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Patrick Flanery's taut new novel, Fallen Land, delves into the housing crisis, creeping corporate surveillance and a "crisis of neighborliness" in American life. The backdrop: a half-built and crumbling subdivision outside of an unnamed American city.

In Florida, Louisiana, New York and other coastal states, many homeowners are in shock at new flood insurance rates that are rapidly approaching. After Hurricanes Katrina and Sandy left the National Flood Insurance Program $24 billion in the red, Congress revamped the program--phasing out subsidies. One group especially upset are new homeowners--people who bought a property and are now seeing their flood insurance costs skyrocket, making the property no longer affordable.

In a statement she read to the news media at midday Wednesday, Cathleen Alexis says she does not know why her son killed 12 people on Monday at the Washington Navy Yard. Meanwhile, more is coming out about Aaron Alexis's actions in the days leading up to the attack.

Stereotyping in films and TV is as old as Hollywood itself. For some, portraying a stereotypical character — the ditzy blonde or angry black man — is a foot in the door to the acting world. For others, it is a path that can be limiting and repetitive.

If anyone could pull off a multiplex-friendly adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby — a film treatment that might be capable of stepping out of the long shadow cast by the book — it's Moulin Rouge showman Baz Luhrmann, right?

California's small producers of tomatoes, grapes and other crops are increasingly taking up dry farming, which involves growing crops without watering them for months. The technique, which obviously saves water, can produce more flavorful crops.

Listening to Republicans this week, it was often hard to figure out the party's stance on the across-the-board cuts. But while they took different approaches, many made more or less the same argument: They're open to making the cuts more flexible, but they're not sorry to see spending cut.

The Senate on Wednesday began working through the trillion dollar spending bill to keep government running through the end of September. Amid all the talk about budgets, the legislation is actually the only one that's necessary to avoid a March 27 government shutdown. Meanwhile, President Obama continued his charm offensive with a visit with House Republicans. Melissa Block talks to Tamara Keith.

Next week marks the anniversary of a landmark Supreme Court decision that says defendants facing substantial jail time deserve legal representation in state courts, even if they can't afford it. Now, many lawyers say the system for providing defense attorneys for the poor is in crisis.

Rawabi, a privately developed Palestinian community, sits in the West Bank. The first residents are due to move in later this year, but its developer is worried about water. To get a pipe laid, Rawabi needs Israeli permission. Israel has cooperated, but the Palestinian developer says the cooperation has been "very slow and always incomplete."