A CAPITOL BLOG

• Remembering "Uncle" Bill Summers

  
  It is hard to believe that our friend is gone. May God bless the best ambassador the Valley and Northern Mexico ever had - Bill Summers. Here are some photos I picked up over the years.
  
  
  
  
  [...]
  Share | Rate | Archive

  Posted: November 30, 2009, 9:17pm EST
  

• Thanksgiving Turkey and Football

  
  
  A day to forget our anxieties of daily live and to be grateful for our abundance with family. It is fitting that we give thanks and remember the words said by C.S. Lewis:
  
  Anxiety is a pain which we must ask God to heal [...]
  Share | Rate | Archive

  Posted: November 26, 2009, 6:01pm EST
  

• Happy Turkey Day Everyone

  
  From our family to yours, have a happy and safe Thanksgiving! [...]
  Share | Rate | Archive

  Posted: November 25, 2009, 9:35am EST
  

• Texas Tribune: The Texas Governor's Race in 60 Seconds

  [...]
  Share | Rate | Archive

  Posted: November 24, 2009, 11:39am EST
  

• Congressman Patrick Kennedy Denied Communion Because of Pro-Choice Stance

  
  
  It's hard not to see the beauty in the Villanova University statue. It is only when the statue is seen through the prism of the abortion debate does one's view of it change.
  
  The abortion debate continues in today's headlines as we [...]
  Share | Rate | Archive

  Posted: November 22, 2009, 2:16pm EST
  

• It's Going to Be A Good Day For Texas

  
  Getting ready for some football. My Alma Mater needs to keep winning in order to have a shot at the national title. So let it be written ... so let it be done! [...]
  Share | Rate | Archive

  Posted: November 21, 2009, 11:36am EST
  

• The Greatest Thing ....

  
  
  "The greatest thing you'll ever learn is (just) to love and be loved in return".
  
  - eden ahbez' [...]
  Share | Rate | Archive

  Posted: November 20, 2009, 3:02pm EST
  

• Bringing Home the Bacon for the District

  
  
  This is a celebratory photo that we took on the floor of the Texas House today. I was joined in the state capitol by the Elsa Mayor and the city council. A proud moment today as we succeeded in bringing more money back home to [...]
  Share | Rate | Archive

  Posted: November 19, 2009, 4:43pm EST
  

• The Anniversary of the Gettysburg Address and our Census

  
  
  On November 19, 1863, at the dedication of a military cemetery at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, during the American Civil War President Abraham Lincoln delivers one of the most memorable speeches in American history. In just 272 words, Lincoln brilliantly and movingly reminded a war-weary public why the Union had [...]
  Share | Rate | Archive

  Posted: November 19, 2009, 10:35am EST
  

• California Dreamin'

  
  
  I was California Dreamin' and looking forward to a good national conference on health care and immigration policy but with the City of Elsa receiving critical Texas grants I've decided to cancel my flight today to the Los Angeles conference and am instead heading up to Austin [...]
  Share | Rate | Archive

  Posted: November 18, 2009, 9:00am EST
  

• 7-year-old El Paso Boy Killed in Juárez

  
  The impact of an image or a message sometimes reverberates onward long past it's temporal origins. Burned onto our collective memories, powerful descriptions or photographs have the ability to encapsulate our deepest fears or ambitions.
  
  Regardless of one's perspective the incident portrayed above of [...]
  Share | Rate | Archive

  Posted: November 17, 2009, 11:20am EST
  

• Pleased to Announce $1.9 Million for Hometown Infrastructure

  
  
  I have informed the city of Edinburg that they have been awarded a grant in the amount of $1,974,325.00. The grant will allow the city to purchase and install permanent generators and other equipment at the city's water and wastewater plants. The funds will also [...]
  Share | Rate | Archive

  Posted: November 17, 2009, 7:49am EST
  

• High Flight

  
  
  High Flight
  
  Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth
  And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
  Sunward I’ve climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
  of sun-split clouds, — and done a hundred things
  You have not dreamed of—wheeled and [...]
  Share | Rate | Archive

  Posted: November 15, 2009, 8:45pm EST
  

• Going Rogue

  [...]
  Share | Rate | Archive

  Posted: November 15, 2009, 10:44am EST
  

• Be Still

  
  "What else does this craving, and this helplessness, proclaim but that there was once in man a true happiness, of which all that now remains is the empty print and trace? This he tries in vain to fill with everything around him, seeking in things that" [...]
  Share | Rate | Archive

  Posted: November 14, 2009, 12:52pm EST
  

• Our Family Gathers

  
  
  Today I paid my respects to families who lost their sons in the war in Iraq at a ceremony at the Rio Grande Valley Veterans Cemetary in Mission. Valley children who lost a parent in service to our country received special recognition. US Senator John [...]
  Share | Rate | Archive

  Posted: November 13, 2009, 8:31pm EST
  

• Another $500,000.00 For Our Community's Infrastructure

  
  
  I am pleased to announce that the City of Elsa is set to receive a $500,000.00 grant for drainage improvements and equipment purchases for the city's water plant. I informed the mayor of the award which is being made available from 2008 Supplemental Disaster Recovery' [...]
  Share | Rate | Archive

  Posted: November 13, 2009, 10:13am EST
  

• Valley Resident Marcel Albert is French Medal of Honor Recipient

  
  
  Today I met one of the greatest Flying Aces of World War II, Marcel Albert. Interestingly enough this veteran, decorated by at least three countries, lives here in the Rio Grande Valley. Today he received the French Medal of Honor delivered to him personally by [...]
  Share | Rate | Archive

  Posted: November 12, 2009, 7:14pm EST
  

• Visiting Freddy Gonzalez Veterans Nursing Home

  
  
  I just returned from the Freddy Gonzalez Veterans' Nursing Home where I had a chance to pay my respects to the veterans who are living there. I had the pleasure of seeing the nursing homes namesake's mother, Dolia Gonzalez.
  
  I also had a [...]
  Share | Rate | Archive

  Posted: November 11, 2009, 5:43pm EST
  

• Veterans Day: The Valley Remembers

  
  I spent the morning with Veterans and their families from across South Texas. On this special day of remembrance we dedicated three memorial walls containing the images of our those who lost their lives in Iraq and Afghanistan. All the families who lost their sons in [...]
  Share | Rate | Archive

  Posted: November 11, 2009, 1:36pm EST
  

• Texas Metros Claim 4 of the Top 5 Spots In Job Creation

  I am so pleased to report that my home community, McAllen-Edinburg-Mission, Texas, ranked fourth in U.S. metros in it's ability to create and sustain jobs by the 2009 Milken Institute/Greenstreet Real Estate Partners Best-Performing Cities Index.
  
  Texas metros claimed four of the top five spots' [...]
  Share | Rate | Archive

  Posted: November 11, 2009, 10:14am EST
  

• Veterans Day: We Will Remember

  
  
  On Veterans Day, America honors those who fought in the Spanish-American War, World War I, World War II, Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan and other war zones.
  
  Veterans Day actually started out as Armistice Day in 1919, a year after the Allies and [...]
  Share | Rate | Archive

  Posted: November 11, 2009, 7:24am EST
  

• Marine Corps Celebrates 234 Years

  
  The United States Marine Corps celebrates its 234th birthday today. With Veterans Day occurring tomorrow it is fitting to have two major military dates fall during a week where we as a country are examining our national security in the wake the Fort Hood massacre.
  [...]
  Share | Rate | Archive

  Posted: November 10, 2009, 3:13pm EST
  

• "Tear Down this Wall!"

  
  
  The Berlin Wall fell twenty years ago on Nov. 9, 1989, ending almost 30 years of family separation of a singular community. On a day like today it is always fitting to remember President Reagan's speech at the Berlin Wall. Perhaps the most momentous' [...]
  Share | Rate | Archive

  Posted: November 09, 2009, 8:18am EST
  

• The Hargill 2009 Cook-Off

  The Cook-Off.
  The Cooking Team.
  The Head Cook.
  Our Victory Enforcement Caucus. [...]
  Share | Rate | Archive

  Posted: November 07, 2009, 4:20pm EST
  

• A South Texas Cook-Off

  

  
  Today I am taking part in the Annual Hargill Cook-Off. Each year we put together a team and do our darndest to win one of the various cook-off categories. Mainly, it's just eating and having fun, South' [...]
  Share | Rate | Archive

  Posted: November 07, 2009, 11:21am EST
  

• A Legislative Tour of Texas A&M - Kingsville

  
  
  Dr. Steven H. Tallant, President of Texas A&M University-Kingsville visited my Edinburg office earlier this week. There he invited me to personally take a tour of the Kingsville campus. Today I followed up on that invitation. I was joined by Kingsville Representative Tara Rios Ybarra [...]
  Share | Rate | Archive

  Posted: November 06, 2009, 9:28pm EST
  

• A Hopson's Choice

  
  My dear friend, Representative Chuck Hopson has scheduled a press conference in which he will announce that he is switching parties. Hopson, a conservative Democrat, follows a number of other East Texas Democrats who have recently converted to the Republican Party.
  
  The phrase [...]
  Share | Rate | Archive

  Posted: November 06, 2009, 10:43am EST
  

• Our Prayers Are With Them

  [...]
  Share | Rate | Archive

  Posted: November 05, 2009, 8:53pm EST
  

• Sen. Leticia Van de Putte Honored As A "Legend of Success"

  
  
  San Antonio State Senator Leticia Van de Putte will be honored today at a noontime gathering of the Rio Grande Valley's Dress for Success organization. She will be joined by two other recipients: Dora Brown of IBC Bank and Yvonne Gonzalez of' [...]
  Share | Rate | Archive

  Posted: November 05, 2009, 7:28am EST
  

• Keynoting for the RGV Builders' Association

  
  I've never joined a noontime toastmasters, a fact that I always regretted because of an innate shyness I've always had toward public speaking. As a public official however, I think I am asked to give so many speeches to local groups that I think I far [...]
  Share | Rate | Archive

  Posted: November 04, 2009, 3:53pm EST
  

• The Greening of Our Community

  
  Headed over to the UTPA campus to participate in the a ceremony where TXU was donating a large number of Burr Oaks to the university and the cities of Edinburg and McAllen.
  
  [...]
  Share | Rate | Archive

  Posted: November 04, 2009, 12:00am EST
  

• Texas Teachers' Organization in Downtown

  
  
  As I walked around our city square today with our visiting city planners, I was invited in to one of our newest tenants in downtown Edinburg. Luis Tovar and Armando Gonzalez gave me a quick look into the offices of the American Federation of Teachers [...]
  Share | Rate | Archive

  Posted: November 03, 2009, 3:54pm EST
  

• Edinburg Master Planners Inspect Downtown

  
  
  I got up early to join a group of master city planners that had arrived in the city of Edinburg to view the city center. Our intention is to come up with a master city plan to improve the conditions in our city center. We [...]
  Share | Rate | Archive

  Posted: November 03, 2009, 2:51pm EST
  

• Launch Date For The Texas Tribune

  [...]
  Share | Rate | Archive

  Posted: November 03, 2009, 12:00am EST
  

• The Edinburg Housing Authority Celebrating 60th Anniversary

  
  The Edinburg Housing Authority will be celebrating its founding 60 years ago with a slew of events starting Tuesday, Nov. 3 as part of its 60th anniversary celebration.
  
  Mrs. Estella L. Treviño, executive director for the agency for the past 37 years, said she is [...]
  Share | Rate | Archive

  Posted: November 02, 2009, 10:35pm EST
  

• Sullivan City Receives $500,000.00 for Flooding and Drainage Improvements

  
  I am pleased to announce that Sullivan City is expected to receive $500,000.00 for flooding and drainage improvements. The Texas Department of Rural Affairs has recommended that the city receive the grant from the 2008 Supplemental Disaster Recovery Fund. The funding was issued as a result [...]
  Share | Rate | Archive

  Posted: November 02, 2009, 5:03pm EST
  

• "I'm on a (Mexican) Whoa-oh Radio"

  
  
  I am scheduled to be on KURV - Talk Radio (in the Valley) tomorrow morning to talk about the importance of getting a good census count. Catch me if you can.
  
  Sing it! "I'm on a Mexican Whoa-oh Radio"' [...]
  Share | Rate | Archive

  Posted: November 01, 2009, 4:38pm EST