now, before he could finish though, the cops showed up and fined the pair the equivalent of $460 for vandalism. the two disagreed with the fine and went to court to challenge it and after a lengthy hearing with arguments from both sides, a judge ruled that even though the accused had been eating the flowers when police arrived, there was no evidence that gary intended to vandalize the vegetation. sometimes you just get hungry. as you can imagine james and gary were happy with the verdict. james, who you saw there, gary's name has been cleared of the slander. he was simply eating. i want to thank everyone for coming down here. you taught the cops a valuable lesson. don't bite off more than you can chew. sounds like a strange case, right? the strangest part is gary was not allowed in the courtroom during the trial. why? all right. this is gary. that's gary. gary is a goat. you know what? goats eat flowers. a police officer actually took the time to write a goat a ticket for eating a flower.

then they held a hearing. you know what? taxpayers paid for all of this, people. strangely, no one seems too angry about it. we know laws are important. they should not replace common sense. it feels like the world is becoming more and more lat ijous every day. you may laugh at a story like this. if you think about the bigger problem it represents, it really gets your goat. "anderson cooper 360" starts now. >> good evening, everyone. breaking news. no shortage of compelling stories. unwitting, unknowing woman's face being used in a con. we'll talk to diane o'meara and what it was like to have no connection to manti te'o but be known as his fictitious girlfriend. first, we begin with breaking news. a military story that could seriously alter the political battlefield perhaps for decades to come.

cnn has learned that tomorrow defense secretary leon panetta will open the door to women serving in combat units. it won't happen all at once. there will be certain limitations. for the first time in long history of american armed forces, a big door will be opening. the decision comes with plenty of women fighting and dying overseas it's important to mention. at least 130 women have been killed in iraq and afghanistan. more than 800 wounded. in a moment we'll talk to a congresswoman and iraq war veteran and look at political consequences. we start at the pentagon with our chris lawrence. this is ground breaking stuff after women flying helicopters, combat medics, assigned to submarin submarines, this is the last great barrier to come down. >> you are talking about marine recon units and special operations forces. this was sort of the big glass ceiling that had not been broken yet. you mentioned other ones.

army recently opened up special ops aviation that women could be pilots and crew members on aviation flights for special operations forces. this potentially opens up nearly a quarter of a million jobs to women in the military. >> what's the time line on this? it doesn't happen all at once. >> no. it's not like tomorrow all of these jobs are going to open all at once. some will open fairly quickly. the easiest ones to integrate where you've got a lot of women already sort of attached or working at a battalion level. those could be op in six to eight months. some of the tougher ones, special operations forces, certain elite infantry units, those may take years. what the pentagon has got to do now is the individual commands have to start to assess when they may be able to make this change and that really is the big catch there, anderson. these commands can go through and look and say at some point we don't think we can feesably

integrate women without losing combat readiness. they can ask for an exception to the rule so ultimately down the road this may not apply to every single job in the military and it's something that leon panetta's successor is going to have to make big decisions about going down the road. >> for some of these, would there be different physical standards? all the same physical standards? how would that work? >> all that's got to get worked out individually so the marines will have to look at every job, every combat unit and decide how they want to implement it. if you look at how the navy did submarines, what they did is they took a small group of women when they were still at the naval academy, brought them in as candidates. those women trained for a couple years and just last year and last few months you started to see the first female submarine officers get on board their subs. after they get integrated, then the navy is going to bring in enlisted women behind them and i'm told that's how they may work some of the process with certain elite units. >> chris lawrence, thanks.

>> yep. >> joining me now john king and margaret hoover and illinois democratic congresswoman tammy duckworth. how do you feel about today's announcement? >> i was pleased. a great step forward for our military and our nation. this opens up a whole new population of americans who want to serve and defend this nation who now will be able to do it in combat jobs. >> john king, how much of this is about politics? >> first and foremost it's something the president believes in. if you attach it to some other things he said he believes in and will push for in his second term, look at what we heard in the last 72 hours. women in combat. ground breaking language in his inauguration speech. take all of those issues, what do they have in common? they fit the demographics of the obama coalition. how did he win? college educated women.

younger voters. nonwhite voters. he's embracing if you will not only the politics but the policy priorities of his coalition. what else do they have in common? they put pressure like a sharp thumb on some key points in a republican coalition that this white house frankly thinks is ageing, is increasingly white and is fractured. >> you think there's no doubt that that is part of this equation? >> without a doubt. if you heard speaker john boehner after the inaugural address saying the president is trying to annihilate the republican party. that's a strong word. does this president see an opportunity? you can't find many democrats who think that president obama worries about the democratic party, 10, 15, 20 years down the road. you'll find a lot of democrats that say if you can turn the obama coalition into a democratic coalition, the democrats will have built in on the national stage what ronald reagan had for 20 years and republican party had after ronald reagan on the republican stage. if he can transfer it over, it spells trouble for the republicans. >> congresswoman, what do you

think about what john king is saying? >> i'm not privy to the president's processes and how he came up with the decision. all i can tell you is women have been dying and fighting for this nation in combat roles in iraq and afghanistan. they may not have had those jobs specifically other than aviation, my branch of service, they've been fighting in combat and engaged in combat action. i think the last ten years of women serving in combat has finally pushed us to this point where the pentagon has finally realized women have served ably and it's time we open up these folds. >> do you think the president is trying to box republicans into a corner? >> i don't know what the president is trying to do. all i can tell you is that i certainly as a politician supported this throughout my political career but even beforehand. i've been supporting this all along even when people said women aren't capable of doing it. yes, they are. they are capable of defending our country just as well as men.

>> you don't want to say what's in the president's mind but from a political standpoint does it box republicans into a corner or make it difficult for republicans? >> anyone who would oppose this would have to answer to their constituency as to why they think women aren't capable of doing those jobs. both want to defend this country and i think that what women have done in iraq and afghanistan, our military women, has proven that they are fully capable of doing this. >> margaret hoover, republican, what do you think? >> i would encourage republicans here to not be reactionary and to not take the political bait. the truth is it's exactly what representative duckworth said. women have been fighting in combat roles. not only fighting in combat roles in the sense they are taking action direct combat and seeing engagement, seeing action, there are also some rules like the female marine engagement troops in afghanistan, jobs female marines are doing that male marines simply can't do. they are seeing conflict and

action as well. to be reactionary would be to defy the facts on the ground. >> but also just from a political standpoint, to john king's point, do you think this -- is politics involved here? this is shoring up liberal coalition and boxing republicans in? >> it's a perfect marriage of the reality of where the military is going and the coalition the president is the trying to coalesce. it makes sense for him to do this and republicans shouldn't be reactionary about it. the thing republicans should care most about is what will keep the military the most fe t effective and superior fighting force in the world and if opening up to women and being realistic, women are seeing combat, they should be -- >> do you agree with john boehner that barack obama is trying to annihilate the republican party? >> he see as splintered republican party and he is going for the jugular and any smart politician would. he's being wise tactically.

>> is part of this payback for comments that mcconnell made about his top job being to make sure the president wasn't re-elected? >> you could look at it that way. if you asked the president he would say he believes these things. after his inaugural address rahm emanuel asked him where did that come from and why did you decide to give that speech with those points we talked about. the president said i decided to say things that i really believe in. he's a second-term president. he doesn't have to run for re-election. we can talk about these policies. president didn't do women in combat. he didn't lift a finger on climate change or push hard on immigration and gun control in his first term so he's a second-term president who doesn't have to face voters and these are things he wants to bring front and center. how much will he follow-up? we'll see. they do believe in the white house, look at the demographics of this country and now they're changing and the obama coalition from the last two elections, they believe if they can cement the loyalty of those voters in and part of that is acting on issues they most care about,

these are issues that fit the obama coalition. if they can cement that in on a national scale, the republicans are in trouble. >> and margaret, you would agree the president believes this. it's not just politics. he believes in all of these things. >> i think so. i think he's sincere. i don't think there's anything insincere in saying that. it's politically convenient. >> fascinating days. appreciate you being with us. let us know what you think. we're talking about it on twitter. ahead tonight, her face belonged to manti te'o. the image of the perfect girlfriend. fictitious noti fictitious girlfriend we now know. murder of four americans in libya. secretary clinton's fiery day on capitol hill. >> with all due respect, the fact is we had four dead americans. was it because of a protest or guys out for a walk that decided

to go out and kill americans. what difference at this point does it make? it's our job to figure out what happened and do everything we can to prevent it from ever happening again, senator. with so much competition, finding the right job is never easy. but with the nation's largest alumni network, including those in key hiring positions, university of phoenix can help connect you to a world of opportunity.

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hillary clinton's long awaited accountability moment in the death of four americans in libya. their sacrifice deserves honest answers and meaningful action and not political posturing and evasive answers. are we getting honest answers to truly relevant questions and are security problems that caused four americans their lives being addressed? last month a state department accountability review board identified failures of leadership prior to the killings. secretary clinton says she takes full responsibility. today on capitol hill lawmakers demanded accountability. >> i am troubled by what seems to be this administration's pattern of misleading the american people and failing to hold decision makers accounta e accountable. >> chris stevens new more about libya than anyone else in our government did not see a direct threat of an attack of this nature and scale despite the

overall trend of security problems that we faced and i have to add neither did the intelligence community. >> an emergency meeting was held and a cable set out on august 16th by the ambassador himself warning what could happen and this cable went unnoticed by your office. >> it does cost money to pay for embassy security. >> since 2007, they have requested additional funding with the exception of 2010 congress enacted less than requested. >> we were misled that there were protests and something strange out of that. >> with all due respect, the fact is we had four dead americans. was it because of a protest or guys out for a walk one night that decided to kill americans. what difference at this point does it make? it is our job to figure out what happened and do everything we

can to prevent it from ever happening again, senator. >> had i been president at the time and i found you did not read the cables from benghazi, you did not read the cables from ambassador stevens, i would have relieve yd you of your post. it's inexcusable. >> i have great confidence that the accountability review board did the job they were asked to do, made the recommendations that they thought were based on evidence, not on emotion. >> so there's no shortage of heat today as you just saw. keeping them honest, was there light? you served time in august with ambassador stevens. it's very frustrating to watch them. ends up being a lot of posturing and grandstanding. what did we learn today we didn't know already? >> there were questions that

went unanswered and questions that were buried in paragraphs of speeches that members of congress gave allowing secretary clinton to not answer them. a few things we learned today. one, i think i have never heard the state department officially confirm that weapons used in algeria in that crisis came from libya. it was long reported it was suspected but it had not been said by the secretary of state before. in terms of the politics of this, i think we learned that this remains a big issue among republican rank and file and benghazi will continue to be an issue but that republicans still have yet to find a way to pin down any of the obama administration officials for any tangible wrongdoings. >> fran, do you think it was a waste of time? >> i do think it was a waste of time. it was unfortunate. you've had on family members on your program and i imagine myself as a family member if i lost somebody watching this. look, it was a waste of time to

ask secretary clinton about the talking points given to ambassador susan rice. >> they seemed to spend a lot of time on talking points given to susan rice. >> right. when secretary clinton loses her temper in the senate hearing and says what difference does it make whether this was resulted from a protest or guys that went out for a walk and decided to kill americans and the right comeback is it does matter. if you want to solve the problem, you have to understand what caused that. >> let's play the moment. >> we were misled that there were protests and then something sprang out of that. that was ascertained that was not the fact. the american people could have known that within days and they didn't know that. >> with all due respect, the fact is we had four dead americans. was it because of a protest or was it because of guys out for a walk one night that decided they would go kill americans. what difference at this point does it make? it's our job to figure out what happened and do everything we

can to prevent it from ever happening again, senator. >> you were saying, fran, it does make a difference. >> it does make a difference. of course. she alludes to that at the end of her answer. in order to fix it, you have to understand where it came from. by the way, they didn't spend time asking her about the several attempts to attack that consulate and the attack on the british ambassador in benghazi prior to the 9/11 attack on our consulate. there were a series of things if they wanted to get to substance of this and she took responsibility, but if you want to hold her accountable, you needed to really organize yourself to ask substantive questions and they didn't do that. >> did it seem like they had done their homework? >> here's another -- secretary clinton said she did not read all of the cables that we're talking about the security situation. not one senator or one member of congress asked her if she got a roger channel cable from ambassador stevens. that is a special channel in which an ambassador posted

overseas can communicate directly with the secretary of state on particularly sensitive matters. we don't know because no one asked her. my point is that members of congress were so busy posturing they had an opportunity to really ask her difficult questions and get straight answers and they didn't do that. >> where do you think this leaves secretary clinton in terms of her legacy? does it have an impact on any career she may have in 2016 in terms of running for president? did it do damage today to her? >> i think that the quote of hers that you just played "what difference does it make at this point?" is ready for a campaign commercial. i think that will be used against her and certainly it comes across as more glib than i think if she could go back and revise and extend those remarks she would have them as fran just

alluded to. >> is it fair, fran, to attack secretary clinton, the administration, for not having brought some of these people to justice already? the flip side of that these things take time. do you think it's too much time? >> they do take time. secretary clinton was asked and she did mention fbi director bob mueller was in libya last week. didn't say much other than we're working with the tunisian government. one suspect was released. >> they say he's under observation. >> they weren't ready to bring charges yet. you know, anderson, here's the problem. the bad guys understand this. they are watching. there hasn't been anybody brought to justice. they understand very well the environment they are operating in. security services have melted away after the arab spring. borders are easy to cross. weapons are easily assessable. the bad guys have an advantage. the longer it takes to bring an investigation to a conclusion and hold people accountable suggests to the bad guys that

they have a free operating environment and americans are at risk throughout that region. >> interesting. fran, appreciate it. diane o'meara learned from a reporter she was the face of manti te'o's fake girlfriend. her stolen image is at the center of an entire hoax that changed the way some people see the star linebacker. she joins me live ahead. a controversial new book explores the church's interest in hollywood. the author, lawrence wright, will join me next.

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welcome back. 2013 has barely begun. it's possible that a more bizarre story could come along. we know that lennay kekua, the love of te'o's life and died too young losing her life to

leukemia the day that he lost his grandmother, we know that's not true. tonight the star linebacker is talking. the full interview with katie couric airs tomorrow. in clips released by "good morning america" he admits to lying. he also defends his lies. listen. >> you stuck to the script. you knew that something was amiss. why? >> put yourself in my situation. this girl i committed myself to died on september 12th. now i get a phone call on december 6th saying she is alive and i'll be put on national tv two days later and they'll ask me the same question, what would you do? >> te'o is not the only one speaking out as bizarre as this story is.

for diane o'meara, her photo was used to form an online profile. they say that ronaiah tuiasosopo masterminded the hoax. he's not talking publicly. thank you for being here. how are you holding up in all of this? >> it's hard. i try not to think too much about it because it's very twisted and very disturbing and at this point trying to do day by day. >> you know ronaiah tuiasosopo? >> right. he was a classmate of mine in high school. >> in high school. how long ago was that? >> i graduated in 2007. >> have you been in touch with him over the years? >> he never contacted me up until this past december. i never saw him. >> the first photograph, how did he get that photograph? where did he take that from? >> he contacted me through multiple messages on facebook

saying that he and his cousin had been in a traumatic car accident and my attorney, mr. donahue, brought papers today but he basically said he's creating a slide show for his cousin who is waiting for his brain surgery and to help him out if i could send a photo of myself. ironically now thinking back, i thought to myself, what's the difference between me taking a photo and holding up a sign versus him just taking a photo from my facebook profile? so it went as far as him sending a photo of his cousin -- >> this is the photo that he asked you to hold up a sign. we now know what was written on the sign related to the alleged dead girlfriend's twitter page. >> i had no idea at the time. i was told that this was more of a hash tag throughout the photo slide show and everyone else participating in the slide show was holding that sign. >> and there was another picture

of you that -- did he take that from your facebook page? >> every other photo was taken from my facebook profile or my old myspace or mutual friends facebook profiles. >> what is ronaiah tuiasosopo like to your memory? >> he always seemed upbeat guy. always smiling. very religious. >> were you close friends at all? >> no. i spoke with him probably two, three times in high school. as i mentioned since then never heard from him or hung out with him, you know. even when he was contacting me on facebook, i was very hesitant to respond back but his urgency and persistence was unavoidable. >> and has he -- he's now apologized to you? >> right. through the first couple of weeks of january he was still reaching out to me asking for more content, for more photos and videos and even as far as for me to send a video saying good luck on the 7th, which now

obviously relates to the championship game that was on the 7th. obviously i didn't give that content or any other photos or anything like that. when he found out that this was all coming to surface through the dead spin article and everyone was kind of catching on, he reached out to me a day or two days before the story broke and relayed to me that he in fact was stalking my profile for five years taking my photos and he created -- >> for five years he was doing this? >> he created this identity that was not me. it was this lennay kekua with my face on it. >> how does that feel emotionally? >> it's unnerving. it's very frustrating. even still when i see the photos and when i see how they've been exposed all over the media, it's hard. i mean, the fact is this doesn't just happen to me. granted this is a very unique

situation that involves mass media but this happens every day. >> it happens to people all the time. >> we've got digital dashboard question. robert asks if manti would call you now to tell you how embarrassed he is about the situation, would you speak with him? >> you know, i don't know. i would ask him directly if i had a chance to speak to him, i would directly ask him were you involved? as anybody else, i'm searching for answers as well. >> do you think he might be? >> i'm not one to say. this is so confusing and twisted and i don't see the real motive behind this. this seems like it was carefully executed and planned over a course of two years. >> do you now change your facebook settings? >> that's the thing. i was doing everything i could to protect myself. my facebook was private. i was careful about going through etch and every time line post when it switched to time line and changing all of the settings making sure i knew what

post was there and who was seeing it. clearly that's not enough nowadays. >> what's your message to other young women out there? i interviewed other young women that has happened to. >> that's the scary thing. we hear about these cases of identity being stolen in this extremely vulnerable way and nobody is doing anything about it. we keep going along hoping, wishing that i hope that doesn't happen to me. i hope that's not my daughter. i hope that's not my friend or my girlfriend. we just kind of hope. it's not enough. it's unsatisfactory. we have literally no protection against the advancements of internet and social media. >> i'm sorry you have experienced this. i appreciate you talking about it. thank you very much. coming up, another story about the church of scientology. a new book looks at the church's founder and interest in recruiting celebrities. the church is slamming the book

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swift and furious is a fair way to describe the church of scientology's response to a new book by lawrence wright. as the title suggests, it focuses on the founder and interest in recruiting celebrities and explores allegations of abuse. already in its second printing. this isn't the first time an author, journalist or form scientologist turned a lens on the church and it's not the

first time the scientology has threatened legal action. we have reported on the church of scientology and felt those effects. you will hear from lawrence wright. first, background on how he got here. the church of scientology was founded in 1954. its stated goals to help people "live in a civilization without insanity, without criminals and without war where the able can prosper and honest beings can have rights." members paid to take courses designed to help them work through issues of their past and reach a higher state of consciousne consciousness. church members are tested with a device that is used to monitor their feelings and reactions. hubbard died in 1986 and since then this man has been the leader. he, like hubbard before him, oversees a religious order inside the church. an order that is responsible for church management.

members sometimes wear naval style uniforms and dedicate their life to the church promises to remain in the church for reincarnated lives to come. it claims that 10 million members worldwide, 6 million in the u.s. in 2009, then church spokesman tommy davis put it this way. >> he's responsible for the current renaissance the church is experiencing and the church has doubled in size in the last five years and flourished under his leadership. >> according to a survey, the number of sels dropped from 55, 25,000 in the years from 2001 to 2008. they are a critic of psychiatry. for most this is how the public

identifies with scientology through high profile believers. the church reaches out to well known performers and caters to their need with a celebrity center in hollywood. >> when you drive past an accident, it's not like anyone el else. as you drive past you know you have to do something about it because you're the only one that can help. >> cruise is so close to the church leader that he asked him to be best man at his wedding. >> we are lucky to have you. thank you very much. >> in 2010, we met with many former members including tom cruise's former counselor or auditor who says that everything is not as it seems within the church leadership. >> go long. >> marty used to work directly under david says there's a culture of violence within the leadership of the church. a culture encouraged by the

leader. >> he beats them down. >> it's a claim the church denies. they say that rathbun is a liar and out to destroy the church. tommy davis says there was violence in the church but he blames marty rathbun for it and others making allegations against david. >> the allegations are untrue. there is nothing of the sort as they are describing. >> david has never kicked somebody? never punched somebody? >> never, never, never. absolutely not. >> as cnn was preparing our 2010 report, the church provided us with large stacks of affidavits from current and former church members. even ex-wives that remain in the leadership of the church. some interviewed with us to defend the church saying former husbands and co-workers are liars.

>> i never saw one scratch. i never saw one bruise. i never saw one black eye. nothing. nor did he complain about anything personally. >> now author lawrence wright has written a book titled "going clear." he details the church's creation by its founder and explores the allegations of abuse. allegations the church continues to strongly deny and they created a website to refute the book chapter by chapter. we're making the response available on cnn.com. going clear is based on extensive interviews with former and current church members. lawrence wright talked to hundreds of people. i spoke to him earlier. why did you decide to write about scientology? >> i was interested in why people believe one thing and do another. we have a supermarket of

religious beliefs. so why would you choose scientology? perhaps the most stigmatized religion in this country. >> what do you think it does for people? that's the thing i can't get to the bottom of. what does it give people? >> at the beginning level when you go in and get auditing which is their form of therapy, a lot of people feel like they are helped. that's what draws people in. they ask what is ruining your life? what is your ruin? if you say, well, it's my relationship or my profession or something, they say we have something that can help you. and sometimes that's true. >> is recruiting celebrities -- they have this celebrity center in hollywood. was that a conscious effort by the church and is that for pr reasons? >> absolutely. these are product endorsements. the church of scientology was created in los angeles. the celebrity center in

hollywood, all of it with the design to take over the entertainment industry. there were people that they were actively recruiting. they were always looking for that efigure that would be a prominent member of the entertainment industry. >> they look at the origin myth of scientology or the origin story and people make fun of it. my belief is every religion has an origin story. i never focused too much on that. i find the structure of the church interesting though. is there any other church that you know of that is structured like it in terms of paying to kind of move up through the hierarchy of the church. >> nothing like that comes to mind. it's very expensive. if you want to climb -- if you walk into the door of scientology today and you go all of the way to the top of the pyramid, half a million dollars or more just for -- you get the

course work but then you're continually asked for money. >> the church is very upset about the book. they say mr. wright showed the church he has no interest in the facts only lies and exaggerations being fed to him by angry, bitter sources with agendas based on hatred and revenge. the result is a biassed work. >> i want to just say about that disclaimer from the church. first of all, you can only talk to the people that will talk to you. i asked repeatedly to talk to upper level executives and the opportunity was foreclosed to me. i spoke to more than 250 people, the majority of them current or former scientologists. it's not just a small group of people. we're talking about more than 150 people. their stories are very damning.

very similar in nature. >> there's a lot of people who were formerly in upper echelons of the church that talk about a culture of violence that they participated in. some admit they engaged in violent acts but also point to the leader of the church as someone that would leap across desks and hit people. >> it sounds bizarre. i had 12 people tell me that they had personally been beaten up by david and more than 20 witnesses to such events and these accounts are very similar. the hair trigger response. a sudden jumping up and strangling people, beating people out of the blue, no idea what they've done and often times after that they are sent off to one of the reeducation camp camps. sometimes for years. >> we heard tom cruise saying he drives by an accident and he knows that he's the only one who are scientologists are the only one that can really help. what is that idea that somehow a scientologist can help with a

road accident? >> it's a laying on of hands. there's a contact assist. i was talking to josh about this. he once witnessed john travolta helping marlon brando who had stopped to help a motorist on the side of the road and cut his leg. they all show up at a dinner party and he's telling this story and using this dead-on brando accident. travolta said i have gone to a liar lev higher level in the church and i think i can help you. if you have powers, john. he reached over and put his hand on brando's leg and he said it was eerie. almost a physical charge between the two of them and brando said, you know what? i do feel better. who is to say. in brando's mine, maybe he was

making travolta feel okay about himself or maybe there was some sort of effect. essentially it's a mystical idea that you can lay on hands and you can make someone feel better. >> the church cites huge membership. millions and millions of people. other sources say that the number is actually much smaller in the tens of thousands. 25,000, 35,000, 45,000. is membership in decline? >> yes. it's hemorrhaging members. >> why? >> part of is people are becoming aware of what's going on inside the church. moreover, the secret doctrines of the church it kept secret for years are now all over the internet. they are ridiculed on south park. everyone kind of knows what the secrets are inside scientology and you don't have to pay a half million dollars to learn them. >> fascinating book. thank you so much, lawrence. >> always a pleasure. >> still ahead, the family of nfl star junior sao.

it's cold out there. much colder in much of the country. can you say 33 below? it's not over yet. we'll explain why.

welcome back. a blast of arctic air has people shivering in most of the country. when you hear temperatures of 33 below in north dakota and ice accumulation in the forecast for south of georgia, it's not a typical winter. randy kaye reports. >> reporter: bundle up. it's cold out there. >> it's cold. you can't feel your fingers at the end of the day. >> reporter: from new york to north dakota, folks are getting hit with subfreezing temperatures that could last through the week. and that wind. it's biting. just ask this iowa ice fisherman. >> the wind is ripping. it makes it ten times worse than it should be. >> reporter: in fargo, north

dakota, where they are used to the cold, reporters seem surprised by it. this guy showed off a once wet t-shirt now frozen. >> makes a sunday like a drum. that's how cold it is. >> reporter: and how about this? hammering a nail into wood with a frozen banana. just east of there in ottawa, canada, this man used the cold to show off for the kids. >> it's been tough to handle, but then i just realize that we live in minnesota. we signed up for this. we knew what we were going to get. >> reporter: in chicago firefighters had to brave the cold to battle the heat. bone chilling temperatures made fighting this massive five-alarm warehouse fire nearly impossible. water froze on their uniforms. by the time it was under control, the building was covered in a thick layer of ice. >> it was pretty intense. then this morning i came and i look and it's like an ice

castle. >> reporter: with plunging temperatures comes snow. in upstate new york, the town of ripley got 24.8 inches over two days. it isn't any better elsewhere on the east coast. the airport in erie, pennsylvania, saw 16.3 inches of snowfall monday. the snowiest day there since november 29th, 1979. in washington, d.c., windchills were in the single digits but bangor, maine, may be seeing the worst of it. a drop in temperature of 75 degrees following record highs on monday. >> it's like needles sticking in your face. it's not pleasant. >> reporter: not pleasant and not warming up any time soon. randy kaye, cnn, atlanta. >> brutal. let's get caught up on other stories we're following. >> the family of former linebacker junior seau is suing

the nfl and the helmet maker accusing them of wrongful death. the faa says it's trying to figure out the cause of the electrical problems that have grounded boeing 787 dreamliner fleet around the world. the shutdown came last week after battery caught on fire in boston and another incident in japan. and an inaugural official who asked not to be identified says beyonce lip-synched the national anthem at president obama's public swearing in on monday. the official says she didn't have time to rehearse the night before and decided to record her performance. there has been no comment from beyonce. >> the marine band also had preordered music. they were faking it as well i guess. >> everybody was faking it allegedly. >> i don't care. beyonce is great. >> she'll be at the super bowl february 3rd. get your leotard on. >> what?

>> when she does "single ladies." whatever. >> digging yourself deeper there. coming up, a puppy's life is saved. you won't believe how next on rediculist. ♪ using robotics and mobile technology, verizon innovators have made it possible for teachers to teach, and for a kid... nathan. tadpole. ... to feel like a kid again. because the world's biggest challenges deserve even bigger solutions. powerful answers. verizon.

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tonight we are mading veterinarian medicine. all you need if you have a sick puppy is a big bottle of booze. this is a 9 week old puppy that game ill after licking radiator fluid. she started acting drunk. >> she was giving us a scare because they couldn't stand straight. she would fall over. >> the owner rushed her to the vet who said she was a few hours away from kidney