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What We’re Reading, January 12th

Here’s a selection of articles that we are reading this week.

Real Power – With Republicans having a veto-proof majority in neither the House nor the Senate, a rare breed of politician:  moderate Democrats will become one of the most powerful players in the new Congress. This group will have the ability to help the Republicans accomplish their agenda. Read about it at The Washington Post. As a follow up, read about the veto battles that will start kicking off this week with  the Keystone pipeline. Read more at The Hill.

Universities Dealing with Fraudulent HR Scam – The FBI has noticed and advised of a recent internet scam where employees receive an email from the HR departments indicating a change in their employment status. The emails encourage them to log in to a site similar to the HR site, where the scammers steal credentials and redirect checks, among other things. Read about it from the FBI.

GOP Is not Against Science – Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) and House Science Committee Chairman Lamar Smith (R-TX) had an op-ed published this week that outlines why the Republican part is not against science, but pro-useful spending of tax dollars. Read it at Politico.

Legacy Building – Looking at the last two years of his Presidency, Obama has made some powerful strides and has arguably done more in the policy arena than many of his predecessors, but how will history judge him? Read an analysis from New York Magazine.

French Kiss Off – President Obama and other senior administration officials were conspicuously absent from the march in Paris following their series of standoffs and shootings. Forty-four heads of state went to Paris this weekend to participate in the protest against terror. Only Attorney General Eric Holder was in Paris, for another event, and didn’t participate in the rally. Read more about the fallout here.

Cyber Insurance – As companies and industries become more aware of their network vulnerabilities the cyber insurance industry is booming. After every high profile attack, Sony being the most recent example, the cyber insurance industry experiences a huge increase, and it’s an industry that’s growing between 35-50% annually already. With every attack, companies are exposed to huge liabilities both financial, like the Experian breach, or losses that are hard to quantify, like the Sony breach. Read about it at The Hill.

A YEAR’S WORTH OF DEADLINES – This week, the Federal Register lists deadlines for colleges and universities applying for the Perkins loan program, work-study programs or the Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant. Read it here.

THE EFFECT OF GEAR UP: ACT is out with a new report on the effectiveness of the GEAR UP program, which provides six-year grants to states and partnerships to boost the number of students who enter and succeed in postsecondary education. Students who participated in a GEAR UP program run by the College and Career Readiness Evaluation Consortium were less likely than non-GEAR UP students from higher income backgrounds to pursue college preparatory courses in high school. But they were more likely to do so than their low-income peers not served by GEAR UP. ACT is using the study as a baseline for estimating the effect of GEAR UP on lower-income students in grades 7 through 12. The CCREC, by the way, is a partnership between 14 states, ACT and the National Council for Community and Education Partnerships. Read the ACT report here.