memeorandum: Putative Bitcoin Founder Categorically Denies It (Noam Cohen/New York Times)

9:40 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, Hot Air, Mediaite, The Daily Caller, TruthRevolt.org, Yahoo! News, Business Insider, Bloomberg, Talking Points Memo, The Huffington Post, Liberaland, The Dish and The Lead with Jake Tapper

CNN:

Putin notifies Russian parliament of Crimea's accession request — Moscow (CNN) — Russian President Vladimir Putin hailed this weekend's referendum in Crimea, saying Tuesday that the nearly 97% of its residents who voted to join Russia was “an extremely convincing figure.”

Discussion: Washington Post, Hot Air and National Review

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

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: Scared Monkeys, KyivPost, The Gateway Pundit, RedState, Wall Street Journal and Hinterland Gazette

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

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

Discussion: NationalJournal.com, CNN and Hot Air

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

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

Mitt Romney / Wall Street Journal:

Romney: The Price of Failed Leadership — The President's failure to act when action was possible has diminished respect for the U.S. and made troubles worse.

Discussion: CNN, Politico, Talking Points Memo and Mediaite

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: New York Times, Marginal REVOLUTION, The Dish, Politico, FishbowlDC, TVNewser, Washington Monthly, Outside the Beltway, The Huffington Post and PandoDaily, more at Mediagazer »

James Taranto / Wall Street Journal:

The kids are all right. ObamaCare's not so hot. — What's the matter with kids today? Dana Milbank, a grumpy old man at the Washington Post, would like to know. He's not literally talking about kids, but about voting age adults—the “army of 15 million voters under 30” who “swept …

Discussion: National Review, VodkaPundit, Althouse and Las Vegas Review-Journal

Marilyn Tavenner / HHS.gov:
Marketplace Enrollment Hits 5 Million Milestone

Discussion: PoliticusUSA, Liberaland, Los Angeles Times, The Plum Line, El Paso Times, Daily Kos, bizjournals, The Daily Caller and Talking Points Memo

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

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

Jonathan Easley / The Hill:

ObamaCare enrollments hit 5 million — ObamaCare enrollment spiked in March, and a total of 5 million people have signed up since the insurance marketplaces launched in October, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Marilyn Tavenner wrote in a blog post Monday.

Discussion: Prairie Weather

Jonathan S. Tobin / Commentary Magazine:
March Madness? Fake ObamaCare Enrollment Numbers.

Discussion: Power Line, Washington Examiner, Hot Air and Politico

Juan Williams / The Hill:

GOP blinders on civil rights — Rep. Gregg Harper, a Republican from Mississippi's 3rd Congressional District, is standing near the blood stained driveway in Jackson where civil rights activist Medgar Evers was assassinated as he fought for black voting rights in 1963.

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: The Daily Caller, Taylor Marsh and Watts Up With That?

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

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

Discussion: The PJ Tatler

Elad Benari / Arutz Sheva:

Erekat: Israel Must Choose - ‘Settlements’ or Peace — The chief Palestinian Authority (PA) negotiator, Saeb Erekat, on Monday once again blamed Israel for the lack of progress in peace talks, saying that the Israelis must choose between “settlements” and peace.

Discussion: Israel Matzav and Israpundit

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

Gregg Easterbrook / New York Times:

Out of Control — WASHINGTON — WHEN mass murderers took over the cockpits of four American airliners on Sept. 11, 2001, one of the first things they did was turn off the transponders, so the planes would not register properly on civilian radar. — A few months later …

Bret Stephens / Wall Street Journal:

Stephens: How Obama ‘Gets Things Done’ — We need a president who rarely thinks and never speaks about how he looks in jeans. — Maybe Barack Obama should have given Zach Galifianakis an off-ramp, like the one he keeps trying to offer Vladimir Putin. Those were some pretty barbed lines …

Discussion: Betsy's Page

Nicholas Confessore / New York Times:

A Campaign Inquiry in Utah Is the Watchdogs' Worst Case — It is the nightmare scenario for those who worry that the modern campaign finance system has opened up new frontiers of political corruption: A candidate colludes with wealthy corporate backers and promises to defend their interests if elected.

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: Liberal Values and Americans Against the …

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, Americans Against the …, Little Green Footballs and The Raw Story