Michael Rodriguez

California has the largest immigrant population, but it’s also directly tied to its economy, just as it is in Texas and Florida. Three of the largest economies in the U.S. While mass deportations are absolutely about immigration, there’s much more at play.

A ★★★★ review of The Rip (2026) Joe Carnahan’s “The Rip” is easily his best directorial effort since 2011’s “The Grey” with Liam Neeson. And like that film, and “Smokin’ Aces” and “The A-Team,” Carnahan creates incredibly tense grou...

Had fun tonight with “The Rip.” #Letterboxd

boxd.it/cG4Og1

The Supreme Court has agreed to review whether police warrants that allow access to large amounts of cellphone location data to identify people near a crime scene are constitutional. https://cnn.it/3LQ3G8r

My #LastFourWatched on this #LetterboxdFriday

boxd.it/bCvU1

Leonel "L.T." Flores with his Superman collection Wednesday, July 9, 2025 in McAllen. (Delcia Lopez | dlopez@themonitor.com)

A little something I put together that made me happy.

🔗 ⬇️
myrgv.com/local-news/2...

‘He did save my life,’ says McAllen man of deputy who pulled him from fire Standing stoically in uniform on Tuesday, Hidalgo County sheriff’s deputy Mike Daniel Aleman didn’t say much as he listened to stories of his gallantry, but he didn’t have to because the man whose lif...

Hidalgo County sheriff’s deputy Mike Aleman didn’t say much. But he didn’t have to since this embrace from the man whose life he saved from a fire in McAllen said it all.
myrgv.com/local-news/2...

Editorial: Sanctioning news media for their accurate reporting is wrong, unconstitutional President Donald Trump’s overreaching use of fiats, and his attacks against legitimate news media, continue to reach alarming extremes and test legal limits.

“The First Amendment … carries an obvious corollary that the government can’t force (the press) to say or publish anything against their will. Using sanctions to punish or browbeat media into compliance or prior restraint is just as bad as government censorship.”

Edinburg migrant program sees amplified fear among students, families The district’s Migrant Neighborhood Identification and Recruitment Program kicked off its efforts Monday to identify and connect students to resources.

“The reality is that we do have migrant families that are undocumented and they’re fearful. They don’t want to be targeted. They’re fearful of who they talk to and some don’t want to be found because they have that fear factor.”

Hundreds take to downtown McAllen to protest Trump’s mass deportations Fight ignorance, not immigrants. So says a sign held outside a rear passenger seat window from one of dozens of vehicles that took to South 10th Street in McAllen on Saturday evening, protesting the T...

One protester, a professional wrestler from McAllen who goes by the name Kike Caballero, said he wasn’t expecting such a turnout: “People were dancing in the middle of the street and marching at the mall, marching back and forth. It makes me proud to be a Mexican-American.”

Oh yeah. Not a stunt at all.

This must be what people mean by “dystopia.”

Wasn’t this not supposed to be enforced until Monday? Sets things up nicely, doesn’t it?

The time Weslaco students were invited to Jimmy Carter’s inauguration Forty-eight years ago, a group of 32 elementary school students from the Rio Grande Valley were chaperoned by 22 adults as they boarded a plane.

These students got the opportunity of a lifetime nearly 50 years ago. One of them is remembering the occasion as a grateful nation mourns. | #RGV

A little reflection for 2025. There's no i in team. Thankful for my colleagues (and competitors).

Inside the Company Helping America’s Biggest Health Insurers Deny Coverage for Treatments When companies like Aetna or UnitedHealthcare want to rein in costs, they turn to EviCore, whose business model depends on turning down payments for care recommended by doctors for their patients.

Our seventh most-read story of this year: When companies like Aetna or UnitedHealthcare want to rein in costs, they turn to EviCore, whose business model depends on turning down payments for care recommended by doctors for their patients.

Read more (published October) ⬇️

Valley native is working on Firefly Aerospace’s mission to the moon A Brownsville native and Lopez Early College High School graduate is a part of a team that will put a lunar lander loaded with scientific equipment on the moon in early 2025.

Jesus Charles graduated from Lopez in 2009, earned a degree in aerospace engineering from UT and then worked for the Johnson Space Center in Houston for six years. Now he’s senior mission operations engineer for Firefly Aerospace’s uncrewed Blue Ghost Mission 1 spacecraft. | #RGV

Attorney who fought for farm worker rights in Valley pens memoir For anyone who has familiarized themselves with the fight for Civil Rights for farm workers throughout the 1970s and 1980s, the name Jim Harrington is one that is often repeated as a central force for...

Jim Harrington is no stranger to taking on Goliath in the courtroom through his work as an attorney with the American Civil Rights Union, founding Oficina Legal del Pueblo Unido and the Texas Civil Rights Project, as well as serving as Cesar Chavez’s attorney for 18 years. | #RGV

The look of heartbreak and the power of love in the #RGV, via @sleepingwolf.bsky.social.

"Why won't you write about Trump's terrible nominees!?"

These are the last six pieces I wrote. Five are about Trump's nominations.

Look, I don't mind if you don't like a piece. No one likes everything. But I do mind if you make dumb objections without checking. 🤷‍♂️

The Engagement Is Better on Bluesky - Bluesky Bluesky is the lobby to the open web. Find and build your community here.

We could go on about how we welcome publishers, we don't demote links, we encourage independent developers to build apps and extensions on top of Bluesky's network.... but instead, we'll show you.

All thanks to the incredible community here! 🦋

Who said journalists can’t cook. OK, no one said that. I just wanted an excuse to share our turkey meal. And yes, I take orders.

This took a turn!

Workers’ union criticizes Elon Musk for posts identifying federal employees.

Elon Musk identified obscure federal employees by name as he questioned the value of their jobs in recent social media posts, alarming the largest union representing federal workers.

Stretch of road in McAllen, Pharr ranks 41st most congested in Texas We did it.

Growing pains.

I actually thought about you when I read similar stories, because like you said it’s nothing new.

Gulf Cartel members hit with sanctions over illegal fishing off South Padre Island The U.S. Department of Treasury on Tuesday sanctioned the Gulf Cartel's Matamoros plaza boss, two brothers who are in charge of Playa Bagdad for the cartel, and the owners of two camps there that are ...

Saw that an outlet or two not from the area reported that the Gulf Cartel has expanded into illegal fishing. That's just not true. This has been going on a long time. On Sunday, the Coast Guard stopped three lanchas, 19 Mexican fishermen & seized 2,200 pounds of red snapper off South Padre Island

Post a “perfect” album from the 90s that isn’t Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, or Alice In Chains.

If you’re a writer like me who doesn’t know when to call it a night, it’s when you begin to ignore the feeling that something is crawling on you only to discover — after far too much time has passed — that it was a cockroach. Or so I’ve heard. I don’t know.