• Daily Beast columnist Dean Obeidallah calls in at 10am ET / 7am PT to talk about weather racists in Texas
• Charlie Pierce of Esquire’s Politics Blog calls in at 10:30am ET / 7:30am PT to talk about President Obama’s reaction to Russia
• Russia’s President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday approved a draft bill for the annexation of Crimea, one of a flurry of steps to formally take over the Black Sea peninsula. The U.S. and the E.U. on Monday announced asset freezes and other sanctions against Russian and Ukrainian officials involved in the Crimean crisis.
• Officials revealed a new timeline Monday suggesting the final voice transmission from the cockpit of the missing Malaysian plane may have occurred before any of its communications systems were disabled, adding more uncertainty about who aboard might have been to blame.
• Five million people have now signed up for health insurance on the state and federal online exchanges, the Obama administration said Monday — a number that suggests a big-last minute surge to get coverage.
• Prominent figures still associated with President Obama and his White House team are sounding the alarm bell that the Democratic Party could lose the Senate — if not more — in November. “We have a turnout issue,” said former White House senior adviser David Plouffe.
