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County Judge Hidalgo taking leave of absence By Landan Kuhlmann landan@theleadernews.com
INSIDE.
Healthy advice Columnist Shana Tatum has the latest health tips in her monthly column.
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Furry friends A new pet rehabilitation center has expanded into the Heights, with a grand opening set for Aug. 26-27.
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Photo courtesy Southern Texas PGA St. Thomas High School junior Landon Donnelly shows off his trophy for winning the Aggieland Classic as part of the Southern Texas PGA’s Junir Golf Prestige Tour on Aug. 1-3. The local product and Heights resident beat out more than 100 players from around the South Texas region.
St. Thomas High School golfer wins prestigious junior PGA tournament By Landan Kuhlmann landan@theleadernews.com
Moving in(side) The BAM! Arts Market is this weekend, so check out Art Valet for more on what’s to come.
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Now open A new Pan-Asian concept is now open near Washington Avenue, and more in this week’s Nibbles and Sips.
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THE INDEX. Public.............................................................. 2 Topics............................................................. 3 Classifieds.................................................. 6 Local Culture............................7 Food/Drink...............................8
St. Thomas High School junior golfer Landon Donnelly fell in love with golf at a young age. Then he said he briefly lost that love, but regained it again. And now the local high schooler and Heights resident has a prestigious junior PGA tournament win on his resume as a result. Donnelly was recently crowned the champion of the Southern Texas PGA Junior Golf Prestige Tours Aggieland Classic tournament, which took place in College Station Aug. 1-3. “I was really excited to play, because I missed out on it last year and all my buddies have played in it,” Donnelly said. “So I was really excited, and honestly was hoping for maybe a top-10 finish. I would’ve been happy with that.”
Donnelly is likely much happier with the end results, which he said were beyond what he could have imagined. Southern Texas PGA Junior Golf offers nearly yearround tournaments for players who are 13-18 years old, with the Prestige Tour serving as the highest level of play. Donnelly beat out 114 players from across South Texas – which extends from Austin through College Station and down to the Rio Grande Valley. “Honestly, the feeling of winning is pretty surreal,” he said. It is not as though Donnelly has not had a number of accomplishments in his young golf career. Prior to the Aggieland Classic tournament win, he’d previously won multiple events on the Southern Texas PGA’s Junior Tour as well as its Little Linksters events when he was younger according to the STPGA website.
During his freshman year at St. Thomas in the 2021-2022 school year, he was the only Eagles’ golfer to qualify for the state tournament. As a sophomore last year, he helped the Eagles qualify for state as a team for the first time in nearly a decade. He has been awarded St. Thomas’ Jack Burke Jr. award – which is named after the St. Thomas alumnus and 1956 Masters champion – for being the team’s Most Outstanding Player two years running. But the Aggieland win, he said, might be his most fulfilling personal win to date – and one he didn’t even necessarily know was on the horizon until a friend shouted it across the course at him. “The first day, I got out into the lead and I wasn’t thinking about it the whole time,” he said. “Then See Donnelly P. 8
Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo is taking a temporary leave of absence to seek treatment for clinical depression, according to a statement posted to a statement from her office posted on Twitter Monday afternoon. Hidalgo, who has been the elected leader of the state’s largest county since defeating incumbent Ed Emmett in 2018, has been to an out-of-state inpatient facility based on advice from her doctor since she was diagnosed with clinical depression last month, according to the statement. “I am one of the over 21 million American adults that is suffering from clinical depression,” the statement read. “For some time, I have been coping with this challenge, and it was undiagnosed until last month. Based on my doctor’s recommendation, I checked myself into an out of state facility to receive inpatient treatment in late July.” Harris County Precinct 1 Commissioner Rodney Ellis, whose precinct includes parts of the Greater Heights, Garden Oaks, and Oak Forest, will temporarily be taking over the oversight of the Commissioners Court while Hidalgo is away. Meanwhile, Hidalgo’s chief of staff will still handle day-to-day operations. “It is important to me personally and professionally to confront this issue swiftly, so I will be taking temporary leave from the office while I am receiving treatment,” Hidalgo said. “My medical care team and I are hopeful that I will be able to resume my normal schedule by September.” She has received support from officials around the city, including Ellis and Mayor Sylvester Turner. “As difficult as this may be, Judge Lina Hidalgo is not alone in facing this challenge…. Thankfully, she is in the care of doctors who recognize that this is treatable and is committed to getting better,” Turner said in a statement. “…. The good news is that now more than ever; resources are available for those who need help. My hope is that this experience can serve as a See Hidalgo P. 3
Photo from Twitter Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo speaks at a previous press conference. Hidalgo recently took a leave of absence from office to receive treatment for clinical depression.
City earns recognition from global nonprofit By Landan Kuhlmann landan@theleadernews.com
The city of Houston has been granted a designation from a global nonprofit organization that is the first of its kind in the United States in response to their efforts to respond to the needs of young people in the city. United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund’s (UNICEF) announced Wednesday that the city has been offi-
cially named as UNICEF’s first Child Friendly City in the United States, according to a news release from the organization. According to UNICEF’s website, UNICEF USA’s Child Friendly City Initiative (CFCI) first launched in 2020 in seven cities across the country in Colorado, Georgia, Tennessee, Maryland, Minnesota, California, and Texas. The CFCI uses the UN Convention on Rights of the Child as a framework
to help local governments best respond to the needs of children in their city and “build a roadmap for establishing safer, more
just, equitable, inclusive, and child-responsive cities and communities around the world,” according to the organization. “Receiving this national distinction is a humbling moment for the city of Houston. We appreciate the robust and comprehensive child rights framework provided by UNICEF USA and their unwavering support throughout the process,” Houston mayor Sylves-
ter Turner said. “We are hopeful this will inspire many other U.S. cities to create awareness of children’s rights, strengthen support systems for youth and include them in the decision-making of their city.” UNICEF said Houston became the first-ever U.S. city to be designated as a Child Friendly City candidate last year, prior to Wednesday’s announceSee UNICEF P. 8
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