>> this is al jazeera america i'm thomas drayton in new york. let's get you caught up on the top stories this hour. >> to the terrorists, we would never never forgive them for this act. we are going to coordinate with the international society japan would never defeated by terrorism. >> japan's minister expresses his outrage after a second hostage is executed. >> they did air strikes all day and night. they targeted everything.

>> meanwhile, i.s.i.l. forces are pounded into retreating from two key fronts. how the issue of sexual assault is casting a shadow over game day at the university of virginia. and in tonight's a deeper look, the controversial surrounding campaign reform, gearing up for 2016 presidential election. judge great to have you with us. our -- top of story i.s.i.l. claims the death of a japanese hostage. journalist kenji goto has been held hostage since october. online video you will not see here. problemproblem offing the correspondent has been beheaded. japan's prime minister is calling goto's death an inhumane

and despicable act of terrorism. >> to the terrorists, we would never never forgive them for this act. and the act committed we are going to coordinate with the international society for japan would never be defeated by terrorism. >> kenji goto was an experienced journalist who covered conflicts around the world for more than 20 years. our jerald tan tells us how goto ended up in the hands of i.s.i.l. fighters. >> this is kenji goto, recorded crossing into i.s.i.l. territory. he was well aware of the risks.

>> all responsibility is on me so please don't claim any claim. >> kenji goto was a freelance journalist who reported from war zones for more than 20 years in africa, afghanistan and the middle east. he traveled to syria at least in part to rescue his friend haruna yakawa, who went to syria to set up a company without any experience. captured by i.s.i.l. and held captive alongside his friend. i.s.i.l. demanded a $200,000 ransom. goto became part of a hostage and prisoner swap deal between

the jordanian government and i.s.i.l. goto's friends held vigil outside the residence in tokyo and his mother begged for his life. >> dear prime minister shinnzo abe, i plead for you to negotiate with the jordanian government until the very end. >> i.s.i.l. followed through with its threat and killed kenji goto. jerald tan, al jazeera. >> quick reaction from the u.s. government tonight. a national security council spokesman released this statement, we have seen the video to see that kenji goto has been murdered 50 terrorist group i.s.i.l. we are working to confirm its

authenticity. could affect america's relationship with allies overseas. hilary manlevert was stationed overseas and thinks some might think twice about joining the fight against i.s.i.l. >> for example turkey has not stepped forward to join this military coalition against islamic state and turkey has been able to escape a lot of the terrorism and consequences of what the islamic state has wrought throughout the region. i'm not a supporter of turkish policy but it is clear states have a choice, they can decide whether or not to join a strategy that is fated to fail and will reverberate back against them with deadly consequences. >> leverd says the u.s. and its allies should stop helping rebels overthrow governments. so far no word on the fate of the second man part of the

prisoner swap, the family of the jordanian pilot captured are waiting, will not negotiate his release unless i.s.i.l. shows prove of life. crashed during a bombing mission against i.s.i.l. fighters. >> the grotesque ritual of an execution playing out once again the orange suit, the man on bended knee, kenji goto, and shock here. a shudder through the negotiating team of jordanian and japanese officials who are trying to get a three-way deal. japanese well-known journalist to be released, a jordanian pilot released. and in exchange for shagida el

rashawi, a would be terrorist suicide bomber. trying to bring jordan and japan against each other. they were trying to divide more than public opinion here in jordan some siding with the whole alliance led by the us against i.s.i.l some against it and also, trying to put more pressure on a domestic crisis already in existence in japan. but right now it's unsure where this all leads. as far as al kasasba's family goes they are still appealing for i.s.i.l. to show some mercy but jordan is waiting for proof that the pilot is still alive.

no one knows if this whole procedure stops here, now or whether there is still going to be some negotiation between jordan and i.s.i.l. >> andrew simmons in aman, jordan. i.s.i.l. forced to retreat from two key fronts. after months of fierce fighting, they have better than driven out of kobani. zeina khodr has the story. >> the islamic state of iraq and the levant made its presence felt. three armed men dressed in black detonated a car bomb outside the kasir hotel. before storming the empty building. the attack on friday destabilized the security situation in this northern city. it was part of a coordinated assault that involved the i.s.i.l. fighters attacking kurdish peshmerga positions west and southwest of kirkuk. kurdish peshmerga soldiers told

us they ended the siege after a two hour gun battle. but the armed men preferred detonating their exploifer explosive belts rather than getting captured. kurdish commanders here say i.s.i.l.'s objective was to capture the city of kirkuk. it failed to do that but the armed group wants to show it hasn't been defeated. especially since it suffered recent setbacks on the battle grounds. kirkuk has long been a dangerous city. over the decades years various groups have laid claim to it. >> it is a matter of time before kirkuk would be theirs. >> kurds did lose ground, it was

an aggressive attack. the worst in months. >> i.s.i.l. attacked us from many directions. at the beginning they were able to surround us and we lost our positions. >> reporter: kurds have since managed to recapture most areas including a small oil field but only possible with the help of coalition air strikes. the peshmerga are facing a well armed enemy and i.s.i.l.'s strength has not been defeated. >> i.s.i.l. fighters say they may have lost the battle but islamic state isn't done yet. >> translator: we decided to withdraw from the city of kobani a little bit. heavy shelling of air forces continued which killed some of our brothers. the killing of our brothers is not a loss. it's a win. look at the destruction behind

me. but our islamic state will remain. i tell that to mr. obama. >> once again a four month battle destroyed the town. the focus now rebuilding the cities so families can return home. we're getting new details tonight on the fatal crash of airasia flight 8501. the pilot was out of his seat conducting a procedure when the co-pilot reportedly lost control of the plane. people familiar with the investigation. the airbus crashed in the java sea, flying from indonesia to singsingapore. they are looking at maintenance procedures and training. aviation leaders will be looking at safety standards when they meet in montreal. accidents in 2013 made it the deadliest year, more than 900 were killed in accidents.

one year disappearance of malaysia airlines 360. auto makers are planning a big recall, due to air bags. recall brands include acura dodge, jeep, honda and toyota between 2000 2002 and 2004. a million of the honda and toyota models are part of an earlier recall involving takata air bags. >> national leaders and fraternity bid night. tensions have been high since rolling stone published an article describing a stewed of sexual abuse.

erica pitzi reports. >> i'm learning from some fraternity members that the heads of all of these fraternities on campus have collectively decided to poaive postpone their big parties. the idea is that the fraternity brothers want to be united with their sorority sisters and include them in the festivities. they are getting around the mandate to keep the sorority sisters away from the fraternity brothers. celebrations have been going on all day long. as for the sororities, it is quiet as can be, some being required to remain inside their houses all night long. the reason for the rule was safety since the risk for sexual assault is allegedly higher on this big night for the fraternities. some sorority sisters have been speaking out against this mandate, these few brave women who did not want to be named for

fear of backlash from their sororities we caught them painting this message saying, "empower us don't imprison us." they are sad. >> it is such a wrong mandate. what it's doing is telling us that in order to be safe like in the name of safety we have to hide from men. which is just bizarre. >> we originally had planned a protest. but a lot of this, it's kind of awkward because a lot of people who would have been at the protest are not allowed to participate because they are at these events that their sororities are making them go to. so we kind of had just like our backup plan. we feel like it's a solid message. it speaks for itself. >> now we're hearing that the fraternity brothers are really lining up behind their sorority sisters and showing action by postponing these parties until next weekend to include their

sorority sisters. all of them descending on this downtown area, we are in the middle of it here and there will be serious cause for interest. thomas. >> erica pitzi at the university of virginia. still ahead on the program now that mitt romney has bowed out from running for president would be republican contenders are struggle hinge for his contributors. a new storm is headed for the northeast. rebecca. >> i'll show you where it's going to happen and how soon, next. next.

>> welcome back. tonight we take a deeper look at money and politics. changes in campaign finance law america's big money donors are prepared to spend whatever it cost. are the billionaire kochch brothers planned to spend over a billion dollars. ali velshi with more on the expected campaign spending frenzy. >> the oil billionaire coke coch brothers. >> the billion air brothers spent roughly 290 million in the 2014 mid terms. mostly through their complicated web of dark money organizations.

that's campaign spending largely by nonprofits, that can't easily tracked or sourced. >> there are plenty of other organizations that are also nonprofit, 501 501 (c) 4 directly or indirectly. >> the coch brothers have also pioneered the so-called caucuses to raise cash from fellow wealthy donors. las vegas sheldon adelson who supports pro-ing israeli causes. raising as much as $50 million a pop. but the democrats have taken on their own hush hush affairs to rake in money from big time donors. launched in 2005, the democracy alliance aims to, quote build

progressive infrastructure to help counter the well funded and sophisticated conservative apparatus, helping to steer $500million. tom styer who personally donate and while the coch brothers helped direct spending, to advance their interests above all others. ali velshi, al jazeera. >> fear of the wealthy having too much influence went far back. law faced legal challenges and in north african sphing the supreme court upheld limits on personal campaign contributions but struck down limits on overall campaign spending. spending money on elections was

a form of free speech. 1976 was also the first year of a publicly funded presidential campaign. jimmy carter defended jerald ford largely because of a box checked off on income tax returns. then came 2008. >> we've made the decision not to participate in the public finance system for the general election. >> then senator barack obama who became the first candidate from a major party freeing him from spending limits that came with it. his campaign raised $750 million. the supreme court ruled that companies, more than a century old, to take advantage both president obama and his opponent mitt romney turned down public funding in 2012. and raised a combined $1.16

billion. and if the flood gates weren't already opened in a five-four decision last april the supreme court removed limits on individual donations. money and politics at times may seem repugnant to sum but so does what the first amendment vigorously protects. in the four years since citizens united individual spending nearly doubled. >> mitt romney's announcement that he would not seek the nomination. the cost for running for office is now literally prohibitive. analysts are predicting that the race for the california senate seat being vacated by barbara boxer could end up costing $1 billion. and how blue california has

become, only a self-funded republican could afford to run. national campaigns are worse. the washington post estimated the presidential candidates in 2016 would need to raise $75 million by the start of the primaries. if you started january 1st of this year that's finding 65 maxed out donors a day for 425 days. enter the billionaires and their superpacks. names like sheldon adelson foster and of course coch brothers are critical to candidates. in 2012, adelson and his wife gave more than $20 million to presidential pacs. iowa freedom summit in des moines sponsored by citizens united. but many also traveled to palm springs that weekend to attend a separate event sponsored by the

cochs. republicans have something else with which to could be tend. the tea party. they have significantly driven up the price of running for president. tea party groups spent over $100 million in 2012 causing not just democrats to have to raise heavily but also, so-called establishment republicans. and why are they called establishment? a major veen that they have a -- reason is that they have a pipeline to the money. but clearly not all of it. once you have courted enough voters then you need to court the donors yet again. before the mid terms in 2014, house leader nancy pelosi told her caucus that they needed to pay up. each member was required to pay dues out of their own coffers to the democratic campaign committee. the amount ranged from $125,000 to $800,000, depending on

seniority and committee assignments and how much you pay would determine those very committee assignments and whether or not you would ever have a leadership position. >> the next president of the united states of america plight romney. >> there are honorable are reasons to run for office, it can still be a noble calling. but it's hard to imagine mr. smith going back to washington when it might be too expensive for mr. romney. are political correspondent michael shore joining us from los angeles and joined by adam leos and daniel weiner, counsel for the democracy program for brennan center for justice. gentlemen good to have you with us. >> thanks for having me. >> this is clearly a donor driven process. mr. leos aren't we electing the best door to door salesman? >> it might be better if it was door to door.

it's more like dialing for dollars to a very narrow set of wealthy donors. they have become the gatekeepers of our democracy. if you can't then it's hard to get a campaign off the ground. as your story pointed out you have to do that day after day day in and day out. for example to be competitive in a u.s. senate race our latest report the money chase showed you would have to raise $3300 per day for every single day. >> mr. weiner, are the donors really holding the cards here? >> i think that the candidates are less in control than they used to be. candidates still spend significant amounts of money but now we have outside groups also spending huge amounts. i would say that our latest research though does indicate that there is significant amount of coordination going on between

candidates and outside groups. notwithstanding laws to the contrary. >> shaping our policies, michael shore how does money shape and influence the politician how they. >> a politician who wants to appeal to let's say the coch brothers, you go to what interests them. if it is sheldon adelson you take on issues having to do with israel, if it's the coch brothers, you have to kowtow and kiss that ring in order to get that ring, how do you kiss the ring by supporting issues they want supported. that's how they're using their money to influence and also you ask who is controlling who? the stroarts do have -- voters do

have control. millions went to sheldon adelson, the voters said we don't want newt gingrich and then sheldon adelson gave money to mitt romney. >> is it here is how we feel this is how you should feel? >> well, you have to to be good at what you do. scott walker, for example just ahead today in a poll thomas, scott walker is a good politician, whatever you think of him he's good at politics. his acuity, his knowledge of politics is going to attract dollars. that's what happens here. at that point the issues that these people are advocating will appeal to the money too so it's a two way street. >> mr. weiner how dramatically did citizens united change political landscape? >> pretty dramatically. before citizens united sort of

core aspects of electoral advocacy were off limits to corporations and unions. and after citizens united they can spend unlimited money on those activities. so it was significant. >> we mentioned the democratic republican parties that are required by law to disclose their donors, not so for outside groups. most of the money comes from anonymous sources. but doesn't this breed mistrust if not corruption mr. leoz? >> it definitely undermines the faith of the democracy when millionaires and billionaires are fighting it out and ordinary citizens are on the sidelines. this doesn't have to be the way we conduct our democracy. we can match the small contributions of ordinary citizens and would rather put the voters rather than just the large donors at the center of our democracy. >> bottom line, do rel regular americans care about the cause

of politics? >> there are groups, pacs that are being created lawrence lessig a professor has created a pac to stop pacs. there is a movement a grass roots movement if you will of people that are just offended by the amount of money that is being spent. but in general it doesn't seem the change the apathy or the energy behind voting. the same number of people are coming out they're not encouraging a number of people to come out and vote but it hasn't turned off the people yet and maybe it will invite more into it. >> mr. leoz, the coch network has become one of the most influential in politics today. can you survivor without being embraced? >> i think you can survive but it certainly helps to be able to tap into that network. for example, if you are a working class person a teacher or police officer who wants to

run for office and you turn around and you don't know the cochs and you're a person of color, the wealthiest donors are 90% white and if you are a person of color who doesn't have access to those kinds of networks it makes the paths of victory much more narrow. the strength of your voice shouldn't depend on the size of your wallet or those in your social network. >> mr. romney, did that factor in? >> well i think that certainly mr. romney was looking around at where he was going to get the vast majority of his campaign funds. and if he didn't feel the kind of enthusiasm from that small network of millionaires and billionaires i think that probably did affect his decision. >> obviously it becomes the coch brothers agenda that the republicans have to prioritize and if you happen to be a

republican that doesn't disagree with every aspect of that agenda then it is a problem. the cochs have also pioneered the use of dark money. being bankrolled by megadonors this way the cochs is have shrouded their contributions in secrecy. >> how do you follow the dark money? >> you don't actually, there are minimal disclosure requirements that let you see which groups are spending money to some degree when they make ads. so you can identify the groups. the problem is, is that they're frequently named something like americans for american pie or whatever. and you can't actually see who is contributing that money. >> tough following the flow.

what about democrats mr. leoz. there are big donors stepping up for 2016. >> certainly. we have a system where both sides need to rely on a relatively small network of large donors. i'm going to judge candidates and folks who get involved in the political process on how they want to fix the system. folks want to play the game unfortunately as it is rigged to the 1% in the donor class. but people should take a strong stand on fixing the system. we need to get the supreme court to totally transform its approach to money and politics. your story noted how the supreme court has carved up the basic protections that prevent wealthy individuals and institutions from translatinglating monetary might to political power. depending on folks like you and

me thomas and not just those wealthy donor networks. that's how i judge the folks involved. >> do you think public funding is gone, is it over? >> public funding at the presidential level is right now not viable as the levels of money that folks have to raise. we need to fix that system, reinvigorate that system but there are systems that are working right now. new york city has a viable system. connecticut has a system. actually a republican just won the governorship in maryland using public funding and in places like connecticut for example as a result of that public funding system we have been able to see the policies that really serve working families much better. for example connecticut paid the first statewide paid sick leave law after they passed public funding. these systems are viable across the country and produce results that are in the public interest. >> michael shore what does the economic elite care about? >> the economic elite generally

speaking it's hard to generalize, they care about protecting their economic status. everything to do with that from inheritance on down and facilitating the earning of money as well. they do care about business and employment and issues, it's hard to speak for them en masse but in general they do care about protecting their wealth. >> mr. weiner what can we do about the over the top spending by billionaires? >> i agree with adam that over the long term, we need a different jurisprudence from the supreme court. in the more immediate term, we could start by enforcing the laws we already have on the books particularly on the federal level. the federal election commission really has a terrible track record. and also we need reform of our disclosure laws to deal with dark money and then i also agree that we need to be exploring

workable public financing systems. >> mr. leoz, we talk about this huge pot of money. who gets the money and how is it spent? >> well, from the coch brothers network, they call it the cochtopus, going to those nonprofits and perhaps on the presidential candidates on the house aunder senate, at the state level that money will be spent in lots of different ways, advocating for the brothers views on the economy who want to eliminate the minimum wage and policies that will hold back working families, especially people of color from getting into the inner of our democracy and be able to get a leg up in our economy. that money will be spent lots of different ways as dan says, many of those ways won't be traceable because of the dark money

loophole they'll take advantage of. >> are you optimistic of reforms? >> i think we're moving in the right direction. a silver lining of citizens united is the public is much more aware of and concerned of not just dark money but the role of a few billionaires dominating our democracy. linked to the voting rights amendment, the bottom line is this is flip side of the same coin about political access. we have seen groups with millions of people in their membership come together to prioritize fixing our democracy because they understand it is going to be tough to have strong approaches to these issues, until we address these problems of our democracy. >> for 2016. we'll have to leave it here, adammooblg shore adam lemoz and

thank you for being with us on a deeper look. >> thanks thomas. >> still to come on al jazeera america, the measles outbreak in california and how some are fighting back against those who are refusing to have their children vaccinated. >> safety hazard in the skies? how the faa may regulate commercial drones. drones.

>> more cases of measles have been confirmed in california. the number stands at 91. the white house weighing in, while a personal choice, parents should heed the advice of public officials who urge vaccination against measles. but not all agree. john henry smith has more. >> on just one day this year january 5th, alameda county, california saw as many cases of measles as it does in a whole

year.theyear. the source became obviously. >> the only place we could find, it turned out there are other cases that tested positive that had also been to disneyland on those same dates. >> reporter: the concern isn't just that measles is a deeply dangerous disease especially in young children it's also that the bay area is especially vulnerable because for some reason people are not vaccinating their children here. all 50 states require measles vaccinations for students. but 19 states give parents the choice based on medical or religious reasons. these exemptions are a growing problem. because when more than 8% of a school isn't vaccinated like those shown here in red a disease like measles can spread quickly. in the bay area, parents in wealthy enclaves like marin county which enjoys ready access to great health care are for some reason exempting their

children at an alarming rate. >> we have to really look closely. >> for example dr. john hicks a local physician. he blames a course of vaccinations for tragedy in his own family. >> i have a stepson who developed autism after a full set of shots. and he hit 105 for five days, and that was the last he was really connected to what was going on. >> there's no credible scientific evidence that vaccinations somehow overload a child's immune system nor is there any evidence of any ingredient in vaccines that is dangerous or somehow leads to autism. but the belief seems to persist and dr. hicks is sought out by patients who share that belief. >> what i see my job as, is to figure out what it is the parents really want and what they believe. and then support them in that. because if a parent believes these vaccines are going to create a problem they may create a problem. >> reporter: on the other side

of the golden gate bridge, dr. nelson bronco has decided to turn away toddlers who aren't vaccinated. >> we felt our duty was not only to the patient in our office but it was really to the entire community and to the many patients in our practice who could not be immunized against the plealz, the infants -- the measles, the infants under a year or others who have arthritis or hiv or cancer. >> meanwhile, secondary infections passed from someone infected at disneyland to others. >> i think there is measles circulating in the bay area and i think we'll see other cases. >> john henry smith, al jazeera. >> earlier my colleague richelle carey spoke to a doctor who

stride to increase vaccinations in so-called herd immunity. >> i would like our school to take a leadership position in an attempt to educate people, in the united states our job is to educate our children, let's educate our community on the benefits of vaccinations and say if you would like to come to this school please vaccinate. and if you choose not to vaccinate then you're not welcome to come to this school. and i think that position is justified in the sense that it lowers the risk of kids getting sick. we often say there's no silver butbullet to solve any problem but the thing about measles is, there is. it's a vaccination. and there's no other medical break through in the history of medicine that has saved more lives than vaccinations. >> he feels passionately that parents have the responsibility to vaccinate their children for good of the community. those who fly recreational drones are waiting to hear what

the drone regulations will be. all will be part of a national air space and as a result a purview of the faa. our jake ward gives us a sneak peek on what the faa is likely to rule when they do rule on drones. >> the people who fly drones, and i'm one of them, are waiting, the faa has promised to come up with these regulations was originally supposed to come out this year but turns out it won't come out until 2017. we'll get a sneak peek. a new report that came out of the office of management and budget gave us this sneak preview. it starts out they're starting to look at drones, big professional ones that carry cameras all the way down to toy drones as something that is going to be under the purview of the faa. that means teen smallest drones are going to be considered part of the national air space and as a result are going to be part of

the faa's purview. now this is sort of a problem in many ways. the faa is not currently staffed really to handle all of the drones there are and there has always been a sort of handshake agreement between people who fly and sort of general national air space. if you are going to put up a hot air balloon you have to call your faa center and get permission. but it's a polite manual process sort of a gentleman's handshake and that's not going to be possible with the thousands and millions eventually of people owning these things, there were thousands sold by amazon over the christmas season. drones filling the skies in the future. the industry itself is also starting to take steps here, dji which is the manufacturer of the drone that crashed into the white house and also, one that carried six pound of

methamphetamines that crashed at the time mexican border. when you load the latest update onto your d dji drone they're basically trying to take responsibility for this get out ahead of it in advance. right now we're definitely seeing that the gears of washington are moving very slowly when it comes to this rapidly changing technology but it turns out that industry is trying to get out in front of it. the envelope filled with white powder went to the headquarters of samaritan's purse. has helped the fight against ebola in west africa. when al jazeera america

returns, thousands of soldiers to the fight against boko haram.

ra america.

>> catholic officials say they vected two investigated two cases of child pornography in the vatican last year. one involves the vatican's former requestor about to the dominican republic. after accusations he had abused young boys. he is under house arrest in vatican city. officials did not identify the second suspect. it is after midnight right now in cairo and three of our colleagues are mark our 400th day in captivity. peter greste, baher mohamed and mohamed fahmy.

al jazeera denies all the accusations against the men. our lawrches lawrence lee reports on recent developments in the case. >> for 400 days, joann rashad and her are children are as the months have gone by the sense of injustice have grown and grown. >> translator: i still feel the bitterness and sadness. we and our children have been overwhelmed by a sense of insecurity throughout. we have felt nothing else. happiness has gone. we keep praying for freedom of my husband baher who has been unjustly detained for no crime. >> reporter: the last couple of weeks have seen hopes rise and fall. they had hoped a new hearing would set them free, but instead it decide on a new trial.

peter greste has tried to get himself many. >> paris with the killing of the charlie hebdo magazine and increasingly the question is being raised, why aren't western leaders exercising more are pressure on the egyptian governments. >> all those leaders who marched for charlie hebdo and free speech were really hypocritical because they are not putting pressure on egypt. and the success of the egyptian tactic of locking up these journalists and -- with lick-spittle judges who do whatever the government wants and are keeping them in jail is likely to be followed by other oughtautocratic regimes.

>> locked up in ethiopia for 438 days for trying to report on an internal rebel group hostile to the governments. free speech he believes is absolute and its right should be defended absolutely. >> if you look at egypt egypt probably sneaked a peek at ethiopia, it doesn't have any political financial diplomatic consequences, you still get your military aid you still get your huge conferences you still get respect from international community and are doing exactly the same thing with fabricated evidence sentencing journalists as terrorists. >> journalism is not a crime most people would agree and would also agree that 400 days in jail for doing nothing wrong should continue to be challenged. the question is whether the leaders of the free world now think they've already said everything they want to. lawrence lee, al jazeera london. >> new forces will be joining the fight against boko haram in

nigeria. >> happily we have agreed now to deploy an international force to deal with boko haram. >> the african union today agreed to send 7500 soldiers from five west africa nations to aid nigeria's struggle against boko haram. in addition both the united states and iran are offering assistance. thousands of people have been killed since the group began its attacks five years ago. success for two daring adventurers. coming up on al jazeera america a 7,000 mile journey come to an end in mexico. and yet another snow storm making its way across the country. we'll have your forecast, straight ahead. ahead.

>> an amazing adventure came to an end this morning after the coast of mexico. two balloonists completed a

7,000 mile journey. they began the flight in japan last sunday. good thing they didn't fly in parts of the midwest or northeast. i tell you it would have been a tough journey rebecca stevenson. >> starting with the day tomorrow chicago in the winter time is not always the best place to fly into our out of for that matter. always delays, anticipate them for the next 24 hours at least because there's a storm system that's tracking through it's going to dump a significant amount of snow in a band stretching from the northern part of iowa, michigan, pennsylvania and eventually swinging by and bringing even some more snow to places like new york city. new york city will probably get most of the same amount they got when this last blizzard went through. it was not a blizzard for new york city but it was further nor for massachusetts and you will

get hit again in mched with a massachusetts with a storm. where they're going to play the super bowl tomorrow, it will move out and push snow to iowa, starting out with a little bit of rain and eventually we're going to expect to see a foot at least around chicago. there will be parts of the southern portion of the city that will get up to 14, 15 inches of snow. now that will stretch gradually sunday morning further east and we'll get to that heavier snow parts of ohio and northern indiana as well and then it continues over into pennsylvania. central pennsylvania is expected to get a hit of heavy snow probably up to about ten inches or so before we see a little transition happen. transition, means danger here. because during the day on our monday especially, that's when we're going to see that risk of some ice. sleet, freezing rain

temporarily and that will be part of the snowfall amounts. six inches over manhattan and southern portions of connecticut. massachusetts you'll get another ten to 14 inches of snow. this area of low pressure will be tracking ideal where where you can get that snow in long island. but not hit so hard this time around. good news is they'll get lesser amounts of snow but we'll see most of this really hit tomorrow into monday. >> encouraging news. barely time to dig out from the last one we saw. guess what? the kickoff to this year's super bowl is less than 24 hours. the game has been sold out but you can still get a ticket. seats to the arizona game are selling for $7,000, hefty price.

that's going to put you at the top. you'll pay at least $50,000 for a seat close. that 7,000 seat was $2,000 last saturday. i'm thomas drayton i'll see you again at 11:00 eastern. be safe. hello, i'm antonio mora, welcome to a special edition of "consider this," freedom under fire. attacks on human rights and freedom around the world have lead to growing humanitarian crises around the world. some 50 million people displayed by conflicts. nobody is suffering more than children, and despite heroic efforts, relief organizations are overwhelmed.