Ukraine:  Tensions ratcheted up even more today as Russian President Vladimir Putin asked his senate for permission to use military force in Ukraine. It appears to be a blunt response to President Obama’s statement yesterday that “there will be costs” if Russia uses its military to intervene. Obama said he is “deeply concerned.”

  Putin asked for “a limited armed force to Crimea to ensure security of the Russian Black Sea Fleet and Russian citizens staying there,” according to the chairwoman of the Russian senate. The Russian Black Sea fleet is based at Sevastapol.

Putin’s move seems to be a formal request for what’s already happened. Masked gunmen have surrounded the state-run television station in Crimea and are occupying two key airports. They control the major highways. The gunmen, who are wearing military uniforms  with no identifying insignia,  refuse to answer questions. Russian military helicopters have been seen over Crimea and men wearing uniforms of the Black Sea fleet blockaded a border post yesterday outside Sevastopol.

Crimea’s newly installed Prime Minister Sergei Aksyonov says he’s in control. A referendum on Crimean independence is scheduled for March 30^th. Crimea is a peninsula on the Black Sea that once belonged to Russia, but was handed over in 1954 to what was then the Ukraine Soviet Republic. Crimea became part of an independent Ukraine in 1991, but many Crimeans think of themselves as Russian.

Nation: Actor Phillip Seymour Hoffman died of a toxic mix of heroin, cocaine, and amphetamines, according to the NY coroner. Hoffman was found dead in his Manhattan apartment early last month. He left everything to his estranged girlfriend, costume designer Mimi O’Donnell, with whom he had three children.

World: The Pakistani Taliban announced a month-long ceasefire to re-start peace talks with the government. Last month the Taliban claimed to have killed 23 soldiers they held prisoner and the military responded with air strikes.

In Like a Lion: A major winter storm is moving across the Midwest and is expected to drop snow in a thousand mile band all the way to the Atlantic Coast tomorrow and Monday. Record cold continues in the upper Midwest. It’s 14 below in Bismarck.

BitMoney: The world’s largest bitcoin exchange, MtGox, filed bankruptcy in Japan yesterday after losing track of  $480 million worth of the international virtual currency. MtGox said it appears to have lost 850,000 bitcoins, including 100 of its own, in a hacking attack. Accommodating local custom, MtGox CEO Mark Karpeles, who is French, bowed in court and apologized. As a wise journalist once said, “You can do anything you want in Japan so long as you apologize.”

Attitude Check: Embattled Miami lineman Richie Incognito checked into an Arizona facility for psychological treatment, according to several reports. Incognito was one of several NFL players accused of bullying teammate Jonathan Martin so badly that he left the squad. In a public display of stress, Incognito recently smashed his own Ferrari with a baseball bat. He told the Fox news station in Arizona, “Oh that was just me venting, that was self expression, that’s a piece of art.”

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