by Julián Aguilar, The Texas Tribune March 18, 2015 Texas House members overwhelmingly gave tentative approval to a sweeping border-security measure on Wednesday following about four hours of debate on the measure’s costs, accountability mechanisms and whether it will stain the image of border cities. House Bill 11 by state…

By: Jose G. Landa, Copyright 2015, Eagle Pass Business Journal, Inc. A second lawsuit filed by foreign-owned Dos Republicas Coal Partnership against Maverick County, Texas, Maverick County Commissioners Court, and Maverick County Judge David R. Saucedo regarding the denial of a County Flood Plain Development Permit by County Judge Saucedo…

by Jim Malewitz, The Texas Tribune March 18, 2015 A Central Texas city is waving goodbye to fossil fuels. Georgetown’s municipal utility on Wednesday unveiled plans to abandon traditional electricity sources like coal and gas power plants, instead exclusively tapping wind and solar energy to meet all of its customers’…

By: Jose G. Landa, 2015 Copyright, Eagle Pass Business Journal, Inc. Maverick County Hospital District Chief Executive Officer Terri Contreras-Patlan and Grants Writer Don Williams recently advised the MCHD Board of Directors that Maverick County has among the highest teenage pregnancy rates in the United States at 67.52 teen birth…

by Edgar Walters, The Texas Tribune March 18, 2015 As the state’s largest health agency reels from a scandal over how it awarded contracts to private vendors, lawmakers on Wednesday said they are slowing down on their ambitious — and controversial — plan to restructure it. A panel of lawmakers…

By: Ricardo E. Calderon, J.D., Copyright 2015, Eagle Pass Business Journal, Inc. The U.S.-Mexico border international twin cities of Eagle Pass, Texas and Piedras Negras, Coahuila, Mexico will renew their traditional, historic “Abrazo Ceremony” at the international boundary line on Friday, March 20, 2015, at 5 P.M. at the City…

By: Jose G. Landa, Copyright 2015, Eagle Pass Business Journal, Inc. The long-running battle and feud between Maverick County Commissioners Court and Maverick County Auditor Fidencio Ortiz comes to a final showdown on Friday, March 20, 2015, as a three-judge panel of State District Judges Cynthia Muniz, Amado J. Abascal,…

by Jim Malewitz, The Texas Tribune March 17, 2015 As policy dilemmas go, the one triggered when Denton voters decided last fall to ban hydraulic fracturing in their city looked like a whopper: The oil and gas industry versus local control — two things Texas holds dear — in intractable…

by Morgan Smith, The Texas Tribune March 16, 2015 Editor’s note: This story has been updated throughout. A bill lifting some of the state’s restrictions on handguns cleared the Texas Senate along a party line vote of 20 to 11 Monday. Senate Bill 17, from state Sen. Craig Estes, R-Wichita…

A caller to the Chamber has advised us that “wristbands” for the upcoming International Friendship Festival carnival are being sold over Facebook.  We have checked with the carnival owners and have been informed that they have not even decided if they will be selling the wristbands!  If, in fact, someone…