deep freeze, a historic cold wave descends on parts of the u.s. bringing what one paper calls mind boggling low temperatures. exactly how low and where? a new message from the president today is congress willing to quickly act on extending unemployment benefits? what happens when the fight begins monday? going to pot. the first numbers on marijuana sales in colorado. they are staggering. the good, the bad and the ugly of what's happened there in the first few days. how does netflix know what you want to watch and why did a movie you watched last week suddenly disappear? a new article examines some of those questions.

hey there, everyone. it's high noon in the east, 9:00 a.m. out west. welcome to "weekends with alex witt." right now an arctic blast is rolling out of canada threatening to drive temperatures to record lows across the corrupt as tens of millions are still digging out from a snowstorm that claimed at least 13 lives over the last two days. as for the cold, it may be the worst seen in nearly two decades in the u.s. windchills could reach minus 50 or colder in some areas. just how bad will it get and who's going to be affected? the weather channel's greg postell joins me now with all the details. we're look for answers to this, let me tell you. >> this is going to be a doozy. it's got the arctic air and a snowstorm, as well. that's essentially under way right now. the advisories from the national weather service in place all across the upper midwest. right now, chicago's under a winter storm warning in there. that goes all the way through northern illinois. st. louis, indianapolis, detroit all for winter storm warnings

for heavy snow that is going to be evolving later on this afternoon and tonight. and by 2:00 a.m. in the morning, look at this low pressure developing over the southern plains. it is going to extend a significant snow swathe all across this region. kansas city will get a couple inches. really the bulk is going to be from st. louis up through central illinois including central end like indianapolis, detroit, as well. by 5:00 tomorrow, cold arctic air will be spilling in behind this winter storm that will drop temperatures eventually well below zero even for highs in places like chicago. this is the coldest air mass in about 20 years for the upper midwest. by about early morning monday, monday morning 1:00 a.m., still cold air is draining southward out of arctic latitudes. that will bring it all the way through chicago where the snow will be winding down on monday morning. the low tracks up into the canadian provinces during the day on monday, fortunately keeping the east coast on the wet side of things.

even there too, it's going to get colder much after the storm pulls on out to sea later on monday afternoon. guys, this is a big snowstorm. a swathe of to 12 likely just south of chicago. >> snow and cold. thank you for the big heads up. as for the snow, massachusetts saw some of the worst of it nearly two feet fell in some parts of that state. richard lui is in boston with the very latest. when we spoke this morning, you were expecting temperatures to warm up a little bit. how is it there now? >> know, when you and i talked about five hours ago it was negative one and also on the skin something like 5 below. now it is 17 degrees on the skin, it feels like four. so the concern still remains for all those out there right now liking this gentleman right here that are enjoying the day is the wind and protect their skin when they can. the burn unit at mass mats general saying it only takes three minutes of such temperatures to get frostbite.

another concern that the emergency management office of massachusetts is saying is stuff like this. sitting on roofs and ceilings because these chunks of snow act like sponges. and so when it rains on monday, this becomes extremely heavy. the roofs will collapse. the ceilings will go down and they don't want to add to what is unfortunately a 15-person death count at least so far according to the associated press. we also talked about the champagne powder. that's still here and you know, this is my test is you can hear it. it's still nice and crunchy. this is what's different this hour. it's melting. and the salt is working and that's because we're getting close to 20 degrees. folks, like that, you see it's clear here. it's different out in the neighborhoods. when you look at them shoveling, they've got to dig out. the salt's going to be going out on to their streets. they're going to be able to get

out there with the plows which have not been in the utter skirts of boston. another thing helping them is the 39-degree water temperatures that exists in the harbor. that didn't help yesterday. it's helping them today. and what that means as we get warmer at 17 degrees, stuff like this right to my right side here, folks, out ice skating. $10 here at boston harbor. and they're really enjoying themselves. hey, conner. he's the guy that runs this place running around. you want to come on down. >> who me? have you ever seen. >> yeah, you. >> have you ever seen me ice skate? no. >> is this a southern california thing? >> yeah, i can surf. i just can't ice skate. i guess i did a long time ago. we'll have to talk about this another time when we're not on the air. richard, i'd like to see you out there. thank you very much for the live report. you'll do it, i know. thank you, richard. so in minnesota alone, the windchill readings could plummet to 60 degrees below zero monday morning.

how cold is that exactly? on the health side, that's dangerous. experts say once you get into the double digits below zero could, significant frostbite can set in within five to ten minutes. there are the instant vapor demonstrations where you take a cup of boiling water and throw it in the air, the end result is snow. we've seen a lot of them bring past big chills and probably see a lot more come monday. to politics and new today, president obama addressing congress directly urging lawmakers to act quickly to extend the recently expired unemployment benefits. >> for decades republicans and democrats put partisanship and ideology aside to offer some security for job seekers. even when the unemployment rate was lower than it is today. instead of punishing families who can least afford it, trk republicans should make it their new year's resolution to do the right thing and restore this vital economic security for their constituents right now. >> the president is scheduled to depart hawaii tonight for washington, d.c. after spending two weeks in the 50th state for

the holidays. meantime, house majority leader eric cantor sent a memo to colleagues outlining january's republican agenda. unemployment benefits are not on the list. and republican senator rand paul says he's filing a lawsuit against the obama administration over the nsa's data collection. >> we now have several hundred thousand people who want to be part of this suit to say to the government and to the nsa, you can't have our records without our permission or without a warrant specific to an individual. so it's kind of an unusual class action suit in the sense that we think everybody in america who has a cell phone would be eligible for this class action suit. >> former homeland security secretary janet napolitano is sharing her take on recent calls to give nsa leaker edward snowden clemency and spoke to "meet the press" moderator david gregory. >> if we're concerned about material he has, should clemency for him be on the able if it meant securing some of this other information? >> well, i think that would

require more intimate knowledge of what he allegedly has. but from where i sit today, i would not put clemency on the table at all. >> you can watch the full interview tomorrow morning on nbc's "meet the press." and nbc's john yang is in honolulu, hawaii, traveling with the president. with a good day to you. i know the president has an event scheduled for early next week to try to push lawmakers to extend unemployment benefits. given what we heard from eric kantor, it's not on the agenda, what's the president's plan? >> alex, he's going to jump right back flow it. part of the plan is to differentiate themselves from the republicans leading up to midterm elections in november to draw a sharp contrast. one of the maul marks of the current or the past recession was the duration of unemployment, the length that people have been out of work. it is up to record average duration. and so people have been relying on unemployment insurance benefits for a longer period of

time. and president obama talked about that in his address today. ing >> and denying families that security is just plain cruel. we're a better country than that. we don't abandon our fellow americans when times get tough. we keep the faith with them until they start that new job. >> and the white house is not only talking about the benefit to the 1.3 million americans who lost unemployment benefits at the end of last year when the extended unemployment insurance benefits expired, they're talking about the benefit to the entire economy saying that ending those benefits is taking money out of the economy and will cost 240,000 new jobs in their estimate. and this is, as i said, part of a bigger theme of economic justice, of economic fairness. we expect to hear the president talk about raising the minimum wage in his state of the union in about three weeks, all building up to the midterm elections in november.

alex? >> okay. so john what's it about, 7:00 a.m. a little past 7:00 a.m. in the morning in hawaii? >> just past 7:00 a.m. >> what time you taking off heading home? >> well, he's heading home tonight at 8:00. we'll stick around till he lands in washington tomorrow. >> john yang, thank you very much. one more day in hawaii. appreciate that. separating fair weather fans from the real deal in philly literally is going to happen tonight. also the silver lining to all those new changes on netflix. why there's so much turnover. bargain brand towel made a mess of things, i switched to bounty basic. look! one sheet of bounty basic is 50% stronger e

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. republicans senator rand paul says he's sue soog the obama administration over the nsa's wiretapping and says every american with a cell phone could likely join the suit. let me bring in staff writer for the hill newspaper elise viebeck

and david nakamura. a happy new year. thanks for joining me. >> thanks, alex. >> david, i want to begin with you. how plausible is this notion of a class action lawsuit? is it just more political blust ter? >> a little bit. this is something paul feels strongly about, no question about it. he's gained a lot of popularity by taking the stance against u.s. use of drones. his filibuster this spring got a lot of positive feedback in a populist way. the president himself is going to come out as soon as he gets back from vacation fairly quickly this month and make a speech what he intends to change with this nsa program. i think one of the areas is all this telephone metadata. he may agree with his advisory panel that recommended instead of the government keeping all this, the individual telephone companies would keep it and the government would have to get individual warrants to get some of this data in individual cases. that would go somewhat to resolving some of this issue.

i think rand paul will probably press forward because he's already got tens of thousands of signatures on this. >> elise, do you think this is something democrats might embrace? >> very likely. frankly the nsa issue has been damaging for president obama. his poll numbers have gone down among people hog are young, independence. so this is a way for rand paul as he enters the 2016 battlefield which is starting now unbelievably to gain support from people who otherwise wouldn't necessarily look at his candidacy. when you look at it in that sense, he's making a move for his own political purposes and hoping to get those democrats, some of the independents and young people on his side. >> okay. let's switch gears here, elise. i'm looking at your latest article in which you highlight the top five obamacare stories to watch for. they include enrollment, midterm election and delays work arounds, the sakeups, the obama

administration has made. the advances. there are 2.1 million people having signed up now. dramatic improvement. what's the number of signups they need for obamacare and by what date so that it is viable? >> i mean, the administration is hoping for 7 million people to sign up for the exchanges, private insurance on the exchanges by march 31st which is not very much time. certainly the numbers have looked better in recent weeks as healthcare.gov has recovered and as many people signed up for coverage that would start at the beginning of this year because they didn't want to go without it for even a day. i think the administration still has a lot of momentum to build. things are looking better. but the most important thing here is that we have young people signing up for the he can changes in order for them to be stable. we're probably going to have to wait still march to hear the numbers, the demographics to get the full break down from the administration. hhs is working very hard right now to make sure the outcome happens. >> david, do you think

administration officials feel pretty confident they've overcome all the biggest hurdles since it's made a quick recovery? >> i think so. they're gaining confidence. they don't want to express it too strongly. we saw what happened ahead of the entire rollout. it didn't go so well. they're not going to be talking too much about all the success in numbers. they're going to keep trying to build that. what they are going to talk about more is individual success stories, something they're highlighting people who have not had insurance who have not had it are now getting treated. the president will come out, maybe do some events around the country to put the spotlight on areas where it's working both in the states and in the federal exchanges. and try to build through that. word of mouth momentum and highlight in the media some success stories. that would get more people to enroll. >> the president has had a couple of weeks off outside the bubble in waialaeia and hawaii. do you expect him to come back ready to fight for the issues he truly believes in for the remaining three years in office?

>> i think so. you're already seeing in his weekly address he talked about unemployment insurance. he's going to do an event at the white house on tuesday with folks who would benefit from an extension in long-term unemployment benefits which is something democrats are pressing republicans to extend now. that's only one of the things he's going to talk about. of course, health care. some events probably on immigration and on the other area the white house is focusing on is executive actions where congress won't do stuff on the environment and other areas. the white house is going to can the amour strongly to take executive actions to move forward on some of the agenda items is, as well. sort of on two fronts they'll be fighting >> elise, what do you think. >> president obama tends to come back from the vacations very reinvigorated. at this time, he had a pretty bad 2013 in terms of priorities. he didn't make a lot of progress on issues like gun control. he's going to be facing republicans in congress already thinking about the midterm elections ready to come out against his agenda as hard as

they can. he's got a lot of things he has to deal with, kind of practical concerns like unemployment insurance, like the budget, like the debt ceiling. that's going to take up a lot of time. i think the white house is right to pursue these executive actions because that's a way to do a run around congress and look to those priorities. >> okay elise viebeck, thank you very much david nakamura. i want to correct myself. i said the president had been in way liayia. tonight in philadelphia, they're going to play football in weather ranging from cold to bitterly range. tonight's game calls for a temperature of 29 degrees and the windchill will make the temperature a lot lower. tim furlong is joining us from philadelphia. eagles officials, are they able to do anything to help the fans and players endure the cold? >> no, i heard all the hawaiian names you were throwing out.

i don't want it hear any of those today. this is the polar opposite of hawaii right now. it is the frozen tundra of lincoln financial field. you see the link. the game 8:00 tonight on nbc. the eagles and saints. how dedicated are philadelphia fans? you've heard about the weather. seven inches of snow. sidewalks are clear. this is a northeast football game, not some domed team kind of game. i'm talking to the saints here. you can see the game's at 8:00. you see the fans living up because the gates open at 1:30 for tailgaters. it is going to be a mad house. not every nfl game is sold out. the eagles sold out almost instantly and the fans are pumped. you can see it's very cold here. if i can say this, it's sort of a sunny 20 degrees right now. but it's still 20 degrees. and you can see it's just an absolutely mess here. hundreds of guys have been out all the last two days plowing the lot. they had about 500 people come into the stadium in the last

couple days to scoop out the snow because in philly, we philly fans don't want any snow in there because it ends up being snowballs against account opposing players. i'm going to throw a ball around because i know we're supposed to remain objective but eagles, saints, i'm going eagles. >> i am, too. >> enjoy the game. >> you got to go with eagles. it's hard to go against drew brees but i'm with you. tim furlong, thank you so much. bundle up. well, the nfl wildcard games get under way later today on nbc. why there's much ado about a new strain of apple in west coast headlines and number ones, the most beautiful cities for snow. here's a hint, new york isn't even one of them. [ male announcer ] this is the story of the little room over the pizza place on chestnut street the modest first floor bedroom in tallinn, estonia and the southbound bus barreling down i-95. ♪ this magic moment it is the story of where every great idea begins.

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take girl. on friday attorneys for children's hospital oakland and the family of jahi mcmath reached an agreement to allow her to be removed from the medical facility. she was declared brain dead last month after surgery to have her tonsils removed. her family says she's improving. and had they had line, arctic apple angst about the concern about an apple genetically engineered not to turn brown ready for the market pending approval. organic growers are urging them to reconsider. the agriculture department said the apples are unlikely to post a plant pest risk. winter wonderland pchz while a large portion of the country has been dealing with the snowstorm appreciate its beauty might be hard but it's not to globe traveling.com. it has a list of the most beautiful cities of snow. moscow account most picturesque.

in second sapporo, japan. and in third, syracuse, new york which sees an average of 115 inches of snow a year. so what's the opposite of a snowy paradise? how about a tropical one like honolulu. that's good enough for the first family's holiday destination. san antonio, texas, with its beautiful riverwalk is named the second best city and coming in first, hershey, pennsylvania, home of hershey chocolate and the theme park. the city gets high marks for inexpensive lodging and beautiful golf could yours. mark zuckerberg may be rolling in dough but giving a lot of it away according to a new report. zuckerberg and his wife priscilla chan made the biggest charitable contributions last year, a donation of almost $1 billion in facebook stock. phil ni and his wife pledged $5 million for cancer research and formerly new york city mike

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and return those gifts at a same low flat rate. welcome back everyone to "weekends with alex witt." it's time for headlines at the half. new details about the car crashing that killed actor paul walker. a report from the l.a. coroner finds the car he was riding in was going more than 100 miles per hour when it spun out of control. it hit a tree and burst into flames. the report confirms neither walker nor the driver had alcohol or drugs in their systems. new numbers from the cdc show the flu is getting worse and spreading throughout the country. numbers released friday show it has more than doubled to more than 25 states with widespread flu activity with texas as one of the hardest hit states. thousands of jobs are staying put after a crucial labor contract was narrowly approved by boeing's production workers. they agreed to concede some benefits but boeing will build its new triple 7 jet liner in the seattle area.

new developments out of iraq. al qaeda fighters have reportedly seized the city of fallujah and raised their flag atop government buildings in some of the worst fighting since american troops left the country two years ago. u.s. intelligence officials call the situation extremely dire and said the border between iraq is decimated now between syria. it is now meaningless, in fact. joining me with the story is duncan golestani. i want to get to the latest. you're hearing how much ground the militants hold now. good afternoon. well, the thing is it's a confusing picture coming out of these areas at the moment because the intense fighting is continuing. in fa fallujahia, about a quarter of the city remains under control of militants. witnesses said the northern and eastern parts of the city were still under militant control. the fighting there has been really, really intense. it's difficult to put a number on the dead. but there have been scores of casualties and reports of shortages of food and fuel

because the residents there have had to take cover for the best part of a week. this week is really for the first time in years that insurgents have taken control of such important territory. and this all started when iraqi police broke up a sunni protest camp on monday at least 13 people were killed. in those clashes. the iraqi government which is largely shiites has been struggling to contain discontent among the sunni minority. and it really flared, has really flared over the last year on wednesday, the united nations said at least 7,800 civilians and more than 1,000 members of the security forces have been killed in 2013. we really are seeing some of the worst violence since the end of the iraq war. >> duncan, can you connect this to the war in syria? >> yeah, sure. well, this group that is affiliated al qaeda islamic state of iraq has been increasing its its influence

over the province there, which borders on to syria. what they want to do is try and create a sunni muslim state that straddles both syria and iraq. it's just yet another sign that the civil war in syria is spilling over into iraq and threatening the very, very delicate sectarian balance that iraq has. alex? >> okay. duncan golestani with the heads-up from london. thank you so much. let's go now to the historic frigid temperatures sweeping the nation. a new winter storm is set to drop inches of snow from the rockies to portions of the midwest, great lakes and mid south this weekend. nbc's leanne gregg is in denver for the very latest on this new storm. >> hi, alex. 2 to 4 inches of snow expected here in denver before the system moves on. it is affecting air travel at denver international airport with some delays. possibly up to about an hour or more for desizing. and the roads, highways, bridges

overpasses are slick in many areas. there are whiteout conditions because of the blowing snow in parts of the state. up in the mountains, up to 10 inches are expected. in various areas including the eisenhower tunnel along i-70. so this system is part of a massive air mass moving to the east to the south and the upper midwest bringing dangerously cold temperatures. and lots of snow. this snow will stick around in the denver area throughout the weekend and then move onto the east. back to you, alex. >> okay leanne gregg with the update. the governor of minnesota ordered all public schools to close on monday because of frigid temperatures. that's the first time since 1997 a governor has closed schools in response to cold weather. on monday, the senate will take up a vote on extending unemployment benefits for the 1.3 million american who's stopped receiving checks last week, president obama has now argued for an extension of benefits in his weekly address

this morning. >> our focus as a country this year shouldn't be shrinking our economy but growing it. not their rowing opportunity but expanding it. not fewer jobs but doing everything we can to help our businesses create more of the good jobs that a growing middle class requires. >> joining me now is john few guy zee, did the founder of neighbors helping neighbors who is a member of the long-term unonly employed and will be meeting on tuesday to discuss this crisis. john, welcome. i'm glad you're here to tell your personal story. it has been along about 15 months or so for you. you had a crummy birthday in october of 2012. tell me what happened. >> basically i was working for a company in an executive position or struggling supermarket retailer. and actually, i had just gotten to washington to be part of the white house faith-based neighborhood group meeting in september and a couple weeks later, i was downsized with 40 other people. no warning. and there i was out of work

again. >> that's got to be incredible. you had to go and attend a neighbor helping neighbor usa meeting and a group and say, i need the help, as well. talk about your organization. its genesis and the kind of work that you're doing. >> i started it in january 2011 in my local library. i was out of work that the point in time myself again. and i realized that searching for a job by yourself is not the way to do it today. we started up the idea of having weekly meetings. and getting together people who are out of work. the problem today is the people out of work are highly qualified. not the people of the past that had some kind of deficiency and were not higherable. so we started holding weekly meetings. within three months, i started using some of the techniques of used linkedin more effectively and found myself back to work three months later. this is something i had to continue to do. it was a very important thing. >> i'm sure those you've helped appreciate it enormously.

you've got especially these 1.3 million americans no longer receiving unemployment checks as of a week ago today. talk about the impact of that. you hear arguments for both sides. what's your perspective? >> the real number of unemployed is much greater than the government sticks. they're only tracking people getting benefits. the true au numbers are much greater than anybody realizes. it's a huge impact. most of the people we're dealing with are professionals, managers, office people. believe me, the unemployment benefit is not something they're sitting home on the couches and not looking for work. these people are looking for work. the problem is, there are not enough jobs today. right now, the one in three stat that everybody banters around again is based on the national reported labor. it's not counting all the hong-term unemployment and people who are off the unemployment payrolls. the real number that i'm hearing and reading all the economic experts -- there's only one job for every eight to ten people. one of the things we're trying

to do is help our people stb better than their competition to go get jobs and that's what we're doing. >> so john, you head to the white house, as well next week. you're going to discuss this issue with the secretary of labor. the government, is it doing enough to end the cycle and from your perspective, what can be done? >> i think there's a lot of things that have to be done. we first have to really have a recognition of the problem. and we really need this to be looked at as the national crisis that it is. we need the republicans and democrats to work together. this is not an issue that either side is going to fix. and clearly, to hold the american workers and people hostage over this situation on a budget battle is really unconscionable. >> you know, critics are saying the country and the afford to extend these benefits. you look at people getting benefits extended to them, there's are not folks depositing the money in offshore accounts. they're putting it right back

into the economy. why do you think that is falling on some deaf ears? >> i think personal agendas are ahead of the best interests of the american public right now. and the real issue is, this money is an economic stimulus program. this money immediately goes back into the economy, small businesses are going to be hurt. we hear that this will cost an additional 240,000 jobs. and this is going to hurt the american economy which really doesn't need this kind of blow right now. it's almost hard to believe that both parties aren't in support of this agenda. >> you know, john, you gave me the stat when you said there's one person out there rather one job for every eight to ten people looking. so when you look at the unemployment rate out there which has been steadily declining over the past couple years, are people in your organization feeling that? >> we're not seeing people getting back to full-time work. we're seeing a lot of temporary jobs. we're seeing a lot of contracts. we're seeing jobs not lasting as long as they once did. many of our member who have landsed are back again. i think the real issue again is

the raw stat dropping comes from two reasons. it comes from people falling off the payroll and some job creation, if you really match it up the jobs numbers to these numbers you're going to see we're continually falling behind. >> june fugazzie, best of luck. i'll be very curious to hear how your conversation goes with secretary perez. >> how netflix decides which movies will stay and which ones will go.

so the deep freeze combined with a building fire created quite an unusual sight in nebraska. it all started when a fire started in a pub and spread to seven alarms. the water froze almost immediately in the air leaving what was left of that building and the nearby lamp post covered in ice. no serious injuries were reported. what a picture though. if you are one 40 million people who uses netflix you may have noticed changes to the list of

tv shows and movies you can watch. some favorite titles may have disappeared from the catalog. reporter lithy rothman explains the changes in her piece in "time" this week and joins me now. with a big welcome to you because a lot of people are wanting to get koesz in front of the television on these snowsy frigid days. explain what's happening with netflix. >> netflix's streaming catalog changes pretty regularly but over the new year's holiday a lot of people noticed movies had been added or removed and it got a fair amount of attention online. people were particularly excited, for example, that the '90s movie good burger had been added. but basically what's going on is that this happens almost every day as netflix's licenses with the movies distributors expire or are renewed and we're just noticing it when it happens. you don't have a particularly movie heavy time. >> a lot of this kind of thing

happens naturally at the end of a calendar year. that would be a natural time for a contract to expire. but a question, if you put your movie in the queue and then the contract expires with netflix, does it disappear before you actually get to watch it? >> netflix does notify you if you -- this is streaming specifically. so if you happen to be, for example, watching a tv show series and the license is due to expire, that information will appear. it's not like a flashing red light. but it won't be a complete surprise but netflix does take steps to help you not get hooked on something right before it's going to expire. they stop promoting it so heavily and they try to make it so it's not as noticeable for consumers. >> so bad news if you're a fan of titanic, brave heart," being john malkovich" but good news if you like these me ofs which include breakfast at tiffanys,"

"ghost," thelma and louise" and more have been added to the catalog a couple days. how do they decide which moves to add? >> it's bad news for people who like movies that are much more obscure than something like "titanic" because the amount of time sometimes that something is watched does factor into netflix's decision whether to renew a license or go after a license. they have that information about who is watching what. and when they have to decide where to spend their licensing dollars, that factors into it. so when a license expires, if it turns out that one obscure film fan has been watching this movie over and over again, it's bad news for that person because they're more likely to spend that money on something that someone will watch overnight more people will watch over and over. >> i want to talk about the feature that netflix has where it's able to suggest specific title oz are genres for you. some of them are so specific.

there's a level of absurdity here to it. let's look at some of the categories offered. 1970s sentimental set in europe dramas, romantic chinese crime movies, 1980s mind bending cult horror. how are they able to hone in so specifically on taste? >> there was an interesting investigation done into this done with alexis maddry gal with the atlantic recently. their team dug into the coding and the categories they come up with and it turns out they have more than 76,000 tiny little genres that they have developed by tagging individual movies and tv shows and categorizing them. and the point of this is that they're able to look at which tiny genres you have liked in the past or watched in the past and suggest those. and this sort of goes back to the fact that the licensing agreementses are expiring and being renewed and started every

day because they're able to suggest to you if you like a specific genre, a list of movies or tv shows that fit into that category that are not about to expire. you're more likely to watch something that is not in danger of going away. >> okay. >> they have that information. >> well, a full explanation if you haven't gotten all you need here, time makzing from you, lily rothman. thank you so much. >> a million dollars in one day. that's how much marijuana shops made since the drug became legal in colorado. who is the clientele? and check out alex wit msnbc tumblr.com. about trying or adding a biologic. this is humira, adalimumab. this is humira working to help relieve my pain. this is humira helping me through the twists and turns. this is humira helping to protect my joints from further damage. doctors have been prescribing humira for over ten years.

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in ways you never thought possible. welcome to what's next. comcastnbcuniversal. marijuana stores have been open in colorado for four days. it appears the money is roing in in huge numbers. how is it going and who is buying it? brandon rid aman, with a welcome

to you. let's talk about any negative impacts or incidents so far to report. >> well, alex, the rollout of this thing has really been really smooth and i've ennen heard some officials call it boring. that's what they wanted it to be. the state and local governments here really wanted to make sure they got a system lined up and in place so that the stores could open and have a sort of predecadable plan for crowd control. they haven't seen any problems outside of the shops other than the fact that there are so few shops open that it caused long lines to form. >> are you getting a sense of the clientele and maybe the breakdown, 0 loum of them are coloradans versus out of state if not from people overseas? >> it's a largely anecdotal at this point. on day one, most of the shops were saying more than half the people in their stores were from out of colorado. not as many international folks. we talked to people from several neighboring states and from some states far away, as well. the mix of people you see coming

to the shop runs the gamut. you've got people who don't want to go on camera, please don't show my face. people who want to talk all about this, this is a moment in history. please come over here. so it really does sort of run the gamut, the people you see in line. >> one of your colleagues reported stores brought in a million dollars in the first day total. has business been holding steady at that rate, increasing, dropping off a bit? do you have a sense of that? >> i'm being told the lines are a little bit shorter today. there still are lines outside of the store which means the inside of the store is full at capacity. essentially it's kept up a very high pace having to do with the fact that in denver where we have the most medical marijuana store the only ones allowed to get a license for recreational pot, there were only 18 open on opening day. there are few options for people who want a place to buy right now. >> something people may not be aware of,s pretty darn high, 25% in addition to the regular state

sales tax. are there estimates on how much money that's expected to bring in this year? a third of which is going to education interestingly. >> well, there are actually two taxes on marijuana from the state level here in colorado. one of which is a whole sale tax paid by the grower before it ends up on the store shelf. the first $40 million is earmarked for school construction. however, the initial predictions on that are it's not going to hit $40 million because the wholesale price is very low. as for the sales tax, that's expected to generate quite a bit more. the department of revenue is not putting out an official number from the state. we are heard reports from other state agencies of hundreds of millions of dollar. it's anybody's guess honestly honestly at this point. that would raise a lot more money because it's on the shelf price that the consumer is paying >> medicinal pot dispensaries, i hear they're a little nervous their their supply may dry up because private enterprise will be more ruk lucrative for the

wholesale pot sellers. are there limits how much a shop can charge for pot so they're not so out of line, these two different entities? >> there aren't limits what they can charge. it's a private business. we've seen some raise their rates since the opening day when they had these big crowds because there's so much demand and so little supply. that's had an effect on the price. they're trying to keep a balance on that because they want people to understand this is going to be an affordable product from a business standpoint going forward. that being said, they were only allowed to basically do a one-time conversion of their medical supply of pot over to the recreational side. they have to maintain two straeps of inventory. now they're still growing the recreational pot but that's going to take awhile to catch up. >> brandon, can you smoke pot in public? can you go to a bar and smoke pot? it just dawned on me? >> no, you cannot.

the language the voters passed said openly and publicly is off limits. so you're not allowed to walk down the street and go to a park and do it. some local areas have said you can't smoke within sight of the sidewalk even if it's your private property. here this denver they opted not to do that. you have to be on private property and have to be discreet about it. there are a few options if you're visiting from out of state. you have to find a hotel that's okay with it. we don't have a lay of the land, just because it's a smoking room are they going to allow you to smoke marin ip in there. your question about bars or smoking dens, it's something the marijuana industry are going to be pushing for when the legislature starts up. brandon rittaman, thanks for answering all the question. colorado legalizes recreational use of pot. should other states follow? gary writes more states will

follow if there is proof of a tax bonanza filling coffers. ben tweets does the world need another illegal substance that helps us overcome cop reality. >> jack fetch says all states should legalize pot. it should be treated the same as alcohol. and megan tweets yes, and fast. my handle is @alex witt. it could have ruined some sports fans big weekend. the pro football rules that have been broken so to speak. the story next. ♪ legs, for crossing. ♪ feet...splashing. better things than the joint pain and swelling of moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis. if you're trying to manage your ra, now may be the time to ask about xeljanz. xeljanz (tofacitinib) is a small pill, not an injection or infusion, for adults with moderate to severe ra for whom methotrexate did not work well. xeljanz is an ra medicine that can enter cells and disrupt jak pathways,

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♪ ♪ it's a dangerous freeze. the coldest weather in nearly two decades. how low will the mercury go and how longing will it stay there? overtime. millions of nfl fans endure a last-minute postseason drama. it comes well before even the first kickoff. militant mayhem. al qaeda radicals overrun two key sierk cities that u.s. forces once protected. what does this say with the overall war in iraq.

a new twist in a case for a california mother trying to find care for her daughter after doctors gave up hope. good day to all of you. welcome to second withes with alex witt. it's 10:00 a.m. out west. here's what's happening out there. right now the dangerously cold arctic air mass is descending upon a large part of the country threatening to drive temperatures to all-time lows as tens of millions are still digging out from a giant winter snowstorm that claimed at least 13 lives. as for the cold, windchills could reach minus 50 or colder in some areas. another storm is set to dump snow and ice this weekend from the central plains to the great lakes. dr. greg postell joins meese with all the details. what's the latest? >> you're exactly right. cold air and a big snowstorm on the way for much of the midwest. let's have a look at advisories from the national weather service. winter storm warnings in place for much of missouri, illinois,

indiana including st. louis, chicago, indianapolis all the way through detroit. big-time snows are coming your way. 2:00 on sunday morning we'll see a swathe of snow from kansas city to chicago. that will accumulate all morning long through much of the afternoon as low pressure begins to move out of the southern plains. it will be very cold behind the system. it's cold northerly winds from the arctic area move south into the united states, blowing all that snow around. there may be blizzard conditions as the times on the backside of the system. this system on monday morning will track up into the canada provinces and leave the east coast on the warm side. they should get mostly rain out of this. but eventually it will get colder, too. later on monday and on tuesday as the arctic air really spills out all across much of the united states. this is how much snow we expect with this particular system. at least pa to inches in a swathe from st. louis all the way through detroit. 8 to 12 more likely up that way.

maybe even getting into chicago. multifaceted system with a lot of snow and big-time arctic air, the coldest in 20 years. alex, back to you. >> greg postell, thank you so much. as for the snow, massachusetts saw some of the worst of it, nearly two feet fell in some parts of that state. richard lui is in boston with the very latest. once again, a big thanks to you my friend for sticking out there all day. what's it like right now? >> it is a balmy 21 degrees now. this is what they were hoping for because 20 today therefore means 40 tomorrow. 50 on monday, too. as we've been sitting at this location, we've seen many of these city workers come out and service the important utility day to day access points. this utility box to my right, they were clearing this one and there's three more to my left, as well. they want to make sure they have access to. there's the fire hydrants.

the city has asked neighborhood residents to go on out and clear them on their own if they can. and that way they can pitch in so in the cases where there might be a fire, they have access to that. unfortunately, of course, they're remembering there were at least 15 deaths according to the associated press. they hope to not increase that number and want to make sure people when they're out today as they are in the cold, remember they still can get frostbite. later in the day that will change. this is the sort of snow we're seeing right now, very soft still. they want to make sure the emergency management in massachusetts that folks get it off the roofs. there's roofs behind us that have snow on them. the problem there is that when the snow gets wet, it's about four times as heavy. so five pounds per square foot cubic foot becomes 20 pounds per cubic foot. but what i do love in this weather here is alex a lot of this now. a lot of puddles. that's good for everybody as they try to get on back to living a normal life here.

>> yeah, but i see you're appropriately drewed. you're attire, you've got the repellent pants and the good boots. my little designer boots would not work. >> without these boots, i would have not been able to live through the last two days, my friend. >> i'm glad you got them on there. nbc's richard lui. appreciate again all the live slots. the weather channel's team of meteorologists are continually moes monitoring this arctic blast. check out weather.com. president obama is getting ready to head back to the white house after two weeks in hawaii for the holidays. the first family is schedule ed depart for washington later this evening. two new executive actions are aimed at strengthening background collection for gun purchases. and the obama administration urged supreme court justice seas sonia so the mayor to stop blocking the requirement that

some health organizations provide insurance that is provides birth control. no word when she'll make a decision. john yang is standing by for us. with another hello to you, you told us the president departs for d.c. tonight. what's on his agenda once he gets back to the white house? >> on tuesday, he has an event in the east room in which he'll urge congress to extends and renew the extended unemployment insurance benefits that expired at the end of last year, that about 1.3 million americans lost their benefits with that. the event will also have a number of people who fall into that category who did lose their benefits. he'll also be preparing for the state of the union dress which will be coming in about three weeks. part of that one big theme which plays into the unemployment benefits is the theme of economic fairness.

we expect to hear him push hard in the state of the union address for an increase in the minimum wage from $7.25 an hour where it is currently to $10.10 an hour. part of this is to differentiate themselves from the republicans as we get into the 2014 midterm election campaigns that will heat up and culminate in the elections in november. another big issue that he's been working on here florida hawaii is the nsa data collection program. the before he left, he was presented with a number of proposals on overhauling that program which has gained a lot of controversy. he brought a pretty thick briefing book with him to study that. he says he'll have something to say about that early in january to talk about what proposals he's accepting, what issues they need to go back and take a look at a closer look at. and look at some of the other

proposals. gun control as you said, the white house says that they acted quickly on that at the beginning of the year to show to the american people that gun control is still a major issue on their agenda. and one sign where they might be able to do a deal with republicans is immigration. house speaker john boehner indicating that he may be willing to make a deal on that issue this year. alex? >> john yang wrapping up all things there from honolulu for us. for most nfl fans not being able to cheer on their favorite team in person is bad enough. now a long-standing organization rule could have prevented many fans from watching the games on ttv this weekend. krist kristin dahlgren. >> fans of green bay, cincinnati and indianapolis are no staining strangers to nail biting finishes. this one went down to the wire. as of yesterday, the teams hadn't sold out the stadiums. an nfl almost kicked in blacking

out the game on tv for thousands until a late christmas present came to the teams and very deserving fans. when the green bay packers take the field against san francisco this weekend, windchills on the field could fall to 30 below. >> work pretty good i would think. >> so you can understand why some cheeseheads are choosing to watch the game from a toasty living room instead of an icy lambeau field. but the fact the game hadn't sold out meant arm chair quarterbacks might not get to watch the game at all. the same in cincinnati and indy. an nfl rule dating back to the 50s says if games aren't sold out 72 hours before kickoff, they can't be broadcast on local tv. >> it's incredible to imagine that not one team or two teams, three teams had the potentialing to be blacked out. >> reporter: the league gave teams extra time. but as the clock ticked to the friday deadline, it was a tough sell. >> you're buying the tickets and then you have to buy food, parking. it becomes an expensive event.

>> on the nfl ticket exchange, the cheapest seats to the colts game were going for $88. for a family of four, that's 352 bucks. before any food or perhaps hot chocolate. so it may have seemed like an acof ol holiday magic when generous sponsor stepped in. in green bay, corporate partners chipped in for the remaining tickets. in cincinnati, kroger and procter & gamble announced they would donate tickets to local military family. just like supermarket meijer did with indy's last 1200 seats. now going to fans like master sergeant michelle ring. >> a huge fan. we bleed blue lear. >> able to watch her team in person this weekends even as other fans can now tune in at home. >> for me personally, i'm so grateful. >> a lot of people grateful today they won't miss those games. many have asked if that rule might change especially because the tv revenue from games is so

high. the fcc has moved to end the blackout rule but the nfl said it would oppose any change. as for that game in green bay, they are going to be handing out 70,000 hand warmers. >> aren't they also going to provide coffee and hot chocolate for people? it's going to be so cold. >> they should. >> kristin, thank you so much for that. by the way, the last nfl playoff game to be blacked out occurred in miami back in january of 2002. the dolphins hosting the baltimore ravens then. you can all watch today's games on nbc. kansas city chiefs play the indianapolis colts in a very warmed domed stadium. kickoff time 4:35g eastern. at 8:10 eastern the saints playing the philadelphia eagles as a very frigid lincoln field. now at green bay's lambeau field, the cold weather preps for tomorrow's game include the heater for the beer towers to make sure the beer doesn't freeze like it has in the past. as kristin was reporting, they're going to pass out 70,000

hand warmers and free coffee and hot chocolate for those in faendence. the battle over unemployment benefits resumes monday but will republicans even think about approving them? the old dining table at 25th and hoffman. ...and the little room above the strip mall off roble avenue. ♪ this magic moment it is the story of where every great idea begins. and of those who believed they had the power to do more. dell is honored to be part of some of the world's great stories. that began much the same way ours did. in a little dorm room -- 2713. ♪ this magic moment ♪

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president obama is addressing congress directly today, urging lawmakers to act quickly to extend those recently expired unemployment benefits. >> for decades, republicans and democrats put partisanship and ideology aside to offer some security for job seekers. even when the unemployment rate was lower than it is today. instead of punishing families who could least afford it, republicans should make it their new year's resolution to do the right thing and restore this vital economic security for their constituents right now. >> joining me now political reporter for "us news and world

report" lauren fox and politics reporter for the washington post jacquie kucinich. i'm glad to see you. i'll begin with you jackie. in addition to the president's message today, be majority leader harry reid as a says a vote mr. l take place monday on extending benefits. how far is that going to get? >> the real question is the house. they'll probably get cloture in the senate and be able to pass thing is there. there's a three-month extension of benefits they're going to be considering. now in the house as it has been the last couple years, that's where the problem is going to lie in getting enough republicans on board to pass this. so people get their unemployment insurance back. it is going to be a challenge. >> yeah, you know, lauren, i was reading through eric kantor's memo he sent out lining the gop's agenda for the month of january. extending unemployment benefits nowhere on the list. what does that tell you about the chances of getting it passed? >> republicans have said repeatedly in the house they are

open to exlending long-term unemployment benefits with one major kavyaate. they want the cost of the program which is estimated a three-month extension is about $6.4 billion, they want that to be offset. that's something that democrats just really haven't been willing to budge on. they don't want to have to offset this and say this is an emergency for america's most vulnerable population. it isn't good it's not on cantor's list of to do especially because this is something republicans and democrats are not seeing eye to eye on right now. >> let's go to jackie what politico is saying about republicans having their best shot at years at taking back the senate this year. they need to pick it up six seats and defend 14. the democrats need to defend 21. do the numbers appear to favor one party or another in your mind? >> it's too early because the devil is in the details. several of these states, somewhere like louisiana, arkansas, there are senate primaries with republicans they need to get through.

republicans have had a pretty good chance of taking the senate the last couple cycles. however, the candidate ta maybe the establishment was back didn't win. not every case you have rubio, you have ted cruz but in a lot of cases you have a republican candidate that wins over maybe someone that would have been more preferred by the establishment and they don't end up inwith the final election. we saw that with claire mccaskill and todd akin. it's too early at this point. >> north carolina because republicans there are targeting the democrat kay hagan over her support of the affordable care act. is that a strategy you think we're going to see in other senate races? >> well, you know, i think i'm sorry. say it one more time. >> with regard to senate races and those that are supporting the affordable care act, i mean, yao you've got kay hagan supporting that. do you think republicans are going to go after her and go after others in different states? >> absolutely. it's already happening. you had senator mary landrieu saying she would vote for the affordable care act again.

immediately you could almost hear the glee from the republican said she had said that because it was a tough vote for them and continues to be tough as they go into the re-election. kay hagan in particular is having an issue with this because of how north carolina has been trending. and we've seen her poll numbers go down as the rollout was kind of flubbed. >> lauren, how about the races you're focusing on that could give us a sense which way the senate will go? interest there some that come to mind. >> arkansas will be one of the democrats toughest races. the affordable care act is unpopular. the president is unpopular. he didn't win in the 2012 election. he lost in the double digits. i think arkansas is going to be a tough race for the democrats and also think alaska will be a tough race for the democrats. up there you have mark bag begich working to to distance himself in some ways from the affordable care act. he's introduced some pieces of

legislation that would change the way the act is structured. i think the democrats are worried about this and alaska and an-alaska are two races that come to mind. >> mitch mcconnell, jackie, how vulnerable is he ultimately? >> we'll see going down the line. he has gotten a boost. his primary challenger wasn't as strong as some maybe thought. he isn't doing, as well as maybe we thought he was a couple months ago. he still has a race with alison grimes. she can ray a lot of money but certainly not as much as mcconnell. >> lauren, your latest article is titled "clay akin may run for congress." is he being courted or is this something that he's aspired to doing? >> we should be cautious in saying that people ask the democratic party all the time they come to them and say look, i'm interested in running. he's courted some of the state's top democratic strategists and asked them ways might be able to

improve and gotten polls out to see how viable his candidacy is. so i certainly think this is something that could happen. but the democrats do have another candidate in mind. so we will have to wait and see on clay ache. >> and we should just be clear. clay akin "american idol" i think he was a runner-up. >> yes, he was a runner-up. >> girs, we'll see you again soon. al qaeda takes control in two iraqi concerns raising more concerns about the civil war in syria next.

it's now 24 minutes past the hour. tile for your fast five headlines. former first lady barbara bush ras released today from louisston methodist hospital. the 88-year-old spent six days there being treat for pneumonia. weeks ahead of the winter olympics in sochi, vladimir putin is now easing some restrictions on protests occurring during the games. they will be allowed only at locations prxted by security services. thousands gathered on a beach in

perth, australia po to protest against a plan to reduce the sharps population. nets will be can he deployed to catch smarks and then kill them. the car actor paul walker was in when it hit a tree last month was going more than 100 miles an hour. it rules out drugs or alcohol as a cause of the crash. and he was one-half of a pioneering rock 'n' roll duo of the '50s and '60s. phileverly has died. he was 74. those are your fast five headlines. one of the countries leading ethicists joins me to talk about whether the state of texas can keep a pregnant brain dead woman on life support. her family is fighting it. . or mix vegetables with all white meat chicken and homemade gravy. but marie callender's does. just sit down and savor. marie callender's. it's time to savor. that your mouth is under attack, from food particles and bacteria.

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ungefl the in if the heaviest fighting in years. joining me now is "new york times" chief foreign correspondent john burns is the paper's baghdad bureau chief for much of the iraq war. you know, when people hear the name fallujah they think of the devastating 2004 battles. give us some perspective on fallujah and how strong al qaeda's grasp is on it and has it been over the years? >> well, that resonance you speak of in the american consciousness is well founded. fallujah is a strategic city that lies something on the order of 30 miles west of baghdad on the main communication lines between iraq and jordan and syria to the west. it was a stronghold of al qaeda in iraq. in the early years of the can

american occupation, a great deal of blood was spent in retrieving control of fallujah and its neighboring city ramadi. both of them in the province of a anbar. it's probably the most strategic terrain in iraq and it's no surprise when you look at the sweep of the fighting in iraq over the last several years that the al qaeda sunni insurgency would return and score some of the victories it has. >> you know, john, in terms of you talk about the pamt of blood spilled. 146 u.s. troops were killed in the 2004 battles, two of your journalists dexter filkins, ashley gilbertson both with the marines some of the worst of that. after all that was spent there on both sides, was where we are now still inevitable? >> i think it was. i think of what general george casey who as you'll recall was

for four years account american military commander in iraq who resisted the surge, the additional 30,000 american troops sent in by president bush in 2007. saying that no amount of incremental american military power, no more american lives expended. not to mention no more treasure invested in iraq would make any difference if there was no reconciliation amongst the peoples of iraq, the sectarian leaders of iraq who at that time in 2006, 2007, had failed to settle any of the fundamental issues between their communities in respect to the future of iraq. that remains true now under the shiite majority government off iraq which has been in my estimate utterly reckless about this issue. and now finds itself confronted with the possible return of a civil war. >> that's hard to hear.

john, because overall, when we step back and look big picture here at the iraq war, can you give me some of the salient points here, the things that we can highlight that were achieved that are enduring? that are positive? >> i regret to say this because i was one of those who experienced saddam hussein's rule of iraq which was ghastly beyond words and hoped that something better would come from his down fall. i'm coming to the conclusion that the american military traces in iraq all that america set out to achieve and all that it spent so heavily for in terms of blood and treasure as president bush used to say is going to be washed away. much as in a much earlier period, british military intervention in iraq in the early years of the 20th century was literally covered by the

sands. you would see when i was in iraq for six or seven years, he visit the british military cemeteries from that period from the first world war on, and you would see how the gravestones had literally been covered by the sands. i'm afraid that the way things are going, that history may say that the american intervention in iraq has suffered the same fate. >> that is very sobering. john i also want to take a look what's happening right now with regard to what's happening in syria. there's a state department official who said the border between iraq and syria meaningless. that it's been decimated. do you agree with that assessment? >> i do. and i think it was always just a line in the sand. i think to have some comprehension of what is happening you have to look at history and understand that the great schism within the islamic world between the shia and sunni runs diagnose diagonally across that terrain. iraq and syria right in the middle of it. and from the beginning what we've been doing, what we did

was enter into a conflict which has its origins centuries ago. i'm inclines to say 1,000 years ago. the origins of the rise of islam. it's a conflict which we never truly understood and which we never really had much ability to manage and i'm afraid now that we spectators on the edge of a volcano which we cannot quell. >> john, we can't look at all this right now without considering afghanistan. as you know, the u.s. never reached a security agreement with iraq so the troops butted out quickly. there's a chance of that happening about afghanisthappen with afghanistan. what would be the impact? >> in afghanistan? >> uh-huh. >> i'm sorry if i understand your question? >> yes, afghanistan. >> well, i'm afraid to say that will the trends in afghanistan look veg similar. american combat troops, as you know, will all be withdrawn. american troops as matters now

stand will be withdrawn at the end of this year. and it's beginning to look as though the taliban are on the rise and that any attempt to sustain the kind of government that we would wish iraq to have a democratic government which respected human rights and above all those of women, that hope is fast diminishing. >> john burns, thank you very much for the conversation though. don't necessarily like hearing all that i am. but i do appreciate your time. thank you. the start of a long journey. >> i'm sorry to be so gloomy on this new year. >> thank you, john. we're going to the start of a long journey home for the 52 passengers strandsed off of antarcti antarctica. the chinese vessel which rescued them is trapped in heavy ice. duncan golestani is in london with the latest for us. what are you hearing about the progress so far? >> this is getting confuse

package.the scientists and journalists on board the aurora are on their way hopefully arrive ing inas you trail in mid-january. yesterday it looked like there might be another delay when the chinese ice breaker said it was stuck and the aurora was asked to stay in open water in case it needed to return to help. >> stuck in the ice just like the ship it came to rescue. crew of the chinese ice breaker helped helicopter the 52 passengers off their stranded russian research ship three days ago. they were beginning their long journey home on the an aura when they would told yesterday to stop in case they were needed to rescue the rescuers. the. >> you long has fallen victim to the same pack ice that started this antarctic drama 11 days ago. overnight the expedition leader tweeted the zu long no longer in distress. great news. it means the aurora can be continue its journey home, a relief to the scientists who

left home on november 2th traveling south. they were carrying out experiments in antarctica when winds pushed ice around the ship on christmas eve. nine days later they were moved back to the aurora. no such plan for the zu long. they might not be in distress anymore but still stuck waiting for better conditions so they can can get moving again. the chinese crew have been reporting huge blocks of ice moving slowly around their ship. but they've been looking at the weather forecast and they think they might be able to break through on monday or tuesday. alex. >> can't some soon enough. i'm sure. thank you very much, duncan in london. let's go now to california. the family of a 13-year-old girl declared brain dead has crossed over a hurd to try to keep her alive. a judge ruled they can remove their daughter jahi mcmath from

the oakland children's hospital. and take her to another facility. >> joining me now, with i an welcome to you, are you the this your, i think you're going to take issue saying that this girl has been declared brain dead but that she's actually being kept alive, right. >> because brain dead in your esteem is dead. >> that's right, alex. i think we have to be very careful with the language here. you don't want to give a family like the parents of the little girl false hope. whether he doctors say your brain has totally irreversibly ceased to function, are you dead. it's not a situation where you're in a coma, not like some op viewers may remember terri schiavo or ariel sharon. they have some blaine activity. but this little girl is dead. we have to be precise about the language there. indeed the cornerer issued a document saying she died december 12th.

>> give me a sense of the judge's ruling and what you think should be done and when you hear her mother said she is improving, which is why she wants to pursue putting her daughter in another care facility, what comes to mind? >> even a dead body when it's on these machines it still has a heart beat because you get oxygen in there and the heart muscle can do that. you look pink. you don't look dead. i think the family and mom are angry and upset, tragedy occurred to them. it's understandable. that said, trying to move her in this condition, trying to move this body very fragile, i'm not sure there's an institution out there that's going to accept this body. i'll make a prediction. i don't think we're going to see a transfer. i think this coming week, she is going to have everything stopped and is going to in a sense be disconnected where she is. it's so hard to make this move even though the court has said if you want to try it, i don't think it's going to work.

>>ing whatting about ethical needs for dealing with the family and their reaction here? i mean, is there anything wrong with the hospital saying okay, look, we're going to keep her on longer on life support because look how much the family is suffering? >> every family suffers whether he someone dies. i see it all the time at my own hocht. no one wants to accept it. you can't ask doctors, nurses and staff to keep trying to do things with a dead body. you can't really already tie up the facility, the resources, other people need those beds. it's expensive to keep going on here. i think what we have in this case is distrust between the family and the hospital. you got to secure that back. but we don't want to get into a situation where we say to anybody who suffers a death in their family, we'll keep going if that's what you want us to do. >> there was another case interestingly in the news right now from texas. i know you've been following the story about marlise munoz, a pregnant texas woman who has

been declared brain dead. her family wants to remove her from life support but the state of texas says can't do it under state law. who do you think should have the final say here? >> in this one, the mom who died and we know she went without oxygen. >> this is i believe a pulmonary embolism, a clot was thrown. it was sudden and the baby it happened when the baby in utero about 14 weeks. >> correct. >> so that baby could have been damaged severely when the mom doesn't get oxygen for a long time and that's what cause her to die. the feet fuss doesn't either. both of these people, it the mom and husband are paramedics and understand resuscitation. they know what's going on here. she said when she was alive, i don't want to be kept alive artificially. the husband says that. the family says that. texas in the legislature says what about the fetus. i thisty you have to lean unlike what the hospital is doing toward the parents. they said what they wanted.

they were very clear. i'm not sure the feet sus even viable at this point. i till still would put the family's interest and the individuals desire not to be kept this way ahead of the legislature's interest in trying to help the feet tus. if we were talking 26, 27 weeks pregnancy, different. >> because 14 weeks something has to be distinguished there. is this precedent tore this? they're trying to keep this baby, there fet us so it gets to a point it could be safely delivered and live outside the womb. >> a c-section. >> this baby we don't know if the damaging effects of lack of oxygen. >> exactly. >> is there anything in your community that says we could test and see if this child has significant brain damage? this is just so complicated. >> unfortunately, no. you certainly know that at 14 weeks, if the mom went without oxygen so long as to die, that

can't be good news for the fetus. we have had a couple cases where people have said i want the fetus delivered. please keep going. we've seen some delivers. occasionally with good outcome but not at 14 weeks, but much later in the pregnancy. >> arthur cap kaplan, thank you. clemency for snowden. the no, times wants it. [ male announcer ] this is the story of the little room

over the pizza place on chestnut street the modest first floor bedroom in tallinn, estonia and the southbound bus barreling down i-95.

♪ this magic moment it is the story of where every great idea begins. and of those who believed they had the power to do more. dell is honored to be part of some of the world's great stories. that began much the same way ours did. in a little dorm room -- 2713. ♪ this magic moment ♪ it's time for the big three and "today's topic"s, what should be done, clemency and best weeks, worse weeks. goldie taylor whose column is featured on the grio every monday, contributing writer for alter net.org esther ar mo and contributor susan del%io. welcome to all three of you. happy new year. first time going around here. susan, let's talk about what should be done first. we've been talking about the two the tragic cases. you heard me talking with arthur kaplan before the break.

marlise munoz in texas where state law is keeping her on life support because she is pregnant. should the family's wishes trump to take her off life support. >> these things will be decided on a case by case basis. about you what we're probably going to see is how is this going to play out under the insurance law and what's going to be allowed under that. is there a phi night way of defining someone as legally dead and what does that mean? i mean, there's tremendous costs associated with this. it is without a question one of the most difficult things which is probably why you don't see a lot of elected officials clamoring around it right now. >> absolutely. i guess it brings into question those who can be afford to stay on life support where they can pay out, right? versus insurance and those who can't. and yeah, that's a really tough up with. that's a mess. goldie, another case we've been talking about, 13-year-old jahi mcmath. two medical evaluations

concluded this poor 13-year-old girl is brain dead. she went in for a simple tonsil electiontomy. understandably the parents want to keep her alive. the parents and hospital have come to an agreement saying they can move her to a medical facility. shout should the parents have the right to keep her on the ventilator indefinitely? they say she can still recover. the ethicist i was just talking to says she is dead. >> every representative from the medical field i've talked to about this issue say that there's really semantics being played between brain dead and being dead. brain dead is dead. you don't have any blood flow to the brain. moving this body in such a fragile request state could end in a more dire outcome. to say she is improving is a misnomer. this child should be disconnected. what's at the heart of the matter is a distrust between a family and a medical facility where a child died as a result

of a routine operation. that's the breakdown of trust that's happening here. they don't trust the -- >> the children's facility in oakland. >> they don't trust the facility. >> esther, i'd like you to pick up on that. you're nodding. >> there's twos very specific issues. my heart goes out to the munoz family. but i think it's crucial we don't have scenarios where law trumps a woman who has declared what she wants to happen with her body. she's a paramedic. her husband is. she has said i do not want to stay alive. we see what happens when you're playing legalities where a woman has declared what she wants to happen with her body. jahi it's different. how does a mother accept that when a child goes in for something routine, she should now bury her baby. absolutely, this it is about more than distrust. this is the devastation of a family saying how does a routine

to know procedure turn into i an funeral and fight in the courts. >> esther, how does a medical facility, doctors and the like, go to the parents of this 13-year-old jahi and say we know that you are interpreting maybe involuntary they're saying she's improving. but she's braindead. how do you even approach that? >> they've heard from so many other people. they're not acting in a vacuum here. there's been other doctors. they've had probably three, four, five, six, seven opinions on this. and that's a big difference. yes, it goes to the distrust. and i agree with goldie's point. but at some point, you have to accept those realities of what you're being told. >> but you're being told different things, like -- >> no, no one's disagreed that she is dead. no one has disagreed on that. no one has said that she is -- >> but the court approved she's

able to be moved to another facility -- on the one hand, there's the economic reality of not being able to afford being able to do that. >> no, it's about a hospital that's refusing to do a procedure on a dead body. those procedures would have to be done in order for this body to be transferred and this hospital is refusing to perform out of ethical reasons, to perform those procedures on a body it has declared brain dead. >> we have to move on to the next topic. "the new york times" saying with the editorial about nsa leaker edward snowden, quote, considering the enormous value of the information he has revealed and the abuses he has exposed, mr. snowden deserves better than a life of permanent exile, fear and fight. he may have committed a crime to do so but he has done this country a service. goldie? >> i have never been a fan of his. but there ought to be a pathway for him to return to the united states given that we can secure

the information that he procured in a meaningful way and given that he will cooperate fully with the united states government. i'm not sure that we can reach those bounds today. maybe some time in the near future. >> esther? >> this is not about the personality. it is about what he uncovered as far as the power of the people being abused by what was revealed. should he be given clemency? absolutely. if you're not going to prosecute lying to congress, how do you -- >> it wasn't just domestic information. there was information he leaked about our national security. he should come back to the u.s. and face charges and he should be in jail for the rest of his life. >> okay. marijuana, best or worst of the week coming up next. 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!

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we are back with the big 3 for the best and worst of the week in a blisteringly fast fashion. goldie, best and worst for the week? >> best are the millions of americans who were able to sign

up for a.c.a. and those who have enrolled so far. we hope we're on the road to hitting that 7 million enrollees by march. loser of the week is the way in which we've been discussing the end of pot prohibition in colorado. i believe the law is flawed in its construction and it will not end the chatter between inequities in law enforcement but increase that chasm given the soaring price. i understand that one ounce will cost you $500 plus 25% tax and $25 per ounce. no one in my hood can afford that. >> esther, yours? best and worst? >> best was bill de blasio, his inaugural speech. great to hear a progressive agenda for new york. the worst was the gop not even putting unemployment benefits on the agenda, that was a disgrace. >> susan? >> best week is president bill clinton for showing the grace to recognize the good work mayor bloomberg did after many of bill

de blasio's guests totally snubbed him. and the worst week goes to the new public advocate for new york city, letisha james who was caught by "the new york times" in a big lie trying to take credit of pushing a story on the homeless. >> thank you all. i'm two seconds over. i'm going to wrap up "weekends with alex witt." own boss! and my customers are really liking your flat rate shipping. fedex one rate. really makes my life easier. maybe a promotion is in order. good news. i got a new title. and a raise? management couldn't make that happen. [ male announcer ] introducing fedex one rate. simple, flat rate shipping with the reliability of fedex.

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