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Why Jersey girls − and guys − still don’t pump their own gas
Robert H. Scott III, Professor & Greenbaum/Ferguson/NJAR Endowed Chair in Real Estate Policy, Monmouth University New Jersey’s quirky reputation is hard earned, but one peculiarity stands out: It’s the only place in America where you can’t pump your own gas. Laws against self-service gasoline used to be common: In the late 1960s, nearly half the states in the U.S. had one. But as fuel dispensers became safer and credit cards made paying at pumps possible, those states began to reconsider. By the early 1990s, nearly four out of five gas stations nationwide were self-serve. For decades, Oregon and New Jersey were the last two
Faith News from Around the World
The ‘hot hand’ is a real basketball phenomenon – but only some players have the ability to go on these basket-making streaks
Konstantinos Pelechrinis, Associate Professor of Computing and Information, University of Pittsburgh; Wayne Winston, Professor of Decision and Information Systems, Indiana University March Madness is here, and basketball fans are making predictions: Who will be the Cinderella story of the college tournament? Which teams will make a run to the Final Four? And of course, which player is going to get “hot” and carry their team to a championship? To say a player is “hot” or has “hot hands” means the player is on a streak of making many consecutive shots. A question that has dogged researchers, coaches and fans for years
40 years ago, the Supreme Court broke the NCAA’s lock on TV revenue, reshaping college sports to this day
Jared Bahir Browsh, Assistant Teaching Professor of Critical Sports Studies, University of Colorado Boulder The Pac-12 is likely to be competing in its last March Madness, as realignment has pushed 10 of its schools to other conferences. What led the most decorated conference in the NCAA to dissolve so quickly? This surprising development arguably dates back to a decades-old court decision. As the NCAA prepared for its tournament regional basketball semifinals in March 1984, the Supreme Court heard opening arguments in a case, NCAA v. Board of Regents of the University of Oklahoma, that would change how Americans watch college sports. After
Operation Broken Heart Leads to Arrests in Child Exploitation Crackdown
In a significant operation against child exploitation, the Contra Costa District Attorney’s Office has charged several men from the Bay Area. The operation, dubbed “Operation Broken Heart,” was conducted by the Contra Costa County Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force between February 26 and March 7, 2024. The task force’s efforts led to the arrest of six men, four of whom have already been charged, while two cases are under review. The operation aimed to identify and apprehend individuals intending to meet minors for sexual purposes. It was a collaborative effort involving the Contra Costa County Sheriff’s Office, the Danville
Generative AI could leave users holding the bag for copyright violations
Anjana Susarla, Professor of Information Systems, Michigan State University Generative artificial intelligence has been hailed for its potential to transform creativity, and especially by lowering the barriers to content creation. While the creative potential of generative AI tools has often been highlighted, the popularity of these tools poses questions about intellectual property and copyright protection. Generative AI tools such as ChatGPT are powered by foundational AI models, or AI models trained on vast quantities of data. Generative AI is trained on billions of pieces of data taken from text or images scraped from the internet. Generative AI uses very powerful machine learning methods such as deep learning and transfer learning on such
Richmond Resident Faces Serious Charges for Illegal Arsenal
In Martinez, California, the Contra Costa District Attorney’s Office has brought forth a 21-count felony complaint against Lawrence Robert Hansen, a 68-year-old Richmond man, for the possession of an extensive collection of illegal firearms, high-capacity magazines, and homemade explosives. Hansen, who is currently detained, was apprehended on March 17th by the Richmond Police based on an outstanding warrant. His name appears on the Armed and Prohibited Persons System, indicating he is legally barred from owning or possessing firearms. The charges stem from a series of incidents where Hansen allegedly made violent threats related to firearms to medical staff at a
Climate change is shifting the zones where plants grow – here’s what that could mean for your garden
With the arrival of spring in North America, many people are gravitating to the gardening and landscaping section of home improvement stores, where displays are overstocked with eye-catching seed packs and benches are filled with potted annuals and perennials. But some plants that once thrived in your yard may not flourish there now. To understand why, look to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s recent update of its plant hardiness zone map, which has long helped gardeners and growers figure out which plants are most likely to thrive in a given location. Comparing the 2023 map to the previous version from 2012 clearly shows