>> welcome to al jazeera america. i'm jonathan betz with tonight's top stories. the american northeast has been preparing for the first snow storm of 2014. it should begin snowing in new york overnight and then move into new england. more than a foot of snow could fall. some areas in massachusetts have already closed schools for thursday and friday. you can now light up marijuana in colorado. out of state visitors can buy a quarter ounce, residents an ounce. now allowing openly gay scouts, in boy scouts.

the organization still bans gay troop leaders. insurance benefits under the affordable care act are now in effect. they cover insurance in state and federal exchanges before december 24th. so far more than 2 million people have signed up. former israeli prime minister ariel sharon's condition has been worse. 85-year-old last been in a coma since a stroke in 2006. i'm jonathan betz, consider this is next on al jazeera america. >> the government shutdown, the failed bowct rollout and a congress that seemed unwilling to do anything.

"consider this", a year filled with political disasters. will 2014 be the year that the american public holds its politicians accountable? will 2014 be as prosperous in the financial world? also, marvel looks to continue its box office domination. we'll tell you what movies to get excited about this year. and from the olympics in sochi to world cup in brazil 2014 is shaping up to be a big year in sports. happy new year, i'm antonio mora. things got especially bad in the summer with a scandal at the

nsa. a government shutdown in the fall. and then, the dismal rollout of obamacare. yale university's library gave its top spot on the list of quotes of 2013 to the president's apology on health care. >> with respect to the pledge i made that if you like your plan you can keep it. the way i put that forward unequivocally ended up not being accurate. >> and the first session of the 113th congress now holds the dubious distinction of being the least productive in recent history. it has all laid the groundwork for the important mid term elections that come up in 2014, so what should we expect in our new year? joining us is michael shuer. a correspondent for al jazeera america. and here in our studio is tom

daugherty, a political strategist, and political contribute to governor pataki. we do have the debt ceiling coming around on february 7th, that's the date we're looking towards, very close tot gop primaries that expect in march. do you expect any drama? >> yes. because paul ryan, the chairman of the budget committee in house, said we can't get nothing for raising the debt limit. well excuse me, what you're not getting is putting the full faith and credit of the united states at risk and you're averting a world financial crisis. that's your civic obligation as a legislator. that's the way to drive a cries i and we could see another one, if he intends to carry out that threat. >> well, let's look at exactly what congressman ryan had to say about the debt limit a couple of

weeks ago. >> we're going odecide what it is we can accomplish out of this debt limit fight. >> tom with him threatening another battle over the debt ceiling as bill said, what do republicans help to accomplishment? >> that crisis does not work very well for them. their numbers have steadily gone up as we focus on obamacare. we got through a nice budget deal with murray and ryan, there's a lot of talk and hopefully it will move quickly. >> do you think it will happen? >> i do think it will happen. boehner has had enough with the far right. he recognizes, that for many months, the full faith and credit of the american economy is on the line. we won't have the drama we had last time. >> we'll talk about boehner in a bit, bad for republicans boy, because of the government shutdown, they improved because of obamacare. president obama those numbers are ugly. starting the year with the

lowest approval ratings of his presidency. 55% disprove of his overall job performance. do you see him turning around those numbers in the new year? >> here's the thing antonio, it's hard to get much worse. i think of his perception with the launch of obamacare with the rollout are going to be -- it's hard for him to go lower than that barring some crisis that we can't foresee. but if we keep the context where it is right now at the beginning of december, john podesta came on board at the white house. i have a feeling we are going to see a big difference the way the white house messages. i see podesta taking charge of the way they spin this. and i think listen the president's approval rating is going to be largely dependent on his signature piece of

legislation, so signature it has got his name on it. election year is at least a good way to get it bashed or sell it. >> on that signature piece of legislation the numbers are even worse. only 34% approve of the way he handles it, 62% disprove. the numbers are clearly very low. the republican party is going okeep pressing the president on this. how do you see this pressing over the next few months? >> this is the gift that keeps on giving. the obama white house should not have are thrown that magic 7 million number on it. it's the ratio between healthy and sick enrollees. if that's out of proportion that will keep driving costs. rates shouldn't go up for a period of time, because it's the reinsurance of the insurance industry, based on obamacare. but they have put such numbers

on themselves they're going to find it hard themselves. >> the political liability, a time bomb, rate hikes for install businesses will start in october just before the mid term elections. the timing couldn't be any worse for democrats. >> that is certainly true. what's going to happen is that some small businesses are going to see their rates shoot up for insurance. they kept their plans for an extra year as the president allowed them to do. but in october they'll find their new rates, blame it on obamacare, a lot of small businesses will be paying more, some will be paying less. but you know what? we are only going ohear complaints. the business is whose rates are going to go up are going to have a hue and cry. have a big impression on voters. the people whose rates are not going to go up or maybe go down they're not going osay a word. >> dealing with obamacare it's already being widely used against democrats.

senator gene sh shehen. >> it will promote competition. >> the the facts, more than 20,000 new hampshire patients have had their coverage cancelled and obamacare offers only one insurer. if you like your are legislator you can keep her. if you don't, you know what to do. >> almost every race in 2014, jean shehe rvetionheen may faceg competitor. again michael, obamacare will be the weapon that republicans are going ouse until the november elections it's pretty clear. >> yeah and what the democrats really have to work on and i think tom would probably agree

is separating the obama from the care. these challengers are going to have to talk about how many people will be insured under the affordable care act, and i would guess you will see lots of democrats refer to it as the aca rather than the obamacare. you are not going omake it go away, you're going to have to embrace it. we're getting ahead of the game, antonio, what exists now with obamacare is what exists come election time and we've seen deadlines extended already. who knows if that october small business deadline is knot going to be extended to the following march, to keep it out of the election. there are things that could happen as well. what democrats have to charge themselves with, is mary landrie uf, is soabl who has put forth,.

>> she is one of the more embattled senators run running r reelection. do democrats have a solid chance of regairchg control of the senate? >> louisiana, west virginia, just to start of a, arkansas, alaska, north carolina, there are seven, six or seven races, republicans need to win 7. i think marylandrieu is in real trouble simply due to the fact they do not like the president down there. typical republican state, he voted for obamacare, it's going to come down to a race or two, i think the senate is 51-49 either way. >> bill, what do you think? >> this is the third or fourth licks where obamacare is the central issue. it doesn't go away for a large reason, it's a large part of the

american economy and affects everybody. i think what we'll see is probably republicans make some marginal gains in the house and they'll come very close to winning a majority in the senate. i agree it will be within one or two seats. >> michael, your prediction. >> i disagree with bill as far as the house, really astute observation that this is obamacare for the third straight time. when we're talking about obamacare i think it's going to be a really tight senate. i think montana is a senate race you have to look at now, it could actually come down to small senate races that they wouldn't ordinarily pay much attention to. it's not just about michigan mcconnell's race here. but the smaller states in montana, where there are open seats, democrats are going ohave to work a lot harder than they thought they were going ohave to work at this. in october we thought this was a slam dunk because of the way the

republican congress was behaving about the budget deal and about the debt ceiling. these things change very, very quickly. we have 11 months to work this out. >> and the republicans face some internal battles, including mitch mcconnell, who faces a challenge from the far right of the republican party and a lot of the races this year will deal from the fallout from the very public internal gop fight that house speaker john boehner famously ripped open in december. >> they pushed us into the fight to defund obamacare and to defund government. most of you members know that wasn't exactly the strategy i had in mind. if you recall the day before the government reopened one of the people, one of these groups stood up and said well, we really didn't think it would work. are you kidding me? >> are you kidding me? tom, what do you think, guide these tea party challenges, do

you think the establishment republicans are gaining the upper hand now? >> we needed the voice, the establishment republicans if that's the new term for myself, we needed to stand up and say, enough is enough. when we consider that john cosh and the senator from why texas isn't a conservative we shake our heads. when the senator has been there for ten years says, i don't need a 32-year-old staffer telling me i'm not a conservative, when he should look at my conservative vote being record. boehner is leading a charge and the republicans are acting in a responsible way and that's good for the republican party. >> i want quick predictions on many of these. michael, do you think there's any chance for immigration reform? >> i do think there's a chance for immigration reform because it behooves the republicans to do something about immigration reform.

it bee loofs the senators to start getting traction on this so i do think so. >> i see tom nodding agreement. bill? do you agree? >> it play not be citizenship, it may be a legalized status, a moderate position. >> tom, the minimum wage? >> i don't see movement on minimum wage. i think these have and have not conversations are going to continue but history has shown us that every time it's come up there are a lot of hardworking people that say i work very hard for what i have. it continues to divide. >> do you agree? >> i agree. you see frank wolf leave, you're not going to get the progress on those have and have not issues, that's right. >> i want you guys to make bold predictions. bill starting with you. anything happening this year? >> the economy will begin otake off but he may not have much political effect because of obamacare. the health care law will remain the problem because a lot of

young people are just not going to sign up until the last second. they're not going ohave to pay a penalty -- to have to pay a penalty until april of 2015. way down the line. they're not worried about that. >> tom. >> my prediction is like bill said, towards the election it's actually going to be a little bit better. but i think based on what i saw murray and ryan doing adeal together, chaos doesn't work for republicans, it doesn't work for democrats. they'll try to get immigration reform done next year. >> eric molder will leave his job early next year and that will change the affordable care act as well. >> that will make republicans happy. bill mike and tom, it's great to have you on the show. have a wonderful new year. coming up.

2013 was strong for financial institutions, what might 2014 are have for them?

judge the u.s. economy has been

struggling to recover from the recession, unemployment is dropping, at 7% now, but the fed says it could go as low as 6.3% in 2014. to add to the optimism, an independent provider of economic forecasting, moody's, thanks to the financial collapse of 2008, why all the optimism, let's ask the chief predictor for moody's analytics. mark zander. let's start with job growth. you actually think that faster job growth would, 5.25% by 2017. that means an awful lot of jobs. how many jobs every month is the u.s. going to have to add to make that happen? >> yes, right, i am optimistic. i think we'll create on average 250,000 jobs per month over the next several of years.

of course current job growth is about 200,000 per month so i do expect job growth to accelerate. in coming months. and in big part of that is related to my optimism about housing and housing construction. i think there will be a lot more jobs coming out of that part of the economy. >> let's talk housing then. the housing market has rebounded but there are still hundreds of thousands of foreclosures that are still out there. how big a part of the recovery is housing going to be? >> it's key. you're right. the only drag on housing at this point is that there's still a lot of loans that are in the foreclosure process. just to give you a number: 2.25 million homes are in foreclosure, over 90 days delinquent and will probably go into foreclosure. that's high. you would expect a million homes in that kind of predicament. we have to work through those. rapidly doing that, strong demand for those homes,

investors are scarfing up those homes. that's why housing is strong. but the reason for optimism is that the current level of home building is well, well below what we need just to house the households that are being formed. every year we get households formed from population growth and they've got to live somewhere. and for the last several years we haven't been building enough homes. so a year from now, certainly two years from now our big problem isn't going to be too much homes it's going to be a lack of housing. >> but an important part of housing recovery too has been that long term interest rates have stayed very, very low. that's helped the economic recovery in general. do you think the interest rates will continue to stay low? >> that's an interesting question. the key part to my optimism is rates the federal reserve has to manage if increase in interest

rates consistent with the unemployment, and rates to rise in general. if they can pull that off and i think they have all the tools and the will necessary to do that, if they can pull it off, we're fine, my optimism will come to pass. but you put your finger on the most significant threat to my optimism, that the they won't handle this as gracefully as i'm hoping. >> they started to taper back the quantitative easing, which means they are pumping money into the economy. they lowered it from $10 billion from the 85 billion of bonds they were purnsin purchasing evy month. that has been a very important part of keeping rates low and getting the economy going again. >> right antonio, i do expect the job market to improve and unemployment to decline. that would allow the federal

reserve to ease down the quantitative easing bond buying. i think by 2014 their bond purchase he will be over and the economy will be in good enough shape that they will start to allow short term interest rates to rise. hopefully the economy sticks trowfl that script and the fed is going to be able to manage interest rates as well. hopefully they will be able to do that, that is the crux of the matter, they have to get that roughly right. >> you brought up one other matter. consumer confidence is still close to all time lows. about 80% of americans still think we're in a recession. how big a bump in the road is that consumer confidence going to be? >> in general consumer confidence reflects the economy, doesn't drive it. whether you are going into a recession, or coming out of one then consumer confidence is very important. my sense is as rates go down, as

we see i expect of continued improvements in house prices and stock prices that consumer confidence will steadily believe and return to something close to normal. having said that, one of the long term problems we have in our economy is the folks in the top third of the distribution program, are doing fabulously well, they have jobs and income but the folks in the bottom third of the distribution, obviously struggling and so even in a good time going forward we're going to have that dichotomy and that's a problem that i think we need to address as a nation. >> i know you have some concerns about whether politicians will continue to behave and that that could be a problem to slow down the economy but you also bring up an issue that only the future will be able to give an answer to, the great recession undermined our economy's long term potential.

>> big question, yes, it did damage right, when you asked me the full unemployment rate before the recession, i would have said 5%, we would have to get to 5% before we thought we would be at full employment. as you noted from the first part of the conversation, i expect it to be 5.75%. i don't think the recession has fundamentally affected the economy's ability to grow. i do think we will be able to grow as fast in the future as we have experienced historically so i don't think that the underlying productivity growth or labor growth has been materially affected by the recession. but having said that, we need to watch the data because the data so far suggests that something more nefarious has gone on and

underlying growth has been affected. i don't think that will continue but it bears very close watching. >> let's hope that we have good economic news after so much bad news. mark zandy, great to talk to you, happy new year. economic forecast for 2014 and let's take a look at what news stories might come out of the business world. to tell us what trends and stories we should keep a look out for, we are joined by diane brady, a senior writer at bloomberg news. google glass, what about in trean will bring our attention? >> i think wearable devices is actually a transformative technology overall. you've got these people wearing their fit bits, an ekg that

monitors your heart rate, 23 and me where you spit in a test tube, you get back your dna, you basically can get a full genetic prophile, the fda is nervous about some of these issues, but i think we'll see more personalized health care. >> wearable technologies, can i do an ekg on myself? >> you. >> you can. it can pick up 90% of the heart attacks detected in an emergency room can now be tracked on your iphone. you can monitor your heart rate and your sleep. as that gets connected to the internet they take much more control of their health care. you'll see communities form around some of these different diseases which sounds of course not the kind of party you'd want to go to. what that will do --

>> provide support. >> provide research, part of the broader trend, people call it the internet of things. the best way to think about it is all the people who have connected to the internet, think about machines connecting to the internet, we're talking about 50 billion to 500 billion all these sensors on products, will transform our health and homes that can adjust to the weather, that can in many ways transform manufacturing and health care. we're already seeing it happen and i think that's going to be the big trend for next year. >> certainly transform many of the things we do in our lives. how do we think technology will already become more important? >> 3d printing, what's the most important part of 3d printing, instead of having parts sitting there, you can print parts.

you can actually print going forward potentially to get back to health care, limbs, hearts, i mean there's no end to where this can go. but in the immediate term right now, what it's doing to manufacturing is, you're having machines talk to each other. it makes for smarter plants, you know smarter manufacturing lines, but in 3d printing as well you're seeing that really lower the cost significantly. so all the big players out there, this is the kind of disruption they worry about but it's also the kind of technology they can take advantage of. >> they can really take advantage of of course, let's look at a little part of the negative side. any industries any companies that might have trouble next year? >> i think there's a lot. i think microsoft is one we're going to watch. we still don't know at this point. but what's going to be happening with steve ballmer and who replaces him, we have seen many giants fall. but microsoft is one that's very vulnerable right now. we are all using our phones,

we're not really using our pcs anymore maybe our tabilities. tablets. i think people are curious to see if microsoft can get out of this intact, stronger or if they're going to be one of the casualties. >> we saw the microsoft nokia this year, and the consolidation of american airlines. will we see more consolidation in 2014? >> kudos to u.s. airways and american for essentially pulling victory out of the jaws of failure because that deal was not popular with the government, as you know not popular with consumers necessarily but i think the airline industry has pretty much consolidated certainly in the u.s. you could see more in the internet space, there are many more companies there, 3d manufacturing, i think you'll see more acquisitions, you'll

see more industrial players, they're starting to free up their cash, the deep freeze in washington has started to that you, they are sitting o on mountains of cash. what will they spend it on, spend it on other companies. >> and people protesting how low their wages were. >> more than a dozen states have raised the minimum wage. i think there's a recognition that this is a wage that has essentially not budged for a decade. people work full time and still can't afford the basic needs of life. on the top end the 1%ers not so much protest, much more on taxation and the recognition that the income gap is unsustainable in this country and going forward we have to narrow it if we're going ostay

competitive. so all sides i think recognize that it's gotten to the situation where it's unfair. >> only have a few seconds left. any bold predictions for 2014? >> any bold predictions? i do think that the internet of things is something to watch. the network is powerful and the technology now is something that will transform how we live our lives and we'll see a lot more power in the consumer over health care, over printing our own toys, our own devices. i think it's a very exciting time. >> diane brady, senior editor at bloomberg business week. very happy to have you join us and have a happy new year. >> happy new year to you too. >> bill wyman and ben mankowitz will join me.

a. >> a new year means a fresh start in culture and it looks like a blockbuster for films. >> every day i wake up knowing

that the more people i try to save, the more enemies i will make. and it's just a matter of time. before i face those with more power than i can overcome. >> the amazing spiderman 2 is one of several big sequels on the way. and let's get the low down on all things culture from bill wyman, and ben mankowitz, host on turner classic movies and the film review online, what the flick. bill, spiderman 2 just one of a host of sequels open the way. what have we -- on the way. just a trend of these total franchises seems to be a bigger and bigger deal in hollywood. >> thanks for having me antonio. as usual it's a tsunami of

sequels that we will be seeing. start coming up with the list, i gave up after hitting 25 or so. major sequels, these are major sequels not just crappy horror films. in 2013, we've got the seventh fast and furious, gets to be a ridiculous number, second or fifth spiderman, we have to take into account reboots. and mergings like the avengers where you have the iron plan, avenger and captain america, and the crazy things where you have avengers and iron men training your hobbits. or something of that nature. >> remakes we have coming out we have got godzilla, noah, about

noah's arc, it goes on and on. rorobo cop, does hollywood have anything left? >> of the 100 best reviewed movies of 2013 what you will see is mostly original ideas. if you assume that original idea is an idea taken from a book or a play. i mean hollywood in a sense has never been a place for original ideas but the mere act of taking somebody else's art be it a novel or a story or an article or a play and then turning it into this motion picture, that's an original idea itself. the sequels, the first, they are all essentially sequels, hollywood has been doing that forever too. but we forget that most of the fs maltese falcon was a remake

way back in 1941. >> that's true but it's gotten worse with these remakes and these sequels. let's talk about these films that haven't been done before. there are some big block busters coming up. one is a big sci-fi film bill. >> inception made a lot of money two or three years ago. probably the highest grossing movie that actually was an original movie, we've probably seen in the last ten years so people like me have high hopes for that one. >> interstealth lar and that's matthew macona imrvetionhey. >> and that has a christopher nolan tie in as well. that's his first debut as a feature film director.

>> so ben we're in the thick of the academy awards season i'm going to get some predictions from you guys. what do you think will take home the best picture award? >> well you know i was just looking over the odds. right now vegas doesn't have odds posted but off shorelines, 12 years a slave, gravity, and husbanding. these guys are seldom wrong of course the nominations haven't come out yet, a very important distinction. but beyond those three, captain phillips and saving mr. banks but those three, 12 years a slave, gravity and are savings mr. banks. i have these feelings there gravity is going to win out over 12 years a slave. beating out robert redford for

big actor. >> i'm a big fan of gravity, that's a beautiful cinematic experience, those odds, ben says it's early and the reason it's early the odds come out based on these awards we see over the last two months before the observation, we haven't seen -- oscars, we haven't seen them, wolf of wall street is just now beginning to get reviewed so things are a little fluid. 12 years a slave that's a movie that oscar should really like. i think graive gravity is pretth the movie experience of the year. i'm rooting for that as well. >> how about best actor and actress? >> that's an unforgettable massive titanic experience in that movie and it was a difficult role, bruce dern, i'm a big fan of him, after his career and his amazing life he

deserves a slots by the academy as well. >> actress ben? >> there's going to be a significant sentiment to give robert redford and oscar, but great needs, great deeds, great clips actors, peter o'toole died without winning an oscar, redford may die without one. i'm a jerk for speculating. i'm a jerk for a lot of reasons. >> i'm the one who's making you speculate. >> i think best actress is as much of a lock as we can get, as bill said when the golden gloaps and the critics choice and the producers start chiming in, that said, since her movie came out is cate blanchette. >> you agree?

>> i'm skeptical but i think her movie is pretty memorable. the critics for some reason they love woody allen even though he spurns them for decades now. none of these sequels are showing up in any of these categories. it just shows you this away we'vweefd talked about before. the awards season in hollywood is a completely different one, making the 19 of the top grossing 20 miefs. >> and the awards snubbed oprah do you think the academy awards will give her a nomination? >> i'll be curious to see what happens at the ceremony. the oscars and the golden globes have mis-hit in the past. last year ben affleck left out of an oscar nomination and he swept all the other awards.

it strikes me that the academy as a bod as a group more likely to honor her than the golden globes but you know if she just would have called and told the golden globes she'd come, they probably would have nominated her. that's frequently how they work, that's what i've heard, i'm not sure. >> bill, what's coming back that we can look for? homeland just ended, they've wiped the slate, i don't want to spoil this for people who haven't seen it but they made a move in the final episode that some people thought needed to be made much earlier. >> season 3 was deadly. >> i didn't think so, i thought it was six or seven episodes that were great. better than the previous season. the drama week to week was so intense they couldn't have

possibly lived up to that. but i have a faith in those writers and the creators of that show that now with the ability to do whatever they want and give us the stuff i think we love, which is not love ironically but the spying, we like the spying, we like the cia stuff. >> the mandy patthnkin stuff. >> house cards is great. we have got downton abbey coming back. madmen ends its run and true blood too. >> i think they'll go out pretty much on top unlike several other shows. madmen is exploring the dark recesses. can i mention a couple of new dramas coming up? if you're a big fan of these amc

shows, there's a movie called stop and catch fire, takes place in the computer industry in the '80s and that has some really great early buzz. i'm anxious to see that buzz, and there's some really are great juicy earl ones, i think tv industry end -- >> let me correct myself, amadmen has a split season, it doesn't technically end this year. go on ben. >> they will give us eight whe episodes. how much telephone has come, true detective this hbo series has matthew mcconahegh ais

likely to get an award for dallas buyers club. and the return of two other fx shows, phenomenal and needs to be recognized by the emmys, the golden globes everybody. >> there's a big change in late night, jay leno stepping down against his will, jimmy fallon taking his place. late night will be different. >> it sure will. i have a lot of respect for david letterman. that guy has kept true to his quirky genius. he's making fun of the jimmies that are making railway around him. his mother is asking which jimmy are you. the ratings are going down year

after year, they're doing what they can. but we may be getting to the point where the late night broadcast tv the genius is over. >> i'm not sure these changes matter at all in the big picture. these networks clearly try to get younger and jimmy fallon and jimmy kimmel, i sat in to kind of guest lecture, that makes me sound more important than i am, journalism class this year, and these kids who are all future journalism students hopefully working in the business not one of them owned a television and none of them watched the late night shows, none of them watched the nightly news which seemed odd for journalism students. i don't think they're going orun out around buy televisions because seth meyers has a show.

>> bill and ben, thank you for joining us tonight. >> thanks antonio. >> and strait ahead from the olympics to the world cup. dave zyron joins us to give us his predictions for 2013. -- 2014. why.

>> today's data dive rings in the number. about a million people who will have about 10,000 pounds of confetti dropped on them by midnight. about a billion is expected to watch the ball drop. since 1911 times square has celebrated all but two years during world war ii. are direct view to watch the ball and your savings drop.

new year's eve parties at clubs are expensive the average tab at clubs cost $75. champagne flies off the shelf. celebrations stretch around the world from another million people lining sydney's harbor in australia to the four day celebration in edinborough, scotland. in paris, france the city of lights, revelers line the champs elyse. >> one in four will fail within the week, less than half of them will keep their resolutions six weeks later. 22% of those surveyed said they expect to be fast asleep before

midnight. coming up, what will the year ahead bring for sports world? we'll check everything from the olympics to the world cup to american football. >> start with one issue education... gun

>> looking forward into this new year of sports, two of the

world's largest sporting events will take place and both are surrounded by controversy. will the olympics go smoothly or will russia's stance on gay rights and the possible protests overshadow the games? and will brazil be able to pull off a successful world cup? we are joined from silver spring maryland by dave zyron, author of game over. dave, good to see you. happy new year, what do you think is going ohappen at sochi, will we see a john los and tommy smith moment this time for the lgbt community? >> we'll see something at sochi, i have no doubt about that whatsoever. will it look like 1968, will it be people raising hands in the air? will it be the color of

somebody's finger nails? could it be billie jean king part of the delegation from the united states that will be there saying something or doing something? could it be something that happens off the athletic field, several marches at sochi by activists? >> let's talk about the world cup, do you think brazil with all the problems it's been having and the protests down there will it be able to put on a successful tournament? >> it will put on a successful tournament, no doubt about it, if there's something brazil can do is be able to put on a successful party. how militarized will the country have to be? the security preparations wow, it's going to be wild. there are going to be seclusion zones around the stadium, there's going to be unarmed drones flying overhead, cameras

everywhere you look. so i do think there will be protests in brazil. the question is, how long will they last before they're swooped up and entirely put somewhere else. >> 2013 gave us one of the biggest scandals, concussions, where will the story go in 2014? >> the story is going to be largely squelched because the nfl was able to many many indemnify itself. that's something very possible. you've already seen several members of the kansas city chiefs take the tactic of suing that team individually instead of suing the nfl as a whole, see if individual players adopt that. i don't think that story will go nymph because there are too many players damaged an that is going

oresult in more litigation. >> will we see a day whether these players are free from these dangers or is it something to accept? >> it's like finding a doughnut that doesn't make us fat. >> call me whether you find that doughnut right? >> or those cigarettes that don't cause cancer. it's fantasy land. i think the future is going to be more about trying to get players actually sign release forms before they're able to play for nfl teams, i think that's where it's going. >> you've been outspoken about the serious ongoing controversy about the name of the washington redskins. 2013 was a big year, along with 61 religious leaders and even president obama spoke out against the name. a thousand people protested

outside a redskins game, will 2014 be the year the name changes? >> no, it won't. because dan schneider, the owner of the washington football team, who is only slightly less popular than congress in this town, which is a real issue, in his immediate presence on on their television and him standing by this name with both feet, saying you'll take this name from me in my cold dead hands. you'll get that ruled upon, whether it should not be used in public places or get lined, if that took place it would be so much of a dramatic chop into the profit margins that might be something that starts to trigger a more serious conversation about a name change. >> let's go down a list of some 2014 predictions. who will win the super bowl.

>> before the season started i picked seattle, no reason to stray from that now. >> no peyton manning? >> cold weather and the playoffs don't mix. >> will roger federer be able to play another grand slam? >> absolutely roger federer will win wimbledon this year, and will go to the strings and say next year, and saying 2014 will be my last year. >> i have a 14-year-old who is praying that you are right. >> will lebron do a threepeat? >> i'm make predictions, that he will finish with the cleveland cavaliers. >> are you serious? >> i'm making predictions.

>> and the world cup? >> ghana, and the united states will make the quarter finals of the world cup. >> auburn or florida state? >> without exception, auburn, florida state has got a lot of bad mojo, a lot of bad karma. >> jameis winston and the allegations -- >> so much beyond jameis winston yes. >> there were eight suspensions in baseball for performance enhancing drugs. what is the predictions for 2014? >> bud selig's knowledge last year. he will want to go out with a are bang.

>> robinson canoe, and last in the dynasty? >> look for yankees to come in last in the nl east. >> finally any bold out of left field predictions other than lebron declaring free agency? >> the story beyond lebron going to cleveland, beyond the political imemployees of the sochi olympics will be serena williams challenge any member of the top 25 men's tennis tour, becominbecoming the biggesting n the history of the organization. glk happy new year. this story may be over, but you can also find us on twitter at

ajconsiderthis, have a very happy new year. >> hello, welcome to al jazeera america. i'm jonathan betz in new york. the new year begins with a blizzard, havoc at airports, millions facing snow and freezing temperatures. >> in harm's way, an american couple in south sudan determined to stay and protect orphaned children. the latest from the war-torn country. >> lighting up and lining up - colorado stores selling marge -- marijuana. >> and remembering the photographers who