The Monitor View

Of the 10 proposed state constitutional amendments on Tuesday’s ballot, half would waive constitutional limits on agencies’ ability to incur debt. We understand the need for such limits, and believe that if officials plan to routinely...... Full story

New York City’s World Trade Center is nearly 2,000 miles from the Rio Grande Valley. Yet the unspeakable acts that were committed 10 years ago directly affected local residents in many ways. It’s easy to see how the terrorist attacks...... Full story

We welcome news that the University of Texas System Board of Regents has started investing in a full-fledged medical school in the Rio Grande Valley.A $30 million South Texas investment plan the regents approved Thursday includes $10 million for a...... Full story

Tonight’s Conjunto of the Year Awards, which will be held in Mercedes, remind us of the music that is largely associated with South Texas traditions. Indeed, like the region it largely represents, the music is an amalgam of diverse elements...... Full story

President Barack has announced that he wants to keep 250 National Guardsmen on the U.S.-Mexico border for another three months, once their deployment ends at the end of this month. He is asking Congress to allocate $30 million —...... Full story

rownsville has a new mayor. Tony Martinez was sworn in to the post on Tuesday, as were new District 2 Commissioner Jessica Tetreau Kalifa and re-elected District 1 Commissioner Ricardo Longoria Jr. After the June 18 runoffs, the city will also...... Full story

With his guilty plea Friday on federal extortion charges, Jim Solis becomes the third former state legislator from the Rio Grande Valley to have a felony case come before the court in the past six months. Solis, of Harlingen, represented House...... Full story

Barack Obama raised the hopes of millions when he announced as a candidate that immigration reform was going to be one of his top priorities; he promised it would be one of the first subjects he tackled. Well into his third year, Obama has done...... Full story

With the state facing a whopping $27 billion budget deficit, Texas legislators meeting for their biennial session in Austin are looking at having to do some heavy-handed ax wielding in an effort get the budget closer to an even keel. We...... Full story

Among the various bills offered in Washington and Austin are new efforts to force every U.S. resident to speak English. U.S. Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, has pledged to file an English-only bill in Congress. Worse, similar bills already have been...... Full story

A recent state attorney general’s ruling is a major victory for people who have been reluctant to request large volumes of public information. Many people have wanted complete databases of information but been kept at bay by officials’...... Full story

It’s lege time again. On Tuesday the biennial madness that is the Texas Legislature will reconvene. Although many of the 150 House and 31 Senate members have turned their elected offices into full-time careers, the state constitution allows...... Full story

South Texas historically has been regarded as one of the worst places to get sued — or the best place to file a plaintiff’s lawsuit, depending on what side you’re on. That fact put the region on the American Tort Reform...... Full story

It has long been said thatChristmas is a time for giving, and even though the most common image we have of the secular side of the holiday is that of excited children receiving presents, many of us know that the saying is true. Seeing the joy in...... Full story

Life involves risk; you can’t escape it. As the federal government exerts increasing control over our lives, some people are becoming fed up. Growing numbers of airline passengers are rising up against heightened security measures the...... Full story