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Here's how retailers are responding to retail crime

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:12:24 GMT

(NewsNation) — As American retailers continue to grapple with theft, some are integrating new security technology while others are relying on more tried-and-true methods to address crime.According to the National Retail Federation (NRF), retailers lost close to $95 billion in 2021 due to "shrink" — which accounts for various inventory losses but is primarily driven by external theft. Retailers reported a 26.5% increase in organized retail crime from the year prior, NRF found. Some of those incidents have been brazen "smash and grab" robberies in the nation's largest cities. Smash-and-grab crew uses car to plow into store In New York City, there were more than 63,000 shoplifting complaints last year — a 45% jump from 2021, according to a recent New York Post analysis.In response, some local retailers started using facial recognition software to identify repeat offenders. But that technology has also received pushback from various city council members who are concerned about p...

Texas boy, father killed after being struck by lightning: report

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:12:24 GMT

TEXAS (KXAN) — A 6-year-old Texas boy has reportedly died after he and his father were struck by lightning in May.Matthew Boggs went to pick up his two sons after they were dropped off by a school bus on May 15 in Bosque County, located northwest of Waco, The Dallas Morning News reports. The boy, Grayson, and his father were holding hands when Boggs was struck by lightning and the current passed through him and his son.Boggs was pronounced dead following the lightning strike, authorities told The Dallas Morning News. After a monthlong stay in the hospital, Grayson died on Friday. Report: Texas ranks No. 1 in lightning count in 2022 Extended family launched a GoFundMe, which has raised nearly $100,000 from approximately 2,000 donors. "Grayson went to be with our Lord and his father," an update from Friday read in part. "Please pray for the family at this time. Fly high, sweet boy."Matthew Boggs is survived by his wife; children, Elijah and Navaeh Smith; mother and father; and broth...

Video: Downtown Austin grocery store employee assaulted

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:12:24 GMT

AUSTIN (KXAN) — Surveillance video from Royal Blue Grocery on Third Street in downtown Austin shows an alleged thief shoving a store employee Saturday."I was just really scared," said Shyla Guthrie, the worker who was attacked. She said the same man had stolen from the store earlier in the day, and she called police when he came back and loitered outside. When he came back into the store, she told him to leave and said he tried to walk out with a handful of T-shirts. RELATED: Repeated arrests highlight need for mental health services for jail, court system "Wanted to recover those things because they're pricy," she said. "I'm honestly just so sick of constant theft."When she did so, she said the man put his hands on her and ultimately threw her to the ground. "I've had things that have been close to this, but nothing where I've gotten physically grabbed," Guthrie said. Craig Staley, the owner of the local grocery chain, said this incident - and others like it - stem from thefts or...

100 holes for ALS research — a meaningful day of golf in Austin

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:12:24 GMT

AUSTIN (KXAN) - A competitive soccer player growing up, Cory Sullivan never got into golf until after his high school graduation when he started to caddy near his house in New Jersey. He quickly got hooked and was often on the course with one person in particular."Once I started playing, I played more with my dad than anybody else," said Sullivan.MORE THAN THE SCORE: Stay up to date on sports stories like these, and sign up for our More than the Score sports newsletter at kxan.com/newslettersIn Fall 2018, Cory and his dad John were golfing together when his dad noticed some pain in his hip. A trip to a doctor turned into a visit to specialists and a diagnosis of ALS in December 2018."When he was sick - it's hard," said Sullivan. "My dad played [Division] I basketball in college and to see him wheelchair-confined for the last six months of his life...seeing him trapped in that way was really, really hard."About seven months after his diagnosis, John Sullivan passed away. Cory recalls...

Boundary Waters fire mostly contained, isn’t affecting paddlers or lodgers

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:12:24 GMT

The small fire in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness near Spice Lake is 80% contained and hasn’t grown any in the week since it was first reported.Superior National Forest officials say the fire poses little danger to anyone in or near the wilderness. Spice Lake is located east of Knife and Kekekabic lakes, approximately 10 miles west of the upper Gunflint Trail and 50 miles northwest of Grand Marais.While some areas of the BWCAW near the fire are closed to keep campers away from the fire and firefighting efforts, officials note that the fire has never threatened any developed areas such as lodges or campgrounds.All businesses and facilities in the area are open as usual, and campers who have reservations in for the closed entry points can check with their outfitter or the Forest Service to find other options.“There is a misconception that we are adversely affected by the current fire in the Boundary Waters due to our proximity,” John Fredrikson, owner of Gunflint Lodge &...

Twins’ Jorge López becomes fourth player to land on IL for mental-health related reasons

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:12:24 GMT

On any given day, you might find a Twins player in the clubhouse wearing one of the team’s “Powered by mental health,” T-shirts.A list of phrases, both in English and Spanish, spoken by Twins minor leaguers fill the back of the shirt. Among them, “Everyone struggles,” “Reaching out shows strength, not weakness,” and “You are more than an athlete.”“Obviously in our world, we talk a lot about … physical injuries, right? And ailments around the body around the body and who’s strong, who’s not strong, who’s healthy, who’s not healthy or their knee or their back,” Twins president of baseball operations Derek Falvey said in February, the day the Twins debuted the shirt. “Mental health is just as important a function of performance in this room as all of those things.”So it comes as no surprise that the Twins threw their full support behind reliever Jorge López, whom they placed on the injured list on Sunday for mental-health related reasons. López became the fourth player this year to lan...

How AI is changing the 2024 election

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:12:24 GMT

WASHINGTON -- As the generative artificial intelligence (AI) industry booms, the 2024 election cycle is shaping up to be a watershed moment for the technology's role in political campaigns. The proliferation of AI — a technology that can create text, image and video — raises concerns about the spread of misinformation and how voters will react to artificially generated content in the politically polarized environment.Already, the presidential campaigns for former President Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) have produced high-profile videos with AI. Get the latest, news, weather, sports and community events delivered right to your inbox! Paul Barrett, deputy director of the NYU Stern Center for Business and Human Rights, said the proliferation of the AI systems available to the public, awareness of how simple it is to use them and the “erosion of the sense that creating things like deepfakes is something that good, honest people would never do” will make 2024 a “significant t...

Cardinals rally past the Nationals 8-6 behind back-to-back homers from Donovan and Goldschmidt

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:12:24 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — By his own admission, Jack Flaherty has failed to control his frustration when he's struggled early in games. But the Cardinals' right-hander found a way to produce an outing Monday that was better than the numbers indicated.Flaherty gave up five runs on eight hits before getting even five outs against the Nationals. To his surprise, he was still on the mound in the seventh inning with the lead.Brendan Donovan and Paul Goldschmidt hit back-to-back homers in the fifth, and St. Louis rallied from that early 5-0 deficit to beat Washington 8-6 in a Juneteenth matinee.“You've got to find ways to ignore what the scoreboard says, something I haven't really done a good job of in the past," Flaherty said. “Today was kind of the first time I've been able to do that.”Donovan’s three-run shot to right-center off Josiah Gray (4-6) tied the game 5-all, and Goldschmidt put the Cardinals ahead to stay when he lined a hanging curveball from Gray over the wall in left...

Martina Navratilova says she is clear of cancer after tests

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:12:24 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Martina Navratilova says she is clear of cancer.The tennis Hall of Famer announced the news Monday on Twitter after what she said was a full day of tests at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.“Thank you to all the doctors, nurses, proton and radiation magicians etc- what a relief,” she wrote.Navratilova, 66, revealed she had been diagnosed with throat cancer and breast cancer in January and that she would begin treatment that month. She had been diagnosed with a noninvasive form of breast cancer in 2010 and had a lumpectomy.The 18-time Grand Slam singles champion had noticed an enlarged lymph node in her neck in November and a biopsy revealed the early stage throat cancer. But Navratilova felt well enough to return to her TV work with the Tennis Channel by the Miami Open in March. ___AP Tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

Part of workplace violence prevention bill causing controversy in California State Assembly 

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:12:24 GMT

A bill regarding workplace violence prevention is receiving plenty of attention in the California State legislature, with one small part in particular sparking debate.The debate is over how retail employees and employers should respond to shoplifters.The author of the bill, Sen. Dave Cortese (D-San Jose), said that the bill is meant to protect workers so that if there’s any type of shoplifting incident, they don’t feel forced to intervene. “Under my SB 553, employers would be prohibited from forcing their workers to confront active shoplifters,” Sen. Cortese said. “And all retail employees would be trained on how to react to active shoplifting.” However, some groups, like the California Retailers Association, believe that the bill goes too far, and may create an “open-door policy” for thieves to steal from stores.  California bill focusing on gender affirmation in custody cases advances to State Senate “Our biggest concern with this is that it will eliminate the pos...