Matt Wilson
S.A. Express-News
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Past articles by Matt:
Mother’ milk therapy offers premature babies chance to go home sooner
Treatment offers micro-premature babies a chance to go home sooner. → Read More
San Antonio man accused of holding up aloe farmer at gunpoint, tying him in shrink wrap
Matthew Paul Brown, 36, is charged with one count of aggravated robbery and one count of... → Read More
Insurance deal remains contentious for La Joya schools
LA JOYA — The school board here voted to authorize the district’s administration to negotiate an agreement for an enrolling agent/agent of record for a district health insurance plan and voluntary health products at a special meeting Wednesday, the latest step in years of wrangling between the district and its insurance agents. Trustee Alda Benavides … → Read More
5% of Edinburg schools staff test positive for virus
EDINBURG — The school board here approved a new calendar and discussed what to do about increasingly alarming signs of the effect the pandemic could have on the spring semester at a special meeting Friday, five days after voting to delay the start of the semester by a week because of concerns over COVID-19. The … → Read More
As Valley virus activity rises, first case of new strain in Texas
COVID-19 cases in the Rio Grande Valley climbed by 871 on Thursday with 11 more deaths attributed to the virus, while elsewhere in the state the first Texas case of a strain of the coronavirus identified in the United Kingdom was identified. Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo confirmed the new strain, which is known for … → Read More
Edcouch-Elsa schools to test all staff for COVID-19
EDCOUCH — Edcouch-Elsa ISD plans to test all campus and district staff Monday as a preventative measure to slow the spread of the coronavirus, the school district announced Sunday. The news followed an emergency meeting held by the school board that morning to discuss and possibly take action to amend the district’s school calendar, according … → Read More
Edinburg school district delays spring semester over COVID concerns
Fearing a COVID-19 spike related to holiday gatherings, the Edinburg CISD Board of Trustees voted to defer the beginning of the district’s spring semester until at least Jan. 13 at a meeting Saturday. Now required by the Texas Education Agency to give all students the option of returning to campus, classes were supposed to begin … → Read More
Calamity comes: How COVID-19 left its mark on the Valley
“It’s safe to say that things are getting a little strange out there,” read the first line on the front page story of The Monitor’s March 18, 2020 edition. “Times are a-changin’” read the headline above it. Folksy lines meant to soften the blow of a 24-page paper that was little short of disturbing. At … → Read More
Motive still unclear, police puzzled by ex-Senate candidate’s brutal beating
RAYMONDVILLE — Police here have made three arrests related to the brutal beating of former Republican state Senate candidate Vanessa Tijerina on Christmas Eve and are continuing to search for more persons of interest related to the attack, the motive for which remains unclear to investigators. According to police, Tijerina was lured into a hotel … → Read More
COVID-19 vaccinations in Mercedes, Harlingen for specific groups
COVID-10 vaccinations using the new Moderna vaccine are underway at UTRGV inoculation sites in Mercedes and Harlingen. The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley received a shipment of Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine at the UT Health RGV/Knapp Family Health Center in Mercedes and the UTRGV Clinical Education building in Harlingen early this week and began vaccinating … → Read More
Weslaco gets legal advice on combatting data breaches
WESLACO — The Weslaco ISD Board of Trustees has approved a letter of engagement with Pennsylvania-based law firm Mullen Coughlin LLC for legal advice and assistance with a potential data security incident. The decision was made during a Dec. 17 board meeting. Three days before approving the letter the district was attacked by ransomware that … → Read More
Sharyland school board talks open enrollment
MISSION — Sharyland ISD is eyeing open enrollment as a way to shore up plummeting enrollment numbers that are costing the district millions in revenue. The board discussed allowing students living outside the district to transfer through inter-district transfers at its Dec. 14 meeting. Enrollment at Sharyland currently stands at 9,784 students, down from 10,160 … → Read More
GOP candidate in congressional race calls election into question
EDINBURG — Now-former congressional candidate Monica De La Cruz-Hernandez lobbed allegations of improprieties in the November election at a news conference Tuesday, believing it cost her the race for Texas’ District 15 seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. De La Cruz-Hernandez also used the news conference as an opportunity to announce plans to run … → Read More
UTRGV vaccine information campaign combats conspiracies
The COVID-19 vaccine is not a medium of control such as implanting a microchip in the blood, UTRGV School of Medicine Dean Dr. John Krouse said during a question and answer session posted to Facebook Live on Monday afternoon. He hadn’t understood the question at first, when someone asked if the vaccine had a tracker … → Read More
TEA nixes proposal to allow continued online education
Texas Education Agency Commissioner Mike Morath has rejected a proposal submitted by dozens of South Texas superintendents earlier this week that would have given districts the ability to continue a mostly remote instruction curriculum in the event of a COVID-19 surge over the holidays. In a statement Friday, State Board of Education member Ruben Cortez, … → Read More
South Texas educators call on state to extend online instruction
McALLEN — Education leaders across South Texas on Tuesday petitioned the state’s education commissioner, Mike Morath, to approve a region-wide COVID-19 response plan that would include another waiver allowing districts to continue online instruction in the event of an infection spike. Signed by 27 of Region One’s 38 superintendents, the letter requests that school districts … → Read More
Terminally ill Starr County woman, family make most of situation
Camelia Lara probably won’t live to see her mobile home rebuilt. Lara, a mother of four and former housekeeper, lives in that three-bedroom mobile home with her two youngest daughters, her 26-year-old son, his wife, and her son’s three kids. She and her son had been working on fixing it up earlier this year, replacing … → Read More
On road to recovery, butterfly center’s beloved tortoise turns 18
MISSION— Spike the tortoise made a beeline for his birthday cake Friday afternoon to the delight of the staff at the National Butterfly Center. It wasn’t a cake, technically, so much as a decadent pile of watermelon slices and tomatoes and lettuce leaves, crowned by a watermelon rind carved into the shape of a tortoise. … → Read More
Boy’s rescue from well a multi-agency effort across two counties
After almost six hours lodged several feet below the ground in the shaft of a rural Starr County well, a 4-year-old boy was met by applause and cheering around 10:30 p.m. Tuesday evening as first responders finally carried him to the surface. Crews in hard hats and dusty vests and harnesses carefully passed the boy … → Read More
Mission couple struggles after wife’s cancer diagnosis
MISSION — A MySpace message was the first line in Brenda and Mario Treviño’s love story. They’d seen each other before in the hallways of Veterans Memorial High School, but they’d never said a word to each other. That was Mario’s fault — he thought she was too pretty for him, and couldn’t quite work … → Read More