Lifestyle

Middle and high school students in California will be able to sleep a little bit later when the new school year starts. A first-in-the-nation law that goes into effect for the 2022-23 school year says high schools can’t start before 8:30 a.m. and middle schools can’t start before 8 a.m. Similar proposals are before lawmakers in New Jersey and Massachusetts. Advocates say sleep-deprived teenagers are more prone to anxiety, depression and car accidents. They say adolescent bodies naturally fall asleep later so early school starts cut into their rest. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends start times of 8:30 a.m. or later.

Louisiana's attorney general is warning doctors against performing abortions, despite a judge’s order blocking the state from enforcing its ban on the procedure. Attorney General Jeff Landry said in a letter to the Louisiana State Medical Society that the state judge’s Monday order blocking enforcement “has limited reach” and that abortion remains a crime in Louisiana after Friday's Supreme Court decision ending abortion rights. That decision has prompted legal fights in multiple states. Lawyers for abortion providers asked the Ohio Supreme Court on Wednesday to overturn the state ban on abortions at the first detectable “fetal heartbeat.” Kentucky’s two abortion clinics asked a judge to block that state's abortion ban.

A large Missouri hospital chain briefly stopped providing emergency contraception amid confusion over whether the state’s abortion ban could put doctors at risk of criminal charges for providing the medication, even for sexual assault victims. St. Luke’s Health Kansas City said in a statement Wednesday that it would resume offering the medication known as the morning after pill. That came a day after it told The Kansas City Star that its Missouri hospitals would halt emergency contraception. Wednesday announcement came after the state’s attorney general issued a statement stating unequivicolly that emergency contraception is not illegal under an abortion ban that was enacted minutes after Friday’s U.S. Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade.

An expert says the combination of heat and humidity would have quickly created life-threatening conditions inside the packed, un-airconditioned tractor-trailer where dozens of immigrants were found dead this week. It's unclear how long the immigrants had been inside the trailer, but Jennifer Vanos, an assistant professor in climate and health at Arizona State University, says it likely would only take a couple of hours for temperatures to climb as high as 125 degrees or hotter. The death toll rose to 53 on Wednesday, two days after the tractor-trailer — packed with 67 people — was found abandoned on the edge of San Antonio. It's the nation’s deadliest smuggling episode on the U.S.-Mexico border.

Laws banning most abortions at the point of the “first detectable heartbeat"are beginning to take effect following the U.S. Supreme Court's decision to overturn the nearly 50-year-old Roe v. Wade decision. Court actions in states including Ohio, South Carolina and Tennessee have revived laws stalled under Roe and left some abortion seekers and clinics scrambling. Generally, abortion is still legal in states under such laws until six to eight weeks into pregnancy. Clinics, abortion rights and some faith groups are mobilizing to help women beyond that point get abortions elsewhere. Some abortion foes also are providing family-related resources online.

Elmo got a COVID-19 vaccine. Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit educational organization behind Sesame Street, announced that Elmo had gotten vaccinated in public service announcement posted to YouTube. In the video, Elmo’s dad said he had a lot of questions for the pediatrician, who assured him that vaccinations are safe and effective for children. COVID-19 vaccinations for the youngest Americans started last week. U.S. regulators authorized shots from Moderna and Pfizer. The CDC advises vaccination even for those who already had COVID-19 to protect against reinfection.