10 things you need to know today: January 29, 2014

Obama vows to act with or without Congress, the South faces a winter weather emergency, and more

Obama State of the Union
(Image credit: (Pool/Getty Images))

1. Obama says he will go it alone on the economy if Congress won't act

President Obama declared in his State of the Union address Thursday night that he would act on his own to boost the economy if Congress failed to act due to partisan gridlock. Starting what he said would be a "year of action," Obama announced several initiatives, including an executive order raising the minimum wage for federal contractors from $7.25 an hour to $10.10, and the creation of a new retirement savings plan, MyRA, to let workers without 401(k)s make before-tax investments in U.S. bonds. [The New York Times, Bloomberg]

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Harold Maass, The Week US

Harold Maass is a contributing editor at The Week. He has been writing for The Week since the 2001 debut of the U.S. print edition and served as editor of TheWeek.com when it launched in 2008. Harold started his career as a newspaper reporter in South Florida and Haiti. He has previously worked for a variety of news outlets, including The Miami Herald, ABC News and Fox News, and for several years wrote a daily roundup of financial news for The Week and Yahoo Finance.