RIO GRANDE GUARDIAN: Comments made by former Hidalgo County Democratic Party Chairman Juan Maldonado in a recent column about the State Party Convention have drawn fierce criticism from local party activists, most of them women. “What Juan Maldonado said was just a complete misrepresentation,” said Rosalie Weisfeld, a McAllen Democrat and member of the State Democratic Party’s executive committee.

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RIO GRANDE GUARDIAN: South Texas leaders from the world of politics, business and education have paid tribute to J. Gilbert Leal, the long-serving president of Texas State Technical College in Harlingen who announced his retirement Thursday. Leal spent 39 years at TSTC, the last 30 as president. Over the course of his career he has blazed a trail of educational opportunity for the Rio Grande Valley," said U.S. Rep. Rubén Hinojosa.

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RIO GRANDE GUARDIAN: Valley veterans want Congress to hear the horrendous story of William Kaub, a Navy veteran from La Feria, in the hope of building support for a VA hospital in the region. Kaub is recovering from the near death fiasco he experienced after he underwent colon cancer surgery at Audie Murphy.

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RIO GRANDE GUARDIAN: A legend in the world of higher education in South Texas has announced his retirement. After 30 years as president of Texas State Technical College Harlingen, Dr. Gilbert Leal, aged 61, announced he would be retiring at the end of August. Leal is one of only three people to have served as president of TSTC Harlingen since its inception in 1967.

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RIO GRANDE GUARDIAN: At a news conference to announce a major economic development for the Rio Grande Valley, a buoyant Gov. Rick Perry quipped that there was nowhere more appropriate for denim to be produced than Texas. “Now, if you are going to process and produce denim, where are you going to do it but in a place that wears more denim than any place in the world and that’s Texas,” Perry said.

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