memeorandum: Guinness pulls out of NY's St. Patrick's parade over ban on gays (Elizabeth Barber/Reuters)

3:00 AM ET, March 18, 2014

Top Items:

Exclusive: Russia Will Sanction U.S. Senators — Putin is set to respond to Obama's sanctions of Russian officials with his own list. Several U.S. Senators and officials will be banned from visiting Russia, including Sen. Dick Durbin. — U.S. senators, congressmen and top Obama administration officials …

Discussion: Taylor Marsh, Bloomberg, TruthRevolt.org, Mediaite, Yahoo! News, Hot Air, The Daily Caller, Business Insider, Talking Points Memo, The Huffington Post, Liberaland, The Dish and The Lead with Jake Tapper

ABC News:

Russian Deputy PM Laughs at Obama's Sanctions — MOSCOW - Russia's deputy prime minister laughed off President Obama's sanction against him today asking “Comrade @BarackObama” if “some prankster” came up with the list. — The Obama administration hit 11 Russian and Ukrainian officials …

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, RedState, The Gateway Pundit and Hinterland Gazette

Scott Johnson / Power Line:

The 1930s are calling — Commentators with a cruel memory have recalled the moment from one of the 2012 presidential debates when President Obama cited Mitt Romney's warning about the growing threat from Russia and dismissed it with a superficially sophisticated remark: “The 1980s are now calling to ask for their foreign policy back.”

Discussion: Politico, ABC News and Hit & Run

Garry Kasparov / Politico:
Vladimir Putin and the Lessons of 1938

Discussion: NationalJournal.com, CNN and Hot Air

New York Times:

Defying Sanctions, Putin Declares Crimea Independent — MOSCOW — President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia signed a decree late Monday night formally recognizing Ukraine's Crimea region as a “sovereign and independent state,” defying the United States and Europe just hours after they imposed …

Discussion: Truthdig, The Week, Daily Kos and Lawyers, Guns & Money

Karen DeYoung / Washington Post:
U.S., E.U. announce sanctions following vote in Crimea

Discussion: Post Politics, Talking Points Memo, Hot Air, The Fix, WorldViews, Power Line and The Plum Line

Marie-Louise Gumuchian / CNN:
U.S., EU announce sanctions after Crimea vote

Discussion: Washington Post, The PJ Tatler, Washington Free Beacon, Gawker and The Reaction

Nedra Pickler / Associated Press:
US Sanctions On Russia Freeze Top Officials' Assets

Discussion: Talking Points Memo

Nate Silver / FiveThirtyEightFiveThirtyEight:

What the Fox Knows — FiveThirtyEight is a data journalism organization. Let me explain what we mean by that, and why we think the intersection of data and journalism is so important. — If you're a casual reader of FiveThirtyEight, you may associate us with election forecasting …

Discussion: The Dish, FishbowlDC, Washington Monthly, Politico, TVNewser, Marginal REVOLUTION, The Huffington Post and PandoDaily, more at Mediagazer »

Marilyn Tavenner / HHS.gov:

Marketplace Enrollment Hits 5 Million Milestone — As this historic open enrollment period enters its final weeks, millions of Americans are finding quality, affordable coverage thanks to the Affordable Care Act. Fernando Valdez and Denise Schroeder were part of a weekend wave of consumers signing …

Discussion: El Paso Times, bizjournals, The Daily Caller, Talking Points Memo, Daily Kos and PoliticusUSA

Joseph Curl / Washington Times:
We overhauled U.S. health care — to insure 4.2 million people?

Discussion: The Fact Checker, Rush Limbaugh, The Huffington Post and National Review

Robert Costa / Washington Post:
House Republican leaders craft their vision for an alternative to health-care law

Discussion: Bloomberg View, Talking Points Memo, The Plum Line, New York Times, Washington Monthly, CEPR, ThinkProgress and The Week

Lauren McGaughy / New Orleans Times-Picayune:

It's official: Edwin Edwards is running for Congress — Just three years after his release from federal prison, former Gov. Edwin Edwards is throwing his hat into the open race for Louisiana's 6th Congressional District. — The 86-year-old Silver Fox, known for his memorable …

Discussion: The Fix, Daily Kos, CNN, OnPolitics and The Daily Caller

Kathy Finn / Reuters:
Former Louisiana Gov. Edwards, a convicted felon, to run for Congress

Discussion: The PJ Tatler

Tal Kopan / Politico:
Ex-gov announces bid for Congress

Discussion: CNN

Tina Moore / NY Daily News:

L'Wren Scott dead: Fashion designer and Mick Jagger girlfriend found dead in apparent suicide — Mick Jagger is ‘completely shocked and devastated by the news,’ spokesperson says in statement. Scott's body, discovered hanging from a scarf tied to a doorknob in her apartment on 11th Avenue …

Discussion: Gothamist, Telegraph, Daily Mail, Syracuse Post-Standard and TalkLeft

New York Times:

Malaysia Backtracks on When Airliner's Communications Were Disabled — SEPANG, Malaysia — As the search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 stretched into a 10th day, the Malaysian authorities on Monday identified the plane's first officer as the last person in the cockpit to speak to ground control.

Discussion: The Gateway Pundit, Mediaite and Politico

William J. Dobson / Slate:
The Malaysia Airlines Pilot's Politics

Discussion: Mediaite, National Review, Jihad Watch, Bloomberg View, Hit & Run, Here & Now, Telegraph, Guardian and New York Times

Daniel Simmons-Ritchie / Rapid City Journal:

Phil Jensen: South Dakota's most conservative lawmaker? — It was July 10, 2003, and Phil Jensen, a life-long Kansas boy and red-blooded Republican, was set for a big move. — Jensen and his wife were relocating from Wichita to Rapid City to live closer to family.

Discussion: Liberaland, PoliticusUSA, The Raw Story, Americans Against the … and Little Green Footballs

Tom Kludt / Talking Points Memo:
GOP Lawmaker Thinks Businesses Ought To Be Able To Deny Service To Black People

Discussion: ThinkProgress

Mother Jones:

24 Mind-Blowing Facts About Marijuana Production in America — The only thing green about that bud is its chlorophyll. — You thought your pot came from environmentally conscious hippies? Think again. The way marijuana is grown in America, it turns out, is anything but sustainable and organic.

Discussion: Taylor Marsh

Dylan Scott / Talking Points Memo:

Koch Group Abandons Obamacare ‘Horror’ Stories After Fact-Check Backlash — Have we heard the last Obamacare “horror” story? If new ads from the Koch Brothers-backed group are any indication, we might have. — Americans for Prosperity, the well-funded conservative group …

Discussion: Americans Against the … and Liberal Values

Michael Wines / New York Times:

West's Drought and Growth Intensify Conflict Over Water Rights — MUMFORD, Tex. — Across the parched American West, the long drought has set off a series of fierce legal and political battles over who controls an increasingly dear treasure — water. — Just outside this minuscule farm town …

Discussion: Lawyers, Guns & Money and The Agonist

Igor Bobic / Talking Points Memo:

Stenographer: ‘Assignment’ From Holy Spirit Prompted Outburst On House Floor — The stenographer who was carried off the House floor in October for an outburst in which she yelled into a microphone about God, Freemasons and a divided government explained in a video published Sunday that she acted on “assignment” from the Holy Spirit.

Discussion: Mediaite

Nature:

All you need to know about gravitational waves — A beginner's guide to the BICEP2 discovery of primordial gravitational waves. — Rights & Permissions — Astronomers have announced the detection of the imprint of primordial ‘gravitational waves’ that originated in the Big Bang that created our Universe 13.8 billion years ago.

Discussion: The Verge

Dennis Overbye / New York Times:
Detection of Waves in Space Buttresses Landmark Theory of Big Bang

Discussion: Discovery News, Gothamist, Gawker and Talking Points Memo

Matthew Perrone / Associated Press:

Marijuana Study In Veterans Wins Federal Backing — WASHINGTON (AP) — The federal government has signed off on a long-delayed study looking at marijuana as a treatment for veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder, a development that drug researchers are hailing as a major shift in U.S. policy.

Discussion: Taylor Marsh and ThinkProgress