Many thanks to Jim Taylor for inspiring me to write yet another opinion.

In fact, I have pondered the very same thoughts as Mr. Taylor regarding the separation and division of the United States into two separate left-and right-wing territories.

Sounds like a great Utopian society, Mr. Taylor … until you wake up from this outrageous fantasy!

You see, sir, there is a thing called “offspring” … better known as children.

Yes, those lovely little dumplings do a crazy thing called, “growing up” and much to our chagrin, do something even crazier called “having a mind of their own.”

Get the picture, good sir? You cannot “control” people and their “choices/beliefs.”

The good Lord made us this way and no man shall divide us. We are stuck with each other and that is the test.

Make the best of it, sir … those dang liberals get under my skin, too.

Ramiro Ochoa Santa Rosa

The year was probably 1962 and I was in the ninth grade at Vernon Junior High School. The school atmosphere was a different time and a different place. One thing that was different at that time was no free lunch at either Vernon or any other school in Harlingen.

I came from a rather large family – four girls and seven boys and we all graduated from Harlingen High. That accomplishment we owe our parents.

I was the second male born to Pilar Sr. and Elena Espinosa. At any given time, there were six or seven of us attending the Harlingen public schools. While attending Jefferson Elementary, I could walk two blocks and be home for lunch.

At Vernon Junior High, 825 W. Curtis, was a mile or more away.

My mother, who was always in charge of finances, could not afford the 25 cents or more for a daily school lunch, so she would prepare tortilla de harina tacos very early in the morning. She would pack them into brown paper bags.

At noon, during the lunch hour, we would very quietly head to the east side of the school board building. That location would also be at the back of the service station, now the Exxon building currently being torn down.

The option of eating homemade tacos at the cafeteria was not available. Actually, it was embarrassing to eat homemade bean and egg or potato and egg tacos among your more affluent friends. Now, in this day and age, even the high school principal eats tacos in his or her office.

Every once in awhile, one or two or our school friends would show up at our hideaway taco location. They would exchange our tacos for their white bread sandwiches.

I was glad to make the exchange. This went on throughout the whole school year at Vernon Junior High. Within the next few weeks or months, our old taco sanctuary will become a part of Harlingen history. Oh, for the good times.

Pilar Espinosa Jr. Harlingen

Cameron County Tax Assessor-Collector Tony Yzaguirre won’t be allowed to return to work as a condition of his bail.

Visiting Senior State District Judge Manuel Banales ordered Yzaguirre to stay away from the tax office during a hearing this afternoon.

Banales will be presiding over the trials of Yzaguirre and three other men accused of bribery, abuse of official capacity, official oppression and engaging in organized criminal activity.

Yzaguirre, Jose Mireles, Pedro Garza Jr. and Omar Sanchez Paz, who were all employed at the county tax office appeared before the judge.

During the hearing Banales ordered Yzaguirre not to return to work.

“Stay away from the office while these charges are pending, the public has a right to feel safe,” the judge told the tax man.

Garza’s attorney filed a motion to separate his case from that of the other three men, which Banales granted.

Prosecutors opposed the personal recognisance bonds the men were initially granted. Garza’s attorney told the court his client was terminated from his position as an investigator for the tax office.

Banales ordered prosecutors and defense attorneys not to speak to the media regarding the case.

HARLINGEN – Texas State Technical College will host Friday and Saturday a SkillsUSA runoff competition for TSTC students in Auto Collision Technology and HVAC.

The students will compete against each other for a spot at the SkillsUSA state competition. The District 13 competition also will be hosted at the college allowing high school students from across the Rio Grande Valley to participate in a hands-on competition in various fields such as science, technology, engineering, mathematics, construction, information, technology, architecture and web design.

The competition will be held tomorrow, Friday, from 8 a.m to 3:30 p.m. and Saturday from 7:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. It will be held at the TSTC Wellness and Sports Center and TSTC Cultural Arts Building, 1902 N. Loop 499.

TSTC’s Auto Collision program will be competing in two categories refinishing and body work. Of their 14 competitors, Dolores Garza is the only female. TSTC’s HVAC program also will have seven students competing.

SkillsUSA is a professional organization teaching technical, academic and employability skills that help high school and college students pursue successful careers. Members build these skills through student-led team meetings, contests, leadership conferences and other activities.

A Harlingen High School South student practices getting his camera news-ready for the SkillsUSA competition on Feb. 15.

BY Gail Fagan

EDINBURG – The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley has announced a $1 million gift from PlainsCapital Bank that will support student scholarships. And to honor the generosity of the Texas-based financial institution, the Student Union Theater on the Edinburg Campus will be named the “PlainsCapital Bank Student Union Theater.”

The gift will create endowed scholarships for qualified students in the College of Business and Entrepreneurship, the College of Sciences and the UTRGV School of Medicine.

“The transformative power of PlainsCapital Bank’s investment in UTRGV is boundless,” said UTRGV President Guy Bailey. “This gift will positively impact future generations of our students by making their goal of seeking higher education and pursuing the career of their dreams a reality.”

The nearly 500-seat theater is located inside the Student Union on the Edinburg Campus. It was chosen for the naming because of its high visibility and popularity as a venue for student and community events.

Since its founding 28 years ago by its current chairman, Alan B. White, PlainsCapital Bank has grown to be the sixth-largest Texas-headquartered bank in Texas, based on deposit market share. They employ more than 1,200 people and have more than 67 branches throughout the state, including: Austin, Corpus Christi, Dallas, El Paso, Fort Worth, Houston, Laredo, Lubbock, San Antonio and the Rio Grande Valley.

White praised President Bailey and UTRGV’s leadership for the university’s forward momentum, which he hoped the PlainsCapital gift would help continue.

“PlainsCapital Bank is very proud to be part of the region served so well by UTRGV,” White said. “We believe this donation represents an important step in helping the university make a profound impact on the students, faculty and staff on its campuses, and on higher education in the Valley.”

Robert C. Norman, PlainsCapital Bank’s region chairman for the Rio Grande Valley, earned his BBA in finance from UTRGV’s legacy institution UT Pan American. Norman, a lifelong resident of the Valley, said PlainsCapital is excited about the Valley’s potential growth and wants to be part of the development of a well-educated Valley workforce and improved health care services for its residents.

“This gift exemplifies PlainsCapital Bank’s commitment to young people and to effecting positive changes in the places where we do business and where our customers live and work,” Norman said. “The more we can support this university, the more it will benefit everyone in the region.”

Dr. Kelly Cronin, UTRGV vice president for Institutional Advancement, said the gift demonstrates PlainsCapital Bank’s visionary leadership and commitment to improving the quality of life in the communities it serves.

“Endowments like this from valued partners like PlainsCapital Bank provide a steady stream of funding for scholarships to support students with outstanding potential while keeping their college education affordable,” Cronin said. “The renaming of this enduring UTRGV facility celebrates the philanthropic impact PlainsCapital Bank’s generosity will have for many generations to come.”

Also joining in the press conference activities was PlainsCapital Bank’s iconic mascot – Mo the Buffalo – who was transported to the event from his home ranch in Weatherford, Texas. A majestic and powerful creature, the buffalo is the recognized symbol of PlainsCapital, and according to company officials, represents the bank’s strength, stability, pride and momentum. Mo, which is short for Momentum, was on display at the south side of the Student Union Building, where passersby could enjoy a close up view of the massive animal.

Another renaming ceremony of facilities on the Brownsville Campus in honor of the PlainsCapital Bank gift will take place Feb. 19 in the Student Union Gran Salón.

About PlainsCapital Bank

Dallas-based PlainsCapital Bank, the sixth-largest Texas-headquartered bank by deposit market share, operates more than 67 Texas branches and has more than 1,200 employees providing highly personalized relationship banking through a single point of contact. Offering commercial lending, treasury management, small business banking, private banking, and trust and wealth management services, PlainsCapital Bank empowers responsive, local decision making in each of its major markets: Austin, Corpus Christi, Dallas, El Paso, Fort Worth, Houston, Laredo, Lubbock, the Rio Grande Valley and San Antonio. PlainsCapital Bank is part of the PlainsCapital Corporation family of companies. PlainsCapital Corporation is a wholly owned subsidiary of Hilltop Holdings (NYSE:HTH). Find more information at PlainsCapital.com.

Source: June 2015 SNL Financial

HARLINGEN – The latest deadline for the reopening of Hugh Ramsey Nature Park has come and gone, again.

The initial timeframe given by city officials in early December was completion in two weeks.

In mid-January, the target date became Feb. 1, and later it was pushed back to Feb. 17.

City officials now say the park will re-open in mid-March.

As of yesterday, the park entrance remained blocked, and heavy graders and other equipment were rolling over the gravel to grade the lot’s two levels.

There’s a bio-retention basin right in the middle.

Work on the parking lot has delayed the project, county workers have said previously.

The renovation of the park is being funded with a $158,000 grant from the Texas General Land Office’s Coastal Impact Assistance Program.

In addition to paving the lot, a bio-retention basin was installed in the parking lot to filter pollutants from the Arroyo Colorado which runs past the park.

Underground pipes will take that filtered water from the retention basin to a network of ponds and wetlands at the park. Cleansed of pollutants, it will then flow back into the arroyo.

The project also will double the size of the park’s five ponds.

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Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge will hold a public meeting tonight from 6 to 8 p.m. at Bass Pro Shop’s Trophy Room in Harlingen to discuss proposed changes for the refuge’s 2016/17 hunt season.

All of the south Texas refuges are considering having the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department become the online administrator for refuge hunt permits.

Among the changes being considered are having all hunts in a lottery system, all hunts would be either 3 or 5 days, pricing would be $80 for a three day hunt and $130 for a five day hunt, limiting hunters to one firearm and one archery hunt per year, implementing an application fee of $2.50, and allowing up to 4 hunters to apply together as a group.

HARLINGEN — The city has amended an incentives package to help a developer expand a psychiatric hospital that will create about 225 jobs.

Last night, city commissioners approved the amendment of agreements in which the city and the Harlingen Economic Development Corp. offered financial incentives to developer Strategic Behavioral Health.

The amendments come after the developer requested its construction completion date be pushed back from Jan. 31 to Oct. 1 to expand the Palms Behavioral Health center.

The city has offered the developer $200,000 for job creation to be paid over a four-year period.

Meanwhile, the EDC has offered $1,000 to $1,500 for each job created, depending on the job’s pay scale.

Originally, Strategic Behavioral Health planned to include 72 beds in a 52,000-square-foot building at the corner of Hale Avenue and Victoria Lane.

Now, the developer plans to add 11,000 square feet to the hospital while expanding capacity to 94 beds.

The expansion will boost the project’s cost to $13 million.

“Health care in general in Harlingen has continued to grow at a steady pace,” Raudel Garza, the EDC’s chief executive officer, said before the meeting.

Garza said the area’s need for more psychiatric beds led Strategic Behavioral Health to expand the project.

“It’s something that’s needed,” Garza said.

The hospital will add psychiatric beds in Cameron County, where services lag behind Hidalgo County, Garza said before the meeting.

Now, Garza said, Cameron County has 37 in-patient psychiatric beds and 55 additional beds at Rio Grande State Hospital.

Meanwhile, Hidalgo County has 212 in-patient beds, Garza said.

Palms Behavioral Health plans to staff the hospital with psychiatrists, psychologists, therapists and nurses.

Memphis-based Strategic Behavioral Health operates hospitals in College Station, El Paso, Las Vegas, Nev., and Colorado Springs, Colo.

Little girls are made of sugar and spice and everything nice. Little boys are made of frogs and snails and puppy dogs tails.

Even from the start, little boys and little girls are different. As we grow into adults those differences continue, including how our bodies react to a heart attack.

Heart attack symptoms displayed by men and women are considerably different.

When a woman has a heart attack she may experience nausea, overwhelming fatigue and dizziness. Her warning signs of an impending heart attack could include shortness of breath, vomiting, and back or jaw pain. Because these symptoms are often chalked up to stress, women have reported that they have a harder time getting their doctors to recognize these early warning signs.

Women also wait longer before seeking medical care. With a heart attack, minutes matter. Seeking help sooner and being proactive about your care can help save heart muscle.

Men tend to experience the typical symptoms of a heart attack such as chest tightness, arm pain and shortness of breath. Warning signs common to both men and women include discomfort in the chest or other area of the upper body, shortness of breath, light-headedness and breaking out in a cold sweat.

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure is especially true for women and heart disease. Admittedly, some heart disease risk factors are beyond our control, such as family history and age. After menopause, a woman’s chance of developing heart disease soars because her body’s production of estrogen drops.

But you can take an active role in preventing cardiovascular disease by managing your risk factors.

– Don’t smoke.

– Lower your cholesterol.

– Maintain a normal weight.

– Exercise.

– Manage your diabetes, if you have the condition.

Having even one of the risk factors for heart disease can be dangerous. But having multiple risks is even more serious because risk factors tend to intensify the effects of others and increase your chances of developing a heart condition.

If your doctor has prescribed medications, be sure to take them exactly as advised.

Tell your doctor if you experience any unpleasant side effects. You may be able to adjust the dosage or change to another medicine. Severe chest pain or blood vessel blockages may be surgically treated by coronary angioplasty or coronary artery bypass graft.

What’s good for the goose is good for the gander applies when women seek treatment for heart attacks. Just as for men, women should call 9-1-1 if experiencing symptoms that seem to be life-threatening.

Ask for tests that can show if you are having a heart attack and request clot-busting drugs used to stop a heart attack that are best administered within the first hour after a heart attack starts.

Heart disease is not just for men. About one woman dies every minute from cardiovascular disease and 64 percent of women who die suddenly of heart disease did not have any previous symptoms.

For more information about heart disease, check with your doctor or visit /www.valleybaptist.net.