Odd Items

++Covered California's exchange as of Saturday recorded that 1,018,315 applied. The CBO estimate was that California would produce 800,000. They have surpassed that and are now targeting the young and Hispanic.

++82 Senators signed the AIPAC letter to President Obama listing their conditions for a final deal with Iran or else they will vote for Senator Mendendez' bill for additional economic sanctions against the regime. The deal breaker is the insistence that Iran not have any capability to enrich uranium. That is the Israeli government's position and one that has not viability in the negotiations.

++President Obama met today with Mahmoud Abbas about the Palestinian-Israeli talks. Only a few weeks remain for the agreement to be reached. Abbas spoke about his basic support for the general principles. President Obama lowered expectations that there would be any agreement.

++President Obama enacted the strongest sanctions against Russia since the end of the cold war and insisted that the world community would not recognize the Crimean referendum. The EU also announced sanctions against specific Russians and Ukrainians. Senator Cruz wants missiles to be deployed to Central Europe. Vice President Biden is flying over to Europe to meet with the Baltic states and Polish authorities. President Obama is supposed to fly their next week.

++Former Senator Bob Graham spoke on Real News and said that one of the reasons President Obama may be reluctant to release the torture report of the CIA is because it will demonstrate agency incompetence. He urged President Obama to declassify the 6,300 page report and release it to the public. Other D.C. sources argue the fight over the report right now is focused on the black sites, where the United States renditioned people during the Bush years.

++Courtney Love claims she discovered the Malaysian Airline. She says it sank in the Indian Ocean. The full report with her own graphics appears at Talking Points Memo.

++The Syrian war has reached its 3rd anniversary. 

++Thom Ricks is fed up with Edward Snowden and Glenn Greenwald for not denouncing Putin on the Ukraine. Ricks thinks this is more insidious than just negligence.