Sixteen bodies found, nine believed to still be in the mud, and 90 missing. "All they found were the reminders of lives. 'We saw some clothing that would fit a 3-year-old, and then some nursery toys. We didn’t know if they were from the same house, or what,' says Finzimer. The slide had literally smashed houses together."

A librarian, a Navy veteran, and a high-school custodian.The Seattle Times has short profiles of the confirmed dead and the missing—including, curiously, a leader of the Freedom County movement to secede from Snohomish County. Death doesn't care about politics.

But politics cares about death. "Egypt's chief prosecutor on Wednesday ordered two new mass trials for 919 suspected Islamists on charges that include murder, despite international criticism of an earlier trial that issued death sentences against hundreds of defendants."

Bank of America will pay $9.3 billion for selling bad mortgage bonds. "The regulator of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the Federal Housing Finance Agency, had accused the bank of misrepresenting the quality of loans underlying residential mortgage-backed securities purchased by the two mortgage finance companies between 2005 and 2007."

A real-life Robin Hood. The mayor of a small Spanish village, in an area where the unemployment rate is around 40 percent, is experimenting with communism—and leading raids on large supermarkets to stock the food banks. "'Aren't you all hungry?' he yelled through a megaphone in the grocery parking lot that morning in August 2012. 'Let's go shopping!' The cheering crowd pushed its way inside, piling chickpeas, rice, tomatoes and other food into carts, then rushing out without paying. Police met the mostly first-time outlaws outside and arrested Sanchez Gordillo, although not before he managed to transfer his loot to representatives of local food banks to distribute to the poor."

Are rap lyrics admissible evidence? The New York Times looks at cases where rappers' boasting has played a role in their convictions.

Crimea river. The Russian "self-defense" paramilitaries who led the way for Russian troops, menaced journalists, and beat up people who publicly opposed the idea Russian annexation are now being disbanded by the new Russian overlords who say they're "no longer useful." Be careful what you wish for.

American guns. Three have been arrested after a shooting in the University District at 47th and Brooklyn.

An n+1 rumination on NOLA. "Even now, whenever I go there, New Orleans seems to be trying to draw me into some kind of conspiracy of signification. When I lived there, my apartment was on Independence, a one-way street. Two blocks over was Desire, a one-way street going in the opposite direction."

Tonight at On the Boards: A world premiere by zoe | juniper, the dance and design duo who won a Stranger Genius Award last year.

The top search hit this morning for "good news" was a CNN article titled "How to find good news in Gwyneth's breakup":

Breaking news: Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin have separated. So, who cares?

Well, for many reasons, people seem to have strong reactions. I imagine some of that stems from the fact that Paltrow has at times perpetuated an ideal that seems impossible to replicate. Her lifestyle website, Goop, offers otherworldly solutions to problems only the uber-wealthy can afford to have. Goop proclaims, "Gwyneth started goop in the fall of 2008 to share all of life's positives..."