steve says i'm beating indiana snow, staying in clearwater, florida. closest thing are sand men on the beach. that is enough from you. enjoy the storm. it is coming. kudos for you sticking it out. a little tea from the boss is nice. >> thanks for that. sorry, folks. bill: got to run. "happening now" starts right now. jenna: florida is the place to be today. mother nature ushering in the new year with a dangerous winter storm for a large swath of country. watches and warnings in effect from the midwest up to new england. sub-zero temperatures and heavy snow threatening someplaces and travel plans. with whiteout conditions expected the worst is yet to come. we have all you need to know in a live report. first breaking news on today's top headlines and brand new stories you will see here first. jon: a new fight. a year after the murder-suicide

involving nfl player, joe vaughn belcher, why the mother is taking on the kansas city chiefs. what researchers say could slow its progression. a texas family's battle to take a loved one off life-support. why the state will not let them. it is all "happening now." jon: not much happening outside of our windows right now but it is our top story. 100 million people in the path of a major winter storm barreling across the u.s. good morning to you on this thursday. i'm jon scott. jenna: you know it was 70 degrees in san diego when i left yesterday. just want to point that out. i saw you check. there are no fluries yet. jon: nothing here. jenna: potentially during our show. happy new year to you, i'm jenna lee. this storm could bring major blizzards conditions to northeast cities. it is causing serious problems for folks still heading home after the holidays.

hundreds of flights canceled in and out of chicago and new york. you're looking at boston right now. we just heard boston as logan airport will shut down early tonight. molly line with a close up look what is going on with the weather. poll lit picture shows us something but how are conditions there? >> reporter: we have plenty of fluries coming down here. we're getting pretty heavy snowfall since early this morning. this is the expressway outside of city of boston as it heads out of town. we've seen a lot of cars coming in on the morning commute. it could be a messy evening commute. those folks have to find a way home. like a lot of people returning after the holidays, first day after work and they are braving it but it is getting messier as the day goes on. this is what we're seeing throughout the day. this is the greatest number of plows all in a line. sand and salt trucks going in a line. that is what we're seeing throughout the day.

right now the speed limit on the mass turnpike has been reduced 40 miles an hour from the massachusetts border almost all the way into the city of boston, asking people to keep it slow and stay off the roads. the massachusetts state police saying people stay off the roads essentially to let the plows do its job and keep the streets clear and be able to respond in emergency situations which are a great concern. you mentioned the mass airport, logan international shutting down 8:00 as far as flights going out. tomorrow they hope to ramp things back up and get things back to normal around noon. they're advising people check the flights for the coming hours. certainly for tomorrow as well as things are a little messy already. jenna. jenna: and a little unpredictable as you point out, molly. there is a coastal element to the storm. tell us a little bit about that and the trouble that's causing. >> reporter: absolutely. some pretty big concerns about coastal flooding, particularly south of the city of boston in the neighborhoods along the ocean. they're already experiencing a little bit of coastal surges

coming on the roads way down bit ocean. the concern they could have major flooding as the night goes on. national guard folks have been called in as well as state police with high water vehicle that is can get in the areas to help rescue people if they don't take precautions or evacuate before the high tide. another tide tomorrow to be very concerned about. they're watching those tides and hoping things go well but they're prepared to rescue people if they don't and or people proceeded to take cautions to get out of the way. jenna: important reminder, molly. thank you very much. jon: so the snowstorm comes we are inching towards the 2014 midterm elections and new analysts, analysis i should say in "the hill", suggest that democrats could have hard time holding on to their congressional seats. unemployment is still high in this country. even if the economy improves in 2014 other issues like obamacare could have a greater impact on voters. jonah goldberg, editor-at-large

for nationalreview.online, also a fox news contributor. lynn sweet is the washington bureau chief at "the chicago sun-times." lynn, the headline from "the hill", democrats can not count on the economy to save them in midterm elections. we just had a pretty boffo year on wall street. the economy seems to be improving a little bit. the unemployment rate edging down. even home sales seem to be going up, what is the problem for democrats as they look toward 2014? >> well the problem is that each congressional district where there is a real battle to be fought has its own story. so the national macroeconomic conditions isn't really what is going to be at play in these individual races. local unemployment numbers. and also depending who the voters are, they might not have a big portfolio to be able to run up, to be able to benefit from the big stock boost from 2014. even if it is sustained which a lot of economists say it's not.

so i would say even as obama starts, will start the year talking about income inequality, raising minimum wage, the democrats have problems because they have to really know if these are the issues that are going to be at play in the congressional districts where they have big battles. jon: well, and the first time around, jonah, president obama was able to blame the lame economy on his predecessor and, the republicans said he said drove the economy into a ditch, what does he say this time around as he tries to help his party in these midterm elections? >> now, that's right. the blame bush stuff is kind of lost its legs, even among his own base. and so i think that is one of the reasons why the white house and democrats want to change the subject to economic issues that are also sort of cultural wedge issues, sort of populist issues such as minimum wage. "new york times" had a big story

earlier this week saying that the white house plans a major new push for the minimum wage. i'm sure they believe the minimum wage is good but the reason they're pushing for it, isn't the merits of the economic policy it is to change the subject. get back to the populist message obama wanted to have and get people talking about anything other than obamacare. jon: so, lynn, will the, we know that the democrats are collecting, trying to collect, you know, positive stories about obamacare, to try to get that message out there. will it work? are americans thinking about obamacare? or is it still the economy leading up to the midterm election? >> i think it is both because your health insurance and the price you pay for health care, if god forbid you have a horrible health situation, it is an economic question as well as a health question. so those two are related. and in this case, it just depends on your circumstances. if you're somebody without insurance that has it now and,

again god forbid you need benefit of insurance you will have a very different story to tell than somebody who had a policy, found to their much dismay it was not renewed, if they believed obama when he said nothing will change, and then they end up paying more in premiums or co-pay that they had not anticipated for, even for a policy may be better for them, if, again, god forbid they need it. jon: then there is the unemployment benefits thing coming to an end or likely so, jonah. who do democrats blame that on? >> well they will blame it on republicans and to a certain extent they're right to, because republicans think 99 weeks of unemployment insurance is probably enough, at least a lot of them do. as a matter of public policy most economists generally agree unemployment insurance tends to have a dampening effect on employment because people stay out the workforce longer. at the same time there is lot of sympathy to be had for people who can't find work who want it.

who have gone 99 weeks without finding a job. incredibly depressing situation for them. again this will be one much those, try to turn economics into a cultural wedge issue, make republicans seem like they're mean and cruel because they don't want to give, they don't want to extend unemployment benefits. i don't know that it will necessarily work, in part because of something lynn was getting at, in the actual electorate that votes in 2014, to the extent they're affected by these things, my sense of it is they will be much more likely angry about obamacare than happy about obamacare. doesn't mean there won't be people happy about obamacare, electorate votes in midterm elections, will be motivated by animosity about it. their premiums have gone up. they are involved in small business that is feel that the impact of obamacare, you got to remember, they delayed all the

unpopular stuff until after the presidential election in 2012. so all the popular stuff kicked in years ago. all the unpopular stuff will be rolling out throughout 2014. i doubt the economy will get so good it will counterbalance that. jon: lynn, jonah pointed out we'll hear a lot about and we are hearing a lot about income inkey quality and hiking minimum wage. gallup out with a poll in early december, they asked americans about top concern? dissatisfaction with government came in number one. the economy in general, 19%, health care, 17%, unemployment, 12%. the list goes on but nowhere in there do you find income inequality as a raging concern about among americans. >> well, i agree with you, if trust in government is a problem for democrats, partly because the botched obamacare rollout, which is more than just a healthcare.gov website, which can be fixed. it is stuff as jonah was talking about where we agree, it is the stuff that will kick in could be

a problem. and income inequality is a battle cry that the democrats are mounting and i think, when you pick something that almost by definition isn't a broad-based issue for a lot of people. it is, not a pocketbook issue for everybody, it creates a little bit too much i think politically the have, have not, class warfare. intra-party wrangling about the best way to proceed. and i don't think that could be the only and main issue do domestically for democrats going into 2014. jon: it may be something they pin the elections on but may be one of the few items that they have to work with. we'll see. lynn sweet, jonah goldberg, thank you. >> thank you. jenna: this just n a banker is accused bilking investors out of $21 million, faking his death to escape the law made his first appearance in court moments ago

after being arrested in georgia. a judge declared aubry lee price legally dead a year ago. police found him very much alive and breaking the law in a different way. jonathan serrie, live in atlanta. that is a twist to this story. there is a lot of twist and turns, jonathan. how did authorities finally catch him? >> reporter: it was a routine traffic stop for a very minor violation. sheriffs deputies patrolling i-95 in southeast georgia notice ad pickup truck driving with extremely dark windows. so it was this minor tinting violation that led them to pull over this vehicle and turns out the man behind those dark windows was none other than 47-year-old aubry lee price. the former bank director is accuses of stealing, embezzling, misappropriating more than $20 million from month come bank and trust in georgia and falsifying reports to cover up the losses. he faces a federal charge offing

bank fraud. if convicted he faces a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison and up to one million dollars in fines. jenna. jenna: jonathan, you don't have tinted windows on your cars, do you? >> reporter: no. clear. you can see me clear as a bell. jenna: they're really watching for that down in georgia. it is interesting he would make this mistake because how he disappeared was a little complicated. how did it all begin? >> reporter: yeah, it was very complicated. it began acquaintances, family, members, associates, received a letter from what everyone presumes is the banker admitting to financial wrongdoing, saying he intended to commit suicide by jumping off a boat somewhere off the coast of florida. and indeed, security cameras captured image that is appear to show the banker boarding a ferryboat in key west. that boat was bound for fort myers in june of 2012. no one was seen going overboard a florida judge declared price legally dead. 18 months later he appears in

this routine traffic stop. price, who made his first appearance in court just within the past hour, told investigators that he has been homeless over the past year-and-a-half, doing various odd jobs and working as a mike grant worker. jenna? jenna: interesting. a lot more to this story. jonathan, thank you very much. we'll be talking more about it certainly. what happens after a judge declares you dead and suddenly you resurface? what kind of legal complications are there? our legal panel weighs in next hour about what charges this guy faces. jon: fascinating story and what a transformation too, from a banker to sort of scraggly looking homeless guy. jenna: totally different look. jon: wow. the father of a teenager who was fatally shot at her colorado high school deliver as message of forgiveness. what claire davis's grieving dad had to say about the gunman who took her life. finally after many failed

attempts, how rescuers managed to free 52 passengers trapped on the ice bound ship near antarctica. [ male announcer ] nearly 7 million clients. how did edward jones get so big? t me just put this away. ♪ could you teach our kids that trick? [ male announcer ] by not acting that way. it's how edward jones makes sense of investing. it's how edward jones progress-oh! [ female announcer ] with 40 delicious progresso soups at 100 calories or less, there are plenty of reasons people are saying "progress-oh!" share your progress-oh! story on progresso.com.

jon: some new information right now on some crime stories we're watching. videos surfacing online raise more questions about the mysterious disappearance after michigan doctor. 30-year-old talika patrick, seemingly making videos for a love interest. last seen december fifth. the father after teenager fatally shot at her suburban denver high school say they. claire davis's the gunman said he didn't know what he was doing mayor identifies the victim as a popular priest there. jenna: finally passengers

trapped on an ice-bound ship near antarctica more than a week are in the process of being rescued. the weather cooperates enough so the helicopter can carry the 52 passengers to an australian icebreaker a trip at a time. amy kellogg with the latest from london. >> reporter: well, you know, jenna, those passengers had been keeping up a very brave face during their entrapment in the ice for many days, even putting out a taped video message of them singing new year's songs but apparently one of the woman burst into tears when she finally boarded the rescue ship today. clearly many of them had been keeping a lot of emotions bottled up inside. now it was a chinese helicopter that was positioned on a chinese icebreaker just a few miles from the stuck ship for days. but it had been too windy and foggy for it to fly. finally today weather broke and the helicopter was able to make

five trips required to get everyone to safety. here is the expedition leader when the stranded finally saw light at the end of the tunnel. >> 5:30 on the 2nd of january, we just heard the helicopter from the chinese icebreaker is heading over to check out our helipad just behind me. if all goes well we'll be off in about an hour's time. >> reporter: and they are all off now as we've been saying. three icebreakers were attempting but not able to reach the schakowsky which was caught in ice 15 feet thick. the researchers and tourists on board were transferred from the chopper to an ice flow and barged over to another ship the aurora, which will take them on a two-week journey back to land. they're actually still moving through ice as we speak toward open water on the ice break everier. this voyage, this expedition, jenna, had been meant to compare data from and continue the research of a very famous voyage

that took place 100 years ago. of course the conditions then were that much more trying and in fact sir douglas moss, the leader of that expedition, lost two of his partners 100 years ago when they were conducting the antarctic research. i think it is unclear how much this expedition was able to get accomplished given they were waylaid on an ice flow. but they do claim they were able to gather some important data. jenna. jenna: we'll see what their conclusions are. amy, thank you. jon: a fiery explosion at an apartment building in minneapolis. the latest on the investigation into what caused it, and the split-second decision that is saved lives there. also an update to the very sad story of an nfl player who shot his girlfriend dead and killed himself at the stadium. >> is he breathing? >> he is still breathing but, please hurry. i don't know how many times he is shot. they were arguing. >> so she has been shot? >> no. >> right now, is she awake?

>> ambulance is going away. you hear me. you hear me. stay with me. jon: that player's mother is filing a wrongful death lawsuit against the kansas city chiefs. our legal team takes up the

jon: some brand new information about a explosion and fire that rocked a minute in place apartment building. the fiery blast injured 14 people yesterday. three of them remain in critical condition. flames forced some rest den to make life-or-death decisions to get out of the building. one, 74-year-old survivor says he was sleep when the blast occurred. he managed to escape the inferno, running barefoot as parts of the ceiling and hallway came crashing down. no word yet what sparked the

fire. jenna: new developments in the tragic murder-suicide involving a nfl player. the mother of jeff vaughn belcher filing a wrongful death lawsuit against the kansas city chiefs saying her son, quote, unknowingly sacrificed his brain during his four years with the team. you may remember this story. it is a sad one as jon said. belcher shot his girlfriend, killed her, then drove to the stadium and killed himself in front of some of his colleagues in december of 2012. so does his mother have a case here? let's bring in a legal panel. jennifer brandt, family law and trial attorney and tom kenniff, a trial attorney. a sad story. jennifer is there a case here, does the family have a case? >> yes, absolutesly i think they have a case and it is a strong case. we have heard the nfl acknowledged that many players suffered these traumatic head injuries and even engaged in a tentative settlement for a number of players for the the ct of 765 million. if this mother can show that

mr. belcher suffered from the same type of injuries, she already had the body exhumed, so she can produce medical evidence along with testimony from acquaintances and other people who saw his condition change over time as a result of these injuries i think she has a very, very strong case and i think the nfl will be payer her quite a bit of money for this. jenna: tom, what are the challenges of cause and effect? they have the body exhumed and there is an indication that there are multiple concussions. how is that tied to the murder-suicide and the family says to the nfl, you're responsible for this man's behavior? >> those are huge issues, jenna. before you get to those i want to point out quickly the first issue will be a standing issue. nfl's position is these type of lawsuits, this type of litigation is dealt with in the collective bargaining agreement. therefore the idea of bringing this case as a tort law case into a civilian court, you know,

is subject to a motion to dismiss. they will try to move to dismiss this case before you even get the substance, before you get to the merits. if the plaintiffs get past that, the cause and effect issue is tremendously difficult burden for them to try and get over because, ultimately what they're going to have to show, but for these concutions, you know, this individual, mr. belcher, would not have went out, got drunk, showed up at his family's house, and, you know, committed a murder-suicide. that's a tremendously difficult burden for anybody to meet. jenna: jennifer, this is interesting, i was looking at one report from the bleacher report, where jeff van's really good friend in an attempt to help explain his friend's behavior is trying to say that his friend, and here is had quote, jeff vaughn suffered multiple concussions his friend said. but in football, you don't complain. you play. that is jeff vaughn. he played. listen my buddy got injured and

never said anything. to our knowledge from the kansas city chiefs we don't have any indication there was some really serious injury they were aware of. if his friend was saying that he was injured but didn't say anything, does that damage the case? >> it certainly doesn't help the case but i also think the chiefs and all the football teams and nfl will have a greater responsibility and already do have a greater responsibility to identify these types of injuries. they have already changed some styles which they play and some penalty that is occur, if there is a lot of head trauma going on during the games. i think they will have a greater responsibility to understand these injuries, to know if a player has been hurt and protect them for their own good without -- jenna: let me jump in here. tom, there was a class-action lawsuit. a huge settlement of over $700 million about this very issue but where is the line drawn? how slippery is this, you have a concussion and blame your behavior, you were an adultter

rest or blaming your concussion or burglar and where do you draw you the line in blaming your condition. >> there are two separate issues. we can argue all day how long brutal and dangerous the nfl has become. i certainly agree with that. most americans do. they should be vigilant in trying to make the game safer for the players. however, the way to address that issue i don't think is to, you know, condone tort law cases, wrongful death cases, what have you, brought by former players. the classic theory that everybody learns in first semester of law school is assumption of risk. anybody who goes into the nfl knows this is inherently dangerous activity. these guys are getting bigger every year. the players who attain that level, certainly are compensated handsomely for assuming that risk. and unfortunately, you know that is just a reality but to say, when something goes wrong they

can turn around or families can turn around and sue i don't think that is the right approach. >> i disagree with tom. jenna: i have to leave it there though. it will be interesting case. if we see changes with this one case it will be interested to see what opens up with others. jennifer, you will be back with us for another case. tom, great to have you. >> happy new year. jenna: we'll have another great legal panel coming up next hour. jon: meantime the debate over raising the minimum wage expected to be a big campaign issue in 2014. do americans want to see the wage increase nationwide or not? what the polls say coming up. tracking a major winter storm that's impacting millions of americans and will hit millions more. the latest on its path next. [ bottle ] okay, listen up! i'm here to get the lady of the house back on her feet. [ all gasp ] oj, veggies you're cool. mayo? corn dogs? you are so outta here! aah!

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jon: right now a quick look what's still to come this hour of "happening now." a texas woman declared brain-dead. her family wants to take her off of life-support but the state is saying no. we'll get into that. plus new hope for patients suffering from alzheimer's disease. what researchers say could slow its progression. new developments in the venice beach boardwalk disaster. you remember a car plowed into a crowd of people killing a woman on her honeymoon. the latest of the case against the driver. jenna: fox extreme weather alert, millions of americans sitting in the path after dangerous weather storm bork

working its way across much of the country and slamming the midwest and bearing down on the northeast and a lot of major airports which is sure to cause a whole bunch of problems countrywide. meteorologist maria molina is tracking the storm. keeping you busy, maria. >> a little bit. jenna, we're expecting a another storm system to impact portions of the midwest as we head into sunday. this will be something to watch. we'll be busy the next several days. i want to take you to boston with a live look. we're seeing snow coming down already and see the snow coating the roadways, several inches on the ground out there and we're expecting as much as 10 to even fourth teen inches of snow how the there in the city of boston. this will be a big storm for parts of southern new england and cape. they could look at blizzard conditions and 18 inches of snow. we could see the storm system just into a couple of pieces. we have one piece of the storm system across portions of

midwest producing snow out here in ohio, parts of indiana and across interior portions of the northeast. another piece farther south. this will be developing along the coast. just producing areas of rain right now in the carolinas, in georgia. as they come together they are going to be intensifying later this evening into the overnight hours and through tomorrow morning and it will be parked right outside of the new york city area so right off the coast. it will have a very strong wind and producing a lot of heavy snowfall. for areas across southern new england and long island you could look at six to 10 inches of snow. new york city four to eight inches forecast out here and lighter amounts as you go farther south. so parts of southern new jersey could look at three to six inches of snow. the wind will be a major concern with this storm system. this is why we have blizzard warnings in effect across the long island and the cape because wind gusts in excess of 50 miles

an hour will be possible along the coastal areas. that along with combination of snow will produce whiteout conditions. travel is not recommended across any areas as we head into tonight. it will be a tough evening rush home across many of you in the northeast. winter storm warnings across the northeast, pennsylvania and new jersey. temperatures, jenna, some coldest temperatures we haven't seen in years will impact the northeast. i want to show you this model run, as far as windchill. look at tomorrow morning. new york city, two below zero. it will feel like 16 below zero in boston. 25 below zero in burlington, vermont. caribou, maine, far north maine will be like 38 degrees delow zero 9:00 in the morning. jenna: if you're debating what coat to grab, heaviest is right call? >> heaviest and make sure you're covered up.

jenna: sound like good advice. maria, thank you. >> thanks. jon: right now the minimum wage just went up in in 13 states across the country. the new year will bring a new debate whether the national minimum wage should rise as well. a recent "abc news/washington post poll" find 66% of americans support a increase. 33% are against it. 2% are not sure. an gell la mcglowan is fox news political analyst. let as look at politics of all of this. with the economy in such bad shape. you have 7% unemployment. >> right. jon: seems like raising the minimum wage is a good thing to do. what do you think? >> as john boehner said raising price on employment you will have less employment. jon, you're right you would think raising the minimum wage would be logical but i think americans were actually polled did not make a payroll. if you raise the minimum wage you will raise taxes not only on

employer but employee. if you raise taxes, fica taxes, payroll taxes. means more tax revenue goes into the pocket of uncle sam and less into the business. while i think it would be good to do that, i think it is more detrimental to raise the minimum wage. jon: uncle sam has a vested interest in raising the minimum wage? >> of course he does. the reason why this is going to be a political issue, you will have democrats that want to raise taxes. they're going to make it more about the rich versus poor there was a study says if you raise minimum wage, more people will be above the poverty line than more than under the policy line. 6% of the people would be above the poverty line. what they do not tell you, jon, if you raise minimum wage that creates more burden on employer. if you create more burden on the employer, that is less profitability and less growth and could mean job loss and hiring freeze. jon: permit me my own example.

i was a teenager mowing lawns at university of denver for minimum wage. i made a buck 35 an hour. i figured out i could make more money buying my own lawn mower. i went out next summer with buddy of mine and we mode lawns for people individually, i increased wages doing it myself. is that what other people might want to think about doing? >> that is what other people might want to think about doing but you raise a good point there, you were a teenager. that is what minimum wage jobs were meant to be for, teenagers. not for a household members. not for mothers and fathers of households. so what we need to do is, success breeds success. the more we put into our businesses, jon, the more we hire people. if that tax burden is put on employer, especially small businesses, you also look at additional poll, 60% of the small businesses said it would hurt them, instead of help them if you raise minimum wage. if you do this to small businesses they will let people

go or go on hiring freeze. so it actually hurts the economy. it doesn't help it. jon: isn't idea to get more people in positions where they don't have to make minimum wage. where the contribution to society is such that it is worth a lot more money to them? >> you're exactly right. but with this administration, with democrats in the senate, you will have a pat he will here for 2014. i think now with more of the affordable care act taxes, actually being enacted and less tax loopholes for small businesses, tax writeoffs, i think that you're going to see that more people will vote conservative. we know what is best to do with our money than big brother government. raising the minimum wage, while nobody in purpose, actually hurts the economy. it doesn't help the economy and it raises the unemployment rate. jon: angela mcglowan, fox news political analyst. we'll see how it plays out in the november elections. >> thanks, jon. jenna: this next story is going to sound very familiar to or

similar to a story out of california we've been following. this is regarding a family in texas. this texas family is fighting to take a loved one declared brain-dead off life-support and they're being blocked by the state. the law keeping her alive. we'll tell you about this. there is lot of interesting legal questions about what is going off medically with some families in the country. how things getting back to normal after this fiery train derailment in north dakota. we'll have an update for you next.

jon: keeping the cause of this derailment in casselton saying they found a broken axle but still don't know if that was to blame. a train carrying grain went off

the tracks first. part of it then fell into an adjacent track. 18 cars of an oil train oncoming on that train, on that track i should say, derailing. several of them caught fire. despite huge flames and smoke, no one we're happy to say was hurt. jenna: texas family's fight is raising questions about whether their wishes for a loved one outweigh a state law on unborn children. it is an interesting case. doctors declared the mother in this case brain-dead in november. her family wants to take her off of life support but they can't because she's pregnant. molly henneberg has the latest for us on this story. molly, what does the texas law say? >> jenna, it is very clear according to texas state law, despite what the family may want, the doctors and hospital, quote, may not withdraw or withold life sustaining treatment under this sub chapter of the law from a pregnant patient.

but marlese munoz's husband, eric says she did not want to be kept alive. eric wants her taken off life-support, even though unborn baby, five months old in utero has a beating heart. one former federal prosecutor not involved in the case, this situation may point out problems with the texas law. >> one of more difficult aspects of this case is the government being involved in this decision. where you have a family that wants the termination of life and government, via, a statute saying that you can not. so here, it appears that the statute may actually be too broad. the statute needs some exceptions. >> reporter: munoz has been on life-support since late november she collapsed at home what was likely a clot in her lungs. jenna. jenna: what a terrible situation for the family. those that are supporting the texas law. what can you tell us about that side of the story?

>> reporter: among them, bobby shouldn't letter of terri schiavo had her feeding tube removed in 2005 in a public controversial legal battle this situation is different from that one. schindler says the texas hospital can honor husband's wishes to take his wife off life-support after the baby is born. >> texas law is giving the benefit of the doubt, in this case to the unborn baby and, we must do that. we must protect lives of unborn children. in fact, as i said, i can't imagine any mother would want to hend end the life of her baby. >> reporter: the husband, eric munoz, says don't know how long the baby was without oxygen when the wife collapsed and what props the baby might have if and when it is born. jenna? jenna: molly henneberg in d.c. thank you. jon: there is a possible break through for alzheimer's

research. what might slow stops in certain cases. ♪ [ male announcer ] this m has an accomplished research and analytical group at his disposal. ♪ but even more pressive is how he puts it to work for his clients. ♪ morning. morning. thanks for meeting so early. oh, it's not a big deal at all. come on in. [ male announcer ] it's how edward jones makes sense of investing. ♪ makes sense of investing. i've got a job to do today. i've got a job to do today. have a good first day at work, mom! your donations to goodwill fund job-training programs right in your community. feels good to start fresh, right? sure does. narrator: and like that, you're a job creator.

jenna: well this headline is potentially new hope for the millions of people living with alzheimer's disease and their families. reservers now say vitamin e, could help slow its progression. alzheimer's is most common type of dementia in this country. five million americans have it. dr. devi is professor of anesthesiology and rehabilitation at nyu school of medicine. nice to have you. why vitamin e? >> vitamin e is antioxident and has effect on nerves and might help with alzheimer's. the hardest thing about alzheimer's we don't have a cure. all we can do is help with the

symptoms and make it easier for patients and caregivers. with the study, it is breakthrough for mild to moderate alzheimer's in early stages can be effective much. jenna: 600 veterans, all men, in the late 70s, divided in four groups. one took vitamin e. anti-dementia drug and took vitamin e and dementia drug together. interesting one took just vitamin e, showed the most progress. what do you think about that? >> that is most surprising part. i would expect people taking both would have best effect? jenna: double up and get better results. >> usually. that drug has several study that is support it. we're not sure what happens. maybe they work in the same pathway in the brain and one is neutralizing the other. not sure. but actually better in the sense that vitamin is a more accessible than prescription

drug. might be easier for people to use. jenna: glad you brought that up. we've done a few stories over last several weeks where there have been questions raised about vitamins, in general. especially because they're not heavily regulated by fda. some not regulated at all. so there is differing opinions whether or not they're very helpful or not. and what you're actually taking. >> of course. jenna: how do you see that? >> in this case in vitamin e they wering prescription, of 2,000 units a day. that is makes it easier. go to the doctor and get a prescription and go forward that way. one reason prescription strength and see the doctor, with vitamin e especially there are a lot of negative side-effects. it can interact with other medications to cause more bleeding. jenna: i'm glad you brought that up. people thinking i will take vitamin e now, just in case, i have alzheimer's in my family and take it or maybe i'm suffering and should start on.

what advice? >> hold off because there is not a lot of evidence that vitamin e prevents alzheimer's. helps systems once you already have it and help people concerned about other things, besides memory. avoiding a nursing home. can be helpful there. many people may be on blood thinners. aspirin, or ibuprofen or other things for pain and something called plavix for your heart f you're on those medications and take something that works like a blood thinner, you have a lot more risks. if you're in the stage having some symptoms and might fall and something else and fall and bleeding already on one of these drugs it can cause more of a problem. my advice not to take to it prevent this problem. if you have it, talk to the doctor early to see if you can start it. jenna: good advice. might be a break through for alzheimer's. we'll see. dr. devi, great to see you. >> thank you very much. jenna: jon? jon: well the thermometer dropping like a rock across much of the country. coming up what it will cost you

to heat your home this year

jenna: well, a fox extreme weather alert as millions across the country face the first big storm of 2014. watches and warnings stretching from chicago all the way to new england, high winds triggering whiteout conditions, closing roads in areas and making driving conditions downright dangerous in others. air travel is no better for lots of people heading home after the holidays with about a thousand flights canceled so far and hundreds more delayed. the hardest hit? chicago's o'hare airport and boston's logan airport set to close early tonight. the system dumping more than a foot of snow in some spots and behind the snow an arctic blast as well. get ready for some of the coldest temperatures we've seen in years. we have to fact check this. garrett tenny is braving the

elements in chicago for us. how you doing out there? >> reporter: jenna, it is cold, about 20 degrees right now, but in the wind chill that's coming off the lake feels a little bit more like 5 or 6 degrees. it is the worst winter's snowstorm to hit chicago on new year's day in 15 years. we've already seen more than a foot of snow in many areas, and those conditions making for treacherous travel conditions for many of the people driving throughout the region for new year's as well as flights. you mentioned chicago. yesterday 600 flights canceled. today, 300 flights canceled already. delays are 45 minutes to an hour for those that are able to get out, but those conditions are looking to just continue to worsen throughout the day as we continue to get this snow coming off the lake, this is the lake effect snow that we are now seeing 8-10 inches expected all across the great lakes including wisconsin, illinois, indiana, michigan, other into ohio as well. -- over into ohio as well.

we are expecting 8-10 inches on top of that more than a foot we've already seen. the city's snowplows and salt trucks have been going nonstop since tuesday. they're going to continue to be here out on the roads, the chicago river is already frozen as well. people are out on the roads if they need to be, but city officials are asking them to stay indoors if they can. many schools have been canceled for today, many businesses have been asking people to stay home if they can, and it's not looking like it's going to be getting much better throughout the day either. forecasters are saying they are looking at as many as 2 inches per hour in some areas which would mean near zero visibility for drivers out there. expecting road conditions will only get worse, that's why they're having those trucks that are staying out there at least until friday. jenna: good reminder to go slow. we give the wardrobe department two thumbs up for getting those winter gloves just in time for

you. fox news on that, garrett, thank you very much. we're going to have much more on this powerful winter storm with meteorologist janice dean live in the fox extreme weather center coming up a little later this hour. in the mean time, big developments on our top stories and breaking news. jon: as obamacare kicks in for millions of americans, the white house faces a new challenge, a new firestorm over the birth with control mandate and a block at the supreme court. also a fugitive wanted for stealing millions and faking his death appears in federal court just a short time ago. our legal panel weighs in on what happens to this guy now. and as a powerful winter storm takes aim at the northeast, serious new concerns about energy prices. what it could mean for your bottom line. it's all "happening now." ♪ ♪ jon: well, still not a lot of snow happening here in new york city, but they say it's on the way. jenna: don't jinx anything yet.

it's coming, right? jon: i don't think there's much we can do to avoid it. i'm jon scott. jenna: hi, everybody, i'm jenna lee. today may be the first real day of business of obamacare, but right out of the gate the administration's facing a legal challenge to one of the most controversial provisions of the affordable care act. not from republicans, but from a group of nuns. supreme court justice sonia sotomayor temporarily blocking the birth be control mandate for the little sisters of the poor. they, like other catholic and religious groups, say the mandate violates their religious beliefs, and among the contraception coverage is having plans this provide for plan b, the so-called abortion pill. a louisly-used term there -- loosely-used term there. mike emanuel's leave from washington with more. here we are january 2nd, where does this stand when it comes to the contraception mandate?

>> reporter: well, an obama administration official is expressing confidence that their final rules strikes the balance of providing women with free contraceptive coverage while preventing employers with objections based on beliefs from having to arrange pay or refer as much coverage. an attorney for a religious liberty group representing the little sisters of the poor talked about their concerns. >> we're nuns. we devote our lives to providing for the elderly, to providing for those who are entering the next life. we respect that type of life, and we can't turn around and start disrespecting life at its earliest phases by paying for drugs and devices that can take innocent human life. >> reporter: the nuns would have faced huge fines if they failed to provide coverage. justice sonya society high your is expecting a response from the government by tomorrow. jenna: that'll be interesting, mike. what about the big picture? the aspects of obamacare that started yesterday? >> reporter: well, there are reports of insurers receiving

thousands of erroneous sign-up applications from the government and people who thought today had enrolled but not gotten confirmation. kathleen sebelius says she is thrilled millions of people for the first time have health security with new benefits. sebelius says there will be some implementation issues, and a key house chairman says expect lots of glitches. >> the bottom line is they were never ready for prime time. people across the country are getting sticker shock. they're seeing, you know, huge increases in the deductibles which, of course, that means they're not -- it's going to be out-of-pocket costs in addition to the higher premiums that they had. >> reporter: the administration says 2.1 million people have enrolled through federal and state exchanges, but it is not clear how many people have actually paid for those benefits. jenna? jenna: mike emanuel, thank you. >> reporter: thank you. jon: so ready or not, the white house is finding itself back in the firestorm over the birth control mandate. it must respond to justice

sotomayor's order by 10 a.m. eastern tomorrow. so we have just about 23 -- 22 hours to go. joe trippi, a fox news contributor, is here. so what do you think the white house is going to say, joe? >> well, i think they're going to ask that this not be put if place, that it go up the court hearing just like what happened with the individual mandate. there have been, you know, the supreme court ruled that that was constitutional. this is a very narrow challenge to obamacare. it's not -- the administration allows for opting out, for religious organizations to opt out of having to provide this coverage. these, this organization, these nuns oppose the fact that they'd have to work with a carrier that provides that contraception to other, in other parts of their plan to other users.

so it's going to be interesting, but i don't think the administration's that worried about this one. jon: well, you know, people -- and i think speaking, not trying to speak for the nuns, but the sense i get is, you know, people are just tired of the government telling them everything they have to do. they're saying, look, it's fine, you know, if people want contraception, if they want to buy it, if they want to pay for a private insurance policy that covers it, that's fine. but we don't want to have to pay for it ourselves. we don't want to be saddled with the respondent of paying -- the responsibility of paying for something that we don't believe in. i think a lot of people feel that way, joe. what's wrong with that? >> well, jon, when this issue came forward, people may not remember, but joe biden himself said maybe the administration had gone too far. in doing this. and that's when the administration, when they came up with the concept of an opt-out for religious organizations so they do not

have -- they don't face a fine if they opt out of this part of it. what the nuns are saying is that's fine, that's not far enough. we want -- we don't want of to have to use a carrier that provides birth control or contra contraceptive services in other plans that they're providing to other private or employer plans. so it's going to be interesting. the administration's already thought they dealt with this by going with the opt-out, but now it's going to where -- this is where the three branches are about. jon: yeah. >> it dose to the courts, and the courts will decide, and just like they did with the independent mandate, if they decide it's constitutional, that the rules are fine, then we'll go forward. if not, the administration's going to have to come up with another solution. jon: and interesting, too, that, you know, the person who is the roadblock here for this administration is a member of the court's liberal wing, justice sonia sotomayor,

appointed by president obama, is the one who's thrown up the roadblock here. >> look, i think she's done what she's supposed to do. she's put a hold on it until there's some legal, you know, until the administration puts its case out there, and then it's going to get decided by the courts. again, i don't think this means that she had decided one way or the other on this, it's just, hey, until we figure this out, until we make a ruling, let's put this on hold. and we want to hear what the administration, what their point raised.at the issue the nuns jon: all right. well, again, that response from the be white house due 10 a.m. eastern time tomorrow, little less than 22 hours from now. we'll see what they have to say. joe trippi, thanks for taking on this issue with us today. >> happy new year, jon. jon: you too, joe. jenna: former israeli prime minister ariel sharon is, apparently, clinging to his life from reports out of israel that we're hearing. the 85-year-old remains in a

coma. it's a condition he's been in for nearly eight years following a stroke, but a short time ago the director of the hospital where he's treated said the prognosis at this time is not good. >> ariel sharon is hospitalized in our hospital for the last seven years, shows some signs of deterioration during the following two days. with some critical misfunction or mall function of -- malfunction of some of his organs including his kidneys. he's under our treatment, but we feel that the situation is critical, and some danger is expected for his life. jenna: well, sharon's family is at his bedside. they say he's never regained consciousness since his stroke but sometimes blinks his eyes and moves his fingers. we'll keep you posted on that developing story. jon: we are also getting some new information on racing champion michael schumacher. the condition of the formula one legend reportedly stable but still critical following a

second operation for injuries he suffered in a ski accident last weekend. he remains in a medically-induced coma. we're also hearing he received a visit in the hospital from the president of the group in charge of auto racing. jenna: new efforts to save the california teenager declared brain dead as her family prays for a miracle. also, the term rocky mountain high getting a whole new meaning as i'm sure you've heard over the last few days after colorado becomes the first state to legalize the sale of marijuana for recreational use. we're live in denver for how it's going. plus, nigel la lawson speaking out for the first time since a sensation sal trial, what the celebrity chef is saying about what it was like in the courtroom. muck. ♪ hey kevin...still eating chalk for heartburn?

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jenna: well, "happening now," a new min for middle east peace today. secretary of state john kerry now in israel for talks with prime minister benjamin netanyahu, this is his tenth trip to israel. the search for peace may be an uphill battle, but it's certainly achievable. >> we are now five full months into this negotiation. we have always known that achieving peace is a long and complicated process. it's a tough road. but this is not mission impossible. jenna: well, secretary kerry wants israel and the palestinians to reach a full peace agreement by april. that's his timeline. so far there's been little word of any progress. well, in other news, nigella lawson's speaking out for the first time since having her private life exposed to the world during a trial, the celebrity chef testifying last month at a fraud trial for two of her former aides. she says the experience is as

bad as it gets. >> to have not only your private life, but distortions of your private life put on display is mortifying. but, you know, there are people going through an awful lot worse, and to dwell on it, dwell on any of it would be self-pity, and i don't like to do that. jenna: the jury found the two former aides not guilty of misusing the credit cards loaned to them by lawson. jon: and right now some new information on moving jahi mcmath to a long-term fair facility. the car teenager, as you know, was declared brain dead after complications from throat surgery. the only option might be to wheel her out of the hospital with a ventilator, but the hospital says it has not been contacted by another facility. at the same time, the hospital says it's fine with moving her but will not allow any operations in its hospital. none of this sitting too well with her family. >> jahi is the victim. our family is the victim. it is not fair, and it is very

cruel for them to try to spin this story now and try to make it as if children's hospital is the victim. jon: adam houseley is live outside children's hospital in oakland with the latest. this seems, adam, to become a back and forth spat between the hospital and the family, right? >> reporter: yeah, jon. outside of the heartbreaking story of the young girl that's inside the hospital here, the 13-year-old in, basically, a vegetative state, we're told, here on the sidewalk the battles going back and forth between the hospital's spokesperson as well as the family, generally the uncle or the attorney for the family who's been speaking on their behalf, talking about trying to get jahi moved. and we know the deadline's been moved a couple of times, the next one stands on tuesday, but the hospital is insistent that they believe the family is being misled by their attorney. take a listen. >> the attorney for the mcmath family has, sadly, created a problem that he cannot solve. he's promised the facility, he's promised transportation, he's promised a physician that would

take -- knowingly take -- a deceased body, do surgery on it and move it to another location. no one has come forward in the last week after numerous promises by mr. dolan to accept the body of jahi mcmath. therefore, all these questions are academic. >> reporter: now, the family continues to say that they have a plan in place and that the hospital has not been helpful. of course, we're trying to get that plan and the hospital's response to it today. there has been some back and forth about that, jon, but again, that deadline, the new deadline that's been extended by the court is now tuesday at 5:00 local time. jon? jon: this one facility that has said they would accept jahi, what do we know about them, and how would she get there? >> reporter: well, the family's had a couple of facilities they've talked about, the one they seem to have settled on and seems to have come through is one that was started by terry schiavo's family located on long island in new york. they say they will accept jahi

and will take care of her there. the problem now is the hospital says they've only made one phone call here to talk to the doctors, and that wasn't a very long one, it wasn't anything in depth insinuating the plan isn't totally in place. the uncle of jahi says that's not the case. once again, they feel they're not getting enough help from the hospital. >> it's very frustrating, it's very upsetting, but we remain strong, and we remain on faith. she still looks good, she still looks like jahi, so that keeps us going. if there was a change in her appearance, i think it would make it that much tougher, but since there hasn't been a change in her appearance, we've been pretty strong. >> reporter: again, the family insists that jahi is going to be fine, they think she might potentially somehow recover. again, jon, wading through this is the difficult part, the hospital's saying one thing, the family says they're not getting any help, so really wading through that as the battle has been continuing literally on the

sidewalk in front of the hospital. jon? jon: adam houseley, thank you. be. jenna: well, the midwest and northeast in the path of a monster winter storm dumping up to a foot of snow and plunging temperatures below zero. who gets hit the worst, we'll have that for you coming up in just a moment. also, back from the dead. and behind bars. a missing fugitive banker gets busted. what led to his arrest and the charges he now faces, next. ♪ ♪ [ chainsaw whirring ] humans -- sometimes liferips us up. sometimes we trip ourselveup. and although the mistakes may seem to just keep coming at you, so do the solutions. like multi-policy discounts from liberty mutual insurance.

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federal court in georgia a short time ago. police say they nabbed aubrey lee price in a routine traffic stop for illegal tinted windows. after everything he's been through -- [laughter] this is what he gets caught on. very bizarre details to this case. here's the background. price went missing in june 2012 grabbing national headlines. the feds saying he wrote a rambling suicide note in which he admitted to defrauding investors and said he planned to kill himself by jumping from a ferry boat off the florida keys. photos show price boarding the ferry in florida but his body was never found, neither was he. price indicted a month later in july of 2012 for embezzling $21 million from his bank, ask about a year ago despite the body never being found, a florida judge declared him dead. but the fbi, never giving up in getting him, offered a reward of $20,000 for price's capture. and scouring leads that led them

to central and south america. and when this guy was talking a little funny with the cops, the cops checked him out, found out he was wanted. there you go. jennifer brandon is a trial attorney, sharon is a criminal defense attorney. and one of the most interesting parts of this case, sharon, is that faking your own death is not a crime. how could it not be a crime? it's not a crime? we can all do it? >> no. in and of itself, it's not a crime. but this guy, you know, committed the crime of being felony stupid. if you're going to play dead, you need to stay dead. instead, he surfaces in full light of day. they can charge him with a myriad of things depending on what he's done subsequent to his disappearance. they possibly could charge him with obstruction of justice, if his wife was complicit in his disappearance and filed a claim for insurance for his death, that's insurance fraud. if she filed a police report that he was dead, that's

falsifying of police record. if he had a judgment against him or he owed, say, child support for other children and wasn't paying it because he was dead, that's a fraud against creditors. he avoids paying income taxes. jenna: so there's potentially a lawppedly list here as you point out, sharon, and, jennifer, we don't really kno some of the specifics about his fake death and who that about it and what he's been doing, by the way, for the last year or so. plus those fraud charges that he has as well. what's next for this guy? >> it's -- >> well, jenna, it depends -- jenna: let me go ahead and get jennifer. go ahead, jennifer. >> okay. i mean, this is an example of police work at its very best. and, you know, i think they clearly got him. he has a letter where he confessed to all the crimes he committed in terms of the bank fraud and defrauding investors and all of that, so i think he's facing a long jail term, and he's going to be fined and have

to repay some of these monies that he stole from people. the question will be where is his money, and does he still have it. and i think that's going to be the harder job for the police, to track that money down whether he hid it in offshore accounts or someone else is holding it for him or what. that we don't know. and i think that's what the investors and the people that have been defrauded, that's what they're going to want to know. clearly, he is facing jail. i don't think there's a question about that. jenna: sharon, let me ask you about the fact that the judge declared him dead. does that present any sort of complication? i get it that he's not dead, obviously. [laughter] when a judge says you're dead, is that automatically reversed when they found you here some proceeding you have to go through to say he's very much alive? >> no. i suspect that the judge proclaimed him dead perhaps for a civil proceeding. there wouldn't be a reason for him to do that in a criminal context.

but if the guy's not dead, he ain't dead, and he's available to be prosecuted, and he will. the issue when talking about the money, they did freeze his bank accounts at the time that he disappeared, so i don't know how much money they were able to seize. hopefully, there was the bulk of it still available in, you know, in his bank. but that remains to be seen. jenna: well, he had enough money to tint his windows -- [laughter] >> he did, he did. and sailed to china. but he didn't do it. jenna: very interesting. sharon, jennifer, a case we'll continue to watch for all the reasons that we just mentioned. thank you very much. >> thank you. >> thank you. jon: if you're going to play dead, you have to stay dead. jenna: that was the line of the day. jamb jon i'm going to remember that one. just ahead, a look at what 2014 will bring when it comes to gas prices and how much it will cost to heat your home. speaking of heat, not a lot of it out there as millions are getting hit by a powerful winter storm with blizzard warnings and

dangerously cold temperatures. we have team fox coverage for you next. ♪ ♪

jon: a fox news alert, millions of americans now in the cross hairs of a powerful winter storm set to hit a huge section of the country. watches and blizzard warnings in

some areas on top of an arctic blast that will produce some of the coldest temperatures we've seen this years. whiteout conditions expected in some spots closing roads, making driving treacherous on the first workday of 2014 for millions of people. flight delays piling up by the hour at midwest and northeast airports. we have team fox coverage. william la jeunesse is at lax for us. first, though, let's go to meteorologist janice dean live in the fox be extreme weather center. >> reporter: did your kids have a snow day yet, jon scott? jon: not yet, but in some of the districts around here go back to school today, and they cancel it. >> reporter: yes, that's going to happen, especially up towards new england where they're going to get quite a dumping of snow, and with the winds, blizzard conditions are imminent especially for long island and cape cod. let's take a look at it. we've got two sources of energy that are going to come together and give us our first official nor'easter of 2014. so right now the snow you see is not the main powerhouse system.

it's coming together, it's going to come together. the worst of conditions overnight tonight and into tomorrow. so there's the snow as we look ahead through time. around 9 p.m. tonight, we're looking at all snow for d.c. up towards new york and boston, and the temperatures are going to drop significantly. some of the coldest air we have felt in years. as you can see, 18 in new york. in the drive in tomorrow, it's going to be treacherous if not impossible to travel, so make your plans now i and definitely call ahead to all of the airports. we're going to see delays and cancellations not only through today, tonight and into tomorrow. as we head out further this time, friday the storm exits, but we're still going to see some blustery conditions. winter weather advisories up towards the northeast and new england. the pink areas here are winter storm warnings, and those wind gusts in excess of 50 miles per hour. we could actually see the long island expressway close down this evening, jon scott, something that doesn't typically happen here in new york.

back to you. jon: you've got to stay warm and take care of that voice of yours, young lady. >> reporter: you know, my office looks like a drugstore right now. i think i'm going to have to keep the lozenges going. jon: poor janice. what an awful time to be dealing with a cold. >> reporter: it sounds worse than it is, but you're so sweet, dr. scott. [laughter] jon: we'll run some tea by there, hot tea with honey and lemon, okay? >> reporter: thank you. jenna: she's experiencing the winter fully, it's her dedication to the job. jon: that's exactly right. she is dedicated, yes. jenna: well, this storm is coming at a really tough time for millions of people heading home after the holidays, at least 1600 flights canceled and hundreds more delayed. as j.d. just said, we have to pay attention to what's ahead. william la jeunesse is streaming live out of los angeles international airport. it looks like picture perfect behind you. in in los angeles. >> reporter: i'm not going to brag. yeah, i'm not going to brag, you know? the weather is, however, not just affecting the midwest and the northeast, but the ripple

effect now stretches across the united states. more than a dozen flights here already canceled, but we're looking at 1500 nationwide and 3,000 have been delayed, and that number is going up every hour. why? because so many big airports are affected. chicago's o'hare, jfk and laguardia in new york, newark and low began in boss done all get -- boston all getting hammered. chicago alone 300 flights canceled. in cleveland, 34% of the flights grounded. newark, 28. why? well, deicing, of course, takes lot of time and resources, and airlines can't get to every airplane. 30 mile-an-hour winds, blowing snow means poor visibility. and then when you get 1-2 inches of snow, the plows can't keep up without creating a property lneck or -- bottleneck or more delays on the runway. the weather here in l.a. is perfect for yesterday's rose bowl between michigan state and stanford. that means you've got 20, 30,000

michigan state fans headed back to detroit and east lansing, some of those flights have to go through chicago. and while spartan fans are not excited to go back to the snow, they say it is easier having won the game. >> we're going home to about 5 or 6 inches of snow. >> reporter: how do you feel about that? >> we don't care. we won the rose bowl. we are elated. >> snow, cold. i'm looking forward to the winter being over. >> reporter: so this snow front is moving west to east. logan airport in boston is going to be closed tonight at 8:30 p.m. through probably tomorrow morning. many airlines already, jenna, are canceling flights for tonight and tomorrow proactively. so the bottom line, if you're going anywhere in the next 24 hours, call or contact the airline, because you don't really know where your flight might be coming from or through what cities, so there could be delays well into tomorrow. back to you. jenna: a good reminder. at least if you're stuck in

l.a., the weather is nice. if you're stuck. we don't wish that for anybody, but it is beautiful. >> reporter: yes, you're right. jenna: william, thank you. jon: the united states starts off the new year on the right foot when it comes to energy. reportedly, we are flush with oil right now. that's very good news for drivers. you can see the price of gasoline dropping since last january. today the national average for a gallon of regular, $3.32. and as janis misdean just told us, very, very cold weather blanketing much of the country putting home heating costs front and center as a pocketbook issue. so will these frigid temps lead to a spike in natural gas prices? let's ask scott martin, chief market strategist for united advisers. when you get a cold front this severe and this widespread, can we expect it to increase the prices of our natural gas, scott? >> jon, it already has. and you talked about the numbers. 100 million people, my friend,

directly impacted either by the blizzard or subzero cold starting at the end of the week, and that does not even include our friends in the south who we know be, hey, if it gets in the 50s or 40s, they flick on their heat as well. half of us, by the way, in the united states relying on natural gas to heat our homes. that'll keep prices going up. jon: all right. what about home heating oil? in the northeast where this storm is headed, home heating oil is a big provider of the stuff that keeps you warm. >> home heating oil has been up but not quite as excitable as natural gas. we have had more of a focus on natural gas here in the u.s. in the last several months. that's seen out in the prices. but you're seeing, like you said, gasoline down but home heating oil has been up, natural gas has been up, so a lot of the energy sources that we all use are feeling some upward pressure. jon: how much of this is driven by speculators and traders who are betting on the price going one way or the other? >> well, that seems to be the common knowledge, is that it's the traders' fault, right?

that the prices spike. consequently, they go both ways. there's a lot of times prices fall as a result of speculative trading. but i would like to say this, the reason prices are going up is because we're using more energy than we ever have, so i think it's actually justified. we've had these issues before with natural gas. many years ago there were worries about spikes going up to $14. we're not seeing them there yet, but they're gradually rising. jon: it has been nice to see the price of gasoline, though, coming down just a bit. >> it's been great. and i think that will continue to happen. i think we've seen at least recently, in several years, the pain at the pump kind of be at least at the top of where it's been, and i think we'll start to see in the new year here especially as the blends change, don't forget in spring and summer that tends to drive up price, but gas prices at the pump look pretty good. jon: it's nice to be talking about spring and summer right now as we anticipate this huge

blizzard that's going to hit the northeast. scott martin, thank you. >> see ya. jenna: well, the middle class getting squeezed. how incomes for middle wage we werers have really gone nowhere in the past 25 years. a "wall street journal" veteran shares his insights and his coverage over the last two decades. also, a powerful explosion ripping through a middle east capital today. who may have been targeted and why, next.

♪ ♪ jon: a fox news alert now on a developing story in lebanon where emergency vehicles are rushing to the scene of an apparent car bombing in beirut. officials say at least five people are dead, 20 more injured after the blast ripped through a suburb at the height of rush hour leaving mangled wreckage in the streets and sending a column of black smoke high above the city skyline. this just the latest violence as

syria's civil war spreads across the border into lebanon targeting both sunni and shiite areas. jenna: a longtime "wall street journal" reporter sharing his thoughts on the economy over the past quarter century, and what he sees doesn't appear to bode well for the middle class. david russell says one of the most surprising conclusions of his 20 years plus reporting on the economy for the journal is that the middle class hasn't done better, and he points to this interesting nugget about middle class men specifically finding that adjusted for inflation, they make less than they did in the late 1980s. he says women with better education are landing better paying jobs, their median earnings went up when you compare where they were and where they are now, and that isn't the case as you can see for men. david joins us now, he's now a contributing correspondent for "the wall street journal", he has a new profession, the director of the hutchens center on fiscal and monetary policy at the brookings institution, so a new role for the new year.

you back on the program. >> thank you. it's good to be with you. jenna: it was a very interesting article called surprises from 25 years covering the economy. why were you surprised about what you found about the middle class in america? >> well, in the late '90s my colleague, bob davis, and i wrote a book about the american middle class, and we predicted that america was on the cusp of a era or broadly-shared prosperity. we thought that the combination of globalization, the power of information technology would boost the economy, and i think we were right about that, but we didn't expect the gap between winners and losers in the economy to widen as much as it has. and that really has surprised me. for a variety of reasons, the growth that we have had has gone disproportionately to people at the top, and people at the middle have not enjoyed that much of it. jenna: so does that challenge the theory of trickle down economics? >> yes, it certainly does. it's not trickling down. we've seen now year after year

much too much for it to be a fluke that something in our economy has changed and that the benefits of increased productivity are not being widely shared. that's why almost every measure of inequality has widened since about the end of the 1970s. jenna: and what would be, you said there's several factors for why that hasn't happened. what would be one? >> well, one is that the labor market has continued to favor people who have a lot of education and skills. bob and i thought that the market would respond and there'd be enough more educated people to narrow that gap, but the wages for having gone to college are significant hi higher than just having -- significantly higher than just having finished high school. so that's one factor. a second factor is that we have some what some economists call a winner take all economy. if you're at the top of your profession be whether it's a journalist or a lawyer, a rock star, baseball player, your earnings are going way, way, way above just the ordinary person in your profession.

and that has also contributed to this widening p gap. it's partly a change in the economy, globalization means there's a global market for talent, but it's also kind of a change in our social manies. we're -- mores. we're willing to tolerate ceos and rock stars that make far more money than we did in the 960s. jenna: let's talk about income inequality, we've also heard from the less progressive side, more conservatives, that big government isn't the way to go, and that's why i want to ask you this question about how do we change that. is it a policy issue that needs to somehow change for the economy, for the middle class to do better? or is it an economic issue that has less to do with the involvement of government? >> i think we need both different policy and a stronger economy. we know that the middle class will do better if the economy is growing faster. we know that workers' wages are more likely to rise when there

are not so many unemployed workers out there. we have 7% unemployment now. now, that's a lot better than the worst point of the recession, but this most of my career -- in most of my career 7% was a recession, not a recovery, and we've been recovering for four years now. so having a stronger economy is essential, and conservatives and liberals disagree on the way to do that. but i don't think that the market alone will reduce inequality. i think that the question is what's the best way for the government to use its formidable muscle the kind of spread the prosperity, to make sure that people at the bottom have a chance to get on the escalator of upward mobility and to have, to some extent, to have some redistribution to offset these market forces that have widened the gap between rich and poor. jenna: loaded words, income redistribution, income inequality and big questions for the year ahead. your title for the article in "the wall street journal" today, hopeful signs for the u.s. economy in 2014. we didn't get to it, david, but we hope to have you back to talk

about these issues. thank you for the time today. >> you're welcome. jon: there is a new industry open for business in colorado, recreational marijuana now on sale legally. so who's buying? we're live in deck very, next.

jon: right now, the country's first legal recreational marijuana shops are open for business. it's happening in colorado. sales, we're told, are off to a smoking start. adam shapiro is live in denver. so who's buying, adam? >> reporter: jon: well, we are going to have to get back to adam when we get his -- there we go. adam, do we have your microphone fixed? we weren't hearing from you a minute ago. all right, we're working on some

audio problems. my home state of colorado the first one in the country to legalize the recreational sale of pot. obviously, a lot of smiling faces there. a lot of people don't think it's such a good idea. a lot of the neighboring states not so happy that they're going to be policing the roads and so forth from people who drive into colorado to buy their pot legally. jenna: that's what i thought was so interesting about this part of the story, and hopefully we'll get back to adam. there were so many folks driving into the state to be there for the moment where it became legal to buy. and that the prices were not very competitive, they were really quite high. but they were coming anyways. jon: well, i guess competition is a good thing, but we'll see, that's -- jenna: it's a big weal see. underscore, bold. right? jon: a lot of people in colorado not too happy about all of this, but the voters did approve it in a referendum. we'll get back to adam another time. jenna: killer whales quite the sight anytime, but wait until you hear where these guys were

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call now to request your free decision guide. and learn more about the kinds of plans that will be here for you now -- and down the road. i have a lifetime of experience. so i know how important that is. it is a very rare sight to see this. a whale- watching crew spotting a pack of orca's and seeing the killer whales in their natural habitat they have a new year's tradition and it might make sense that they spent the first day of the year off of the southern california coast. >> where it is warm. >> they have done that three years and you don't so it all of the time. if you were on the cruise you got i great sight.

>> i went whale watching and got skunked but it is great fun. >> maybe next time. >> next time. >> thank you for joining us today. america's news headquarters starts right now. thanks, guys, we have a major fox news alert on a major winter storm barrel nothing the northeast and putting tens of thousands of people in its hair. >> and 2014 first big snow storm, packing plenty of the white stuff and heavy winds and brutal sub0 temperature and some folks like the people in new york city and boston, they haven't felt the full force of all of this as it wines its way cross the country. and gena has it. >> i am doing a