370: The surface search for wreckage from the missing Malaysia Flight 370 has been called off. The ships and aircraft involved have returned to base and a slow undersea search started yesterday. But the robotic submarine Bluefin had to perform an emergency re-surfacing because it hit its maximum depth of 15,000 feet … 2.8 miles without hitting bottom.

World: Air pollution from Asia feeds winter storms over the Pacific, making weather more severe over North America, according to a report published in

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The BBC quotes the lead author,  Yuan Wang at Cal Tech in Pasadena, saying, “The effects are quite dramatic. The pollution results in thicker and taller clouds and heavier precipitation.”

Nation: Police in Kansas say the shooter at two Jewish centers Sunday is a well-known racist and anti-Semite named Frazier Glenn Miller. As the founder and former “grand dragon” of the Carolina Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, Miller, 73, is among the hate groups and their members tracked by the Southern Poverty Law Center. As he passed reporters after his arrest Sunday, he shouted “Heil Hitler!” Miller has  spent time in prison for weapons charges. On its website the SPLC quotes Miller saying, “We’ve sat back and allowed the Jews to take over our government, our banks, and our media. We’ve allowed tens of millions of mud people to invade our country, steal our jobs and our women, and destroy our children’s futures.”  Investigators believe he set out to kill Jews, but all three of his victims Sunday were Christians. He’s expected to be charged with murder and a hate crime.

Baby Killer: Utah police say a woman has admitted giving birth to six infants, killing them, and then packing them into boxes in the garage of her home. A seventh baby, also stashed in the garage, is believed to have been stillborn. Friends and neighbors say they’re stunned that 39-year-old Megan Huntsman could have concealed all those pregnancies over a period of 10 years. Huntsman’s estranged husband found one of the babies Saturday while cleaning out the garage of the home owned by his parents. West lived in the house with his wife while all this was happening, but so far he’s not named as a suspect.

 The Prize: The Washington Post and The Guardian won the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service for stories based on information that came from NSA leaker Edward Snowden. Both papers published stories that set off international debate and diplomatic friction over the NSA’s electronic spying both on American citizens and even foreign leaders. The Boston Globe won for breaking news for its coverage of the Boston Marathon bombing, a year ago today. Donna Tartt’s bestseller “The Goldfinch” won for fiction.

Back in the Pool: Olympic champion Michael Phelps is coming out of retirement to compete in a major event in Arizona later this month, raising speculation that he might compete in his fifth Olympics in 2016. He’s won 22 Olympic medals, 18 of them gold.

Blood Moon: A total eclipse blotted out the moon last night in a celestial event known as a “Blood Moon.” It’s when the earth is aligned between the sun and the moon, blocking all light that illuminates the moon. But as the earth’s shadow creeps across the moon, it turns red like sunset. This was the first of four Blood Moons expected by fall of 2015. For those of you into that sort of thing, some people fervently believe the four Blood Moons signify the second coming of the Messiah. For everyone else, it will be football season.

-30-