14,000 House Fires a Year Start With a Single Candle, and Fire Officials Say Halloween Is Quietly One of the Worst Nights of the Year for It

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white candle in a room

More than 14,000 residential fires in the United States start with a candle every year, killing an estimated 170 people and causing roughly $350 million in property damage annually, according to Consumer Product Safety Commission data compiled ahead of this year’s holiday decorating season. Halloween ranks among the top five days of the year for … Read more

Backyard Pools Still Kill an Average of 376 Children a Year, and Nearly 80% of the Victims Never Even Made It Past Their Fifth Birthday

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A modern house with a swimming pool and palm trees

An average of 376 children under 15 drowned in pools and spas each year between 2021 and 2023, and nearly 80% of those victims never reached their fifth birthday, according to a Consumer Product Safety Commission report released June 24, 2026. In 2023 alone, the most recent year with final data, 379 children died — … Read more

Giant Hand-Sized Spiders Are Spreading Into New States This Month, and Scientists Say There’s Almost Nothing Left to Stop Them From Reaching Your Backyard

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brown tarantula

Joro spiders — an invasive species that can span up to four inches across, leg to leg — are turning up in new backyards across the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic again this month, and researchers say there’s essentially no way to contain how far they spread from here, according to CBS News. Key Points Sightings have … Read more

Seven ’90s TV Stars Are Ripping Out Honey-Oak Cabinets and Sponge-Painted Walls on HGTV’s Newest Renovation Show, and the Before Photos Are Brutal

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Bright kitchen interior with wooden cabinets and granite countertops.

HGTV’s newest renovation competition, “Totally ’90s House,” premiered August 26, 2026, sending two teams of celebrities who built their careers on 1990s television into homes that look like they’ve been sealed in a time capsule since the decade ended — and the before photos of honey-oak cabinetry, mirrored closet doors, and sponge-painted walls are exactly … Read more

12-Foot Skeleton Gets a Bluetooth Voice Upgrade in Home Depot’s New Halloween Lineup, and It’s Not Even the Creepiest Thing on the Shelf This Year

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A house decorated for halloween with tombstones and decorations

The Home Depot’s 2026 Halloween lineup landed online on July 16, with the biggest names in its yard-haunting collection now controllable from a phone, and the retailer is rolling the collection into physical stores starting late August, according to The Home Depot’s own newsroom release. The headliner is a refreshed 12-foot Giant-Sized Skelly, priced at … Read more

Families Are About to Drop $864 Getting Kids Back to School This Year, and Most of What They’re Buying Is Probably Already Sitting in the House

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A couple of kids walking down a street holding hands

American families with kids in K-12 are on track to spend $863.86 apiece this back-to-school season, pushing total spending to a record $43.3 billion nationwide, according to the National Retail Federation’s 2026 back-to-school survey, conducted with Prosper Insights & Analytics. That’s up from $858.07 per family and $39.4 billion in total spending last year, the … Read more

Parents Are Getting Two Different Vaccine Schedules This Back-to-School Season, and Even Doctors Can’t Fully Agree Which One Their Own Kids Should Follow

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boys green crew-neck shirt

Parents dropping kids off for back-to-school physicals this year are running into two different official vaccine schedules depending on which state they live in — and pediatricians themselves are split on which one applies to their own patients, let alone their own children. The divide traces back to changes the federal government made to the … Read more

One in Five Families Now Spends More Than $30,000 a Year Just on Child Care, Blowing Past What the Government Itself Calls Affordable by a Mile

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group of women sitting on floor

One in five American families paying for child care now spends more than $30,000 a year on it, according to Care.com’s 2026 Cost of Care Report, based on a survey of 3,000 U.S. parents of children 14 and under conducted in late November 2025. That figure alone is striking, but the number that puts it … Read more

Firstborn Kids Carry Higher Autism and ADHD Risk Than Their Younger Siblings, a 10-Million-Child Study Finds, and Birth Order May Matter More Than Parents Think

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a young boy with a toothbrush in his mouth

A study spanning 10.3 million children with at least one sibling has found that birth order is statistically linked to differences in risk across 150 of the 569 health conditions researchers examined — including higher rates of autism and ADHD diagnoses among firstborns compared with their younger siblings. The research, from teams at the University … Read more

198 Kids Have Died in School-Related Car Crashes in a Decade, and Federal Data Shows Most of Them Weren’t Anywhere Near the Bus When It Happened

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group of people wearing white and orange backpacks walking on gray concrete pavement during daytime

Over a full decade, from 2013 through 2022, 198 children age 18 and under died in school-transportation-related crashes — and according to National Highway Traffic Safety Administration data, most of them weren’t riding the bus at all. Only 18% of those child deaths involved a school bus occupant. The rest happened to kids who were … Read more