straight to the point. >> i'm on the ground every day finding stories that matter to you. >> in new orleans... >> seattle bureau... >> washington... >> detroit... >> chicago... >> nashville... >> los angeles... >> san francisco... >> al jazeera america, take a new look at news. >> welcome to al jazeera america live in new york city. i'm tony harris. children camped out in schools, people in grocery stores, church, name it. the national guard called out to help. and triple digit losses for the dow today on news that the fed is making more cuts to its stimulus program.

>> let's go to these live pictures. the storm paralyzing the south is causing problems even now at this hour in georgia, and alabama, roads that were parking lots 24 hours ago are slowly starting to clear. that's not a bad shot. but if you look here. >> helicopters have been searching those who are still strands and children are escor escorted home where hundreds more spent the night on school buses. there have been 800 traffic accidents, six people have died.

robert, i'm looking at these pictures here, i don't know how much of a rush hour there has been in downtown atlanta, but on one side of the road it looks like there is a bit of clearing and things are starting to look better. >> most people said they were going to stay home and not go to work, telling officials they were not going to use the icy roads. there are those still stranded here as many across the metro area, but i would say this, today we haven't gone above freezing but we've gotten to a certain mark where the sunshine was out, and i think its starting to dissipate some of the ice skating rink which is the roads here in atlanta, tony. >> yeah, i'm wondering. >> how intense has the criticism been of the governor and mayor

of the atlanta. >> many want answers to questions, and the number one question people have why were schools open yesterday. why wouldn't you close it. even if the city was expecting one inch or less, this is a city of 6 million people. it's supposed to have the responsibility make sure that everyone is safe i'm going to walk over to these buses. you can see, i'm a parent, anyone who is a parent and their kids are at school, they're the work and they have the situation where the buss are pulled off to the side of the road, the kids have nowhere to go. you can see right there this school bus, the door is open. there is another one behind me, so yeah, you see scenes like that, and any parent wants answers: they show up at the

press conference and said they're not playing the blame game, but who is to blame, who is to answer, the public school system? the mayor? no one really knows there is a lot of what appears to be finger pointing. >> do we have the shot of the spaghetti junction. robert, help me explain this. this is 85 and 285, and it comes together, this is a major inter change. >> and that was absolutely gridlock. i was sitting there from 4:00 all the way to 2:00 in the morning there were people

stalled off on the side of the road, and there was a baby born. a police officer delivered th te little girl safely. there is pick of the delivery of that baby. >> at the spaghetti junction, we know under the best of circumstances an inch of snow is likely to shut down the city. what did the city or state officials believe the storm was going to develop and happy later in the day. >> they pleased it was going to be an inch or less of flurries

and no significant ice on the ground, and it wouldn't come as fast as it did. i thing of it is i listened all weekend to the forecasters they said we want quite predict this. these models are risky, and we don't want to make an ultimate decision, we will proceed with caution. you can see, look at the ice on the roads still here. >> that's significant, yes. >> it is, and that's a significant hill. how do you get a car up that, and these cards are still parked at the residential roads, no one has come to claim them yet today. >> joining me from chant is lisa, a spokeswoman for the georgia emergency management

agency. thank you for your time. can i take you back to yesterday, and i don't know if this is an agency function of yours or not, but i'll ask the question any way as we take a look at the department of transportation cameras in atlanta. does your agency have a role in advising, consulting the local and state government ahead of a storm like yesterday's? >> we work with local emergency management agencies and we coordinate with local, state and federal partners in anticipation of any storm event. that's what we continue to do for this event. >> i'm asking would someone from your office say--would someone call city or state officials and say look, based on our information this could be bad. we need to get ahead of this and some kind of pre-planning way? >> yes, that's why we have these regular conference calls. we have weekly conference calls with the national weather service, and during an event when it looks like there may be

an impact on georgia, those conference calls increase in frequency. as i said we have local officials on those calls as well to review resources to anticipate any impact, and make sure that they have the resources in place to handle it. >> i'm not asking you to point fingers but then again maybe i am, but what happened here? this is a situation where the forecasters, those i've heard speak about this on air today, they said that the city and state knew this was coming in, so why did it end up being the mess that it turned in to? >> well, right now our number one prim priority remains clearg the roads. there will be time to finger point when everybody is safe at home. >> you got to be frustrated. you're talking about hundreds and hundreds of people who are stranded. you must be frustrated that whatever was necessary to get ahead of this apparently wasn't done. am i right about that?

>> hundreds of motorists were assisted by our state partners, we're making progress, but there are still areas of concern. >> what areas are of concern for you right now? >> there are still roads that are icy, we're urging motorists stay home. we suggest that travel be limited only for your safety. >> you're not in any way interested in monday morning quarterbacking this situation at this point in time. >> at this point this is still an active event. our hearts go out to everyone who is stranded out there, and we're working as hard as we can to get them home as soon as possible. >> how many people are stuck out there, do you have any idea? >> we don't have any idea. we're continuing to work with our participate necessary. we have georgia resources, national guard, and georgia forest trry who are helping with food and water, those who have been stranded.

>> what do you say to motorist who is have left their vehicles. >> stay in your vehicle if you're not near to something that can keep you safe and warm, stay safe out of the travel lanes for your safety. >> lisa janc. we talked to kevin about this, am i right in saying to you that the forecasters predicted that this was coming? >> they did. we knew last thursday that the event was coming. coming on sunday we knew there would be snow and mixture of rain. this is a city that has the national weather resource, as well as the weather channel, they knew this was coming. for atlanta to deal with this from 2011 when there was another situation very similar. >> lisa doesn't want to deal with this, i get she doesn't want to deal with this if you

were the ears for the city and state, she doesn't want to deal with that right now. but clearly you have hundreds and hundreds of people stranded, and it seems to me that there was a better way to handle this. >> they called this a ten-year event. it happened two years ago. unfortunately, atlanta needs to be able to deal with this as well. we could be looking at this for the next couple of years. let's take a look at what happened 24 hours ago. you can see the snow pushed through, and we're still dealing with it in southern georgia right now. you can see for the southern part of georgia winter storm warnings in affect right now. if you're on 95, highway 10, major problem. temperatures at 28 degrees. those temperatures are going to be going down. that's what we're really concerned about. whatever melted tony today is going to freeze overnight. tomorrow morning is going to be extremely slippery. >> boy, still not completely out of the woods. not by a long shot. >> no. >> people have been turning to

social media to get help. during the storm. maria has been following the response online. >> snowed out atlanta is the facebook page where people have left postings of where people have been stranded and where they need help. matthew, this his pickup truck between these two trucks, he's okay. and this woman was in the ditch. people have been posting who are looking for people they haven't seen since last night. here is a posting. my brother left his car stranded on the highway. anyone with information please call me. this i was posted just a couplef hours ago. folks have been passing out water and food, and this is a regular good samaritan, a family who said we just walked two miles to i-75 to pass out snacks.

angela went out earlier to pass out supplies. take a listen. >> all right, this is highway 92. we're thanking--handing out water and food. there are tons of people who need water and food. if you can, go out there, help somebody. >> tony, 511 ga.org , this is where you can look at what the traffic conditions are right now. here's gentleman, and if you go in here a little bit. you know, tony, you lived in atlanta. >> you did, too, for a while. >> yes, these are the worst conditions right here. icy conditions reported all lanes closed, for example, here. some of these won't be clear until tomorrow. >> that's spaghetti junction. that's where you have this confluence of enter states and highways. it's 85, 285 all in a cluster there. if you look to the lower right

to the screen you can see a bottleneck. i don't know if that's weather related or just volume, i feel like i'm doing traffic, but clearly you have residual effect. we went closer and we had seen cars that were abandoned over on the side of the road. maybe vehicles that had been involved in accidents but it's very much a mess. we have a couple of more pictures that we're going to show you here. i'm not exactly sure where this is. but that's traffic moving better. but there's not much of a rush hour to talk about,s because people have stayed home. they followed the advise from meteorologists and officials, asking people to stay off the roads. they're getting things cleaned up, a bit of a bottleneck to the right of your screen, but certainly better than yesterday. >> certainly. if you want to get any of this

information you can follow me on twitter as well. >> terrific, thank you. we'll see you later in the program. >> yes. >> in washington today the director of national intelligence james clapper testified that foreign fighters are using the syrian conflict as a training ground. they say they will take what they have learned back to their home countries and carry out attacks. >> syria has become a huge magnate for extremists. first those groups who are engaged in syria itself some 1600 different groups, we estimate somewhere in the neighborhood between 75,000 and 110,000 of which about 26,000 we grade as extremists. we estimate an excess of 7,000 foreign fighters have been attracted-- >> nick schifrin joins us live from geneva. this comes as no surprise to those who have been following

this conflict closely, tell us more about this. >> reporter: yes, tony, here where these negotiations are taking place between the syrian government and the syrian opposition to try to end three years of war, there is one thing that the syrian government says again and again and again, they're fighting terrorism. they're fighting the 7,000 foreign fighters, 26,000 extremists. they say it's the syrian government brutality that has invited this terrorism. we went to the syrian-turkish border to see how this terrorism was spreading inside syria and to syria's neighbors to see thou syria's neighbors are increasingly caught in the middle. in this turkish market you can buy fabric for your very own syrian uniform. military vests are $30, and there is a matching set of dagger and holder. then on the wall behind the nervous owner a flag declaring

allegiance to fighters linked to al-qaeda. inside syria those fighters released propaganda video flying the same flag. they are the most lethal and successful of all the armed groups. and the popular. in turkey we met jameel. he said fighters aren't corrupt compared to the moderate opposition. >> the islamic state fights the robbers and the thieves, he says, that's why the syrian people support them. >> and the islamic state is not only fighting assad, they're fighting u.s.-backed opposition fighters for control of the countryside and border crossings. the fight is not only inside syria. it's also right here at the border, and control over all these supplies that are going into syria: it's extremely

volatile fighting, two weeks ago this was taken over by radical fighters. in geneva assad's negotiators say those read radicals. >> the issue for them is to stop terrorism. >> but the opposition said that's an excuse. they argue assad's brutality. open the door for terrorists, and syria's future is neither assad's nor the radicals. >> there is a third option in syria which we are presenting. >> reporter: fighting for the third option. he's one of the officers option to defect from the syrian army. >> the united states of america, he said, has let us down. >> so those radicals aren't going anywhere. which means in geneva the two

sides will continue to disagree, and in syria the death toll will continue to mount. >> reporter: of course, that is the goal of this conference to try to help the syrian people. today the am bas the ambassadort the syrian government was stopping a convoy of u.n. vehicles with food and water for the last eight months. it might an war crime. but assad is not exactly swayed by such rhetoric. they continue to talk about terrorism, the u.s. and coalition continue to talk about getting a political solution and humanitarian aid inside of syrian. meanwhile civilians continue to die and the war continues to rage. >> absolutely, absolutely two sides are talking right past one another. a lot of people suffering. nick schifrin for us in geneva. the ukrainian government is offering more concessions to

protesters, but they want something in return. the live report from kiev is next. wall street takes a real beating today. ali velshi will explain how the federal reserve and foreign countries are playing into today's slide.

forced to flee, many to neighboring countries such as

>> ukraine ace parliament has voted is to it try to end two months of protests. demonstrators will be cleared of any crime if they clear public areas within the next 15 days. but that amnesty law may not go far enough for thousands who want a change in the government. jennifer glass is back with us from kiev. most governments will tell you the minute they start giving in to the demands of protesters, it never ends. it goes on and on and on. i'm wondering if these concessions will be enough to clear the streets behind you? >> no, tony, the opposition has already said it is unhappy with this amnesty bill. as a matter of fact, members of particlelment did not vote in parliament for this bill.

it was pro government members of parliament who pushed this bill through. it's not the amnesty that the opposition wanted. there are four bills on the available. the opposition wanted clear amnesty for anybody arrested over the past two months. there have been dozens of protesters arrested for demonstrating. those are the people they want to see freed. they're allowed to keep the demonstration on independent square behind me going, and they're allowed to keep a couple of key buildings in kiev, but around the rest of the country they have to evacuate. we've heard from two opposition leaders who say they're not happy. first with the way the bill was pushed through, and then the provisions of it. they're needing to see what the next plan will be, how they'll react to the bill. the question is what do they tell their supporters. the people who have been out here for two months, they have demands, and now they believe that the people who are being detained are being held hostage,

they're being held hostage until the people leave the buildings they've occupied. >> if 2 this is not enough for demonstrators, how might the government respond? >> that is a big question. what the demonstrators really want is a change in leadership. they've been trying to force early elections, and for viktor yanukovych to step down. so far president yanukovych has shown any indication that he's willing to do that. there was an extraordinary move to talk to his party of regents when there was word that some of those parliament members might defect to the opposition position, and they obviously backed him if they pushed through this amnesty law, but he's certainly on the defensive if the opposition does not accept this amnesty i'm not sure how they go forward, if they try to push through another bill in

parliament or they agree to concessions. >> thank you. the dow sinking 189 points even though the federal reserve said the economy is strong enough to make another cut in its bond-buying stimulus program. so what gives here? let's talk to real money's ali velshi. good to see you, doctor. why are investors a bit sour. >> because they were listening to what was going on in the rest of the world. the fed said nothing about the turmoil that has been rattling investors. the fed itself is one of the reasons why these emerging markets are in trouble. the fed are pulling from these countries, places like india are falling and their banks are trying to reverse the slide, and it's not working. how long does the emerging market trouble last, and how much it affects u.s. markets as we saw today.

the experts we talked to said investors should sit tight, and the u.s. economy, is actually looking pretty healthy. but as you know, tony, it doesn't mean the right thing. >> terrific work last night on the coverage--that was just fun. so turning to the state of the union last night. did you hear anything from the president that might help give the economy a bit of a boost, a shot in the arm? >> limited. the minimum wage increase for workers who are employed by companies that have federal contracts was interesting. the my ir plan for retirement accounts, they're targeting middle of low- and middle-income americans. and some small stuff, it wasn't major. >> what else are you working on. >> the farm bill, it means a lot for people who use food banks and food kitchens, and they expect to see more people lining

up for food. >> ali velshi with "real money with ali velshi," good to see you. the winter storm that hit the deep south is usual, but the critics say it wasn't due to lack of preparation that led to all the problems. we'll have all the updates in georgia. the congress to hopefully shed line on immigration reform as a path to citizenship. for the center of american progress, he's in washington d.c. this morning. and good morning, mr. fietz. >> good morning, del. >> are you confident that this year immigration reform passes and are you sure why it pass it's. >> i'm confident that the president will be talking about the importance of find of bipartisan agreement with this congress, and this is obviously the issue that seems more teed

up to have the senate has passed a bill by a bipartisan super majority and now it's up to the house to pass it. and we know that the pass republican conference is meeting in a retreat this week, and one of the things they will be discussing is how to move forward on immigration reform. al jazeera america gives you the total news experience anytime, anywhere. more on every screen. digital, mobile, social. visit aljazeera.com. follow @ajam on twitter. and like aljazeera america on facebook for more stories, more access, more conversations. so you don't just stay on top of the news, go deeper and get more perspectives on every issue. al jazeera america.

>> welcome back to al jazeera america. i'm tony harris. a small step forward in the syrian peace talks in geneva. the syrian and opposition, there've pearce to be no chance of a break through before they head home on friday. in ukraine demonstrators have been asked to leave

occupied buildings in the next 15 days. georgia and bam it's moving slowly in some spots. a winter storm gridlock traffic. some people said it took 14 hours to get home, some say 24. children stayed overnight in schools and now have been reunited with their parents. let's go to julie martin, good to see you, talk to me about the conditions of the roads and to what extent traffic is moving a little more smoothly now. i know there isn't much of a rush hour to speak of, folks have stayed home, but how would you describe conditions? >> yeah, tony, i've been out here all day. i'm along the i-75, 85 connector on 17th street. i can tell that you it is very usual. as i came in early this morning cars just abandoned all over the road. everywhere you look people had just given up and gotten out of their cars.

traffic, as you mentioned, moving better this evening, but what i'm concerned about is the temperatures are dropping. so everything you see here on the streets surfaces will freeze once again overnight. the fear is people are just going to be driving too fast as they certainly are, and they'll be hitting these slick spots once again come tomorrow morning. >> julie, let me ask you, the heart of this controversy is over the forecast, and city leaders, state leaders are suggesting that the storm forecast got it wrong or didn't give enough warning in the timing of the storm. do you accept that criticism from city and state leaders? >> it's a talker in the meteorological community. i listened to the governor's press conference as well, and i can tell you we've gone back and looked very carefully at the

national weather service and their forecasts and ours, and they did issue a winter storm advisory. atlanta was always on the northern edge of this snow, but there was a lot of cold air in place, and always that chance that this could happen. they downgraded that to a winter weather advisory and then ramped it to a winter storm warning overnight. obviously as a lot of people were sleeping. nonetheless, schools stayed in session. people went to work on tuesday. and unfortunately, everyone decided to get on these roads as the stakes started to fall, and we saw the end results, which is devastating. >> i don't know, it just feels like-- >> there was more-- >> go ahead, julie. >> there was warning out there. this is not a surprise that this was a possibility. yes, the forecast changed a little bit, and it appeared for a while according to models that more of this precipe would be to our south, but the chance was always there. so you know, this is going to be something that will be debated

for quite awhile i would imagine here in the city of atlanta in the state of georgia. >> i didn't see the news conference but i did have someone from the emergency management aid down there. the bottom line there in the atlanta area were poorly served by the emergency personnel there in that city. i think we can all agree on that. good to see you. appreciate your time. thank you. >> thank you, tony. >> yes, pleasure, pleasure. president obama is on the road drumming up support for goals outlined in his state of the union address last night. he made stops in maryland and at a steel plant in pennsylvania. as he promised last night the president signed a memo setting up a new retirement savings bond for u.s. workers that will take action this year with or without congress. >> obama: america doesn't stand still. u.s. steel didn't stand still. i won't stand still.

when i can take steps to help more families regardless of what congress does, that's what i'm going to do. because i am determined to work with all of you and citizens all across this country on the defining projects of our generation, and that is to restore opportunity for every single person who is willing to work hard and take responsibility in this country. that's what i'm committed to doing. >> joining me now is adam davidson, the co-most of npr's planet money. great to see. >> you good to see. >> you we have this my ra. >> my ra. >> we knew about that a couple of weeks ago, what is the president attempting to do here? >> i think from a standpoint of actually effecting the economy, effecting jobs directly, this really is a constitutional lesson that you really can't do it from the white house alone. it really does take congress. so what he's saying is congress won't act. i will do what i can, but really

what i can do is put this on the agenda, make sure people are talking about it, and he, the democrats, hope that will serve them the elections in the fall. >> you know what is interesting about that, that statement right there, adam, i had a sense as i was watching the speech. it revealed the sense of the president's hands are tied and he's limited in what he can do. in what ways can the president be effective in setting a tone and atmosphere for job creation. >> there are things that he can do on the margin. there is something happening in manufacturing where some manufacturers are re-assessing what they call the china price, rethinking maybe we should start manufacturing in the u.s. that oh may be good for our business. but it's hard to imagine a business person saying now that obama has said that i'm going to do that. he may make people talk about it more, that sort of thing. but this idea that all federal contracts have a minimum wage

above $10. that will only effect new contracts, but it won't have a major effect on the economy. the most powerful man in the world is not that powerful if he's not-- >> you agree then? >> i do agree, yes. >> it just revealed how ham strung he is. there are ways that congress can appropriate money, and that gets us to the debate of austerity versus stimulus. there are ways that congress can appropriate money for infrastructure programs, that sort of thing that can get some movement, dollars in this economy. >> no question that we would have a much better economy with functioning congress who is able to work with the executive branch. that's not even saying which policies they would implement. i think there is a huge range of middle of the road policies that most republican economists if not congress people, and most democratic economists would

agree on or have a compromise where we do two years of stimulus, and we do six years of reining back the debt and spending. >> so you thought about this. there are clearly programs-- >> i've been obsessed with it for several years. it's maddening. >> talk us through this, things that could be done if this congress and this president were able to work together better. >> there is absolutely no question. just to throw an idea out. there is a big debate, should the government spend more money or cut back on spending. but the timing of that is different. the people who support spending want it right away or those who want to cut back, that's compelling. a congress who wanted to talk about it, two years of spending, two years of cutting back the spending, that would work out great. no one would disagree with that except for the politician who is have an interest in disagreeme disagreement. >> don'come back and see us soo.

adam davidson from npr planet money. >> herbert smols will be executed for killing a jewelry store owner. >> he'll be the sixth man executed this month by lethal injection. the last-minute stay only spared his life for one extra day. at issue was the composition of chemicals used to carry out his lethal injection. with pharmaceutical companies refusing to allow their drugs to be used in lethal injections states are struggling to find alternatives. earlier this month ohio death row inmate was executed with a combination of drugs that had

never been tried before. it took 26 minutes for him to die. his family is suing, calling it torture. >> are these inmates entitled to a pain free law? >> the constitution does not guarantee anyone a pain-free death, but at some point the pain may be so intense and protracted that it woulds could that line and would say our evolving sense of decency would preclude that type of inflection in capital punishment. >> it's the reason that some states are looking at it all together. adding legislation of a five-person firing squad as an effective option to carrying out execution. >> these cold-blooded murderers turn into the victims. they're not the victims. they're paying the price for a crime they committed against an innocent person. no, this isn't a step back. this is just putting to rest a horrible situation. >> reporter: of the 32 states that currently have capital

punishment, all use lethal injection as their primary use of injection. although rarely used under certain conditions eight states allow death by electrocution, and the state of utah executed by firing squad. it was requested. >> to think that electrocution is humane is a stretch. a firing squad, i think these things depend on whether they go as planned. the problem with lethal injections, they're not going as planned. >> reporter: legal experts say regardless of the method each has had its problems. and each has been challenged. the debate is a fine line between what is considered cruel and unusual or what is considered trust.

>> the thai government said it will put 10,000 troops on the streets during a terror parliamentary election. demonstrators have promised to disrupt the vote. they want the prime minister to step down and install their own interim government. laws banning rallies have not stopped the protests. south sudan has released seven opposition leaders handing all seven men over to kenya. president kiiring r accused thf igniting rioting that has killed thousands of people. they may still try their former vice president as rebel and for treason. al jazeera reporter peter

greste went to court to appeal detention in egypt. it was denied. he and five other journalists have been killed without charge. killed--who have been held without charge. >> journalist who is have been doing an ethical, decent job which all societies need, egypt of all countries to treat journalists this way is a shame on that nation. >> a spokesman for al jazeera said the journalists have been officially notified have not been officially notified by the egyptian authorities of the developments in their case. he also said, quote, the world knows these allegations against our journalists are absurd, baseless and false. this is a challenge to free speech, to report on all aspects of events and for the rights of people to know what is going on. he has been wanted by the u.s. government for years. now officials in washington are renewing their calls for the

public to help them capture the al-qaeda financier al-suri. roslind jordan has this report. >> the u.s. government has waned to bring in al-suri as an al-qaeda financier for years. now he's out of an iranian prison the government said al-suri is doing more damage now that he's out on the street. this is al-suri, one of al-qaeda's top financier based in iran. the syrian native has been wanted by washington since 2011 for allegedly moving money and alqaida operatives villa iran to pakistan, afghanistan, and the west. now officials say al-suri has added his homeland to his operation. an u.s. official has told

al jazeera: >> al-suri has been working in iran with that government's consent. the u.s. officials could not offer an explanation why iran with a harbor an operative for al-qaeda, which is a sunni operation. but it wouldn't be the first time. six al-qaeda operatives have been in iran since september 11, 2001. the state department points out it put al-suri on its terrorist list and offered a reward up to $10 million for his capture. iranian authorities then arrested al-suri. but u.s. officials say al-suri is now back on the street, and

more active than ever. all the more reason to highlight his case. >> he's an al-qaeda operative. al-suri is an al-qaeda affiliate. we know he's moving to syria, i think you can draw that conclusion. >> they say they're under no illusions that it would destroy the network. u.s. officials tell the network that they cannot go into details of what al-suri may have financed by way of attacks in pakistan, afghanistan, or syria, but they say if there is an al-qaeda incident somewhere happening in the world, the chances are very good that in their opinion al-suri had something to do with it. >> roslind jordan reporting from washington, d.c. maria joins us now. >> officials announce they will

not charge decembe diocese. internal documents and files show that archdiocese knew for several years that there were misconduct issues but the prosecutors said there was not enough evidence for charging those officials for not removing him sooner. a young boy who saved six relatives from a fire was laid to rest today. scores of firefighters were there to pay tribute to the nine-year-old. he woke up his relatives in a fire broke out in the family's mobile home. almost all of them got out, but he became trapped as he tried to help his disabled grandfather. a step great grandfather and grandfather all died. an norovirus outbreak has returned to port.

passengers and crew got sick on the explorer sea ship. officials boarded the ship in the port in the virgin islands but they have not been able to confirm what caused the outbreak. most of the crew and passenger who is got sick are now feeling better. in santa ana they arrested a man after finding snakes in his home. how many snakes? nearly 300. according to investigators some of the snakes were found alive. slithering around on the floor and in boxes. other snakes were dead. police searched the house after neighbors complained about an unusual smell and stench, and guess what else they found? >> what else? >> mice and rats, of course. >> to feed them. >> exactly. >> you find some strange stuff. >> i certainly do. >> thanks a lot, maria. >> thanks. >> thank you, i think. a congressman who threatened to break a reporter in half and throw him off the balcony has

now apologized. have you been following this story? republican michael grimm was being interviewed last night about the state of the union by reporter michael scoto. there is the end of the interview. at the end scoto asked representative grimm about an investigation into his campaign finances. the congressman who has avoided any inter actions with reporters until last night walked away and then came back and let loose. watch and listen. >> i'll break you in half like a boy! so today the reporter said the congressman called him and personally apologized. representative grimm also issued

a public apology. >> i was wrong. it shouldn't have happened. i called michael scotto. he accepted my apology, we'll go to lunch and put this all behind us. >> new york has a new maim super bowl boulevard. this is al jazeera america.

>> i love this story. a group of wounded warriors are taking on a group of normal nfl players and local first responders in a game of flag football happening just a few miles from the site of sunday super bowl, and it's all for charity. i spoke with b.j. ganem, captain

of the wounded warrior football team. >> i served in 2004. i was injured thanksgiving night november 25, 2004, which roadside bomb. my gunner was killed in that attack. i was severely injured and two other marines were injured as well, but were able to return to duty. we're showing america what we can do even after injury. we have double amputees. we have triplasm pew tease, trim a single amputee. we're out playing shoulder to. >> you will new york city is hosting what could be the biggest super bowl-related event. what is it about this super bowl boulevard? >> who have a whole street that used to be called broadway that is now called super bowl boulevard. how could we reach out to our

audience right around the country and make it relevant to them. we can't be bothered, quite often, get over it boston, san francisco, louisville and nashville because the nfl is coming to town, and new york even in this freezing cold, seems to be really enjoying itself. aah, broadway. the theater, the star names in lights, the make up. all that is given away to the small of locker room and cheap after shave, and broadway has been transformed into super bowl boulevard. super bowl xlv right? >> no, 48! >> anyone who is anyone in the world of football is here. fox sports has a stand. so does espn even the local station komo seattle has turned up, and they're missing the party big time back home. >> you can't even believe it. every window has a flag, poster, people are honking at each

other, strangers hugging in the streets. i mean really, we haven't seen anything like it in a long time. >> security is tight of the if you see something say something kind. but the fans are having a ball. >> these two make a 700-mile trip every week just to support the seahawks back home. >> 750 miles every game. >> coming to new york, that's nothing, right j. >> a lot easier than driving 12 hours in one day. >> give us the seahawks chant. >> seahawks. >> and the broncos fans are not being outdone. they love new york, too. >> it's great. we don't know when this will ever happen again, you know, it's great. look, everybody is having a good time. the streets are packed. >> the big attraction is this: the one chance you probably will ever get to ba to to toboggan dn

broadway. >> it was great. >> it was great, awesome. >> normally when the nfl hits town for the super bowl this sort of shin dig goes on from saturday to saturday, but they couldn't seal broadway and limit the cross weeks that long, so this year it's from now until saturday. but all the entertainment taking place on broadway and midtown, manhattan, the game takes place in new jersey. and new jersians are clea keen o make that clear. >> do stop for thrills, but be prepared for long lines and a word or two from the locals who will want to stop and engage you in conversation about the game. [ yelling and screaming ] >> i did try to warn you. >> that's good stuff. you enjoyed that. >> i love doing that. you it's very cold out there. if you're coming to town wrap up town.

there is good news, none of us here in new jersey and new york, can believe our good fortune. no snow in the forecast at the moment. >> it's good to know because there were preparations put in place, right? and you showed us some of the preparations out at rutherford. >> they sent me where the metlife stadium is. they have fake snow, and they're all very concerned. this is a big deal for the nfl. they could have come out on the wrong side of this had it snowed badly. i think i'm going to be in east rutherford where the stadium is. >> that will be fun. john terrett. that's must-see television. we'll have an update on the day's top story. we're back in a moment. this is al jazeera america. affect your cell phone bill?

or how a hospital in texas could drive up your healthcare premium? i'll make the connections from the news to your money real.

>> many children were forced to stay in schools and buses were

able to reach them in the middle of the storm. some folks were stuck in their cars for over 14 hours. the governor has called in the national guard to assist. president obama is on the road selling his state of the union message. he was in maryland at a costco store and then at u.s. steel plant in mifflin, pennsylvania. that is a town that reinvented itself after an economic bust. the syrian talks using geneva i document to outline negotiations. but president assad is still refusing to step down. protests began two months ago calling for ukrainian

president viktor yanukovych to resign. the dow down right from the opening bell. i'm sunn tony harris. those are the headlines. "real money with ali velshi" is next. >> turmoil half a world away is taking a bite out of your 401k. to deal with it you have to understand it, i'm here to help. and how a new farm bill is affecting people who live nowhere near a barn or corner field. plus how the worldwide web just got a whole worldwider. i'm ali velshi, and this is "real money."