The LA Times says the death of Philip Seymour Hoffman is underscoring a huge surge in heroin use not seen since the 1970s and early 80s. Health officials say more than 660,000 Americans used heroin in 2012, nearly double the number from five years earlier. And today’s users are more affluent and tend to live in the suburbs or rural areas.

The Wall Street Journal says startups and tech giants including Facebook and Google are racing to create machines that can think like humans. The software is still far off - but developers foresee applications such as fluently translating foreign languages, identifying objects in photos and directing self-driving cars through busy intersections.

Jose Salvador Alvarenga gave his first interview since he washed ashore in the Marshall Islands. He claims he was adrift for 13 months after his fishing boat broke down. The El Salvador native said he survived on birds, fish, turtles and small sharks that he caught with his bare hands. But some are doubting his story, noting he looked pretty good for having spent more than a year at sea.

The federal government announced plans to require all vehicles to communicate with each other in an effort to reduce crashes and traffic fatalities. The administration hopes to have rules in place about when cars and trucks will need to be equipped with vehicle-to-vehicle technology before President Obama leaves office in 2017. The San Jose Mercury-News says the requirements will be a boon for Silicon Valley where several major automakers already have technology and research centers.

The New York Times takes a look at snowmaking efforts for the Winter Olympics in Sochi. Organizers have brought in snowmaking experts, including many from the United States. So far, they’ve converted about 230 million gallons of water into snow. That should be enough that they won’t need to use any of the stockpiled snow saved from last year.

A physicist from the University of Toronto has been studying one of the great unsolved mysteries of physics; the icicle. The Washington Post says scientists are trying to figure out why no matter how big the icicle, the space between the ripples is always the same, about a centimeter. A key factor is salt. Icicles made without any salt in the water had no ripples. VIDEO

A giant, pink frosted doughnut has welcomed customers to The Original Grind in Long Beach, California since the 1950s. But it will soon be gone as a Dunkin’ Donuts takes over the locally-owned shop. The Orange County Register says the doughnut is the latest in a series of larger-than-life, whimsical signs to disappear in favor of corporate identities.

A new study finds the abortion rate in the United States has dropped to its lowest point since the Supreme Court legalized the procedure in all 50 states. The Washington Post says the study suggests long-acting contraception methods have had a significant impact in reducing the number of unwanted pregnancies. There were fewer than 17 abortions for every 1,000 women in 2011, the latest year for which figures were available.

The Chicago Tribune says all the snow we’ve been getting this winter hasn’t slowed down some high schools. Some students and teachers have improvised with digital lessons completed on computers or tablets. Others have held virtual classroom discussions. The Tribune says the day may not be far off when a snow day no longer means no class, even if the school is closed.

Bruce Weber writes the New York Times’ obituary for Oscar-winning actor Philip Seymour Hoffman, who died over the weekend of an apparent drug overdose. Weber says that to merely recount Hoffman’s credits “undervalues his versatility and his willingness, rare in a celebrity actor, to explore the depths of not just creepy or villainous characters, but pathetically unattractive ones.” Weber says that while Hoffman did not have the look of the traditional leading man, he was more than capable of playing one.

The recent massive credit card data breaches have led to a renewed fight over how quickly to implement chip cards in the United States, and who should cover the cost. USA Today says banks are balking at the cost of moving to European-style cards with microchips that generate a one-time security code for each transaction. Visa and MasterCard say retailers who haven’t converted to a chip system by 2015 would be responsible for fraud charges if their systems are hacked.

RadioShack, Budweiser and Chrysler were the big winners at the Super Bowl, according to the Wall Street Journal. RadioShack is getting big buzz for its commercial featuring stars of the 1980s as the company poked fun at its outdated stores. Chrysler’s two-minute commercial with Bob Dylan scored for taking pride in Detroit and America. And Anheuser-Busch’s Budweiser scored twice, once with their ad about a small town welcoming home a soldier and again with their spot about a puppy who falls in love with one of their famous Clydesdales. VIDEO

GoPro, the company whose cameras are the go-to gadgets for daredevils, is now working on becoming a media company. The New York Times says GoPro is focusing efforts on distributing the content created with its cameras. The Times says the move is designed to help the company survive in a market where standalone cameras have been devastated by smartphones and tablets.

USA Today’s Jon Swartz says the tech bubble is legitimate this time, since companies like Google and Facebook are posting real revenue numbers. In the 1990s, the tech bubble was based almost entirely on speculation about the potential of e-commerce. One analyst says these days, markets are already thriving for smartphones, social media, cloud computing and e-commerce.

The Boston Herald describes the court filing in which federal prosecutors laid out their reasoning for seeking the death penalty for accused Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. Calling his acts “heinous, cruel and depraved,” the prosecutors pointed out that Tsarnaev received asylum from the United States and citizenship before betraying his allegiance to the country.

There may be more chicken wings consumed this weekend than at any other time of the year. So the New York Daily News has some advice from expert eaters on the best way to eat wings quickly and efficiently. Use the “typewriter” method for the drumstick, and the “wishbone” method for the upper wing.

The Wall Street Journal recognizes the fact that not everyone sitting down to watch the Super Bowl on Sunday is a football expert. They’ve put together a guide for watching the Super Bowl, based on your level of football knowledge. The Journal points out it should be a good game, since it’s only the second time in 20 years the teams with the best record in each conference are squaring off.

Minnesota beer brewer Jack Supple thought he came up with a great idea: Deliver cases of beer by drone to ice fisherman on a nearby lake. But the Federal Aviation Administration grounded the idea before his first flight. Supple says he understands the FAA’s point that the agency needs to figure out how to regulate commercial drones before allowing their use.

Months after its finale, the LA Times says, Breaking Bad is still a big deal in Albuquerque. Fans are still flocking to the city, taking photos of filming locations and buying methamphetamine-themed items. Law enforcement officials lament that the show has not brought more attention to the city’s real drug problem.

The Bergen Record says New Jersey Transit officials are quickly trying to register seven trademarks because the agency failed to renew the trademarks before a 2012 deadline and a six-month grace period expired. But it’s unlikely you’ll see someone printing up their own NJ Transit brochures. Experts say the agency’s continued use of the logos would make it difficult for someone else to take them over.

Two years ago, a snowstorm paralyzed Atlanta - and state and local officials said they had learned their lessons. But when another storm brought the city to its knees this week, it became clear those lessons weren’t enough. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution says while the big problem in 2011 was a lack of resources, this time, it was too many people crammed onto highways at the same time. The paper says officials should have been more forceful about telling residents to stay home.

The New York Times says while the Brazilian bikini wax is still popular, a more natural look is reportedly gaining some of the momentum it lost in the past decade. Some celebrities, including Gwenyth Paltrow and Cameron Diaz have voiced their opinions in favor of what one salon owner calls “the grown look.”

The Wall Street Journal says more and more of the top hair stylists are now charging more than $1000 for a haircut. So what’s the difference between a haircut that costs $1000 and one that costs $350 or even just $50? You’re paying for the stylists’ artistic vision and attention to detail. He or she will customize your hairstyle to fit your body and bone structure.

The New York Times’ Jenna Wortham says the Fitbit Force stands out as one of the top personal fitness trackers. She says the best feature is that it buzzes when you hit 10,000 steps for the day. Another cool feature, if you wear it to bed, you can set it to wake you up by buzzing the wristband. But she questions whether it’s worth the cost.

Jay Leno gives an exit interview with USA Today as he prepares to leave the Tonight Show after 22 years. He says one of the tricks to remaining sane in the television business is having a normal live off-camera. Leno says he won’t be sentimental about his place in TV history, saying his interns couldn’t tell you who starred in Gunsmoke, and that was on for 20 years too.

You’ve got to be tough - and possibly crazy to endure this race. The Arrowhead 135 in International Falls, Minnesota this week, requires competitors to travel by bike, foot or ski, 135 miles along snowmobile trails. This year’s race is particularly grueling with a temperature of -24 degrees at the starting line. Some participants tell the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, “the colder, the better.”

The next time you play a game of Angry Birds, beware, American and British spies may be lurking in the background. The New York Times says documents uncovered by Edward Snowden reveal spy agencies are using so-called leaky apps to extract data ranging from where you are to your age, sex and even your address books and phone logs. Both the NSA and the British spy agency GCHQ played particular attention to Google Maps.

You know an airport is bad if a newspaper on the other side of the country is doing a front page story on it. The LA Times examines why LaGuardia Airport is ranked as the worst in the country, and why improving it is so difficult. The number of flights at LaGuardia is increasing, but there is no room for expansion. Politics plays a role in the airport’s troubles. It’s run by the Port Authority - the massive bureaucracy now in the headlines over the “Bridgegate” scandal.

When the Wall Street Journal requested records from the Securities and Exchange Commission’s investigation into AIG’s near-collapse, the SEC complied by sending back documents that were so redacted, they offered few clues about what the probe uncovered and why it was closed. On one page, there were just four words remaining: “okay,” “by,” “in” and “did.”

Across the country, McDonald’s restaurants are becoming what the New York Times calls a sort of “everyman’s Starbucks” where the elderly, school kids and the homeless linger for hours. Customers can buy a cup of coffee for a dollar, and then camp out, at times causing friction with management. One manager at a Queens, NY McDonald’s called the police on a group of older Koreans that had been gathering at the restaurant.