Things in the news, things not ...

So for all of my spring break, I was not surprised that the lead story in the news was of an airplane, packed with people, that just disappeared. And to this day, almost two weeks later, no one knows where it is.

Still in the news? Yep:

Plane search area: 11 countries, deep ocean

Could jet have avoided radar?

New reports add to the mystery surrounding Flight 370 while an aviation engineer among the passengers draws investigators' interest.FULL STORY

• How the satellite knew | Timeline
• Pilots: The work of an expert ...
• ... or maybe just an accident | Map
• Partner: If anyone survived, he did

Why is this story newsworthy?

Well, it is random. Unusual. Potentially violent (if all those poor people died) and criminal (if someone did it). It is a mystery on top of all that.

But lots of other important things are not making news, as usual. Many of them are of course more deadly than plane crashes. Such as corporate crime. As one example, consider yet another example of car manufacturer not recalling cars even after it knows for years about a defect--a defect that killed dozens of people.

Yeah, that story made the news, because it is another corporation killing people for money. But it is not the lead story. Nope, that would be the airplane.

Here is another story that is not making the news, in spite of its importance:

Florida has executed 84 people since the Supreme Court announced the modern death penalty regime in 1976. Zero of them are white people sentenced to death for killing an African American. Indeed, according to the American Civil Liberties Union, “no white person has ever been executed for killing an African American” in the state of Florida.

Where do I find this? ThinkProgress. Not the newspapers or TV stations. Even though this pattern is found in just about every death penalty state!