While You Were Watching Boston, All of This News Happened, Too

As the world turned in the 24 hours since two explosions went off around 3 p.m. Monday, most of the world's attention turned to the aftermath in Boston. But other things were happening, believe it or not, so here's a quick primer on what you may have missed.

As the world turned in the 24 hours since two explosions went off around 3 p.m. Monday, most of the world's attention turned to the aftermath in Boston. But other things were happening, believe it or not, so here's a quick primer on what you may have missed.

• Hope You Weren't Flying American Airlines Today! American Airlines grounded all of their flights — until 5 p.m. Eastern Tuesday, at the very least — while they figure out what is going on with their computer system. Their booking system, Sabre, which other airlines also use, wasn't working for them, so they couldn't do simple things required to get you on your flight like, say, print a boarding pass. But the technology company maintains it's not a problem on their end; that it was all American Airlines's fault. So, who knows what's going on here? Maybe Johnny Lee Miller and Angelina Jolie are having a little reunion fun with your travel plans right now. 

• The Immigration Bill Is Ready for Its Close-Up... The bipartisan Gang of Eight — the senators working on a comprehensive immigration overhaul — are finally unveiling their deal after months and months of bickering and dealmaking and delays. It has some funny math. Once the bill is unveiled, it has to be debated and voted on before it ever reaches Congress, let alone the President. So there's that. 
• ...but the Gun Bill Is Not Senators Joe Manchin and Patrick Toomey are desperately trying to whip up votes for their proposed background check gun bill. Right now, they're just a few votes shy of passing the bill in its current state. They're considering adding an amendment — one of many to come — that would make people who live further than hundreds of miles from a gun dealer exempt from the bill's new provisions in order to lure on-the-fence legislators from rural areas. 
• An Earthquake in Iran Happened There's an unknown number of deaths in Iran and at least 34 in Pakistan after a 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck in a sparsely populated area in Iran's southeast region. Original reports said 40 people died in Iran, but government officials are now saying no deaths have been reported. 
• Everything We Knew About GDP Is Probably Wrong So, the guys who originally did GDP research and concluded that having a high debt-to-GDP ratio would slow economic growth were probably really wrong. A new study argues that an Excel spreadsheet error and an ignoring of certain information in the original research messed up the results in a major, major way. When corrected, their -0.1 percent decline in growth becomes a 0.2 percent increase. This has to mean something, right? 
• The U.S. Tortured Some People After 9/11 A new study released Tuesday concluded it was "indisputable" that the U.S. tortured people after the September 11 terrorist attacks. The 577-page report, which you can read here, is one of the most comprehensive unclassified investigations performed on potential torture use by an outside, independent group. The study was carried out by a task force from The Constitution Project and led by former members of Congress including Asa Hutchinson, the NRA guy.
• ...and a Pop-Culture Moment of Joy They're making a sequel to Pitch Perfect, and it will be out in 2015 and not much else has made anyone happier in these godawful dark times but that. Now go outside and smell a flower.