Ukraine Meetings Begin, Whistleblower Protections Expanded, Obama’s Budget Wants All of the Money: P.M. Links

• Russian President Vladimir
  Putin says the armed men around military instillations in the
  Crimean area of Ukraine are
  not Russian troops, prompting a “Really?”-style response from
  Secretary of State John Kerry, who is now in the country. The White
  House has announced a $1 billion aid package for the country, and
  meetings between Ukrainian and Russian ministers have begun.
• In a 6-3 ruling, the Supreme Court has declared that
  whistleblower protections provided to public companies also
  apply to contractors for said companies.
• Edward
  Snowden will be speaking at the South by Southwest Festival,
  though it will be via teleconference from Russia.
• President Barack Obama’s
  $3.9 trillion budget for 2015 seeks $651 billion more money
  from the rich. Republican House Speaker John Boehner called the
  budget proposal “his most irresponsible budget yet.”
• RadioShack could be closing about a fifth
  of its stores, as many as 1,100 locations. I remember back in
  the late 1970s when they sold the earliest home computers (and
  remote control cars and transistor radio kits) those places were
  like that generation’s version of the Apple Store.
• Another Bitcoin site has shut its doors. Bitcoin bank Flexcoin has
  closed down after hackers stole all their currency.
• The latest idiotic school “zero tolerance” nonsense has a
  10-year-old boy in Ohio suspended for making finger
  guns.

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