In my opinion

All the news that's fit to hack: When did "We got it first" replace "We got itright?"

A shocking allegation is rocking the world of journalism. Scotland Yard is investigating reports that the British newspaper News of the World interfered in the investigation of Milly Dowler, an English schoolgirl who was last seen alive in 2002 when she was abducted on her way home from school. News of the World is reported to have hired a private detective to hack into Dowler’s cell phone.

What’s even more disturbing is that its alleged journalists at the paper, which is owned by Rupert Murdoch, read and then deleted several of the girl’s messages in the days following her disappearance “in order to free up space for more messages,” inadvertently giving her family false hope that she may still be alive.

In today’s world of micro-blogging, tweets and instant-news, the pressure to beat the competition is fiercer than ever. The world of journalism continues to change, but the rules shouldn’t.

How could something like this happen?

The answer is simple; news organizations love to break a news story and get it first. Anyone who has ever visited London knows they love their newspapers and the competition is ferocious. Ride the Underground and you’ll see a plethora of papers being devoured by the news hungry patrons, but let’s not point the finger at just the Brits.

It was only a month ago when the local Houston media rushed to a property in Liberty County reporting that law enforcement officials were investigating the possibility of “mass graves." Live trucks, helicopters and team coverage followed the frenzy until we learned the tip came from a psychic and turned out to be false. Never mind that other news organizations from around the world picked up the report and posted on their websites.

News organizations love to promote “We got it first”, but when did that replace “We got it right”? In today’s world of micro-blogging, tweets and instant-news, the pressure to beat the competition is fiercer than ever. The world of journalism continues to change, but the rules shouldn’t.

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children don't come cheap

This is how much the cost to raise a child in Houston increased in one year

Photo by Jimmy Dean on Unsplash

It costs more than $24,000 to raise a child in the Austin area in 2025.

A new national study has revealed it now costs $472 more to raise a child in the Houston area than it did last year.

SmartAsset's report "Cost of Raising a Child in Major U.S. Metros – 2025 Study" compared data from MIT's Living Wage Calculator to determine the annual costs for raising a child in 2024 and 2025 across the 48 biggest metropolitan areas in the U.S. Factors that contributed to each metro's total included the cost for childcare, additional housing costs, food, transportation, medical costs, and "other necessities."

In 2025, it will cost $21,868 annually to raise a child in the Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlandsregion, the report found. That amount has risen 2.21 percent since 2024, when childrearing in the Houston area cost $21,396 a year.

Houston only has the third-highest costs for raising a child out of the four biggest Texas metros, and even though that cost has increased slightly in the last year, it's still on the low end nationally. SmartAsset said Houston is the 8th most affordable U.S. city, ranking 41st (out of 48) in the overall ranking of metros where the cost of raising a child is the highest.

"The cost of raising a child can change quickly, making it important for budding families to keep an eye on trends in their locale," the report said. "Between 2024 and 2025 alone, the average projected annual cost of raising a small child changed by a range of -15 percent to +22 percent, depending on the metro area."

Boston-Cambridge-Newton, Massachusetts led the nation with the highest annual cost for raising a child, totaling more than $39,000, up from $37,758 in 2024.

Costs for raising a child in other Texas metros
Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos is – unsurprisingly – the most expensive Texas metro for raising a child, with costs surging nearly eight percent from 2024. It now costs $24,188 to raise a child in the Austin area, compared to $22,406 the year before.

There's better news for families in San Antonio. The San Antonio-New Braunfels area clocks in as the fifth most affordable U.S. metro in the study. In 2024, it cost $21,014 to raise a child in the Alamo City, but in 2025, it costs 0.33 percent less, at $20,945.

This is how much it costs to raise a child in San Antonio, according to SmartAsset:

Cost of childcare: $9,123
Housing costs: $3,232
Food costs: $1,644
Medical costs: $2,590
Transportation costs: $3,090
Civic costs: $474
Other costs: $791

Raising a child in Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington now costs $22,337 per year, which is only $411 more than it did in 2024.

childcare costs reports smartasset families houston the woodlands pasadena