CARL AZUZ, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome to ten minutes of current events from middle and high school classrooms. I`m Carl Azuz with CNN STUDENT NEWS.
You are exactly halfway through September, and we are starting today in Paris. Representatives from about 30 countries were there yesterday. It
was a meeting focused on ISIS, the terrorist group that wants to form its own country in Iran and Syria. Some analysts say the U.S. government has
struggled in its efforts to get concrete support of other nations in fighting ISIS, but the U.S. says a number of them have promised to help.
From its allies and Europe and Canada to its partners in the Middle East. The actual levels of support differ from country to country. The U.S. has
launched more than 150 airstrikes against ISIS in Iraq. It`s planning more in Syria, but in the speech last week, President Obama said the fight can`t
be America`s alone.
From a meeting in Paris, we are leaping across the Atlantic and the U.S. to Baja, California. It`s part of Mexico that stretches down between the Gulf
of California and the Pacific Ocean. And it was lashed yesterday by Hurricane Odile.
This is how things looked before the storm made landfall. Odile made a direct heat on Cabo, St. Lucas. As a category three storm on Sunday night.
Wind speeds for 125 miles per hour. Beaches and ports were closed. Streets were drenched, outdoor markets trashed. The storm weakened as it
moved north over Baja, California. But forecasters were warning residents and tourists that the threat of flash floods remain along with the
potential for mudslides. Mexico celebrates its Independence Day today. Events in Baja, California, had to be canceled.
When you think of something endangered, you might think of the Bengal tiger, the blue whale or the black rhino. You probably don`t think of
rivers, or specifically California San Joaquin River. The most endangered one in America.
The state`s historic drought, the one expected to cost California more than $2 billion and 17,000 jobs is one major factor. But it`s not the only one.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey, I`m John. This is my Kayak and these are my calluses. And this is the most important river you`ve never heard of - the
St. Joaquin.
It`s a river that starts out looking like this and by its midsection looks like this.
It`s the second largest river in California, and whether you`ve heard it or not, it`s a river you`re probably connected to. It helps support a region
that grows about 40 percent of America`s fruits and vegetables. This year, the St. Joaquin was named the most endangered river in America. That`s why
I try to kayak and walk down the entire thing. To get to know the river out its pace, on its own terms. To meet the people who depend on it and to
find out whether this dead river could be brought back to life.
Navigating a river should be easy, right? You start upon the mountains and follow the water down to the sea. That`s not the case with the St.
Joaquin. I tried to follow the river, for more than 500 miles. Always faced with stuff like this. And this. And ultimately, this.
So, why is this river such a mess? Demand. Farmers and residents want as much water as they can get a hold of. And the state has promised those
people eight times as much as actually exist.
To try to make that work, the government has engineered the St. Joaquin into a river of pipes and canals.
Sharing water across the state, moving it from way up here all the way over there.
So much water is pulled out the river that in a few parts they actually have to pipe more back in.
And that still isn`t enough. The river runs dry for about 40 miles, sometimes more.
The St. Joaquin is a shrinking (ph) river. It`s on live support. It`s failing the people and fish who depend on it. And it has made my source to
sea trip a serious challenge.
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AZUZ: Oh, transcript page at cnnstudentnews.com. The only place where we select schools for our "Roll Call." We`ll start just north of the Ecuador
today at Esquela Las Morocas international school. It`s in Ciudad Ojeda, Zuila, Venezuela.
To the Pacific Northwest, the bulldogs are watching it. Beaver Lake middle school found them in Issaquah, Washington. And in Boyne Falls, Michigan at
Boyne Falls public school, the loggers are logging ten minutes with CNN STUDENT NEWS.
A number of schools have stopped teaching cursive, but you`ll still have to sign stuff. Credit cards receipts, bank and legal documents. You`ll have
to scribble, scrawl or style your name in pen and ink. John Hancock did it with so much style on the Declaration of Independence that his name became
synonymous with the signature. Others throughout history have made their mark.
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TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: In the heat of war, in the cool of piece and in the daily struggle with life, great souls have left their marks.
And now, at the National Archives those marks are getting their due on the show of historic signatures. Jennifer Johnson is the curator.
JENNIFER JOHNSON, CURATOR: I think the power of signature can`t be overemphasized, whether it`s a letter from individual who had a question
for the government of if it`s a president who`s signing act of Congress and making those words law, the power is hard to walk away from.
FOREMAN: General Dwight Eisenhower traveled much of Europe in World War II collecting these signatures on banknotes from people he met all along the
way.
There is much joy. This is Michael Jackson`s pattern for a dancing shoe where he signed his name with the flourish, as did magician Harry Houdini,
who put his pen to his draft card as if it were yet another spectacular trick.
JOHNSON: And it was truly a part of his personality at the time, and this is his signature.
FOREMAN: There are surprises, too, like a calling card left for Vice President Andrew Johnson by John Wilkes Booth, the very day Booth
assassinated President Abraham Lincoln. Or the wedding registry of Adolph Hitler.
JOHNSON: I think some of the most powerful ones or at least the most interesting to me are the examples that you might not expect to find.
Katharine Hepburn, Frank Sinatra, Jackie Robinson and so many others pulled from the billions of papers in the Archives, each making a mark in history.
Tom Foreman CNN, Washington.
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AZUZ: Time for "The Shoutout." How long is a circadian interval? If you think you know it, shout it out! Is it 28 minutes, 12 hours, 24 hours or
20 days? You`ve got three seconds, go!
Circadian is an adjective that relates to 24-hour time periods. That`s your answer and that`s your shoutout.
For most people, that`s broken down to about eight hours of sleeping and 16 of being awake. Though the National Sleep Foundation says teenagers need
at least 8.5 hours, ideally a little over 9 every night. It also says you are not getting that. One factor could be this. As part of his "Living to
100" series Doctor Sanjay Gupta discusses something called "digital detox."
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: How do you know you have a problem and you need a digital detox? Well, if you are watching this right now, you
are probably pretty tech savvy, you`ve got lots of different devices, and you may be somebody who is in need of digital detox. It`s when these
devices start to control your life, as opposed to making them easier. The area we find this is in life the most, and this may surprise you, but it`s
in fact your sleep. Find the people who are using their devices so close to bedtime that it creates an arousal in your brain that is so profound
that it makes it much harder to go to sleep. It also affects your circadian rhythm overall, that`s your sort of normal rhythm between light
and night and when that is disrupted, it just throws off your whole - your whole sleep schedule.
One thing you don`t realize is that simply by reading an email or reading a text message in the middle of the night, it can take your brain from zero
to 60 very, very quickly. And that brain is a very, very hard brain to slow down.
It`s generally a good rule not to be checking the phone certainly in the bedroom or around the bed before you go to sleep.
One golden rule that most sleep experts agree on is if you do get woken up by the phone or by something else, and you are awake, get up and walk
around. Don`t come back and lie in the bed until you are truly ready to go to sleep.
So, take a break. Put the cell phone away. It can help you live to 100.
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AZUZ: It was a serious wakeup call for the anchors of "Good Morning, Tennessee."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: JUMPING AROUND.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK.
(LAUGHTER)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
AZUZ: Yep, a bat! Usually they try to avoid the spotlight or any light at all, but this one wasn`t camera shy, it repeatedly dive bombed the anchors
and avoided capture for several hours. It was, eventually caught and released into the woods. I think that drive anyone batty. Some anchors
might not bat an eye if they had the kire up (ph). Thanks for that sort of thing, but staying put seems like a bat idea.
That`s a bat all the time we have. Our CNN STUDENT NEWS. More puns and stories are on the wing tomorrow.