SUMMARY: U.S. birth rates remain near record lows but rose 1% last year. WalletHub’s 2025 Best and Worst Places to Raise a Family ranked 182 U.S. cities by health/safety, education, family fun, and affordability. Plano, Texas, ranked third nationally with a score of 68.55, praised for affordability (6th), health/safety (5th), and education, with over 55% of schools rated 7+ and a high graduation rate. Austin ranked 16th nationally, noted for affordability (8th). San Antonio ranked lowest among Texas cities, with poor scores in affordability and health/safety (163rd nationally). Plano also earned top education grades from Niche in 2025.

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SUMMARY: Prosecutors declined to charge four people, including three University of Texas fraternity brothers, after a 2023 assault on Joshua Ybarra, a gay man, on Austin’s Sixth Street. Despite police reports and HALO security footage showing Ybarra being attacked and targeted with homophobic slurs, the Travis County Attorney cited insufficient evidence meeting the legal standard. The case highlighted Texas’s low prosecution rates of hate crimes. Since the James Byrd Jr. Hate Crime Act (2001), hate crime reports have increased, especially related to sexual orientation, but prosecutors rarely seek or secure hate crime findings—only 41 requests out of 6,632 reports statewide through mid-2024.

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SUMMARY: The manhunt continues for two inmates who escaped a New Orleans jail nearly two weeks ago. Authorities recaptured three fugitives, including Lenton Vanurren, arrested in Baton Rouge, and Leo Tate and Germaine Donald, caught in Texas after a high-speed chase. The remaining escapees, Antoine Massie and Derek Groves, are considered dangerous and likely armed. Thirteen people face charges for aiding the escape. Meanwhile, the FBI is refocusing on three major unsolved DC cases from the Biden era: the Supreme Court draft leak on Roe v. Wade, cocaine found in the White House, and the 2021 D.C. pipe bomb investigation. Authorities urge public tips.

The hunt continues for the remaining two inmates who escaped from a New Orleans jail and the FBI is reopening three of Washington D.C.’s biggest unsolved mysteries.

FOX 7 Austin brings you breaking news, weather, and local stories out of Central #Texas as well as fun segments from Good Day Austin, the best from our video vault archives, and exclusive shows like the Good Day Austin Round-Up and CrimeWatch.

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