morning america." have a great day. making news in america this morning, the deep freeze spreading east. the death toll rising. temperatures in major cities nearly 30 below zero. mail service canceled again. this morning, why millions of people are being told to turn down the heat in their homes. funeral services for the young police officer allegedly shot and killed during a game of russian roulette with her fellow officer. did her police department obstruct the investigation? we hear from the officer's mother. new developments in the alleged attack on tv star jussie smollett. what police are now saying about these surveillance images and the actor's manager explains what he heard over the phone that night. plus, the lawsuit over chocolate and how it's packaged. is the label deceiving you?

also, the new fallout over this image seen on a tv news station. tom brady labeled a known cheater. and later is america getting soft when it comes to the cold weather? one governor's controversial comments about school cancellations and the backlash. good thursday morning, everyone. we begin with a historic and deadly cold snap now gripping much of the country. >> yeah, people from the midwest to the northeast are waking up to brutally cold temperatures. right now the windchill is down to negative 41 degrees in fargo, north dakota, and 15 below here in new york city. at least eight deaths are blamed on the deep freeze. d to turn down their heat to conserve energy. and with the cold front on the move, other states are now bracing for several feet of snow. this morning, the frigid air whipping over the great lakes forming lake-effect snow in

western new york. members of the air force now standing by near syracuse to help remove the nearly four feet of snow that could fall. >> as the weather gets a little bit worse and worse here, we're trying to just stage and be ready in case anybody needs help with anything, so we're here assisting the state police. >> reporter: in the midwest hundreds of flights canceled. de-icing equipment overwhelmed. amtrak setting fire along the train tracks to keep trains moving. in chicago life at a standstill as temperatures register negative 23 degrees, the lowest there since 1994 causing sea fog to rise off lake michigan. natural gas customers in minnesota are being asked to turn down their thermostats to avoid overstraining the system and michigan's governor also making this plea to conserve energy. >> so i'm asking that you please tonight turn down your thermostat, 65 degrees or lower. >> reporter: snow squalls in pennsylvania causing multiple pileups on highways including this one outside redding.

>> motor vehicle accident injuries reported. anywhere between 20 and 40 vehicles involved. >> reporter: the snow blinding drivers and hiding cars. some taking it all in stride like this minnesota student who braved the frigid air in his, well, shorts. he wouldn't give his name because he said his mom would be upset. >> can i get a caramel sundae? >> reporter: and despite the cold, people in milwaukee just had to get their fix of the local delicacy, frozen custard. >> doesn't matter how cold it is and you can never get enough custard, especially in wisconsin. >> my fiancee is pregnant and she wants a half a pint of strawberry custard so i got that for her. >> got to get that custard. mail delivery is once again canceled in chicago as well as the entire state of michigan and sections of other states. we'll have the forecast in less than five minutes. more than 150 firefighters struggled in the bitter cold fighting a massive fire that destroyed a paper factory in new jersey. the fire spread to propane tanks near a highway. one driver said the temperature

gauge in his car jumped 50 degrees as he passed. flames could be seen from planes approaching nearby newark airport. the wind posed a major challenge for fire crews. >> it's freezing. the firefighters are dealing with water on their hands, on their face. the wind is whipping. they're probably 35-mile-an-hour wind gusts, and that just feeds a flame and feeds a fire and causes it to spread rapidly. >> it is rough out there. meanwhile, this is what a fire chief from northwestern wisconsin looked like after fighting a fire. that spray from the hoses quickly froze into ice pellets. >> yikes. president trump is now saying he's considering calling for a review of fbi policies following the predawn arrest of his longtime adviser roger stone. in response to an indictment from special counsel robert mueller, agents in tactical gear descended on stone's home last week. now, the president is questioning the use of force. meanwhile, as lawmakers scramble to avoid another government shutdown, he's now blaming a fellow republican for not

delivering on his border wall. abc's serena marshall has more. serena, good morning. >> reporter: janai, kenneth, good morning to you, and part of that negotiation that started yesterday, will it be border security? will it be a border wall still to be determined but the president making clear the border will be part of his state of the union coming up next week. these 17 lawmakers entrusted to come to a deal on border security or face another government shutdown, and they only have 15 days left. >> every dollar spent on an ineffective proposal means one less dollar invested in measures that actually can us safe. >> our border patrol tells us that they need physical barriers to help them do their job. not from coast to coast, but strategically placed where traffic is high. >> reporter: the president's demand for a southwest border wall the toughest obstacle making clear in a tweet, no wall, no deal, but in a new interview with "the daily

caller," he is now blaming paul ryan for reneging on a promise to give him that wall saying, i was going to veto the omnibus bill and paul told me in the strongest of language, please don't do that. we'll get you the wall, and then he went lame duck. but a senior gop aide tells abc news the house followed through, but it didn't have the votes in the senate leading to the current stalemate, and as the clock winds down, house members have left town, not returning until tuesday, the same day -- >> mr. speaker -- >> reporter: -- as the president's now delayed state of the union. previewing the speech to "the daily caller," he said part of it would be border related and his guests will include those who have suffered. also in attendance a democrat bringing an undocumented immigrant who was recently fired by trump national golf club and claims that management knew for years they had phony work authorizations but looked the other way. janai, kenneth. >> five days away to the big speech, serena, thank you. the chinese electronics firm that was supposed to bring thousands of blue collar jobs

back to the midwest has a new plan. instead of building a plant in wisconsin to make high-tech display screens, foxconn says it will build a technology hub staffed mostly by scientists and engineers. critics accuse foxconn of pulling a bait and switch after the state invested billions. foxconn said it's still committed to creating 13,000 jobs. the st. louis police officer shot and killed after allegedly playing a game similar to russian roulette has been laid to rest amid accusations her police department obstructed the investigation. the body of 24-year-old kaitlyn alix was carried in to a church by her fellow officers. the officer charged in her death nathaniel hendren is due in court today. according to charging documents hendren who was on duty at the time shot alix in the chest. police initially called it a tragic accident. her family has hired a lawyer to get to the bottom of what happened. >> she was the most generous person, kindest person. she loved her job even on her

days off she would go visit all her friends down there because i guess when you're a police officer, you're that close bond with everyone. >> the city prosecutor is raising concern about how police initially handled the case. she says the lack of a blood test on hendren appears to be an obstructionist tactic and says drugs or alcohol may have been a factor. >> time now for a look at your weather forecast for this thursday. good morning. well, we're looking at another day of dangerously cold weather, 15 to 35 degrees below the norm. exposed pipes may rupture throughout this part of the country. the ohio valley region, the northeast and the mid-atlantic region, check your battery in your car and tire pressure. we're looking for snow calls around the great lakes producing several feet of snow but for the northeast it stays very cold but the real feel of 30 below for us in chicago, detroit, up towards syracuse and 10 below in new york. i'm accuweather meteorologist paul williams.

coming up, the legal fight over chocolate. how some best-selling brands are being packaged. are you getting ripped off? >>er sinkhole in florida being linked to a possible bank heist. what the fbi has found. plus, more proof that robots are taking over the world. now they can play jenga. where teams compete to make the right decisions about safe food preparations. our challenge in this round -- read and follow package cooking instructions,

and use a food thermometer. let's see how our teams are doing so far -- team 1? we just got 100 points. we separated our raw food from our cooked food. team 2? we got a 100-point green card for proper hand washing before our meal prep. referee: we've reached a critical safety point in the challenge. okay, team 1, let's check this out. uh-oh, not a safe internal temperature for those hamburgers. that puts everyone at high risk for food-borne illness. you get a red card -- undercooked. always read and follow the package cooking instructions and use a food thermometer. let's see how our winning team cooked it safe and avoided problems. well, i just kept focus on the four food safety steps -- clean, separate, cook, and chill. and we followed the package cooking instructions and took the temperature. can you cook it safe?

why did the elephant seal cross the road? sheriff's deputies on california's central coast had their hands full trying to lure the wayward elephant seal back to the beach. somehow it crossed highway 1 and got stranded, but thanks to those deputies, that seal is back where it belongs. >> thought the grass was greener on the other side. senate majority leader mitch

mcconnell is slamming a bill that would make election day a federal holiday saying it would be a power grab by democrats. the bill also calls for federal workers to get days off to work at polling places. mcconnell compares it to paying a bunch of government employees to work for democratic candidates. police in south florida are trying to track down the person responsible for a secret tunnel that may have been part of a plot to rob a bank. officers found it while investigating what they thought was a sinkhole. they found a power cord and other evidence inside the tunnel which is more than 50 yards long and was heading toward a bank. the fbi calls it a sophisticated operation. >> these people were using pickaxes and a small little wagon. there was a winch back there to help pull -- it appears to pull the wagon. i would like to say i saw something like this in movies, however, this hole is so small it's unique. >> and that tunnel never breached the wall of that chase bank. two chocolatemakers have agreed to pay $750,000 in fines

over packaging that prosecutors claim was deceiving customers. california prosecutors say ghirardelli and russell stover claiming they sold products in containers that were oversized or mostly empty. prosecutors also claimed ghirardelli sold chocolate with less cocoa than advertised. neither company acknowledged wrongdoing but they've agreed to change their packaging. >> don't mess with my chocolate. there is a new scientific achievement that could soon affect the american workplace. researchers at mit have developed a robot that taught itself to play jenga. they equipped a robotic arm with a force sensor in its wrist so it can sense when to push or pull blocks and could be a key step in designing robots for factories. >> jenga, how cool. coming up, a vacation nightmare. a woman attacked by a hippo describes the moment she was nearly killed, she says. >> that turned serious quigley. first the alleged attack on

"empire" actor jussie smollett. the surveillance images released. then we hear from the twin brothers playing together in the super bowl. then we hear from the twin brothers playing together in the super bowl. ous infection. in a key study neulasta reduced the risk of infection from 17% to 1%, a 94% decrease. neulasta onpro is designed to deliver neulasta the day after chemo and is used by most patients today. neulasta is for certain cancer patients receiving strong chemotherapy. do not take neulasta if you're allergic to it or neupogen (filgrastim). an incomplete dose could increase infection risk. ruptured spleen, sometimes fatal as well as serious lung problems, allergic reactions, kidney injuries and capillary leak syndrome have occurred. report abdominal or shoulder tip pain, trouble breathing or allergic reactions to your doctor right away. in patients with sickle cell disorders, serious, sometimes fatal crises can occur. the most common side effect is bone and muscle ache.

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slow-strained down to 2 grams of sugar. because sometimes you just gotta do good by you. we're back with more video from the deep freeze in minnesota. one man threw a cup of boiling water you see there into the air and it froze and blew away. the low temperature in the twin cities this morning is expected to be 29 below zero. that's temperature, not windchill. >> my goodness. we turn now to the alleged attack against actor jussie smollett from the tv show "empire." he was brutally attacked in chicago. >> police say they may have a key break in the case. detectives say they found surveillance video showing two potential persons of interest. this morning, chicago police are focusing in on these grainy images showing potential persons of interest in the alleged attack on actor jussie smollett. the 36-year-old told police he was walking down a street early tuesday when someone yelled racial and homophobic slurs at him.

he says two men attacked pouring a chemical substance on him, possibly bleach, and wrapped a rope around his neck. smollett says they yelled maga country before running off. police have tracked the actor's movements confirming that video shows smollett walking across the street from those figures. investigators say he walks out of frame for a minute then reappears on another camera wearing a, quote, rope like a necktie. police say the video does not show the alleged assault. this morning an outpouring of support from smollett's co-stars on the hit show "empire." >> he's angry, but i know jussie. jussie's anger will dissipate and he will forgive these people for what they did and -- but he won't -- and we cannot forget their actions. >> smollett's manager brandon moore says he was on the phone with him at the time of the alleged attack. moore telling "variety," i heard that clearly. i heard the scuffle, and i heard the racial slur. our chicago station reports

investigators were unable to verify that claim because smollett declined to turn over his phone. police also say the surveillance video shows the actor had road salt on his sweatshirt. detectives are looking into a letter sent to smollett at his studio in chicago last week. they say the letter contained threatening language and was laced with a powdery substance, likely tylenol. and chicago police are asking for the public's help to find those two people seen in the surveillance images. a woman who was attacked by a hippo during her vacation in africa is speaking publicly for the first time. kristen yaldor says she and her husband were cruising down a river with their guide when the hippo upended their canoe and within seconds the animal had closed its jaws around her leg. >> and immediately i was grabbed and pulled underneath the water. didn't have a chance to scream. it was just so quick and so forceful that i got pulled under and was started to be thrashed around back and forth beneath the water. >> terrifying. she says she spent two weeks in the hospital in south africa followed by a 30-hour medical

flight before getting home to tampa. more of our exclusive interview is coming up this morning on "good morning america." security preparations are ramping up for sunday's super bowl in atlanta. beginning today, authorities are restricting drone flights for one mile around the stadium. authorities including 600 officers from homeland security are using everything from bomb-sniffing dogs to more than 10,000 cameras to keep everyone safe. two players on the patriots will make history on sunday, devin mccourty and his brother jason are the first set of twins to play in a super bowl. it's not easy to tell them apart and jason says that's been beneficial at times during their careers. >> probably our best twin story was just his draft story, i think. >> oh, yeah. >> it was right around the time he thought he might get drafted and he ends up going to the bathroom and his phone rings and i panicked so i just answered it. and i'm talking to mr. kraft and was like, devin, we're going to draft you, and i'm like,

i'm so excited. thank you for this opportunity. >> i'm sure the family is proud. they're the first twin nfl teammates since 1926. >> wow. well, up next in "the pulse," the man who called tom brady a cheater and lost his job for it. but first are americans becoming wimps when it comes to dealing with the cold weather? hear what one politician said and the backlash this morning. plus, ariana grande gets a tattoo in japanese, but did she really know its meaning? ♪ ozempic®! ♪ oh! (announcer) people with type 2 diabetes are excited about the potential of once-weekly ozempic®. in a study with ozempic®, a majority of adults lowered their blood sugar and reached an a1c of less than seven and maintained it. oh! under seven? and you may lose weight. in the same one-year study, adults lost on average up to 12 pounds. oh! up to 12 pounds? a two-year study showed that ozempic® does not increase the risk of major cardiovascular events like heart attack, stroke, or death. oh! no increased risk? ♪ oh, oh, oh, ozempic®! ♪ ozempic® should not be the first medicine for treating diabetes,

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there's no snow or ice. >> i mean, what happens to america? we're getting soft. we're getting soft, and i'm being only slightly facetious, but it does concern me a little bit that in america on this and any number of other fronts we're sending messages to our young people that if life is hard, you can curl up in the fetal position somewhere in a warm place and just wait till it stops being hard and that just isn't reality. it just isn't. >> school districts consider the safety of children who wait at bus stops. schools in louisville will be closed again today. it'll be 6 degrees there this morning. singer ariana grande's attempt to celebrate her new single didn't quite go as planned. >> the singer got a tattoo in the palm of her hand that was meant to spell out the name of her song "seven rings" in japanese symbols, but fans were quick to point out a glaring error. it means barbecue grill. >> grande joked she is a big fan of barbecue grills. she just posted on instagram

that she's gotten that tattoo fixed. good for her. >> all right. there's some serious fallout over what a tv news producer in pittsburgh says was a joke. this week he created what he called a banner which referred to patriots quarterback tom brady as a known cheater. >> that banner got producer michael telek fired. telek says he just bought a house and that his firing is putting a pinch on things as you can imagine. next to the visions of food running through our heads. a new study claims that americans spend an average of 240 hours each year thinking about food. that's ten days every year. >> according to the survey around 2:40 in the morning or in the afternoon actually -- okay, try it again. around 2:40 in the afternoon is when our clavings hit the hardest because i'm hungry right now. yes, depending on your mood we crave chocolate the most. cheese and bacon are high on the list as well.

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good morning bay area. let's get up and get going. this is abc 7 mornings. hi, good morning. it's thursday, january 31st. thanks for joining us. alexis, welcome back. >> thank you. it's 4:27 and it's raining outside. be prepared for that. let's look at live doppler 7. you can see from about highway 4 right near the benicia bridge and car keen there's -- merced, you can see the lull shifting down to the south. with that counter clockwise flow, it's hurling moisture towards us. you can see at 5:00 this morning to 9:00 we'll have our best chance of showers as the storm system slides to the south.

as we head to the lunch-hour, we'll see a break in the clouds and sun come out into the afternoon hours. we'll look at the temperatures in the accuweather 12-hour planner. let's check out the commute with alexis. >> we have an issue on the san mateo bridge. you can see it on camera. westbound 92 just beyond the toll plaza. we've got a solo vehicle collision. someone lost control and hit the barrier on the right side. lane number 3 on the right is blocked. sounds like everyone is okay. emergency crews are working on clearing that right now. very light delay as you approach that with light volumes before 4:30 this morning. as mike mentioned, the southern half of our viewing area is getting the most rain right now. that being said, let's look closer at conditions and check in with reporter matt keller driving along highway 17. hi, matt. >> reporter: hi alexis. we're on highway 17 right now. let me show you the current conditions. you can see it's coming down pretty good in the south bay. we've been seeing a lot rain all

morning long. obviously, a lot of people on the roads are having to deal with this. this morning. that rain is rile coming down. check out this video from the santa cruz mountains. it was coming down pretty in scotts valley. the rain is making it treacherous on the highway 17 drivers. i want to take it extra slow up there. expected to be a rough commute there. san jose, big downpours overnight as well. you'll have a lot of spots of localized flooding. i saw puddling out there. the rain has been consistent now for a while. the good news, being this is all happening overnight when most people are sleeping. but, of course, as the chute picks up, you can expect problems on the roads and that's where we'll be. we'll be updating you on the conditions all morning long. as you can see that rain picking up right now. reporting live here in los gatos, matt keller, abc 7 news. >> thank you, matt. you can track the rain and check weather conditions where you live by using our abc 7 news app. enable push alerts to get the

latest news as it happens. happening now, brutally cold and below zero windchills are paralyzing major midwest cities. at least eight people have died from the cold weather. in chicago, temperatures registered at minus 23 degrees causing sea fog to rise from lake michigan. the coldest windchill in the country was in minnesota, which hit minus 66 degrees. the governor is asking residents to turn down their thermostats to avoid overstraining the system. yikes. it's unimaginable. it's hard to tell people to turn the heat down at a time like that. >> we're grateful to be here and not there. >> absolutely. we're dealing with wet weather this morning. mild temperatures, most of us in the low to mid-50s. the exception los gatos at 48. santa rosa at 49. clear lake 47. ukiah at 45. let's look at what's going on in san jose. here's a look at 101 and 880. we have steadier rain falling right now.

as we head throu