With Minimum Wage as Start, Obama to Press Past Congress  —  WASHINGTON — President Obama plans to sign an executive order requiring that janitors, construction workers and others working for federal contractors be paid at least $10.10 an hour in the future, using his own power to enact …

Obamacare: Tom Coburn loses cancer doctor  —  Cancer-stricken Sen. Tom Coburn revealed Tuesday that his health insurance under Obamacare doesn't cover his oncologist, but said he still is receiving excellent care.  —  “I'm doing well from a health standpoint, got great docs,” Coburn said on MSNBC's …

A Very Sincere Thank You to @Gretawire  —  Greta Van Sustern wishes you to know I'm a creepy jerk.  She does not know who I am and thinks no one should listen to me.  I appreciate her letting someone she's never heard of who she thinks should not be listened to live rent free in her head.

Rand Paul: Hillary off hook for Bill's past  —  Sen. Rand Paul doubled down Tuesday on his recent criticism of Bill Clinton, even as he stressed that the fallout from the former president's philandering in the 1990s wouldn't “apply” to Hillary Clinton, should she decide to run for the White House.

Pete Seeger, Songwriter and Champion of Folk Music, Dies at 94  —  Pete Seeger, the singer, folk-song collector and songwriter who spearheaded an American folk revival and spent a long career championing folk music as both a vital heritage and a catalyst for social change, died Monday.

Poll: Christie numbers tank as scandals continue  —  Chris Christie's political future looks to be in serious danger with more Americans believing the embattled New Jersey governor is lying about the bridge closure scandal than telling the truth, according to the latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll.

Plenty of winners and losers in new farm bill  —  Soybean and catfish farmers, dairy food manufacturers, U.S. cattlemen and the organic food industry all counted themselves among the big winners this week, following the release of the farm bill conference report.

If we want more income equality, should we return to the economy of George W. Bush?  —  Other things being equal, income equality is better than inequality.  But other things are NOT equal.  The easiest way to make incomes more equal in the short run is to have a recession.

Medium, Evan Williams's Post-Twitter Media Startup, Raises $25 Million Round  —  Medium is about to become large.  —  The collaborative publishing startup has just closed a $25 million round of financing, the company confirmed, marking its first major funding raise since it launched a little more than a year ago.

Exclusive: Democratic senators to file amicus brief in Hobby Lobby birth control case  —  In a brief to be filed with the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday, 19 Democratic senators are siding with the Obama administration against evangelical Christian businessmen who argue that paying …

Ryan Loskarn leaves letter  —  Jesse Ryan Loskarn, the former top Senate GOP aide who committed suicide last week, said in a letter released by his family that he was sexually abused as a child, and the horror from that episode eventually led him down a path toward possessing child pornography.

One-Third of Americans Who Were Middle Class in 2008 Now Consider Themselves Lower or Lower Middle Class  —  Pew Research has a new poll out tracking how many people call themselves middle class vs. some other class.  The chart on the right shows the basic results over the past few years.

The Political State of the Union Is Not Good  —  Obama and the Democrats are in deep trouble  —  In his memo this week, Democratic pollster Stan Greenberg warns me to “forget the conventional wisdom” that “the president is in trouble.”  Greenberg points to Barack Obama's approval rating being up …

Giant Hologram of Turkish Prime Minister Delivers Speech  —  Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan couldn't attend a political party meeting in the city of Izmir on Sunday, so he decided to send the next best thing: a giant hologram of himself.  —  In a scene straight out of Star Wars …

How Obama Prepares for the Grueling State of the Union  —  The president puts in back-to-back 2 a.m. nights rewriting his speech to make it “sing” and hopefully sway Congress.  A former speechwriter shares what it's like inside the White House.  —  There are plenty of reasons to think that the State …

The limits of Ezra Klein's star power  —  No greater act of press criticism exists than to launch your own publication.  Starting anew allows a journalist to leave the cracked glass, dents and rust of the old behind, to reject the past and all its mistakes and compromises, and to show by example how the work should be done.