. . tonight on "nightline," unhappy meals. mcdonald's signature kids meal and the toys inside are on the firing line both with mclawsuits and mcbans across the country. but does the happy meal deserve all the anger? we'll take a look inside. gas prices hit the highest january level ever. how high will they go from here? speculation is off the charts. we look at why. and tales from the freezer as east coast temperatures fall lower and lower, we meet some people who work in subzero misery.

good evening. i'm bill weir. it is a little amusement really, a piece of colorful plastic that mcdonald's tucked inside its kiddie meals for decades. might seem like a bit of harmless fun except some parents and concerned others are saying those little plastic toys pose a real risk luring kids into unhealthy eating. the restaurant begs to differ and some may feel a lawsuit to remove toys from happy meals is, well, either un-american or all too american. here's yunji de nies with our report. ♪ the happy meal is coming >> reporter: for three decades kids have had a meal they can call their own at mcdonald's, the happy meal. >> yay! >> reporter: what makes it, oh, so happy is what comes with those chicken mcnuggets and french fries, a prize, a gift from ronald mcdonald himself. ♪ here i am >> reporter: the toy has transformed with the times, an

avalanche of colorful characters from every corner of childhood. mcdonald's puts a lot of time and money into those pieces of plastic, everything from graphic artists to safety tests. they invest millions in marketing the trinkets and as a result, kids like 6-year-old mya parham find them irresistible. >> well, this one, it has a mirror. >> reporter: but mya's mom monet say those toys draw her kids to unhealthy food. >> commercials that say there's these toys that come with the happy meals, we have eight of them, so even for my 6-year-old the question is, well, can we go every week until we get them all? of course my answer is no and that's when the battle ensues. >> can you read that to me? >> reporter: so she's suing mcdonald's. her ultimatum to the golden arches, make the meals healthier or stop including the toy. you're a mom. isn't it your job to tell them

no? >> yes, absolutely and i do tell them no and this is where the challenge begins. i can tell them no all day long, they still see commercials that convince them that you've really got to have this. the characters are a part of this so as much influence as i might have advertising has a pretty hefty influence, as well. >> reporter: monet is the first mother to take this kind of drastic action but her efforts are part of a larger movement. city of san francisco recently passed a law requiring meals with toys to meet certain nutritional standards, prospectively banning happy meals and drawing the stinging sarcasm of the "daily show." >> what you're basically telling us is, guess what, mcdonald's food is [ bleep ]. >> yes. >> d. h. >> reporter: the center for science and the public interest, a see-called food police is backing monet parham's lawsuit. >> they dangle the little toys in front of little kids to get them to pester their parents to

take them to mcdonald's. it's a trick that works. >> reporter: they've done this before. five years ago they sued kellogg's or forced them to stop advertising suingry cereal. ♪ fruit flavors >> reporter: to kids during saturday morning cartoons. the case never got to court. instead they agreed to stop advertising to kids with any products with more than 200 calories per serving. csci says in both cases the problem isn't just the way the companies market their food, but the food it sells. >> the happy meals range from mediocre to junkie. they're oftentimes high in calories, high in fat. high in salt. you know, exactly what the surgeon general has said don't eat. >> reporter: american children are among the fattest in the world. one in three are considered overweight or obese. >> childhood obesity is a big problem and when you look at past issues such as people having to wear seat belts as a

matter of law, people having to wear bicycle helmets, motorcycle helmets and people being protected by the big tobacco companies this is right along with it. >> reporter: you're saying that the toy in the happy meal is equivalent to a cigarette. >> i have to say that. it's an enticement that comes with it. >> reporter: mcdonald's says the lawsuit may make for good headlines but not common sense. >> taking away the toy, we all know will not have any impact on children's well-being or certainly childhood obesity. >> reporter: opponents say that mcdonald's is incentivizing unhealthy choices. why not get ahead of it and pair it with a salad. >> i disagree with the premise. there is nothing wrong with the toy. absolutely nothing wrong with the food and i don't think there's anything wrong with pairing it with the meals. our happy meals are healthy. the calorie range from 380 calories up to around 700

calories. >> reporter: the idea that 700 calories is a healthy meal is debatable. >> if you go to the usda and look at the food pyramid they will tell you what a child needs changes based on whether that child is sedentary or very active. so the range of options gives the parent the choice, so it's not mcdonald's' place to tell a parent here's what you can serve to your child. >> reporter: this mom says those choices aren't enough. >> she wants more choices. >> reporter: she wants more choices. she wants salads. grilled items. >> she might want to come into our restaurants more often. salads and grilled chicken. >> reporter: not with a toy, though. >> certainly if you want the grilled sandwich you can get that at mcdonald's mc. if you want the apples or a salad, you can get that at mcdonald's. if you want the toy you can certainly get that at mcdonald's, those choices are there. now, that's not to say we're satisfied with where we are and we're not looking to continue to

evolve our offerings, we are. >> reporter: bill witman points out customers can buy the toys without the food and to many customers -- >> did you get a toy? >> reporter: the toy defines the meal. >> oh. >> reporter: would the happy meal be happy without a toy? >> no, it's part of the whole -- i mean why don't we just take away toys in general and make kids wear business suits to school. >> reporter: would you still like the happy meal if there were no toys in it? >> no. >> reporter: that firm response from this 4-year-old is no accident. >> our children are the most marketed children to in the world for sure easily. american children according to many estimates will see 20,000 to 30,000 commercials a year. >> reporter: preferrer daniel cook studies the effect of advertising on kids and points out that little piece of plastic can be pretty powerful.

>> the toy is so powerful and strong because it's sort of an emblem or an icon for a child. what the toy also does is it keeps the meal current. it's the same fries and the same coke, but what happens with the toy is that it keeps the children coming back and in that way, the sense of wanting to keep up with something new is part of the insistence. >> reporter: and it's that cycle that monet parham is out to stop. will you get any money out of this lawsuit? >> absolutely not. i don't want any. i really just want healthy options available for the kids. >> reporter: the question is, can there be a happy meal that makes everyone happy? i'm yunji de nies for "nightline" in sacramento. >> thanks to yunji for that. when we come back, the price at the pump and if it's in the news, the news is probably not good. we look at january's record gas prices. at purina one, we want your cat to be as healthy as possible.

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beating the competition ! try finish quantum for amazing clean and shine. satisfaction guaranteed or your money back. well, the current spike in gas prices came into focus over the holidays when the national average price per gallon topped 3 bucks on christmas for the first time. and things have gotten no cheaper since. if it brings back bad memories of 2008 when national gas averages topped $4, that may be for good reason because there are signs that as a nation of drivers some of our old consumer habits die hard and here's vicki mabrey with our report.

>> reporter: across the country gas prices are hitting record highs for the season. >> they're going up. you know, it's going up. >> seems to go up every day. >> reporter: how much are prices up? we take a measure of the pain with a look at postcards from the pump. a snapshot of rising prices from around the country. in austin, texas and phoenix we still found prices under $3 if only by a technicality. >> i feel like i'm driving quickly. just got gas a couple days ago and wasn't as expensive as this. >> reporter: in nebraska, it's $3.08 a gallon. >> i drive a huge gas guzzling truck but i only drive it maybe, i don't know, once a week maybe. >> reporter: the increases creep up on you. a penny or two at a clip. but the end result is an eye catcher. today the average price rose another cent to 3.11, a new record for january by a fraction. but prices in california are already well past the average. in l.a., gas has hit $3.85.

>> this year is going to be the second highest year on record for what you're going to pay to fuel up your car. >> reporter: tom cloza, an oil industry analyst says we haven't hit our peak for the year. >> i think we're probably looking at an average price between 3.25 and 3.75, around 3.50 so wasn't be as bad as in 2008 when we went above $4 throughout the country but still it's a significant price increase for people that live paycheck to paycheck in particular. >> reporter: and he says it's not even entirely our fault. it's not because we've slowly started driving more since the $4 a gallon scare two years ago. >> we're actually not driving more. as a matter of fact, right now on a week like this in the wintertime we'll be driving and using about 40 million gallons per day less than what we'll use in the summertime and the u.s. demand for gasoline probably peaked in 2005 or 2006. the problem is the rest of the world's appetite for oil is

increasing and the economies are getting better and as economies grow, they need more oil. mostly diesel but also gasoline and so we're basically having to pay for the rest of the world moving into the middle class. >> reporter: still, attention spans are short and in 2008 when prices shot up to $4 a gallon we promised to do better. we were going to get out of the gas guzzlers and into sensible fuel efficient cars. >> we hit july of 2008 and we hit national averages over $4 a gallon, so those were very un-teddy time, motorists decided to curb their driving. >> reporter: tracy noble of mid-atlantic aaa says when prices dropped we fell back into old habits. >> we've cut back a little bit but we could do more. i mean if you watched any tv over the holidays particularly football games, you saw ad after ad for big truck and suvs so there's some more we can do, but the people will probably say, look, we've made a sacrifice.

we've downsized a little bit and we're still going to be facing the second highest prices on record. >> reporter: so how high will prices go? in san diego we found a station selling gas for 4.19 a gallon. >> i mean you still see people gassing up for some reason. >> reporter: speculation has been off the charts. >> prices at the pump could reach $4 a gallon by memorial day. >> gas prices is expected to hit $5 a gallon. >> reporter: the former head of shell oil sees $5 a gallon in our future. >> $4 in 2011 is probably a good number. $5 as we get close to the election in 2012 is probably also a good number. >> reporter: that's higher than anything we've ever seen before. >> i disagree with him. i think that we'll top out around 3.50, 3.75. maybe $4 in some of the really sort of wealthy communities in the country or offshore in hawaii, but, no, i don't think we'll reach it this year or next

year because next year is an election year and i don't think anyone wants to run with the backdrop of $5 gasoline in the background. >> reporter: but there is a slyke logical point where we start paying attention and we're there now. >> once prices get over that $3 a gallon mark people start paying attention. because last year when it cost you $44 to fill up a 15-gallon tank now it's almost costing $00 to fill up that 50-gallon tank and you're noticing i just spent $50, that's extra money. >> reporter: right now the lowest prices in the nation are in salt lake city, utah still at $2.72 a gallon but even in gainesville, florida, where it's under they're bracing themselves. >> i get a little concerned about the gas price because three days a week i'm a teacher and travel from school to school and when the price goes up i have to watch on the other end of spending. >> reporter: about if you're feeling nostalgia for that brief moment in 2009 when prices

dropped to around the $2 range, tom says be careful what you wish for. >> if we had an economic demise or another deep recession we could go back to $2 but i don't think that's a memory you want to look back at with nostalgia because that's a memory of massive playoffs and unemployment and like it or not gasoline is a referendum on where the economy is going. >> reporter: so the economy is roofing. we can see it at the pump. this is vicki mabrey for "nightline" along the new jersey turnpike. >> thanks to vicki for that. if you live in the northeast it's a good bet you're watching this from beneath more than one quilt. we go out in the cold so you don't have to. ññññññññññññññññññññññññññññññññ [ coughing ] [ male announcer ] got a cold? [ sniffles ] [ male announcer ] not sure what to take?

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for recipes and valuable coupons, go to frenchs.com to add a little happy to almost any meal. french's. happy starts here. well, in the american northeast today it was an absolutely gorgeous afternoon if you're an otter or one of those freaky things that luke skywalker cut open for warmth. for everything else on two legs it is miserable. cold enough to make you cry and make the tears freeze and there is a new storm on the way apparently to make everyone appreciate your cozy night linsey davis goes outside with people who have no choice but to do the same. >> reporter: the word cold doesn't begin to describe the weather in much of the midwest and northeast today. >> i got about six:30 shirts and three pants. >> reporter: this is cold. this is something else entirely.

this arctic blast was so extreme, two people literally froze to death. in upstate new york it stopped amtrak in its tracks and stopped this car in new york city, cold. >> there's about a foot of ice in and around the front tire and back right tire. >> reporter: this crossing guard in vermont did a good job of obeying the sign she carried. she appeared to just stand there. frozen. we've all heard of a snow day but a cold day. the frigid temperaturewith minus 40 windchills even closed schools. but everyone doesn't get a cold day. especially not a mail carrier. so do you think they should add neither snow nor sleet nor rain schnurr cold should keep the couriers from the completion of their appointments? >> well, yeah, between this year -- it's been a tough year so i think, yeah, everything should be added. >> reporter: just imagine walking in james' shoes, ten

miles in them, trudging through negative 4 degree weather during the morning part of his route. >> in the 24 1/2 years, i think we've dealt with storms before, but i think this has got to be one of the toughest winters. >> reporter: so what do you do to keep warm? >> to keep warm, you have to dress in layers, and you have to bring dry clothes with you. >> reporter: and it certainly helps to have some warm-hearted customers. >> look, see one of my customers they gave me hand warmers. >> nice, they just put that in the mailbox. >> just put that in the mailbox for me. >> reporter: told on the coldest day in boston in six years. >> just be careful here on the ice. >> reporter: james had to work a double. truly dangerous in this kind of weather. >> one of the patients we saw was outside walking for an extended period of time. didn't realize that his feet had frozen. >> reporter: frostbite can begin to set in on exposed skin within minutes especially when wet. >> with frostnip, skin becomes

pale, white and starts to experience pins and needle. frostbite is the progression of the injury, skin becomes completely numb so loss of feeling and it's white and waxy and that's a very dangerous condition. >> reporter: between zero and 19 below zero you could start to feel the effects in five minutes. and between 20 below and 69 below in just one minute. imagine spending the entire winter like timothy ralph in this tent. you've been living out here -- the whole winter? >> so far. >> reporter: haven't gone inside one time? >> no. i put a bunch of the disaster blankets down so it don't seep -- the snow don't seep up through the bottom of the tent then i throw two sleeping bags down and then i throw some more disaster blankets down and i just cuddle up in it and that's pretty much it -- in the morning when i wake up and start my day over again. >> reporter: but ultimately as

the temperatures started to bottom out, this arctic blast was enough to send even timothy, the heartiest of outdoorsmen packing. for "nightline" i'm linsey davis in boston. >> only 54 days till spring i understand. hang in there, everybody. thanks to linsey davis for braving the frost nip. when we come back tomorrow's state of the union is the subject of tonight's "closing argument" but first here's jimmy kimmel with what's coming up next. jimmy. >> jimmy: tonight, cory monteith from "glee." joan rivers is here and music from the script and who is oprah's secret half sister? "jimmy kimmel live" is next. this is a strawberry pop-tart.

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