From NPR News in Washington, I'm Lakshmi Singh.

 

　　Under fire for the disclosion is the National Security Agence has been collecting the phone records of millions of Americans. NPR’s Carie Gorsion reports the Attorney General try to reassure Senate lawmakers about the program in testimony today.

 

　　Eric Holder told lawmakers he couldn’t say much about highly classified daily collection program. But the Attorney Gerneral says the issues should come as “no big surprise” on Capitol Hill.

 

　　“Remember it Congress have been fully briefed as this issues, matters have been underway.”

 

　　To which Maryland’s Democrat Barbara Mikulski says” This fully brief is something that drives us up a wall.” Republicans and Democrats on the Senate Appropriations Panel say they want more details in this close session to be sure the government is overreaching and violenting people’s privacy. Carie Gorsion NPR News, Washington.

 

　　The House Oversight Committee is holding a hearing looking into an inspect general’s reports on the excessive spending on conferences by the IRS. NPR’s Tamara Keith reoprts one focus of this hearing have been videoproduced for 2010 conference in Anaheim, California.

 

　　There’s a report shows the IRS spent over 4 millions dollars on that one conference, but estimated 50, 000 dollars was going to produce the parody videos including one with Star Trek theme. A leisure comes in as the ranking member of the committee. "I swear to God, I have looked at that video over and over again and, I swear, I do not see the redeeming value,"

 

　　It left the committee chairman Darrell Issa with some questions. “What were you thinking? Were you thinking this will never be seen? Or were you thinking, 'How will this look when it is seen?'"

 

　　He was asking Faris Fink, the commissioner of the IRS division that held the conference.

 

　　"They are embarrassing and I regret the fact that they were made," and he said videos like that wouldn’t be made now. Tamara Keith, NPR news, the Capitol.

 

　　President Obama is in a middle school in Mooresville, North Carolina, pledging to help the digital learning to US classrooms.

 

　　“Today I’m directing the Federal Communication Commission which is the FCC, to begin a process that would connect 99% of American students the high speed broadband Internet within 5 years. We get 5 years, and we wanna get it down.”

 

　　Obama says far fewer US students can connect to high-speed Internet compared with other nations.

 

　　Democratic US representative John Dingell of Michigan is reaching a mount stone. At the tomorrow he will be the longest-serving member in Congress. @@ began his career more than half a century ago. Dingell told NPR about one of his proudest moment.

 

　　“The single vote that the most important and the one of most classics in my job was the vote and fight that I participated in to get the Civil Rights Act in 1964 @@ in the law.”

 

　　He serves the people in Michigan for 67 years 5 months and 25 days.

 

　　It’s NPR’s

 

　　The pubilc is paying its final respcet this hour to the late Senator Frank Lautenberg who died this week from viral pneumonia. This afternoon, an honor guard carried the New Jersey lawmaker’s coffin up the steps of US Senate where he served nearly 30 years. Though he missed the number of votes, this year due to health problems, Democrat returned to Senate with a wheelchair for vote on a gun legislation. At 89, Lautenberg was the chamber’s oldest member and Senate’ last survival World WarⅡveteran.

 

　　Historic flood-reaching havoc in cities and towns across the central Europe. Many of this in Germany. NPR’s Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson reports from Berlin, residents and emergency crews work through the night to bolster the riverbanks and build sandbag barriers as flood water has killed 16 people wodnorth.

 

　　@@ told German Public Radio that he is one of many volunteers in city of Halo who came to reinforce areas’ riverbanks.

 

　　He said I’ve never done something like this but we never had this happen, either. Some 30,000 Halo residents were told to evacuate. In the eastern German city of Dresden, sandbags and barriers are piled to hold as the water peaked, sparing its damage of a mass flood 11 years ago. The situation in the Bavarian town of Deggendorf remained critical as another levee bursted and @@ engulfed entire neighborhood. Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson, NPR news, Berlin.

 

　　Before the closing bell, DOW is up 80 points, at 15,051. NASDAQ up 23, at 3424. S&P 500 also up 13. It is NPR.