older, then it's going to cause all kind of problems with respect to the balance , and in future years insurance companies this is al jazeera america. will 1.3 million people have their unemployment benefits restored? the senate back in session today to make the call. in danger of slipping backward, fighting in iran today unlike what we've seen in years.

>> as many as 140 million americans are affected by the freezing temperatures. in chornlings, alaska whic anch, which is used to the cold, and chicago it was negative 18°. wind chills up to negative 45! and the effects are widespread. minnesota's governor has ordered all schools closed today, and ifneindianapolis, has made it illegal for anyone to drive unless it's an emergency. usher kareshi, how dangerous are those conditions outside? >> well tony, we're seeing

temperatures below minus 10 and minus 15. residents are being told if they do not have to go outside they should not go outside. that is something authorities have been stressing for a long time now. we did hear also from the city that they were announcing the chicago public schools which were closed today will be closed once again on tuesday, closed for all 400,000 students. they are taking this very, very seriously and telling people to watch how much exposure they have outside. at loyola medical center, we talked about some of those exposures and how much they've seen here and surprisingly there haven't been many. this is what he had to say. >> i think this is a great example of how we've prepared ourselves for these types of events to occur. in the past we would be deluged with it but now we are very proactive. you saw the city come out, you saw the office of emergency

management get the word out, establishing warming shelters, getting the word like your organization is doing today. those are wonderful things to help people be proactive rather than reactive. >> reporter: and tony, that is ski. that is what everyone is stressing today. it is the good news. we've spoken to other medical centers around the area and they are mrs. saying that they have not -- they are also saying they have not seen a lot of cases with weather related injuries, that word is getting out, they hope this will continue as the arctic snap continues for at least another day tony. >> usher, how fast can a person develop frostbite in these temperatures? >> reporter: well, in these temperatures what we understand from noaa, for example, any exposed skin can freeze, within minutes. it's extremely important to

throw fashion out the window and cover yourself up if you are going to be out, and if you are shivering, one of the signs you should be careful about, get into a washing place even if it's for a little while, warm up before you go back out. >> usher, stay in, stay warm. the bitter cold of chicago and the midwest is making its way east and south. meteorologist dave warren is here. will you please explain the new term of art, whatever it is, polar vortex? >> i didn't make it up. it means very cold air, polar, up near the poles, which is very cold near the arctic, north pole, spinning is this vortex and every so often you get the spin of cold air moving rapidly to the south. this is where you get the vortex spinning. located right over the great

lakes, bitter cold air, bringing in colder air, increasing the wind because it's a powerful storm and that will drop the wind chills. so it's around here and will continue to move to the east. that core of cold air, notice how the colors change a little bit. it can't stay that color for long. wednesday and thursday it's over the great lakes and pushing up over new england. still 24 to 48 more hours of this bitter-cold air. 12 below minneapolis, 12 below chicago. that wind has picked up. here is what it feels like down to 40 below in minneapolis and chicago. quickly you get frostbite or hypothermia. >> be careful! thank you dave. see you a little later. vacation is over for president and congress. first up for members of the senate a vote that could restore long term unemployment benefits. on december 28th an emergency program to help the jobless

expired. cutting off benefits for 1.3 million americans. senate democrats have said that they want to pass a three-month extension of the bill this week while they figure out a long term solution. that short extension would cost $6.5 billion. if passed the bill would reinstate benefits for those who have been out of work for 27 weeks or more. our libby casey, is in washington, good to see you libby, we have a bill, what's the latest on it? >> it's up in the senate, a procedural vote is up later on today. need to get five republicans on board. so far only one is a co-sponsor of the bill, dean heller of nevada p that's a state with high unemployment. we're looking to see if four other republicans will join into this procedural hurdle. the senate would have to go through that in order to pass it to throw it to the house where it could be a much harder reach because republicans have very split feelings on this.

some say that this should have a pay, for, that you should only institute more spending bills if you can find a way to pay for them. harry reid, the majority leader of the senate opened the session and had this to say. >> instead of celebrating being the new year, january 1st, more than a million veterans, including 20,000 veterans are left wondering how they would feed their families and make their mortgage payments while they continue to look for jobs. we have never had so many unemployed for such a long period of time. >> reporter: democrats putting on a lot of pressure. the president using his radio show to focus on these issues. rand paul on abc this week. >> i'm not against having unemployment insurance. i do think the longer you have

it, it provides disincentive to work. and there are many studies that indicate this. what i've been saying all along, we have to create an incentive for the long term unemployed. >> there are benefits that long term unemployed get but you still have to be looking for work during those 27 weeks. democrats say that's even more reason to get them back in action. >> libby are there other issues for congress to tackle? >> absolutely. front and center, janet yellen, wait for her confirmation vote this afternoon. ben bernanke's term ends later on this month. we'll be watching for issues like a bunch of spending bills, the actual components, the nuts and bolts of the big package that got passed at the end of

the year. >> libby casey, we appreciate that. the u.s. supreme court has stopped same sex weddings in utah now, after the federal court has confirmed them as unconstitutional. david shuster is here. >> the justices did not rule in favor or against the ban. it simply issued a stay until the issue waned its way through the system. several have been married since a district court judge in utah determined, but utahing argued that these marriages were an affront to the state's ability to define marriage. the supreme court issued the stay this morning without comment. so there will be no more gay marriages and celebrations like these in utah for at least

several months. now some of our viewers may think, well wait a second. i thought the supreme court ruled in favor of gay marriage last spring. it's true, the court found the federal defense of marriage act was unconstitutional, plus the court allowed a lower court decision to stand, but the being procedural issues avoided a decision as to whether state bans in general like california's and like utah's are constitutional. most legal experts expected the issue over stat bans would eventually come back to the supreme court but the speed with which this issue has been moving throughout the system has been surprising. and this last spring when the court heard, nine states plus the district of columbia allowed same sex marriage, now that stands at 17. thank you david.

iraq's prime minister called on residents to route out those in fallujah, islamic state in iraq and the levant, al jazeera am imran khan has the report. >> caught on fallujah with pro-government sunni tribes. they say they're ready to face any challenge. the effects of a shelling campaign the fighters say were carried out. troops have circled the city and are being supported by local tribes. >> translator: there has been an agreement between the tribes of anbar and the central government to withdrawing the army from the cities and go to the islamic state in iraq and the levant in the desert. this is due to some information about the i.s.i.l. control over

the desert there. the i.s.i.l. reckless were trying to bring the battle to the cities of flaj because they know there's no are defense there. >> how did we get to this stage? for much of 2013 the sunni tribes in anbar province protested and the biggest demand was the release of sunni prisoners. al-maliki did try to push through a series of reform but they were blocked by both sunni and political parties. this was seen as a provocation to the sunni tribes. in april 2013 the i.s.i.l. was formed taking advantage of the political power vacuum and waging a bloody campaign across the country. the i.s.i.l. formed safe havens across the iraq-is syrian border. the anbar tribes unofficially

are accepted them and killed over 20 soldiers by then maliki had enough. now maliki is encouraging the tribes to take on the i.s.i.l. fighters themselves. will this operation be able to bring peace to the region? perhaps not. in the past when al qaeda and other groups supporting it have been squeezed, they just formed in other regions. imran khan, al jazeera. >> the u.s. promises to send a shipment of air to surface missiles to help iraq's fight but new affiliates are growing, threatening to undo the peace that america fought so hard for. jonathan betz is here to explain. >> sunni stronghold minorities who feel marginalized by the

prime minister. familiar to a lot of americans because you might remember back in 2004 this, four american contractors lynched in fallujah. that sparked a major u.s. offensive. america's bloodiest battles since vietnam were fought in anbar. 1300 americans died there, more than a third of all u.s. soldiers killed in iraq. but the tide did turn. back in 2007 it was called the awakening. the u.s. paid to switch sides and it worked. now it's feared that work erased, the islamic state in iraq and the levant, now an al qaeda affiliate, now controls parts of fallujah and ramadi. partly because there are three parties at work. you have the iraqi government, the prime minister, you also have that al qaeda group and then in the middle you have the local tribes. they're kind of like the swing

vote, unsure who to support especially without the americans. many say the prime minister must reach out more to the minorities but he worries about losing power. what is clear is even with the country in danger of slipping backwards, the u.s. says this is now iraq's fight. >> oh boy, jonathan, appreciate it. joining me is james jeffrey, he is a former u.s. ambassador to iraq. mr. ambassador good to see you and talk to you. a couple of what are your reactions to a couple of situations first and then we'll dive a little deeper. what is your reaction to generally speaking the deteriorating situation in anbar province? >> let me say i disagree very much with the administration, this is our joint fight with not only the iraqi government but with our friends to the north, to the south including the tribes of anbar. i don't know why the administration is putting that out. it is a question of american

assistance, american commitment, and moral support for those who are risking their lives. this is a very dramatic moment, not only in iraq but in the region. we are seeing in syria and iraq a three sided struggle between local people, the tribes in both areas, against al qaeda and to some degree in opposition to strongly in syria to central governments. we can pivot on this particularly in iraq where we have extraordinary relations with everybody from the government to the trieks. trieks -- tribes and where we have equipped and armed everyone in the iraqi army. we have dug really hard to put an end to the threat because it could destabilize the country. >> so many of those points need to be followed up on. you say it's our joint fight and the united states needs to dig

in deeply on this. what would digging in deeply require, what would it mean? >> first of all making it very clear that this is not something that we're embarrassed about. we shouldn't be embarrassabout what we did in iraq and we should do more. the more is not american troops, the more is perhaps some more advisors, more of these air to ground missiles, expediting apache helicopters that have been pending for some times, drones, intelligence sharing. more things along the lines of our counterterrorist efforts that we do in the rest of the middle east. >> mr. ambassador isn't that being done? didn't i just read about more equipment going in more drones going in to assist iraqi government? isn't that happening? >> it is happening. but it tends to happen more slowly and more bureaucratically than it necessarily needs to. there will be a thousand

budgetary, legal, political and other obstacles to getting equipment out quickly. that is always the case. we also need to consider at least some advisors on the ground. they can be civilian, they can be military, not fighting but basically working with the iraqis on intelligence fusion and on tactics to use against al qaeda. this is a very, very dangerous situation for us as well. >> mr. ambassador you can also advise this but they need to be taken, wasn't this knot signing the informs agreement, on the part of prime minister al-maliki, if that agreement had been signed? >> we would be having it differently, it's a shame that the iraqis didn't agree with us. but it wasn't just nouri al-maliki. it was apardon from the kurds. what they did not want was

immunity genetics legal action against the iraqi government. this is a problem around the world. >> you don't have a problem with the united states holding out for that? >> i don't have a problem with the united states holding out for that, that's true. >> it is a very volatile situation and a very nasty mix that is being stirred in that region, iraq, syria and lebanon as well. mr. ambassador, thank you for your time. >> thank you very much. >> as the violence escalates in south sudan, will new negotiations bring peace? hours away from the bcs championship game, florida state head coach jimbo fisher focused on more than the game. the battle he is fighting at home and how he hopes it will save lives. >> basically the amazon of the drug world, where you can purchase whatever you would like, cannabis.

>> and exposing the deepest darkest part of the worldwide web. return to fukushima only on al jazeera america

>> a jazeera america is the only news channel that brings you live news at the top of every hour >> here are the headlines at this hour breaking news... sports... business... weather... live news...every hour,

on the hour only on al jazeera america >> it is the teenest -- it is the deepest darkest side of the worldwide weapon. much more that you see when you open your browser. john hendren has a story on away what is known as the hidden internet. >> there is a place on the internet so deep so dark so utterly anonymous it's become a plaque market bazaar for crime. >> you have everything there. hits for hire. you can kill people. you can buy drugs you can buy people, i mean there's everything we in society shouldn't exist in civilized society, is there, and if it's not there, ask for it and somebody can provide it. >> false i.d.es, real u.s. citizenship and murder for hire. >> you can pay an assassin to go

for a certain person for $6,000 plus. >> just don't ask him to videotape it, this assassin has standards. guns you can make on your 3d printer or have delivered to your door. check out from happy presumably high customers. >> the amazon of the drug world where you can go through and purchase whatever you would like. cannabis. stimulants. >> welcome to the deep web, everything you can't find on google and bing. it's unnervingly easy to navigate. it's all made possible by anonomyzing technology like onion. >> you have connected through a bunch of machines around the world. the last machine is in sweend. >> -- sweden.

>> and by bitcoin. the fbi shutdown of the drug site, the silk road, replaced a few months later by the silk road 2.0. deep web aficionados, say don't blame the technology. >> i can use it to bring pregnant mothers to the hospital. , no one asks, can you stop it. >> free speech advocates, iran's green party, the syrian opposition, battered women groups, any bltio safe haifng oe web. prieives sproaks say the deep web may be fulfilling our worst fears but also fulfilling the original promise of free speech on the internet. john hendren, al jazeera,

cambridge, massachusetts. >> the creator of the silk road, awaiting trial on computer hacking, money laundering, trying to arrange for a member of the silk road to be killed. he denies all the charges. on wall street. new graskts. new music. good-- in graphics, new music, new stuff. stocks have been struggling for the new year. all major indices are in the red. the senate is expected to confirm janet yellen as the new chairman of the federal reserve. she would be the first woman to leave -- lead the central bank

in its over 100 year history. neil, good to see you again. when yellen is -- janet yellen is confirmed in an hour or so, what do you see as her top challenges? >> the biggest thing is to try and figure out how they're going to unwind this program of monetary easing. they began tapering their $83 billion a month in bond purchasing. they will slow down how much money the federal reserve is injecting into the u.s. economy. the question is how do you pull that off? can you avoid financial bubbles even as the economy remains weak. >> what, an inflation bubble, spike in interest rates? >> you know there's risks on all sides. one of the risks, if you move too fast do interest rates spike? do you see a slow down in the economy? what momentum we do have in this slow recovery, petering out too fast. on the other hand, if they move

too slow, you have seen this 30% rally in the stock market in the first year, at what point do we get into the issues of financial bubbles whereas, instead of simulating the economy you are just paving the groundwork for next crisis. >> we hear senator warren say that the big banks have only gotten bigger in that time. >> janet yellen has not been a bank supervision expert that's not her strong point. i think what she has said it's pretty clear she's skeptical of the big banks but doesn't want to try to rip them apart. if you as a giant bank decide that means you should shrink.

that's fine. we're not going to order them to split things up, and things like that. >> top 1, 2, 3 on this agenda, to the extent she has any sort of leeway to exercise her own prerogatives here, what do you see as some of these prerogatives? is she an outside of the box thinker and if she is what might we see as a result of that? >> some continuity. she's been a central character in planning the bernanke efforts, and focused on getting the job market back on track. she spoke over and over in her confirmation hearing about the importance of dealing with long term unemployment, trying to put america back to work. so i think she's reluctant to pull out the punch bowl too soon and trying to reduce this level of long term unemployment that we've seen. >> neil is a columnist for the

washington post and has written a pretty amazing book as well. ahappy reunion leads to a single photograph, the story behind this photograph is amazing. and restoring women's rights were the main goal of the war in afghanistan but now reports cases of assault are getting much worse.

>> and welcome back to al jazeera america. here is a look at your top stories now. the fate of more than a million of out of work americans is in the hands of the congress. restoring benefits to 1.3 million people who lost them at the end of the year last year. the state of utah has been ordered to stop same sex

weddings there, hundreds of people have married during that time, and their rights are in doubt. making if weather feel like 50 and 60 below in some areas when you factor in the wind chill. bitter cold air is making its way south and east. the salvation army has set up shelters, robert ray is there, this seems extraordinary, i have lived there in the past and i can't remember the salvation army stepping up like this in the past. >> tony, exactly. the salvation army has pulled out all the stops in atlanta. the temperatures hovering in the 20s, but dropped about six degrees in the past hour.

supposed to be in single dight temperatures tonight. -- this is one of the particular rooms that salvation army is going to allow homeless people to sleep tonight. they're pulling out these mats as you can see. these are veterans that are actually going to be sleeping here tonight as well. these guys haven't seen temps like this. this is dangerous. people in atlanta like you said not prepared for this. people around the south indeed not prepared for this. perhaps even up in chicago not ready for this. as it's going to be rougherly negative 50 in some places tonight to the north. let me pull in the director. director, sergeant janine schmidt. tell me, how rare is this for you guys to see this kind of activity with the cold weather? >> well, the last time we had to do anything on this level was when all the snow hit, and we had greyhound had bus loads of people that were locked down in atlanta. but to actually do it for the local homeless people, i've been

here 17 years. and it's probably been 15, 20 years since it's been this bad. >> i mean, it could be deadly. >> yes, oh, absolutely. we're trying to work very hard with all of our providers, our partners that serve homeless to make sure that nobody is left out there in the cold. >> reporter: and from your perspective, the danger level, how many people are you expecting in here tonight and will there be kids, family members, families, what do you think? >> well, we have always served men, women and families for our cold weather program. so i suspect there will be. i do know that another shelter is trying to activate some more space for families, as well as the city of atlanta. but because we're downtown. and where a lot of the homeless individuals kind of hang out

during the day we're probably a first stop for them. >> stay warm and thanks for all your good work, unbelievable. tony, temps are expected to go to the single digits tonight and with the wind which we felt all day, could go down to 20, 30° people not ready for this. >> oh no, no, no, they're not ready for that. if schools are not closed today, they will certainly be closed tomorrow, that fair to say? >> earlier atlanta city schools announced they were shutting down and just about an hour ago, all of fulton county decidewe need to shut down. >> are the extreme cold gripping the nation has emergency crews worried. bundling up is the first step to guard against the freeze but there is no guarantee it will keep your body temperature from

falling dangerously low. our science editor jacob ward is with us. jake, we're talking about the teens in terms of temperatures in atlanta, it's colder than that with wind chills in chicago in some of the areas in the mird west. it's -- midwest. it's difficult to keep the body warm. what happens if you are not able to wrap up and stay warm? >> you know tony, what's so terrifying about hearing the report we just did about these people trapped outside, it's so quickly your body can succumb to cold temperatures. hypothermia is what it's called, dropping of the core temperature your body needs to be. hypothermia is three changes, mild hyperowe thermia where your body drops from 98.6, d down to5 and 90°. you begin shivering, there is a

bit of confusion. it's diuresis, excessive urination and excessive thirst. and between 90 and 82°, you start to violently shiver, your mental capacity, the skin and the extremities begin to turn ball two and your skin turns appeal, and severe hypothermia is when your body temperature is in the 70s. at that point your cognitive facility is pretty much failing. you start to stumble and fall over much. that's pretty horrible. >> that's about as bad as it gets before you are in danger of losing your life, correct?

>> you could get into the 60s and at that point you get into a couple of frightening symptoms that emts in cold cities could tell you about. paradoxical undressing, a series of emergency procedures that the body goes through. a contraction of the muscles that is trying to keep you warm releases, that releases a bunch of blood into the skin and the organs and you feel a flush of heat, which ironically convinces someone who is out of their mind from the cold, says, i need to undress. also dug into corners, there is a thing called terminal burrowing, hide and die syndrome where something deep in our brains tells us, find a space that will keep you warm. people found burrowed behind a bed or under a car. it's really, really scary stuff.

>> jacob, that is really -- so everyone watch, you have been forewarned. stay warm, do whatever you need to do, get to a shelter. that's a horrible way as you've described it to go through those stages. jacob ward, good to see you, as always. a new twist to end the fighting in south sudan. south sudan's president spent a visit to his southern neighbor. al jazeera am mohamed val has a story from khartoum. >> two interesting developments with regard to the south sudan, a surprise visit from sudan's president, bashir, known complete neutrality and has said sudan would not part with one of the warring sites of the south but today, mr. omar bashir has

started close cooperation and talked about a joint power to protect the oil wells, under the owchtion of the rebel fightsers in the south so those two leaders have not told us, have not made it clear whether they are going to launch a military campaign in order to liberate those oil wells fast. the illegal ivory trade, china's emotional six tons of ivory tusks and statutes, then they crush them. two months ago the u.s. destroyed a similar amount of i'veary discovered. an election plagued with violence, the capital of dhaka, 19 people were killed sunday

night. bangladesh's prime minister said the election was fair but the opposition disagrees. the boycott, and army was ordered to secure the streets until thursday. the u.s. and u.n. have condemned the violence. restoring women's rights was cited as one of the main objectives of the war. but attacks on women are on the rise. and as jane ferguson reports from kabul, attacks have become increasingly brutal. >> if her attacker meant to kill her, it was increasingly brutal. her attacker was her husband, a drug addict, a habit she refused to fund.

she tried to tell us her story but her words were unrecognizable, spoken in agony. >> they had problems before but it was not like this. if i had known the problem would have come the this i would have killed him with my own hands. >> reporter: as with so many cases in afghanistan the assault happened in her home. the very place where women in conservative societies should be safe. >> translator: did you see the blood? when we first came, she was lying here. the blood was from her lips and the nose. the blood has now dried. the blood on the wall was from her hands. >> while her case may be unusual in the extreme levels of brutality involved, those that work with women across afghanistan say there are increasing reports of women being assaulted. the aftion independent human rights commission said in 2013 they saw 26% increase of reports

of women saying they have been violently assaulted. women are protected under afghan law but perpetrators have rarely been brought to justice. it's surprising her husband is still a free man. the worse cases of violence of 2013 was the cutting of face and lips, and another chopped into pieces by an act of her husband. unfortunately the perpetrators of the crimes did not face justice. >> without justice for afghan women, the men who attack them are likely to stop. jane ferguson, al jazeera, kabul, afghanistan. >> according to the united nations, only 9 cases out of 600 were prosecuted in 2013. rights groups say most attacks still go unreported.

a rape case is back in the news today, david shuster is back. >> there are developments of that rape case. one of the players malik rich mobd has been released from juvenile prison, after accused of raping, trent maize another steubenville athlete, was convicted and served two years. jahi mcmath has been in very for condition because of her stay at children's hospital in oakland.

the 13-year-old had complications after tonsil surgery there and went into cardiac arrest. the children's hospital wanted to remove the ventilator she was breathing through. >> a pennsylvania woman called jihad jane was sentenced to ten years in prison. 15 years colleen le rose said she was in a trance in 2009. she pled guilty after receiving orders from al qaeda operatives. >> in germany today a spokesman for angela merkel said the chancellor fractured her pelvis ore the weekend. she apparently was cross country skiing when she took a fall. she thought she had just bruised

herself but x rays revealed a minor fracture. she will need help walking over the past few weeks. eight days after fellow countryman michael schumacher a race car driver was seriously injured when he fell while skiing. flight to atlanta nearly a year ago, when the air craft descended hunley admit smacking the child under the eye. the judge imposed a hamper penalty because of hunley's prior criminal history, which included a prior assault. frightening disappearance. on new year's day a man named nicholas simmons disappeared from his parents' home. four days later his parents

found him thanks that picture in u.s.a. today. an associated press photographer snapped the picture, just to illustrate the cold weather and again that is simmons pressed against a steam vent, just a few blocks from the capitol building. after seeing his photo the family called police found simmons took him to the hospital. the man and his family have been reunited. everybody has always some kind of story to tell. >> always, always, not a good reminder, appreciate it david, thank you. on joorms. al jazeera america, he is fightings for a big fight, but a big battle jimbo fisher wants the world to know about. coming up on al jazeera america.

>> we traveled here to japan to find out what's really happening at fukushima daiich >> three years after the nucular disaster, the hidden truth about the ongoing cleanup efforts and how the fallout could effect the safety of americans >> are dangerous amounts of radioactive water, leaking into the pacific eververyday? >> join america tonight's michael okwu for an exclusive four part series, as we return to fukushima only on al jazeera america

>> got to tell you. we have been following college football all season because many of us actually enjoy the college game person the pro. but tonight is the big game, florida state for the bcs championship. ross shimabuku, it's true ross many of us enjoy the college games better than the pro games. you have a big story about one of the coaches in that game. >> that's right, florida state jimbo fisher have brought the seminoles, back, fisher is fighting something much bigger than a bcs title. after his first season at

florida state in 2010 life was good for jimbo fisher, but soon thereafter. >> he's a situation in franconian anemia, it made me get back to ball and understand what's truly important. >> fisher's son was diagnosed with a disease that has no cure. >> as a father and as a husband, things i can say as a coach will help these guys and also show them, life's not fair. life doesn't care. i don't mean to be rude about that but life has thrown those things at you. you let them control you or you control it. i love my son more than anything in the world but i'm not going to let that control me. >> ethan is eight and gets his blood tested every month. hopes of finding a cure. >> i'm going to do everything in my power and our power to cure

him. god gave us a platform, to be able to raise money and awareness, being head coach at florida state can develop players and saver lives on top of that i don't think there's a greater calling. >> so fisher and his wife candy have raised nearly $2 million to fight this disease while their son ethan is actually here cheering on his daddy hoping he can bring home a national championship. bringing to light what's important in life. >> if we turn our attention to the game, florida state the favorite over number 2 auburn, what are you looking for in this game tonight? >> i mean tony all eyes will be on florida state heisman trophy

jameis winston. it's going to be interesting to see if it's a tight game house the sel seminoles will react. remember they went 3 in 9 last season did not win a single conference game. a lot of teams are calling this team the team of destiny. we'll see what happens. but either way tony it's the end of an era. the last bcs title game. next season college football will implement the four team playoffs. but hopefully this game will live up to the hoopla. but hopefully this game will deliver. >> what i can tell you just happened is people stopped listening to you and started to watch the florida state cheerleaders as they walked behind you. i'm sure that just happened.

ross good to see you. >> everybody has got to warm up you know tony. cheerleaders are warming up. it's very warm. it's a toasty 80° in sunny southern california. >> it got warm for us back here. ross, appreciate it, see you in about a half hour or so. for millions of us who aren't talented enough to get into the olympics, there are a competition that we can compete. it involves people outdoing each other online, by taking these outrageous selfies. maria is here. >> if you have been on twitter or facebook you may have noticed these pictures. basically no one knows how this hashtag got started. it was sort of organic. you have to be inside a bathroom and you have to use a prop. now some of these are just plain bizarre. like this one is of a kid that's

on a door. this one takes some acrobatic talent. and some of them are more theme based, this is more sports bas based, probably photo-shopped. this is a cancer patient inside a hospital bathroom and then you've got this one that's the stay-at-home dad and his baby tiger. then you've got the ones that really take a lot of evident because they -- no one knows how much time these things take. and where these people find the time for these. but tony, there is no clear winner. but there are some hashtags out there, some selfie olympics, take a look at this one, you recall this scene right? et phone home. >> oh k et, thank you for helping me on that one. all right there's a hashtag and you can play along no prizes but it's good fun right?

cool maria, good to see you. record breaking cold take hold much of the united states, dave warren has your national forecast, that's next.

going seriously, bitter even dangerous cold force being people to stay indoors right now. as many as 150 million affected by the dangerous temperatures. dave warren, if you might tell us when this will lift? >> about two or three days from now. we will get some relief. as by ther cold air can't stay cold that long. will reduce a bit each day. every once in a while it will change a bit, a little bit of this breaks off and moves south. you get this spinning here, there's an area of low pressure aloft because this is cold and dense, it stays around, days at a time. very cold air is over the region rite now. it eventually will start to lift

out. we're seeing temperatures down to 12 below in minneapolis, 12 below in chicago coming with a gusty wind and there was een some snow around -- even some snow around that moved around the midwest but it has cleared out. this rain clearing out, dry weather now except for some lake effect snows. and the wind continues to pick up, 45 below what it feels like in chicago, 40 below in minneapolis. back above the freezing mark this is in chicago some relief here. the cold air is just about to push into the new england states, 37 below in philadelphia, that will be the high temperature we'll set that just before midnight tonight. single digit temperatures feels like about ten to 20° below with the wind chill. headlines coming up.

>> this is al jazeera america live from new york city. i'm tony harris with a look at today's top stories. the u.s. supreme court has put a temporary stop on same-sex marriages in utah. it will give time to give a ruling. a possible extension of jobless benefits and confirmation of janet yellen as head of the federal reserve. the oldest daughter of former vice president dick cheney stepped down today. she's calling it quits because