The Brownsville Herald

Operation Border Health Preparedness will provide free health services next week at several locations throughout the Valley, hosted by the Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS) and its community partners.

U.S. Rep. Vicente Gonzalez, whose district includes Cameron, Kenedy, Kleberg, and Willacy counties and eastern Hidalgo County, has joined a bipartisan group of members to announce the introduction of H-2 Improvements to Relieve Employers Act, or HIRE Act, legislation aiming to support American employers and small businesses by reducing the nation’s chronic labor shortage, boosting our economy and ensuring that those who come to our country to work can do so in a safe and lawful manner.

Transit agencies in Brownsville, Harlingen, South Padre Island and the Lower Rio Grande Valley Development Council are among the recipients of $95.1 million in state and federal funds being distributed by the Texas Transportation Commission, which governs the Texas Department of Transportation.

A Brownsville police officer has been placed on administrative leave without pay after being arrested for allegations of pressuring his ex-girlfriend to not report him for pointing a gun at her and threatening her.

The nonprofit blood services provider Vitalant says it has an emergency blood shortage and is urging Rio Grande Valley residents to schedule a donation, a move the organization says could prevent treatment delays for patients in need of lifesaving transfusions.

I seldom get to see any stars at all in my over-lit neighborhood so it was a treat to walk out recently about 10 p.m. and actually see the brighter stars of Scorpius creeping up from the neighboring trees and rooftops in the south-southeast. The leading slant of stars are the front claws reaching out towards other constellations and the stars of the body form a fish hook shape.

Nancy Meidinger figures she’s Coconut Jack’s most consistent jet-ski-rental customer, and at 82, definitely the oldest — and probably the only one who knew Elvis and jogged with Willie Nelson.

BROWNSVILLE — Another fight with her parents.

The growing abyss between our two major political parties has bogged down the legislative process to a bare trickle, a situation that many fear will only get worse as the election season, and accompanying rhetoric, heat up.

BROWNSVILLE — There are a few key elements to throwing a birthday party: a cake, guests and of course, the age of the birthday boy or girl.