a winter wallop. the snow is winding down, but with bitter cold temperatures, this thing is not over yet. >> with all this wind, the roads are just -- the snow is just blowing and drifting, and it's hard to tell exactly how much snow has fallen. several inches obviously. >> here's the issue, this is such light, powdery snow, the plows really having trouble getting things off the road. >> as you can see here, it's pretty stiff once you start packing it in, but there's so much air to this snow, guys, if you've ever been skiing out in colorado or utah, up in the higher elevations there, there's a tremendous amount of air in that snow. >> this is sam. sam is a fella who got up this morning and put on his skis and came to the park. >> i've been wanting to do this for years. i looked out my window, it was dark, but i thought, you know what, i'll just put on my skis, my office is closed, so i'll just ski around all day. >> and what a day it is, good morning, i'm richard lui in for

chris jansing right here in boston covering the storm. >> you are indeed. i'm alex witt here in new york for a split edition of "jansing & co." i'm covering it from 30 rock but richard has a much tougher assignment, so, richard, get us caught up on the very latest. >> oh, come on, it's not that cold. it's actually 5 degrees now. >> total short end of the stick you drew, but go to it. >> right now the windchill factor, we're in the negative 20s in some cases, negative 15. the good news, logan airport right over my left shoulder opened up about two hours ago. i was watching a plane taxi. you can see behind me, well, we've got jim cantore from the weather channel working very hard today as well as the crews from around the massachusetts department of transportation. 3,399 folks today working hard, overnight to midnight.

this is the concern right now, "the boston globe," the front page, what they're saying here is until 3:00 p.m. they have got flood warnings and that's because of the winds coming this way from the atlantic ocean pushing the water onshore. we'll be watching that. of course it's not only boston, massachusetts. we're also looking up and down the northeastern seaboard. we're expecting to hear from new york city mayor bill de blasio who will give an update on the snow. a half a foot was dumped on the city alone. governor andrew cuomo declaring a statewide emergency as well there in the state of new york. boston, back here, getting more than 14 inches of snow. it spanned from 8 up to 23 1/2 inches according to the national weather service. more than two feet of snow dumped on some areas around boston. windchills well below zero. we're experiencing that here, although it is getting better. governor duval patrick saying the state has handled the storm well and by all accounts here behind us, that is what we are seeing.

patrick activating 400 national guardsmen along with, of course, the department of transportation crew that's been out 24 hours. he said most people heeded advice to hunker down to allow the plows and sanders to do their jobs and keep the streets clear. and that's why the cars, like the ones you may be hearing around me, they're moving around. power outages have been minimal and that's been good because people have been able to stay warm. governor patrick saying he's still concerned about the coastal floodings that i was mentioning earlier. midday high tide will happen at noon and extreme low temperatures expected to continue into tonight, although it has been a little bit warmer. now, i've also got a look at some of the flight delays, because what this means is that although we're having this nor'easter here in the northeast, there's a ripple effect across the country. more than 1600 flights have been cancelled today alone. that's after yesterday when we saw over 2300 canceled and

hundreds of flights cancelled in the new york metro area due to poor visibility and blowing snow. we look at la guardia airport, it has 190 cancellations so far. 120 at jfk. 274 at newark liberty. but if logan is any indication here, things should start to improve and that ripple effect will have a lower effect across the country. now, flight aware, their misery map shows the hot spots around the nation. take a look. most of the misery is concentrated here in the northeast. atlanta and chicago. you can just see some of the places there, the round circles on your map. okay, let's get to msnbc's craig melvin. he is standing by in central park. he is sharing some of that misery with us today. craig, tell us how cold it is there. >> well, you know, i was listening to you there and i've got to be honest with you there, compared to boston, it's downright balmy here in the big apple. you can see my trusty

thermometer showing about 16 degrees here in central park. of course that's 16 degrees before the wind starts to blow. the wind, though, has died down considerably over the past hour, hour and a half, and so has the snow. in fact just flurries right now for the most part. the snow expected to stop completely here in the next hour or two we're told. but the cold weather, the bone-chilling temperatures that you were describing, again, 15 degrees for new york city, that's bone chilling. that's expected to continue here throughout the day and into tomorrow. i'm going to show you central park here. typically on a friday this time of year, it's packed with dog walkers, it's packed with joggers, just a smattering of folks here enjoying central park compared to a usual friday because of the snow, because of the temperatures as well. a million schoolchildren, this country's largest school district, not open for business

today. those students told to stay at home. folks also encouraged yesterday to walk from home if they could. i can tell you it appears as if a lot of folks heeded that warning. we're told that some 2500 trucks outfitted with plows. some 450 salt trucks are out right now trying to get the roads clear. on the cab ride over from the hotel this morning, the cabbie complained a great deal about how little had been done over the course of the night and this morning as well to get the roadways clear. mayor bill de blasio, of course, inaugurated just a few moments after midnight on new year's day, this is his first big test. >> take a break while sending an important public service message. this is a very important point. use your knees, not your back. observe. i hope all new yorkers will take

this to heart. get low. up with your knees, don't throw out your back. >> mayor de blasio having some fun there. here's the thing, though, a lot of folks are watching his response and the city's response very closely because as you might remember back in 2010 when he was city advocate, he was quite critical of the then mayor, michael bloomberg's response to that storm in 2010, saying that bloomberg did not get the plows out to some of the outer boroughs quickly enough, so it will be very interesting to see how the city responds. as you mentioned, richard, mayor de blasio expected to start a news conference any moment now to update all of us on the recovery effort, so to speak. >> you know, craig, when we think about the mayor of new york, we were all there in 2010 for snowmageddon and mayor menino here is also spending his last day on monday, so a lot of

changing of the guards and they are welcomed with this great storm that we've got in front of us here. how are folks getting to work there? are any delays happening in new york? >> yes. i can tell you amtrak told customers to expect some delays. jfk, this country's -- one of the country's largest and busiest airports, it shut down shortly after 6:00 a.m. we're told that that airport should be open for business here in the next hour or so. but as you indicated, when those major airports open, there's still that backlog of delayed flights. la guardia, newark this morning, a third of those flights had been cancelled as well. over the past day or so, more than 2400 flights canceled nationwide. it's going to take a while, obviously, for the airports to get back up to speed. >> all right, craig melvin, my twin there in new york city. we're both standing out in the cold. great to see you and thank you so much, my friend. the saving grace here, though,

in boston is that the snow has been so dry. and if you look at it, it's still a little bit fluffy but the key is they have been able to scrub the sidewalks as well as the streets and keep them very clean. that's why they did not close down the city and that has meant people can get to work. bill karins, when you look at that dryness of the snow, that is something that has certainly made this storm, if you can say this, a little bit more bearable. >> right. we don't have power outages, we don't have a lot of storm damage from trees on houses, we don't have a lot of flooding problems from the high tide cycle, so the big things that these huge nor'easters can do in new england, this one didn't. what makes this special is the temperatures that it snowed with and the temperatures that are occurring today. so the snow is gone. when we get these big storms and the airports and all the airlines now they preemptively cancel a lot of the flights. that's why we have green on all the maps, there's not many flights taking off. albany minus 19. everyone in maine is minus 24 to

a low of minus 33. and we're even as low as minus 5 down in philadelphia. where it snowed and people are shoveling, it is cold. as you saw from boston and central park, it's bearable if you're dressed fine because the winds are dying down now. now, the next storm is going to be on its way. that storm is going to be as we go through saturday night and sunday, this is 3 to 6 and the pink is another 6 to possibly 10-inch snowstorm for areas like detroit, indianapolis, maybe a little bit in st. louis too. so that will be the next storm to watch. the reason that's significant is because behind it the door is being opened for the coldest air we've seen in this country since 1996. almost two decades. it is going to spill down here straight from the north pole, and that arctic blast is going to bring the temperatures in areas like chicago down to the negative 20s. that's not windchill, that's the actual temperature. windchill will be much worse. we have the potential for

windchills getting down to maybe minus 45 to minus 60 monday morning across minnesota into dakotas. richard lui, even these areas that are very hearty are telling people this is going to be a life-threatening cold spell that we're going to have at the end of this weekend and the beginning of next week. >> it makes alaska look balmy. i know you've been working 24 hours, how are you holding up, my friend? >> i'm doing all right. i've got my third or fourth wind, i think. >> you're looking great. thank you so much, bill karins. of course keeping us safe out here. now, of course we're watching the storm in the northeast, but of course there's a lot of other news that's happening across the country and internationally. alex witt back at 30 rock for that. >> yes, where it is definitely balmy in the studio by comparison. let's get to checking the news feed, everyone, this morning. the u.s. is pulling out even more staff from its embassy in south sudan due to ongoing fighting. the ambassador and several key staff are still in the country.

this comes the same day the u.s. announced another almost $50 million in humanitarian assistance to help the victims and refugees and that brings the total to more than $300 million u.s. dollars. vladimir putin is in sochi preparing for the olympic games. also inspecting olympic buildings and he stepped onto a pair of skis and strapped on a helmet for the test run of the slopes. the games start in just 34 days. another snag for the tourists and researchers rescued from that russian ship in the antarctic. the rescue ship is being told to stay put, and that's because a chinese ship that supplied the rescue helicopter thursday is now in danger of getting stuck in the ice as well. they are both expected to try to push through that ice tomorrow. if you're flying spirit airlines, get ready to pay more for your baggage. fees are going up between $1 and $6, but that all depends on when and where you pay for it. spirit has 24 different baggage fees. their most expensive fee is $100 to check in a bag at the

airport. we'll have much more on the winter storm that has paralyzed parts of the northeast coming up for you. the bitter cold and the snow made it very difficult for firefighters to attack a four-alarm fire in attleboro, massachusetts. the temperatures affected the water supply and the high winds there fanning those flames. nearby residents had to be evacuated. fortunately, no one was hurt. yop but she loved it so much... i told her it was homemade. everyone tells a little white lie now and then. but now she wants my recipe [ clears his throat ] [ softly ] she's right behind me isn't she? [ male announcer ] progresso. you gotta taste this soup. humans -- we are beautifully imperfect creatures, living in an imperfect world.

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and welcome back to "jansing & co." a special edition as we are live here in boston, massachusetts, as that huge nor'easter comes through the northeast. you can probably hear some of the plows working so hard as they have been over the last 12 hours. now, this storm is hitting new york's long island especially hard as well. blizzard warnings there remain in effect for parts of long

island. a major road artery, the long island expressway, or l.i.e., reopened this morning after remaining closed overnight. and so that has released some of the frustration perhaps. joining me now is nassau county executive edward mangano. ed, now as you have looked at the situation in your area, total snow accumulations that could reach what we think will be about 10 to 13 inches in some of the areas. as i just mentioned, the long island expressway shut down but then reopened two hours ago, what are you seeing from the information that you've been receiving and how have you been able to keep up with all of the snow that's been coming down? >> our dpw cruise and plow operations did a great job. we kept all our county roads open, the east-west passages open. the state was able to divert resources from the l.i.e. because they closed it to northern state and southern state parkways so they remained

open so all in all a very good job by the crews that kept the roads open and the cars moving during the storm. >> well, that's good news because it could have been much more difficult. what are you looking forward to in the next four hours that are of concern to you. >> obviously the freezing cold temperatures, the wind makes for slippery conditions. we still have blizzard-like conditions which is poor visibility so that's really a cocktail for disaster on the roadways. if you don't have to be on them, you shouldn't be on them just yet. give them another couple hours. if you have to be on them, they are passable. just slow down and be very cautious. >> all right. also, ed, the crews here in boston have been working some three shifts to try to keep these roads nice and clear. how have your crews been? >> we've sent our crews out 2:30 a.m. the prior morning to put down a substance that heats up

the roadways about 15 degrees so we tried to stay ahead of it. we have 2,000 lane miles ourselves here in the county, and they have done really a great job. they have been through them more than three times now. and just this cold weather the salt doesn't work the way you want it to work so many of the roadways look covered with white because you just can't melt it. >> ed mangano, thank you so much. keep up the good work. i know you've got some hours ahead of you. >> yeah. >> appreciate it. >> thank you. >> of course it's been very difficult for many of the transportation systems here in philadelphia, though folks in the suburbs when they look at what they're going through as well as new jersey, they have been trying to keep their roads clear. they have had to get to work in many places across this state. philadelphia saw about 6 inches of snow, but it should get better today. we'll have more on this storm in the northeast right after this. open to innovation. open to ambition.

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the house will vote next week on yet another obamacare bill. this one addressing security concerns about the obamacare website. in a memo, house majority leader eric cantor says it would require cyber security breaches involving healthcare.gov to be disclosed to the public. and a spokesman for the centers for medicare and medicaid services points out that there haven't been any successful attacks on the health website and that privacy and security are a top priority. and a spokesman for nancy pelosi says it is clear republicans want to continue to undermine the president's signature achievement. i'm joined now here in studio my congressman jim himes. welcome, sir. i'm glad you made it safe. but your reaction to this bill that is scheduled for a vote next week. is this something democrats can support, adding more accountability to the health care website. >> i need to take a look at what the bill actually says. this is one of two things, either yet the latest

installment in the republican attempt to scare people about the affordable care act. despite the fact that we have ten million americans with coverage that didn't have it before through the various mechanisms, it's either another attempt to scare them or maybe it's a good faith effort to actually introduce accountability and make sure the system works. i have my doubts the second is the thing. at some point the republicans need to realize this thing has done enough good that instead of trying to scare americans, they ought to join, just as everybody did in medicare and social security in an effort to fix the problems that are there and to make this thing better. >> last month you actually want to hold the insurance companies accountable when they're going out and cancelling people's insurance and you want to say, hey, you've got to point out why you're doing this, what it's going to cost people to buy new programs and that's something you did get behind. >> that's exactly right. we did see two months ago the beginning of cancellations, saw some plans cancelled out there in the individual market and that was one of those bumps that we worked hard to try to smooth.

this like any other piece of big legislation, this thing has done a lot of good. it could be better. when eric cantor and the leadership finally decide that they should join in an effort to make this thing better, they'll find willing help on the side of the democrats. >> eric cantor says in the weeks ahead republicans are going to specifically push for more transparency when it comes to the disclosure of enrollment data. is there any room for improvement there? >> there's lots of room for improvement. eric cantor who from moment one have taken this plan which was tested by a republican governor using ideas developed by the heritage foundation, they have labeled this thing as an experiment in socialism. outrageously. they don't have right now the credibility to say oh, now what we're about is making this thing better. so when they begin to act in good faith, which we have not yet seen. they have 50 efforts to repeal, but when they begin to act in

good faith, we'll be their willing partners. >> some concerns about emergency room costs. with the new implementation of the health care website and consequently the insurance, there are concerns that people, as much as a 40% increase of newly insured will go to emergency rooms and overburden them. what's your response to that? is that a flaw in the program? >> as a dad who has daughters who officially fall out of trees and that sort of thing, i would say that people going to the emergency room are usually not making an economic calculus. they're there because there's an emergency. so my uninformed admittedly guess is you're not going to see a dramatically change in behavior. what you are going to see is ten million americans now have insurance who didn't have it pr. those people for the first time may go see a doctor when something is developing and, therefore, maybe something gets caught early and, therefore, they're not dealing with that weeks down the road in an emergency room. that's going to be a good thing for people and the system. >> real quick, how was your commute in? >> it was a little snowy but the

trains are running. mine was only 10 minutes late so i can't complain. >> representative jim himes, thank you so much. >> thank you. we'll go back to richard who's in boston braving the elements there. richard, to you. >> alex, you know, every one of these snowstorms we're covering, there's always a mound of snow that they have collected and this is the mound that we've been using here. not bad, right? about ten feet tall, although it's a little bit cold. after the break, we're going to meet with and speak with mike seidel from the weather channel. he's been covering the story over the last 48 hours and he'll let us know how big of a storm this is when we look at the past ten years. stay with us. this is for you. ♪ [ male announcer ] bob's heart attack didn't come with a warning. today his doctor has him on a bayer aspirin regimen to help reduce the risk of another one. if you've had a heart attack, be sure to talk to your doctor before you begin an aspirin regimen.

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take a listen. >> the last 24 hours, but i can also tell you that they're servicing their vehicle as we speak. i can also tell you i talked about it around the time of sandy but i want to repeat it again publicly. in the days and weeks after sandy wherever i went all over the city, people who were affected by sandy talked about all of the first responders that helped them, but there was a special love and appreciation they felt for the sanitation workers who did such an extraordinary job helping people get their lives back to normal. so i just want to thank you, every one of you, for what you're doing to help this city. i want to thank commissioner doherty for his extraordinary leadership. it would have been nice to have talked about how to handle a snowstorm in like an abstract exercise, but we didn't get to do that, we got the real thing. i want to thank you, commissioner, for your great leadership and teamwork with all the other agencies. i want to thank my good friend, harry nespoli, of local 831

representing all the sanitation workers of this city. i want to thank him for his friendship and lordsheadership. i want to thank councilmember liz crowley. now this is your district, right? yes. right on the border. right on the border with councilmember van bremer, two good friends who worked many years. i want to thank them for their leadership and for being here today as we update the people. councilmembers, and i can say this from personal experience, councilmembers are one of the front line leaders. councilmembers are out in our communities informing people what's going on. i can tell you during any crisis like this, people call their local council office looking for help, looking for direction, so i want to thank you for the leadership that you're showing. all right. well, we can safely say we've had our first significant snowfall of the new year. it appears at this moment that the storm has passed.

it's left us just a little short of 10 inches of snow, but obviously a lot of dislocation has been caused and we're doing a lot to make sure that we are responding as we speak. you know, even though the snow has ended, the travel conditions are obviously still very, very difficult. so i want to pick up where we were yesterday. i want to say that the most important thing is that people should not be on the roads today if there's any way they can help it. i want to emphasize that for several reasons. before i talk about the safety reason, i want to reference back these good people who are working so hard to clear the roads and keep things safe. i also had the honor last night of stopping by my home garage at bk 6 garage in my neighborhood in brooklyn. you have to realize how hard these guys are working. and we can help them by getting out of their way so they can clear the streets. so i want to say to my fellow

new yorkers, if you want safe, clear streets, stay home and let these good folks at sanitation do their job to clear the streets. obviously the other reason to stay home is for safety. it's very slick out there. it's hard to drive out there. the wind, the ice, there's a lot of blowing snow still so that's going to affect visibility. if you do not need to travel today, please stay home. i'm going to say it again. if you do not need to travel today, please stay home. if you do have to travel, take mass transit. yes, there will be some delays, but it will be safe and it will help us to get the city 100% back in full running order. so we want people to stay off the streets. but in the meantime i have to tell you the extraordinary work of the sanitation department, i am so appreciative to all the members of new york's strongest

for what they have been doing. it's working, you can see as you go out there, the extraordinary impact they have had already. members of the sanitation department are now continuing to work 12-hour shifts and it's tough work, let me assure you. and they will continue with 12-hour shifts until snow removal is complete. they have a pretty daunting task. 6200 miles of roadways to cover. but they're doing a great job of it. as of 4:00 a.m., and i am an expert at the conditions as of 4:00 a.m. because we had a 4:00 a.m. conference call to discuss the school situation. so i was one of the most informed people in new york city at 4:00 a.m. this morning. as of 4:00 a.m. there are nearly 2500 sanitation, d.o.t., d.e.p. and parks plows out on our streets. i want to thank all those agencies for their cooperation in making their equipment available under the leadership

of the sanitation department. again, the snow began to taper off around 8:00 a.m., but there will be the problem of blowing snow. the wind conditions are substantial. we're going to definitely see some serious gusts, so there will be blowing snow throughout the day. >> that blowing conditions that mayor bill de blasio of new york, as he faces the first major storm of 2014, the first major storm of his administration. as you can see, he's concerned about people as they move around the city of new york and accentuating there that they do take mass transit, which is the same situation in long island where nbc's kristen dahlgren is at. kristen, there was big concern there of those big wind gusts where you're at. >> yeah, hey there, richard. it seems to have tapered off, though. the winds not quite whipping as much as they were earlier today. take a look at this, what we have, a beautiful sight. the sun actually coming out.

so if only it had some warming going on here as well. it is just bitter cold out here still. just over 10 degrees, 11 degrees or so and the windchill makes it feel much, much colder. and that's the real issue with this snow, because as you're seeing, it's this light, fluffy snow because it was so cold out and that's the snow that makes it really difficult to get off the roads. if you think about it, you can't make snow balls, snowmen, things like that, it doesn't pack together. that also means the plows as they come by just disburses it and it's been blowing back onto the roadways so this is the entrance to the l.i.e. and it's still white in places just across where there are more cars, we're seeing a little bit of blacktop. they have been salting as well, but with the temperatures so cold, that salt hasn't done a ton either so some of the roadways off of the major roadways, still a lot of snow out there. it's still slow going.

i talked to one tow truck driver who said we can't tell what's under there either, so if people get stuck, you're on your own, we're not able to save you, because we don't have the traction or can't see what's under there to see if we have the traction, so there are a lot of cars getting stuck as well. we've seen some tires spinning feverishly here as they go by. so tough going out here as well. back to you. >> kristen dahlgren there in long island, new york. things looking a little bit better as the day progresses. back here in boston, well, it's cold. one person who's been watching it over the last two days is my good friend, mike seidel, from the weather channel. >> hey, richard. >> good to see you. the question i have, my friend, is my face stopped working. i can't actually enunciate. but you have no problem. >> i'm a professional. >> you're just used to it. you've got all the muscles. >> what happens with me is my face works but my brain shuts down. >> you're not showing it. you were here over the last two

days. when you look at this storm compared to other storms over the last ten years, how does this compare? because now it's starting to lose some of its bluster, if you will. >> bh you're talking about storms in the northeast and a snowstorm, it's usually never this cold when it snows. usually it's 25 to 30 years. this is more like you see -- i've covered storms like this when you have this powdery snow in fargo and bismarck and minneapolis/st. paul, but i have never been in a storm this cold in the northeast in the 16 years i've been doing live coverage for the weather channel. so that's the unique thing about this storm. the totals up on the north shore are pretty impressive. just under 2 feet. here in boston we've had just over a foot. not as big as last year's storm, but certainly a big one. and what follows the storm, the temperatures tomorrow morning going down probably to 4 to 5 below zero. 4 below zero is the record and highs today will struggle to get to 10. the average in boston is in the

mid-30s, so we're running a solid 25 to 30 degrees below average. these windchills are just dangerous. luckily we have our back to the wind. >> i know when it gets cold because he puts on the hood. >> seven layers upstairs today, richard. >> it was six yesterday. all right, thank you. the storm has forced airlines to cancel thousands of flights across the region. that's something that we're watching very acutely because it affects folks all across the country. the midwest and the west. nbc's tom costello is tracking the latest developments from washington, d.c. tom, you look warm. >> 71 degrees here in the studio, richard. i'm sorry to say. >> thank you. >> but hang in there. listen, let's talk about air travel. we have a live radar image of all the planes in the air at the moment. flightaware.com reporting that nationwide right now we're up to 1800 cancellations, 5400 delays so far. yesterday, by the way, 2300

cancellations. airlines are now dropping their change fees for today. new york's jfk airport has been closed much of the morning. we also have a live shot from la guardia airport this morning in new york reporting 176 cancellations there. the airport up and open. however, you can see travelers standing in line trying to get through these mounting delays. imagine air traffic controllers all trying to get to work today as well. take a look at flightaware.com's misery map. the most affected airports today, really no surprise they're in the northeast. boston, 108 cancellations. all three new york airports, so far 400 cancellations among the three. and chicago o'hare, 70 cancellations so far. by the way, hundreds of people were stuck on the ramp last night at chicago for hours, up to four hours, after landing but they were not -- there were not any gates for them to go to, so 30 planes stuck there and hundreds, perhaps even thousands of people stuck there on the ramps. now out to the roads. 86 million people travel by car

over the holidays. today it is the east coast that is the focus, of course, as a lot of people try to get back home. and the biggest problem areas, no surprise. they stretch from new york up to boston, into maine, new hampshire and vermont. and then reaching back across the country, along i-90 towards cleveland and buffalo and toledo and detroit. i went out of order there but you get an idea of what i'm talking about, the top rim of the country. no, we haven't forgotten about our friends who are the canadians because it's just as bad on the other side of the border. amtrak, by the way, critical in the northeast corridor. the acela and northeast services reduced schedules today between boston and washington. so, you know, the good news here is that this is starting to clear out. airports in the northeast starting to reopen and get back to normal, but the ripple effect will take days to unravel. richard, back to you. >> yeah. and tom, on top of that we have that other storm system heading to the northeast. tom costello there in washington, d.c. thank you so much.

let's now go to alex witt at 30 rock there in new york city. alec, what you got? >> okay, i've got more news feed to check for everyone this morning, richard, because we are learning some new gruesome details about how north korean leader kim jong-un had his uncle executed. according to a newspaper he was thrown into a cage and attacked by a pack of ravenous dogs. kim and his brother reportedly witnessed the hour-long ordeal. nbc news has not been able to independently confirm that terrible report. the former banker accused of faking his own death 18 months ago said his family didn't even know about his scheme. yesterday in court aubry lee price was denied bond as a flight risk. he was picked up during a traffic stop in georgia. price faces charges of embezzling $21 million in 2011, federal wire fraud and civil lawsuits from the s.e.c. this new york winter may bow part of why so many people are

moving to florida. sometime this year florida's population will surpass new york's. once it does, the sunshine state will be number three in the country behind only california and texas. coming up next, pot sales are booming. we'll talk to one store owner cashing in after the break. do you like to travel? i'm all about "free" travel, babe. that's what i do. [ female announcer ] fortunately, there's an easier way, with creditcards.com. compare hundreds of cards from every major bank and find the one that's right for you. creditcards.com. it's simple.

yeah... try new alka seltzer fruit chews. they work fast on heartburn and taste awesome. these are good. told ya! i'm feeling better already. [ male announcer ] new alka seltzer fruits chews. enjoy the relief! not surprisingly, pot is proving popular in colorado. pot shop owners in the centennial state say they believe they collectively made more than a million dollars statewide on wednesday alone, the first day of recreational marijuana sales. let me bring in andy williams, owner of the denver dispensary medicine man. welcome to you, andy. can you concur with that? how has business been? >> business has been brisk, no doubt about it. >> okay. are you seeing mostly colorado residents? and i know they can buy up to an ounce of pot or people from other states, other countries even who can only get about a quarter ounce? >> that's correct. there was an amazing amount of people here from out of state. a lot of them specifically to take part in that historic

event. i was walking the line a lot during the day talking to people waiting out there. you've never seen happier people waiting in line, i've got to tell you. over 30%, and that's maybe even a little conservative, were from out of state and other countries as well. it was just an amazing day. >> yeah. how about your price structure there at medicine man, andy? how are you pricing things? i know some of the dispensaries for medicinal purposes are a little concerned you guys are going to price them out of the business. >> it's $45 an eighth for recreational and you have to add taxes on top of that. >> which are huge, we should add, right? they have got pretty big taxes? >> yeah, it's 36.22% total taxes in denver on recreational marijuana. $30 million of that money every year will be going to the schools, so it's a wonderful thing. >> it is a wonderful thing, and it's interesting that sales from marijuana are going to go to support schools. again, about a third of them. but here's something interesting

from our local nbc affiliate, 9 news.com which writes marijuana skeptics, of course, watched in alarm. they warned that the celebratory vibe in colorado masked dangerous consequences. wider marijuana availability, they say, would lead to greater illegal use by youth and possibly more traffic accidents and addiction problems. so when you hear that, what's your reaction? >> you know, i know a lot of people that are anti-marijuana or maybe skeptical were looking for this industry and for this consumer base to stumble on that first day, but what they saw was the same thing you see when people go buy beer or buy wine. you see responsible people purchasing something they're going to take home and maybe friday night when the kids are away have a date night and have a great time. there's nothing different about it. >> you know, andy, i know there are a lot of regulations an restrictions being able to open up medicine man. what's been the most challenging part of getting the business up and running? >> wow. you know, the state and the

industry and everybody else worked really well together to move this from, you know, november 2013 to having implemented right now, and it was a lot of hard work the whole way, of course. but they did a wonderful job with it. and really getting everything in place for the marijuana inventory tracking system was a lot of work. >> right, which the government is doing pretty carefully. >> yeah, they are. they're doing a fantastic job. as a matter of fact we had the enforcement division in our shop the day we opened and they were very serious, so it was a -- i love seeing the enforcement out there right now. and the world is going to see that this industry is just like those others, going to napa valley and having a glass of wine there. they're going to come here and do the same for the marijuana business. >> it is revolutionary, that's for sure. andy williams of medicine man, thank you so much. >> you're welcome, thank you. here's today's tweet of the day that comes from ben and jerry's have the r. it's related. they tweeted out the photo of an

empty shelf. we're hearing reports of stores selling out of ben and jerry's in colorado. what's up with that? see like rt here i can just... you know, check my policy here, add a car, ah speak to customer service, check on a claim...you know, all with the ah, tap of my geico app. oh, that's so cool. well, i would disagree with you but, ah, that would make me a liar. no dude, you're on the jumbotron! whoa. ah...yeah, pretty much walked into that one. geico anywhere anytime. just a tap away on the geico app.

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to "politics now" where a christmas gift from the obamas went to the wrong person. a chicago woman got a package including a shutter fly personalized photo album intended for sasha and malia's godmother. the white house confirms it was a real gift they sent to kay wilson. elaine church said she will send it on to the rightful owner. >> parts of the old box were in this toilet paper box that the post office repackaged, and in the bottom of the box was this extra gift. and we were reading the tag trying to figure out, you know, where this came from and it was opened so we then discovered this was a very personal gift to mama kay. >> and singer clay aiken for

congress? he's thinking about it. the former "american idol" runner-up could challenge renee ellmers. "duck dynasty" is getting its own line of guns. it includes rifles, shotguns and pistols and all of them come in waterfowl camo. with that we'll toss it to richard lui who was there in boston. richard, that was something, duck dynasty gets guns. >> oh, yeah. very cold here. as we look at the entire day, alex, it was 2 degrees when we were out here at 3:00 a.m. and it's what now, 7? so it's much warmer now. a lot of folks are probably looking at the customs house behind me. it finally has some sun upon it. this was once the tallest build in the country. but we've got bottles of water like this, rock hard after an hour. that's what we're looking at here in boston. what a day it has been, alex. >> well done. no brain freeze for you. i'm in awe.

remind me to tell the story i mixed up the aclu with and went to usc. that's a wrap-up for this hour. thomas roberts is up next. d up, i can't rest. [ male announcer ] nyquil cold and flu liquid gels don't unstuff your nose. they don't? alka seltzer plus night fights your worst cold symptoms, plus has a decongestant. [ inhales deeply ] oh. what a relief it is. [ male announcer ] this man has an accomplished research and analytical group at his disposal. ♪ but even more impressive 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. ♪ open to innovation. open to ambition.

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i have a big meeting when we land, but i am so stuffed up, i can't rest.

[ male announcer ] nyquil cold and flu liquid gels don't unstuff your nose. they don't? alka seltzer plus night fights your worst cold symptoms, plus has a decongestant. [ inhales deeply ] oh. what a relief it is. major highways closed or covered in snow. 1600 flights cancelled. millions impacted by this monster snowstorm that has dumped up to two feet on parts of the northeast. hi, everybody, good morning. i'm thomas roberts. breaking news topping our agenda this hour. the first major storm of the new year and old man winter came out swinging on this one. people who had to get behind the wheel this morning were greeted with all of that. the problem would plow drivers, the snow just kept on falling. and during the rare breaks, the wind kept the flakes flying. just listen to some of the correspondent reporters that we've seen already out there. >> i was up at 3:00 and it was not snowing as hard as it is now, but this has been going over 24 hours for the most part.

>> can you see that car that just went past me is now going on the on-ramp. you can see it's quickly disappearing into the blowing snow. >> ron mott, stephanie abrams there. this was the first big test for new mayor bill de blasio. he was out with a shovel this morning hitting his own walkway. >> it would have been nice to have talked about how to handle a snowstorm in an abstract exercise, but we didn't get to do that, we got the real thing. >> no, trial by fire on this one. at this point the worst of the snow is over and out, but here's what's moving in, subzero temperatures, the coldest some have seen in years. >> it is very cold. >> i'm layered up. i have like four pairs of pants on and four sweatshirts, so i'm cold. >> we've got you covered. team coverage all over the map. we have richard lui in boston, craig melvin in new york city, bill karins is monitoring the storm right here in the stud