best (feathered) friends forever

Houston Zoo swoops in to save a critically injured national icon

Mae is chilling with her fellow bald eagle BFF, Sally Ride.

Photo by Jackelin Reyna

As the nation prepares to celebrate Fourth of July, an enduring patriotic symbol is resting comfortably at Houston’s beloved wildlife refuge. A bald eagle, lovingly named Mae — in tribute to Mae Jemison, the first Black woman in space — is being rehabilitated at the Houston Zoo after a near-fatal injury.

Mae was found by a game warden in Huxley, Texas during February’s Winter Storm Uri, suffering from an open wing fracture, according to the zoo. She was taken to Last Chance Forever, a wildlife clinic for birds of prey, and started antibiotic treatment.

Her journey continued to Lufkin, where her wing fracture was discovered. Though she has recovered from the infection, she has difficulty flying. That’s when the zoo stepped in to help; Mae arrived in Houston on May 6.

Fittingly, Mae is spending time with another bald eagle, Sally Ride. NASA fans will recognize that as yet another female notable name in space flight. The pair “hit it off,” the zoo notes, and were moved to the Texas Wetlands bald eagle exhibit on June 15.

Not unlike her winged BFFF (Best Feathered Friend Forever), Sally was found by a game warden in Sallisaw, Oklahoma — she too with an injured wing. Much like Mae, Sally was unable to fly after her injury; she came to Houston from the Tulsa Zoo.

Though obviously not common in Greater Houston (other than a certain zoo), bald eagles can be found in Texas and throughout North America. Conservation efforts, especially the banning of harmful pesticides, helped the iconic bird recover; in 2007, the bald eagle was removed from the federal endangered species list.

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income analysis

Texas families need to make this much money for one parent to stay home

Photo by CDC on Unsplash

With costs to raise a child soaring over $20,000 a year in Texas, some households might decide to have one parent work while the other stays at home to raise their child.

As the cost of raising a child balloons in major cities like Houston, many families are weighing the choice between paying for child care or having one parent stay home full-time.

A recent analysis from SmartAsset determined the minimum income one parent needs to earn to support their partner staying at home to raise one child in all 50 states. In Texas — not just Houston — that amount is just under $75,000.

The study used the MIT Living Wage Calculator to compare the annual living wages needed for a household with two working adults and one child, and a household with one working adult, a stay-at-home parent, and one child. The study also calculated how much it would cost to raise a child with two working parents based on factors such as "food, housing, childcare, healthcare, transportation, incremental income taxes and other necessities."

A Texas household with one working parent would need to earn $74,734 a year to support a stay-at-home partner and a child, the report found. If two parents worked in the household, necessitating some additional costs like childcare and transportation, it would require an additional $10,504 in annual income to raise their child.

SmartAsset said the cost to raise a child in Texas in a two-working-parent household adds up to $23,587. Raising a child in Houston, however, is somewhat more affordable. A separate SmartAsset study from June 2025 determined it costs $21,868 to raise a child in the Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands metro.

In the report's ranking of states with the highest minimum income needed to support a family with one working adult, a stay-at-home parent, and one child, Texas ranked 32nd on the list.

In other states like Massachusetts, where raising a child can cost more than $40,000 a year, the report acknowledges ways families are working to reduce any financial burdens.

"This often includes considerations around who’s going to work in the household, and whether young children will require paid daycare services while parents are occupied," the report said. "With tradeoffs abound, many parents might seek to understand the minimum income needed to keep the family afloat while allowing the other parent to stay home to raise a young child."

The top 10 states with the lowest minimum income threshold to support a three-person family on one income are:

West Virginia – $68,099
Arkansas – $68,141
Mississippi – $70,242
Kentucky – $70,408
North Dakota – $70,949
Oklahoma – $71,718
Ohio – $72,114
South Dakota – $72,218
Alabama – $72,238
Nebraska – $72,966

texas income smartasset family