Chick-fil-A coming to Weslaco

SPORTS
B1
Mike Burget to head Weslaco East
Wildcats coaching job
midvalleytowncrier.com
MID-VALLEY
Not forgotten
Wednesday, February 27, 2013
Chick-fil-A coming to Weslaco
By JULIE SILVA
Mid-Valley Town Crier
Nearly 30 years ago Kim
Sue Leggett disappeared from
her workplace in Mercedes.
The debut of the Texas
Department of Public Safety's
cold case website last week is
proof she isn't forgotten.
Story on Page A3
MEDICAL
Better health sought
Community
leaders
from the Rio Grande Valley
rallied on the steps of the
Texas Capitol this past week
to call for expanding health
care for the poor.
Story on Page A4
DEBATE
Lying so easily?
Eat mor chikin? Weslaco will.
By the end of year, Chick-fil-A is set to open
at the southeast corner of Westgate and U.S. 83.
The restaurant will be built in conjunction with
BlueWave Express Carwash, headquartered in
Houston.
"It's going to be a very interesting combina-
tion," said Hernan Gonzalez, CEO of the
Weslaco Economic Development Corporation.
The Chick-fil-A is one of several restaurants
popping up along the main corridor in Weslaco
this year. Carl's Jr. and Gorditas Dona Tota
opened this week and contractors recently
broke ground on a Longhorn Steakhouse.
Meanwhile, Gonzalez said Weslaco residents
did a campaign two years ago, sending 500 signed
postcards to Chick-fil-A, declaring their love for
the popular chicken restaurant. It worked.
Gonzalez expects the Chick-fil-A to be constructed by the end of the year. Contractors are
expected to break ground on the environmentally
friendly carwash in March.
A representative of BlueWave said the company is building six facilities on the border.
Gonzalez said the Economic Development
See CHICK-FIL-A | A7
TWEETING AT SCHOOL
“Mrs P if you don't like my tweets, there's the unfollow button”
“Why aren't they getting mad at teachers
being on twitter during school too?”
“if you didn't
know your
twitters were
being watched
by now, you're
pretty dumb”
“I can honestly don't
care if the administration & teachers
know what we do on
weekends. We're
TEENAGERS! Don't
tell me you were an
angel in High
school.”
“Sorry Mrs. P. I
love you but it's
none of your
business what
goes on with
our stuff.”
“What will they do to
ALL of us if we tweet
bad stuff. Go to
ISS? That's
heaven. Send me
home? I can tweet
there too.”
“my mom already knows
what i tweet so idk how they'd punish me”
PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY LUPE GARCIA | MID-VALLEY TOWN CRIER
Students hit Twitter on Monday afternoon, expressing their frustration with being watched while on the website.
Weslaco East cracks down on bullies
By JULIE SILVA
Mid-Valley Town Crier
Earlier this month,
Feb. 3, a New York Times
guest editorial caused
some controversy about
the frequency with which
police lie on reports and
in court.
W
eslaco East High
School's students
expressed frustration
through Twitter on Monday
when they found out administration knew about some of
their prior Tweets.
Noting rumors about sexual
acts, nude pictures and fight
information, students said it's
nobody's business what's on
their Twitter pages, though
many of those pages are public.
See BULLIES | A8
Story On Page A6
INSIDE TODAY
Mid-Valley ..............................................A3
Health .....................................................A5
Debate .....................................................A6
Valley ................................................A7,8,9
Sports ...................................................B1,2
Students
staying on
top with
technology
By JULIE SILVA
Mid-Valley Town Crier
PROGRESO — The
more technology introduced
into the classroom, the more
ways teachers have to interact and connect with students, and school districts
like Progreso and Weslaco
are determined not to let
students get left behind.
Rebecca Galvan, a seventhand
eight-grade
teacher
at
Dorothy
Thompson Middle School,
said she only recently introduced her students to the
school's
new
online
Blackboard program, and
she's been impressed with
the results.
Until recent years, programs like Blackboard were
used mainly in colleges. The
program allows teachers to
post videos, homework
assignments and tutorials
online, so students can find
them from anywhere.
"I just started introducing it, and the response was
'click, click, click,'" Galvan
said, pointing to seventhgrade student Kelvin Varela
as he dug into the site.
"Kelvin said, 'This is so
much more exciting."
The site includes a discussion forum, where teachers can post topics and allow
students to comment as part
of their grade. It can be
accessed by desktop, tablet,
iPad or iPhone.
See TECHNOLOGY | A7
National Bird
Feeding Month
The
National
Bird-Feeding
Society is proud to host and sponsor “National Bird-Feeding Month."
This national event was created to
advance and publicize the wild bird
feeding and watching hobby.
3-DAY WEATHER FORECAST
W
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n
e
s
d HIGH LOW
a
84° 54°
y
T
h
u
r
s
d
a
y
HIGH LOW
63° 51°
F
r
i
d
a HIGH LOW
y
74° 48°
Valley
Mid-Valley Town Crier
Wednesday, February 27, 2013 ❚ A7
midvalleytowncrier.com
Warnings issued for travelers going south of the border
By JACQUELINE
ARMENDARIZ
The Monitor
McALLEN — The U.S.
Consulate General cited
recent kidnappings and kidnapping attempts as a
reminder to U.S. travelers
they could be victimized
while traveling in northern
Tamaulipas state along the
U.S.-Mexico border.
With the recommendation to avoid traveling there
altogether
if
possible,
authorities said tourists and
residents alike are targeted
by criminals and that outings should be limited to
daylight hours.
Travelers should also
avoid displays wealth that
might draw attention, the
government said in the
warning dated Thursday.
Individuals should contact Mexican law enforcement if they believe a U.S.
citizen family member has
been kidnapped. The U.S.
Consulate General can assist
and advise in reporting kidnappings to Mexican and
U.S. authorities, the warning
said.
The U.S. Department of
State travel warning for
Mexico, last updated in
November, recommends
individuals "defer nonessential travel" Tamaulipas.
U.S.
government
employees continue to be
prohibited from personal
cert
of
the
Airport
Elementary iPad band - students played keyboards and
guitars
using
the
GarageBand app.
Superintendent Ruben
Alejandro said he recently
was on a campus and saw
several students using cell
phones in their classes. He
asked different groups how
they were impacting their
studies, and they couldn't
come up with an answer.
"The reason is very simple," Alejandro said. "To
them, it's second nature. For
them, it's nothing new.
"I guess the question I
should have been asking is,
'What would happen if we
took your digital device
away?'"
Weslaco's bring your
own technology program
increases the number of
mobile devices in each
classroom, and allows students to familiarize themselves with their own tools.
The district uses pro-
grams like Edmodo, which
looks like an educational
version of Facebook, and
Moodle,
similar
to
Blackboard, allowing students within a class to interact. Students can also take
self-graded quizzes, can
instantaneous feedback.
\Jim Welton, a language arts teacher at Pete
Garza Middle School, said
the first question he was
asked when introducing
"Kidblog" to his class is if
there was app for phones
and tablets. Now, he said, he
wastes less time waiting for
students to take turns on the
classroom's five desktops
because they have their own
devices.
Homer
Colunga,
Weslaco East High School
math teacher, later added,
"Now it's really common to
walk into my classroom and
a student has a cell phone
out, has a tablet out, has an
iPad out, and it's not an
issue."
while boosting the downtown
area.
"On the expressway, you
could
be
anywhere,"
Gonzalez said. "Once you
leave the Expressway, you
have to work with these assets
to set Weslaco apart."
TECHNOLOGY
FROM A1
A training session was
held last weekend for teachers, and sessions are
planned for students and
parents in the coming
weeks. Students from first
through 12th grades will use
the program. Parents will
have access to check students' grades and progress
in their courses.
Eighth-grade student
Bertha Elizondo said students will have no problem
adjusting to the program
because they spend five to
six hours a day on Facebook.
"It's relevant to them,"
Galvan added. "This is how
they communicate on a
daily basis."
Weslaco ISD, too, is taking part in the technological
revolution. At a workshop
this week, teachers presented several websites and software used in educating students. Audience members
also were given a free con-
CHICK-FIL-A
FROM A1
Corporation is working to
attract national companies
travel on highways outside
of Matamoros and Reynosa
because of carjackings and
kidnappings, the warning
states. In Matamoros, such
employees are under a midnight to 6 a.m. curfew. The
warning also cites grenade
attacks in Matamoros and
Nuevo Laredo last year.
The U.S. consular
agency in Reynosa closed in
September last year.
Authorities said U.S. cit-
izens traveling to or residing
in Mexico should participate
in the Department of State's
Smart Traveler Enrollment
Program
(STEP)
at
https://step.state.gov/step.
The program provides the
latest security updates and
makes it easier for the U.S.
embassy or nearest U.S. consulate to make emergency
contact, officials said. State
Department travel warnings
can also be viewed at
http://travel.state.gov.
The U.S. Consulate
General in Matamoros is at
Avenida Primera #2002, Col.
Jardín,
Matamoros,
Tamaulipas and open from 8
a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday
through Friday. Call the consulate at (011) (52) (868)
812-4402. U.S. citizens in
need of urgent assistance
after-hours call the emergency number (011) (52)
(868) 812-1507.