FINANCIAL TIMES: The US and Russia have agreed to discuss a potential resolution to the Ukraine stand-off, after Vladimir Putin called Barack Obama in a move which may launch a fresh diplomatic effort to de-escalate the crisis.

In a well publicized and perhaps historic speech to the Russia Duma late week, Russian President Vladimir Putin sought to explain the history behind the actions that the Russian Government was taking in annexing the Crimea and his ongoing concerns pertaining to Ukraine.

Harbor East symbolizes a population shift taking place across the nation, reflected in new data released today by the Census Bureau. It finds that population growth has been shifting to the core counties of the USA’s 381 metro areas, especially since the economic recovery began gaining steam in 2010. Basically, the USA’s urban core is getting denser, while far-flung suburbs watch their growth dwindle.

But the back-and-forth between Corbett and McCord is increasingly strident and bordering on the personal. It comes at a time McCord has just aired his first two TV commercials, including a 60-second ad that rips Corbett as behaving like a “wholly owned subsidiary” of the natural gas drilling industry and says Corbett “has no sense of what’s going on in working families.”

For the first time, the project tried to quantify the number of journalism positions at digital-only news organizations. It found about 5,000 working for 30 major digital news outlets and 438 smaller ones…

NEW YORK TIMES: … Now, about 5,000 Afghans deemed under threat will be competing for fewer than 2,300 visas, to say nothing of the hundreds coming in to start their applications every month.

“The logic, I think, is that as long as it’s directed at the Japanese government or the Malaysian government, it is OK, but it shall not be tolerated if it’s directed at the Chinese government even if the demands are reasonable,” Zhang said. “We still agree the family members have every right and freedom to express themselves, but it is a shame for the government to have such double standards,” he said…

If there’s going to be any investigation of the botched/dropped investigation – and at this point, that’s looking like a good idea – it should be fully independent of both Kane and the prosecution team that handled it prior to her arrival…

“Obama put Putin on notice: if Russia takes back Alaska, five more Duma members will lose their US visas.”

LEHIGH VALLEY MORNING CALL: Supporters of liquor privatization are working on a compromise that would expand wine sales into grocery stores, restaurants and beer distributors but leave state liquor stores with the exclusive right to sell spirits such as whiskey, gin and vodka…

For now, states like Florida, California, Indiana and Maryland have promised to scrutinize the $45 billion Time Warner Cable deal — and many of those local attorneys general previously have taken home a campaign check from Comcast’s deep-pocketed political action committee.