Iowa caucuses results delay, State of the Union, winter weather: 5 things you need to know Tuesday

Editors, USA TODAY
·5 min read

Iowa Democratic Party says delayed caucus results expected 'later today'

After a long and wild day, the results of the Iowa Democratic caucuses were delayed Monday night, with the state party citing "inconsistencies" in the results being reported from precincts. It also blamed the delay on the party reporting three sets of data for the first time. Iowa Democratic Party (IDP) Chair Troy Price told reporters early Tuesday that the IDP was manually verifying all precinct results and that, "We expect to have numbers to report later today." Price repeated the party's early assertion that the technical glitch with the system "is a reporting issue not a hack or an intrusion." Nonetheless, the glitch led to a strange evening which included candidates giving late speeches before jetting off to New Hampshire, unsure where they finished in the state's race. President Donald Trump weighed in, calling it the "sloppiest train wreck in history." Price's comments followed criticism from some campaigns, notably former Vice President Joe Biden's who called the reporting problems "acute failures."

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President Trump's State of the Union: An agenda for 2020

Sure, the Senate is holding an impeachment trial, but White House officials say President Donald Trump will seek to strike an upbeat tone when he delivers his State of the Union before a joint session of Congress on Tuesday night (9 p.m. EST). Trump has dubbed the annual address speech, "the Great American Comeback." "We’re going to talk about the achievements that we’ve made," he told Fox News host Sean Hannity in a Super Bowl Sunday interview. Trump plans to renew a call for tax breaks designed to provide more scholarships for students to attend private schools, two sources familiar with the address told USA TODAY. The president's emphasis on school choice – a popular issue with his core supporters – will be part of a speech in which the president is also likely to discuss the economy and trade, working families, health care, immigration and national security.

Winter weather returns: Storm wallops West, heads to Central, Eastern US

A potent winter storm that dumped heavy snow on the Rockies Monday will crawl toward the central and eastern U.S. the rest of the week, forecasters say. After moving away from the Rockies on Tuesday, the storm will produce a band of snow and ice from the southern Plains to the interior Northeast over the next few days, the National Weather Service said. In the South, heavy rainfall, localized flooding and severe thunderstorms are forecast Tuesday through Thursday. "Rainfall amounts of 1 to 3 inches are forecast in a swath through Arkansas, the boot heel of Missouri, and into Kentucky and the Tennessee Valley through Wednesday evening," the weather service said. "There is some potential for flash flooding where heavy rainfall occurs in these areas." Also, due to 2020's wet start, rainfall rates will not need to be exceptionally high to produce a flash flood risk, AccuWeather warned.

Weinstein accuser expected to return to stand after sobbing in court

Disgraced movie mogul Harvey Weinstein's sex-crimes trial will continue Tuesday as defense lawyers will resume their cross-examination of accuser Jessica Mann after she left the courtroom sobbing inconsolably Monday afternoon. Mann, 34, is a key accuser in the case as Weinstein, 67, is charged with raping her in a New York City hotel room in 2013, along with sexually assaulting another woman, Miriam "Mimi" Haleyi, in 2006. On Monday, one of Weinstein's lawyers, Donna Rotunno, repeatedly asked Mann, a former actress, why she continued sending friendly, seemingly loving emails to the ex-producer, even after he allegedly raped her. Her testimony took an emotional turn, when Rotunno asked Mann to read a spring 2014 email to her boyfriend at the time. In the email, she described a "controlling" relationship with Weinstein, calling him a father figure to her. She also wrote that Weinstein "validated me in ways my parents never did."

Jessica Simpson's life is an 'Open Book' in new memoir

Jessica Simpson reveals she was sexually abused as a child and later overcame alcohol and drug addictions in "Open Book," her new memoir out Tuesday. The pop-star-turned entrepreneur, 39, writes that the abuse began at a family friend's house when she was 6. She didn't tell her parents until she was 12. "I was the victim but somehow I felt in the wrong," she writes. The abuse coupled with stress over her career led her to become dependent on alcohol and drugs. She got sober in 2017 with the help of therapy. "Giving up the alcohol was easy," she wrote. "I was mad at that bottle. At how it allowed me to stay complacent and numb."

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Iowa caucuses delay, State of the Union: 5 things to know Tuesday