The week ahead: February 24 to March 2

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A look at what’s coming up on the East Coast and around the world. This week, that includes a wind conference in Massachusetts, one of the final notes in Vienna’s ball season and the end of the show for a big, golden bear.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel is expected to preview the Pentagon’s fiscal 2015 budget request on Monday, one week before the White House sends a formal budget plan to Congress, according to sources familiar with the matter.

Hagel is expected to use the announcement to outline the U.S. Defense Department’s priorities and challenges in budgeting for the fiscal year that begins on Oct. 1, said the sources, who were not authorized to speak publicly.

Hagel has previously said the military faces big spending cuts despite a two-year budget deal by Congress that reduced the size of mandatory reductions. The Pentagon must reduce its projected spending for fiscal 2015 by about $40 billion more than planned.

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Additional editing by Baltimore Sun staff