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Editorial: AI helping in the battle against retail theft

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:48:00 GMT

It’s no secret that retail theft has skyrocketed since the pandemic. We’ve all seen the alarming videos of criminal gangs attacking stores, cleaning out shelves and walking off with no apparent consequences.This year, U.S. merchants expect to report a stunning $100 billion in losses — a big increase over pre-pandemic levels.At this month’s convention for Ace Hardware, exhibitor Laura Freeman of Watcher Total Protection had talked herself hoarse by the end of the opening day. Aggrieved store owners crowded her booth to quiz her about her company’s security systems, which are augmented with artificial intelligence.AI is coming to the rescue of merchants, for better or worse. “We will see a lot more AI for shoplifter protection,” said Freeman. “You’ll see more and more where the system does the work.”The old days of dumb cameras recording thieves in action for review after the fact have given way to smart systems that can detect illegal activity as it happens and send instant text aler...

Cockerton: It’s time to re-envision foster care in America

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:48:00 GMT

“When a child goes into foster care, the government is looking after its greatest asset.”– Poet Lemn SissayOr is it?Here in America, where the government spends $30 billion annually on foster care, nearly 25,000 young people “age out” of foster care every year without family and community connections. These kids are thus placed at high risk of becoming the next generation of poor and homeless Americans.Twenty-five thousand young people “aging out” annually. Add to that the 450,000 children living in foster care. Kids in the foster care pipeline who are at risk of not reunifying with their families, languishing in the system, and “aging out” to homelessness, teen parenting, incarceration, and unemployment.This is a public health crisis that calls for visionary leadership, swift action, and widespread investment in foster care innovation.Who better to lead us forward than nationally recognized leaders who have lived in foster care and know firsthand what kids and families ...

Carpenter: Jones Act, offshore wind opportunity for Mass.

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:48:00 GMT

President Biden’s recent shipyard visit for the inaugural steel-cutting of a critical vessel that will join the growing U.S. flagged offshore wind fleet underscores that America is on the verge of something historic: the dawn of the American offshore wind industry, and with it a generational opportunity for clean energy and American jobs, built on an American supply chain that benefits workers. And the Jones Act – the “buy American” law requiring vessels moving cargo between points in the U.S. to be owned, built, and crewed by Americans – is playing a critical role in making U.S. offshore wind production a reality in Massachusetts and elsewhere.Of the 32 active U.S. offshore wind development leases, 29 are on the East Coast and 10 are in New England. Massachusetts has three active projects – Vineyard Wind, Commonwealth Wind, and SouthCoast Wind – and three Massachusetts utilities already have purchase agreements to buy power from Vineyard Wind.Supporting these projects requires the ...

Lowry: Skipping the debates working for Trump

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:48:00 GMT

Woody Allen said 90% of life is showing up. Donald Trump is proving that he overshot the mark considerably.The former president has paid no discernible price for skipping the Republican debates. Arguably, he’s been winning them by diminishing the rest of the field through his absence, while his polling has held steady or gone up a little.The latest forum, at the Reagan Library, will not be long remembered, or perhaps remembered at all.The candidates tended either to overpromise about what they’d do as president in frenzied, rapid-fire fashion, or to talk over one another in squabbles difficult to watch or listen to.If Trump was hoping that, if he failed to show, his opponents would tear at each other in pursuit of marginal advantage in the race for second, third or fourth place, it hardly could have gone better.In fact, it went so swimmingly that one of Trump’s advisors took the opportunity to announce that he won’t show up for the third debate, scheduled for...

Dear Abby: Co-worker moves up, reader stays put

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:48:00 GMT

Dear Abby: I applied to be a supervisor at the company where I work. Unfortunately, I didn’t get the job. One of my co-workers, who held the same position I did (though with significantly fewer years of experience at the company), was given the job instead. Initially, I tried to shrug it off and continued working as usual. Unfortunately, I find I am no longer able to do that.Since this co-worker is now my boss, I sometimes receive dictation/instruction from them, which makes me uncomfortable. I have begun to feel jealous — I’ll acknowledge that. I have worked here for 10 years now, and the fact that I haven’t been able to move into a higher position has weighed me down. For financial reasons, I can’t resign. Somehow, I have to make this new reality work. How do I rid myself of these feelings of jealousy and learn to proceed with my new boss? — Stuck at Work in the WestDear Stuck: One way to do that would be to remind yourself regularly why you are...

One dead in Mira Mesa house fire

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:48:00 GMT

SAN DIEGO -- One person was killed in a house fire Friday in the Mira Mesa neighborhood, authorities said.The blaze occurred around 6:30 p.m. in the 11000 block of Eridanus Court, Mark Reece, a battalion chief with San Diego Fire-Rescue Department (SDFD), told FOX 5.Firefighters battled a heavy fire in the second floor bedroom of a two-story home, per SDFD. When they extinguished the fire, first responders found a deceased person. Smugglers damage trucks waiting to cross US border Thanh Nguyen lives in the home, but he was at work when the fire happened. He says his wife called him to rush home when the fire happened.Nguyen said four other tenants live in the home, as well as his wife and five-year-old daughter. He confirmed one of the tenants, who Nguyen said had just got back from the hospital Friday, died in the fire.Another tenant said the tenant who died had a walker and couldn't walk too well. The fire is currently under investigation.

Oktoberfest celebration begins in La Mesa

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:48:00 GMT

LA MESA, Calif. -- The city of La Mesa kicked off its 50th Oktoberfest celebration on Friday.The free event runs through the weekend and features live music, traditional food and drink, games, and other family-fun activities on La Mesa Blvd and Spring Street.Over 40 food vendors will be on site offering a variety of food including traditional German food, giant pretzels, bratwurst and schnitzel.Competitors can participate in games like Keg Stands, NXPT Workout Challenges, Air Bike Sprint, Sandbag Toss, Farmer’s Carry and Tank Push for Oktoberfest medal and bragging rights. 2 SD-area cities among least affordable rental markets for average income: study Shoppers can browse at the Artisanal Market where there are more than 100 vendors selling unique and hand-made items.Pup lovers can make their way to Dackeldorf Dachshund Village, which has activities from Weiner dog races to a fashion show.On Saturday, Oktoberfest will start at 10 a.m. -10 p.m., while Sunday's hours are noon- 8 p.m...

Things to know about the Nobel Prizes

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:48:00 GMT

STOCKHOLM (AP) — Fall has arrived in Scandinavia, which means Nobel Prize season is here.The start of October is when the Nobel committees get together in Stockholm and Oslo to announce the winners of the yearly awards.First up, as usual, is the Nobel Prize in medicine or physiology, which will be announced Monday by a panel of judges at the Karolinska Institute in the Swedish capital. The prizes in physics, chemistry, literature, peace and economics will follow, with one announcement every weekday until Oct. 9.Here are some things to know about the Nobel Prizes:AN IDEA MORE POWERFUL THAN DYNAMITEThe Nobel Prizes were created by Alfred Nobel, a 19th-century businessman and chemist from Sweden. He held more than 300 patents but his claim to fame before the Nobel Prizes was having invented dynamite by mixing nitroglycerine with a compound that made the explosive more stable.Dynamite soon became popular in construction and mining as well as in the weapons industry. It made Nobel a very...

Inside the night that Tupac Shakur was shot, and what led up to the fatal gunfire

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:48:00 GMT

LAS VEGAS (AP) — The first arrest in the 1996 death of Tupac Shakur came Friday with the murder indictment of Duane “Keffe D” Davis, one of the last living witnesses to the Las Vegas drive-by shooting of the hip-hop superstar. Here’s a look at the hours that led up to the fatal gunfire. TUPAC, SUGE AND THE TYSON FIGHT IN VEGAS On the afternoon of Sept. 7, 1996, Shakur and Suge Knight, the head of his music label, Death Row Records, arrived in Las Vegas along with an entourage that included Shakur’s fiancee, Kidada Jones, along with his cousins and friends, to watch a heavyweight title fight between Mike Tyson and Bruce Seldon. At about 8:30 p.m., Shakur and Knight took their front row seats at the fight at the MGM Grand Garden Arena.Shortly afterward the fight began. It would end less than two minutes later, with Tyson winning in a first-round knockout and taking Seldon’s WBA Heavyweight title.THE FIGHT’S AFTERMATH AND ANOTHER FIGHT At about 8:40 p.m., moment...

Transgender minors in Nebraska, their families and doctors brace for a new law limiting treatment

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:48:00 GMT

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — As Nebraska’s new law restricting gender-affirming care for minors goes into effect this weekend, families with transgender children and the doctors who treat them are steeling themselves for change. But exactly what and how much change is anyone’s guess.A key aspect of the law is a set of treatment guidelines that has yet to be created. Affected families, doctors and even lawmakers say they have largely gotten no response from health officials on when they can expect the new rules, which should lay out how and when transgender minors can be treated with puberty blockers and hormones. Many of them fear Republican officials and their appointees in charge of administering the rules are slow-walking the regulations as a way to block treatment for new transgender patients under 19, the age of adulthood under Nebraska law.“There has been no communication,” said 42-year-old Lincoln resident Heather Rhea, who has a 17-year-old transgender daughter. “There’s...