The Brief

For generations of U.S. schoolchildren, phrases like "shuttle run" and "sit-and-reach" likely conjure vivid memories of what was once a staple of American physical education: the Presidential Fitness Test. And thanks to a new executive order, it's slated to return to gymnasiums nationwide.

On Thursday, President Donald Trump signed the order reviving the test, a set of standardized exercises that schools conducted to measure students' physical fitness for over half a century until 2013, when President Barack Obama phased it out in favor of a more holistic approach. It's not yet clear which exercises will be part of the test going forward, or when it will launch.

It was traditionally conducted once or twice a year for students ages 10 to 17, and included drills like push-ups, the back-and-forth PACER running test and the infamous one-mile run.

And it was a competitive affair: Students who placed at or above the 85th percentile on all exercises were eligible for the Presidential Fitness Award, which Trump's order is also reinstating.

"From the late 1950s until 2013, graduate scholars all across our country competed against each other in the presidential fitness test, and it was a big deal," Trump said at the signing ceremony, flanked by a slew of professional athletes. "This was a wonderful tradition, and we're bringing it back."

Trump is also reestablishing the President's Council on Sports, Fitness, and Nutrition and tasking it with developing criteria for the test. Its rollout will be administered by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.

Kennedy's "Make America Healthy Again" report, released in May, bemoans the decline of American kids' activity and physical fitness levels, rising rates of obesity and what he calls the "childhood chronic disease crisis."

Trump's order adds another layer of urgency, saying that Americans' physical wellbeing is in decline, and is a "threat to the vitality and longevity of our country," especially on the eve of 2026 — America's 250th birthday and the year it's set to host the FIFA World Cup.

"Rates of obesity, chronic disease, inactivity, and poor nutrition are at crisis levels, particularly among our children," the order reads. "These trends weaken our economy, military readiness, academic performance, and national morale."

Leaders made a similar argument about patriotism when the original test was introduced in the Cold War era. But the trends cited by the Trump administration have only worsened since then. So experts and educators tell NPR they are exercising caution when it comes to their hopes for a revamped version.

Joanna Faerber, a physical education teacher working with rural Louisiana schools on federal grants, says Trump's announcement drew a passionately divided response in her professional network.

"We all agree that childhood obesity and lack of physical activity and physical education in school is limited," she said. "I think measuring it is the question."

How did the test come about?

In this 1955 photo, Bonnie Prudden helps a student with sit-ups in the Kraus-Weber test — the precursor to the Presidential Fitness Test.

(

Orlando/Getty Images

/

Hulton Archive

)

Pioneering orthopedic surgeon Hans Kraus — now recognized as the "father of sports medicine" in the U.S. — worked with another doctor, Sonja Weber, in the 1940s to create the Kraus-Weber test. They designed the test to evaluate fitness through sit-ups and other exercises focused on core strength and flexibility.

In the 1950s, Kraus and his fellow fitness enthusiast Bonnie Prudden set about administering the test to thousands of schoolchildren in the U.S., Italy, Switzerland and Austria. The researchers found that 58% of American kids failed at least one element of the six-part test, compared to just 8.7% of Europeans.

"We have no wish to change the standard of living by trying to do away with the automobile and television," Kraus said, presenting their work to a White House gathering in 1955. "But we must make sure that we make up for this loss of physical activity."

Their findings — which Sports Illustrated at the time called "The Report That Shocked the President" — spurred President Dwight Eisenhower to order the creation of the President's Council on Youth Fitness in 1956. (That's the same council that Trump reestablished in this week's order.) The following year, the council piloted its own national fitness test.

President John F. Kennedy built on Eisenhower's momentum, launching a nationwide public service campaign encouraging Americans to take the 50-mile hikes once required of U.S. Marines. Kennedy was a strong advocate of physical fitness, penning an influential Sports Illustrated essay to that effect — titled "The Soft American" — as president-elect in 1960. Trump referenced the essay in his executive order, and RFK Jr. talked about it at the signing ceremony.

"He was lamenting the fact that America had prided itself on a beef jerky toughness, and that … we were falling behind Europeans, we were falling behind other nations," Kennedy said of his uncle.

The third iteration of the council under President Lyndon B. Johnson formalized the fitness test in 1966, and added the element of an award for top performers.

From there, the test became a fixture of American P.E. classes, though its components did evolve over the decades. For example, it ditched the softball throw, which came to be seen as more of a skill (for grenade-wielding soldiers) than a measure of fitness.

"I think it was instilled to try to get people back in the '60s ready to enter into the armed forces and get them fit for battle," Laura Richardson, a clinical associate professor in the School of Kinesiology at the University of Michigan, told NPR. "And then as time evolved, they said, 'We need to change this.'"

Why did the test go away?

Over the decades, the physical fitness test drew increasing criticism for its negative impact on mental health. Many students found it an exercise in humiliation in front of their peers, fueling concerns about body image from a young age.

Critics also doubted the test's effectiveness, saying its task-specific, one-size-fits-all nature was not conducive to making individual progress towards a healthier lifestyle. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) data shows that the adult obesity rate rose from about 13% in 1960 to about 34% in 2008, during the rough window the test was in effect.

The Obama administration phased out the fitness test after the 2012-2013 school year, replacing it with the Presidential Youth Fitness Program. The voluntary program provides resources to schools for assessing and recognizing youth fitness, shifting its emphasis from athleticism to overall health.

Many schools do that using the FitnessGram Assessment, which was developed by the Kenneth H. Cooper Institute at Texas Tech University and evaluates criteria like aerobic capacity, flexibility, body composition and muscular strength.

While specifics about Trump's revamped Presidential Fitness Test are still scarce, the educators NPR spoke with hope it will continue to prioritize that kind of health-related fitness over specific skills.

They would like to see the test include robust resources for the teachers who will be implementing and collecting data from it. And they hope that it will enable schools to spend more time allowing and encouraging kids to be active — not just to prepare for the test, but to form lifelong habits.

"A fitness assessment is just to let you know where you are," Faerber said. "It's not the end. It's the beginning of changing."

Ricardson says it will likely take years to see whether the new test is working, because of the amount of individual and population-level data required. And, she notes, fitness is just one avenue for addressing childhood obesity, along with things like nutrition, sleep and stress.

"I think the biggest thing is that right now we have child fitness at the forefront," she adds. "And that is what we need to be focusing on: How do we help kids get to where we want them to be, less about the test and more about how we get them there."
Copyright 2025 NPR

After copper wire theft left the Sixth Street Bridge in darkness for years, the city of Los Angeles has hired a Pasadena-based engineering firm to restore the lighting, a move aimed at improving safety for Boyle Heights and the surrounding neighborhoods.

City officials contracted Tetra Tech to relight the bridge, which has been plagued by copper wire theft since its opening in 2022. The outages have frustrated residents and commuters who use the bridge to walk, run, bike and drive between downtown LA and the Eastside.

Aging infrastructure, copper wire theft and delayed repairs led to nearly 2,000 streetlight service requests in Boyle Heights in 2024. Nearly seven miles of copper wire have been reported stolen from the Sixth Street Bridge.

Tetra Tech began working on the project’s design in January and is scheduled to restore the wiring to all lights along the bridge, including along roadways, barriers, ramps, stairways and arches before the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games come to Los Angeles that summer, according to a Feb. 18 news release from Councilmember Ysabel Jurado’s office.

The firm – which was selected by the city’s Bureau of Engineering – will fortify the pull boxes, service cabinet and conduits to protect against copper wire theft. Tetra Tech will also install a security camera system to deter vandalism and theft.

“When our streets are well-lit, our neighborhoods feel safer and more connected,” Jurado said in the news release. “The Sixth Street Bridge plays a vital role in connecting Angelenos between the Eastside and the heart of the City.”

Jurado – who pledged to look into fixing the Sixth Street Bridge lights when she was elected in 2024 – said the partnership with Tetra Tech “moves us one step closer to restoring one of the City’s most iconic landmarks as a safe, welcoming public space our communities deserve.”

According to officials, the total contract value with Tetra Tech is $5.3 million, which includes work on the Sixth Street Bridge as well as the Sixth Street PARC project, which encompasses 12 acres of recreational space underneath and adjacent to the bridge.

The PARC project will make way for sports fields, fitness equipment, event spaces and a performance stage. PARC’s grand opening is anticipated later this year.

Because the work for the PARC project and the bridge is connected, the Board of Engineers recommended using the existing PARC contract with Tetra Tech to ensure completion ahead of the 2028 Games, officials said.

The cost for the design work on the bridge alone is roughly $1 million.

On Thursday, Jurado announced that her streetlight repair crew had restored lighting and strengthened infrastructure for more than 400 streetlights across her district, including Boyle Heights, Lincoln Heights, and El Sereno. Next, they plan to tackle repairs in downtown L.A.

For the last 70 years, the  27th Street Bakery hasn’t just been the go-to place for people who want to spend less time in the kitchen — it’s become a staple in South Central, providing jobs and security for people living in the neighborhood.

The bakery is Black-owned and in its third generation as a business. It’s co-owned by sisters Denise Cravin-Paschal and Olympic gold-medalist Jeanette Bolden-Pickens, as well as her husband Al Pickens.

“My grandfather employed a lot of people around here as he was growing his business and so have we,” Cravin-Paschal told the LA Local. “They feel that this is a safe place to come. We have the respect of being here for 70 years and so we enjoy it.”

The bakery sits on Central Avenue, the focal point of Black Los Angeles between the 1930s and 1960s. As segregation laws were struck down, Black people in LA began to move elsewhere and took their businesses with them. The bakery, though, is still Black-owned and operating 70 years later.

Today it is considered the largest manufacturer of sweet potato pies on the West Coast, the bakery’s website states. Last year, the city and District 9 Councilmember Curren Price Jr. presented the bakery with a plaque that reads: “A Walk Down Central Avenue — A legacy of community: powered by the people and its places.”

It hangs on the wall in the bakery’s lobby along with several other photos and recognitions they’ve received over the years.

“Our goal is to keep this legacy alive and we’re celebrating 70 years of being here in business. We are so grateful to the community,” Bolden-Pickens said.

In celebration of its anniversary, a sign in the bakery says it is offering one slice of sweet potato pie for 70 cents on Saturdays starting this weekend through Oct. 31.

The bakery was a restaurant at first bringing Southern flavor to LA

The bakery began as a restaurant in the 1930s on Central Avenue founded by Harry and Sadie Patterson, according to the family and Los Angeles Conservancy. Back then, Central Avenue was the epicenter of LA’s Black community and Patterson, who came from Shreveport, Louisiana, decided to bring his Southern recipes to life in Los Angeles.

The restaurant later became a bakery in 1956, according to the bakery’s website. Patterson’s daughter Alberta Cravin and her son Gregory Spann took over the bakery in 1980. After Spann passed away, Cravin’s daughters — the sisters who are current owners — took over the family business. Five other relatives also help them out, Cravin-Paschal said.

These days, the bakery is open Tuesday through Saturday each week and the bulk of their customers are other businesses. They serve nearly 300 vendors including convenience stores like 7-Eleven, Ralphs grocery stores, Smart & Final, ARCO gas stations, restaurants and other mom-and-pop stores. Louisiana Fried Chicken has been a customer since 1980, Cravin-Paschal said.

An average delivery today is usually 45 dozen pies and they also ship orders out of state, Cravin-Paschal said.

She also told The LA Local they have six full time employees and most of them have worked for the bakery at least 25 years.

“I like working here, I like the people,” Maximina “Maxi” Rodriguez, a longtime employee, told The LA Local. After 32 years at the bakery, she said she plans to retire in June. “I’m going to miss it.”

Rodriguez said working at the bakery is a family affair for her, too. Her sister, Guadalupe Garibaldi, has worked at the bakery for over 40 years and her niece, Yoselin Garibaldi, is now a cashier and driver.

Patterson’s lessons inspired 3 generations to keep the business running

For Bolden-Pickens and Cravin-Paschal, running the bakery is a labor of love. Both told The LA Local that their grandfather taught them to stay true to the fresh ingredients they use and not to cut corners.

These lessons helped Bolden-Pickens in her life before taking over the family business. She won a gold medal as part of the U.S. 4×100 meter relay team in track and field during the 1984 Olympics.

“What I learned from being an Olympian is that it takes a lot of hard work. I learned that from my grandfather,” she said.

Bolden-Pickens said it hasn’t been easy running the business, but they’ve been able to stay afloat because of the lessons learned from their grandfather.

“I remember during the pandemic, we actually had to go to the egg farm and stand in line for a couple of hours just to get the eggs that we needed,” Bolden-Pickens said. “We use the best spices. We make our own vanilla.”

Cravin-Paschal said after the death of their brother Gregory Spann, who was the main baker for nearly two decades, they struggled for a few years to keep the recipe and taste consistent. But eventually they figured it out.

“We had a little rough spot because we all know the recipes but you have to put it together (correctly),” Cravin-Paschal said. “Now we’re back to the original taste.”

As marijuana use among teens has grown in the past decade, researchers have been trying to better understand the health risks of the drug. Now, a new longitudinal study finds that cannabis use among adolescents increases risks of being diagnosed with bipolar and psychotic disorders, as well as anxiety and depression, years later.

"This is very, very, very worrying," says psychiatrist Dr. Ryan Sultan at Columbia University, a cannabis researcher who wasn't involved in the new study published in the latest JAMA Health Forum.

Strong study design

Researchers analyzed health data on 460,000 teenagers in the Kaiser Permanente Health System in Northern California. The teens were followed until they were 25 years old. The data included annual screenings for substance use and any mental health diagnoses from the health records. Researchers excluded the adolescents who had symptoms of mental illnesses before using cannabis.

"We looked at kids using cannabis before they had any evidence of these psychiatric conditions and then followed them to understand if they were more likely or less likely to develop them," says Dr. Lynn Silver, a pediatrician and researcher at the Public Health Institute, and an author of the new study.

They found that the teens who reported using cannabis in the past year were at a higher risk of being diagnosed with several mental health conditions a few years later, compared to teens who didn't use cannabis.

Teens who reported using cannabis had twice the risk of developing two serious mental illnesses: bipolar, which manifests as alternating episodes of depression and mania, and psychotic disorders, such as schizophrenia which involve a break with reality.

Now, only a small fraction — nearly 4,000 — of all teens in the study were diagnosed with each of these two disorders. Both bipolar and psychotic disorders are among the most serious and disabling of mental illnesses.

"Those are the scarier conditions that we worry about," says Sultan.

Silver points out these illnesses are expensive to treat and come at a high cost to society. The U.S. cannabis market is an industry with a value in the tens-of-billions — but the societal cost of schizophrenia has been calculated to be $350 billion a year.

"And if we increase the number of people who develop that condition in a way that's preventable, that can wipe out the whole value of the cannabis market," Silver says.

Depression and anxiety too

The new study also found that the risk for more common conditions like depression and anxiety was also higher among cannabis users.

"Depression alone went up by about a third," says Silver, "and anxiety went up by about a quarter."

But the link between cannabis use and depression and anxiety got weaker for teens who were older when they used cannabis. "Which really shows the sensitivity of the younger child's brain to the effects of cannabis," says Silver. "The brain is still developing. The effects of cannabis on the receptors in the brain seem to have a significant impact on their neurological development and the risk for these mental health disorders."

Silver hopes these findings will make teens more cautious about using the drug, which is not as safe as people perceive it to be.

"With legalization, we've had a tremendous wave of this perception of cannabis as a safe, natural product to treat your stress with," she says. "That is simply not true."

The new study is well designed and gets at "the chicken or the egg, order-of-operations question," says Sultan. There have been other past studies that have also found a link between cannabis use and mental health conditions, especially psychosis. But, those studies couldn't tell whether cannabis affected the likelihood of developing mental health symptoms or whether people with existing problems were more likely to use cannabis — perhaps to treat their symptoms.

But by excluding teens who were already showing mental health symptoms, the new study suggests a causal link between cannabis use and later mental health diagnoses. Additional research is needed to understand the link fully.

'Playing with fire'

Sultan, the psychiatrist and researcher at Columbia University, says the study confirms what he's seeing in his clinic — more teens using cannabis who've developed new or worsening mental health symptoms.

"It is most common around anxiety and depression, but it's also showing up in more severe conditions like bipolar disorder and psychosis," he says.

He notes that mental health disorders are complex in origin. A host of risk factors, like genetics, environment, lifestyle and life experiences all play a role. And some young people are more at risk than others.

"When someone has a psychotic episode in the context of cannabis or a manic episode in the context of cannabis, clinicians are going to say, 'Please do not do that again because you're you're you're playing with fire,'" he says.

Because the more they use the drug, he says the more likely that their symptoms will worsen over time, making recovery harder.

"What we're worried about [is if] you sort of get stuck in psychosis, it gets harder and harder to pull the person back," says Sultan. "Psychosis and severe mood disorders, particularly bipolar disorder are like seizures in your brain. They're sort of neurotoxic to your brain, and so it seems to be associated with a more rapid deterioration of the brain."

Some electric bikes in California could soon require license plates under a proposed state bill aiming to address the rise in electric bike related injuries.

AB 1942 or the E-bike Accountability Act, would apply exclusively to Class 2 and Class 3 electric bikes.

Class 2 bikes can be operated without peddling until it reaches the speed of 20 mph.

Class 3 bikes reach a max speed of 28 mph; motor assist could only kick in with peddling.

The bill would also require owners to carry proof of ownership and would direct the Department of Motor Vehicles to establish a registration process. It was introduced by Assemblymember Rebecca Bauer-Kahan of Orinda in Contra Costa County earlier this month.

E-bike injuries spiked 18-fold between 2018 and 2023, according to state traffic data.

The bill may be heard in committee March 16.