two big winter storms, central massachusetts, the city of boston about to get dumped on. details in a few moments. also this top story, the parents of kala mueller have reached out to isis,ened a are asking for a response. isis claiming mueller, an aid worker who was kidnapped in syria back in 2013 was killed. on friday isis said an jordan air strike killed her. jordanian officials say there's no such evidence and the u.s. also says there's no proof. the parents say they are hopeful she is indeed still alive. the mother every an american journalist beheaded by isis says the united states should do more to save american lives. those americans held hostage by isis. diane foley ace son, james foley, he was killed by isis last august. she says the unconfirmed claim that american kala mueller is

dead, is a painful reminder of he own son's death. well-begin with this signs that a last-ditch effort to try to end the bloody conflict in ukraine may be falling apart. just days before a crucial peace summit putin is hinting he may not even show up. he's facing global pressure to withdraw pro-russian separatists, and to end that conflict that has claimed more than 5,000 lives. a face-to-face negotiation is tentatively set for wednesday in belarus, but putin suggests he may not be there if what he calls key points are not settled. for the politics and diplomatic maneuvering may be far far astrayed. they are losing loved ones in these explosions that we've heard live on our air from our reporters. our nick paton walsh has been there throughout. >> we have heard the shelling

hard every night we've got here tonight is no exception. a constant thudding in that direction. the buildings not so far really from where we are standing. we saw today what damage has been inflitted in just the last 24 hours in which separatists say eight people lost their lives. just how many civilian homes have been hit by the shells. while this is the backdrop to peace talks, donetsk is finding a dely routine of picking up the pieces. here have la hid mer lived alone when. idiots, the man says. around these shops a day earlier, shells landed. a woman died two others wounded, each loss dragging this republic further away from

ukraine. while both sides will continue to blame each other for firing them the net effect is so often clear among the residents of donetsk, and fuels the loying they have for the government in kiev. the way out towards the rest of ukraine is complicated, so the bus this day is full, we're told. she says they're all fleeing the shelling. take a look at what one stray shell did to one warm, happy family life here. we're shown where it's landed in the bathroom. shrapnel through windows and walls into the girl's bedroom, wounding their mother yana in the kitchen. nobody died here but childhood's innocence was surely lost. why are they destroying us? he says, why is the west supporting the kiev government?

the 3-year-old sheepdog was killed. these are private homes, he says. what are we meant to do? wait for them to kill us and not take up arms? we're at slavs. why are we fighting? he said he never wanted to fight in the war, but now is thinks about it. this is a nator-backed war on ethnic russians with each torn home greater the challenge of making ukraine whole again. poppy, the consistent fear among many here is we don't have a date for potential peace talks of wednesday. that could be a meeting potential where a cease-fire could be agreed if we do manage to see the russian, eye korania french and gen leaders sit down together but that's a tight window in which both sides may choose to try to improve their position on the battlefield. we know the separatists don't

have all the territory they want so there are many that worry we could see escalation in the violence in the days ahead. >> nick paton walsh, incredible reporting, thank you. the president, president obama weighing a decision on whether or not to send arms to ukrainian forces specifically defensive weaponry one woman crucial in this decision making german chancellor angela merkel. she's due to arrive in washington tonight, and will meet with the president tomorrow. russia may respond by also upping the ante with morse force and sending the russian air force into ukraine. joining mess to discuss we have michael boucher, spokesperson with the special monitoring mission in ukraine, and thank you both for being here. congressman, i'd like your reaction to angela merkel has said interestingly what has been reflected in the comments of our russian foreign minister sergei lavrov warning that if

washington does arm ukraine with the kind of defensive weapons you have said you would like to see, then that could threaten a peaceful agreement. do you think it is rhetoric? or do you think that is a real threat? >> well the problem is not getting an agreement with the russians it's getting the russian toss keep their agreement. we already had a minsk agreement, and another one, and i hope it's successful. i don't think the russians will back down from this continued aggress unless the costs are increased. one way to increase the costs is to help ukrainance defend themselves. i hope it doesn't come to a full-fledged war, but it can raise the costs, and i think regrettably that would be necessary. we have tried sanctions alone. we have been parrish for months and months as russia has continued to supply not only troops but heavy equipment like tanks. at a certain point i think we need to step up to help ukraine

defend itself. >> you bring up the war. michael, to you, a lot of the record i've read is many of is the civilians on the ground say why doesn't president porshenko call this ward? because that is how we are feeling. >> good to be pack with you, clearly the humanitarian situation is dire. nick's reports have underlined that. the predicament we are seeing right now is there's wholehearted attempts to evacuate people out of heavy -- there's an attempt made on friday a few hundred civilians did get out of there, our monitors were on the ground as they usually are, to monitor the situation, yet, poppy, this underlines how froojed. cease-fires can be despite agreement from all sides, there's youth going shelling most of the time and most of

the time when the civilians were moving. it's beginning to put a real strain also on other parts of the country. don't forget that the number of idps in ukraine is reaching around 1 million. this includes people who fled crimea many, many months ago. many months ago, poppy, our mission reported that those organization thor volunteer organization looking after these idps were already under strain so now you have this new wave coming out and it's very different indeed. congressman, when you think about action from the west if indeed it does make the decision to provide these arms to ukraine, do you believe that it has been too slow to respond? especially given all of the focus that the united states frankly has had to have on fighting isis? >> i do think we have been too slow to respond, and we certainly have other commitments

and other challenges around the world. we have to confront the threats to our security and that of our allies wherever they are. i think we should have taken the tape earlier. i do believe there's only one thing that putin respects strong response and strength and i think weakness invites further aggress. s this is also about ukraine's neighbors, and whether russia will feel it has the right and political and military ability of invading its neighbors to protect so-called ethnic russians. that's an expansive doctrine with really no elements. i think it's vitally important that the west show resolve here. we tried for sanctions only it hasn't been successful and i think regrettably this will be necessary. >> interestingly, even when the sanctions have been up we've sign his approval rating despite the crumbling economy go up and

up and up. it's above 80%. to you, michael, is there talk about sanctions? and whether they believe any increase in sanctions either from europe or from the united states would work? some have suggested, you know europe should stop for example, buying its crude oil and gas from russia and that that would maybe make a further dent? >> well poppy, we've been here on the ground almost a year now. we have 400 monitors here but even here in kiev what you hear from colleagues and friends, kind of prevailing sense of doom. what had happen in the past 48 hours or so the local currency has collapsed a lot. in a country where many people for example, have their car loans and housing loan denominate indeed u.s. dollars or euros, that falling in the local currency makes things very, very difficult. you also notice a slowdown in

commerce fewer people going out at night. the news is full of reports from the front line. also don't forget poppy, the so-called mobilization that the ukrainian government announced is you know hitting home to a lot of families. they're having to send their sons to the front lines. >> michael, thank you for the work you and your team on the ground do there monitoring this bringing it to us. congressman, we appreciate your time as well. stay with us. you'll join us later for a discussion on isis. to the middle east now, and the latest on isis's claims that an american hostage kala mueller was killed on friday but the terrorist organization has shown absolutely no proof, and experts have serious dow both jorgennian and american official. railroad the signs of anguish

remain quiet but palpable in prescott prescott arizona, oceans after from the savagery of syria. kala mueller a hostage for mo are than a year for those who know her, she is what a defender of social justice, especially for those who cannot fight. carol thompson taught and then befriended mueller. >> she profoundly understood bales will not come without justice, and it's useless to have peace without justice. >> reporter: po fessor thompson teaches here in arizona. she's on sabbatical in zimbabwe helping farmers. kala mueller thought she might follow her footsteps and work in africa but it's this conflict syria, and its nearly 4 million refugees that captured her heart. he posted this video supporting

refugees in 2011. >> i'm in solidarity with the syrian people. i reject the brutality and killing that the syrian authorities are committing against the syrian people. >> reporter: by the following years, she would make her first trip to the syrian/turkish border. professor thompson said they spoke often and at length. >> she went very much beyond me her professor, to join in the suffering. >> yes, she knew very profoundly the risks. >> that was her choice. >> a choice her parents sea they supported. they remained surrounded by spiritual counsel, family and friends, as they have since her capture. capture. >> thank you for that. a big question now, will the case of kala mueller and other

isis hostages change the way this country deals with americans held hostage overseas. also the u.s. military may -- big caveat -- may recommend sending ground troops to iraq but will the president and the congress agree? we'll discuss, nbcext. so we quit selling cigarettes in our cvs pharmacies. expanded minuteclinic for walk-in medical care. and created programs that encourage people to take their medications regularly. introducing cvs health. a new purpose. a new promise... to help all those wishes come true. cvs health. because health is everything. why do we do it? why do we spend every waking moment, thinking about people? why are we so committed to keeping you connected? why combine performance with a conscience? why innovate for a future without accidents? why do any of it? why do all of it? because

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we've been reporting on the story of kala mueller, who isis claims was killed this week in a jordanian air strike. let's bring in congressman schiff from california, a ravens member from the house intelligence committee. many experts, jordanian government u.s. intelligence are very skeptical, claiming this is pure pr tactics to try to throw the game on jordan what is can you tell us in terms of what we know about this claim?

>> poppy, we are doing everything we can to find out whether she is still alive. obviously we hope and pray she is but it's very difficult to determine. i don't give the isis any validity whatsoever. it's strange credulity to me to suspect they would tell a jordanian plane from an american one and it's just too convenient that she would be the only person in this building not guarded, and no one injured according to their claim. i don't buy it for a minute. is this something they made up for prop ganta purposes having killed her earlier? or are they keeping her alive for other purposes? we obviously hope she's alive. jan mccain saying this week we are not winning, we are losing we need to do more. some of your colleagues ted chris, saying the u.s. should

arm the peshmerga force. listen to what he said and i want your reaction on the other side. >> we met with the president of kurdistan, and the kurds on the ground are fantastic fighter, the peshmerga have been our allying, their friends, and they're fighting every day to stop isis. now, dana what makes no sense whatsoever is the obama administration is refusing to directly arm the kurds. we need to arm them now, because they are our boots on the ground. >> is he right, congressman? >> i think we do need to step up our support for the kurds. we have tried to work through the iraqi government to do that because it's very sensitive, we don't want a situation where the central government is now fighting the kurds because they're trying to break away. we're trying to arm them as best we can, and keep that country united in the fight against isis but in the iraqi government isn't sufficiently allowing the arms to flow to the

kurds, we need to directly make sure they can carry on the fight. >> are you talking to the administration about that? >> we are talking to the administration. i am concerned we need to get material more quickly to the iraqi fierces, but we are making progress in iraq militarily we have stopped isis' momentum on the ground the kurdish forces and iraqi forces have reclaimed some of the isis territory. i'm more concerned about the lack of political progress. i'm very concerned about allegations there was a massacre of sunnis when a village was liberated from isis a massacre by a shia militia while iraqi troops stood by and watched. if that's true that's a tremendous setback, we need those sunnis to be pulled away from isis. that means they need to feel protected won't be victim iced by the shia militias based out

of iran. >> do you agreed with john mccain's assessment that we are losing? >> i don't think we've made any progress and i think that's a very fair criticism. by necessity, though i think we'll have to defeat isis in iraq first. i think we are making process. it's slower that we'd like but i don't think that's mean we ought to rush in with combat troops. i'm not sure it would do much good at this point. >> congressman, thanks for your time. >> thanks poppy. still to come the face of nbc news will not be seen in his anchor chair for at least the next few days removing himself from that position temporarily while people wonder if they can trust him again. will he be back? the newsman's credibility on the line. we'll talk about it next. [engine revving] [engine revving] [engine revving]

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hear ye! the awkward teenage one has arrived!!!! don't be old fashioned. xfinity customers add xfinity home for $29.95 a month for 12 months. plus for a limited time, get a free security camera call 1800 xfinity or visit comcast.com/xfinityhome. all right. here it comes again. storm after storm and the snowfall records have already been smashed. many folks in boston are just sick of it. what is being called a long-duration event is settling over the city may dump 20 more inches of from snow on boston and northeast massachusetts, including an announcement another one from the mayor of boston saying no school tomorrow or on tuesday. tom, this is really testing the

patience of many people. >> yes, poppy, we've got to quit meeting like this. the third straight week third time a snow machine to drop 1 to 2 feet, and they've all been different. there is not a nor'easter moving up the cannest who blizzard conditions but a frontal system hose dropped far enough south to bring in moisture from the atlantic. it's an olongated pattern, as it intend fillses in boston up new york northern pennsylvania tonight, but really throughout the day tomorrow into tomorrow night. it may not be until tuesday morning that the system finally slides through. the good news for new york and the residents there, if you see any snow at all on the back edge but tomorrow morning, we could be look at a freezing rain event that could sustain itself for a few hours to change it to rain. this is a clipper system. typically these slippers fast-moving, come in from

canada but not this one. it looks like the 1 to 2 feet will be in the same locations. think of all the cities and municipalities that snow budgets are now capped out overnight into the hours of you know manpower but from syracuse to albany up towards portland yes, this means 1 to 2 feet kids will be in school at least until july if this keeps up poppy. >> wow. you know the mayor of boston saying dealing with the budget laterings we've got to get these roads cleared. >> and told to get the cars off the road. they're going to begin towing and ticketing in a few minutes. one of the greatest coaches in the history of college basketball haw died longtime head coach dean smith passed away after the ballots with a long illness, he ways 83 and in the words of president obama, america lost not just a coaching legend but a gentleman and a citizen. frederick ha whitfield has more

on the influence both on and off the court. >> reporter: dean smith's 36-year coaching career at north carolina will likely stand forever as one of the most distinguished in the history of college basketball. at his retirement he won a then record 879 games, 65 of them in ncaa tournament play another record. his tar heels made 11 trips to the final four but perhaps smith's moth astonishing accomplishment was that his teams won 20 or more games 27 years in a row. >> we have been lucky, the type of young men student athletes at the university of north carolina. >> smith's influence on the game was easily as great as his statistical achievements. hits innovations include team huddle at the foul line and the four coursers offense which led to the introduction of the shot

clock in college basketball in 1985. john wooden won said of smith -- he's the best teacher of basketball i have ever seen. >> i'm here only because of my players, i think that's obvious. >> character and class, words obvious used to describe smith were hallmarks of the man's entire program. on the court he taught unselfish play teamwork and tenacious defense. not surprisingly dozens of smith's former players went on to career in the nba, including michael jordan perhaps the greatest player of all time. in fact it was said that smith was the only man who could hold jordan to under 20 points a game because of his emphasis on team play. >> he took me through the basics just studying hard understanding more about people being respectful being appreciative of the things that were given to me. you know from that day on i've

carried that along. >> reporter: but for moth of smith's players, the lessons he taught went well beyond basketball. 97% of his lettermen received a degree. smith retired from north carolina before the 1997 season. he'll be remembered not only as one of college basketball's winningest coaches, but also one of the best men to ever teach the game. if you have moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis like me and you're talking to your rheumatologist about a biologic... this is humira. this is humira helping to relieve my pain and protect my joints from further damage. this is humira giving me new perspective. doctors have been prescribing humira for ten years. humira works for many adults. it targets and helps to block a specific source of inflammation that contributes to ra symptoms. humira can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis.

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confirmed he's backing out of that appearance. that was the only scheduled appearance he had, so it takes away the only opportunity for that was on the calendar for him to address they questions about his exaggerations involving that iraq mission in 2003. as of yesterday he announced he's taking a leave of absence, leave hi owns newscast for at least several today is the decision is basically how can he go on another late-night talk show at a time when he's not going on his own newscast. so for now he'll be skipping letterman. >> was it the right called? b, maybe he sits down and does a tough interview with another journalist about this. >> i think a lot of people in the journalism industry are waiting for that moment to happen. i think that was the near unanimous programs on my program "reliable sources" this

afternoon, and i'm hearing it from all over the place that brian williams has to tell his side of the story and explain what is going on because the silence is not helping at this point. i think he protect agrees with that, but the network is going through it's fab-checking motions first. the sense i get is he would like to talk. the question is whether it would help or hurt to talk and whether or not the network is going to do that. here is the uncomfortable reality. nbc has to think about its own credibility at this point. >> thank you, brian. we appreciate it. much more of brian's reporting on cnnmoney.com. let's talk now with two cnn political commentators. mark lamont hill and ben furling son on the phone. guys i want your reaction. your reracks to maureen dowd's columns in "new york times."

nightly news anchors are not figures of authority they're part of the branding and cross-promotion business. he has a fantastic sense of humor, which many times went on late- i got shows, on "30 req" and a personal outside of the news. do you agree with his assessment? >> no i think it's pretty laughable, yes, he's dynamic, and you want your news guy to be dynamic. social media has changed. going on these talk shows make you more popular, but even when he was a letterman, he would not give his personal opinion about certain news issues. it was constantly a joke between him and letterman, because he was an official serious news guy. you can't now say his credibility doesn't really matter he as more of an entertainer and a guy that does all these other things. if your whole entire shtick is

i'm not going to give my personal opinion, you can't now play it the other way. he is the hard news guy, and is in real trouble. >> mark what is your take on that? >> i think that -- i agree with ben in general. i do think sometimes those of us who are in the media operate within a kind of inside baseball perspective. things that would be a breach of journalistic ethics don't necessarily resonate with the american people but this is something the american people can completely understand. this isn't a statistic that's a bit off. he is pretending to be places allegedly where he wasn't. when you talk about war, soldiers who americans have very sentimental attachments to. if we can't trust you, we can't have you as our news guy. i understand what maureen dowd is saying in general, but in this particular case with this particular example, it's not

going to fly. >> it sounds like you're saying you don't think he should have the anchor chair. is that what you're saying? >> it would be tough. >> thinksh. >> it's a bigger issue -- sorry go ahead. >> i think it's going to be tough. i believe in second chances. i believe that people have every right to make a mistake and get a second chance. i think we need to answer two things. we need to see if his -- would this be the second or is ath chants? we also have to ask questions of the other nbc folks who watch him tell the stories who were there and didn't correct it ownership make any attempt to address the ethical breach. the second thing is we have to ask if the audience still trusts him. if the all yen doesn't trust him, you could have him on the air. >> ben, what do you think? do his years of reporting and, you know really you know

incredible reporting, that we cannot discount do those stand for anything? >> well the biggest issue is does your audience trust you? is he too big to fail? if you look at nbc, i'm sure they don't really want to tame him off the air. they have invested an incredible amount to him. he was a great product, but if you watch "the nightly news" every night and trust him as your news guy, your news source as almost a member of your family -- and there is a connection between nightly news anchors every night, but if you feel like someone you watch every night, who is a staple at dinnertime has been lying or a frayed there may be a lot of people who say i just can't watch youian more. >> absolutely. >> don't go anywhere. coming up on the other side we

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deals with terrorists who are holding our citizens hostage. guys the american james foley, he was killed by isis back in august after being held hostage. this weekend his mother spoke to abc. listen to what she said. >> kala along with our son and others were held for nearly two years. there were many opportunities along the way, and yet nothing was done to save our young americans. >> all right. so ben, to you first. granted, we likely don't know everything the us government did. a lot of this is often classified. >> sure. >> and we do know there was a rescue attempt, but this is a grieving mother and look at the situation that kayla's parents are in right now. do you think the u.s. government should be considering more options? >> i think obviously anytime you have an american taken hostage,

the american government is going to work hard. i think the biggest issue is communication with the families. you know how obvious are americans taken hostage? thank goodness not very often in the world as of now. i would hope we would have a hostage team and you are their number one priority whether it's six weeks, six months two years or ten years where you have up to date every single day with appear person who is in direct contact with you. that's what our families deserve. if we did that that would make people rest easier. we may not be able to tell you everybody we are doing, but we are working on this and even if it's no news you are a top priority. i think we owe that to families. >> mark to you, the u.s. government we know it is reviewing its policy on how we deal with families. a lot of these families want to be able to negotiating, tries to

get money, collect donations to help pay offthis ransom because it has worked in the past then other say i agree with ben that the united states government can do more but i don't want to accept the idea that we haven't been doing anything or very little has been done to support families or support to free hostages, unit president obama, under president bush i would imagine president clint, and all the way bashes whether it's because of american interests or engine wen feeling. i think we have always done that. sometimes silence doesn't mean nothing is happening. >> right. >> that said i think it's important to understand the reason why we don't negotiate. one, it creates a market for captures americans. what you want is exactly right.

european citizens are mar forlikely to be captured. >> and so -- the last thing i would want to do is create a new market for eye says whose expansion and might obvious comes from hostages. i think that's a dangerous precedent. >> you can't change that policy. >> peter bergen one of our national security experts here wrote recently wrote an op-said when he said what about considering the idea of allowing families that do not agree with u.s. policy that do want to try to pay the terrorists to get their loved ones back to accept private donations, so nothing would be done through the government. should that even be considered? >> no as soon as you open that door, the terrorists will not distinguish between private and government funds and then you have an incredibly gray area. i'll be completely honest i understand why every family would want to raise money and

funds and go pay to get someone back but you cannot set that precedence one time. once you do american lives become worth an incredible amount of cash and you'll have far more lives at risk. who knows what can happen with either people just doing it for the money or people like isis doing it for political reasons as well. you just cannot have that precedent. don't even open the door to it. stick around after the break, we'll talk about the president and policies with regard to ukraine. what should be done? that's nbc. that's next.

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calls from some in congress are getting louder to send lethal defense arms to ukraine. should he this country wade deeper into a clash with russia vladimir putin or let europe try to do what it can to end this bloody conflict? keep in mind this conflict has claimed more than 5,000 lives. vice president joe biden sending a firm message to putin this weekend, get out of ukraine now. one republican lawmaker, though saying this. >> the vice president, i thought, yet gave an effective speech bii have to tell you, in the room what everyone kept saying is interesting speech. we have no confidence that president obama is listening to

the vice president. when america doesn't lead europe can't be expected to step into the breach. >> joining me again cnn political commentator brent ferguson and mark lamont. i was listening to ted cruz on state of the union and it stood out to me when he said when america doesn't lead we cannot rely on europe to accelerate any of this. you're talking about powers like germany, for example, is this really what the united states should be doing right now in leading, arming the ukrainians? >> think throughout the entirety of this crisis we've been asking for obama to lead and asking for obama to take charge and in many ways that's been an unrealistic expectation of the president and that's not that the president shouldn't have leadership but so much of the economic power and so much of the economic leverage that exists against russia doesn't come from the united states and far more dependent on energy and far more dependence and essentially comes from europe.

look when it comes to proxy wars which is what we're edging dangerously close to i think the president is right to be careful. again, i don't typically agree with the president on foreign policy issues and this is me being in the obama-backed pocket. i think he's exercising prudence and patience that to arm the ukrainians is to open up a bag of warms and we've seen it happen in iraq and syria and it becomes very dangerous and we don't want to enter a proxy war against russia. that's not where americans want to be. >> it's an interesting point. i just want to get your reaction to this but former president of georgia, right? wrote an article this week who had obviously many adverse dealings with putin's russia and they should stop buying oil from russia that europe has to do more and i'm wondering if you think that is the case before america jumps in more? >> look i would love for those countries in europe to do more but the reality is they're not probably going to and is this a

country, ukraine, that has looked to america for helping guidance as an ally? yes, they have for a long time. so if we don't step in -- they're not each asking for offensive weapons and they're asking for defensive weaponry and russia would win a war an all-out war, yes, no doubt they'd win it, but if they want a piece deal they would have something that russia could use and something that might change the calculous, but right now they're sitting ducks and what's next, estonia? where do you draw the line and vladimir putin is someone who only understands a heavy hand and that's the game he plays. he is not a diplomat and he is a dictator that gets how to do these things and we look incredibly week and we're letting our allies hang out to dry. >> very quickly. >> i think this logic that we're looking weak leads us into a cowboy type of foreign policy that doesn't look at pragmatic solutions.

>> trust me i would never accuse obama of being a cowboy with this foreign policy. i can promise you that just at least let your ally be able to defend itself. >> finish up. >> i don't think you're accusing of being a cowboy i think you're being a cowboy and it's underguarded by the sensibility, funding rebels is a last resort rather than a first resort and right now again, you're saying russia would slaughter an all-out war. >> engaging in a proxy war, which you would inch toward would be incredibly dangerous not just for ukrainians. >> here's my thing, though. >> we know who the people are on the ground that are defending ukraine. it's the population of ukraine. this is not rebels. this is a military and a nation that is one of our allies. that is different from picking rebels. >> gentlemen, i will let you guys discuss this on the other side during the break. we have to take a quick break and thank you for being with me as always. i appreciate it. >> coming up next she is called

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