Obama: Russia will ‘pay a price’  —  President Obama vowed Russia would “pay a price” for its annexation of Crimea as he kicked off a week of talks with European leaders focused largely on the crisis in Ukraine.  —  “Europe and America are united in our support of the Ukrainian government and Ukrainian people,” Obama said.

Wealth Over Work  —  It seems safe to say that “Capital in the Twenty-First Century,” the magnum opus of the French economist Thomas Piketty, will be the most important economics book of the year — and maybe of the decade.  Mr. Piketty, arguably the world's leading expert on income and wealth inequality …

Washington is headed for disaster: Column  —  New novel spotlights the weakness of our country in the face of crisis.  —  I've just finished reading Bill Quick's new disaster novel, Lightning Fall, and it's got me thinking about national disasters, and what to do about them.

The gifts that keep on giving  —  The failed, shuttered, and yet much-debated attorney general's sting against Democratic elected officials is like a poor man's American Hustle, something David O. Russell wouldn't touch with a bad comb-over.  —  It seems so terribly Pennsylvanian.

Apple is in talks with Comcast about streaming-TV service.  —  Apple is in talks with Comcast about a streaming-TV service that would use an Apple set-top box and try to bypass congestion on the Web.

Inquiry Is Said to Clear Christie, but That's His Lawyers' Verdict  —  With his office suddenly engulfed in scandal over lane closings at the George Washington Bridge, Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey two months ago summoned a pair of top defense lawyers from an elite law firm to the State House …

3 Presidents and a Riddle Named Putin  —  WASHINGTON — Bill Clinton found him to be cold and worrisome, but predicted he would be a tough and able leader.  George W. Bush wanted to make him a friend and partner in the war on terror, but grew disillusioned over time.

New research points to Nixon in My Lai cover-up attempt  —  One of the most shameful chapters in American military history, the 1968 massacre of unarmed Vietnamese civilians by U.S. troops, just got worse  —  This past week marked the 46th anniversary of the My Lai massacre …

Taxpayers fund creationism in the classroom  —  Taxpayers in 14 states will bankroll nearly $1 billion this year in tuition for private schools, including hundreds of religious schools that teach Earth is less than 10,000 years old, Adam and Eve strolled the garden with dinosaurs …

Aborted babies incinerated to heat UK hospitals  —  The remains of more than 15,000 babies were incinerated as ‘clinical waste’ by hospitals in Britain with some used in ‘waste to energy’ plants  —  The bodies of thousands of aborted and miscarried babies were incinerated as clinical waste …

Barrage of ads laying foundation for Brown  —  WASHINGTON — On New Year's Eve, station managers at WMUR-TV in Manchester, N.H., received a request from a media buyer in northern Virginia: Americans for Prosperity, a nonprofit backed by the billionaires David and Charles Koch, wanted to buy some ads.

Democrats to Nate Silver: You're Wrong  —  Guy Cecil says the famed statistician was wrong in 2012 and will be wrong again in 2014 with his prediction of a GOP Senate takeover.  —  NEW YORK, NY - MAY 21: Nate Silver attends the 16th Annual Webby Awards at Hammerstein Ballroom on May 21, 2012 in New York City.