HARLINGEN — Montrell Johnson has never forgotten the presentation delivered by a neurosurgeon last year.

Montrell, a freshman at the Harlingen School of Health Professions, hadn’t yet decided what field of medicine he wanted to pursue. Dr. Michael Rabin’s presentation last year about his work as a brain surgeon settled that question.

“He inspired me to accept my goal,” said Montrell, 14. “When I grow up, I want to be a neurosurgeon as well.”

Rabin, of Chicago, is one of many physicians who have given presentations each Thursday since the $13.9 million school opened in 2014 at 2302 N. 21 St. Presentations by physicians about their specialty have helped students, administrators and teachers remain aware of the realities of the medical professions.

A 13-member HSHP Advisory Committee has worked with the school since its inception to help develop the school’s curriculum for the Harlingen school district. The Advisory Committee includes Dr. Frank Fernandez, founding dean of the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley School of Medicine. Manny Vela, president and CEO of Valley Baptist Health System, also sits on the committee.

For the rest of this story and many other EXTRAS, go to our premium site, www.MyValleyStar.com.

Subscribe to it for only $6.99 per month or purchase a print subscription and receive the online version free, which includes an electronic version of the full newspaper and extra photo galleries, links and other information you can’t find anywhere else.

SAN BENITO — Breanna Gonzales scored 15, Christina Montez had 11 and Leeanne Ledesma chipped in 10 points as the Harlingen South Lady Hawks defeated the San Benito Lady Greyhounds 50-39 at the San Benito gymnasium Tuesday evening.

With the win, Harlingen South’s record goes to 16-13 overall and 4-2 District 32-6A, with a big game against crosstown rivals Harlingen High looming on Friday.

“We had some girls step up and have a good game like Breanna,” said Harlingen South head coach Kelly Garrett. “It’s a huge game coming up, we just got to go out and do our thing and we have to finish plays, and I just told them that right now.

“If we don’t finish plays on Friday it’s going to be a long night. We need to make sure that we’re ready and we need to make sure that we play our game. If we do all the little intangibles, then we will be fine.”

Full story at RGVSports.com

HARLINGEN — After having dropped their last two District 32-6A contests, the Harlingen Cardinals were in need of a rebound.

Thanks to balanced scoring and a hot start, the Cards got just that as they dismissed the Brownsville Lopez Lobos 65-53 Tuesday night in Harlingen.

“It feels good to get the win after two losses, but we have to keep getting after it,” said Harlingen’s Ernie Ramirez, who was one of four players to drop double digits Tuesday. “We came out focused on our defense and ran our offense. We went through our press in practice and three days of conditioning really helped.”

Harlingen’s Ramirez finished the day with 12 points.

The Cards will take on crosstown rival Harlingen South on Friday as they try to keep up the momentum.

Full story at RGVSports.com

HARLINGEN — In 26 years of service reading the tarot cards, Rita Valdez has never told someone they are going to win the lottery.

“The cards are very exact,” said Valdez, owner of Yerberia Santo Nino de Atocha in Harlingen.

With $1.5 billion up for grabs today, Valdez said only a few people have come into her yerberia and card-reading shop on West Harrison Avenue to find out if they’re going to get lucky.

Today’s Powerball jackpot will be the largest of any U.S. lottery game on record.

“The cards can’t predict that you’re going to win the lotto,” Valdez said.

Inside her shop, Valdez has an inventory of candles, oils and herbs used to help people’s body, spirit and future.

She sells candles with names like Abundance, Rain Money and Open Roads. Each of them has a prayer to help bring good fortune.

People light candles for good fortune and pass the smoke over their body and ask the Lord to bless them with their needs.

Valdez said many people come in for their card readings and to find out if there is any money coming in their future. But that has not been the case with Powerball players.

For the rest of this story and many other EXTRAS, go to our premium site, www.MyValleyStar.com.

Subscribe to it for only $6.99 per month or purchase a print subscription and receive the online version free, which includes an electronic version of the full newspaper and extra photo galleries, links and other information you can’t find anywhere else.

HARLINGEN — In 26 years of service reading the tarot cards, Rita Valdez has never told someone they are going to win the lottery.

“The cards are very exact,” said Valdez, owner of Yerberia Santo Nino de Atocha in Harlingen.

With $1.5 billion up for grabs today, Valdez said only a few people have come into her yerberia and card-reading shop on West Harrison Avenue to find out if they’re going to get lucky.

Today’s Powerball jackpot will be the largest of any U.S. lottery game on record.

“The cards can’t predict that you’re going to win the lotto,” Valdez said.

Inside her shop, Valdez has an inventory of candles, oils and herbs used to help people’s body, spirit and future.

She sells candles with names like Abundance, Rain Money and Open Roads. Each of them has a prayer to help bring good fortune.

People light candles for good fortune and pass the smoke over their body and ask the Lord to bless them with their needs.

Valdez said many people come in for their card readings and to find out if there is any money coming in their future. But that has not been the case with Powerball players.

“I had two gentlemen who came in and were wondering if they were going to win the lottery,” Valdez said.

The cards do tell a story that Valdez interprets for her clients who come to her looking for answers. Some show cards representing money.

“The truth does come out in the cards,” Valdez said.

The winning numbers of Saturday night’s game were 16, 19, 32, 34, 57 and a Powerball of 13. A total of 440 million tickets were sold in that drawing.

Texas Lottery executive director and Powerball game group chair said the amount of the winnings in this game is truly exciting and uncharted territory.

“We want to remind players to play responsibly and that it only takes one ticket to win,” Grief said.

Beginning with the first ticket sold in 1992, the Texas Lottery has generated $24 billion in revenue for the state and distributed $47 billion in prizes to lottery players.

Since 1997, the Texas Lottery has contributed $18 billion to the Foundation School Fund, which supports public education in Texas.

BROWNSVILLE — Commercial trucks will experience shorter times at Veterans International Bridge thanks to a move by Mexican Customs to ex-tend its weekday hours of operation.

The new hours, announced Monday, are 9 a.m. to 11 p.m. Monday through Friday, effectively immediately. Mexican Customs extended its hours of operation by three hours to bring them more in line with U.S. Customs and Border Protection, which operates until midnight on week-days.

The “misalignment of resources” has long been a problem that has caused slowdowns at the port-of-entry that impede cross-border economic activity, according to a statement from U.S. Rep. Filemon Vela’s office.

The issue was high-lighted at an October Binational (BiNED) Economic Development meeting hosted by Vela and Homeland Security Secretary Alan Bersin, said the statement. BiNED’s mission is to create an economic “mega-region” along the U.S.-Mexico border with a focus on advanced manufacturing.

Vela, D-Brownsville, said the change in hours is a “significant step to improve commercial traffic on the border,” and thanked Mexican Cus-toms, the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, and the Matamoros maquiladora industry for their help in bringing it about.

Cameron County Judge Pete Sepulveda Jr. said Mexican Customs’ previous hours of operation, besides disrupting the flow of northbound commercial traffic, also stranded many Mexican trucks on the U.S. side, when they couldn’t get back to the bridge in time after delivering their cargoes.

“It works out a lot better for traffic flow, whether you’re going into the U.S. or going into Mexico,” he said. “It facilitates trade a lot more.”

Sepulveda, who was in charge of day-to-day bridge operations until about six years ago, said hours of operation haven’t always been an issue.

“The hours always matched,” he said. “It didn’t make any sense for the hours not to match. I’m not sure how they got discoordinated.”

BROWNSVILLE — Commercial trucks will experience shorter times at Veterans International Bridge thanks to a move by Mexican Customs to ex-tend its weekday hours of operation.

The new hours, announced Monday, are 9 a.m. to 11 p.m. Monday through Friday, effectively immediately. Mexican Customs extended its hours of operation by three hours to bring them more in line with U.S. Customs and Border Protection, which operates until midnight on week-days.

The “misalignment of resources” has long been a problem that has caused slowdowns at the port-of-entry that impede cross-border economic activity, according to a statement from U.S. Rep. Filemon Vela’s office.

The issue was highlighted at an October Binational (BiNED) Economic Development meeting hosted by Vela and Homeland Security Secretary Alan Bersin, said the statement. BiNED’s mission is to create an economic “mega-region” along the U.S.-Mexico border with a focus on advanced manufacturing.

1 of 2

For the rest of this story and many other EXTRAS, go to our premium site, www.MyValleyStar.com.

Subscribe to it for only $6.99 per month or purchase a print subscription and receive the online version free, which includes an electronic version of the full newspaper and extra photo galleries, links and other information you can’t find anywhere else.

HARLINGEN — He radioed his final 10-42 pulling up to police headquarters as a commander of the force.

“Throwing that last 10-42 was the scariest thing I’ve ever done,” Harlingen police Commander Narciso Noyola said, referring to the “off duty” code. “I will never use the radio again or turn on my lights again.”

What awaited the commander were officers with drawn swords forming a tunnel for him to pass through. It was all to honor his 30 years of service to the force.

“It was the longest walk,” Noyola said. “It felt like a mile even though it was only like 50 feet.”

The sounds of “Scotland the Brave” played on the bagpipes by the Brownsville Firefighters Pipes and Drums set the tone of the engagement.

At the end of the tunnel stood his wife Becky, family and friends waiting to congratulate him and wish him well.

Six years earlier Noyola helped come up with the idea of the Tunnel Honoring Our Retirees.

For the rest of this story and many other EXTRAS, go to our premium site, www.MyValleyStar.com.

Subscribe to it for only $6.99 per month or purchase a print subscription and receive the online version free, which includes an electronic version of the full newspaper and extra photo galleries, links and other information you can’t find anywhere else.

EDINBURG — University of Texas Rio Grande Valley officials announced the largest donation to the institution since it was created, a gift of $2 million by the Vackar family, owners of the local Bert Ogden car dealerships.

UTRGV President Guy Bailey, joined by Robert and Janet Vackar, announced the donation during a ceremony at the Performing Arts Center yesterday morning.

“This is a seminal event in the history of our institution,” Bailey said. “An endowed scholarship of this magnitude means that students will forever benefit from the generosity of the Vackar family.”

The money will be used to create two endowed scholarship funds — $1 million for the Janet Vackar scholarship for mass communication in the college of liberal arts and $1 million for the Robert Vackar scholarship for the college of business and entrepreneurship.

Endowed funds are in-vested by the university to use earned income to provide scholarships, allowing the university to use the funds forever and donors to continue adding funds to the endowment if desired.

Janet Vackar said the family discussed the donation and agreed on where they wanted the scholar-ships to go based on their ties to those particular colleges.

For the rest of this story and many other EXTRAS, go to our premium site, www.MyValleyStar.com.

Subscribe to it for only $6.99 per month or purchase a print subscription and receive the online version free, which includes an electronic version of the full newspaper and extra photo galleries, links and other information you can’t find anywhere else.

[email protected]

BROWNSVILLE — Cameron County Commissioners met yesterday morning to discuss what possible action they could take, if any, regarding the tax office following Tax Assesessor-Collector Tony Yzaguirre Jr.’s arrest.

Before a closed session in which they discussed the matter, Mary Helen Flores, a resident of Brownsville representing Citizens Against Voter Abuse, addressed the commission during public comments urging them to act.

“I am here today to ask you, as the political leaders of this county, to put your foot down and say no to the corrupt practices that continue to plague our public offices,” Flores said. “I ask you to do everything in your power to follow the laws and if you are able, please remove the indicted tax office employees from their duties.”

Yzaguirre and three others were arrested on Jan. 6 on various charges including bribery, engaging in organized criminal activity and official oppression. They have not been indicted.

1 of 2

Flores suggested unpaid leave as an appropriate measure to take on behalf of the public.

For the rest of this story and many other EXTRAS, go to our premium site, www.MyValleyStar.com.

Subscribe to it for only $6.99 per month or purchase a print subscription and receive the online version free, which includes an electronic version of the full newspaper and extra photo galleries, links and other information you can’t find anywhere else.