Rob Shelton | American Fork Citizen

A fight over a massive backyard structure on 900 West in American Fork is headed towards court. A Lehi homeowner, whose property is adjacent to the structure, told the American Fork City Council at its Sept. 8 meeting that he has retained an attorney and plans to seek an injunction. The city has responded by routing all further communication through its own attorney. This is the second announcement of legal action against the city this past month during the public comment period of a city council meeting.

The structure sits at 731 N 900 W, on a parcel the city’s Development Review Committee approved on April 6. City records list the building at 7,910 square feet of footprint and 11,146 square feet total, standing roughly 35 feet tall, compared to the single-story “rambler” homes that back up to it in American Fork and neighboring Lehi.

“The Rovig accessory structure was approved on April 6, 2026,” Dale Stewart, a Lehi resident whose backyard abuts the project, told the council Sept. 8. “Many of you have seen the news reports now on KSL and Fox 13 regarding the size of the structure and the undue negative impact it has created on the neighborhood.”

Stewart’s case turns largely on how the city measured the property’s required “rear yard,” the open space behind a home where accessory-building coverage is capped. American Fork code defines a rear yard as the space between a building’s rear outer wall and the closest opposite property line. But when Stewart called the city on Aug. 24 asking how the calculation was done, city planner Cody Opperman told him the city had measured from “the plane that’s flush with the front of the home, and anything behind that is rear yard,” using the front of the house, not its rear wall, as the starting point. The city approved the project in April with no side yard calculated at all, according to Stewart.

After Stewart raised the issue, Patrick O’Brien, director of development services for the city, acknowledged in an Aug. 25 email that a side yard needed to be calculated and sent a drawing showing the correct approach: measuring from the rear of the dwelling, not the front. But the drawing excluded part of the home’s attached addition, labeling it a “detached structure.” Stewart said the addition was attached, and O’Brien agreed after sending an inspector to confirm it. “They confirmed that it is attached,” O’Brien wrote back.

Using the full, attached dwelling, Stewart calculates the rear yard at roughly 28,181 square feet. The accessory structure’s 7,910-square-foot footprint is 28.1% of that space, which Stewart says exceeds the 25% cap set by Section 17.5.105(1)(f) of the city code. He also told the council the building’s height, including a decorative cupola, could reach 37.5 feet, exceeding the city’s 35-foot maximum.

City records suggest officials anticipated a dispute like this well before it arrived. At an Aug. 19, 2025 Planning Commission meeting, eight months before Rovig was approved, O’Brien told the commission a code-compliant building could still feel “out of place and create a sense of concern,” citing a different accessory structure that had “met all code requirements” yet still drew complaints. Mayor Frost said the city needed rules flexible enough “while preventing someone from building something disruptive.” He asked staff what steps it could take “to prevent serious issues like the one that occurred previously.”

Stewart also quoted O’Brien from a December 2023 meeting, saying an accessory building “should be considered something subservient. If we have something that is borderline two times the size of the primary structure, it challenges that role.” Stewart said the structure behind his home is three times the size of the primary residence.

“Mr. Mayor, you made a commitment to us that evening that you would review the matter and, quote, ‘make it right if the city made a mistake’,” Stewart said, referencing a visit Mayor Frost made to his home. “I’m asking you to follow through with that tonight. I have hired an attorney, and they will be seeking an injunction this week.”

The fallout arrived by email two days later. David Bunker, American Fork’s city administrator, wrote to Stewart and his attorney, Jeffrey Colemere of the Draper firm Colemere Gibbs & Stout, on Sept. 10, copying the mayor, the council and the city attorney. “With the notification you provided during the city council meeting on Tuesday, September 8, 2026, that you are seeking legal recourse regarding this issue, we respectfully request that all communication with the city shall proceed through our city attorney,” Bunker wrote. “Heather [city attorney Heather Schriever] will be the point of contact for all communications with you or Mr. Colemere.”

Stewart first raised the issue publicly at the council’s Aug. 25 meeting, two days after construction began, and local media reported on the dispute the next day.

Elizabeth Spencer | American Fork Citizen

Friday night’s football game started a little differently at American Fork High School as players and fans took a moment to remember 9/11. The Cavemen started and ended their game with a big win, honoring those who made the ultimate sacrifice 25 years ago.

Players, along with volunteers from Follow the Flag (FTF), unfurled their massive “Lady Liberty” American flag on the field. Teacher Sam Beeson, in his last year of teaching at AFHS, led the national anthem, followed by a breathtaking Apache helicopter flyover.

Military, police, and firefighters received free game admission and free concessions. A generous donor made the evening possible and remains anonymous in our community. The game was a “USA-Out,” which means that students were asked to wear red, white and blue.

“We have a community that really embraces our first responders, police, fire, vets, and active military duty. It’s just a feel- good event. It’s nice when you can help put something on that supports those people that take care of us,” said Jeremy Lewis, Athletic Director at AFHS.

“It’s always important to have perspective, especially at the young age of high school,” said a member of the Navy who attended the game. He said some of these [high school] kids are going to go straight into the military, so it’s important to understand that the community respects and acknowledges that it is an important lifelong decision.”

“We are here to serve the community and those that need our help,” said AF Firefighter Justin Whatcott, who was on shift Friday evening. “As for 9/11, the biggest thing for me is remembering those who served in the military at both the Twin Towers, the Pentagon, and the Flight 93 crash site. They are the ones we need to never forget, and we need to remember the sacrifice they made for our community. I feel like it’s so important to remember those that gave it all.”

Whatcott said seeing the flag ceremony stirred feelings. “It’s an honor to be here and to be a part of that with the youth and be able to support this program that they have honoring those that gave it all”

“I just love being part of something that recognizes those people who responded: the firefighters, the police, the paramedics, the military and the veterans. It’s really special to be a part of that and to recognize them without worrying about political differences. It’s really an important time just to set those things aside and say thank you,” said Lewis.

Delmar Dade was on the field during the flag ceremony. As a police officer, he has served the community of Crystal Lake, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago, for 16 years. Dade flew in for the occasion and to watch his nephew, a senior, play football. “I thought it was awesome to be able to be out there and honor those who gave their life and sacrificed for our country.”

“These kids weren’t alive when 9/11 happened. It’s like they always say to ‘never forget,’ it’s easy when times are okay to kind of forget where we’ve come from or forget the sacrifices. It’s important for them to see that there are people that came before them that had to sacrifice,” added Dade.

Senior Christian Hanshaw plays tight end. He was also on the field during the pre-game event and said he could feel the sacredness and solemnity. “We are doing this to honor everyone who died and trying to honor something very sacred to our American culture. It was really cool to honor our country.”

“I hope our players honor our servicemen and women and first responders by emulating and living their lives with discipline, service, and being selfless. I think for our kids, that is the best way to honor them,” shared AFHS Football Coach Aaron Behm. “I think there is so much our kids can learn from 9/11 about unity, service, and how much we have to be grateful for living in this country.”

“It was really cool to honor everything that happened 25 years ago today. It’s nice to recognize everyone who sacrificed their lives that day. It means a lot,” said Captain Sam Thompson, who plays linebacker.

Speaking of 9/11, Lewis added, “I think for people in our generation, this is our JFK moment. This was the big moment for us where we remember where we were and what we were doing.”

“I remember hearing what was happening on the news that morning, and calling Carrie (his wife) and telling her to turn on the TV. Like so many other Americans, we couldn’t stop watching the news, and honestly, we didn’t sleep well for weeks afterward,” shared Kyle Fox, founder of FTF.

“It felt like the whole world had changed. But I also remember what happened after, when Americans seemed to forget their differences for a while and just stood together. Twenty-five years later, that’s something worth remembering. For Follow the Flag, honoring those who lost their lives and those who ran toward danger is also a way of reminding the next generation what that kind of sacrifice and unity looks like,” added Kyle.

“I think one of the most important things we can do twenty-five years later is make sure September 11th doesn’t become just another date in a history book, especially for a generation that wasn’t alive to experience it. I vividly remember watching the news that morning while my two young sons played on our living room floor. It changed me forever. There was so much heartbreak that day, but there was also an incredible sense of unity in the weeks that followed,” shared Carrie Fox.

“I love that AFHS is creating a moment where young people can stop, remember, and honor those who sacrificed. Seeing that giant flag carried onto a high school football field is an awesome reminder that remembering is now our responsibility,” concluded Carrie.

Honoring 9/11 at AFHS didn’t begin that evening on the field. During the school day between class breaks, inspiring patriotic songs played over the loudspeaker, reminding kids that 9/11 is a unique day of reflection, remembering those who sacrificed.

Fittingly, AFHS took home the win, 45-0.

Alixel Cabrera | Utah News Dispatch

With a novel 3D technique, a University of Utah team has brought to light the unaccounted masses of ice hidden at the Timpanogos Rock Glacier, finding both a good measurement of how much ice it contains, and also how the rock glacier located near Salt Lake City and Provo formed.

The Timpanogos Rock Glacier stores 1.5 million cubic meters of ice, a University of Utah news release says. That’s enough frozen water to fill 600 Olympic-sized swimming pools. The number is also similar to the volume of the largest pyramid in Giza, Egypt, said Bronson Cvijanovich, a former graduate student in the Department of Geology & Geophysics.

“Timpanogos Rock Glacier is surprisingly ice rich. It is 83% ice and 17% loose rock,” said Cvijanovich, lead author of a study measuring the internal ice content of the rock glacier.

Rock glaciers are common in the Wasatch and Uinta ranges. Timpanogos is one of 836 in the state. While their footprints can be outlined with satellite imagery, “the 3D shape, depth and ice they obscure is harder to reveal,” the university said in the release.

“There’s a lot of ice that’s hidden in Utah’s mountains,” said Leif Anderson, a glaciology professor who oversaw the study. “When we are high in the mountains and walking across loose rocks or rubble, you don’t realize there could be 120 feet of ice buried beneath your feet.”

To estimate the ice content, a team hiked about five miles in an elevation gain of 3,500 feet to get to the rock glacier on different occasions in 2024, hauling sensitive instruments, like a gravimeter, and took gravity readings at 232 spots separated by about 80 feet in a grid atop the rock glacier.

The gravimeter measures density differences between rock and ice, the university said in the release, which allowed the researchers to calculate the 3D shape of the buried ice body. After those measurements were collected, the team had to correct them to take into account differences in gravity due to factors like the position of the sun and the moon, the location’s terrain, latitude and elevation.

But how does ice get into the rock glacier in the first place? Another study from U of U researchers showed with a new mathematical model that rock glaciers gain mass because “rockfalls bury persistent snow in the upper parts of rock glaciers,” according to the release.

“In the Wasatch, the mountains themselves are eroding and burying the snow, and that’s why the rock glaciers exist,” Anderson said.

Despite climate change, the Timpanogos Rock Glacier apparently keeps on adding ice, the researchers said.

“Rock glaciers flow downhill just like a glacier or river, but the important distinction here is that the thick carapace of loose rock actually protects and hides the ice, making these climate-resilient water storage sites that may still be adding frozen water. From a water resource standpoint, it is really important, especially in a warm and arid state like Utah,” Cvijanovich said.

This story was originally published by utahnewsdispatch.com and written by Alixel Cabrera. Adjustments for style and clarity have been made.

Elizabeth Spencer | American Fork Citizen

September 17 marks 239 years since the signing of our nation’s Constitution, which established America’s government and citizens’ rights. American Heritage School (AHS), in American Fork, honors this day annually, with learning focused on the founding of our country.

During the school day, kindergarten through eighth grade students step out of the classroom and onto the school’s football field, journeying back in time. The field becomes a present-day history experience as students rotate through interactive stations. Each station includes people from the colonial period, with stories that connect youth with founders of the USA. Lives of people like Betsy Ross, the young George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Patrick Henry are just a few characters to be portrayed at this year’s Constitution Day. Students participate as if they are living in that era as performers share stories, historical experiences, and perspectives from their lives hundreds of years ago.

“It is so important that the children understand the celebrations we have for America, because if they are not explicitly taught, they won’t know. When we share with them what Constitution Day is about or anything else to do with America and the celebrations we have, if they don’t get taught the specifics of it, they won’t come to appreciate and understand the depth of the sacrifice and those that have come before us,” said AHS Assistant Principal Charne Adams.

“At American Heritage School, we hold a deep conviction that our faith is intimately connected to the blessing of living in a nation where God-given freedoms are safeguarded by the United States Constitution,” shared AHS employee Jennilyn Burr. “Through our annual September Constitution Day celebrations of learning, students engage in interactive rotations that bring our heritage to life. By highlighting the diverse men and women whose sacrifices—both quiet and monumental—have preserved our nation’s freedom, we teach the rising generation to love, honor, and carry forward the legacy of liberty.”

The Constitution Day Celebration supports the school’s desire for students to learn about America’s founding. “When they [the students] learn specifically the sacrifices of all those that came before us, they’ll appreciate it more. They won’t take it for granted,” said Adams.

AHS invites the entire community to commemorate Constitution Day that evening during a celebration. Neighbors and friends are welcome to join from 5-9 p.m. at AHS to experience inspiring presentations on freedom through music and activities that invite reflection and gratitude for our rights.

The festival includes activities such as bounce houses, face painting, a petting zoo, colonial stations and games on the field, along with food trucks. The America 250 Celebration Program and Fireworks show begins at 8 p.m. on Thursday, September 17.

Spectators are invited to bring a picnic or purchase food at the event and enjoy the program and fireworks on a blanket or lawn chair. Tickets are available on the AHS website at af.americanheritageschool.org.

David Condos | KUER 90.1

Many Utah cities want to ditch thirsty grass. But trees are a different story. It comes down to cooling. As climate change ramps up Utah heat, a leafy canopy provides relief from the blistering sun in ways that grass can’t.

“Ask yourself: Would you rather park next to a small lawn or would you rather park under the shade of a tree?” said Doug Bennett, conservation manager with the Washington County Water Conservancy District. “It makes the point very quickly.”

On a bright, 100-degree day in St. George, Bennett walked beneath the shadow of a mesquite tree. It’s one of roughly 200 trees growing at the Red Hills Desert Garden, which the conservancy district runs on a cliff above downtown.

He aimed a handheld infrared thermometer at the concrete sidewalk next to his feet. The shaded surface read 93 degrees. The exposed asphalt parking lot nearby registered 45 degrees warmer. That’s a good example of how Southwest native trees like mesquite, desert willow and palo verde can mitigate urban hot spots while barely sipping on the region’s precious water.

“This garden uses about 11 gallons per square foot per year,” Bennett said. “That is about one-fifth of what people would apply to a lawn.”

Now, the water district is paying residents to swap their grass for some drought-tolerant shade. This summer, it began offering a $100 incentive to motivate people to plant trees as part of a lawn makeover.

Residents can qualify for the “treebate” by notifying the district of their plans and confirming the desired species is on the list of climate-appropriate options. People can get one tree rebate for every 700 square feet of landscaping that’s replaced. In northern Utah, the Jordan Valley Water Conservancy District and Central Utah Water Conservancy District offer a similar rebate at $50 per tree.

Just one-tenth of a typical urban area is devoted to landscaping, Bennett said.

On one hand, that means cities can’t expect plants to fix all their warming problems. Dark roofs, asphalt and concrete block walls contribute to heat islands, too. On the other, it means cities need to get the biggest possible impact from that small sliver of green space. Grass isn’t holding up its end of the bargain.

“The biggest misconception is that lawns are cooling our urban areas,” Bennett said. “Don’t get me wrong — if you lay down on well-watered grass, you’re going to feel a cooling effect. That cooling effect is not the grass. It is the water being transpired out of that grass and past you to the atmosphere.”

That’s a big part of why grass requires so much irrigation, he said, which runs afoul of the district’s conservation efforts.

One recent study of desert cities worldwide suggests that grass can actually warm things up because the water it releases has minimal cooling impact and its dark leaves absorb plenty of the sun’s heat.

That finding may be skewed by parts of the world that don’t irrigate grass as much as the U.S. does, said Diane Pataki, chief scientist and vice president of science with the conservation group National Wildlife Federation. But it points to a tricky balance arid communities need to strike.

“If we stopped irrigating cities, they’d get a lot hotter,” Pataki said. “So, we have to use some water, and the question is how much.”

Pataki previously researched urban heat and landscaping as a professor at the University of Utah, seeking to find the best tradeoff between landscape cooling effects and water use.

Because trees generally need a different style of irrigation than lawns — less frequent, more targeted — she said they can provide a lot of cooling on a small water budget. Trees can even make grass less thirsty.

“We found that adding trees to landscapes can lower the water requirement of the landscape, even if you don’t do anything else,” Pataki said. “It’s counterintuitive because you’re adding more plants, and you think, ‘Oh, I have to add more water now because I added more trees.’ But the shading effect reduces the water requirement of the lawn so much that you can actually lower the water requirement of the whole landscape.”

That illustrates how the benefits can start with a single tree, she said. Another high-impact planting spot is on the west side of a home, where a tree could keep the living space cooler and reduce air conditioning demand.

“It’s definitely worth doing in your own backyard,” Pataki said, “even if you’re the only person on your block doing it.”

As Utah cities rapidly grow and the state gets hotter, she said it’s vital for communities to consider trees’ cooling benefits as part of their future designs.

This article is published through the Utah News Collaborative, a partnership of news organizations in Utah that aims to inform readers across the state. Adjustments have been made for style and clarity.

Staff Writer | American Fork Citizen

Utah County has confirmed its first human case of West Nile virus this season. The patient developed a rare, serious form of the illness, prompting health officials to urge residents to take precautions against mosquito bites.

The patient developed neuroinvasive disease, which can affect the nervous system and may require hospitalization. The Utah County Health Department said it will not release additional information about the patient to protect the individual’s privacy.

“This case is an important reminder that West Nile virus is present in our community and can cause serious illness,” Aislynn Tolman-Hill said in the department’s announcement. “Residents can reduce their risk by using insect repellent, wearing protective clothing, and removing standing water around their homes.”

The Health Department and Utah County Mosquito Abatement are reviewing mosquito-surveillance information and conducting an additional assessment in the area associated with the case. Decisions about mosquito-control measures are based on surveillance results, mosquito activity, weather conditions and established intervention thresholds.

Most people infected with West Nile virus do not develop symptoms; about one in five experience a fever or symptoms such as headaches, body aches, joint pain, vomiting, diarrhea or a rash.

Less than 1% of infected people develop neuroinvasive disease, which can include meningitis, encephalitis or acute flaccid myelitis. Warning signs may include a high fever, severe headache, neck stiffness, confusion, seizures, tremors or muscle weakness. The department advises people with severe or concerning symptoms to seek medical care promptly.

Mosquitoes that carry West Nile virus are most active around dawn and dusk. Residents can reduce their risk of being bitten by using insect repellents containing DEET, picaridin or oil of lemon eucalyptus; wearing long sleeves and pants when possible; and checking that window and door screens are intact.

Residents are also encouraged to remove standing water around their homes. Residents can report heavy mosquito activity or standing water that cannot be eliminated to Utah County Mosquito Abatement. Those reports help crews locate and treat hidden mosquito-breeding areas before populations increase.

Mosquito trap counts, spray schedules, treatment maps, educational materials and an online service-request form are available at https://health.utahcounty.gov/mosquito-abatement.

STAFF WRITER | American Fork Citizen

Two new schools serving students with disabilities have opened at the former Sharon Elementary School in Orem.

Alpine School District held a ribbon-cutting ceremony Monday, Aug. 17, for Silver Peak School and the Timpanogos Transition and Education Center. The renovated facility is located at 525 N. 400 East within the boundaries of the future Timpanogos School District.

Silver Peak will serve students with severe disabilities in grades pre-K through 12. Principal Dan Heaps said students will have access to teachers and therapists who can address their individual needs.

“Every child deserves an education built around who they are, not in spite of it,” Heaps said.
The Timpanogos Transition and Education Center, or TTEC, will serve students ages 18 to 22. Its programs will focus on life skills, recreation and preparation for greater independence within the community.

TTEC Principal Melanie Adams said the school will provide individualized support as students prepare for life after school.

“This new facility will give us an even better opportunity to support our adult students right in their communities,” Adams said.

Both schools will begin serving students during the 2026-27 school year.

Jennifer Thomas | American Fork Citizen

Utah’s unemployment rate stands at a low 3.6% with roughly 67,900 residents looking for work. Yet job hunting has grown increasingly frustrating as the labor market slows. To bypass online application backlogs, upcoming events like the Utah Valley Job Fair offer face-to-face access to recruiters and on-the-spot interviews.

The Utah Valley Job Fair will be held on Tuesday, Aug. 25, from 2-5:00 p.m. at the Utah Valley Convention Center in Provo. “The Utah Valley Job Fair is Utah’s largest community job fair with more than 100 participating employers,” said Allison Keller, Public Information Officer for the Utah Department of Workforce Services.

Searching for a job can feel like a frustrating bottleneck, as many applicants frequently report sending dozens of digital resumes without a response, making the search feel like an isolated uphill battle.

“Search for a job is frustrating because you can spend so much time applying and rarely hear anything back, sometimes not even a rejection email is sent. I get hopeful because I wonder if I still have a chance only to realize later that I will not ever get a response,” said Shailey Stubbs, Lehi City resident.

A job fair can help with the bottleneck because it allows direct, face-to-face connection with employers. The Utah Valley Job Fair is a “dynamic, in-person event which connects job seekers and employers for a day of meaningful conversations, career exploration and real hiring opportunities,” according to Keller.

The free event offers job seekers opportunities to meet with employers and find open jobs that could lead to real interviews and possible offers of employment.  

“The Utah Valley Job Fair is a great opportunity to explore career options for anyone just starting their career or those looking for a new opportunity to meet with more than 100 employers across various industries,” said Mark Middlebrook, Director of Outreach at Mountainland Technical College. “Job seekers should prepare for the fair by updating their resume and preparing a 30-second elevator pitch to share with potential employers.”

Visit utahvalleyjobfair.com or https://www.linkedin.com/events/2026inpersonutahvalleyjobfair7416487168564441088/  for more details and a list of participating employers.

Chabeli Carrazana | The 19th News

Pencils are more expensive. So are notebooks, scissors, glue sticks — just about every back-to-school item that families will load into their carts this summer has gone up in price at a time when American families already feel crushed by rising costs.

According to one analysis of the 21 most common school supply items by the Groundwork Collaborative and The Century Foundation prices are up about 7.7% with parents paying an average of $173.45 for their school supply haul. That’s an even bigger jump than last year. Add to that an 11% hike in prices for school lunch essentials — from the literal tons of blueberries needed to feed young children to apple juice — and costs balloon to nearly $4,000 a year to cover supplies and meals.

That data was first shared exclusively with The 19th. The analysis is based on weekly retail transaction data on millions of products collected by NielsenIQ from about 50,000 retailers.

With school supply costs outpacing inflation, many families — and especially the women who do the majority of purchases in American households — are going to feel the sticker shock, said Lindsay Owens, the president and CEO of the Groundwork Collaborative.

“Women in this country are rip-roaring mad about the price hikes that they’re absorbing. They’re trying to manage household finances and budgeting. They’re trying to feed their kids healthy food,” Owens said. “The work is getting harder of providing for your family.”

Here are the school supplies with the biggest spikes in price:

• Lunch boxes are up 27%
• Notebooks, notebook paper, tissues and index cards are all up about 20%
• Scissor costs rose 14%
• Dry erase markers and glue sticks are up 8%
• Headphones, binders, crayons, colored pencils and No. 2 pencils increased 5-7%

On the lunch side:

• 12 ounces of blueberries are up a whopping 48%
• A loaf of sandwich bread is up 22%
• Apple juice prices have risen 20%
• A pound of oranges has risen 17%
• A box of packaged animal crackers will run you nearly 16% more
• A package of chocolate chip cookies is up 14%

Driving up some of these costs are tariffs and the war on Iran.

Take blueberries, which American families have increasingly been eating more of every year, particularly those with berry-aged children who pop them like M&Ms. About half of the berries Americans eat are imported, many from Peru, which is now increasingly selling its berries to China instead of the United States because of tariff increases.

The other half of America’s blueberries are grown domestically, a good portion of them in Maine, the top producer of wild berries in the country. But tariffs on steel and aluminum have made it more costly to purchase the equipment needed to harvest the crops.

“Our consumers, our manufacturers, our blueberry growers, and more will all continue to pay the price,” Sen. Susan Collins, the Republican from Maine, wrote to the Department of Commerce in December.

Similarly, many school supplies are produced overseas, like pencils and crayons, which are predominantly imported from Brazil, China, Mexico and India. The war in Iran, which has raised fuel and shipping costs, has directly impacted imports, and those price increases are being passed on to consumers. Though inflation is showing signs of cooling, oil prices hit a six-week high in late July.

“Gas prices filter through to everything, but especially food,” Owens said. “The cost of transporting food goes up. The cost of farming goes up because the cost of diesel is up. The cost of plastic goes up, so the packaging around pencils or deli ham gets more expensive. All of that is going to filter through to higher food prices and higher prices for consumer goods like back-to-school staples.”

The problem is parents don’t have a lot of wiggle room on the matter, said Julie Margetta Morgan, the president of the Century Foundation. Kids need the supplies to be successful during the year, and parents, whether they’re low- or high-income, want to ensure their kids can thrive.

About half of parents expect to take on debt to cover back-to-school shopping this year, up from 34% in 2024, according to a survey of parents with kids under 18 conducted this summer by Intuit Credit Karma. One in five parents say they also feel pressure to keep up with what other parents are buying their kids, a June NerdWallet survey found.

“There’s a really strong actual cost — but also emotional cost — to having to make really impossible choices about caring for yourself and caring for your family in order to bear the costs of tariffs and of a war that seems impossible to explain why we’re involved in it,” Morgan said. “It is weighing particularly heavily on mothers.”

Many families cite living under that financial stress, said Ailen Arreaza, the executive director of ParentsTogether, a national nonprofit that works to engage parents politically. In the organization’s surveys, about 70% of parents cite experiencing financial strain, with little relief in sight.

It’s all further complicated by the loss of government benefits over the past year. More than 4 million Americans, including 1.5 million children, have lost their benefits through SNAP, the food assistance program that helps low-income people buy groceries. That makes family budgets even tighter going into the new school year.

“It feels like we are a little bit at a breaking point,” Arreaza said. “The concern and the situation just feels untenable right now.”

To get by, parents are searching their local back-to-school fairs for supplies, or seeking out backpack giveaways and school supply distributions. Some families are working more over the summer to cover increased costs.

By the time November’s midterm elections roll around, some of this pressure is likely to be on parents’ minds in an election that will no doubt center affordability. Both parties face uncertainty heading into the midterms.

Right now, Arreaza said, “parents are so busy and focused on their day-to-day and November feels far away and the election can feel far away for parents, but the reality of what is happening everyday feels very real for families.”

Even if folks aren’t thinking about the election, she said, “they’re thinking about the system that is making it harder for them and they’re noticing the differences.”

This story was originally published by 19thnews.org and written by Chabeli Carrazana. Adjustments for style, length and clarity have been made.

Kelcie Moseley-Morris | Stateline

A new study examining pollution levels across a 16-year span found that while general pollution levels from sources such as cars and industry have significantly declined, recent increases in wildfire smoke air pollution have offset those gains and could be contributing to negative outcomes for pregnant women and babies such as low birth weight and preterm births.

Published by Frontiers in Environmental Health, the study included data from about 64.5 million pregnancies between 2003 and 2019, covering more than 2,800 counties in 48 states. Even in regions that are not strongly associated with wildfire, such as the southeast region of the U.S., wildfire pollution rates grew substantially during that time period. The study did not account for any movement between counties or regions during pregnancy, or whether pregnant people used any protection against smoke such as masks, air filters or temporary relocation.

Wildfire pollution is included in the same type of pollution as exhaust from cars or industrial outputs, but the study authors looked at two models of pollutants, one of which removed all fire-related pollution to determine how much of it was correlated with wildfire. Over the study period, about 65% of the days that recorded pollution levels above the National Ambient Air Quality Standard could be attributed to wildfire smoke.

Menglu Liang, leading author of the study and assistant clinical professor of biostatistics at the University of Maryland, said in a news release that efforts to reduce other forms of pollution have not been in vain.

“Those gains have genuinely protected pregnant people and unborn babies, and without them, exposures today would be considerably worse,” Liang said. “What our findings show is that wildfire smoke is offsetting a growing share of these hard-won improvements.”

The study time period does not include some of the most recent, most explosive wildfire seasons in the United States and Canada, such as 2020, 2024 and this year. By mid-July this year, there were more than 800 wildfires burning across Canada, leading to hazardous levels of wildfire smoke across parts of the Midwest and northeast, and in late July, a rash of wildfires across Oregon created hazardous air over much of the northwest.

Recent reports show Oregon is on track to have its worst fire season on record, with nearly 1.8 million acres already burned and at least two months left of the peak season. The previous record was set in 2024, with 1.9 million acres burned.

The study found that some regions were disproportionately affected by the smoke, including in the Northwest, where rates of pollution from wildfire more than doubled over that period. The study noted that the burdens were highest in low-income, rural areas with significant populations of American Indian and Alaska Native communities, and areas with maternity care shortages.

Recent studies have correlated wildfire smoke exposure with an increased risk of preterm birth, low birth weight and other negative outcomes such as stillbirth and some congenital anomalies. Scientists believe the body’s inflammatory responses to wildfire smoke can be harmful to the placenta, which is central to fetal survival, and some of the pollutants could cross the placental barrier and affect fetal growth and development.

“These outcomes matter well beyond the delivery room and harms experienced before birth can echo for decades,” Liang said in the release. “That makes prenatal exposure a particular public health concern.”

This story was originally published by stateline.org and written by Kelcie Moseley-Morris. Adjustments for style and clarity have been made.