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Obama administration imposed a new round of targeted economic sanctions against cronies of Russian President Vladimir Putin and 17 companies in response to Russia's involvement in the crisis in Ukraine.

The Philippines and the United States announced they would sign an agreement today to allow a greater US military presence on Filipino soil for the next decade.

America's Treaty Allies: worth going to war over?

U.S. Official: Iran must prove it's not building nuclear weapon.

An Iranian newspaper is reporting that the country's military plans to target a mock-up American aircraft carrier during upcoming war games.

Sequestration is forcing the Defense Department to "literally build two budgets" and, if the automatic cuts are continued, will damage the quality of U.S. weapons systems and deter innovation.

Report: Pentagon to destroy $1B in ammo.

The U.S. Air Force's decision to divest itself of the A-10 has created a massive headache to the service.

An investigation is underway into whether Marine Corps higher-ups retaliated against an officer who accused the commandant, Gen. James Amos, of meddling in a prosecution.

America's gazillion-dollar Joint Strike Fighter is supposed to go virtually unseen when flying over enemy turf. But that's not how things are working out.

More leaders in government, industry and academia disapprove of U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel's job performance than approve.

U.S. Army Brig. Gen. David Bassett: the decades-old Paladin 155mm mobile howitzer system has undergone such a radical upgrade that it's managed essentially as a new program.

Soldier Pay: How much is enough?

West Point wants more women to keep the academy ahead of the curve as the Pentagon lifts restrictions for women in combat jobs.

What Google's really working on.

The Food Luminati have you everywhere you turn: Exposing the Satanic roots of energy drinks.

List: 15 words "you didn't know were coined by famous writers."

John Oliver's new show, Last Week Tonight, has posted a bunch of clips from the premiere on YouTube.

Are These Real?: Lost art of the lurid VHS cover.

Thanks!: Game of Thrones handy family tree.

Wedding crashers apologize after their drunken antics go viral.

This movie looks cool ...

Original photo by Lt. Col. Keith Moore, Arkansas National Guard Public Affairs

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Al Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri has called on Muslims to kidnap Westerners, particularly Americans.

Russian jets cross into Ukraine airspace.

With Ukraine in turmoil, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel can't get Russian counterpart to take his calls.

Hagel is taking a backseat to other players in the Obama administration when it comes to the crisis in Ukraine. 

Leaders of the Group of Seven major economies agreed to impose extra sanctions on Russia over its intervention in Ukraine.

Five NATO-led service members were killed when a helicopter crashed due to technical failure in southern Afghanistan.

Did Obama just draw another red line in the East China Sea?

Military officials in Europe are pushing back against reports the U.S. was conducting humanitarian assistance projects in Crimea as a ruse to establish a military base in the region.

North Korea denies drones were sent to South.

Military suicides down for active duty, up for reservists.

Army's basic training is no longer basic: Lessons for business.

SpaceX has filed a protest against the U.S. Air Force over the service's decision to award the United Launch Alliance a sole-source block buy of 36 launch cores.

Reserve soldiers augment active-duty drill sergeants.

Cadet Command looking for professors of military science.

With final approach, U-2 pilot's career makes celebrated landing.

5 best submarines of the Cold War.

New rule: Recruits must buy U.S.-made athletic shoes.

The Internet is buzzing right now with the latest, greatest (and potentially fake) Worst Thing Ever. Meet Code Babes, the stripping amalgam of everything that's wrong with tech culture today.

Chances are, you missed Dinner with Friends with Brett Gelman and Friends comedy special that aired late last night on Adult Swim, but you can catch up online. Guests at the wonderfully random table include True Blood's Dale Dickey, Gilbert Gottfried, Fred Melamed, The Newsroom's Alison Pill and Girls' Alex Karpovsky.

The world premiere of Jim Gaffigan: Obsessed debuts on Comedy Central April 27. Here's a taste.

Hmmm: Beer lollipops

The British Pathé on YouTube newsreel archive has posted more than 80,000 clips of cultural milestones and memories. Check 'em out, even just for all the Mick Jagger stuff.

The former member of Joy Division and New Order has a new book out about one of England's most famous clubs in the '80s and '90s.

Finally: Thanks to Petit Tube, we can graze the surface of all the weird, wonderful, an often disturbing YouTube clips.

Star Wars as you've never seen it before: with really terrible sound effects dubbed in...

Original photo by Defense Imagery Management Operations Center

The Department of the Army's National Center for Telehealth and Technology opened at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in 2010. The mission of the National Center for Telehealth and Technology is to foster, develop, research, and deploy technology solutions for psychological health and traumatic brain injury and deliver relevant, evidence-based applications for our warriors, veterans and their families. Known as T2, the Center also uses innovative ways to help military youth cope with the unique strains of military life. In addition to disruptions from parents deploying to assignments away from home, military children are affected by moving frequently, changing schools and making new friends.

The folks at T2 have created an app to help children cope with military moves. Launched in December, The Big Moving Adventure app lets children create a Muppet friend to help them through the moving process. Yes, the DoD knows the way to Sesame Street. It has partnered with Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit educational organization behind Sesame Street, on the mobile app, which is available for download from the App Store, Google Play and Amazon for Kindle Fire.

Below are excerpts from the app's news release out of the T2 camp.

"Moving can be stressful, and kids need to express feelings and say goodbye to people and things," said Dr. Kelly Blasko, psychologist at the National Center for Telehealth and Technology here. "The Muppet characters in this app help make the move a fun experience."

Children can use the app to help their Muppet friend make decisions on a variety of move-related issues, such as which toys to pack in a box and which to take along in their backpack. Children watch the Muppet say goodbye to their house, their military base and their classroom and playground friends. At the new house, children help their Muppet unpack, settle into the home and make new friends.

"Sesame Workshop has always been at the forefront of creating resources for families with young children to help address some of life's most difficult issues," said Dr. Jeanette Betancourt, senior vice president for Community and Family Engagement at Sesame Workshop. "The Big Moving Adventure is part of Sesame Workshop's contribution to military families, who face the challenge of helping a child cope with this major transition and help our kids reach their highest potential."

Military parents face unique challenges during a move, and the app helps their young children through the experience. A separate parents section contains additional move-related topics and tips.

The Big Moving Adventure mobile app is the newest addition to a portfolio of multimedia resources developed by Sesame Workshop, in collaboration with the Defense Department, to help military families with deployments and life transitions. While developed specifically for military families with children 3 to 5 years old, it is useful for all families with young children experiencing a move, officials said.

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Army leaders push for another BRAC round.

Congress' multiple investigations of the deadly 2012 attack on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya, have cost the Pentagon millions of dollars and thousands of hours of personnel time.

The bilateral security agreement between the United States and Afghanistan has still not been signed, sealed and delivered, creating budget uncertainty and potentially significant logistical problem.

The head of U.S. Pacific Command believes America does not possess the capacity to conduct amphibious assaults in the wake of a crisis, as it did during World War II.

The Senate Intelligence Committee has pushed back a vote on its controversial report on Bush-era interrogation techniques until next week.

U.S. Army Human Resources Command established a provisional Cyber Branch, to provide career management, development and readiness to the Army's cyber forces.

Are aircraft carriers the new West Berlin?

The U-2 spy plane is a better suited than the Global Hawk for early warning of a North Korean attack.

The admiral in charge of all U.S. military forces in the Pacific says some of his needs for attack submarines are going unmet.

The secretary of the Army said he will have the final say on whether a disgraced Brig. Gen. Jeffrey A. Sinclair at the center of a sexual misconduct case retires at a lower rank with sharply reduced retirement pay.

As South America continues increasing its defense expenditures, air fleet modernization is driving numerous requirements and will continue to do so into the foreseeable future.

Three things have to happen before infantry robots hit the battlefield.

The Defense Health Agency is moving ahead with plans to cover the costs of some laboratory tests that Tricare, by law, cannot.

Training and operations can put such tremendous physical and psychological stresses on warfighters that their immune systems may be compromised.

This is not only a story about disgraced U.S. Army Special Forces major James Gant. This is also a story about a story about Jim Gant.

Neat shot of two Nimitz-class nuclear aircraft supercarriers-the USS George H.W. Bush and USS Harry S. Truman-cruising together in the Arabian Sea.

In your face Facebook.

Video of the Chicago subway jumping its tracks.

Good News: You can spend the night in a television antenna above Prague.

Neil Patrick Harris and Billy Eichner ambush New Yorkers.

The History Channel has renewed Vikings.

Welcome...

Hey folks, our Best of Olympia 2014 issue, in which your humble and helpful Weekly Volcano staffers – and readers – show some love for all the things that make Thurston County so nifty – is now online.

Thanks for voting, and thanks for reading. Without further ado, click here

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American military commanders have a sizable amount of firepower at their disposal in Europe as the crisis deepens over Russia's incursion into Ukraine - but Washington has no plans to use it.

When the Russian parliament authorized the deployment of military forces in Ukraine, sending black-clad gunmen into the former Soviet Republic, it might have been expected to touch off yet another battle between the White House and congressional Republicans. Instead, there has been a conspicuous absence of saber-rattling on both sides.

Some 13,729 Afghan troops killed, 16,511 wounded during war in Afghanistan - higher than previously reported.

The Pentagon will unveil its 2015 budget proposal this week, beginning a contentious fight with Capitol Hill over the military's spending priorities.

Hagel defended administration plans to downsize the military in its new budget proposal.

Chuck Hagel, with his first budget plan as U.S. defense secretary, has managed to do the unthinkable: He has united Republicans and Democrats on Capitol Hill.

Air Force secretary has placed a $41 billion bet that Congress will ease off on the mandatory spending cuts in the sequester process.

Booming sales of aircraft are squeezing suppliers, spurring brutal competition between Airbus and Boeing, which are demanding better deals from the companies that make billions of parts the factories need. 

Sweden - three years after selling its national submarine-maker Kockums to Germany's ThyssenKrupp - is now fighting to wrest control of its indigenous sub-building capability from the German giant.

Here's a recap of the 2014 Academy Awards in 38 words: Beautiful people were beautifully dressed. Jennifer Lawrence fell - again. Ellen DeGeneres took a selfie that ricocheted around the Twitterverse. That crack-smoking mayor from Toronto even showed up. Also, some people in the entertainment industry won some awards.

Cool: Bill Murray's spontaneous Harold Ramis tribute.

Here's an interesting list that ranks all 85 best picture Oscar winners.

Apple has announced its new in-car iPhone integration system: CarPlay.

Apparently B-flat is the alligator equivalent of Barry White. Who knew?

"Gulliver is now officially paying for my vacation to Europe this summer. SUCK IT."

Prince is taking over The Arsenio Hall Show this week.

Patton Oswalt shows us "The Indie-izer."

What if John Lennon and the cast of Stand by Me were covered in tattoos?

Here's the Godzilla trailer, in case you haven't seen it already.

This is scary! This is awesome!

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The Pentagon's 2015 war spending proposal is on hold as the U.S. waits to see if Afghan officials approve a deal that would allow NATO forces to remain in the country beyond the end of the year.

Hagel: Lack of agreements narrows options in Afghanistan.

Pakistani Official: U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2014 means civil war.

Eyeing Afghan exit, U.S. intensifies campaign against Haqqani militants.

DoD gambles on sequester.

Hagel chats with troops about 2015 defense budget proposal.

The extra $26 billion eyed for the U.S. Defense Department in 2015 would fund readiness initiatives and other "base budget type of stuff."

Budget seeks missile fixes, future technology.

Two Defense Department nominees in the policy arena - Christine E. Wormuth is nominated to be undersecretary of defense for policy, and Brian McKeon is nominated to be principal deputy undersecretary of defense for policy - shared their visions of DOD's future in a Senate Armed Service Committee confirmation hearing yesterday.

Great Britain and the U.S. have signed a defense pact aimed at increasing the number of collaborative science and technology programs undertaken by the longtime allies.

The stunning resignation of the military lawyer who was prosecuting an Army general on a charge of forcible sodomy is raising new questions about how commanders are handling sexual assault cases.

The Defense and Veterans Affairs departments have published new guidelines on post-concussion care.

North Korea is the darkness.

A soot stamping on a human face forever: How the revolution will be defeated.

This doesn't sound good: The number of plainclothes federal officers protecting aircraft from terrorists has gone down in the past three years.

No more straining your arms for a good shot. The CamMe App lets you prop up your phone and take a picture from 16 feet away. 

"I am a porn star. I am a college freshman. You know nothing about me."

The dramatic evolution and nine obscure facts about The Simpsons.

Super Mario World is the key to parallel universes.

Epic towing fail.

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The U.S. Defense Department on March 4 will propose a five-year plan that boosts Pentagon spending by a total of $115 billion over sequestration spending caps.

The U.S. Defense Department's latest military strategy review will stress the Pentagon's commitment to the Middle East.

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel plans to shrink the U.S. Army to its smallest force since before World War II.

Obama will announce a new Pentagon and private-sector partnership aimed at beefing up advanced manufacturing technology in the U.S.

Navy develops "world's smallest guided missile."

Army Future: Gen. Robert Cone, commanding general of U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command says leaner but still mean - if not meaner - is the future of the Army in 2025, and the time to prepare for that future force is now.

Army Future II: Heidi Shyu, assistant secretary of the Army for acquisition, logistics and technology, says to prepare the Army for tomorrow, the seeds must be planted today.

Air Force Future: Gen. Frank Gorenc, commander of U.S. Air Forces Europe, as well as U.S. Air Forces Africa, says growing airmen, dealing with organizational change and modernizing the force are key points to preserve airpower advantage.

Army Chief of Staff Gen. Ray Odierno visited the Camp Humphreys Military Community today, where he got a firsthand look at many of the transformation initiatives and construction projects currently underway there.

The initiative to ban or bury the independent newspaper Marine Corps Times originated in May 'on a rather tight timeline' at the behest of Gen. Jim Amos, the service's commandant.

Defense Department wants servicemembers to "set a goal, make a plan and save automatically" in the Military Saves Week campaign that starts today.

Medal of Honor winner Staff Sgt. Ty Carter has two words for soldiers suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder: "Get help."

Let's watch an NFL stadium be destroyed.

Why Apple's recent security flaw is so scary

Sub Pop Records is opening a store at SeaTac International Airport.

Amtrak is offering "residencies" to writers.

Let's watch an NFL stadium be destroyed.

Alec Baldwin wrote a long essay in New York magazine explaining why he's had enough of public life.

Kiss won't play at their Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony.

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There is an interest among top U.S. policymakers in coming up with new options on Syria.

The Defense Department has identified two soldiers killed earlier this week in an insider attack in Afghanistan as members of 3rd Special Forces Group.

International mediator Lakhdar Brahimi apologized to the Syrian people today for the lack of progress at peace talks in Geneva after their second round ended with little more than an agreement to meet again. 

Signs of a large amount of digging at North Korea's nuclear test site can be seen in new satellite images, though the purpose is not yet clear.

Time to talk plainly and clearly about nuclear weapons.

A picture showing an airman tongue-kissing a Prisoner of War-Missing in Action symbol has gone viral, infuriating bloggers and veterans.

NBA honors troops during All-Star Weekend.

The international market for upgrading the twin-engine jets won't be as large as that of the single-engine F-16 Fighting Falcon.

Why the U.S. should use British missiles on reaper drones.

Competition aims to inspire middle school cyber defenders.

U.S. defeats bitter rival Russia in men's hockey preliminary round in Sochi.

How to crash the Super Bowl without a ticket.

Jeff Bezos has some new competition in the crazy drone delivery race.

This gorgeous iPad-only app gathers scenes from Ken Burns' documentaries into a video textbook of American history.

Apple's next-generation Apple TV will likely be announced as soon as April.

Looks like the question of female likability in film and literature is up for debate. 

What is it about the giant shiny things that make us giggle and faint and salivate? We were just asking Siri to open us a beer and ponder that question when Air Force Space Command Public Affairs beeped us on our iphone.

"Air Force Next-Generation Mobility Solutions Beginning" read our tiny screen.

Did AFSPC invent a new warning buzzer for our phone when the N.S.A. is about to troll our personal data?

Nope. Apparently the initial rollout of modernized commercial mobile technologies has begun across the Air Force. The rollout of CMT devices will focus on BlackBerry replacement and executive users, and distribution will be focused on enabling approximately 5,000 iOS devices.

According to AFSPC Public Affairs, "each Air Force Major Command will be allowed to provision an accelerated amount of devices per month until their allocated licenses are used. Mobile device users should contact their MAJCOM Mobile point of contact to start the replacement process for their BlackBerry."

Read the full story here.