María Méndez
Border & Business Reporter, LaredoMaría Méndez reports for Texas Public Radio from the city of Laredo where she covers business and border issues from an area that is now the nation’s top trade hub. Her position is made possible by Report For America — a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.
Before joining TPR, she reported on Texas' diverse communities and tumultuous politics through internships at the Austin American-Statesman, The Texas Tribune and, most recently, The Dallas Morning News. She also participated in NPR’s Next Generation Radio program while studying at the University of Texas at Austin.
At UT, she wrote for The Daily Texan and helped launch diversity initiatives, including two collaborative series on undocumented and first-generation college students. One of her stories for these series won an award from the National Association of Hispanic Journalists. She is a native of Guanajuato, Mexico but grew up in Central Texas.
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Under a new public health order signed Monday, Laredo hospitals must transfer some patients when the city’s total hospitalization rate rises to 25% or higher.
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A federal appeals court has approved the Trump administration’s use of $3.6 billion in military funds for border wall construction along the Southern border. The Friday ruling reverses a lower court’s decision, but other legal challenges over border wall funding continue ahead of the transition to the Biden administration.
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The order opens up the DACA program to new applicants for the first time since President Donald Trump attempted to end the program in September 2017.
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La cifra de hospitalizaciones para la región de hospitales de Laredo alcanzó un pico con 29.5% este domingo, el número más alto para Laredo hasta el momento, y el tercero más elevado reportado en Texas ese día.
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The Laredo area’s hospitalization rate only trailed behind the 37.7% rate for the Panhandle hospital region and 36.8% rate for the El Paso region on Sunday, according to state data. On Monday, it fell slightly to fourth-highest at 28.1%.
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After a week of rising COVID-19 hospitalizations, Laredo and Webb County officials expect state mandates to shut down bars and for other businesses to reduce their occupancy Saturday morning. International bridges in the border city will also remain closed to nonessential travel for another month under federal orders.
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For the first time in a century, Zapata County, a 94% Hispanic border county, backed a Republican with roughly 52% of voters casting their ballots for Donald Trump. But local voters and experts say state Democrats' troubles had been brewing for a while.
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Refusing to concede to Democratic incumbent Henry Cuellar last week, Texas Congressional District 28 Candidate Sandra Whitten has raised concerns about Webb County’s use of pencils in voting booths. But the Texas Secretary of State's office and election security experts say pencils are acceptable for filling out paper ballots.
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Votantes Latinos 2020: Una Demócrata E Hija De Inmigrantes Se Convierte En Una Votante Fiel De TrumpLos Latinos representan alrededor del 40% de la población en Texas, y sus votos podrían ser críticos. Las campañas están descubriendo que no existe un bloque “Latino”. Reporteros de la radio pública a lo largo de Texas están escuchando a estos votantes discutir los problemas que les interesan y dar su opinión sobre hacia dónde debería dirigirse la nación.Esta es la segunda de una serie de cinco historias sobre votantes Latinos en la elección de 2020.
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Laredo activists against President Donald Trump’s border wall created a Day of the Dead altar to highlight those hurt by his border and immigration policies.