Earthquake in Thailand and Myanmar/Burma: One reported dead, several hurt, and several large Buddha statues have been decapitated.

The incredible horror: Gunmen in Nigeria—thought to be Islamist rebels—continue kidnapping schoolgirls while looting livestock and food.

Took us long enough: White House report says climate change is real, here, and getting worse. From the NYT:

The effects of human-induced climate change are being felt in every corner of the United States, scientists reported Tuesday, with water growing scarcer in dry regions, torrential rains increasing in wet regions, heat waves becoming more common and more severe, wildfires growing worse, and forests dying under assault from heat-loving insects. Such sweeping changes have been caused by an average warming of less than 2 degrees Fahrenheit over most land areas of the country in the past century, the scientists found. If greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide and methane continue to escalate at a rapid pace, they said, the warming could conceivably exceed 10 degrees by the end of this century.

Hash oil explosions: Also real, also here, and also getting worse in states with legalized marijuana—because the process involves heating butane to pass over pot scraps and pick up the psychoactive stuff. (A fact that just made hash oil sound a lot less attractive.)

Ukraine is "close to war": Dozens are thought to be dead after the latest fights between Ukrainian troops and pro-Russian paramilitaries—who are probably Russian-armed and Russian-trained for the purpose of creating violence so Russia has an excuse to invade more of Ukraine without giving the rest of the world a reason to decisively oppose it. It's foreign invasion disguised as popular mandate.

Remembering Native rights activist Billy Frank, Jr.: He was most famous for his campaigns about Native fishing rights, but he was really fighting a battle to get the federal government to honor the treaties—a fight that, in part, won a 1974 ruling that affirmed Pacific Northwest Natives have a right to one-half of the region's salmon harvest. He passed away suddenly yesterday morning.

"Torn": That's how the Guardian describes the reaction of Kshama Sawant and the rest of us "rads" (us left-of-Democrat types) to the $15/hour compromise.

The etymology of the day is "wage" (noun form): "Also from mid-14c., 'a pledge, guarantee, surety' (usually in plural), and (c.1400) 'a promise or pledge to meet in battle.' The 'payment for service' sense by late 14c. extended to allotments of money paid at regular intervals."

Journalist revisits his torture at Abu Ghraib prison: It's been 10 years since those photos that hardened the world's opinion against the US and against the Iraq war were released. Now some of the prisoners are suing CACI International, a private company that helped run the prison.

"You might get hit by a car. That is not a threat. That is a solid piece of advice": Today in surveillance state/extreme job recruitment news—the lengths the FBI will go to, and the lives it's willing to disrupt, to coerce people into becoming informants.

Blaine Wetzel wins James Beard Award: That wouldn't be big news, except that he's in his 20s, cooking at the Willows Inn on Lummi Island, and we knew he was bound for greatness as soon as he showed up.

Here's a photo from the Anchorage Daily News after an earthquake in 1964: