snow falling in some places. this brutal winter storm shutting down schools, offices, roads, grounding thousands of planes. indra petersons is outside tracking the storm in boston. rene marsh brings us the latest on the thousands of flight cancellations, she is in washington, d.c. and i am live out on the told streets of new york, where the snow is blowing around from side to side. it is very, very cold this morning. good morning, everyone. welcome to "early start." i'm john berman. >> and i'm christine romans. it is wednesday, january 22nd. and it is exactly 5:00 a.m. in the east. >> so, if you are watching this at 5:00 a.m., the good news is, you made it. you haven't lost power or maybe on the flip side, you're stuck in an airport. whatever the option, we hope you are warm. it did snow here in new york for more than 15 hours. right now, it stopped, but the wind keeps pushing it around every now and then. about a foot of snow here. much more down in philadelphia.

really this is grinding things to a halt up and down the east coast. in washington, d.c., federal workers are being told it's okay to come in late this morning. stay home if you can't get in. but the government will be open for business today. was closed on tuesday. the d.c. area, they received around 6 inches of snow. and roads there were slick. i want you to take a look at these pictures from alex sand korea, virginia. that car just spinning out of control on the d.c. beltway. yikes. ooh. and there's also a fatal accident in andover, maryland. both of those being blamed on bad driving conditions. temperatures are plunging. these conditions goring to stick. and roads also slick here in new york today. it's going to be a bad commute. these pictures from long island, hit hard from the storm. about 10 inches of snow fell out there. i want to show you a little picture from brooklyn, new york. looking awfully uncomfortable

even to walk for people there. the snow was falling so hard, the plows and shovels could barely keep up. this morning, also issues in north carolina. charlotte, north carolina. ice cold. maybe even colder than ice, actually. temperatures plunging to around 20 degrees. they had plenty of snow there and that made the driving treacherous. >> they were doing 180s down the road earlier. we got behind a scraper that let us go for a little bit, but it didn't work that far. >> reporter: plus, we saw guys wearing ski goggles in charlotte. a state of emergency in delaware, a level 1 driving warning. that means get off the roads. stay off the roads. do not drive. well over a half foot of snow falling in parts of delaware. the governor has approved the deployment of the delaware guard if emergency officials make the request. back out in the midwest, single-digit temperatures and close to 2 feet of lake-effect snow recorded around chicago and northwest indiana.

just giant traffic jams there late into the night around chicago. it is difficult for plows to clear the roads there is so much traffic. there is no relief in sight there with windchills today and tomorrow. they will plunge to about minus 25, ouch. all right. things are bad enough here in new york. about 16 degrees right now. let's go to boston, that's where indra petersons is where it is colder and the snow is blowing around even more. she is keeping her cold eyes on the conditions there. indra, what are we going to get today? >> reporter: is it wrong, john, that i feel better knowing you're in a little bit of misery with me? i think we both know that it is freezing out here, this morning. we're talking single digits right now. it's 9 degrees in boston with the windchill. it's gusting to 30 miles per hour here so the windchill feels 11 below. let me tell you first hand, this does not feel good this morning. and so many of us are dealing with this as heavy snow really dropped overnight. let's talk about some of these totals, unbelievably impressive.

talk about jersey, 15 inches of snow, places like jersey. places in pennsylvania seeing over a foot snow. even in new york city, almost a foot of snow. here in boston itself, only about 5 inches. other places in massachusetts seeing those numbers right around that foot mark. so what happened, we have the clippers. remember, clippers only come from canada. they're driving and only drop 7 inches of snow. but this system, intersected with the ocean and the snow developed and that brought the moisture off the atlantic. it really enhanced snowfall amount today. today, the low is still there. it's pulling offshore. so that's a piece of good news. we are seeing the snow tapering off. last place being massachusetts and maybe new england. what are we talking about, several inches of snow. maybe 10:00 in the morning. we're starting to see this lift out of the area. blizzard warnings still out from the cape. they're getting battered out there from something we mentioned last time in boston just a few weeks ago.

ocean-effect snow. the air's so cold up here, talk about producing extra snowfall even towards the early afternoon. so that's one side of it, we know the snow's on the ground. temperatures, they're cold, so the snow is not melting anytime soon. this arctic air is going to be reinforced by another clipper over the next few days. yes, the cold air is going to remain below normal in the morning hours, teens, single digits in new york city. boston still looking for the teens today. let's hang in there together, guys. we've got a ways to go. >> with the windchills below zero as indra says, that feels not good. that's a scientific term. indra, thank you so much. >> reporter: perfect. >> and that not good feeling is having a major impact on travel. it is incredibly hard to get around anywhere by cars or air. rene marsh is live at reagan national airport in washington with the latest on the delays, on the cancellations. rene, is there any good news this morning? >> reporter: john, i was going

to say, do you want the bad news, or do you want to start with the bad news? because i'm sorry, i don't really have a lot of good news to give you at this point. here's what i can tell you. bad news is, there will be more cancellations this morning. and the other bad news is, there will be more delays today as well. so we're already starting out of the gate, more than 1,000 cancellations for flights. and we do expect to see even more as time goes by. if you are at an airport, either in boston, new york city, also philadelphia, you are the ones who are probably going through just the worst case scenario at this point because those are the airports that are really seeing the most delays at this hour. as far as a breakdown when it comes to different airlines, at this particular hour, jetblue has the most, more than a quarter of their flights canceled. makes sense because the bulk of their operations right there in the northeast, which is right in the bull's-eye of this storm. what does that mean for the

passenger, the people stuck in the airport watching us this morning, it means that they are working on either plan "a," "b" or "c." things keep on changing and they're just rolling with the punches. take a listen to this one person. >> i'm stuck in new york. i'm supposed to be in atlanta. i have a business. i'm supposed to make deliveries tomorrow. i got to figure something out. i can't get out until thursday. >> it took me two hours to get to the airport. and we sat on the runway for probably an hour, and they bumped us off. so now we're here. >> reporter: okay. so john, i do have a little bit of good news. and we had to dig deep for this one. this storm did hit in the middle of the week, not high volume. so that just means passengers will be able to be rebooked a lot faster than we saw earlier this month. john? >> we'll take it. we'll take any good news we can get this morning. rene marsh for us in washington, d.c. thank you so much. we're going to be out here all morning in the cold. i can tell you when the wind

starts blowing, that's when you really want to go hide because it is rough. meanwhile, there's a lot of other news. let's go back inside. christine romans. how's it going? this morning, former virginia governor bob mcdonnell and his wife has been officially indicted on federal corruption charges. the company is accused accepting thousands of dollars of gifts and loans from a head of a indict tear supplement company who wanted help promoting his products. at a conference, mcdonnell said he did nothing illegal. >> i never promised, and mr. williams and his company never received any government benefit of any kind from me, or from my administration. no contract, loan, grant, funding, legislation, budget appropriation. regulation, border commission assignment, or any other official state benefit. and not one penny of taxpayer money went to him or to star scientific during our

administration. not one penny. >> mcdonnell claims prosecutors are guilty of what he called unjust overreach. he said he will be vicinity indicated at trial. this morning, chris christie is getting new advice about his future from a republican bigwig who says maybe it's time for the new jersey governor to step back a little bit from his national ambition. a former attorney general and gubernatorial candidate ken cuccinelli tells cnn's "cross fire" he thinks christie to give up his role as chairman of the republican governor committee and focus on home. >> i think just from the perspective of setting this aside an issue in other races, it makes sense for him to step aside in that role. he does not serve the goals of that administration by staying as chairman. every governor does better by setting that aside. if the goal is to be the best governor you can be, that's done better by setting everything else aside. >> worth noting this is a fellow

republican giving this advice. christie has said the scandal over allegations where top aides strong-armed political opponents are christie said that scandal will not affect his ability to help other governors nationally. and he spent his past weekend helping fund raise in florida for fellow republican governor rick scott. we're hearing this morning from edward snowden who is denying he's a spy for russia. the admitted nsa leaker tells "the new yorker" he acted alone without any help from any government despite suggestions on the contrary from some in congress. and snowden said he never intended to live in russia. he was actually planning to go to cuba, but the u.s. canceled his passport before he could get there. breaking news in switzerland where a peace conference is under way. secretary of state john kerry is saying there's no way bashar al assad will be part of the government there. the syrian foreign minister responding saying only the syrians can decide if assad is the legitimate leader.

dozens are in syria for this conference where the government is face-to-face with the assad regime. a state of emergency in thailand. a serious situation mass protests spent on toppling the government are paralyzing parts of bangkok. this follows weeks of deadly clashes. opponents want the prime minister to step aside calling her a corrupt puppet of the former leader ousted in 2006. the emergency decree could lead to curfews and bans on public gatherings. thai officials have ruled out using force. dow futures lower. dow hit with disappointing earnings. finished 44 points lower. s&p and nasdaq higher. in europe, frankfurt and paris higher. in asia, the nikkei finishing with gain. arabian markets benefitting from the bank of china's moves to ease fears of a credit crunch. here in the u.s., we're watching shares of ibm in the premarket

down shy of 3%. late yesterday, the company reported weaker sales. and the keefe financial officer told analysts ibm is likely to take a $1 billion charge to, quote, rebalance its workforce. analysts say that could mean 10,000 to 15,000 ibm job cuts in 2014. coming up, new warnings of terror on the site of the sochi olympics. we are live with the latest developments on this. and deadly plane crash caught on camera. what we're learning from this new video this morning. next. [ tires screech ]

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does your makeup do that? neutrogena® cosmetics. this morning in russia, police are on a desperate hunt for two women feared to be suicide bombers, including one, a so-called black widow who may already be in sochi head of the winter olympics. and another who may be planning an imminent attack. phil black is live in volgograd, russia, with the latest. and, phil, the security's been so tight, these women should not be anywhere close to the festivities in a couple weeks. that's what's got officials so concerned. >> reporter: yeah, indeed, that's right. they shouldn't be, but the concern is that they are. not just in one case, but we are now talking about two separate terror plots involving black widows, female suicide bombers. the first one, a woman thought to be in sochi, a 22-year-old

thought to be planning a strike somewhere in the olympic zone within that city. the second one, potentially more imminent a group of women targeting the olympic torch relay in the city of rostov-on-don. and that's where the torch is today. they're actually concerned about a window of time, particularly today, the day after that. initially involved three women, one was killed in a security forces operation just over the weekend. but the whereabouts of the remaining two women, christine, is is still unknown. >> is the government there still sure the games will be safe. the russian president is very, very clear these will be the safest games in history? >> reporter: yeah, they have. interesting to note, though, the only reason we can talk about these black widow bomb plots is not because the officials have been talking about them publicly but because they have gone to people on the ground, particular hotel workers and asked them to help in trying to find these women. publicly, the officials here still maintain that these games

will be safe. they will be secure. that the plan is absolutely thorough and they've done everything they can. presidents putin and obama have spoken just yesterday. president obama offering all possible help to ensure the safety of these games. but we don't know what president putin's response to that offer was, christine. >> phil black, we know that the u.s. is preparing contingency plans for americans to get out if they need to. in volgograd, thank you, phil. we're getting another look at a deadly plane crash in aspen earlier this month. some of you may find this disturbing. these images were taken from infrared cameras. they show the plane bounce off the runway, fall again and then explode. one person died, two others seriously hurt. the cause of the crash still not clear. but the pilot had reported high winds and problems trying to land. this video may help with that investigation. we're getting the first look of the view inside an orlando area restaurant when an suv crashed right through the front window. police just released this video

from the crash on december 30th that left several people hurt. police say the driver of that vehicle was drunk. class is canceled today in indiana's purdue university in the wake of a deadly shooting. officials say one student killed another in the school's electrical engineering build. 23-year-old codey cousins is being held on suspicion of haum died. his alleged victim is 21-year-old andrew bolt. police say the shooting does not appear to be random. the suspect is being held without bond. in north carolina today, a judge is hearing arguments over a controversial conviction, an execution, dates back 70 years. 14-year-old george stinney was put to death in 1944 for killing two young white girls. police said at the time the 14-year-old confessed. but he had no attorney. there was no other evidence. and no eyewitnesses. and all the trial documents from back then have disappeared. so his family is asking the judge for a new trial.

>> i believe that george stinney could not have committed these murders. i believe george stinney saw those children, but i don't think george stinney was the last person to see those children. >> they had no choice in how they died, and he did. i think justice was served according to the laws in 1944 when this happened. >> judge is only tasked with deciding whether stinney received a fair trial. but has already asked both sides if she the judge really has the change what happened. sadness for the family of a 14-year-old autistic boy in new york. now dna tests have proven it was his body found in the east river. avonte oquendo went missing after being unsupervised. the medical examiner has yet to determine the exact cause of death. many mayors are in washington, d.c. for the annual conference of mayors winter

meetings. the mayor will meet with white house officials to discuss workforce development and their efforts to curb crime. anti-abortion activists say snow and bitter cold will is not stop the 40th annual march for life in washington, marking the 41st anniversary of roe versus wade. abortion rights groups also plan to rally today. in today's "road warriors" you know you need an i.d. to get on a plane, but what happens if you forget yours at home. the tsa says you still might be able to board your flight if your identity can be verified in other ways like answering questions from officers to make sure you're the person whose name is on the ticket. the tsa can also go to databases to help in the verification process but there's no guarantee you'll be let through and you'll likely still face additional screening. better advice, stash a second form of i.d. on your carry-on so you're never left scrambling if

you forget yours. coming up, a-rod versus the union. the shocking allegations about the yankee slugger and what his fellow players wanted to do. andy scholes has all the details in the "bleacher report" next. (vo) you are a business pro. seeker of the sublime. you can separate runway ridiculousness... from fashion that flies off the shelves. and you...rent from national. because only national lets you choose any car in the aisle... and go. and only national is ranked highest in car rental customer satisfaction by j.d. power. (natalie) ooooh, i like your style. (vo) so do we, business pro. so do we. go national. go like a pro. woman: welcome to learning. spanish in the car.c on. passenger: you've got to be kidding me. driver: this is good. woman: vamanos. driver & passenger: vamanos.

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the major league baseball commissioner is apparently not the only one fed up with a-rod. andy scholes, good morning. a-rod really doesn't have any friends left. last week, he filed a lawsuit against the union. that made players so mad, they reportedly want him out of the union. the players' request came in a conference call after he sued them. they were, however, informed by the union lawyers they could not kick a player out just because they don't like him. a-rod is currently suing to try to have his suspension for all of next season and the postseason overturn. >> march madness is around the corner, this year, you fill out a perfect bracket, you could be the world's next billionaire. that's right, billionaire. warren buffett, one of the richest people on earth is offering $1 billion if someone can fill out a perfect bracket.

before you get too excited and start studying college basketball. the odds are 1 in 9.2 quintillion. if you know a little bit about basketball, your odds are better, 1 in 128 billion. so basically, everyone in the united states fill out a bracket, every year, we'd get a perfect one every 400 years. the sacramento kings will give basketball fans a view of the game they've never seen before. the team will use google glass technology during friday night's game. the glasses are outfitted with tiny cameras, and the video will be used during the broadcast. now, players are not going to be using the google glass on the court, but you're going to get to see the game from the kings' mascot, dancers and announcers. pretty cool. trending on bleacherreport.com, russia spent $50 billion on facilities for the upcoming olympics, but apparently, the planning for the bathrooms was not well thought

out. bbc journalist tweeted out this bath room see that christine, two toilets very close together in one stall. as the saying goes, you gotta go, you gotta go, apparently, not in sochi. go back to the hotel. >> i'm telling right now, they got bigger problems right now in sochi than the bathroom stalls. >> probably. that's a big problem to me, though. >> okay. for sports fans everywhere. thanks, andy. all the top headlines, everything you need to know for the day, including live coverage from shivering john berman in the cold outside. in the massive snowstorm in parts of the country. there he is. after the break. but i am so stuffed up, i can't rest. [ male announcer ] nyquil cold and flu liquid gels don't unstuff your nose. they don't? alka seltzer plus night fights your worst cold symptoms, plus has a decongestant. [ inhales deeply ] oh. what a relief it is. [ inhales deeply ] ♪

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a rude awakening for millions of americans. this winter storm creating absolute chaos. some parts of the country buried under more than a foot of snow. we have roads closed. flights grounded. complete team coverage this morning as the snow continues to fall in some places. two political scandals

creating double trouble for the gop this morning. a former governor charged with corruption, while there are growing calls this morning for a current governor to step down from some of his responsibilities. welcome back to "early start," everyone. i'm john berman. >> i'm christine romans. it's exactly 30 minutes past the hour. >> and if you can see it on the ground behind me this morning, a lot of snow. it was falling fast and furious in new york city for about 15 hours. and beyond the snow, i can tell you, first hand, if i can feel my hands, it is very, very cold this morning. about 15 or 16 degrees here. and that's before the windchill. the snow piled up just under a foot here in new york. you look at a map, a lot more down in philadelphia. and this storm affecting millions of people from kentucky all the way up to massachusetts. the federal government, we should tell you, is back in business this morning. but it's opening a little late. federal workers in washington, d.c. are being told to come in two hours later than normal.

if you can't get in, it's okay to stay at home, they say. the d.c. area received about 6 inches of snow. that's a lot for d.c. it's a good thing many people did stay home yesterday, given the storm there. take a look at these pictures from alex sand korea. that car just spinning out of control there, on the beltway, just outside of d.c. wow, there was a fatal accident in landover, maryland as well. both of those accidents being blamed on the slick roads. temperatures there are plunging this morning, with windchills of 5 to 15 below. that's the big story today. in new york, it may be a very, very tough commute to work. just look at this. is this the snow-covered roads. they're getting icy. they will stay icy for some time. these pictures are from long island which was hit hard bit storm. they got about 10 inches of snow out there. it's hard to walk even for people in brooklyn. look at that, braving the winds. the snow fell so fast. people were out there, they

couldn't shovel fast enough to keep up with it. it's icy, cold this morning in charlotte, north carolina. yes, that's the north carolina that's in the south. temperatures will be plunging there about 20 degrees. that, after snow fell up in the mountains. tuesday was not a day there to be out driving. >> we were doing 180s down the road earlier. >> yeah. >> we got behind a scraper that let us go for a little bit, but it didn't work that far. >> ski goggles in charlotte. now to delaware where the governor says stay off the loads. there's a state of emergency there and a level one driving warning. parts of the state received well over half a foot of snow. the national guard is ready to go out and help if emergency officials there make the request. there is no relief in site, meanwhile in the northwest, chicago, northwest indiana, temperatures are dropping. windchills are expected to hit 25 below. and this comes after about 2 feet of lake-effect snow fell in

some places that were just huge traffic jams late into the night and chicago. that made for difficult, difficult conditions for the plows to get through. tried to clear the roads, awfully tough. that's the situation in chicago. as we said, millions of people affected by the storm our indra petersons is live in boston this morning, keeping the cold, shivering eyes on conditions. and what we can expect today. indra? >> at least i have some good news. and that is the conditions are improving. as the storm is lifting out offshore. and going to the north at the same time. it will get better than this. as it's cold, we know it's still windy here. with the snow on the ground, it's not going to feel any different. the snow coming from the sky or the ground, it feels the same. that's the problem this morning. but let's talk about that system. where it right now? lifting out to to the east, the atlantic and the north at the same time.

by the late morning hours the bulk should be tapering off. massachusetts, yes, here in boston, we're still talking light snow. but even here, the condition mrs. improve. the toughest spot, on the cape, they still have blizzard warnings even this morning. 1:00 p.m. this afternoon, they're talking conditions bringing visibility near zero thanks to that blowing snow out there. the other story, once the snow tapers off around 1:00 p.m., it should be out to sea. again, we're talking cold arctic air now in place. there's a second system, believe it or not, behind the system that's going to bring more snow to the northwest and reinforce the cold air that's already here. all the snow you see on the ground, it's going to be staying here for the next several days. in the afternoon, many places will get 20 degrees below normal. that means highs in the teens and single digits for many places in the north. midwest, down to the south, still talking about the low temperatures and subzero temperatures here this morning. i think we all need to get used

to it. it's going to be here for the next several days. >> that's a great point, indra. if there is snow outside your window, it will be there a long, long time. indra petersons in boston. thank you so much. so if you are trying to get on a plane this morning, we're very, very sorry. the delays from the storm wreaking havoc with air travel. rene marsh live at reagan national airport in washington this morning, where rene is waking up with people who have been stuck there overnight. rene? >> reporter: that's right, it's like rise and shine downstairs on the lower level here at reagan national airport because this is where some people had to spend the night. they were simply stuck. jetblue -- i was just on twitter, and jetblue ceo has tweeted out letting passengers know, look, we started thinning out operations last night. we will continue doing that this morning. what does that mean? if you're watching us this morning, and you are stuck, that means more cancellations today. more delays today. we're already starting this

morning with more than 1,000 cancellations. the really hardest-hit airports, we're keeping an eye at this hour are the airports in boston, new york city, as well as the philadelphia area. they are seeing the most cancellations at this hour. as far as airlines go, jetblue at this hour see the most cancellations. more than a quarter of their flights have been canceled so far this morning. the big question is, how long is it going to take before the airlines can catch up to themselves? take a listen to what one analyst is predicting. >> once the storm is over, it will be a day or two before it gets back to normal. you know, airlines nowadays actually optimize for getting things back to normal after the storm. they actually cancel a lot more flight than they used to do that. but the good news that the planes and people are usually more or less where they need to be afterwards. >> reporter: all right, so, again, we need for the storm to move out first. and then according to analysts, you know, it might be a day or

two before they actually catch back up to themselves. the good part of this, and the silver lining here, is that this storm did hit when there wasn't an extremely high volume of traffic here. and it did happen in the middle of the week. that means that you're going to be able to be rebooked. and you have more options to get to your destination, compared to what we saw earlier this month, john? >> we'll take any silver lining we can get this morning. rene marsh in washington, d.c., thank you so much. out in minnesota this morning, police are on the hunts for a robber who used snow that's fallen there to make his getaway. this is after he struck a convenience store near the twin cities. he apparently pointed a gun at the clerk, grabbinged some cash and made his getaway. >> the person behind the clerk said that the person got away on a snowmobile which is unique. we don't get too many robberies with a snowmobile. >> got away on a snowmobile. that's not something you see in alabama or something. that's all for the cold weather from the streets of new york.

a lot of other news going on. virginia's former governor is pledging this morning to fight back now that he and his wife have been indicted on federal corruption charges. bob mcdonnell and his wife maureen stand accused of accepting thousands of dollars of gifts and loans from the head of a indict tear supplement company johnny williams who wanted help promoting his products. at a news conference, mcdonnell said he did nothing illegal. >> i never promised and mr. williams and his company never received any government benefit of any kind from me or from my administration. no contract, loan, grant, funding, legislation, budget appropriation, regulation border commission assignment or any other official state benefit. and not one penny of taxpayer money went to him or to star scientific during our administration. not one penny. >> mcdonnell claims prosecutors

are guilty of what he called unjust overreach. and says he'll be vicinity indicated at trial. there's some new advice this morning for new jersey governor chris christie. focus on your state. republican former former virginia attorney general and gubernatorial candidate ken cuccinelli tells cnn's "crossfire" thinks christie should give up his role as chairman of the governors association and focus all of his attention on fixing his reputation at home. >> i think just from the perspective of setting aside this as an issue in other races, it makes sense for him to step aside in that role. he does not serve the goals of that organization by stayinging as chairman. every governor does better by setting everything else aside. if the goal is to be the best governor you can be, that's done better by setting everything else aside. >> christie has said the scandal over allegations his top aides strong-armed his political opponents, he has said that

scandal will not affect his ability to help other governors nationally. and he spent this past weekend helping fund raise in florida for republican governor rick scott. this morning, edward snowden is insisting he is no spy. the admitteds nsa leaker tells "the new yorker" he doesn't work for russia saying he acted alone without any help from any government dispute suggestion from the contrary from some members of congress. snowden said he never intended to live in russia, but actually was planning on going to cuba. but the u.s. canceled his passport before he could get there. this morning, the family of a missing fbi agent is demanding answers and coming forward. bob levinson disappeared seven years ago. and the u.s. government long claimed he went to iran on a private trip. but now his family tells cnn's susan candiotti they knew he was there working for the cia, but they were told not to talk about it, for fear it could put him in

jeopardy. >> he was doing what he always did, which is works for the united states. and investigating criminal activities. and the united states government has not taken ownership of it yet. >> you feel he was abandoned? >> i feel he was left there. he was a man left behind. >> we were told bit u.s. government that by revealing what he was actually doing over there would have been harmful to his safety. >> the family said he want the government to come clean about what bob levinson was doing in iran. and they want the obama administration to work harder to bring him home. in the markets dow futures lower. dow down 44 points yesterday. the nasdaq and s&p closed higher. in europe, stocks in london, frankfurt, paris mostly higher. the markets closed in asia. the bank of china's moves to ease fears of a credit crunch. and warren buffett offering $1 billion to the fan who does the near impossible, forecast

the ncaa tournament bracket. to the lucky person or people who correctly predict every winner in the 64-team bracket. don't get your hopes up, the bracket has 9 quintillion possible combinations. >> happening this morning, high-stakes talks to end the war in syria are now under way. secretary of state john kerry is there, but some key players are not. we are live with developing story next. mine was earned in korea in 1953. afghanistan, in 2009. orbiting the moon in 1971. [ male announcer ] once it's earned, usaa auto insurance is often handed down from generation to generation. because it offers a superior level of protection. and because usaa's commitment to serve current and former military members and their families is without equal. begin your legacy. get an auto insurance quote. usaa. we know what it means to serve. life with crohn's disease ois a daily game of "what if's". what if my abdominal pain and cramps end our night

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breaking news from switzerland, where a conference designed to bring an end to the war in syria is already off to a rocky start. secretary of state john kerry and the syrian foreign minister are facing off over the future of president bashar al assad with language that could point to an impasse. ealize is live there in switzerland. it was already a fragile, fragile meeting. what's happening now? >> reporter: it was fragile to start, christine. this morning, a lot of drama. i've covered a lot of these conferences, i have to tell you, and i've never seen anything like. u.n. secretary-general ban ki-moon kicked it off by telling everybody at the conference, look, better be kind to each other. let's be federal and constructive. that didn't start off so well. secretary of state john kerry really put it on the line saying president assad had absolutely no chance in a traditional

government that everyone was here to discuss. let's take a little listen. >> there is no way, no way possible in the imagination that the man who led the brutal response to his own people could regain the legitimacy to govern. one man, and those who have supported him, can no longer hold an entire nation and the region hostage. >> reporter: and then what happened was, the syrian foreign minister mullah basically addresseds him by name saying secretary kerry you have absolutely no right to dictate anything for the syrian people. the syrian people will decide that. he went on for about 20 minutes, ban ki-moon tried to cut him off several time, he refused. and then the secretary leader mr. jara took the stage. joining the opposition in a transitional government saying time is blood. christine, all the syrian sides are supposed to get together on

friday for direct talks. but when you listen to what happened here today, it's really unclear whether there's an atmosphere for any kind of productive talks. >> and for the people in syria, three years now of civil war, and they don't see any changes on the ground. elise labbot, thank you, elise. there are new calls this morning for a fraternity in arizona state university to be expelled. they threw a party whey they called a black theme. tau kappa epsilon told attendees, quote, dress black. it showed people online wearing sports jerseys and holding watermelon cups. asu has suspended the fraternity indefini indefinitely. the search is on in florida for six missing pilot whales. eight other whales part of the same pod have died. scientists aren't sure what led the whales to swim to shore but they say they appear to be ill. no classes today at

indiana's purdue university after a shooting death on campus. one teacher's assistant killed another in the school's electrical engineering building. 22-year-old cody cousins is being held on suspicion of homicide. the suspect is being held without bond. still in jail this morning, two maryland women charged with killing two young children in an alleged ex sorism. 28-year-old zakieya avery, 21-year-old monifa sanford told investigators they were part of a group known as demon assassins. and an exorcism was needed to drive the demons out of the two little kids. a 1-year-old and a 2-year-old, babies, really. prosecutors are seeking a mental evaluation to determine if these two women are competent to stand trial. >> i got to say i find that deeply troubling. coming up, new problems for toronto's crack-smoking,

controversial nondrinking mayor. what he did -- again. >> again. i earn every month" card. it's not the "i only earn decent rewards at the gas station" card. it's the no-games, no-signing up, everyday-rewarding, kung-fu-fighting, silver-lightning-in-a-bottle, bringing-home-the-bacon cash back card. this is the quicksilver card from capital one. unlimited 1.5% cash back on every purchase, everywhere, every single day. so ask yourself, what's in your wallet?

all right. welcome back to "early start." more trouble today for toronto mayor rob ford. of course, the admitted crack smoker is now admitting he has been drinking again, despite his earlier insistence that he is now social. this latest incident came to

light in a youtube video. it shows the mayor of north america's fourth largest city babbling incoherently speaking with sound -- it sounds like he's trying to fake some sort of jamaican accent, take a listen. they chase he around for five months, you know, look, he's hiding here, i'mle hiding there. >> were you drinking last night? >> yes, i was. >> you were drinking? >> a little bit. yeah. >> do you think that video was offensive to people? >> no, i was with some friends, what i do with my personal life and my personal friends, that's up to me. it has nothing to do with you guys. >> ford had said he quit drinking. apparently now that is no longer the case. he has resisted calls to step down, despite having most of his powers stripped.

he's currently running for re-election. as we said, a lot of people are making jokes about this. i'm not sure that's any laughing matter. >> no, it's not funny at all. this morning, we're hearing more from richard sherman whose epic post championship rant in which he called out michael crabtree still getting a lot of attention to the runup of super bowl xlviii. telling rachelle nichols he does have a few regrets. >> mostly i regret, i guess, the storm afterwards. that, you know, the way it was covered. the way was perceived. and the attention it took away from the fantastic performances from my teammates. that being the only part of it i regret, the way it's covered. it is what it is. what i said, i said. you know, i don't say -- i probably shouldn't have attacked another person. i don't mean to attack him. and that was immature. and i probably shouldn't have done that. i regret doing that.

but i just felt like my teammates deserve better. >> you can see the interview with richard sherman with rachel nichols right here on cnn. i have never played football. i can't imagine how amped up they must be in the feel. just how amped up they could be. you want to see that in a player. >> amped like we are before "early start" every day. i love listening to richard sherman. you think your car is safe? think again. the new test that shows small vehicles simply don't hold up. "money time" is next. hing we pue for the paper cottage goes on our ink card. so you can manage your business expenses and access them online instantly with the game changing app from ink. we didn't get into business to spend time managing receipts, that's why we have ink. we like being in business because we like being creative, we like interacting with people.

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about three minutes to the top of the hour. welcome back to "early start." it's "money time." carmakers take notice, many of the smallest cars sold in america did poorly by the crash institute test for highway safety. the test is called the overlap test. it's a barrier at 40 miles an hour with just a quarter of its front bumper. the impact occurs on the left side just in front of the driver's seat.

six of the cars on the test earned the institute's lowest rating, poor. nissan versa, toyota, and the hyundai accent. mitsubishi mirage and the honda fit. colleges that will pay your student loan bills, doesn't sound real, but it is. colleges are guaranteeing student this will help pay their student loan bills until they secure a well-paying job known as loan repavement assistance programs. law schools have been doing this for years but now dozens of private colleges are getting on the bandwagon with similar programs. cnn money found eight private christian colleges offering the programs. and students there say it was a big attraction in picking a school. there are some caveats, of course. once a graduate breaks through the income threshold, the assistance is gone. no longer getting the loan replacement assistance even if the later income falls in future years. quick market check for you. dow futures lower this morning.

kind of kay drift, the stock markets are. dow finished down 44 points. nasdaq and s&p closed higher in europe. markets, frankfurt and paris mixed. and with china's bank with the ease of credit crunch there. >> get unadrift. >> you got four >> all of a sudden, boom, snow everywhere. >> breaking news. northeast people, take a look outside the window. thousands of flights canceled. cars are cupcaked as tens of millions wake up to dig out. breaking overnight, dramatic new video of a private plane

crashing in aspen. how could anyone survive this? the man behind the sideline rant speaks out. the first television interview with richard sherman. what he now says about the backlash. >> your "new day" starts right now. >> good morning. welcome to "new day." it is a wintery wednesday, january 22nd. 6:00 in the east. i'm chris cuomo outside in a very cold and snowy new york. >> and i'm kate bolduan from a much warmer studio. and a new call from within the republican party for chris christie to step down for a key post. >> i am freezing. why?