April 18, this year’s deadline for taxpayers to file their federal income tax returns, is coming up fast, though help preparing those returns is still available to those who need it.

The Volunteer Income Tax Assistance program began providing tax help at schools and other sites around Cameron County in January. The program offers free assistance for households with incomes of $54,000 or less in preparing tax returns and taking advantage of tax credits.

Three VITA sites will provide assistance through April 18: The ITEC Center, Rm. F-6, at 301 Mexico Blvd.; Community Development Corporation of Brownsville, 901 E. Levee St.; and in Harlingen, La Hacienda Casitas, 3567 W. Business 83.

Keren Arista, financial stability coordinator for the United Way of Southern Cameron County, which leads the VITA coalition, said the three sites will be open every day except Sundays through April 18.

Walk-ins are welcome at ITEC, though it’s a good idea to call to make an appointment to ensure you’ll be seen, Arista said. The number is (956) 295-3761.

Appointments are required at CDCB and La Hacienda Casitas. To make an appointment, call (956) 541-4955.

Those with household incomes of $62,000 a year or less who don’t get their returns prepared by April 18 can still do them online at www.myfreetaxes.com.

Arista said the VITA sites typically see a spike in clients shortly before the deadline.

“It picks up the last two weeks before taxes are due,” she said. “That’s when people remember, ‘Oh yeah, I’ve got to get this done.’”

During the past 12 years, VITA’s volunteer tax preparers have helped more than 4,000 families claim more than $3.6 million in Earned Income Tax Credits. Arista said a growing number of clients use VITA’s services each year.

“It looks like we’ll serve more people this year than last year,” she said. “We had a 7 percent growth goal this year, and we’re on track to be right at that.”

Arista said the number of clients the program can help depends on how many volunteers sign up. VITA can always use more volunteers, who are required to receive IRS certification and training.

“We always have more volunteers start the program than finish because it’s pretty challenging,” she said. “The volunteers put a lot into it.”

SOUTH PADRE ISLAND — Meatball needed to learn how to swim without her front flipper.

The Atlantic green sea turtle was rescued in 2015.

And now, after her stay at Sea Turtle Inc., she and her two buddies, Mitch and Liz, are ready for their natural habitat again — the ocean.

The three sea turtles were released last night after completing their two-year rehabilitation.

Meatball had lost a flipper while entangled in a plastic bag.

Mitch was attacked by a predator.

And Liz was injured in the jetties.

“One of our missions is to treat and release injured turtles,” said Jeff George, executive director at Sea Turtle Inc. “In a year’s time we treat at least 100 turtles.”

Sea Turtle Inc. was founded in 1977 by Ila Fox Loetscher, known as the “The Turtle Lady of South Padre Island.”

Originally formed to aid in the protection of the endangered Kemp’s Ridley sea turtle, the mission has since expanded to include education, rehabilitation and conservation of many types of sea turtles.

George said the Island organization works with four different sea turtle species.

“There are eight species in the world and they are all endangered,” George said.

In 1999, Sea Turtle Inc. moved from Ila’s backyard into its current location at 6617 Padre Blvd.

“We patrol the southernmost 47 miles of Texas on ATVs all day long looking for sea turtles,” George said.

Next year Sea Turtle Inc. will have a new $3.8 million facility. They are scheduled to break ground this summer on the five acres of land purchased to house all the sea turtles.

George said the new facility is necessary. An anonymous donor matched the organizations’s capital campaign making it possible to complete the project by the end of 2017.

“Our clinic is overflowing and our visitor’s center is overflowing with tourists,” George said.

BY Vicky Brito

EDINBURG – The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley Collegiate Chapter of the American Marketing Association garnered awards in the AMA annual competition in New Orleans.

Oscar Ramos, team leader for the UTRGV Chapter of the AMA, was awarded the first ever Diversity Leadership Scholarship in the amount of $7,500, developed to honor minorities in marketing. This is the first year this award has been in place.

Ramos was runner up in the AMA EBSCO Marketing Scholar Award, which honors excellence in leadership and carries an award of $2,000, and was one of two individuals awarded a Coca Cola Company Summer Internship, for this summer in Atlanta. There, he will serve as a Global Marketing Intern, working alongside marketing executives at the company.

Ramos submitted applications prior to the conference, including transcripts, letters of recommendations and a personal statement of intent.

Additionally, UTRGV AMA Chapter member Jon Garcia was awarded Honorable Mention in the Perfect Pitch Competition, where he had 90 seconds to “pitch” why he should gain an interview at U.S. Aerotek, a top recruiting agency.

As a group, the UTRGV AMA Chapter was named a Top 25 Chapter, out of 365 chapters nationwide, based on an annual report the team submitted prior to the conference.

On Sept. 1, participating chapters were issued a real-case scenario from the sponsor company – this year, The Hershey Company. The case this year was for each team to develop a marketing solution for a new mint chewing product. The UTRGV team was named a Top 10 finalist.

Of the 10 finalists, the UTRGV Chapter shared a six-way tie for third. Temple University in Philadelphia took first place; second-place winners were University of Pennsylvania, Texas State University and Ferris State University in Michigan.

he other third-place winners were British Columbia Institute of Technology, University of Nevada Las Vegas, Chatham University, University of Wisconsin Eau Claire and University of Wisconsin Whitewater.

The participating UTRGV AMA team consists of Ramos, Gloria Ensinia, Fuad Chagollan, Daniel Warner, Julio Salinas and David Perez.

Ramos said it feels fantastic to have done so well in this national competition.

“It was a great opportunity to represent our school, our chapter and our department in the national competition,” he said. “All the work paid off. We worked hard from Sept. 1 to the last day of the conference.”

Case solutions must be kept confidential due to AMA rules. For this year’s case, Hershey was looking for a proposal that would develop awareness of and marketing for Cool Blast, a product that launched in 2015. The ideas were meant to be targeted at millennials.

“Each chapter had to create an integrated marketing communication strategy, or some marketing plan, to address the situation that Hershey’s was asking us to consider,” Ramos said. “We had a budget that we needed to work out the numbers for. We had to create a timeline, research focus groups, and use the marketing tactics we learn in class. It was very beneficial to us to implement them in the case.”

Hershey may or may not use the strategies presented by the Collegiate Chapters, Ramos said, but they definitely will pay attention to the strategies of those who placed first, second and third.

“This will be beneficial for Hershey because they are obtaining all these fresh ideas from chapters made up of millennials,” Ramos said.

Dr. Reto Felix, AMA Chapter adviser and UTRGV assistant professor of marketing, is pleased with the team’s accomplishments.

“I am very honored, happy and proud of the team. We have definitely exceeded all our objectives,” he said.

ABOUT THE COMPETITION

The AMA Collegiate Case Competition is an annual, international contest open to undergraduate teams at schools that have an affiliated AMA Collegiate Chapter.

The purpose of the competition is to provide AMA Collegiate members an opportunity to work together on a problem that illustrates a real marketing situation, and to provide competition sponsors direct contact with marketing students who have possible real-world solutions to a marketing problem.

BY Vicky Brito

The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley Chemistry Department will soon own three 3D printers, increasingly important tools in education and research.

UTRGV Assistant Professor Shervin Fatehi and Professor Javier Macossay have secured the “Educate and Inspire” grant from the 3D-printing start-up company New Matter. UTRGV was one of 100 institutions to receive this grant from among 450 applicants.

Fatehi said learning how to work with 3D printers will benefit students and faculty in the chemistry department.

“These machines are being used more in research and in the corporate settings, and we think it is important to have some experience using this kind of machine. Also, it will help make our graduates more valuable as employment prospects,” Fatehi said.

The grant will supply three MOD-t 3D printers, 15 spools of filament in a variety of colors, and five packs of replacement print surface plates, to be used to teach techniques for printing molecular models and train students and faculty in the use of 3D design technology.

“The basic principle behind this particular kind of 3D printer is being able to take a computer file that contains a description of the shape of this product and be able to create it,” Fatehi said.

Converting a digital representation of a 3D object into a real-life equivalent object is the basic principle behind all 3D printers, and one of the most interesting things about New Matter’s printers, Fatehi said, is that they aim to provide 3D-printing capability to regular consumers, along with low cost, high-ease use and a curated “app store” for object designs.

Fatehi said UTRGV’s printers will be used to replicate molecular models used in chemistry, and to expand modeling kits already in place that allow students to actually see concepts in chemistry.

On this Spring Break my daughter Natalie Garcia McIntire, and her three boys ages 10, 8, and 5, boarded a passenger train in Fort Worth all the way to San Marcos.

Then they were picked up by their father John and came all the way to Brownsville. This was the children’s first ride on a passenger train, it was quite an exciting event for them all.

Moreover, next afternoon Grandpa Celso, and Grandma, yours truly, took them all for an outing to Sabal Palms Sanctuary, and to visit the Historical Rabb Plantation House.

This house has a very special history because a pioneer lady Petra Vela Kenedy’s great grand daughter,Maria Vicenta Stark owned this house with the help of their of grand mother Petra, and her husband Mifflin Kenedy, at the end of the 19th century, who were part of the elite entrepreneurs of South Texas.

This Sabal Palm Sanctuary and this historical Victorian architecture house is at South banks of the Rio Grande River in Cameron County. Our grandkids from north Texas loved visiting this site especially the plantation two story house, and then the curvy green trails covered with colorful wild native plants with a lot of resacas, make shift bridges,and wild birds look outs.

The highlight was when I told them their uncle, Celso Alfredo Garcia had helped as a volunteer in building the longest make shift bridge there, with a group of other students from the Mercedes Science Academy.

Without glorifying, but proud I mentioned that this great lady Petra Vela Kenedy came from the same Ramirez family as yours truly, and that by attending a book presentation on “Petra’s Legacy” by two female authors, I had learned that there was a family connection.

At the end of our trip, the kids noticed a huge telescope focused to a tree right in front of the house and to their surprise, they saw a cute baby owl sitting on a branch looking at all of us.

Last but not least these three lovely grand kids from North Texas got to see the famous Border Wall.

I just told them this wall is to stop people from South of the Rio Grande River to climb over.

All in all it was an exciting Spring Break for them.

Sincerely, Natalia Ramirez Garcia Brownsville

Meatball had to get used to swimming without her front flipper. The Atlantic Green sea turtle was rescued in 2015.

And now, after her stay at Sea Turtles Inc. she and her two buddies Mitch and Liz are ready for their natural habitat again — the ocean.

The three sea turtles will be released this evening after completing their two year rehabilitation at the South Padre Island turtle rescue organization.

Meatball lost a flipper while entangled in a plastic bag, Mitch was attacked by a predator and Liz was injured in the jetties.

“One of our mission’s is to treat and release injured turtles,” said Jeff George, executive director at Sea Turtles Inc. “In a year’s time we treat at least 100 turtles.”

You can watch today’s sea turtle release at 6 p.m. by logging on to http://bit.ly/1UICmX1

HARLINGEN — Police have made additional arrests in connection to an aggravated robbery that took place last week in Harlingen.

Victoria Ashley Leal, 21, of Santa Rosa and, Michael Anthony Sanchez, 46, of Harlingen, were arrested this week and charged with the March 31 early morning robbery of a home in the 600 block of West Harrison.

Police say during the robbery the suspects displayed guns and assaulted two victims.

Leal and Sanchez are both charged with three counts of aggravated robbery, engaged in organized criminal activity and three counts of unlawful restraint. Her bond is $1.05 million while his bond is set at $275,000.

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Last week Weslaco resident Randall Morrow, 20, Matthew James Williams, 27, of Harlingen, Wesley Brent Kenyan, 22, of Harlingen, and Desiderio John Gonzales, 38, of Harlingen were arrested and charged with aggravated robbery, unlawful restraint and engaging in organized criminal activity.

Two of the men were also charged with drug possession charges.

Last Thursday, police executed a search warrant in the 1200 block of North Business 77. During the search, police said they found weapons and drugs. The investigation is still ongoing

The Harlingen Police Department and HCISD partnered with Texas Dairy Queen / Books and Badges to recognize elementary students who improved their reading.

Dairy Queen owners Rhonda and Rob Bowen from 121 N. Loop 499 offered their ice cream to the 24 children from Lamar Elementary and Treasure Hills Elementary Schools.

The Harlingen Police Department thanks the school district, superintendant, the school staff and the Bowens for making the HPD Scoop event a success.

HARLINGEN — A project to pave 10 streets has come in under budget.

Today, city commissioners will consider awarding a contract to Harlingen-based Clore Construction, the low bidder proposing project costs of $1.26 million, City Engineer Javier Zamora said yesterday.

Officials, who will dip into the city’s $43 million general fund budget to pay for the project, had estimated the costs at $1.4 million.

The project would pave Brennaman Street from Stuart Place to Crockett roads while 54th Street will be paved from FM 106 to the city’s public works station’s driveway.

Crews will pave Washington Palm Drive from Altas Palmas and Beckham roads and Palmetto Drive from Queen Sago to Washington Palm roads.

Bourbon Street will be paved from New Hampshire to Scotch streets while Arroyo Vista Court will be paved from New Hampshire to the cul-de-sac.

Crews will pave Scotch Street from Hale Drive to Los Arroyos Court and Los Arroyos Court from one cul-de-sac to the other cul-de-sac.

Bowie Avenue will be paved from Seventh Street to Business 77 while Crockett Avenue will be paved from Seventh Street to Business 77.

HARLINGEN — Harlingen High’s Hannah Greer and Harlingen South’s Amanda Alvarez are headed to the Texas Hill Country next week after solid performances on Day 2 of the District 32-6A golf tournament on Tuesday at Tony Butler Golf Course.

With Brownsville Hanna and Brownsville Veterans coming in first and second, respectively, in the girls team standings, both Greer and Alvarez needed to finish as the top two individuals not on a qualifying team if they hoped to earn a trip the Region IV-6A tournament in San Antonio.

Greer, who came into Tuesday’s action tied for the individual lead with Brownville Hanna’s Julie Lucio, came up one stroke short of winning district gold as she posted a two-day total of 149 (70-79) while Lucio carded a 148 (70-78).

Regardless, Greer’s second-place finish was good enough to earn her a spot at regionals next Wednesday and Thursday.

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“Today was a little worse than yesterday. I got out to a slow start and my putting kind of messed me up over time, but it’s OK. Overall, I had fun and that’s what matters,” said Greer, who is now headed to her second straight regional tournament. Last year, Greer finished third at regionals to qualify for the UIL state tournament.

See more at RGVSports.com