As Slate's "Explainer" column is wont to do, it's gone and explained a question we had about the news. Like how Phoenix truck stealer Christopher Jones – whose antics were being covered by helicopter news crews, two of which crashed and led to the deaths of the four people aboard – could be charged with the deaths of people he had zero interaction with during his crime.

Explain-ers Slate:

It all depends on why you're running and where you are. In most states, you can be convicted of first-degree murder, even if you didn't intend for someone to die. These so-called "felony-murders" apply to those deaths that take place during the commission of certain types of felonies, like robbery, burglary, rape, and arson. [...]

Does it matter that the reporters in the fatal helicopter crash presumably put themselves in harm's way? Probably. The county attorney technically can charge the fleeing suspect with four counts of murder, but it's unclear how strong the argument would be in practice. A judge might decide not to apply felony-murder because the cause of the crash was only loosely related to the chase. Or a jury might acquit the driver because he couldn't possibly have foreseen these outcomes. In other words, a reasonable person could expect traffic deaths to result from a car chase. But it might be unreasonable to expect a car chase to cause a collision between choppers pursuing a breaking news story.

Though it would be entirely reasonable to expect Internet users to log on in droves to CNN.com for 30-second updates on the breaking news story, thus developing a serious case of carpal tunnel. And for that, the man should pay.