welcome to al jazeera america. i'm del walters. here are the stories we are following for you. a large part of america is being socked by a winter blast of the weather. one of the largest drugstore chains are saying no to tabacco. soccer star david beckham is bringing the big leagues to miami.

another winter storm, the second this week is blasting more than two dozen states. more than one hundred million americans feeling the brunt of storm. a triple threat of ice, snow and rain. the storm already pounding parts of the great plains and midwest. it's expected to dump a foot of snow in the northeast. visibility is poor. icy,slick roads are making driving conditions both dangerous and deadly. to compound matters almost a million of you are sitting in the dark without heat and power. paul beban is new york where the city saw several inches of snow. what can the people expect trying to get home? >> well, good evening, it is going to be a mess. it was a winter wonderland this morning and it became a winter night mare, it is a slushy and slippery mess and much of new york state is facing a salt shortage. the streets in new york mroesly

clear, but the piles of snow, huge slushy puddles and jumping over and tripping down the subway stairs and it is a treacherous mess here and to the west of here it is the worst. the power outages are concentrated, 650,000 people in pennsylvania without power and the roads are very, very bad and the outages could persist throughout the weekend and cold and dark days ahead and another storm could be on the way. things are not looking good here in the northeast. >> and socking big parts of the u.s. and what about the road warnings and what can the drivers expect? >> don't expect anything good, smooth or quick. a lot of speed restrictions on

the new jersey tun pike, 95 up north, bad conditions, very bad along the rails as well, amtrak, metro-north and the new jersey lines are delays there. 3,000 flights delayed. another several thousand cancelled today, which is becoming an all too familiar routine for travelling around the country, especially in the northeast. it is a tough day whether coming or going. >> one of the bad info commercials and there is more? >> yes, there is more. right now you can see what's happening. the storm is clearing out, the back edge of the precip is moving through the mid atlantic in the northeast. the color of the radar is

showing what is happening. the pink areas is the warmer air above the surface. this area of low pressure is taking over from the initial storm and keeping the cold air in place at the surface and the warm is being pulled up and we have a tremendous area of sleet and freezing rain. this is where it is picking up now, the back edge here, the forecast by 3:00, still coming down across new england, but clearing out and taking the rain and sleet with it and lingering snow shower as the cold air returning and that is all snow. by 9:00 tonight pretty much down and the key is the temperatures. they have climbed above freezing now and they'll be dropping and slippy tomorrow morning and we have more on the weekend storm coming up later on. >> thank you. a major announcement today from

cvs and they are no longer going to sell tabacco products. they are removing them from the shes by october. john, do we know what prompted that decision? >> well, we do. sometimes you have to change yourself a little bit in life and wow we are living through a moment here and this is one of those moments. the gabbing .com tabacco companies are not going away. it is a retailer changer. this is the second largest pharmacy change in the country. they are in 43 states. when they say we are taking all tabacco products from the shelves, that is a big deal. here comes larry, the president of ceo of the bit of cvs caremark and he's saying, look, going forward we want to position as a more healthy

company and feeling good about themselves and tabacco most definitely has no place in that. >> when we asked ourselves where we expect to be in the future as a healthcare company it is clear that removing tabacco products from our stores is the right thing to do. >> the price tag is 2 billion dal -- dollars. and that is okay. it is a lot of money, but fairly small compared to sales. robin is the ceo of legacy, which is really a foundation that advocates for not smoking and he's thinking that they have gone into this after long thinking and it is successful for them. take a look. >> in the long term, selling product that kills just half of the people that use it certainly can't be good for business.

so i think it will prove to be very successful and other retailers will be following. >> it remains to be seen what walgreen's is going to do, all though they are looking at the place of those products on their shelves and they have reevaluating too. >> any response from the people that live in the house behind you? >> yes, they have made responses and he's not a smoker any more. he's given up. you never know. he's quick off the mark with a statement and president obama saying that today's decision is helping the efforts to reduce tabacco related deaths, cancer and heart disease and bringing down the healthcare costs that is central to his policies and michele obama is tweeting we can

all breathe easier and today's ai announcement brings the country closer to a tabacco free generation. that may or may not be true. we'll have to wait and see. but the tabacco companies with not going a way. their business growth model is in the third world countries and developing nations and smoking is extremely popular there. >> john, thank you very much. >> the new york city medical examiner is saying more tests are needed in the philip seymour hoffman case. the cause of death is undetermined. he was found with several bags of heroin around him. the investigation led the police to make four arrests on drug charg charges. >> united nations is demanding for arrests on the rights of

children. the catholic church is not taking the necessary steps to protect those rights and that is just the beginning. >> the report is a critique of the vatican's performance in dealing with child sex abuse, they are not recognizing the problem or taking responsibility for it and accusing it of policies amounting to a cover up. >> it is placed the prez herb e ver sags of the reputation of the church and the perpetrators above the children's best interest. >> the report is listing a number of failings and has recommendations. the church is moving the guilty abusers from parishes to parishes and there is a code of silence in reporting the abuse and abusers should be removed and reported to the police and provide rehabilitation to the victims. this crisis is continuing to

plague the credibility of the catholic church and the new hope. there is a new commission to deal with it and the committee is saying it must call on outside help and everything needs to be made public. >> the credibility of the church is always at stake unless there is a possibility of -- protecting the children. >> the tough stance is welcomed. >> for so long we have been disbelieved and so long criticized because the church said that we are only after the money. >> this is a real class of cultures between the u.n. determined to uphold the rights of the child and the vatican,

they are used to keeping their business secret and a challenge to the pope, can he turn the new language and the atmosphere into a change in the secret culture of the catholic church. >> for their part, the vatican is saying that the report is distorted. >> after 40,000 miles in 123 days the olympic torch arrives to sochi. it is the longest journey. today's celebration comes two days before the games are set to begin. but the celebration was smared a bit. the attack in december killed 34 people and injured 100 others. the death is said to come about during a police raid and there are other major security concerns. >> sport is not the only thing on the show in sochi, far from

it, until the first see is clipped on, russian security is staying to itself. the policeman are on the streets. it is a deliberate show of force and this is why. the threats from armed groups based in the troubled north added to jittery sentiment about the games, many security experts are thinking enough has been done. >> most probably attacks on the athletes or the guests would be impossible and i think that the terrorists want to attack less protected places and they are placed in the south of russia. >> two suicide attacks transport system last december suggests this is achieveable and threats of a different nature, tuesday

it received a letter saying two of the athletes would be kidnapped in sochi and more letters were went out and they were a hoax. there is a huge security operation here involving robots, sonar systems and a hundred thousand personnel. it makes sochi very hard to attack, all though nothing is a hundred percent safe. until everyone has returned back home safe and sound, russia is able to boost they have put on a trouble free games. if that is achieved, there may be immense satisfaction here and many of the russians as to the worries as western phobia. that is a very big if. >> meanwhile, the head of the u.s. delegation to the games is not going to sochi, billy jean

king is not travelling because her mother is sick. he's openly gay. russian banned the gay propaganda last yuan. >> a former florida police officer is charged with killing a man after texting inside of a movie theatre. the two got into an argument at a movie theatre last month. it is alleged to see him shooting the and. >> under wear model and now david beckham adding a new title to the credits, team owner. >> it is a tough time for the real estate market and now finally starting to heat up, especially in new york.

>> a mixed day on wall street and the dow is bouncing barely. up 3 points right now and the s&p and nasdaq are lower. >> disappointing news on jobs ahead of the friday january employment report and saying just 175,000 private sector jobs were created last month and that is the smallest since august. bad weather is being blamed. >> expect to see more of the seahawks and the nfl teams, cbs is signing on to broadcast 8 thursday nights games early in the season and on the nfl network. they have the option to extend the contract into 2015. >> well, as you say from the jobs report, parts of the economy are continuing to struggle. one of the segments is going strong and that is real estate. just take a look at new york.

>> the sky scrappers are dominating manhattan. >> office buildings is where america lives. >> real estate is a huge chunk of the economy. the market suffered greatly in the aftermath of the financial crisis and shrinking by 25% and now it is coming back, especially in new york. in 2013, not residential construction hit $10 million and that is up 16% from 2012. at the forefront of the surging, the trade center towers and hudson yards. >> that is nearly 8 million square feet of space or 3 empire state buildings. another indicator is the leap in the property values, in manhattan alone, prices surged by 60% in the past three years

and that is higher than the national average. >> that is not surprising nor is it a warning bell. we have a lot of liquidity in the market. if you buy a great office building and collect good rents from the tenants and get the kneeled yield, it is driving up the prices. >> the buyers that purchase the trophy towers are now able to sell the properties and make 20% or more on the investments. despite the big deals, commercial real estate is facing uncertain future because of the federal reserve. they are pulling back the spending on the long term bonds and that raises the borrowing costs. >> clearly the low interest rates helped contribute to the rise in values and if you see increase in the interest rates, it is going to impact the values. >> there is a silver lining, the feds are likely to cut the

stimulus slowly and giving the market a breathing room. >> david beckham announcing today that he plans to bring major league soccer to miami and he's going to buy the team and that is planning to expand soccer in the u.s. that is a sweet deal. $25 million to buy a team. >> he did. i will hit on that in a second. there is a lot of buzz about this announcement. not even a name for the team, no word on the stadium's location and beckham is saying he's already getting calls from players wanting to come join him here in miami. he paid $25 for a major league soccer team and part of a contract he had when he was a

play we are the galaxy, the owners of the new york major league soccer team paid a hundred million dollars, he and the investors have to pay a lot of money, they have to completely fund whatever the stadium is, probably downtown miami and that is because the city of miami is not pitching in $0.01 for this stadium. today is really about the excitement and bringing major league soccer back to miami. the team sold it in 2002. the major league soccer was struggling after 9/11 and fans are quite excited to see the team return. there is still a lot of challenges. miami is a sports stat ewe rated town and a lot of distracts with the beaches and the night life, but beckham is saying this is a dream of his owning a team and

he wants it to be a world class one. >> we want a stadium, it is a people's club, simple as that. >> so one of the things that is interesting that he talked about is the need to build this team, whatever's called from the grass roots and build an academy and hopefully recruit locally and he's also looking to attract high profile talent. ie should say for the record i know you protested having to cover david beckham today in that news conference in miami. [laughter] thank you. >> coming up, he was known for the silent films and now for the writing. the new book by the little trap. >> two storms in three days and one more on the way. the national forecast and the

headlines are straight ahead.

>> welcome back to al jazeera america. here are the headlines at this hour. another blast of winter, millions of americans are filling the brunt of a tripleel. soon expected to top up to a foot of snow in the northeast. cvs is phasing out the sale of tabacco cigarettes. it is focussing more on health. >> u.n. is saying that the vatican needs to act now to get rid of sexual abusers. the church is saying that the report is distorted and they are committed to protecting children. >> he was known as the little tramp and now charlie chaplain is one of the most recognizable

names in film. now a lost transcript is showing he was also a writer. >> he's the man whose face says a thousand words even with the script not having any. charlie chaplain now a novelest. the short fiction pulled together from the scripts found among 150,000 pages of the archives. >> to find something new produced by chaplain is extraordinary. >> the pages were full of scribbles and changes and drafts and redrafts. >> our aim is just to reveal another side of the gene was.

>> the film was hugely successful and the last great film. >> it is a deep reflection in the relationship between the artist and the art. and the audience and the film deals with this issue but the book goes much deeper into the nightmares and the shadows of the comedian. >> he was born near here and many of the movies were filmed under the california sun, he never forgot where he came from. >> charlie chaplain drew many thousands to the square. >> even royalty attended the premier. the novel's release goes along with the hundred year anniversary of putting on the famous costume. >> everyone going crazy about

the character. no one in the world that didn't know his name. >> a mania that continues a century later. >> a lot of people walking like him today because of the snow. >> yes, good thing it is a silent film, they are saying things too. they are saying a lot with this weather. we have another storm coming over the weekend. first getting rid of this one. the storm is developing and intensifying off the coast. the cold is kept in place. warm air come up and melted the snow and now below freezing. so the sleet and the freezing rain. it is clearing out. the storm is moving out over the next few hours and the snow is continuing where it is cold enough to keep it all snow and a lot of snow falling up over new england and eventually going to clear out.

maybe a lingering snow showers. not much happening here at 9:00. here is a break we are going to see tonight, tomorrow and friday. but then things are changing over the weekend. the temperatures have warmed up above freezing as we get the rain now which is falling on to the layer of ice and snow, which is really clogged up a lot of drains, the storm drains, so flooding problems in the areas in green. the winter storm warnings for snow and ice, that is expiring overnight tonight. the story is the cold air and dry air coming in behind the storm and working to the east and the temperatures bebow freezing and ice on the roadways. the storm is clearing out, another storm approaching from the west, it is a welcome rain in california, not a lot but taking anything we can get. two storms combining over the

weekend and as it is intensifying not a lot of snow in the northeast, we are continuing to watch how this develops. >> thank you for watching al jazeera america. i'm del walters in new york. techknow is next. nerds. tonight sharks. we are tracking some of the misunderstood cret cite cret cre dry cre creatures in the sea. we are behind the wheel of the fruifuture testing out the drivs car. tonight police, science and a