Some answers on the new version, in no particular order.
Susan Hooter / Jeremy Hood lockpicking etc. As before, you need to catch Jeremy stealing a woman's purse in order to launch your MC into the world of lockpicking. it's a random chance thing. If you have the conversation with Susan about how bad her locks are, you need to keep visiting the park during weekdays daytime until the purse stealing scene triggers.
As for lockpicking training, I have never been able to get the hang of the keyboard controls and fail pretty consistently trying the keyboard. On my laptop, the touchpad is barely better at the beginning levels. I have found that I need to use a mouse to get anywhere at the beginning. As always, save before your training , or any lockpicking events so you can go back if you fail.
The newspaper is very important to kicking off several event chains. It used to be given to you, but now you have to work to find it. Think about some of the newer locations in the game and look at the release notes. Where do you sometimes see today's paper laying about while you are waiting for something to happen in real life? What is an early game concern that keeps you from doing as much as you want each day? There is now a way to solve that a bit, but it will cost you some money.