Voters listen to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton during at a rally in Cedar Rapids, Iowa on Saturday, January 30, 2016. (Photo by Melina Mara/The Washington Post)
TODAY'S THE DAY IN IOWA: Microsoft� ��s technology will be put to the test in Iowa Monday when it's used to tally the results of the Iowa caucuses. "Both the Republican and Democratic parties in Iowa have expressed strong confidence in Microsoft, dismissing late suspicion of corporate influence from the campaign of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) early last week," The Hill reports[1]. "Party officials have said no errors have been spotted in caucus dry runs. But the Sanders campaign has created its own backup reporting system, as has the Hillary Clinton campaign … Only four years ago, the Iowa Republican Party suffered an embarrassment with its caucus reporting when Mitt Romney appeared to be the winner for weeks, only for the f inal tally to show a narrow victory for Rick Santorum."
TEACH THE KIDS: President Obama announced he will seek $4 billion in funding to expand computer science education from kindergarten to 12th grade. "That funding, if approved, would be available to any state that offered a comprehensive five-year plan to get quality computer science courses in more schools. Funds would be doled out to those states over a three-year period. The plan also calls for $100 million in grants specifically for school districts that can provide new ideas for expanding computer science education to all students — including minorities," the Verge reports[2].
DELICATE TERRITORY: The House Judiciary Committee will hold a closed-door hearing Tuesday on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Amendments Act, a law that has been steeped in controversy since former NSA contractor Edward Snowden revealed bulk data collection by the NSA. "Civil liberties groups are unhappy with the committee's decision to hold the hearing in private. Twenty-five groups, including the Electronic Frontier Foundation, American Civil Liberties Union, the Government Accountability Project and the Center for Democracy and Technology wrote a joint letter to committee leadership urging them to open the hearing to the public," the Morning Consult reports[3].
