Ukraine Prepares to Fight Back, Americans Doubt Economic Recovery, Lennon's Killer Says He's Sorry: A.M. Links

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  Ukraine is preparing to defend itself against Russian forces in its eastern regions. "The invasion by Putin of the regular Russian army is a fait accompli," said Anton Herashchenko, an adviser to the Ukrainian Interior Minister, on his Facebook page Thursday, while Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko canceled a visit to Turkey to focus on Ukraine's military response. 

• Even as economic recovery moseys forth, most Americans—71 percent—now say the Great Recession "exerted a permanent drag on the economy." In November 2009, only 49 percent said the same.
• Gun tourism is a thing, and an increasingly popular one.
• What happens when one half of a California mall has an $8 minimum wage and the other half must pay $10 per hour?
• Ferguson and other St. Louis-area police departments face steep overtime costs for all that time cops spent out pepper-spraying people and playing conquering army. 
• Let's talk about Gen X for a change! Overall the generation is in more debt than either millennials or boomers; the single most indebted cohort are 44 year olds, who owe on average $142,077. 
• John Lennon's killer says he's "sorry for being such an idiot." 

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