A.M. Links: Pro-Russian Activists in Ukraine Planning to Hold Autonomy Referendum, House Holds Former IRS Official in Contempt, White House Praises NSA Bill
(NSA/Wikimedia)
- Pro-Russian activists in eastern Ukraine plan to go ahead with an autonomy referendum on Sunday despite Russian President Vladimir Putin calling for the vote to be postponed.
- The House voted yesterday to hold Lois Lerner, the former head of the tax-exempt division at the IRS, in contempt. Lerner has twice invoke the Fifth Amendment at House Oversight Committee hearings.
- Sylvia Mathews Burwell, President Obama's pick to replace Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, will appear before the first of two Senate confirmation hearings today.
- The White House has praised a bill aimed at limiting the NSA's ability to collect records of telephone calls.
- American military personnel will arrive in Nigeria in the coming days to assist in the search for hundreds of school girls kidnapped by the Islamist group Boko Haram.
- An explosion, believed to have been caused by a rebel bomb, has destroyed a hotel and several other buildings in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo.
Follow Reason and Reason 24/7 on Twitter, and like us on Facebook. You can also get the top stories mailed to you—sign up here.