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.

56 Dems endorse Hillary for 2016  —  Fifty-six Democratic lawmakers say they would endorse Hillary Clinton for president if she launches a 2016 White House bid, according to a survey conducted by The Hill.  [SEE COMPLETE LIST]  —  Twenty-two congressional Democrats had already publicly endorsed Clinton.

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.

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.

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.

Andrea Mitchell: ‘Iran Was More or Less an American Ally’ Before Bush's ‘Axis of Evil’ Remark  —  MSNBC host Andrea Mitchell recalled on Monday some of the most impactful State of the Union addresses in the recent past, focusing primarily on George W. Bush's post-9/11 speech in which he called North Korea …

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.

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 …

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 …