Star Special Reports

HOGS GONE WILD: They’re mean, they’re ugly, they’re everywhere

Feral hogs a challenge to hunters, menace to ranchers

By STEVE SINCLAIR/Valley Morning Star

Rancher Epimeno Atkinson knows the frustration of trying to control the feral hog problem on the 1,500 acres where he raises cattle east of Rio Hondo."You can catch a lot of them in traps, but you can't get rid of them," he said. "If you use poison, you... Full story

At long last, PEACE

Victory brings end to Valley’s years of sacrifice

By ED ASHER/Valley Morning Star

EDITOR'S NOTE: More than six decades have passed since World War II, but memories of the upheaval and transformation it brought home to the Valley are still strong in the people here who lived it. In a five-part series that began May 17, resumed May 22... Full story

War sealed ETERNAL BOND

Vet still wears lost friend’s ring

By STEVE SINCLAIR/Valley Morning Star

EDITOR'S NOTE: More than six decades have passed since World War II, but memories of the upheaval and transformation it brought home to the Valley are still strong in the people here who lived it. In a five-part series that began May 17, resumed Friday... Full story

Harlingen Army Airfield: School for TOP GUNS

World War II turned Harlingen into a military town

By ALLEN ESSEX/Valley Morning Star

EDITOR'S NOTE: More than six decades have passed since World War II, but memories of the upheaval and transformation it brought home to the Valley are still strong in the people here who lived it. In a five-part series that began Sunday, resumed Friday... Full story

Sacrifice on the HOME FRONT

War effort transforms Valley life

By ED ASHER and FERNANDO DEL VALLE/Valley Morning Star

EDITOR'S NOTE: More than six decades have passed since World War II, but memories of the upheaval and transformation it brought home to the Valley are still strong in the people here who lived it. In a five-part series that began Sunday, resumes today... Full story

Valley mobilizes at the outbreak of WAR!

It was a time of sacrifice, patriotism and a will to win

By STEVE SINCLAIR/Valley Morning Star

EDITOR'S NOTE: More than six decades have passed since World War II, but memories of the upheaval and transformation it brought home to the Valley are still strong in the people here who lived it.In a five-part series that starts today and resumes Friday... Full story

Who was the man under the bridge?

Two different portraits of Mexican immigrant emerge

By GABRIEL SALDAÑA/Valley Morning Star

HARLINGEN - Diego Rivas-Soto's hometown is so small that every man rises before dawn and walks down to the river to make adobe bricks out of clay and straw for about $5 a day.The village is a cluster of about 10 homes a mile or so outside of San Juan... Full story

Texas now ‘certifies’ its retirement communities — and Harlingen is On Board

By ED ASHER

A new generation of Winter Texans making its way to the Rio Grande Valley promises to shake up old perceptions and rewrite the way business is done.This is the generation of the baby boomers, born between 1946 and 1964. They are younger and more active... Full story

Big Wave of Visitors

Postwar prosperity brought winter tourists to the Valley

By ED ASHER and ALLEN ESSEX

After the end of World War II, motorists hitched up roomy travel trailers behind V-8-powered cars with fastbacks and turtlehulls for road trips across America. Postwar prosperity, cheap gasoline and paid vacations made travel a seemingly limitless proposition. At... Full story

Fun-N-Sun proved revolutionary — and gave birth to the term ‘Winter Texan’

By FERNANDO DEL VALLE/Valley Morning Star

Four decades ago, a nightmarish stop at a run-down trailer park drove Hank Stanley to launch a business that turned the Rio Grande Valley into the headquarters of  Winter Texans. Down on his luck, Stanley pulled his old trailer into a Houston mobile... Full story

HOGS GONE WILD: They’re mean, they’re ugly, they’re everywhere

Feral hogs a challenge to hunters, menace to ranchers

By STEVE SINCLAIR/Valley Morning Star

Rancher Epimeno Atkinson knows the frustration of trying to control the feral hog problem on the 1,500 acres where he raises cattle east of Rio Hondo."You can catch a lot of them in traps, but you can't get rid of them," he said. "If you use poison, you... Full story

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