The Filter: When Is Nothing Better Than Something?

(March 1) -- With so many news aggregators out there, who can keep up? AOL News filters the filters to steer you to the headlines that really matter.

Skip Those, Read This: Both The Huffington Post and The Daily Beast lead with stories on the 8.8-magnitude earthquake that ravaged Chile on Saturday. The latter picks up the New York Times' coverage. The death toll is more than 700 and growing, and rescue efforts are ongoing. Huffington links to an Associated Press report comparing Chile's quake to Haiti's, which was weaker but caused more devastation, with more than 200,000 killed. The quake that struck Chile hit a less densely populated area than the one that struck just outside Port-au-Prince. "Chile is wealthier and infinitely better prepared, with strict building codes, robust emergency response and a long history of handling seismic catastrophes," the AP observed. The strongest earthquake ever recorded, which had a magnitude of 9.5, struck Chile in 1960.

Enough Votes? The Slatest leads with The New York Times reporting that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., says there are enough votes to pass health care reform legislation. "Our bill, the House and the Senate bill, had some major differences, which we're hoping now to reconcile," Pelosi said. "Then when we have a bill -- as I say, you can bake the pie, you can sell the pie, but you have to have a pie to sell. And when we do, we will take it out there." Meanwhile, The New Republic's Jonathan Chait argues that while Pelosi probably doesn't have the 217 House votes lined up yet, the momentum is on the Democrats' side for the first time in months.

Medal Count: Everyone picks up roundups of the Winter Olympics, which ended Sunday. The U.S. won the overall medal count, with 17, while host nation Canada won a record 14 golds, including Sunday's hockey championship, where there was a heart-stopping 3-2 overtime win over the U.S. The Daily Beast links to an AP wrap-up, while The Slatest links to ESPN's report.

Catch of the Day: The Daily Beast picks up Paul Krugman's Monday column in The New York Times, in which the Nobel Prize-winning economist makes the case for abandoning a watered-down banking reform bill. "There are times when even a highly imperfect reform is much better than nothing; this is very much the case for health care," he writes. "But financial reform is different. An imperfect health care bill can be revised in the light of experience, and if Democrats pass the current plan there will be steady pressure to make it better. A weak financial reform, by contrast, wouldn't be tested until the next big crisis. All it would do is create a false sense of security and a fig leaf for politicians opposed to any serious action -- then fail in the clinch." Last week, The New Yorker ran a long profile of Krugman detailing how the academic economist became an outspoken liberal advocate.

Berlusconi's "Bimbos": The Daily Beast also picks up a British Guardian story on Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's list of candidates for upcoming regional elections. The list included "a Miss Italy contestant, a former TV weather girl and a showgirl turned dental hygienist," the Guardian reports. "Last year the Italian prime minister hastily dropped a group of showgirls from his list of candidates for European elections after his wife said the move was 'shamelessly trashy' and demanded a divorce." These days, Berlusconi, who is 73, calls himself a single man.

Cooper and Couric: According to a New York Times story, CNN's Anderson Cooper has been approached by CBS executives about replacing Katie Couric as host of the evening news when her contract ends next year. Anderson may not jump ship, but a partnership could be in the works.