María Méndez
María Méndez reports for Texas Public Radio from the border city of Laredo where she covers business issues from an area that is now the nation’s top trade hub. She knows Texas well. Méndez has reported on the state’s diverse communities and tumultuous politics through internships at the Austin American-Statesman, The Texas Tribune and 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 spent the last year reporting for The Dallas Morning News as a summer breaking news intern and then as a fellow in the paper’s capital bureau in Austin. She is a native of Guanajuato in Central Mexico.
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Extreme weather events, water scarcity, risks of illness: Climate change is here, and it’s already affecting Texans. -
Abbott detailed the state’s increased law enforcement presence in the area and critiqued President Joe Biden's immigration policies. He also doubled down against federal aid for border communities taking in and testing a rising number of migrants. -
Texas grocery store shelves have begun filling out again. But for the state’s agriculture industry, recovering from the winter storm will take time, and consumers are likely to feel it in their pockets. -
Border residents and activists welcomed Biden’s inauguration and his immigration and border security plans, but they say they know their work must continue to ensure Biden’s promises of a pathway to citizenship for millions unauthorized immigrants and ending border wall construction are carried out. -
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. -
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. -
Latinos comprise about 40% of the population in Texas, and their votes could be critical to races up and down the ballot. Campaigns are rediscovering the fact that there is no solid “Latino” bloc. Public Radio reporters across Texas are listening to these voters discuss the issues they care about and give their thoughts on where the nation should be heading. This is the second in a series of five stories about Latino voters in the 2020 Election. -
The Trump administration has now awarded four contracts for its proposed border wall in the Laredo area for a total of more than $1 billion. -
In areas where a significant part of the population has limited English proficiency, the 1975 Voting Rights Act requires the "clear, complete and... -
A new form of political expression is becoming more popular due to COVID-19 restrictions — car caravans. In Boerne, New Braunfels and other parts of...
