This Week's Hot Headlines

Demolition ahead for 2 iconic Fort Worth properties and more top stories

Say goodbye to the downtown arena in September.

Photo courtesy of City of Fort Worth

Editor's note: The top Fort Worth news of the week includes the impending demo of two iconic Fort Worth properties. Plus, a ranch with White House ties hits the market. Read on for our most popular stories, then plan your weekend via this guide.

1. Fort Worth Convention Center hosts farewell bash before arena demolition. The City of Fort Worth will host a free farewell party on September 20, giving residents one last chance to step inside the iconic downtown arena before it closes for remediation and demolition in early 2027.

2. Demolition looms for once-vibrant Ridgmar Mall in Fort Worth. Fort Worth’s largely vacant Ridgmar Mall will face the wrecking ball. New owners plan to convert the 75-acre site into a nearly 931,000-square-foot logistics center with six warehouses.

3. Fort Worth’s first late-night tea lounge steeps into Near Southside. A first-of-its-kind, late-night tea house and lounge has opened in Fort Worth. Floating Lotus Tea is tucked inside Hao’s Grocery and Café in the Near Southside.

Floating Lotus Tea creates a speakeasy-style sanctuary for tea enthusiasts. Photo courtesy of Floating Lotus Tea

4. New Mediterranean chain Gyrova unwraps 2 Fort Worth locations. A new fast-casual Mediterranean concept has debuted in Fort Worth. Called Gyrova, it's serving bowls, wraps, and pita pockets, now open in a small center on the far west side of Fort Worth near Loop 820.

5. North Texas ranch owned by FDR's grandson rides onto market for $21.5M. Dallas oil and gas executive Tony Roosevelt, the grandson of President Franklin Roosevelt, is selling his 1,300-acre Rolling R Ranch in Cooke County, along the Texas-Oklahoma border.

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New report ranks Texas among worst states to have a baby in U.S.

Photo by Suhyeon Choi on Unsplash

The best places to have a baby are in the Midwest and the Northeast, not the South, according to the report.

Texas might be a family friendly state, but it certainly isn't baby friendly, according to a new WalletHub study.

Texas earned a dismal rank as No. 45 in WalletHub's 2026 report "Best and Worst States to Have a Baby," which compared all 50 states and the District of Columbia based on 31 "baby friendliness" metrics, such as affordability, health care accessibility, infant care costs, and others.

The top five best states to have a baby, in order, are: Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Dakota, Rhode Island, and New Hampshire.

Texas ranked 7th worst overall in the U.S. because of how expensive it is to have a child in the state, and because of its low prevalence of healthcare professionals for mothers and children relative to other states.

Across the four main categories in the report, Texas landed 47th nationally for its medical costs, 42nd in healthcare quality, and its baby- and family-friendliness both ranked 34th best in the country.

WalletHub says the average cost for a conventional delivery in the U.S. comes out to more than $15,700, and families with health insurance have an average out-of-pocket cost of about $2,600. The report doesn't break down state-by-state charges, but it ranked Texas 35th and 36th respectively in the national comparisons of states with the lowest costs for hospital cesarean and conventional deliveries.

The cost of childcare is another factor bringing down the state's overall performance, as WalletHub says Texas has the 23rd "best" annual cost of early childcare on average.

Here's how the report broke down the rest of Texas' ranking:

No. 27 – Parental leave policy score
No. 27 – Infant mortality rate
No. 28 – Rate of low-birth weight
No. 44 – Midwives and OB-GYNs per capita
No. 36 – Pediatricians and family medicine physicians per capita
No. 33 – Childcare centers per capita

According to WalletHub analyst Chip Lupo, expecting families should consider living in the states that "minimize costs while providing top-notch care for both newborns and their mothers."

"[The best states] also continue to be good environments for parents even long after the birth, with high-quality pediatric care, affordable and accessible child care, and a strong economic environment that makes providing for a child easier,” Lupo said.

Mississippi (No. 51), Alabama (No. 50), Florida (No. 49), New Mexico (No. 48), Nevada (No. 47), and South Carolina (No. 46) all join Texas at the bottom of the list as the worst states to have a baby.

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