The Brief

The advocacy group Consumer Reports is urging the federal government to remove Lunchables from the national free and reduced-price school lunch program after an analysis found high amounts of sodium and elevated levels of heavy metals.

Brian Ronholm, director of food policy at Consumer Reports, said the meal kits aren't healthy for children and called on the U.S. Department of Agriculture to toss the brand from its National School Lunch Program.

"The Lunchables and similar lunch kits we tested contain concerning levels of sodium and harmful chemicals that can lead to serious health problems over time," Ronholm said in a statement. "The USDA should remove Lunchables from the National School Lunch Program and ensure that kids in schools have healthier options."

Consumer Reports said it found high levels of sodium in Lunchables, detected lead and cadmium in tests and also observed the presence of phthalates, which can impact reproductive health and the human hormonal system.

A USDA spokesperson said the department doesn't allow or disallow individual food items, but rather sets requirements for the overall nutritional content of meals on a daily or weekly basis.

"So, the Lunchables described in the article would need to be paired with fruit, vegetables and milk," the spokesperson said. "In addition, a school who wanted to serve a higher sodium product one day has to balance that with lower sodium items on others."

They added that the USDA "takes very seriously our responsibility to ensure school meals are of the highest nutritional quality" and that it has been helping more schools use local ingredients and cook additional meals from scratch.

Kraft Heinz says it stands by the quality of Lunchables

In a statement, a spokesperson for Kraft Heinz, which makes Lunchables, said all of its products meet strict safety standards and that lead and cadmium occur naturally in the environment and may show up in food at low levels.

"We are proud of Lunchables and stand by the quality and integrity that goes into making them," they said.

Kraft Heinz has also improved the nutritional benefits of Lunchables recently by adding fresh fruit and reducing the sodium found in its crackers, the spokesperson added.

Consumer Reports says two varieties of Lunchables are currently served as part of the school lunch program: Turkey and Cheddar Cracker Stackers and Extra Cheesy Pizza.

The group tested store-bought versions of those varieties and found that they had 74% and 69% of the California lead maximum, respectively. Consumer Reports said it used California's threshold for lead as a benchmark for testing rather than the federal limit, because California's standard is "currently the most protective."

The group tested 12 meal kits in total, including Lunchables and other brands, and found at least one type of phthalate in every kit except the Extra Cheesy Pizza variety.

Consumer Reports says Lunchables for schools have higher sodium levels

Consumer Reports also found that Lunchables made to be distributed in schools, which have whole grains in the crackers and additional protein, contain more sodium than those found in stores.

The turkey-and-cheese variety in schools has 930 mg of sodium, compared to the 740 mg found in commercially available kits. For schools, the pizza variety has 700 mg of sodium, while the option sold in stores had 510 mg.

That means the turkey-and-cheese option has nearly half the sodium of the federal daily suggested amount, while the pizza selection has 34% of the recommended daily sodium amount and more than 50% of California's limit for cadmium, the group found.

A petition created by Consumer Reports to push the USDA to remove Lunchables from schools had more than 14,000 signatures Wednesday afternoon.

When temperatures rise above 70 degrees, tiny West Nile viral particles begin to rapidly replicate in the gut of Culex mosquitoes, which then go hunting for their next “blood meal,” injecting virus-laden saliva into their prey when they feast.

This year, California’s warm, wet summer and fall produced the most West Nile activity in five years. As of Nov. 6, the virus has seriously sickened 528 people and killed 32, according to the California Department of Public Health.

Most people who are infected never feel sick, but about 1 in 5 may develop fever, headache and body aches. For the rare few — 1 in 150 — things get serious: The virus can hitch a ride to the brain, causing inflammation, neurological problems and even death. There is no cure, only supportive medical care.

Southern California bore the brunt of infections, with Los Angeles County accounting for more than half of all reported human cases.

Residents there may soon notice a reprieve from mosquitoes, as cooler nights slow both mosquito breeding and growth of the virus. But experts still worry about what comes next, as climate change and extreme weather create conditions for mosquito-borne illness to surge, particularly along the coast and in floodplains.

“We're all scared of next year,” said Paula Macedo, chair of the Mosquito and Vector Control Association of California. “With the amount of activity that we already saw this year and having the forecast of being an El Niño year, we are all bracing ourselves.”

Whether next year brings relief or another surge depends on a tangle of birds, mosquitoes and weather that even experts struggle to predict.

Coastal California at risk of increased disease

In September, a warm storm swept past Southern California’s coastal and inland regions. The outer tendrils of Hurricane Marie poured an inch-and-a-half of rain across much of the westside of Los Angeles; downtown L.A. broke a rainfall record from 1965. In the following days, temperatures reached a high of 104 degrees, with overnight lows failing to dip below 77 degrees.

Mosquitoes thrived in the following days. The rainfall flushed mosquito-killing treatments out of more than 3,000 miles of underground storm drains, according to the Greater Los Angeles County Vector Control District.

“One of our biggest sources for Culex (mosquitoes) are our underground storm drains,” said Susanne Kluh, the district’s general manager. “It's pretty much 72 degrees down there and humid all year round.”

Beachgoers stand in thick humidity as Hurricane Marie moves along, Monday, Sept. 7, 2026, on Huntington Beach, southern Calif.

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Ethan Swope

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AP Photo

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The district treats storm drains monthly, but with the larvicide washed out to sea, mosquito populations surged. At one point this summer, Kluh said more than 70% of mosquitoes trapped for sampling carried West Nile virus. That share has fallen in recent weeks to about one-third.

Research suggests that climate change will increase risk of West Nile transmission along Southern California’s coast. A UC Berkeley-led study of Los Angeles-area data from 2006 to 2016 found a narrow tipping point: when average temperatures stayed below about 70 degrees, the virus was much less likely to turn up in mosquitoes, and when they rose above about 73, it became much more likely. Higher temperatures were also linked to more human infections.

Coastal Los Angeles sits right at that edge. Summer averages hover in the high 60s to low 70s, and a few degrees of warming can push it over. That’s precisely what happened this year.

“The longer that those temperatures are appropriate, the more opportunity there can be for human cases,” said Tristan Hallum, scientific director for San Gabriel Valley Mosquito and Vector Control District.

The virus moves in a complex loop driven by birds, mosquitoes and weather conditions. A female mosquito feeding on an infected bird can ingest the virus and subsequently infect other birds and sometimes humans. But birds that have been previously infected and survived become immune to West Nile, and their blood no longer carries virus for feasting mosquitoes to consume. 

That immunity tends to produce a natural three- to five-year cycle of West Nile activity, meaning Los Angeles, Orange County and other areas with many cases may get a reprieve next year, but other parts of the state remain vulnerable.

Virus flourishes during extreme weather

Federal forecasters give a very strong El Niño a greater than 90% chance this winter, raising the odds of heavy rain, particularly in Southern California. That worries public health and vector control officials: if floodwaters linger into spring as temperatures rise, mosquitoes could boom.

That’s happened before. In 2023, heavy precipitation and flooding filled the long-dry Tulare Lake basin in the Central Valley, submerging vast stretches of agricultural land and reviving wetland habitats. The lake persisted for roughly a year, temporarily changing bird migration patterns and behavior; it also created prime habitat for the state’s native Culex mosquitoes.

That year health officials recorded 433 human cases of West Nile.

Drought matters too, and in a counterintuitive way. In 2014 and 2015, more than 1,600 people contracted West Nile during some of the driest years on record.

“One hypothesis is that the dry conditions bring birds and mosquitoes into closer contact due to the water being more limited across the landscape,” said Chris Barker, a professor at UC Davis who studies mosquito-borne illnesses and helps run the state’s West Nile surveillance program.

Because West Nile depends on a shifting mix of birds, mosquitoes and weather, cases won’t climb steadily year after year as climate warms, Barker said. Instead, extreme weather — both floods and drought — will create more years when conditions line up for outbreaks, making the virus harder to fight.

“Climate change has the effect of tipping the scales against us just a little bit more,” he added.

Experts seek vaccine

There is no vaccine to protect against West Nile virus. Aaron Brault, a top West Nile expert and researcher with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said in an email that the U.S. needs one.

“Despite West Nile virus being an important cause of illness in the United States for more than 25 years, our overall toolbox is limited,” Brault said.

The CDC accepted only written questions and would not make Brault available for an interview.

Repellent and long sleeves help to decrease risk, but people frequently forgo these measures, Brault said, and those measures “have not adequately reduced the number of West Nile virus disease cases or deaths in the United States.”

The CDC is exploring new ways to combat West Nile and encourage development of a vaccine, new treatments and better diagnostic tests, but it’s difficult work. West Nile outbreaks are unpredictable, making it tough to run the large clinical studies vaccines require.

“Viruses do defy us sometimes, especially the people trying to predict them,” Barker said.

Climate change supercharges that uncertainty and makes it harder for the people trying to keep mosquito numbers low.

Vector control faces new challenges, limited funding

Vector control districts across California spend millions each year trapping and killing mosquitoes. Residents fund the work locally through property taxes, typically $4 to $10 a year, according to the Mosquito and Vector Control Association of California. New pests and longer mosquito seasons challenge their work.

The mosquitoes most Southern California residents swatted and scratched at this year were likely not the West Nile bearing Culex mosquito, but an invasive species called Aedes aegypti.

Native Culex mosquito species bite between dusk and dawn and prefer birds to humans, though they’re opportunistic biters. In contrast, the black-and-white striped Aedes hunts during the day, and its meal of choice is human blood. It doesn’t transmit West Nile Virus, but it can spread other infectious diseases such as dengue, zika, chikungunya and yellow fever.

Aedes is also harder to control. It breeds in as little as a teaspoon of water, and its eggs can also survive months of drought, reviving whenever wet weather returns. Some vector control districts in California have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars releasing sterile male Aedes mosquitoes to reduce the overall number of mosquitoes, taking away from the ability to fight Culex mosquitoes.

Disasters can add to the strain. The Eaton fire, which destroyed 9,000 structures in 2025, left behind 1,400 stagnant swimming pools.

“Budget over time has been stretched really thin by having to respond to these additional mosquitoes and additional causes,” Macedo, with the Mosquito and Vector Control Association of California, said.

State law limits how much local governments can raise fees for these services, though some vector control districts have gone to voters to ask for more money.

Still, Macedo said, no budget can cover every backyard.

“We cannot enter every property. We cannot treat every mosquito source,” she said. “We need people to understand how they can prevent the situation."

Supported by the California Health Care Foundation (CHCF), which works to ensure that people have access to the care they need, when they need it, at a price they can afford. Visit www.chcf.org to learn more.

This article was originally published on CalMatters and was republished under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license.

Voters on Saturday rejected a measure that would have weakened California’s landmark environmental law by fast-tracking reviews for some projects.

With about 76% of votes counted, voters rejected Prop. 45 by 55.7% to 44.3%.

The vote maintains the status quo under the state’s Environmental Quality Act, which since 1970 has required public agencies to review project developments that could have harmful environmental impacts, and mitigate those harms.

“Californians have sent a clear message to corporate developers, utilities and data center builders that they will not stand for a broad assault at the ballot box on state law protecting our air, water and natural resources,” No on 45’s Woody Little said. “We were outspent but not outgunned.”

Supporters had said the changes would reduce building costs. The California Chamber of Commerce sponsored Proposition 45, the Building an Affordable California Act, which would limit the length of environmental reviews for projects deemed “essential” to 365 business days and require courts to resolve litigation in 270 calendar days. Those projects include housing, water, broadband and transit developments.

Proponents said the savings from building more quickly would pass to consumers and spent $41 million campaigning for the measure. The Building a Better California political action committee was the largest donor, giving $10 million to the campaign. The organization is funded partly by current and former Google executives Sergey Brin and Eric Schmidt. Two of the largest investor-owned utilities, Pacific Gas & Electric Company and Southern California Edison, together donated $4.4 million.

Environmental groups argued the measure would go too far in weakening a law meant to protect people from environmental harms. Opponents, including a coalition of environmental, health and union organizations, spent $30 million trying to stop it. Wendy Schmidt, a Democratic philanthropist, was the largest donor, giving $10 million to the campaign. The political action committee Clean and Healthy California Sponsored by Environmental Organizations contributed $7 million.

The California Democratic Party opposed the measure. The California Republican Party supported it, while county Republican groups were split.

Deborah Sivas, an environmental law professor at Stanford University, said Prop. 45 would radically change current law. It would shift power “away from local governments and to developers by giving them some new tools … and limiting what courts can do in terms of reviewing decisions that agencies and local governments make,” she said.

CEQA and housing

California’s environmental review law, signed in 1970, requires agencies to assess the environmental impacts of developments and help mitigate them.

Over decades, developers have raised concerns about the process, arguing litigation and bureaucracy slow down construction.

State legislators have tried to fix the problem by passing laws that exempt or streamline certain projects from environmental review. In 2025, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed laws that exempt many urban housing projects from the full review process.

But some supporters of Prop. 45, including the California Building Industry Association and the California Council for Affordable Housing, say those changes don’t go far enough.

“It’s an important piece of the puzzle, but (that type of housing) does not produce quickly or at scale,” said Jennifer Hernandez, an attorney who helped write the measure. “We need quicker, at scale, affordable housing.”

Supporters say Prop. 45 would help California redevelop large, unused sites like malls and parking lots into housing and make it easier to build away from urban areas.

Pro-housing groups, public agencies divided 

Pro-housing and local government groups usually support CEQA reform, but Prop. 45 has divided many of them.

Housing advocates in the Bay Area, including East Bay for Everyone and the Greenbelt Alliance, oppose the measure. Other Yes in My Backyard groups are neutral, including Abundant Housing Los Angeles and both California YIMBY and YIMBY Action — the movement’s two flagship advocacy groups.

The split between pro-housing groups lies in whether California should keep building outward onto undeveloped land or promote construction in urban centers. Some supporters, including Oakland Democratic Assemblymember Buffy Wicks, have said the state needs all types of housing.

Others say building away from urban centers would make it harder to address climate change.

“We believe we can (and must) solve the housing and climate crises simultaneously. That means building communities with denser housing and alternatives to automobile dependence,” wrote Max Dubler of California YIMBY in a blog post explaining the group’s neutral stance on Prop. 45.

Public agencies and local governments that could benefit from the building rules were also divided.

The California Municipal Utilities Association opposes the measure. But most other groups representing local governments, including the League of California Cities and California State Association of Counties, remained neutral.

Financial impacts for Prop. 45

Prop. 45 supporters argued that streamlining development would make life more affordable for Californians, but the long-term financial benefits are unclear.

An analysis by Blue Sky Consulting Group, commissioned by the California Chamber of Commerce, estimated the measure would produce $1.5 billion in savings and additional revenues for public agencies over 10 years that would reduce overall housing costs.

But the measure would initially cost local governments and public agencies more as they adjust to the measure’s rules, according to the Legislative Analyst’s Office, a nonpartisan adviser to the Legislature.

Democrats have done well in recent elections when they win young voters by a margin of at least 20 points. On Tuesday, they carried Gen Z — those under 30 — by nearly 50 points, according to exit polling.

It's a stunning shift from 2024, when the party lost critical ground with young people. Long seen as a part of the Democratic base, voters under 30 shifted right towards Donald Trump, motivated by his pledge to better their economic prospects.

But this week, the youngest generation of voters issued a strong rebuke of Republicans, taking another chance on Democrats and their change-focused message at a moment when many of them feel as though the American Dream is out of reach.

How young voters powered Democrats to victory 

Americans ages 18-29 have a history of turning out at lower rates than older voters, and this year was no exception. Gen Z made up 11% of the total vote on Tuesday.

However, where young Americans may have made the greatest difference is on the margins in House and Senate races where Democrats flipped seats.

The Texas Senate race is a key example. Democrat James Talarico won the state by 12 percentage points; however, when looking at just Gen Z, he won it by 60 points.

Explaining the massive shift from 2024

When assessing gains more broadly, Democrats argue the party's strong slate of candidates helped drum up increased enthusiasm.

But another motivating factor remains strong opposition to Trump. Throughout his second term, Gen Z increasingly soured on the president, with some arguing he failed to make good on a number of core campaign promises — from pledging to lower prices and repeatedly vowing "no new wars," to calling for a crackdown on federal corruption and the release of the Epstein files.

Much of that disappointment was reflected in exit polling. Economic issues were the top concern for a plurality of 18- to 29-year-olds, at 43%, and these voters expressed broad frustrations with Trump's handling of the issue. More than eight in 10 said that Trump's policies have worsened economic conditions, with similar shares opposing his tariff strategy and the decision to go to war with Iran.

The young voters Trump lost

Early analysis from CIRCLE indicates that 15% of young people who backed Trump in 2024 voted for a Democratic House candidate in this year's midterms.

Democrats made gains with some young voters who backed Trump two years ago, including white men and Latino men, two blocs that narrowly voted Republican in 2024 and then voted blue on Tuesday by double digits. Democratic candidates also narrowed the margins with young rural voters and people without college degrees.  

Some of those gains may have been helped by young Trump voters who chose to sit this election out, but it's unclear how many of them there were.

How the election results broke down by age

The midterm results underscore how neither of the two major parties owns Gen Z, according to John Della Volpe, a left-leaning pollster who's extensively studied the politics of young Americans.

"The cohort of younger people in this cycle had a different set of experiences than the cohort of people two years ago, or four years before that," he said. "Every candidate, every party has to earn their votes."

Della Volpe, who runs the Harvard Youth Poll, notes that in the latest survey, released in October, there was a sizable enthusiasm gap between young Democrat and young Republican respondents. While half of Democrats said they definitely planned to vote, just a third of Republicans and less than a quarter of Independents said the same.

"I also think we shouldn't overread what's happened," he added. "Clearly a significant historic rebuke on the party in office — that's obvious — however, I think we need to more fully, kind of understand, the contour of the electorate, who showed up and who didn't show up."

By 2028, Gen Z and millennial voters will make up more than half of the electorate, a demographic shift with huge implications for Democrats and the GOP.

"Young adults can make a difference," said Elizabeth Matto, who serves as the director of the Center for Youth Political Participation at Rutgers University.

"They do care about politics. They can sway the outcome of elections. And they're a voting bloc worth paying attention to."
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The morning after Tuesday's midterms was gloomy and rainy in Minneapolis, but people still gathered at the place where Border Patrol agents shot and killed Alex Pretti, a VA nurse and U.S. citizen, last January. All week, community members have come here to place their "I Voted" stickers at the memorial.

Nicki Adams, who dated Pretti and was his close friend for nearly 17 years, watched quietly as a woman added her sticker to a street lamp completely covered in the red decals.

"I wanted to see all the stickers. I just wanted to be here," she says. "It just means a lot to me. I think it would mean a lot to Alex, too."

A few blocks away, people left their stickers where an ICE officer killed Renee Good, a mom of three and a U.S. citizen, just a few weeks before Pretti's death. In Houston, they left them where an ICE officer killed Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a father of three and a Mexican immigrant, in July.

Adams says these stickers, and the election results this week, send a clear message to Congress: "You work for us, and please carry on these values that we care about … We want to be seen and heard and taken care of and have our neighbors taken care of."

The deaths of Pretti and Good during the ICE surge in Minneapolis marked a pivotal moment for the country, sparking intense public backlash to President Trump's aggressive deportation efforts. But federal law enforcement officials have given little indication they're progressing in investigating their deaths, or the deaths of at least seven other people killed by federal immigration agents since Trump took office again last year. DHS did not respond to an NPR request for the status of those investigations.

Now, after Democrats' sweeping wins this week, their deaths at the hands of immigration agents will likely be the targets of renewed investigations. With a majority in Congress, Democrats can issue subpoenas to the major players in Trump's mass deportation plan, compelling them to testify under oath before the legislature.

That could include White House Border Czar Tom Homan, former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, former Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino, and White House Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, among others.

Congress can also demand internal documents, like use-of-force reports.

"They can dissect these individual shootings, and really unravel the story of what happened," says Naureen Shah, who leads the ACLU's immigration policy work.

Democrats have already held shadow hearings on the ICE shootings, during which they've called in family members and witnesses to testify.

But Shah says now Congress can ask key questions of top decision makers: What orders were given to immigration officers in the field? What was training like for these officers?

Who made the decision to paint Good and Pretti as threats, including calling Pretti a "would-be assassin" and a domestic terrorist, when video showed otherwise?

"It's like we can turn the faucet on and actually find out so much more," Shah says. "There's an aspect of this that is really about a kind of reckoning with how it's possible that things that seemed unthinkable could happen on American streets. How do you have that reckoning if you don't actually have the ability to force people to explain themselves?"

Democratic leaders have already said that's the plan.

Maryland Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin, who is expected to lead the House Judiciary Committee, told NPR in a statement that Congress will use "every tool" at its disposal to investigate ICE and that it is time for the agency to "start answering to the American people."

California Democratic Rep. Robert Garcia, expected to lead the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, vowed to take on DHS and ICE abuses in a two-word statement: "Lawyer Up."

Mississippi Democratic Rep. Bennie Thompson, expected to lead the House Committee on Homeland Security, sent a letter on Wednesday to Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, demanding the agency "comply with all document preservation requirements."

Illinois Democratic Rep. Delia Ramirez wrote on social media that Noem, Miller, Homan, Bovino and Mullin should "clear" their schedules.

In response to that, DHS general counsel James Percival said Democrats are "more interested in political shenanigans than in governing" but said the agency is prepared to "deal with this nonsense."

There are key limitations to what Democrats in Congress can do with their majority when it comes to ICE accountability, says Rachel Moran, a professor at the University of St. Thomas School of Law.

Major changes, like clawing back funding for the agency, would require a veto-proof majority, something the Democrats don't have.

"You still have a president who has shown a complete lack of interest in accountability for federal agents and in fact, a great deal of knee jerk defensiveness about their conduct," Moran says.

In a statement, a White House spokesperson told NPR "if Democrats choose to pursue sham investigations and radical left policies, they are choosing to work against the American people."

Democrats, the statement added, "should be reminded that we still control the federal government and all of its powers."

But that's not true. Congress has its own powers, one of them being the ability to compel testimony. Moran says a deeper probe into the shootings could still serve important purposes, like making evidence available for states to use in their own criminal investigations.

Minnesota officials, for instance, have been fighting with the federal government to get evidence related to the Pretti and Good killings.

Brent Ganger, Renee Good's brother, says learning more information about his sister's death will be hard to hear, "but I think it's also super important for us to understand what happened that day. I don't want history to keep repeating itself."

It was painful, he says, to watch immigration agents kill more people after his sister. He thought her death would be a turning point. In a way, it might have been the start of one. After the surge in Minneapolis, most Americans said ICE had gone too far.

Ganger, who considers himself a moderate, was happy to see the Blue Wave this week. On election night, he was scrolling Instagram when he saw a photo of his sister's memorial site, with all the "I Voted" stickers.

"I was very grateful to see the repudiation of this administration from the country. It felt very supportive of my entire family," he says.

The next morning, in his home in Colorado, he got up and made biscuits and gravy, his sister's favorite breakfast.
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