From the White House: "On Wednesday, February 29, President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama will host a dinner at the White House to honor our Armed Forces who served in Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation New Dawn and to honor their families.

"This dinner --- an expression of the nation's gratitude for the achievements and enormous sacrifices of the brave Americans who served in the Iraq War and of the families who supported them --- will include men and women in uniform from all ranks, services, states and backgrounds, representative of the many thousands of Americans who served in Iraq.

"The White House has been working with military and civilian leaders from the Department of Defense on this tribute, and will release more details regarding the dinner when they are available."

President Obama has signed new sanctions blocking property of the government of Iran and Iranian financial institutions.

In a memo to Congress, Obama says he's "determined that additional sanctions are warranted, particularly in light of the deceptive practices of the Central Bank of Iran and other Iranian banks to conceal transactions of sanctioned parties, the deficiencies in Iran's anti-money laundering regime and the weaknesses in its implementation, and the continuing and unacceptable risk posed to the international financial system by Iran's activities."

President Obama is renewing his call for Syria's Bashar al-Assad to step down -- citing the government's massacre Friday in Homs.

"Assad must halt his campaign of killing and crimes against his own people now," Obama said in a statement. "He must step aside and allow a democratic transition to proceed immediately."

Just in time for the rest of the caucuses and primaries, trading card manufacturer Upper Deck is releasing "World of Politics" trading cards featuring the presidential contenders: from still-in-the-running President Barack Obama, Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, Ron Paul and Rick Santorum to also-rans like Rick Perry and Herman Cain.

The California-based company says nine subjects will be featured in all: "With so much attention around the 2012 election, we thought it was only fitting to produce a set of cards that would help pay tribute to all the highs and lows of this presidential race by capturing the top candidates on cardboard," said Jason Masherah, Upper Deck's marketing veep. The cards will be released Feb. 21.

It's not Obama's first time on a trading card: the trading card company released a caricature of Obama after he won in 2008. 

President Obama today cited the surprisingly good unemployment numbers as proof that the economy is gaining steam -- and warned Congress not to "muck it up."

Speaking at a fire station in battleground Virginia, Obama called on Congress to pass a one-year extension of a payroll tax break -- "without drama, without delay." Obama hailed the 257,000 jobs added in January, but warned that the unemployment rate " will go up and down in the coming months.

"There's still far too many Americans who need a job or need a job that pays better...but the economy is growing stronger, the recovery is speeding up," Obama said.

"I want to send a clear message to Congress: Do not slow down the recovery that we're on. Don't muck it up," he said to applause. "Keep moving in the right direction."

Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., has emerged as one of the leading spokesman for the newest cultural war: Repealing the Obama administration’s plan to make some religious institutions, such as hospitals and universities, comply with federal law requiring all health plans to provide contraceptives without a copay.

Rubio introduced legislation this week that would repeal the federal health care requirement. His bill has the backing of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, today called the requirement unconstitutional. So did Rubio, in an interview with talk show host Laura Ingraham. Rubio said he hope President Barack Obama’s adminsitration would "realize that they have made a big, big mistake here."

One of the "most cherished constitutional principles, in fact one of the cornerstone ones when this country was founded and framed through the Constitution, was the issue of religious freedom," Rubio said. "And the notion that somehow the government of the United States could come in and not just force you to do it but, more importantly, force a religious organization to pay for something that religion teaches is immoral would be so beyond anything the framers could have imagined. And it's exactly the kind of thing they wanted to prevent when they enshrined that protection in the Constitution."

Rubio, who is Catholic, told Politico earlier today that he and his wife, who have four children, practice the official church policy, which bans contraception. "I can tell you that none of my children were planned," he told Politico.

They are likely in the minority among Catholics. In a well-cited study from this spring, the Guttmacher Institute found that among all women who have had sex, 99 percent have used a contraceptive method other than natural family planning. The number is "virtually the same among Catholic women," the study found, with 98 percent of Catholic women using birth control at some point in their lives.

Rubio called his legislation "a common sense bill that simply says the government can’t force religious organizations to abandon the fundamental tenets of their faith because the government says so."

Days after endorsing Newt Gingrich in the Florida primary, former GOP prez contender Herman Cain says he'll launch a $1 million money bomb to raise money for the former House Speaker, who has promised to repeal Obama's sweeping health care legislation.

In an e-mail, Cain repeats his charge that had he been diagnosed with colon and liver cancer when the Obama plan was enacted, he "would not have survived!

"The doctors needed to move quickly, and thank God they didn't have to cut through red tape to do it,' he says in an email, asking for contributions to Gingrich.

Politifact found his assertion "false" in September, noting "there there is no part of the health care law that allows a government bureaucrat to weigh in on an individual's course of treatment -- not Cain's nor anyone else's."

The Priorities USA Action super PAC and the Service Employees International Union say they're doubling efforts to "educate voters" about what they call the "two-faces" of Mitt Romney and his "unbelievably low 13.9 percent tax rate."

The efforts come in Spanish language radio ads in Florida and Nevada -- two states with large numbers of Hispanic voters. Priorities USA Action launched a new ad today in Tampa and Orlando, and SEIU launched a new ad in Las Vegas and Reno. 

The Romney camp calls the ads a "dishonest smear from President Obama's liberal allies and a desperate attempt to distract from his abysmal record.

"It will do nothing to help the millions of Hispanics who have been hit especially hard as a result of the Obama economy," said campaign spokesman Amanda Henneberg.

The ads highlight the tax rate Romney pays, charging him with "accusing immigrants of coming to this country to look for handouts," while benefitting from a "massive handout

"On the one hand, Romney is a multimillionaire who pays an unfairly low tax rate," the ad says. "But on the other hand, he accuses hard working immigrants of being opportunistic, declaring that they’re just here looking for handouts."

It then plays a clip of Romney saying "A lot of people just come here or come across the border that have no skill, no education, and are looking for, for a free deal."

The White House sked says President Obama will deliver remarks at campaign events Tuesday night -- at the St. Regis Hotel in Washington and at a private residence.

He's scheduled to give the remarks at the hotel at 7:15 -- most of the Florida polls close at 7 p.m., though the Panhandle precincts are open until 8 p.m. EST. It's possible the Florida winner will be known by the time he speaks at the private home at 9:10 p.m.

Republican voters still aren't crazy about their potential presidential nominees, according to a new Pew Reserach Center poll.

52 percent of GOP and GOP-leaning registered voters said the field is fair or poor. 46 percent have positive views of the field.

The survey was conducted Jan. 26-29 among 1,006 adults, including 341 Republican and Republican-leaning registered voters.

A month ago, just before the Jan. 10 New Hampshire primary, 51 percent gave the field excellent or good ratings. 44 percent rated it fair or poor.

The poll also found that more voters thought President Barack Obama understood the problems of average Americans more than top Republican contenders Mitt Romney or Newt Gingrich. 55 percent said the president understood them very or fairly well.

But 39 percent thought Romney understood well, and 36 percent felt that way about Gingrich.