of Congress last week, lasted less than four days in retirement before returning to public service.   “I hadn’t…

The Mission Police Department suspended one of its sergeants for two days without pay this June after an internal investigation sustained complaints from subordinates who said he’d behaved inappropriately.   The department did so after Police Chief Cesar Torres criticized the manner in which those complaints were submitted and after the police department initially responded…

The Peñitas Police Department is asking for the public’s help in identifying the driver in a suspected hit-and-run crash that left one woman dead last week.   According to a release from the department, officers responded to the scene of a collision in the 3400 block of Tom Gill Road, a little north of 3…

The Alton City Commission approved a bid for drainage improvements Tuesday evening and seeks to start additional residential street repairs before the end of this year.   The first meeting item touched on drainage bids submitted by seven contractors, with Texas Cordia Construction, LLC, who presented a low base bid amount of $774,000.   “As…

Mission first responders paid tribute to the lives lost during the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks at a memorial ceremony Wednesday morning.   Although normally hosted at the Mission Fire Department, this is the first time the Mission 9/11 memorial was a cooperative event.   Mission Fire Chief Adrian Garcia says the Mission Fire Department…

La Joya ISD’s new Chief of Academics and School Leadership is ready to focus on curriculum development, teacher engagement, and community support to improve and build upon district education.     Dr. Derek Little, a small-town Louisiana native, is leading the district through curriculum, teacher development, and supporting specialized learners in the La Joya school…

Last year a deputy United States marshal from Harlingen who’d previously been lauded for his courage in a shootout found himself in a much less decorous position.   According to an incident report from the Hidalgo County Sheriff’s Office, Deputy United States Marshal Mario Antonio Loya spent the better part of two hours detained by…

The Edinburg school board approved a set of formal board operating procedures limiting trustee access to facilities at a special meeting Wednesday after “recent overreach” by two of its board members.   Neither of those trustees — Dominga “Minga” Vela and Luis “Louie” Alamia — attended Wednesday’s meeting.     The new procedures preclude trustees…