hidalgo county

Imagine a day when the DA could call all the local media together -- between eight and 10 reporters -- and tell them that he was going to reveal who the murderer was? Then he did, and nothing happened. The priest got away.

In this True-Crime Podcast, the lead defense attorney for the former Catholic priest accused of murder, John Feit, makes the case as to why the accused is innocent of murder.

It's 1960, Hidalgo County is far different than the metropolis it has become in so many ways. Question is, how did it get so corrupt that it could knowingly let a murderer walk free?

EDINBURG, Texas - On Friday, July 21, U.S. Rep. Vicente Gonzalez joined Hidalgo County Precinct 4 Commissioner, Ellie Torres in Edinburg to celebrate a groundbreaking for the North Main Drain project. 

Congressman Gonzalez secured funding for the project in the Fiscal Year 2022 Government Spending Bill.

 Torres said the project will expand the North Main Drain to enhance the drainage capacity of a significant portion of both unincorporated and urbanized areas in Hidalgo County, protecting homes, businesses, and critical infrastructure.

“This project is going to make a major improvement in our drainage system that is pretty much outdated and a little too small for the size of our county,” Torres said.

Gonzalez said he secured $3.7 million for the project through an earmark. 

Here are audio highlights from the news conference Gonzalez and Torres hosted.

To read the new stories and watch the news videos of the Rio Grande Guardian International News Service go to www.riograndeguardian.com.

MCALLEN, Texas - Telecommunications giant Spectrum recently awarded a Digital Education Grant worth $10,000 to Leap for STEM. They also donated 30 new laptops. 

Leap for STEM is a small nonprofit based in south McAllen that teaches digital literacy.

Among those to attend a news conference to announce the grant were Hidalgo County Judge Richard Cortez, City of McAllen Assistant City Manager Michelle Rivera, and Tania Ortega, senior manager of regional communications for Spectrum in Texas.

Here are their views on the work of Leap for STEM, the Spectrum investment, and the importance of tackling the digital divide in the Rio Grande Valley. 

Editor's Note: To read the full story go to the Rio Grande Guardian International News Service website.

To read the new stories and watch the news videos of the Rio Grande Guardian International News Service go to www.riograndeguardian.com.

EDINBURG, Texas - Hidalgo County Judge Richard Cortez has set up a “prosperity task force” to fight poverty in the county.

Cortez told the Rio Grande Guardian International News Service that the task force is needed because of his county’s demographics.

“As you know, we have a disproportionate percentage of people in poverty in Hidalgo County when you compare it to the percentage of the United States as a whole or the percentage of Texas as a whole,” Cortez said.

“So, I created a task force for dealing with the complex issue of poverty. We call it the prosperity task force (and its jobs is) to look into the complex issues of poverty And that's coming along very well. We're meeting and coming up with a strategic plan.”

Cortez said poverty would be a top issue for his administration when he was first elected county judge. Many projects had to be put on hold, however, because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

“I want to make sure that our people are well served,” Cortez said in his interview. He said the new task force has three specific goals.

“One is how do we best serve the people that need the most help here in Hidalgo County? How can how can we best serve them? We want to provide financial literacy programs for them. We want to provide healthy diet programs. We suffer from obesity and diabetes. We think that informing them and educating them on better diets is going to help us in the long term,” Cortez said.

“Then, we want to create human capital. We want to be able to afford and offer vocational training or higher education for those people that want to pursue those things. We want to we want to create an easier vehicle for them to do that and remove the obstacles that's keeping them from trying to gain that human capital.”

The third goal is to engage with local businesses and target businesses that could move to the county, in order to provide more jobs. 

“The third aspect and this is where the Alex Meades, the CoSteps, the Valley Partnerships, and the other EDCs of the area…. the third aspect is how do we expand the capacity of our employers today to employ more? So, in other words, if you are here already, how do we increase your capacity? And two, if you are not here, who do we want, where are you and how do we go get you to come down here? So that as we train people they will have a job to go to once they're trained.”

An audio recording of the interview is attached. 

To read the new stories and watch the news videos of the Rio Grande Guardian International News Service go to www.riograndeguardian.com.

HIDALGO, Texas - Hidalgo County Commissioner Eduardo 'Eddie' Cantu has spoken in depth about the Dicker Road expansion project in south Pharr and Hidalgo.

Cantu said the east-west corridor will spur economic development, in addition to providing an alternative route for trucks going to and from the Pharr International Bridge from the west McAllen and Mission area.

Here is a podcast on the topic. 

To read the new stories and watch the news videos of the Rio Grande Guardian International News Service go to www.riograndeguardian.com.

MCALLEN, Texas - For the latest in our Meet the Candidate podcast series, Rio Grande Guardian editor Steve Taylor met up with Tania Ramirez.

A Democrat, Ramirez is running for Hidalgo County Judge. She currently sits on the McAllen City Commission.

In the podcast, Ramirez, an attorney, says Hidalgo County will "continue to fall behind" without new and bold leadership.

“We used to be the seventh most populous county in Texas, but now are the eighth because of a lack of outreaching during the census count, losing state and federal funds,” Ramirez said.

“We should not be afraid of innovation. During the census, I created the ‘Somos Humanos Todos Contamos’ Census Telethon, and worked with cities like Pharr, Mission, and our county commissioners.”

Ramirez points out this event was nationally recognized by MarketWatch and helped the City of McAllen to be recognized as the Texas City Council of the Year 2020 by the Texas City Managers Association. 

“When elected, I promise to build a more innovative, transparent, and unified Hidalgo County. I will uplift the voice of The People, and make sure the county implements thoughtful and targeted policies with an eye to the future. Together, we can start the hard work of improving Hidalgo County’s tomorrow, today,” Ramirez said. 

To read the new stories and watch the news videos of the Rio Grande Guardian International News Service go to www.riograndeguardian.com.

EDINBURG, Texas - On Aug. 7, 2021, Hidalgo County Judge Richard Cortez held a news conference to give an update on the increased hospitalization rate for Covid-19 and the increase in asylum seekers that have the coronavirus.

Cortez said the increase in Covid cases in the community could not be attributed to asylum seekers. He said it was down to not enough people getting vaccinated.

Other speakers at the news conference included Hidalgo County's health and human services chief administrator Eduardo Olivarez and Hidalgo County health authority, Dr. Ivan Melendez. 

The three speakers took questions for reporters.  Here is the raw audio from the news conference.

To read the new stories and watch the news videos of the Rio Grande Guardian International News Service go to www.riograndeguardian.com.

Davis Rankin with Executive Director and CEO of the Museum of South Texas history, Francisco Guajardo about the History of Hidalgo County

EDINBURG, TEXAS - Dr. Ivan Melendez, Hidalgo County’s local health authority, has given his wrap-up on 2020, a year like no other for his profession.

At times during the year, Hidalgo County led the nation in deaths and hospitalization rates caused by the coronavirus pandemic. Indeed, at one point, Melendez, a frontline healthcare hero, himself tested positive for COVID-19.

While things appear to have settled down, Melendez said Rio Grande Valley residents cannot let their guard down during the holiday season. He urged everyone to continue to practice good personal hygiene, keep wearing face masks in public, to practice social distancing, and not gather in large crowds.

“Our community was Ill-prepared. The world was ill-prepared (for COVID-19),” Melendez said, in his 2020 year in review.

“The virus is like the marathon and you don’t train for the marathon the weekend before. When you are a boxer you don’t go to your wife and say, hey, babe, have seen my shorts I have a world championship fight next week. It doesn’t work that way. You have to be training, you have to be ready.”

In an exclusive podcast with the Rio Grande Guardian, Melendez rattled off a number of grim milestones, noting that the pandemic was at its worst in Hidalgo County in July 2020.

“Where did we fail? Our population was very sick. Our baseline state of health… despite being the No. 1 in diabetes, hyper-tension, morbid obesity, lack of access to healthcare, 20 percent un- or under-insured, a porous border to a third world country that is just chaotic, 29 being the average age in our community, it was the perfect storm. Despite that we were the worst among the worse.”

Melendez said he cannot accept praise for a job well done. 

“When people come to me and say, you guys have done a great job, well, I don’t think so. I think we have made a great effort but you measure a job by outcome. You don’t say, oh my God, you have really tried hard to paint that house. No, you say the house looks good. We had the highest mortality rate.”

So, did the efforts of healthcare professionals on the frontline in the battle against the coronavirus match the results? Melendez said, no. 

“Our efforts were gargantuan, but our results, you cannot argue… our results were not good,” he said.

“And so, our lesson learned, from my perspective, is we need to have our community in a better state of health.”

Editor's Note:  Go to the Rio Grande Guardian website to read the full story. 

To read the new stories and watch the news videos of the Rio Grande Guardian International News Service go to www.riograndeguardian.com.

EDINBURG, Texas - Hidalgo County’s health authority says he is speaking in a personal capacity when he calls for the prioritization of primary care clinics over more profitable lines of service in the health industry.

Dr. Ivan Melendez appeared on a webinar about COVID-19 hosted by Futuro RGV. Asked by moderator Felipe Salinas how the Rio Grande Valley can be better prepared for the next pandemic, Melendez said:

“This is my own personal observation, perhaps a little politically incorrect. You can tell I am not running for anything. I think that it is human nature to put the resources into those lines of service that are profitable. So, a heart transplant, a liver transplant, a kidney transplant, patient hospital stay, hospice, all these are profitable lines of service.”

Melendez said he is not immune from criticism for putting more profitable healthcare work ahead of providing help where it is most needed.

“I mean, I can’t remember the last time that I volunteered my services at a nonprofit primary care center. I am not going to throw a stone and not take some responsibility too. But, we’ve designed these lines of services that I believe have been prioritized by which is more profitable versus not.”

Melendez continued: “So, it is not infrequent when someone says, well, do we do a rehab or do we not and then look at the numbers. So, we need to shy away from that and say, we need to establish primary care resources.

In his answer to Salinas’ question, Melendez then brought up the difficult task primary care supporters have had in getting a healthcare district established in Hidalgo County. 

“When we try to get a hospital district going it is always beat up. People just vote it down because, I am paying South Texas Community College, I’m paying the school, the municipality, county. People say, I’m not going to pay more taxes. Then the misperception, I think it is a misperception.. that, and if I do (vote for a healthcare district) and we get this money it is just going to go to the hospitals. And they are already the $1.5 billion people in town. Why should I vote to enrich them?” Melendez said.

“So, we need to find ways where we can ascertain that our tax dollars are not redirected to other parts of the country for those people to distribute to their investors. But they are placed here so we can staff primary care clinics.”

Melendez said he is hopeful that support for primary care clinics has increased during the coronavirus crisis. “One of the advantages of this pandemic is that it has created an awareness from our elected officials that we need to prioritize a little bit differently,” he said. 

To read the new stories and watch the news videos of the Rio Grande Guardian International News Service go to www.riograndeguardian.com.

EDINBURG, Texas - Hidalgo County Judge Richard Cortez has set up a task force to look at a new way of stopping the spread of COVID-19.

The problem the COVID Shield Task Force has identified is that a large number of Hidalgo County residents live in three-generational homes: kids, parents and grandparents.

The task force also found out that most of the people testing positive for the coronavirus are young and most of the people dying from the virus are old.

So, the task force is looking at an idea from South Korea. Namely, moving a segment of the community that has just tested positive out of their home and into a more isolated area, such as a hotel.

Those that could be moved include those aged over 65 and those with underlying medical conditions.

Judge Cortez has spoken to Gov. Greg Abbott about the idea and is looking for funding for the medical personnel needed to make the plan work. Another thing that needs to be addressed is the issue of liability. 

Judge Cortez spoke about creating a COVID shield isolation facility during a livestream he held on Facebook on Thursday. He held the livestream in order to tell the people of Hidalgo County why he has extended the county’s stay-at-home order.

Editor's Note: To read the full story go to the Rio Grande Guardian website.

To read the new stories and watch the news videos of the Rio Grande Guardian International News Service go to www.riograndeguardian.com.

EDINBURG, Texas - Hidalgo County Judge Richard Cortez and Hidalgo County Commissioner Ellie Torres on Monday hosted a roundtable about COVID-19 with healthcare and hospital leaders from across the county.

Included on the panel was Dr. John Krouse, dean of the UT-Rio Grande Valley School of Medicine. Check out the Rio Grande Guardian website to read Dr. Krouse’s remarks in full.

“As you know, on Sunday we reported over 400 cases that tested positive for this virus and we’ve never seen these numbers before. The numbers continue to escalate, it seems like every day,” Judge Cortez said, kicking off the event.

“Unfortunately, I have had some friends and acquaintances that have received this virus and are very seriously ill. They have told me they would not wish this on their worst enemy. It has been a very, very, painful process.”

Cortez pointed out that when stay-at-home orders were put in place at the start of the pandemic, one of the goals was to ensure local hospitals were not overwhelmed with patients. “Today, we find ourselves close to reaching capacity,” he said. 

Cortez said he wrote to Gov. Greg Abbott, the state’s healthcare director and emergency management coordinator ast Friday seeking help for local hospitals. “To my happy surprise they responded very quickly. At least two hospital groups will receive support,” Cortez said.

Cortez added: “We are in this thing together. We are going to solve this by working together.”

This podcast includes the comments of Judge Cortez, Dean Krouse and all the hospital leaders present at the roundtable discussion. 

To read the new stories and watch the news videos of the Rio Grande Guardian International News Service go to www.riograndeguardian.com.

EDINBURG, TEXAS - Hidalgo County Judge Richard Cortez and Hidalgo County Health Authority Dr. Ivan Melendez recently appeared on a Facebook LIVE to discuss COVID-19 issues.

Cortez spoke about a recent surge in coronavirus cases in his county and new curfews he was putting in place in response. 

Melendez participated in a Q&A with Hidalgo County’s public affairs director, Carlos Sanchez, with a focus on the impact the COVID-19 is having on area hospitals. 

Melendez, who does all of his clinical work in local hospitals, was asked about an increase in the number of tests coming back as positive for the coronavirus in Hidalgo County.

In Hidalgo County that rate is currently six percent and rising. This, he said, is cause for alarm.

“What worries me, at six percent is the rapidity, the quickness at which those numbers have increased. I do all of my clinical work in the hospitals. I am seeing the controlled chaos. I am seeing the impact that this accelerated rate is causing in the hospitals. I am seeing the staffing issues,” Melendez said.

Melendez cited the situation at one local hospital, which he did not mention by name.

“There are 50-plus COVID patients in-house. Twenty-three of them require hemodialysis. That hemodialysis on people with COVID, they have to be done at bedside. Well, of course, we also have a lot of people in our part of the country that go to the emergency departments to get emergency dialysis. Because that is their only source. They are not able to have a routine dialysis at a dialysis center.

“So, imagine if you are having 23 bedside dialysis and you still have to take care of another 40 or 50 people a week that need to have dialysis in the emergency department. That is an example that I would like the public to know how (about, how) even a doubling in our percent rate begins to tax significantly the resources that are available.”

Melendez said that, as of now, the resources at local hospitals are not being taxed to the point of saturation. 

“Now if we were doubling, if we are at six percent today and we were 12 percent in two weeks and we were at 24 percent in another two weeks, that would be a catastrophic event for us.”

Melendez said there are plans to deal with such an eventuality.

To read the new stories and watch the news videos of the Rio Grande Guardian International News Service go to www.riograndeguardian.com.