1. Obama to raise minimum wage for federal contractors

2. The White House revealed on Tuesday that President Obama will issue an executive order to increase the minimum wage for new federal contract workers. The action will cover all workers employed under future government contracts, ensuring that none is paid less than $10.10 an hour. In a fact sheet announcing the action, the White House highlighted several occupations that will be helped by the move, including kitchen and laundry workers on military bases, as well as janitors at federal buildings and construction workers at government building sites. Included in Tuesday’s announcement was a call for Congress to pass an increase in the minimum wage nationwide. The proposal would raise the minimum wage for all workers in stages, ultimately reaching $10.10 an hour. The president has made wages and economic inequality a central theme of his second term in office, raising the issue repeatedly and is the reason for the push on a minimum wage increase.

3. In Other News The President is scheduled to deliver his fifth State of the Union address tonight. Lawmakers in Kiev voted Tuesday to repeal sweeping anti- protest laws whose passage this month angered demonstrators and helped plunge Ukraine into political crisis. The vote came only hours after Prime Minister Mykola Azarov announced he had submitted his resignation in a bid to ease the situation. Pete Seeger, the man considered to be one of the pioneers of contemporary folk music who inspired legions of activist singer-songwriters, died Monday. He was 94. Seeger's best known songs include "Where Have All the Flowers Gone," "Turn! Turn! Turn! (To Everything There Is a Season)" and "If I Had a Hammer (The Hammer Song).“