June 2007 Issue

I appreciate receiving your magazine with all the attractive ad layouts, all noticeable but not distracting from the interesting articles. Enjoyed the article about the success of your local border patrolmen and the system that seems to be working so nicely. Thank you very much.

Food Editor Debbie Nygren Sontag interviews a chef and the owner of the soon-to-reopen Avanti Italian Restaurant for a spicy dish favored by many of Bob Michelini’s loyal customers. Shrimp Fra Diavolo is simple, flavorful, colorful and festive.

Dr. Shamoon Doctor and his staff have developed a flourishing private practice in the past five years, but now hope to join a consortium of other area physicians to launch a new medical center complex on the city’s north side. Doctor believes “one stop shopping” is a worthy goal for regional patients, and that close collaboration among participating physicians may afford services commonly found in larger cities without 300 miles of round trip travel for medical care.

Area and regional residents often lament the medical service specialties missing from the health community here, but sometimes overlook or misunderstand what is available, and how growth of services are planned. Foot physicians are critical in this border region, largely because of the health havoc caused by diabetes and other blood supply and nerve function conditions focused in the feet. Local foot doctors Michael Roth and his wife, Anna Sanchez, tell what’s needed to increase public awareness and their service to the community.

Here is the story of the favorite niece of the Blanks family. Crystal McBrady is about to complete a stellar career as an Aggie track and field athlete. Like the legacies of her uncles, the story begins in Del Rio.

OTM, the abbreviation that left a foul odor in many border communities, may be a thing of the past, as the flood of undocumented border crossers slows to a trickle with jump-started federal and local authority to halt and detain “Other Than Mexican” immigrants. Operation Streamline is a carefully planned strategy to stop releasing non-Mexican immigrants into the United States, and it seems to work just fine here. But will the feds decide it’s too expensive to continue or to expand beyond this corner of southwest Texas?

Bodacious BBQ, well north of Del Rio at 10382 Highway 90 West, boasts some of the best Texas-style barbecue in the region, despite the Oklahoma roots of the Reott family, now comfortably settled and successfully serving a growing customer clientele among county residents, Del Rioans, Laughlin employees, truckers, bass fishermen and hungry tourists.

Col. James F. Fagan (USAF retired) passed away in March, but the story of his career as a dedicated Air Force engineer, pilot, maintenance executive, and logistical expert is in keeping with the continuing series of LIVE! profiles of flyers and other military heroes who were once based at Laughlin or remained in Del Rio through retirement. As with most such legends, Fagan’s chronicle is a lesson in leadership and a paradigm of integrity.

Chief Border Patrol Agent Randy Hill says his Del Rio sector morale is up because with 'Streamline' if his men make arrests, the presecution is sure to follow.