Midday Roundup: 'New' news is no news in Flight 370 search

New info? Malaysian Airlines officials are once again correcting, updating, and otherwise changing something they’d said previously about their missing plane. This time, the “new” information centers on the pilot’s last words to air traffic controllers, which were previously reported as, “All right, good night.” The pilot actually said, “Good night Malaysian three seven zero,” the sign-off he was supposed to use, per protocol. The difference seems minimal, but analysts seized on the previous reports as evidence that something was already wrong in the cockpit that early into the flight. The actual transcript indicates everything was normal at the time of the pilot’s last communication. But officials still say they think the plane was flown off course intentionally and that it eventually went down in the Indian Ocean, even though three weeks of searching has failed to turn up any wreckage. Officials are now emphasizing the possibility that they may never find the plane. The question is, how long will they keep looking?

Digging out. Officials in Washington state have lowered the number of those missing after a March 22 landslide and released their names. In addition to the 24 people confirmed dead, officials say 22 people still haven’t been located. Searchers using dogs continue to find remains in the massive debris pile. Gov. Jay Inslee has asked for a federal disaster declaration and estimated the property loss at $10 million.

April Fools! It’s April 1, and the pranks and jokes are filtering through the airwaves and across the blogosphere. This morning, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, proved he has a sense of humor when he showed off a (fake) tattoo of Winston Churchill on Fox and Friends. After the segment aired, Cruz tweeted a photo of himself on set: “Showing off a little fresh ink on @foxandfriends this morning. #AprilFoolsOrIsIt.” The office of tourism in St. Petersburg and Clearwater, Fla., issued a press release touting a rare sighting of a “manaphin,” a cross between a dolphin and a manatee. Companies also had fun with the unofficial holiday. My favorite: Cheetos announced a new cologne, Cheeteau, a “limited-edition fragrance that celebrates the irreverent, intriguing, and playful nature of the iconic feline with a scent bold enough to excite and delight.”

Slandered? Radio talk show host Glenn Beck is facing a lawsuit from a Saudi Arabian student he accused of being part of last year’s Boston Marathon bombing. During multiple broadcasts, Beck called 20-year-old Abdulrahman Alharbi the “money man” behind the attack allegedly perpetrated by brothers Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. Officials interviewed Alharbi but determined he was not involved. Beck claimed the FBI was covering up the Saudi’s role in the attack and said he had evidence Alharbi was a “bad, bad, bad man.”

Decisions, decisions. A New York high school senior has been accepted into all eight Ivy League colleges—Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and the University of Pennsylvania. Kwasi Enin, 17, now has to decide which school to attend. He’s leaning toward Yale, which has offered him close to a full ride scholarship. Enin, who lives on Long Island, wants to study medicine. The national attention his college application process has generated, he said, came as a surprise: “I thought that getting into all the Ivy Leagues schools was, like, good for me—but now it’s a national thing. It’s kind of crazy.”