The gas leak that led to the explosion in Harlem that killed eight people earlier this month is a surprisingly common phenomenon in New York and other big cities. The New York Times says nearly half of the natural gas lines in New York were installed before 1940. In 2012 alone, the two distributors of natural gas in New York City reported nearly 10,000 gas leaks - more than half of which were considered serious.

It used to be the crime that sparked headlines and created famous criminals - but bank robbery has seen a big decline nationwide. The Press-Enterprise says there were at least 6,000 bank robberies every year between 1987 to 2006. By 2012, that number dropped to fewer than 3,900. Experts cite improvements in security, more cooperation among law enforcement and longer prison sentences. And many would-be bank robbers believe there are less risky ways to steal money.

In this day and age of social networking, smart phones and other technology that gathers information about us - the Wall Street Journal says more and more Americans are fighting back to regain some online privacy. About half of all Americans say they’re concerned about online privacy.  Many are turning to even more technology to cover their tracks, using programs that show who has access to your social networking information and search engines that don’t track queries.

Just a tiny amount of liquid nicotine can cause vomiting or seizures - and even a diluted amount can kill a small child. Yet, liquid nicotine is being sold legally, with no regulations, as the main ingredient in refillable “e-cigarettes.” The New York Times says reports of accidental poisonings are soaring. One poison control center director says many people seem unaware of the dangers posed by the liquids.

The Indianapolis Star says the recent indoor youth archery tournament was the largest in state history. Nearly half of the 1600 participants were girls - up from fewer than 25 percent just a few years ago. The bow wielding heroines in “The Hunger Games” and Disney’s “Brave” are being cited as big factors in the increase in interest in archery among girls.

An unusual looking helicopter is helping the Navy clean up a bombing range in Florida’s Ocala National Forest. The chopper’s 20 foot-long arms are equipped with metal detectors that can scan the forest for exploded or unexploded bombs. The Orlando Sentinel says the contraption works in the same way as the guy on the beach with the metal detector combing for jewelry and coins.

You won’t find the best sunscreens in the world at your local drug store. In fact, you won’t find them at all in the United States. The Washington Post says the Food and Drug Administration hasn’t expanded its list of approved sunscreen ingredients since 1999. Eight applications for new ingredients are pending - some dating back to 2003.

Airlines routinely use satellites to provide WiFi to passengers in-flight. But they don’t use satellites for the more routine task of tracking planes and gathering the information from flight data recorders. The New York Times says neither airlines nor regulators have adopted the use of satellites for these tasks given the cost and the general safety of air travel.

Twitter turns 8 today. To celebrate, USA Today has come up with eight memorable moments in the microblogging site’s history. USA Today singled out user Janis Krum’s photo of a partially submerged US Airways Flight 1549 and the inadvertent tweet of the raid of Osama bin Laden’s compound as two of the more remarkable moments in Twitter history.

Astronomer Mike Brown made a name for himself when he demoted Pluto in 2006. The LA Times catches up with him. Brown says “killing Pluto was awesome” but he’s now focused on a new task - figuring out how we got here. Brown is trying to put pieces of the planetary puzzle together to figure out how Earth was formed and how clouds of gas become planetary systems.

Researchers have developed a computer that’s much better than humans at determining when someone is faking pain. Using facial cues, the computer was able to detect whether pain was real or fake 85% of the time compared to just 55% accuracy of trained observers. The San Diego Union-Tribune says the program could be used to determine whether someone really needs painkillers or for children who can’t articulate pain well.

Streaming music services like Pandora use complicated algorithms to determine our tastes to come up with playlists. But can a human do a better job? The Wall Street Journal says there’s a new job that essentially didn’t exist a few years ago - the professional music curator, experts who can help you navigate through the vast musical landscape.

A newly classified dinosaur is being called “The Chicken from Hell.” The 11 foot long, 500 lb. dinosaur is officially part of a group called oviraptorosaurs. The Washington Post says fossils were found in a sedimentary rock layer known as the Hell Creek Formation in three locations in North and South Dakota - helping the dinosaur earn its nickname. But its appearance was definitely a factor as well.

The next high school musical you see might feature something you don’t expect: product placement. The Wall Street Journal says school theater departments are co-opting a technique used in Hollywood for years. One high school production of Grease in Ohio featured a character carrying a pizza box from a local pizzeria that paid $500 as part of a sponsorship deal..

The LA Times details the largely secret, four-year mission to rebuild a B-2 Stealth Bomber that was badly damaged in a fire in Guam. It involved hundreds of rare parts, thousands of man hours and 300 Northrop and Air Force workers, many of whom flew to Guam to work on the project seven days a week. With only 20 B-2s in existence, Air Force officials said there was no doubt they would invest the $105 million it took to repair the plane.

Doctors at the Mayo Clinic have come up with an alternative to the colonoscopy that’s nearly as reliable in detecting cancers, but it’s not without its own “ick” factor. The test involves sending stool samples in the mail. The Minneapolis Star Tribune says the test could become an alternative for the millions of Americans who ignore their doctors’ advice because they’re squeamish about getting a rectal exam.

Attorney Alan Dershowitz writes an opinion piece in the New York Daily News about reckless drivers. He says the only way to really deter reckless driving is to punish everyone who drives recklessly - not just those who kill someone. Dershowitz says, the law rarely punishes even those who do kill someone - with only five percent of the drivers involved in fatalities in New York being charged with serious crimes.

For someone with as much influence as she has, it’s hard to believe Oprah Winfrey hasn’t endorsed a product until now. The Seattle Times says Oprah helped design Teavana Oprah Chai Tea. It will be available starting April 29th. For each Oprah chai product sold, Starbucks will make a donation to her youth education initiative.

Anything you could ever imagine buying, and many things you couldn’t can be found at the Global Pet Expo. Penelope Green pays a visit there for The New York Times. There she discovers everything from anxiety-reducing shirts for dogs to the on-demand ball launcher for those dogs that can’t get enough of playing fetch.

Ballpark food is expensive. But $25 for a corn dog might be a stretch. The Arizona Diamondbacks are introducing an 18-inch dog, stuffed with cheddar cheese, jalapenos and bacon. It comes with a side of fries, chipotle ketchup and spicy mustard. The Arizona Republic says this isn’t the most expensive ballpark dog - the Texas Rangers sell a 2-foot long chili dog called the “Boomstick” for $26.

Lobster at Quiznos? The Wall Street Journal says lobster is finding its way into everyday settings more often. From fast food to find dining, lobster that was once a luxury item is becoming more affordable. Lobster populations have been strong - leading to falling prices.

Is your golf swing a fire hazard? Scientists at UC Irvine say they’ve confirmed what firefighters had suspected for years - titanium coated golf clubs can cause vegetation on the golf course to burst into flames. The Orange County register says golf clubs are now being blamed for several golf course fires. If the club hits a rock, it can create sparks that burn hot enough and long enough to spark a fire.

Come April 8th, Microsoft will no longer support Windows XP. From that point on, the operating system will be vulnerable to attack and will no longer be a safe place to work. The Wall Street Journal weighs your options - from upgrading to Windows 8.1 or the more familiar Windows 7 to jumping ship with a non-Microsoft operating system.

Don’t let anyone fool you, General Motors is in recall crisis mode. Detroit Free-Press business columnist Tom Walsh says whether GM survives now rests in the hands of CEO Mary Barra. Walsh says Barra got off to a good start by being accountable and apologetic, vowing that something like this won’t happen again.

Comcast CEO Brian Roberts is vowing to bring “Uber-like” quality to his company’s customer service. USA Today says Roberts wants customers to be able to track their cable service technician, in the same way Uber users can track where their cab is. Roberts is promising that improvements to Comcast’s customer service will spread quickly to Time Warner Cable if and when the two companies merge.

Since the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, one of the thoughts I’ve had is why a transponder can be turned off in the first place. Gregg Easterbrook writes an Op-Ed in the New York Times asking the same question. He says transponders should have been re-engineered after the September 11th attacks so they could not be manually turned off. Only a hijacker would want to turn off a transponder.

Think kids have too much homework these days? New research shows homework burdens are virtually unchanged over the past 30 years. USA Today says the share of 17-year-olds who say they spent more than two hours a night on homework was 13% in surveys from both 1984 and 2012. One recent survey found 46% of parents in one New Jersey township said their kids spend too much time on homework.

The scientific community is buzzing about a discovery that gives strong evidence to the theory that the cosmos was created in a split second. Astronomers working at the South Pole announced they had found ripples from gravitational waves created in the big bang. The Washington Post says it took researchers four years to build the telescope used to detect the waves, and three years to analyze the data.

If you think Google knows a lot about you, you won’t believe how much Amazon knows. By tracking your purchases, Amazon has a unique insight into your behavior. But the Seattle Times says Amazon won’t share its most coveted data to advertisers for fear of alienating customers. Even though advertising is a $1B business for Amazon, the company does $70B in sales.

The Wall Street Journal’s Ben Cohen has some helpful advice on how to win your office NCAA Tournament pool. He breaks it down into three levels of fans. For the novice, he says, pick the favorites. Intermediates should focus on which teams have the best players and advanced players should pay attention to a team’s pace. Slower teams have fewer chances to make up for mistakes.

Henry David Thoreau’s Walden has been given a digital treatment allowing the classic work to be examined in all of its complexity. The Rochester Democrat and Chronicle says a team from the State University College at Geneseo worked with experts and historical groups on the project. Readers can go to digitalthoreau.org to explore how the final version of Walden compares with any of Thoreau’s previous six drafts.

With the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament getting underway this week, the LA Times’ David Wharton says no other sporting event offers so many chances for David to slay Goliath. He says the underdog spirit of the tournament reinforces one of our core beliefs: Anyone who works hard enough can succeed. The underdog also offers a safe emotional investment. You should expect them to lose, so you’re not as disappointed when they do.

The Wall Street Journal this morning has experts weigh in on both sides of six personal finance debates. My favorite is the question of whether you should pay for your child’s college education. Meir Statman, a finance professor at Santa Clara University, says you should pay for college, to instill the notion that an education is important and ensure your children don’t start off adulthood with crippling debt. Psychotherapist and Author Laura Herman says kids who pay their own way take it more seriously and are less likely to drop out.

While all signs point to Hillary Clinton making a run for the White House in 2016, USA Today asks if her age would be a concern. If she were to win, at age 69, she would be just a few months younger than our oldest president, Ronald Reagan. But life expectancy in 1963 was just 69 years old, today it is 79.

The Washington Post’s Hank Stuever reviews HBO’s new documentary, “Paycheck to Paycheck: The Life and Times of Katrina Gilbert.” It’s the story of a single mother of three kids struggling to make it. He says it differs from many similar stories in that filmmakers often choose the hardest-luck examples, rather than someone who is just scraping by.

The Denver Post tells the story of the once-thriving boomtown of Bonanza, Colorado. It’s now home to just one resident. The state is likely to soon nullify its 133-year-old incorporation. Its only resident is a former hotshot team firefighter who moved to Bonanza 19-years ago, he says to live at the end of a dirt road in the middle of nowhere.

Newly released documents from General Motors prove the automaker first learned of ignition switch problems back in 2001. The Detroit Free Press says it raises even more questions about why GM waited until 2014 to issue a recall. At least 12 people died in crashes related to the defect that prompted the recall.

The Wall Street Journal says Investigators in the U.S. now believe the missing Malaysia Airlines flight flew on for hours after disappearing from radar. That means the plane could have flown for hundreds of miles from where its last position was recorded. U.S. counterterrorism officials are pursuing the possibility that someone may have diverted the plane after turning off the transponders.

Keep your smartphone at least three years. That’s the advice of New York Times tech columnist Farhad Manjoo. He says you’ll save money and help the environment. Manjoo says increases in technology from year-to-year are often incremental so most people don’t need the latest and greatest phones.

In a lesson about being careful what you post online, students at Los Alamitos High School in California persuaded teachers to read mildly mean tweets about them. That includes tweets about the out of shape running coach and the good-looking, but balding teacher. The Orange County Register says the video was inspired by Jimmy Kimmel’s segment where celebrities read mean tweets. It’s been viewed on YouTube more than 400,000 times. VIDEO

With health experts warning about the dangers of sitting too much, Minneapolis Star Tribune health reporter Allie Shah set out to stand as much as possible for 48 hours straight. From being the only person standing in a meeting at work - to being regulated to the bus to ensure she stood during her commute, Shah found out just how difficult it is to avoid sitting.

Thinking of fixing a hole in your drywall? You’ll want to read this first. The New York Times’ Bob Tedeschi has a step-by-step guide to patching drywall. After reading it - you’ll either be well-prepared to tackle those drywall repairs, or convinced it’s worth the money to pay a professional to take care of them.

The Philadelphia Inquirer’s John Timpane marks the 25th birthday of the World Wide Web’s invention. He says the web is the most ambiguous invention in human history. He calls the web and the Internet on which it works, Shiva, the god of creation and the god of destruction. While it has made our lives infinitely easier, it has also destroyed or threatens to destroy countless businesses and industries.

Starbucks is out with a new mobile app that allows you to tip from your smartphone. The company says right now 10 million customers use the app, accounting for 12 percent of all transactions. The Seattle Times says Starbucks has also added a “shake to pay” feature so that when a customer shakes their phone, a barcode pops up which the barista scans to complete the transaction.

The Columbus Dispatch says that for all the talk from Republicans of President Obama using too much executive power, there is actually plenty of precedent for his actions. From Harry Truman desegregating the military to Abraham Lincoln signing the Emancipation Proclamation, there have been many examples of U.S. Presidents making major changes through executive order. One Ohio State law professor says we’re on our 230th year of debating what “executive power” means.

Could your doorbell or cordless phone prompt a visit from the FCC? The Wall Street Journal says the FCC is serious about tracking down sources of interference - which can be anything from florescent lights to aquarium heaters. The devices can interfere with cellphone towers, GPS signals or even AM radio broadcasts.

Comedian Jimmy Failla, is in trouble for using a New York City cab for a YouTube hidden camera video called “Snakes in a Cab.” The New York Post says Failla picks up passengers, then pokes a live python at them, filming their horrified reactions. The Taxi and Limousine Commission says Failla exercised “monumentally poor judgement.” VIDEO

Should you panic when your long, thoughtful email to your boss results in a one word reply? The Wall Street Journal says bosses often are too busy and get too many emails to put a lot of time into their responses. Others skip emails entirely because of poorly chosen subject lines. Some managers don’t respond to questions because they want workers to come up with their own solutions.

Chicago Tribune reporter Matthew Wallberg crunched the numbers to figure out just how much snow he’s shoveled from his driveway this winter. The result sounds impressive; 25 tons. Wallberg mapped the area of his driveway, calculated the weight by water content of the snow (after consulting with the National Weather Service) and multiplied the number by the amount of snow this winter in Chicago. He’ll have to adjust his calculations. More snow is in the forecast this week.

Justin Bieber behaved like an arrogant, spoiled brat as he was being deposed by a lawyer in a suit brought by a photographer who says he was roughed up by Bieber’s bodyguards. The New York Post says Bieber rolled his eyes, sighed and mocked the attorney who was grilling him. The deposition video was leaked to TMZ. VIDEO

We all know sleep is good for us. But is it possible to sleep too much? The Washington Post says consistently sleeping 9 hours or more is associated with a higher risk of heart disease and obesity, as well as diabetes and depression. Doctors say it’s fine to sleep late if you need to catch up after a long night or week, but if it becomes a habit, you should get checked out.

The Wall Street Journal has some advice for those of us who find it difficult to say “no” when others ask for help. Psychologists say we fear hurting others’ feelings by saying “no” but chances are they won’t be hurt as badly as we think they will. Rehearse saying “no” ahead of time and have a version of “I’ll think about it” handy.

The cybersecurity firm McAfee has released a report saying the Target data breach was far from a highly sophisticated operation - and was instead a case of Breach 101. Hackers used off-the-shelf malware to infiltrate the system and did little to cover their tracks. The Minneapolis Star Tribune says the report points the finger squarely at Target for missing signs of a major security breach.

Barry Bonds returned to the San Francisco Giants, for a one-week stint as a spring training hitting instructor. The San Jose Mercury News says Bonds is so slim now, he needed a new pair of baseball pants and he was smiling more than anyone could remember. Baseball’s all-time home run king didn’t talk about steroids and wouldn’t say much about the Hall of Fame.

The San Francisco Chronicle says parents are struggling with what to do in light of new research that finds BPA-Free products may pose a greater health hazard than those that include BPA. BPA has been banned in baby cups and bottles since 2012. New research has found the replacement chemicals may also disrupt the body’s hormones.

With more than 1300 new domain name extensions set to hit the internet, the Denver Post says the second great web “land rush” is approaching. New web domain strings such as .beer, .wtf, .club and hundreds of others are set to compete with the dominant .com. One copyright lawyer says the new extensions are akin to a real estate agent snapping their fingers and creating more land.

The Wall Street Journal says no matter what happened to the Malaysia Airlines jet that disappeared over the weekend, the incident is likely to fuel arguments over better black box technology that gives investigators immediate clues in the event of a crash. Investigators have advocated for systems that transmit flight data in real time in the event of an emergency, but airlines have balked because of the cost.

USA Today’s Michael Wolff says the deal between Disney and Dish that allows viewers to skip ads on ABC shows is a big step in ending advertising as we know it. Media companies have started adapting to a world without ads. But brands so far have been unable to find a medium which works better than television for advertising their products.

The New York Times says three adult movie channels have drawn the attention of Canadian regulators, for not having the required 35 percent of Canadian programming. Canada’s content rules were put in place to make sure Canadian airwaves don’t get overwhelmed by cheaper content from the United States. But this appears to be the first time regulators have tried to make sure pornographic channels stick to the requirements.

The Seattle Times has a feature on the people who regularly make it their business to speak at local government hearings. The question is how much is too much? While some cities have opted for private meetings within the boundaries of the law, others are going the opposite direction by installing software allowing citizens to comment from home during hearings.