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 …

Wendy Davis hits back at Bristol Palin  —  Texas gubernatorial hopeful Wendy Davis brushed off criticism about her life story from Bristol Palin, saying that nothing Palin accused her of was true.  —  Davis was responding to a blog post from the daughter of former Gov. Sarah Palin …

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.

America's Most Successful Communist  —  It was no surprise last year when rock stars, led by Bruce Springsteen, barnstormed battleground states for John Kerry, and no surprise that, save for a handful of country singers, George W. Bush could count on no similar support from pop performers.

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.

Christine Whitman recalls her 1995 GOP State of the Union response  —  Former New Jersey Gov. Christie Whitman during a walk-through of her response to President Clinton's State of the Union Address, at the state Assembly chambers in Trenton, N.J. (Charles Rex Arbogast / Associated Press / January 23, 1995)

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.

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.

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 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 …

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 California Supreme Court's cruel, self-righteous decision to reject the disgraced journalist's bar application.  —  Stephen Glass, the disgraced New Republic journalist, and once my friend, lied to me most of the times we spoke.  My wife Hanna Rosin was one of his closest confidantes at the New Republic …

Kain Colter starts union movement … For the first time in the history of college sports, athletes are asking to be represented by a labor union, taking formal steps on Tuesday to begin the process of being recognized as employees, ESPN's “Outside The Lines” has learned.

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.

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 …