williams at k5 30. mr. obama will begin his address at 6:00. >> you can always find us online at nbcbayarea.com. bye-bye. on our broadcast tonight, the bitter blast as a rare winter weather event hits the deep south. the kind of weather not seen in a generation as millions of americans struggle to get through this patch of winter. state of the union. we're here in washington with a preview. the president will say it strong. but our new nbc news poll finds a far different view among many americans. money troubles in of all places the house of windsor as the life of a queen ends up costing a lot more than anyone anticipated. and all over this land people today were remembering the life and times and the powerful voice of pete seeger. "nightly news" begins now.

good evening. and here we are on capitol hill in washington to cover the president's state of the union address later this evening, while at this hour the real urgency is being felt across a huge stretch of our country in the deep south. a rare and unusual snow and ice event. some bad winter weather in cities and towns not equipped to handle it, from east texas on up through louisiana, including new orleans, through mississippi and alabama, where the national guard's been called out. and georgia, including atlanta right on up into the carolinas. put another way, 140 million americans are living under some sort of weather watch or warning tonight. and while snowfall is one thing, some cities are icing over this evening. it's where we begin our coverage with our meteorologist dylan dreyer. >> reporter: these subfreezing, icy and dangerous road conditions are wreaking havoc tonight, particularly in atlanta. and they're only expected to get worse. police and emergency crews have already responded to hundreds of

accidents in several states. with cars stranded, dozens of pileups, major traffic jams, and roads that quickly became impassable. folks stepping in to help first responders respond with some muscle power. while we're accustomed to winter weather affecting winter travel along i-95, this storm is shifting the misery to i-10, a major artery stretching across the south, where today entire sections had to be shut down. hours before the storm, snow plow drivers geared up for battle. their armada much smaller than their northern neighbors. where cities like chicago and minneapolis have hundreds of plows. columbia, south carolina has nine. this cold front is leaving air travelers stranded. more than 3,000 flights were cancelled across the country and nearly 6,000 delayed. of the five airports hit hardest, four are in the south. at louis armstrong international in new orleans, flights were grounded altogether. many southern officials are urging people to be vigilant with messages so similar they

could have been finishing each other's sentences. >> we're not used to this significant ice and sleet and snow that we're experiencing today. >> we're highly recommending that people stay off of the roadways. >> now is not the time to take any unnecessary risk or any unnecessary trips. >> reporter: in the south, the school day was cancelled or cut short in many states. for those that were in session, getting students home was tricky. in metro atlanta, cherokee county schools suspended bus service this afternoon, telling parents who couldn't pick up their kids, students who are at school will remain until the roads are safer. adding, the district is prepared to shelter students as necessary. some students at georgia tech had actually never seen snow at all, until today. enjoying the bitter blast that has the south feeling more like the north. and coping with a winter that continues to have an unrelenting icy grip on much of the country. now this storm has turned deadly in mississippi today, where authorities say a family was trying to stay warm when a space

heater caught fire. killing four people, including two young children. brian? >> dylan dreyer starting us off in fayetteville, north carolina tonight. dylan, thank you. as fate and luck would have it, al roker is in washington tonight with a look at more on where this storm is headed. hey, al, good evening. >> where you go, brian, i go. we will continue to follow this weather. it stretches from texas all the way to new england with watches, winter storm watches, warnings and winter weather advisories all the way into the northeast and new england. the latest radar shows not only an icy mix stretching across the gulf coast on into the southeastern atlantic and the outer banks, but we're also going to see light snow here in washington all the way up to new york city. here's what's going on. cold air pushing in, so the storm intensifies along the coast as these low pressure systems move up, and bring with it a lot more ice, snow right along the coast, stretching all the way to new york, boston,

washington, d.c. and by early tomorrow morning, the ice storm ends and in the outer banks it will start to clear. look at these snowfall and ice amounts. up to a quarter to a half inch in the southeast. and as you get into the carolinas, we're talking about 9 to 12 inches of snow, 1 to 3 inches all the way up into coastal new england. the good news, brian, is we're going to start to see a shift in the current patterns. there's the polar vortex, the western ridge has been keeping the warm air in the west and the cold air here in the eastern half of the country, even up into alaska. but we will finally see the polar vortex moving north. the jet stream becomes more zonal. those are warmer winds from the pacific. and that means in the next 48 hours, everybody gets some relief. in fact, we're going to be talking, brian, about temperatures 10 to 15 degrees above normal for about 85% of the country. so there is some good news, we just have to hang on a little longer. >> al roker here with us in washington tonight. al, thanks, as always. the president appears inside the capitol behind us here tonight to deliver his fifth state of the union. there's been advanced talk of

bypassing congress on some measures, on what he'll say about the income gap and the minimum wage, and the speech to the nation comes as our new nbc news/wall street journal poll finds continuing deep pessimism across this country. let's go across town to our chief white house correspondent political director chuck todd. chuck, good evening. >> reporter: good evening, brian. a chilly reception, should we say? anyway, brian, aides are selling this state of the union as one filled with realistic goals. so the translation is not a lot of big ideas, but a slew of targeted ones. the buzz word of the night for the president will be the word opportunity. new ideas to help deal with the economic and equality situation. for example, we already know the president plans to issue an executive order that raises the minimum wage for new federal contract workers to $10.10 an hour. he hopes congress will pass the full law. but in our new poll, we asked what should be the top priorities of congress and the president this year. here are the top five. they want to focus on creating

jobs, reducing the deficit, expanding preschool education for everybody, dealing with the iranian nuclear threat and closing corporate tax loopholes. but, of course, brian, the real challenge for the president tonight is breaking through to a public that's deeply skeptical of everybody in this town. in our poll we asked people to describe the state of the nation, and just 3% used the word that the president is going to use tonight and that's strong. most folks instead opted for negative terms. 37% chose divided. 23% went with troubled. 21% said deteriorating. given that, it's not surprising that just 28% of the people in our poll say the country is headed in the right direction. 63% say we're on the wrong track. this continues a decade of pessimism, tenth straight year more people say we're on the wrong track than on the right one. brian, that's a grim backdrop for the president tonight. >> it sure is. chuck todd at the white house setting the table for tonight's speech. chuck, thanks. members of our on air team are already assembled for tonight. that would include nbc's andrea mitchell and david gregory, moderator of "meet the press." david, given that grim backdrop,

what's the republicans' kind of advance response to what we're going to hear tonight? >> they fired shots across the bough. if the president wants to go around the law and try to trample us, he's going to run into a brick wall. at the same time, the speaker says that republicans have got to become more of a party of better ideas, better solutions. they're thinking a lot about their game plan. still going to be a lot of health care. they still want to make a big push on health care. this is an election year after all. >> andrea mitchell, if you assume the state of the union is a wish list, let's consider the disconnect given what politics are between the president's wish list and what he will conceivably get. >> well, just look at what happened last year. by some counts, he had 41 acts of congress and only got two. one was the debt ceiling, after that devastating government shutdown, one was the violence against women act. he is going to, i'm told, ask for an expansion of the unearned income tax credit that would

help the working poor and the unemployed. he's not going to be confrontation, he will say -- this is a quotation we've just been given from the speech -- america does not standstill and neither will i. whenever i can take steps to expand legislation for opportunity for more americans, that's what i'm going to do. that is the executive order on the minimum wage. but he's not going to go in there fighting. he will talk about a veto, one veto on iran sanctions, but it's all going to be focused on the economy and on trying to work together on immigration particularly. >> all right, thanks, gang. with that preview, this is where we'll be watching tonight. most americans don't need a speech in washington to tell them how things are going in their lives. just ask and they'll readily tell you what they think about the state of the union. nbc's harry smith spent a few days on the road listening. >> reporter: california shop owner rosalie wonders, what happened to president obama's promise of hope? >> i was so hopeful at first, i had hoped he would pull everybody together. i find that the country is more

divisive now than ever. >> reporter: while colorado architect tim van meter wonders why we can't just get along. >> i'm pretty disappointed in our country, you know, the issue of this deadlock of extreme ideology on all sides, that's not who we are. >> even after a year when we saw the stock market go up, and unemployment go down, americans are frustrated in this winter of discontent. >> it's the united states of america, it's not blue versus red. >> instead of healthy debates, we have stalemates. >> washington is okay, congress sucks. >> reporter: christina carrasco wonders why some problems take so long to solve. >> there's a significant group of people that in order for them to really be able to move forward and to achieve what we call the american dream, there needs to be immigration reform. >> reporter: miami dentist jeanette hall wonders if that dream is even achievable. >> i'm at the age where i should see everything that i've invested in my education and

my profession multiply and give me a return so that i can retire on that. yet i feel like i'm working hard and just standing still. >> reporter: in houston, vincent tortorella wonders how it got this way. >> there's a lot of people out there hurting. and it doesn't have to be that way, it really doesn't. >> reporter: and marine corps veteran robin forsythe wonders, why the richest country in the world can't afford to care for its own. >> there's so many people that are struggling to keep their homes and to keep their families together and put food on the table. yes, it does affect me, because when my community suffers, i suffer as well. >> reporter: the state of the union is unsettled, and the people wonder if washington hears them. harry smith, nbc news, denver. >> as chuck todd said, an ominous backdrop. one more reminder here, live coverage of the president's state of the union address tonight, 9:00, 8:00 central time on this nbc station. this was for what it's worth

a good day on wall street in new york. the dow was up more than 90 points. the nasdaq gained more than 14. s&p was almost 11 points higher at the end of trading. still ahead for us tonight, the surprising story out of london that involves the queen and the cost of living as she does. the big bills and money problems just revealed. and later, remembering a real american folk hero, the legendary life of pete seeger. ♪ we shall overcome

we mentioned this before the break, an unusual story popped up across the atlantic in the u.k. today. it's about something we never really assumed to be a big issue for the queen and her royal household, and that's money. nbc's kate snow has more on the story tonight. >> reporter: oh, to be the queen. the jewels, the parties, the lavish lifestyle, the british people spent more than $50 million last year to keep up that image. but this new report from a committee of the british parliament says the royal household finances are in shambles, that the queen has not been served well by her staff when it comes to managing the books, sticking to a budget, or even keeping up buckingham palace. >> for example, the boiler at buckingham palace is 60 years old, it's out of date. the bills, the electricity and gas bills are huge. it should be replaced. there's no money for it. >> reporter: probably more than 40% of the queen's properties are in unacceptable condition

with some dangerous or deteriorating, the committee found. buckets sit under leaky roofs in a gallery containing priceless works of art. a huge backlog of repairs and no one seems to know exactly what needs to be fixed. >> when we ask the royal household what assessment they had of how much money they needed to spend, they couldn't tell us. >> reporter: the queen herself is famously frugal. she shuts off lights when she leaves the room. but hodges committee says her royal household has been spending beyond its means. given that grant of $51 million last year, they overspent by about $4 million. draining down their rainy day fund to a historically low level. so what's a queen to do? parliament suggests laying off some staff, while government agencies have been pinching pennies, the royal household has barely changed in size, with more than 430 people on the payroll for the past seven years. ♪ and here's the big one, the committee wants the queen to open her doors to tourists for more than just a couple months in the summer. >> it's possible for the queen to rent out buckingham palace,

to extend the time it's open to the general public, well, that is a possibility. >> reporter: in a statement, the queen's spokesman said they're working on a backlog of repairs. and the royal household is already generating more income than it did five years ago. lawmakers call that good news, but said those who serve the queen can do better. kate snow, nbc news, new york. we'll take another break, we'll be back in a moment with an intriguing look at the latest place where pope francis has turned up.

this was the scene today in what had been one of the most volatile regions of russia in recent years. the olympic torch arrived in chechnya today. nine days to go before the start of competition in sochi. about 500 miles away. though the republic is relatively stable now, russian authorities fought two wars against separatists there over the last two decades. the torch moved through the city of grozny without incident. with the hype growing for

sunday's super bowl in the cold, in the elements, in the new jersey meadowlands, a big name from this past nfl season is breaking his silence. jonathan martin, the miami dolphins lineman triggered a locker room bullying investigation. he's now given an exclusive interview to former nfl coach and nbc football analyst tony dungy. >> i'm a grown man. i've been in locker rooms. there's vulgar language in locker rooms, one instance of it doesn't bother me. it's the persistence of it. i wish i would have had more tools to solve my situation. i felt trapped, like i didn't have a way to make it right. it came down to a point where i felt it best to remove myself from the situation. >> just a small portion of the conversation there between tony dungy and jonathan martin which will air tomorrow on "today." this next item makes sense when you consider how many people have referred to the new pope as a rock star. pope francis is on the cover of "rolling stone." he's no stranger to publicity or

magazine covers, for that matter, he was "time's" man of the year, this is the first time a pope has made the cover of the chronicle of rock 'n roll. proof of what they say on the cover, the times, they are achangin'. because it takes a giant to lift a giant a massive floating crane called the left coast lifter has moved through the panama canal on its way to the hudson river in new york, to build the new tappan zee bridge. the vessel is as long as a 30 story building is high. it can lift 1,900 tons at a time. it's traveling 6,000 miles to its new temporary workplace. when we come back here tonight we'll remember pete seeger and a powerful voice that sang for justice.

overnight, we received word that pete seeger had died at the age of 94. many people today called him an american treasure. "the new york times" today called him a bean pole of a man with a hearty tenor. he recorded over 100 albums and received all the highest honors given out to artists in this country. and when you think about it, he sang about the state of our union all his life.

♪ if i had a hammer i'd hammer in the morning ♪ >> pete seeger sang about justice all over this land. he was a protest singer who seldom turned to anger, but he did raise his voice about mccarthyism and civil rights and vietnam and the environment. ♪ where have all the flowers gone ♪ he was a boarding school kid and a harvard dropout who discovered the banjo at a young age. along the way he sang with woody guthrie and a group called the weavers. ♪ good night irene good night irene i'll see you in my dreams ♪ >> he came up in a generation using music for social change. ♪ we shall overcome >> in his hands, "we shall overcome" became an anthem for an era. ♪ we shall overcome >> seeger sang for children and adults, both serious and light.

he was able to mock the ticky tacky little boxes of suburban sprawl. ♪ little boxes made of ticky tacky ♪ >> and he famously set scripture to music. ♪ a time to be born a time to die ♪ ♪ a time to plan a time to read ♪ >> he once briefly belonged to the communist party, something he later regretted. and during the black listing years, he got in trouble with congress and the courts and narrowly avoided jail. he was an influence to so many, bob dylan is often mentioned. so is bruce springsteen, whose 2006 album "we shall overcome" the seeing seeger sessions was the ultimate tribute. >> three years later, seeger and springsteen teamed up at president obama's inauguration. ♪ this land is your land this land is my land ♪ >> decades ago, pete seeger settled on 17 acres along the hudson river and adopted the

waterway and its cleanliness as a cause. when his friends filled madison square garden for his 90th birthday, his impact was made clear. ♪ this land was made for you and me ♪ >> pete seeger's wife died last year just days before their 70th wedding anniversary. already today there was a move afoot to affix his name to that massive new tappan zee bridge north of new york city, spanning across his beloved hudson river. pete seeger gone at the age of 94. that is our broadcast on a tuesday night. thank you for being here with us. i'm brian williams. we're on capitol hill in washington tonight, where we'll be coming back on the air, 9:00, 8:00 central with the president's state of the union address. for now, from washington, good night.

tonight we witness an american tradition. >> mr. speaker. >> the president before congress and the nation. but after his toughest year in office and a public in no mood to trust washington, can the president make his case for action on the economy, on income inequality, on the environment, education, and foreign policy, and can he do it withwithout congress? >> from nbc news, the state of the union address live from washington. here is brian williams. >> and good evening on a cold night in washington. we should warn you there will be fleeting moments of warmth inside the house chamber beneath the capitol dome right behind us here on capitol hill.