By JEFF McMURRAY and LINLEY SANDERS, Associated Press

CHICAGO (AP) — When Elizabeth Rivera’s phone would ring during the overnight shift, it was usually because the bus didn’t show up again and one of her three kids needed a ride to school.

After leaving early from her job at a Houston-area Amazon warehouse several times, Rivera was devastated — but not surprised — when she was fired.

Related Articles

Today in History: September 4, the 1949 Peekskill Riots

Federal government to markedly increase number of inspectors trained to spot rail bridge concerns

ConocoPhillips says it will lay off up to 25% of its workforce, impacting thousands of jobs

Montana man charged with shooting four people at a bar pleads not guilty

WhatsApp patches exploit allowing hackers to target Apple users

“Right now, I’m kind of depressed about it,” said Rivera, 42. “I’m depressed because of the simple fact that it’s kind of hard to find a job, and there’s bills I have to pay. But at the same time, the kids have to go to school.”

Rivera is far from the only parent forced to choose between their job and their kids’ education, according to a new poll conducted by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research and HopSkipDrive, a company that relies on artificial intelligence and a network of drivers using their own vehicles to help school districts address transportation challenges.

Most parents drive their children to school, the survey found, and those responsibilities can have a major impact.

About one-third of parents say taking their kids to school has caused them to miss work, according to the poll. Roughly 3 in 10 say they’ve been prevented from seeking or taking work opportunities. And 11% say school transportation has even caused them to lose a job.

Mothers are especially likely to say school transportation needs have interfered with their jobs and opportunities.

Smaller paychecks, bigger vulnerability

The impact falls disproportionately on lower-income families.

Around 4 in 10 parents with a household income below $100,000 a year said they’ve missed work due to pick-up needs, compared with around 3 in 10 parents with a household income of $100,000 or more.

Meredyth Saieed and her two children, ages 7 and 10, used to live in a homeless shelter in North Carolina. Saieed said the kids’ father has been incarcerated since May.

Although the family qualified for government-paid transportation to school, Saieed said the kids would arrive far too early or leave too late under that system. So, she decided to drop them off and pick them up herself.

She had been working double shifts as a bartender and server at a French restaurant in Wilmington but lost that job due to repeatedly missing the dinner rush for pickups.

“Sometimes when you’ve got kids and you don’t have a village, you’ve got to do what you’ve got to do,” said Saieed, 30. “As a mom, you just find a way around it.”

The latest obstacle: a broken-down car. She couldn’t afford to repair it, so she sold it to a junk yard. She’s hoping this year the school will offer transportation that works better for her family.

Not all kids have access to a school bus

Although about half of parents living in rural areas and small towns say their kids still take a bus to school, that fell to about one-third of parents in urban areas.

A separate AP-NORC/HopSkipDrive survey of school administrators found that nearly half said school bus driver shortages were a “major problem” in their district.

Some school systems don’t offer bus service. In other cases, the available options don’t work for families.

The community in Long Island, New York, where police Officer Dorothy Criscuolo’s two children attend school provides bus service, but she doesn’t want them riding it because they’ve been diagnosed as neurodivergent.

“I can’t have my kids on a bus for 45 minutes, with all the screaming and yelling, and then expect them to be OK once they get to school, be regulated and learn,” said Criscuolo, 49. “I think it’s impossible.”

So Criscuolo drops them off, and her wife picks them up. It doesn’t interfere much with their work, but it does get in the way of Criscuolo’s sleep. Because her typical shift is 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. and her children start at different times at different schools, it’s not uncommon for her to get only three hours of sleep a day during the school year.

The transportation burden falls heavier on moms

Mothers are most often the ones driving their children to and from school, with 68% saying they typically take on this task, compared with 57% of fathers.

Most mothers, 55%, say they have missed work, have lost jobs or were kept from personal or professional opportunities because of school transportation needs, compared with 45% of dads.

Syrina Franklin says she didn’t have a choice. The father of her two high school-age children is deceased, so she has to take them and a 5-year-old grandson to different schools on Chicago’s South Side.

After she was late to work more than 10 times, she lost her job as a mail sorter at the post office and turned to driving for Uber and Instacart to make ends meet.

“Most of the kids, they have people that help out with dropping them off and picking them up,” said Franklin, 41. “They have their father, a grandmother, somebody in the family helps.”

When both parents are able to pitch in, school pickup and drop-off duties can be easier.

Computer programmer Jonathan Heiner takes his three kids to school in Bellbrook, Ohio, and his wife picks them up.

“We are definitely highly privileged because of the fact that I have a very flexible job and she’s a teacher, so she gets off when school gets out,” said Heiner, 45. “Not a lot of people have that.”

Parents want more options

Although the use of school buses has been declining for years across the U.S., many parents would like to see schools offer other options.

Roughly 4 in 10 parents said getting their kids to school would be “much easier” or “somewhat easier” if there were more school bus routes, school-arranged transportation services or improved pedestrian and bike infrastructure near school. Around a third cited a desire for earlier or later start times, or centralized pick-up and drop-off locations for school buses.

Joanna McFarland, the CEO and co-founder of HopSkipDrive, said districts need to reclaim the responsibility of making sure students have a ride to school.

“I don’t think the way to solve this is to ask parents to look for innovative ideas,” McFarland said. “I think we really need to come up with innovative ideas systematically and institutionally.”

In Houston, Rivera is waiting on a background check for another job. In the meantime, she’s found a new solution for her family’s school transportation needs.

Her 25-year-old daughter, who still works at Amazon on a day shift, has moved back into the home and is handling drop-offs for her three younger siblings.

“It’s going very well,” Rivera said.

The AP-NORC poll of 838 U.S. adults who are parents of school-age children was conducted June 30-July 11, using a sample drawn from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for adults overall is plus or minus 4.6 percentage points.

Sanders reported from Washington.

Minnesota State Auditor Julie Blaha announced Thursday that she won’t seek reelection in 2026.

Blaha, a Democrat, was first elected to the position in 2018 and won a second term in 2022. The state auditor is tasked with overseeing tens of billions in public spending across roughly 5,000 local governments in Minnesota. State finances are under the supervision of the nonpartisan Office of the Legislative Auditor.

Blaha is one of Minnesota’s constitutional officers elected by the state at large, the others being the governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general and secretary of state.

In 2018, Blaha told the Pioneer Press that she decided to run for auditor after hearing that some Republican lawmakers were considering eliminating the office.

After more than six years in the position, Blaha said she feels ready to pass the office to a successor when her term expires in January 2027.

“I’ve had the honor of serving as Minnesota’s State Auditor. My goals were to rebuild an office that was under attack and protect Minnesotans’ rights to make decisions in their local communities,” she said in a news release. “I am proud to have accomplished those goals.”

State-level councils

Besides overseeing local finances, the state auditor sits on state-level councils including the Executive Council, Rural Finance Authority and the Minnesota Housing Authority.

The auditor also serves on the State Board of Investment and has a say in how Minnesota invests more than $130 billion in state funds.

Before becoming state auditor, Blaha was a middle school math teacher in the Anoka-Hennepin School District, where she served as teachers’ union president. She’s also the former secretary-treasurer of the AFL-CIO of Minnesota.

Besides her work as an educator and union leader, Blaha is also known for her success in the Minnesota State Fair’s crop art competition, where she took the blue ribbon in 2019 for a piece commemorating the engagement of Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan and former Minnesota Public Radio reporter Tom Weber.

While running for office, Blaha described herself as a “bean counter.” Her 2018 crop art submission included those words.

First elected in 2018

Blaha won her first term in 2018 with 49.4% of the vote to Republican Pam Myhra’s 43.2%.

But in 2022 she only narrowly defeated Republican challenger Ryan Wilson. That year, Blaha got 47.5% of the vote to Wilson’s 47.1%.

Wilson criticized Blaha for failing to identify red flags in what became the Feeding Our Future fraud scandal, where a number of people with nonprofits have been convicted for stealing more than $250 million in federal funding for school meals from the Minnesota Department of Education.

Blaha said her office didn’t want to interfere with ongoing investigations and said Wilson did not understand the auditor’s role, as the fraud involved a state agency and not local government.

Blaha and Wilson also disagreed on whether the state board of investment should consider the effects of climate change on its investment returns and avoid assets tied to fossil fuel production.

Wilson said the investment board should try to maximize its returns and that it’s the Legislature’s job to set restrictions. Blaha argued that major financial firms such as J.P. Morgan Chase take climate risks into account while investing.

Related Articles

Man charged with threatening MN Lt. Gov. Flanagan after Minneapolis church shooting

Metro mayors seek local gun control powers as Walz plans special session

MN Capitol rally calls on lawmakers to ban assault rifles

Gov. Tim Walz plans special session on guns after Catholic school shooting

Molly Coleman is seated on the St. Paul City Council

Today is Thursday, Sept. 4, the 247th day of 2025. There are 118 days left in the year.

Today in history:

On Sept. 4, 1949, more than 140 people were injured following a performance by singer Paul Robeson in Peekskill, New York, as an anti-Communist mob attacked departing concertgoers.

Also on this date:

In 1781, Los Angeles was founded by Spanish settlers under the leadership of Governor Felipe de Neve.

Related Articles

Federal government to markedly increase number of inspectors trained to spot rail bridge concerns

ConocoPhillips says it will lay off up to 25% of its workforce, impacting thousands of jobs

Montana man charged with shooting four people at a bar pleads not guilty

WhatsApp patches exploit allowing hackers to target Apple users

A $1.4B Powerball jackpot is up for grabs after 40 drawings without a winner

In 1944, during World War II, British troops liberated Antwerp, Belgium.

In 1957, Arkansas Gov. Orval Faubus ordered Arkansas National Guardsmen to prevent nine Black students from entering all-white Central High School in Little Rock.

In 1972, U.S. swimmer Mark Spitz became the first to win seven medals at a single Olympic Games, winning a seventh gold at the Munich Olympics in the 400-meter medley relay.

In 1972, the longest-running game show in U.S. history, “The Price is Right,” debuted on CBS.

In 1974, the United States established diplomatic relations with East Germany.

In 1998, Google was founded by Stanford University Ph.D. students Sergey Brin and Larry Page.

In 2016, elevating the “saint of the gutters” to one of the Catholic Church’s highest honors, Pope Francis canonized Mother Teresa, praising her radical dedication to society’s outcasts and her courage in shaming world leaders for the “crimes of poverty they themselves created.”

In 2018, the Senate Judiciary Committee began confirmation hearings for future Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh on a day that saw rancorous exchanges between Democrats and Republicans.

Today’s Birthdays:

Golf Hall of Famer Raymond Floyd is 83.
Golf Hall of Famer Tom Watson is 76.
Actor Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs is 72.
Actor Khandi Alexander is 68.
Actor-comedian Damon Wayans Sr. is 65.
Baseball Hall of Famer Mike Piazza is 57.
DJ-musician-producer Mark Ronson is 50.
Actor Wes Bentley is 47.
Actor Max Greenfield is 46.
Singer-actor Beyoncé is 44.
Actor-comedian Whitney Cummings is 43.
Actor-comedian Kyle Mooney (TV: “Saturday Night Live”) is 41.

Every day is a new adventure with the Twins’ bullpen. This, of course, is not entirely unexpected after a trade deadline in which the Twins depleted their bullpen by trading their top five arms to contending teams.

On Tuesday, the Twins’ bullpen gave up nine runs, sending them to an ugly blowout loss. Wednesday, it was a ninth-inning lead that the bullpen gave away, spoiling a great start from Zebby Matthews. Down to their last out, former Twin Michael A.Taylor sent a two-out, two-run double to left field that hit the foul line and helped lift the Chicago White Sox to a 4-3 win in front of an announced crowd of 11,904 at Target Field.

“Game of inches. I thought it was as close as it could get,” third baseman Royce Lewis said. “It could have been two inches foul and I would have loved that.”

A fan sits in the outfield stands prior to the start of the game between the Chicago White Sox and Minnesota Twins at Target Field on September 03, 2025 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. (Photo by David Berding/Getty Images)

Chicago’s three-run inning started when lefty Kody Funderburk allowed a one-out single and walk, leading to his departure. His replacement, Justin Topa, allowed a run-scoring single just over the head of second baseman Luke Keaschall that cut the Twins’ lead to 3-2.

Topa then got one out before Taylor’s big swing.

“That’s not the way we anticipated the game going at the end of the game,” manager Rocco Baldelli said. “We pitched really well all the way up until the very end.”

While the Twins (52-88) had an opportunity to tie the game in the bottom of the ninth with Byron Buxton leading off the frame with a double and Trevor Larnach walking right after him, they couldn’t advance either runner and lost their fifth straight game to the team with the American League’s worst record.

That was one of a few missed opportunities for the Twins, who did not plate Buxton innings earlier when he led off the fifth with a triple and came up empty handed after loading the bases in the fourth inning.

Despite all of that, the Twins had held a lead for most of the game, striking first for a pair of runs in the bottom of the first inning. One scored on a Keaschall double, and Keaschall came around to score after Matt Wallner singled and right fielder Brooks Baldwin could not handle the ball.

They scored again in the sixth inning on a Lewis RBI single, his third hit of the game. The third baseman also swiped two bags in the loss, bringing his total on the season from three to five.

And those three runs, for much of the night, seemed as if they could be enough in support of Matthews, who turned in one of his better starts of the season.

Royce Lewis #23 of the Minnesota Twins steals second base against Chase Meidroth #10 of the Chicago White Sox in the second inning at Target Field on September 03, 2025 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. (Photo by David Berding/Getty Images)

After limiting a very good San Diego Padres team to three runs (two earned) over six innings in his last start, Matthews held the White Sox (62-77) to one run — an Edgar Quero home run to left field in the second inning — again in six innings pitched. Matthews gave up just three hits in his outing, but just one in his final four innings of work as he retired 12 of the last 13 batters he faced.

“It feels good keeping the team in the game, being able to go out there and get six,” Matthews said. “That’s a quality start. As a starter that’s kind of what your goal should be, so being able to do that back to back starts is big.”

Cole Sands followed him into the game and turned in a pair of perfect innings, striking out four of the six batters he faced to protect the lead at the time. But after that, the Twins just couldn’t finish it off.

“We’ve just got to go out there and make the pitches,” Baldelli said. “Whether it’s the last inning of the game or not, obviously limit free passes, things like that. But we will have better days out there.”

Related Articles

Could Byron Buxton get to 30/30? Don’t ask him

Twins blown out in front of sparse Target Field crowd

Twins not expecting starter David Festa to return this season

Twins give up two in the eighth, fall to White Sox

Twins send Mick Abel back to Triple-A, make September call ups