SOTU: President Obama vowed last night in his State of the Union message to pull an end-around on an obstructive Congress with executive actions. He said he will increase the minimum wage for federal contract workers from $7.25 to $10.10 an hour and create a way for low-income Americans to save for retirement. He said, “So wherever and whenever I can take steps without legislation to expand opportunity for more American families, that’s what I’m going to do.” He can’t do a lot without legislation, but it’s part of his effort to close the gap of what he calls “income inequality” in which a small percentage of Americans control a majority of wealth. The president also told stories about the success of healthcare reform and defended it from Republican efforts to kill Obamacare saying, “I know that the American people aren’t interested in refighting old battles.” 

Sexual Congress: During the State of the Union week when both parties lay out their goals for the year, the congressional Republicans have passed a bill to make it more difficult for women to obtain an abortion. HR7, the “No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act”, would forbid abortions in federal facilities and prohibit federal employees from performing the procedure. It would also forbid an abortion covered by a federally subsidized Obamacare insurance policy.

Climate Change: A rare deep South winter storm has brought ice, snow, clogged roads and closed schools from South Texas and Louisiana to Virginia. It snowed in Atlanta and some Georgia school children had to spend the night at school. Some highways are paved with stuck vehicles. The governor has sent the National Guard to help stranded people. In Washington DC, the National Gallery closed its skating rink because someone decided it was too cold to skate. New Orleans, 29, Atlanta, 16. It’s all part of an arctic system that’s freezing people’s butts in the upper Midwest. Fargo, 1, Duluth, minus 7, Chicago, 6, Boston, 17.

Huddle: The Northwestern University football team has filed papers to unionize. If they are successful, they would effectively become employees of the university, able to bargain for injury-related medical care and a share of income from broadcast rights. The NCAA is not thrilled with the idea.

Buried Past: The remains of 55 bodies have been dug up at the Dozier School for Boys, a reform school in the Florida panhandle that closed in 2011. It was 24 more bodies than official records said were buried there. The Tampa Bay Times reported that bodies were found under a road, a tree and spread in the nearby forest. Three hundred men sent to the school as children have testified about horrific treatment and how some of their schoolmates simply disappeared from the school in the 1950s and 60s.

Final Note: Thieves in suburban Milwaukee disabled a musician with a stun gun and took the 300-year-old Stradivarius violin he had just played at a concert. The “Lipinski Stradivarius”, made in 1715 and worth millions of dollars, was on loan to violinist Frank Almond, as is often the case with instruments of that value. Stolen Strads usually show up, even if it takes years. The marking on their tiger maple backs identify them like a fingerprint.

The Thrill That’ll Getcha: Pope Francis is on the cover of Rolling Stone Magazine.

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