🗞️Food recalls, SNAP cuts, immigrant families and more

I hope you had a good Labor Day. Let’s catch up on the news you may have missed.

The summer was filled with food recalls that some experts say cast doubt on the reliability of federal public health agencies after the Trump administration slashed funding and staff, Anna Claire Vollers reported.

Heading into the school year, advocates fear that cuts to food stamps could jeopardize students’ access to free breakfast and lunch, Kevin Hardy wrote.

And reporter Nada Hassasnein explored how fear of federal immigration enforcement leads children of immigrants to miss doctors’ appointments, taking a toll on their health.

We also have stories on panic alarms at schools, the future of federal disaster aid and data centers in Indigenous communities.

Stateline reports on the big challenges that cross state borders. Support our mission.

As always, thanks for reading.

Jalapenos. Frozen berries. Beef. Alfalfa sprouts. A summer of food recalls, including the record-shattering cyclosporiasis outbreak tied to iceberg lettuce that has sickened thousands, has raised many Americans’ fears of contracting a foodborne illness. The recalls have focused attention on the Trump administration’s decision to cut funding and staff at several public health agencies, and prompted questions about whether those changes have made consumers more vulnerable.

Cuts to the nation’s largest food assistance program will likely spill over into schools, causing students to lose access to free breakfast and lunch. More than 1 million American children have lost access to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, following a recent federal law. Now, a portion of those children could be at risk of losing free meals — viewed as crucial supports for both childhood hunger and classroom learning. But the changes could affect even families who have never participated in the federal food stamp program.

As the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement leads to sweeping arrests, healthcare workers say those actions have hit children hard. Many providers report a surge in missed pediatric appointments, delayed preventive care, and sick or injured kids going without treatment. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrests have continued to climb — with a record 51,000 arrests in July — and experts predict continued unhealthy outcomes that could extend for years.

Three states this year have enacted laws that require or allow schools to use mobile, wearable, wireless or silent panic alarms to quickly summon emergency responders. The new laws in Illinois, Virginia and West Virginia bring the number of states with such laws to 13, with 10 of them acting since 2023. Another dozen states have legislation pending. Texas, for example, requires silent panic alert technology in classrooms, while Utah mandates that certain members of the school staff wear mobile alert devices.

State leaders are breathing a sigh of relief that the Trump administration’s threats to eliminate the Federal Emergency Management Agency have subsided. But experts say there’s still confusion about President Donald Trump’s decisions to approve or deny disaster declarations, leaving states with uncertainty about whether they can expect federal recovery funds.

Data center developments are continuing to spread throughout the country as the demand for digital processing power grows — especially as artificial intelligence systems become more prevalent. But in addition to concerned residents, some federal, state and local officials are worried about how data centers could drive up utility bills, strain water resources and hurt the environment.

And now, tribal communities are grappling with the fact that more developers are eyeing their land for future data center projects.

“Because of the history with treaties, removal actions and those sorts of things, tribal lands are probably more pristine and not as developed as other state, federal or local government lands,” said Tana Fitzpatrick, the associate vice president of tribal relations at the University of Oklahoma and a member of the Crow Tribe in Montana and a descendent of the Lakota Sioux, Ponca and Chickasaw nations.

“That might be one of the reasons why tribes are finding that people are coming and wanting to build data centers on their lands.”

Some tribal leaders are also concerned about President Donald Trump’s ability to alter regulations related to federal lands. While most of Trump’s executive orders don’t apply to federal land belonging to Native nations or reservations, Irene Whitekiller, president of the Navajo Nation’s LeChee Chapter, said that could change.

In July, for instance, Trump issued two executive orders to revise the boundaries of the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument and the Bears Ears National Monument so the lands could be “put to a higher-priority use,” such as extracting minerals to invest in national security. The orders faced backlash from environmental advocacy groups and Native nations.