For teens, sleeping in pays off

It long has been suspected that later school start times would benefit teenagers, whose biological clocks are naturally tuned a bit later than younger kids and adults. Now, thanks to a shift in Seattle, there's data to prove it.

David Trood/Getty Images Regular exercise can keep your body decades younger “These 75-year-olds — men and women — have similar cardiovascular health to a 40- to 45-year-old," researchers said of those who frequently ran or cycled. The effect on muscle fitness was even more striking: The tissue in older, fit participants looked identical to that in 25-year-olds who exercised regularly. The findings are clear: 30 to 60 minutes of exercise a day may be the key to a healthy life. Ryan Caron King/Connecticut Public Radio Poaching, mandatory overtime and entire shifts staffed by newer officers: Across the country, communities can’t find enough cops There are 23,000 fewer police officers in the United States today than there were five years ago, with the hot job market and higher skepticism about careers in law enforcement making recruitment increasingly difficult. "I think it should scare the community more than anybody," one officer says. “There’s no veteran leadership.” The recruits who do come in often prefer a gentler style of policing, an Indianapolis deputy chief says, looking to be community builders rather than warriors. Jasper Cole/Getty Images Fewer absences, better grades: A Seattle study shows later school start times really do help teenagers Shifting first period closer to 9 a.m. gave kids in the study an extra half-hour of sleep every day and boosted academic performance in their shared biology classes by 4.5 percent, researchers say. And anecdotally, teachers say more kids were able to engage in deeper thought and scientific discourse. The study's authors hope other schools take note. "To ask a teen to be up and alert at 7:30 a.m. is like asking an adult to be active and alert at 5:30 a.m.," one says. Museum of the Bible ‘Let my people go’? Not for the Israelites in this Bible, which was produced for slaves The Scripture, published in 1807 for use in the Caribbean, contained about a fifth of the material in the King James version, including just 10 percent of the Old Testament. Passages that reinforced the institution of slavery, including: “Servants, be obedient to them that are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling,” were kept. The book drew so much attention at the Museum of the Bible that curators created a special exhibit around it. Lily Padula for NPR After an NPR investigation, the Education Department cleans up a grant program that was leaving some teachers deep in debt To get the grants, teachers agreed to work a high-need subject in a low-income school for four years. But miss a field in the complicated annual paperwork or miss a due date by a day and the full total of the grant was being turned into a loan they had to repay, with interest. The problem got so bad, the company administering the program asked the Department of Education if it could fix it unilaterally and help those affected. Three years later, it's finally happening. "We know we can do better, and that's what we're trying to do," a Department of Education official said. You received this message because you're subscribed to our Best of NPR emails. |  Unsubscribe  |  Privacy Policy | NPR 1111 N. CAPITOL ST. NE WASHINGTON DC 20002