Good morning and welcome to Kid News, generously sponsored by the Nicholas B.
Ottaway Foundation and its commitment to quality journalism.
I'm Kim. Today is Friday, April 18th, 2025 and we begin with a new class where catching Z's is part of the lesson plan.
Students at a Mansfield Ohio high school are taking a course called sleep to be a better you.
It's designed to help teens get more rest and break the bad bedtime habits that can start during the tween years.
With late night texting, TikTok scrolling, and jam -packed schedules, most teens get just six hours of sleep, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
That's well below the eight to ten hours brains and bodies need to succeed, and can even lead to more sports injuries.
In the class, kids keep sleep logs and rate their moods accordingly.
Fourteen -year -old Nathan Baker says he used to fall asleep with YouTube videos playing, But now ditches his phone by seven or eight p .m. and wakes up feeling like a new person.
Teamwork makes the dream work.
Organizers just dropped details for the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.
And they include six new mixed gender events.
Teams made up of one male and one female per nation will compete in golf, archery, track and field, gymnastics, table tennis and beach sprint rowing.
The Games will also spotlight some seriously cool venues.
Squash's Olympic debut will take place at Universal Studios.
And Dodger Stadium will host baseball's return after last year's absence.
Even the marathon and triathlon will be soaking up the SoCal spirit.
Both races will kick off along the sands of Venice Beach. An exciting underwater discovery is making waves.
For the first time, a colossal squid has been captured on video in the wild nearly 2 ,000 feet beneath the surface of the South Atlantic Ocean near Antarctica.
A remotely -operated underwater vehicle made the discovery.
This one is a baby only about a foot long, but colossal squids can grow up to 23 feet long and weigh over 1 ,000 pounds.
According to Dr. Kat Bolstadt, an environmental science professor, the creatures large sensitive eyes may be why they historically shy away from research equipment that can be bright and loud.
When your childhood nickname is nature boy, reinventing cooking oil doesn't seem so strange.
Jeff Nobbs, who grew up exploring the outdoors with his environmental scientist Dad, is on a mission to give the world an oil change.
His company, Zero Acres Farms, makes a cooking oil from fermented sugarcane, which doesn't include unhealthy fats often found in traditional seed oils.
In business for just five years, it's already showing up in kitchens from neighborhood diners to Michelin -starred restaurants.
Knob says that because sugarcane is a perennial crop growing back year after year without needing to be replanted, it uses fewer natural resources, making it better for the environment too.
Some people dye Easter eggs in pastel colors.
Others apparently dye them in porcelain bowls.
A video posted on Instagram by a woman named Kate Heintzelman is causing quite a stir.
It shows her plopping hard -boiled eggs into a toilet bowl, where she then squirts them with food coloring and swirls them around like it's no big deal.
While fans of her site called Kate Will Try anything are used to wild recipes like melting popsicles into juice this bathroom -based creation even had Eggo waffles weighing in with the comment now Kate.
The viral clip comes as social media is a buzz with cheaper Easter egg alternatives decorating marshmallows like we mentioned yesterday and another less expensive alternative potatoes which are cheaper and sturdier.
Still to come a four -legged visitor that's charming Capitol Hill, but first today's kid news quiz.
What important life skill are some high schoolers now learning in class?
How to get better sleep.
What sea creature was spotted for the first time in the wild?
A colossal squid. What plant is Zero Acre Farms using to make cooking oil?
Sugar cane, where are the 2028 Summer Olympics taking place?
In Los Angeles, in today's Kid News Kicker, during a US Senate hearing last week, West Virginia Senator, Jim Justice, paused official business to share a heartfelt message from Baby Dog, his five -year -old English Bulldog.
Justice's slobbery sidekick has become a Capitol Hill regular since the 73 -year -old lawmaker took office this year, even though dogs are not technically allowed on the Senate floor.
Nonetheless, Baby Dog's latest testimony, panted into a Senate microphone and translated by Senator Justice, highlighted the importance of loving everyone no matter their party.
Those wise words were officially entered into the Senate record without objection.
With over 10 ,000 followers on X and her own bobblehead, Justice says Babydog makes people smile and humanizes all of us.
Before we go, shout -outs for our teachers Mrs. Avila and her Eagles at Parkview School in El Monte, California.
Mrs. Borries and her Bulldogs at Barrington School in Florissant, Missouri.
Mrs. Melzna and her Mighty Cardinals at Mayville School in Mayville, Wisconsin.
And Mrs. Seigman and her 5C Clovis Bulls at NSHA in Great Neck, New York.
Thanks for listening.
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Have a great weekend and we'll see you back here for more kid news Monday morning