Denton has renamed itself Halloween, Texas, and has planned 31 days of events to drive up tourism and family entertainment.
Berenice Garcia
Berenice Garcia is a regional reporter covering the Rio Grande Valley. She works at the Tribune as a corps members with Report for America. She previously covered local government, crime, healthcare and general assignments for The Monitor in McAllen where she was born. Though she's spent the majority of her life in the Valley, she traveled east to attend New York University where she studied journalism and politics. While there, she interned at the New York Daily News, the Daily Beast and NBC News. When she’s not working, she enjoys fighting for her life at the gym. Berenice is based in McAllen.
Posted in
Broken Pipes
Laredo ends boil-water notice after 11 days, turns attention to illegal connections and old pipes
The South Texas city has hired a consulting firm for $200,000 to provide an interim director for the utility amid a restructuring of the department.
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Robert Roberson
Gov. Greg Abbott’s office condemns Texas House lawmakers who intervened in Robert Roberson’s execution
The Texas governor had not publicly shared his thoughts on the actions of a bipartisan group of lawmakers that stopped the scheduled execution of Robert Roberson.
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2024 Texas Elections
At debate, Mayra Flores shrugs off concern about mandating South Texans carry passports
During a tense debate with U.S. Rep. Vicente Gonzalez, Flores attacked Gonzalez for being soft on border security, then suggested requiring residents to prove citizenship in some instances was appropriate.
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2024 Texas Elections
Vicente Gonzalez and Mayra Flores clash in fiery South Texas congressional debate
In their only debate before Election Day, Gonzalez and Flores traded jabs over the economy, immigration and abortion, and regularly spoke over each other.
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Broken Pipes
Laredo enters its sixth day of a boil-water notice after E. coli is discovered in water system
The South Texas city is the latest to grapple with aging water infrastructure, which officials suggested could have been the cause for the E. coli outbreak.
Posted in
2024 Texas Elections
A Texas rematch: Republican Mayra Flores aims to beat Democrat Vicente Gonzalez for U.S. House seat
Flores briefly represented the district after winning a 2022 special election. Gonzalez went on to beat her by nearly 9 points in the general.
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Health care
Animal welfare advocates will plead with Texas lawmakers to help cities control stray pet population
One group estimated more than 568,000 cats and dogs entered shelters in 2023. About 82,000 cats and dogs were euthanized.
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Texas Border Crackdown
Takeaways from the Texas Tribune-Associated Press report on 24 hours along the Texas-Mexico border
Reporters from both organizations spent a day documenting the reality on the border. Here’s a summary of what they found.
Posted in
Texas Border Crackdown
Many Americans say immigration is out of control, but 24 hours on the Texas-Mexico border showed a new reality. Will it last?
The Texas Tribune and The Associated Press visited five locations along the 1,254-mile span to separate the facts from the political narrative during a heated election year.