dramatic temperature swings sweep across parts of the country, leaving some cities in a sudden deep and dangerous freeze. we bring you the story by the numbers. back to business. fresh from hawaii, the president plans an aggressive to-do list in the coming weeks. what's on it and where does economic fairness stand? in iraq, there's more war. are the forces of al qaeda undoing some critical gains u.s. troops made when they were there? and what happens when a highway turns into a landing strip? you're going to hear what the pilot of one small plane said momentings before he ended up there.s before he ended up there. hey there, everyone. it's approaching -- oh, no. we just hit high noon here in the east. welcome to "weekends with alex witt." right now 140 million people are bracing for bone-chilling temperatures not seen in decades, by the way, as a dangerous arctic blast barrels down on half of the country. this is the scene around indianapolis just a short time ago. winter storm warnings are in

effect for much of the midwest with heavy snowfall already coming down. another big number about the cold, there are 1200 miles of windchill warnings and advisories. store shelves in indianapolis are bare as people rush out to stock up on essentials, heeding the early warnings. >> we're trying to get it done now. looked like everybody else wanted to do it too. >> we actually came? just to get some meat for taco salad. this was the last meat left. >> well, icy weather is already causing big problems on the roads and in the air. frightening moments for 35 passengers on board this jet that skid off the runway at new york's jfk, temporarily halting all flights there. no one was injured. the airport is back up and running. we're about to bring you a live picture of jfk, where some of the weather has cleared a little bit. meanwhile, more numbers for you. the arctic air mass will deliver unprecedented drops in temperatures over the next couple days. today, lexington, kentucky, will go from a high of 45 to a low of

7. tomorrow, cleveland will go from 20 degrees to minus 10. new york city will see a 37-degree drop tomorrow from 50 degrees down to 13. right now in wisconsin, green bay is getting ready for what could be the coldest nfl game ever. that is where we find nbc's dylan dreyer, who's fighting through the freezing temperatures for us. you look cute as a button out there, but i have to ask the temperature because look all you have just trying to insulate you. what's it like there now? >> reporter: not only do i have a ton of layers on, but i have secretly hidden hot packs all over my body. you do what you can to stay warm when it's this cold. the coldest is still yet to come. that's going to move in tonight into tomorrow. but right now it's about 5 degrees. our windchill is 11 below right now. it's not even that windy. as we go through the game time today, it should hold steady around 5 degrees. a lot of people have compared this to the ice bowl in 1967. keep in mind, that game was 13 below with windchills around 48

degrees below zero. we're going to get into that tomorrow. so i'm sure a lot of packers fans are happy that today is as warm as it is. but it is still dangerously cold. they don't call it the frozen tundra here for nothing. five of the top coldest nfl football games ever have been played by the green bay packers, four of those here at lambeau stadium. it is cold, and it is going to stay exceptionally cold through the day today. now, we're going to top out with a high of about 6 degrees. but as we go into tonight, it is going to drop down to 22 degrees here in green bay wisconsin by tomorrow morning. the problem tomorrow, though, the high temperature's only going to be negative 10, and it's going to feel like it's about negative 50 throughout the day. this is the problem all across the midwest, even stretching into areas like atlanta where windchills will be about 13 below by the time we get into monday and tuesday. that's an area obviously not used to the cold, and it's moving into the northeast too. we're going to go from about 50 degrees today to about 13 in parts of new england and even new york city by the time we get

to tuesday. this is one of those arctic blasts that you don't see all that often, but it's here, and it's going to be one of the coldest weather stretches we've seen in quite some time, alex. >> yeah, i'm going to keep you out just for a second. we know the players and fans there in green bay are certainly hearty. is the stadium helping, the team officials doing anything to help them out for those who want to brave the game? >> reporter: well, they are passing out about 70,000 hand warmers. you know, it's one of those things where i think people here know that you have to bundle up. you could get frostbite in just 20 minutes if you have exposed skin. you need to bundle up. but they are passing out the hand warmers. i vouch for those because they are keeping me extremely warm compared to if i didn't have them. they're also handing out hot coffee and hot chocolates. i think two per person over the course of the game. they're doing what they can. in this stadium, blocked by the wind a little bit, there are some heating elements in the field itself. so i think it's actually going to be warmer inside the stadium than for all the tailgaters who will be filing in here shortly.

>> okay. and for poor dylan dreyer standing outside, we're going to let you go. thank you for the report. we appreciate it. >> reporter: thanks. >> well, the dramatic drop in temperatures is being felt at the nation's airports. 1500 flights already canceled. once again, this live look at jfk in new york. that's where the temperature is hovering around the freezing mark. visibility not that great. a number of airports are experiencing minor delays. the waits are much longer in philadelphia and other airports in new york. below-zero temperatures led to a record-breaking number of calls to aaa. on friday, aaa in northern new england received 8,000 calls from drivers. we give you a live look at the snow coming down big time in indianapolis. the calls were from drivers in maine, new hampshire, and vermont. they were all needing jump starts. let's go to politics now. new today, president obama is back home in washington. probably a welcome back to the cold weather. not so much, right? he came from hawaii. he did arrive there at andrew's air force base about an hour and a half ago after two week there is in the 50th state for the

holidays. congress is also heading back to the capitol. harry reid says his chamber will vote tomorrow on extending long-term unemployment insurance. he responded to republicans who say they won't vote to extend the insurance unless it's offset with spending cuts. >> this is typical for republican members of congress. not republicans, but republican members of congress. the vast majority of american people believe that unemployment benefits should be extended, never with unemployment like this have we ever even considered not extending them. >> let's go to the white house and nbc's kristen welker is standing by for us. a good day to you, kristen. we have the president, who has pushed for an extension of unemployment insurance in his address this weekend. what are we expecting when the vote comes down tomorrow? >> reporter: well, alex, you know, it's not clear right now. democrats still scrambling to get the 60 votes needed to fend off a filibuster. as you say, the sticking point remains how to pay for this. republicans saying they won't pass the legislation unless that

$6.5 billion, which is what it would cost to extend unemployment insurance benefits for six months, is offset with spending cuts. democrats say that's not necessary, let's pass this short-term extension and hammer out a broader deal. president obama talked about this in his weekly media message. he's also going to hold an event here at the white house tomorrow. here's a little bit more of the debate from the sunday shows. take a listen. >> it's the right thing to do. we have long-term unemployment. that's why the american people support this. democrats, independents, and republicans. >> i would, however, want to support an extension of unemployment benefits, at least at some extent, for a brief period of time. only speaking for myself, i'm not saying it should be offset dollar for dollar, but there has to be compromise coming from the democrats. >> reporter: so alex, that's more of the debate. as you can imagine, if it's going to be tough to get through the senate, it's going to be

harder to get this legislation through the house. of course, this just one of the battles on the horizon now that 2014 is getting underway. president obama really trying to restart and retool his presidency after a rocky 2013. so another big issue he's going to be taking on in 2014 is the issue of the minimum wage. he's going to call for an increase in the minimum wage. you can expect some democrats to use that as a campaign issue in 2014. another big looming battle, immigration reform. of course, with the midterm elections looming, folks are really going to have to get down to business early if they want to get anything done because soon it's all going to be overshadowed by the elections. alex? >> break's over. there you have it. kristen, thank you. an investigation is underway after a small plane made an emergency landing on a new york city highway. it happened saturday afternoon in the bronx. here's some cell phone video taken by a driver on the northbound side. the faa says the landing gear appears to have collapsed but amazingly no one was hurt.

here's part of the call for help made by the pilot. it has been edited down. >> mayday, we're losing engine. where should i land? i don't see anything. which direction am i heading? i'll never make it. where do i touchdown? >> i'm not sure where you can touchdown. right now you're over the bronx. [ unintelligible ] >> well, the pilot and two female passengers were taken to the hospital treated and released. on the other side of the world, the u.s. is sending a heavy ice breaker to help free russian and chinese ships trapped in ant arctic ice. the polar stef left this morning. it's expected to arrive next

sunday. more than 120 crew members on board those stranded ships. last week, the crew from the chinese ship helped rescue passengers that were stuck. the passengers are on their way home on board an australian ice breaker. more on the developing weather story. a sudden drop in temperature across big parts of this country. where, when, and how much, next. and putting delivery drones to the test. could unmanned planes be doing practice runs in the skies over your house soon? amy chicken corn chowder. i mean, look at it. so indulgent. did i tell you i am on the... [ both ] chicken pot pie diet! me too! [ male announcer ] so indulgent, you'll never believe they're light. 100-calorie progresso light soups. [ cellphones beeping ] ♪ [ cellphone rings ] hello? [ male announcer ] over 12,000 financial advisors. good, good. good. over $700 billion dollars in assets under care. let me just put this away. [ male announcer ] how did edward jones get so big?

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well, here's some weather for you. giving you a live look at indianapolis there. it is really coming down. there's not much visibility, but the snow is coming down heavily. great for all you who want to go skiing. i don't know about any ski resorts in indianapolis. tweet me with information on that, since i'm such an avid skier. we'll get that out too.

meantime, 30 states are either under a warning or advisory. what's behind this deep freeze, and how bad is it going to get? the weather channel's dr. greg post se postel is here to explain. >> it's snowing really hard right now in indianapolis. many locations across the ohio valley as well. we have winter storm warnings out from missouri up through michigan and winter weather advisories that extend as far south as northern georgia. we can time out this storm for you, beginning 2:00 this afternoon. all this blue, that's the heavy snow that is going to be moving through this afternoon. you can see that work its way northward across illinois, indiana, northwest ohio and detroit by 8:00 tonight. so there will be air traffic delays there like there are now. if you are traveling all across the upper midwest, stay tuned and keep in mind the air traffic delays that will accompany this winter storm as it moves off

into the canadian provinces very likely early monday morning. on the east coast, it's mainly a rain event for you with warm air out ahead of it. arctic air will be surging in later. that will bring the temperatures falling like a rock. let's look at the additional snowfall forecast we expect between now and monday evening when it's all said and done. add what you've got on the ground now all across this region to these numbers. that will be your storm total. in excess of 5 to 8 in the purple shade. as much as 8 to 12 in some spots. even down in the mid-south like in tennessee, could be up to an inch, maybe even three inches. then as i mentioned, once it's all gone, look at the cold air move in. late tomorrow, late tonight and early tomorrow and then look at these temperatures. by tuesday morning in new york, 13 degrees, 8 in washington, 11 in raleigh. very, very cold air is in place

on tuesday, will stick around for a couple days. after that, things kind of quiet down and at least warm up a little bit. alex, back to you. >> okay. thank you for the heads up on all of that. most important to know all that. thanks, dr. greg postel. here's another note for all of you. the national weather service in minnesota is warning people about the dangers of getting caught out in this cold. it says exposed flesh will freeze in ten minutes with windchills of 35 below, just five minutes of windchills with 50 below or colder. those kinds of windchills are absolutely possible. keep that in mind, everyone. let's go to washington and the day's big question. will it pass? tomorrow the senate is expected to vote on a three-month extension of unemployment benefits. 1.3 million long-term unemployed americans stopped receiving checks last saturday. democrats call it an investment in the economy while republicans say the country simply can't afford it. joining me now, democratic senator robert casey, member of the finance, health, and joint economic committees. always a pleasure. glad you're here to talk about

this. >> alex, thank you. >> so do you have the votes? >> well, i think we will in the end, alex, because i think no matter what party you're n you live in communities or states where the unemployment rate has been very high for a lot of communities. the long-term unemployment rate has been at historic highs. for example, in pennsylvania, we've got between 75,000 and 85,000 people in this category. i live in a county where we have folks who will be affected in the number of more than 1,500 people, just in my home county. so across the region i live in, across the state, and across the country, these folks need the couple hundred bucks a week that the emergency unemployment compensation entails. also, we want to have any effort that results in economic jump starting, which this provides and really is a job creator and

preserver. we want to have that in place. so i think republicans and democrats understand that. >> yeah, and i'm just checking some recent numbers here, sir. unemployment in the state of pennsylvania there is at 7.3%. look, there's the senate and then there's the house. does this have any hope in the house? >> well, it's hard to tell there, alex. i'm not a vote counter in either chamber, but i think in the senate we can get it through with bipartisan support. it starts from a position of bipartisan support with jack reed the democrat and dean heller the republican. that's hopeful. i would hope in congressional districts across the country they would understand this isn't about party. it's about real people. it's about $306 a week on average across the country. not a lot of money to put on the table and help people get through what's going to be a tough three months. >> yeah, senator casey, the genesis of this, though, was an emergency program. is it your position that it should be made permanent?

>> well, i don't think you can make it permanent, but alex, when this passed in 2008, the unemployment rate was actually a lot lower, about 5.6%. george bush was president. so now with the unemployment rate hovering around 7%, in our state it's a little higher than that, in the region i live in it's around 9%. so with still the drag or the adverse impact of the economy over the last couple years still being felt, this is still an emergency for these workers, for these families, and also if you wipe this out this week, you've just destroyed by one estimate 200,000 jobs and by another estimate, as high as 300,000 jobs. >> yeah, those numbers coming from the cbo. i concur with those. sir, i'm going to switch gears here. as my colleague john yang reported yesterday, a major part of president obama's upcoming state of the union address will be about economic fairness, particularly a minimum wage increase. where do you put the chances of that actually passing? >> well, i think the chances are

good, but i think there's a battle ahead. i think we've got to be very determined in making the case for it. number one is having three 95% increases to get us to $10.10 i think is reasonable. it makes sense for those workers, but it's also a lift for the economy. the other part about the minimum wage, which is sometimes lost, is if we look at what's happening to children in this country, childhood poverty has been persistently high, neither party really has done enough to lift children out of poverty. if you pass an increase in the minimum wage, more than 15.5 million children live in households where the mother or the father or the caretaker is given a lift by way of an increase in the minimum wage. so if all you care about is lifting children out of poverty, the minimum wage is one way to do it in addition to the obvious benefits for our workers an for the economy.

>> but looking at one number group specifically, if the minimum wage is increased to $10.10, let's say, an hour, that's still barely a living salary for a single person, let alone a family. so what can be done to end this trend of underemployment? breadwinners are resorting to these types of jobs just to make ends meet. >> when the president speaks of economic fairness and when a lot of us focus on the economic future of the country, we've got to work on a long list of priorities. the minimum wage is one of them. but we also have to focus on what's been happening to the middle class. we know since 2009 -- just consider this. 95% of all the income gains in those years, just since 2009, went to the top 1%. so middle-class families have been devastated, not just since 2009, but really over at least one, maybe two generations. so we have to put in place strategies that will grow the middle class. the top 1% are going to be just

fine no matter what happens. we need to focus on middle-income earners and put in place strategies that start, i think, with early learning with children in the dawn of their life. >> senator casey, with regard to the affordable care act, the administration has announced that 2.1 million people have signed up for the private insurance plans by the new year. are you satisfied with that figure? or do you think there are hurdles to get to about triple that number, plus, by march as the administration is hoping? >> if you care about this issue, the issue of health care, which is so vital to the life of a family but also it's so vital to how we control our long-term fiscal costs, you can't be satisfied with just a little more than maybe 2.1 million people. it's tremendous progress in the month of december, but we lost a lot of time and a lot of momentum and frankly some credibility in october and november. we have to be determined to get that number way up. it may not get to the roughly 7 million in march, but we've got

to be determined to get people enrolled. at the same time, being able to highlight and commend the work that's been done. you know, something like 17 million children with pre-existing conditions have protection now. adults cannot be discriminated based upon a pre-existing condition. women are no longer discriminated against as of january 1st when it regards health care. we have a long way to go, and we've got to concentrate on getting more and more people enrolled, weather that's through medicate, through the exchanges or the states. >> senator casey, thank you. a brazen robbery during a blizzard. did the weather play a role in the heist? also, we want to hear from you. please go to facebook and search "weekends with alex witt" and like us to keep this conversation going. yeah... try new alka seltzer fruit chews. they work fast on heartburn and taste awesome.

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taking you back to a live look at indianapolis. the conditions just keep worsening. in just a moment, we'll head to the weather channel's mike seidel for more. we start today's number ones with a list no city wants to be on. it is 24/7 wall street's list of the worst-run cities. given all the news about detroit's bankruptcy, it's not surprising mo-town makes the list. however, it's number two. san bernardino, california, tops the list, because it, too, has filed for bankruptcy and suffers many of the problems besetting detroit. newark, new jersey, ranking third. the best run, irvine, california, fremont, california, and plano, texas. if getting physically fit is your new year's resolution, the huffington post offers the 11 things you must know. you are going to hurt, but it's usually just soreness after pushing it. >> hi, everyone. i'm olaf. i like warm hugs. >> at the box office "frozen" is still hot. it's expected to win the weekend box office and reach the $300 million money mark.

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welcome back to "weekends with alex witt." now to headlines at the half. a brazen burglary in newark, new jersey, caught on surveillance tape. it happened early friday morning during the blizzard. three suspects smashed their truck into the store's metal security gate. they got away with expensive electronics. the owner says this is the second time they've been hit by thieves during a storm. pope francis announced today he's heading to israel, the west bank, and jordan in may. it would mark his first visit to the region, and it comes amid a new u.s. push for peace in the region. a partial cliff collapse is caught on video in southern england. weeks of rough weather have battered the coastline there, clearly. the powerful winds and rain are expected to continue through today. right now, roughly half of the country is bracing for icy cold temperatures not seen in 20 years. a life-threatening arctic blast is barrelling down on several states. this is the scene around indianapolis just a short time ago where the snow is coming

down, certainly as are the temperatures. they're dropping fast. there are 1200 miles of windchill warnings and advisories. icy weather is already causing big problems on the roads and in the air. and check out this delta jet. it skid off a run way at new york's jfk, temporarily halting all flights. no one was injured. meanwhile, the arctic air mass will deliver unprecedented drops in temperatures. indianapolis today will go from 34 degrees to minus 12. tomorrow, cleveland heads from a high of 20 to minus 10. new york city will see a 37-degree drop from 50 to 13. so what is causing the temperatures to take such a nose dive? let's go straight to the weather channel's mike seidel with the answers. as usual, mike's out in the thick of it. hi, mike. you're there in indianapolis, where it looks pretty, but no. not so much for you. >> reporter: it is pretty. the temperatures are so warm we're sitting around 31 degrees. there's the capitol dome. can you make it out?

it's getting plastered by the snowfall rate of an inch of hour. an hour south of here, there's nothing on the ground from this storm. we've got the big spike in the jet stream. we have the vortex, which is going to drop down into the continental united states. that's why a lot of us will see the coldest weather we've seen in 20 years plus. we're talking highs tomorrow at 13, 14 below zero. that's the coldest afternoon they've ever had. unfortunately, it's going to be warmered a midnight. technically we won't get the official record. chicago's high tomorrow, 12 below zero. look at the roads down here. snow packed and snow covered. snowfall rate very impressive. the other thing we don't have right now is the wind. that's going to ramp up late this afternoon and tonight. that's going to drag down the cold air. the temperatures will really start to fall after about 7:00 or 8:00 tonight. we're at 31 now. by 10:00, we're down to about 15. by 1:00 in the morning, we're down to 5. then well below zero tomorrow morning. the windchills, which this morning are running 25 to 30

because there's hardly a whiff of wind, will in some spots be 60 to 70 degrees colder tomorrow morning. that's an amazing drop. so all this slush and this wet snow will just become hard as a rock as we get in through this evening. as far as flights go here in indianapolis, they've canceled arrivals, departures, about 125 flights. o'hare, another horrible day and a long week of flight cancellations and delays. at o'hare, they've canceled about half of their entire schedule. that's about 1100 flights. average delays now, average arrival delays are running three to five hours. just a nightmare there at that airport. there you go. the snow will wind down this evening. we're looking for totals in this area as much as a foot. if we do get a foot of snow, that's going to put them ahead of their entire seasonal average. they've already got 15 inches. there you go. guys, back to you. >> wow. all those stats. thank you very much, mike

seidel. stay safe in the snow. developing news overseas. the iraqi government says al qaeda linked fighters control all of fey lieu that. this comes ten years after nearly 150 american troops were killed in those two battles, considered some of the heaviest fighting in the iraq war. joining me now, retired army general barry mccaffrey and msnbc analyst. sir, this did not happen overnight. 2013 was the bloodiest year since the height of the war. 9,000 people dead. senators graham and mccain are blaming it on the u.s. pulling out. so what could have prevented this? >> well, thank god we pulled out. i thought that was the right decision. anbar province are in the hands of al qaeda-inspired terrorists and have been the center of this ongoing civil war in iraq. shia versus sunni with a kurdist

north. really an autonomous state now. it's hard to know what the u.s. options are. it's a government of the shia side. they're iranian allies in a sense. they're supporting the government of syria, assad's side. yet, the sunni terrorists who now hold the territory, are essentially the terrorists that have been killing americans all over the middle east. so there aren't many good options. thank god we're no longer there. >> yeah, yesterday, general, i had a very sobering conversation with the former "new york times" baghdad bureau chief john burns. i want to get your reaction to something he said. let's take a listen. >> 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. >> do you agree, washed away?

>> well, it's too early to know that. you know, ten years from now, looking back on this whole effort, we may have better feel. clearly taking down the saddam regime and ending it for good not just for iraq but our saudi allies, for the gulf coast states, that was the right thing to do in response to some serious provocations. they may well have been a nuclear power by nouw if we http://done th hadn't done that. we've taken a sunni dictatorship in iraq and replaced it with not a democratic regime but a shia majority, who are now dominating the country so, you know, this is an area in which democracy has not been fruitful, alex. >> yes, sir. can i ask you, as a soldier, what does it mean to you to see iraq in such turmoil after all the lives that were lost there

and the devastating injuries that soldiers are still suffering from? >> well, that's a good point. we have the better part of over 50,000 killed and wounded in iraq and afghanistan. u.s. armed forces have really been pushed to an extreme. they've done a magnificent job. i think they should and are proud of having responded to the dictatorship. in both afghanistan and iraq, let's see how it plays out. we got to stay out of there with troops on the ground. we shouldn't get involved on the ground in syria either. but clearly we have to try and influence the action with money, with cia operations and with diplomacy. >> all right, general barry mccaffrey. aalways appreciate your insight. thank you so much. >> good to be with you. lawmakers return to d.c. this week following their holiday vacation. first on the agenda for the senate is a vote tomorrow on

extending unemployment insurance. more than a million americans lost that crucial benefit just three days after christmas. let me bring in now washington bureau chief of "the chicago sun times," lynn suiweet. glad to see you both. lynn, in addition to this vote scheduled for tomorrow, harry reid says he plans to outline his 2014 legislative agenda. what do you expect to see on that list? >> well, it will run parallel to what president obama's going to be talking about in january, and that is income inequality. put that in your trending words. it's a lot about minimum wage and also extending the unemployment insurance. two big items on the to-do list. >> i read eric cantor's note yesterday to all the republicans in the house. nowhere on the list. we were talking about that. jackie, the director of the white house's national economic council spoke today on "meet the press." let's listen to some of that. >> we're a country that believes

if you work full time, you should not have to raise your children in poverty. but minimum wage work wers two children, some of them do. we can address that. by the way, right now the minimum wage is at the same real level it was in 1950. you can't tell me as a country that over 64 years we can't have a higher minimum wage that allows more people to work with dignity. >> jackie, nbc's john yang told me yesterday the president's state of the union address is going to focus on the economic fairness, including that push to increase the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour. how does that fit into the list of the president's priorities? >> i think it's going to be a big priority for all democrats this year to highlight the economic inequality. lynn said that as well. it has to do with 2014. they're defending a lot of senate seats in southern states, which is where a lot of people are making at or below the minimum wage. they're really taking a look at this and looking at this as a

way to appeal to middle americans. >> we have harry reid talking about things, but is this going to be the resounding message from the democrats as we approach the midterms, this focus on economic fairness? you think that's going to be front and center of everything? >> i think so. if nothing else, you want to divert attention to obamacare just in case there is still a lot of problems with it. there's every sign that everybody won't be happy because of the massive number of people who found their policies were not renewed. they equal out the people who are getting coverage for the first time. i think the points jackie's making, you know, there's not just one race for congress, even though you'll talk about things nationally. these are individual races. these are messages that can resonate, and in particular swing congressional districts. >> jackie, with regard to the president, his three years left in office, and that which we have the midterm election this year and another couple of years the general election, economic fairness. do you think that is going to be

a major campaign focus just across this country, whether from the white house or elsewhere? >> absolutely. i think it starts now. it starts with the state of the union coming up at the end of january. and they're going to continue to talk about this. as we get closer and closer to 2014. when you look at the minimum wage, it's a national trend to have this race. 21 states now have rates that are above the current federal m minimum wage. so democrats, i think, have a real foothold in this message. >> all right. i want to talk about the president's vacation, lynn, with you. he's back in d.c. today, having been greeted by this terrible weather. "the new york times" called this vacation a real and rare vacation in hawaii because you're going to remember, both of you, the year before the president had to return to washington in the middle of the vacation to deal with the fiscal showdown mess. you think this will reenergize the president as he works to try to implement his agenda for the final three years in office?

>> he did say he needed it. december 20th final press of the year, maybe after a little rest he would come back recharged. everybody does. it's the beginning of the year. everybody gets to start again. it's almost as much of a political way of just getting a new start in politics. both of you know this. you get to decide when you want to start the new chapter very often. so the vacation's over, he's back. by the way, mrs. obama stayed behind. he's having a little pre-50th birthday party celebration there. her big birthday is january 17th. so i think, yes, he will come back renewed. you almost have to because the year kicks off. you have a bunch of stuff in the pipeline that he's just got to get on. so let's give him the benefit of the doubt that he will come back recharged. >> but you know, jackie, what's so fun, i'm reading things he did. it's like a repeat of the previous years, right?

he plays golf. he goes to the marine corps base, gets his sunrise workouts. he goes to the same restaurants. kind of funny. such a creature of habit, right? >> right, but everybody has things they like to do on vacation. those are apparently his. >> when i go to chicago, i make sure i get my italian beef and deep-dish pizza. when he goes back to where he grew up, makes sense. >> all right, ladies. thank you so much. >> thank you. >> the big moment for "downton abbey" fans. we're going to hear from a brit who's already seen it with no spoilers. [ male announcer ] this is the story of the little room

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pbs period drama "downton abbey." it's abuenthusiastically loved critics and viewers. it's become one of the most widely watched tv shows in the world. it returns tonight for a much anticipated fourth season. here with a preview. i'm so excited about this. can't wait to see it. >> you're in for some fun. your favorite aristocratic soap app opera. it comes back set in 1922. there's only fun stuff on the horizon. no nasty wars to worry about. you have the upstairs, downstairs shenanigans going on. and of course lady mary getting over matthew's dead. if you didn't know that, you shouldn't be watching. that was in the last series. over 8 million americans tuned in for that season finale. it's been an extraordinary hit here in america. >> yeah, it really has. did you expect that?

i mean, when it crossed the pond, if you will, a year after ward, did you think it would have this cult-like following? >> nobody did. it's the biggest costume drama since back in 1981 that's come out of britain. you touched on it in your introduction. it's now in 220 countries around the world. it's watched by 120 million people. it's won something like ten emmys. it's extraordinary. you've had "the simpsons" do a parody. it's amazing how it's taken off, especially here in the u.s.. >> i know you said we're in for good stuff. we don't have world war i period drama there, but the season is getting some mixed reviews. this from sarah smith of "the kansas city star." those determined to tune in are in for detailed discussion of estate taxes and ruined scarves. what's your response to that? >> yes, on some levels.

at the same time, this is guilty pleasure tv. look, it is a soap opera. it isn't really pretending to be anything that high brow. julian fellows, who wrote it, says he based the pacing of it on "nypd blue" of all things. it's some fun. it's horrible weather outside. we all get to sit around the television set. what other show is there out there that can be watched my multigenerations? you can sit down with your grandmother watching this. then she becomes and tries to be maggie smith. it's something to relate for everybody. >> speaking of her one liners, she's wildly popular. all these zingers she has are great. one website describes her as having more zingers than a bucket full of lemons and jelly fish. she's great, but apart from her clever one liners, what is it that makes her so great to watch on this show? >> i think just fundamentally she's an old-school genius actress. when you're watching someone

who's that classy at acting as it were, it's always, always a pleasure. it has to be said. the only person who manages to beat her in this series with zingers is shirley mcclain. and that doesn't come until the end. you have to watch all the way through the season for that one. >> she did appear last season, right? she was there for a bit. >> she doesn't appear in this season, season four, until the final episode. but oh, she makes an entrance. >> she can be a rather tawdry american by comparison. good to see you. thank you so much. ready for takeoff. how close might drones be to delivering your pizza? or newly published book. this i. the day building a play set begins with a surprise twinge of back pain... and a choice. take up to 4 advil in a day or 2 aleve for all day relief. [ male announcer ] that's handy. ♪

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if you hear a faint buzzing sound, don't adjust your television. it's probably just a drone overhead. companies like amazon and dhl are betting on commercial drones to be the next big thick. that just got closer to becoming a reality as the faa has chosen six operators who will conduct test flights in nine states across the u.s.

joining me now, reid wilson, covering this story from "the washington post." let's talk about the stitypes o organizations conducting these tests. >> yeah, well, as you say, there are six states, a number of different teams in each state. most of them are run through either economic development organizations or universities. the site in virginia, for example, will be run through virginia tech along with the university of maryland and a school in new jersey, rutgers, as well. they're going to be testing for a number of different things. everything from whether or not these drones can operate in the busy northeastern air space corridor. you've got to make sure the drones don't get in the way of a 737 trying to land at laguardia or something like that, to a place like north dakota, where a lot of the drones are going to be tested for agricultural purposes. how's the lettuce doing? how's the arugula doing in some iowa corn field? well, i suppose not corn field. you know what i mean. they're going to be testing for all these different uses,

possible uses of drones and how they're going to be doing in all these different environments. >> but you know, privacy and safety issues, i mean, i understand from the ground up on your private property, you have like 400 feet overhead of air space. that's yours. there's nothing that's supposed to invade that. if you have a drone zooming down and potential mishaps, seriously, if they're trying to deliver a pizza. >> i mean, here's the fascinating thick about this. there were so many people going after all these test sites because there are so many possible applications of drones. whether or not it's amazon or domino's trying to deliver a pizza or your local law enforcement, you know, following a car chase suspect or maybe, as i say, a farmer trying to get a look at his crops around an area. so there are so many different uses and drones are becoming such a part of our lives, both in civilian and law enforcement and military usage, that you have to be able to test them. you have to be able to test all these different applications. that's what this faa decision did.

they are going to be able to test these machines, all different types from the tiny little amazon ones to the really big ones that governments want to be able to use, in all these different scenarios for everything from making sure they don't crash into the ocean to make sure they don't get in the way of a passenger aircraft. >> how long do you think until we actually see this up and running and being used continuously? >> it's going to be years. the testing process is going to go on for quite a while. but there are so many companies that are beginning to develop all these different kinds of drones. this prospect is a billion-dollar prospect. some of these states are anticipating $5 billion to $10 billion of economic activity because they've been chosen by the faa and tens of thousands of jobs. i talked to the governor of nevada, brian sandoval, a couple weeks ago before this decision was made. he was telling me just how important this was. he was saying it could be worth 20,000 jobs for the state of

nevada over the course just of the testing phase. >> that's extraordinary. certainly much needed. all right. thank you so much for the update on drones. appreciate it. >> thanks a lot. the huge drop in temperatures expected almost across half of this country. 30 states are either under a warning orred a vieds ri. how far will the mercury fall? and how dangerous will it be? that's at the top of the hour. . on your busiest day, you see the gray. try root touch up by nice 'n easy. just brush our permanent color matching creme right where you need it. then rinse. in 10 minutes, zap those grays and get on with your day. nice 'n easy root touch up.

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hey there, everyone. welcome to "weekends with alex witt." it's a little past 1:00 p.m. here in the east, 10:00 a.m. out west. let's get to what's happening now. there are bitter-cold temperatures not seen in years, and it's likely to set records across the midwest, northeast, and the south. more than 140 million people are bracing for a dangerous arctic blast that's barrelling down on a huge portion of this country. check out the scene around indianapolis. this was just a short while ago there where the heavy snowfall is already coming down. 1200 miles of windchill warnings and advisories are in effect. icy weather is already causing big problems out on the roads. >> i've been here for almost an hour. it's a sheet of ice. cars are just spinning out. >> real slippery. real icy. people falling. we almost fell. just trying to get home. >> well, let's go straight to the weather channel's mike seidel, who's joining me from indianapolis with the latest on the conditions there. mike, looks like the snow lifted up a little bit since last hour.

>> reporter: well, it's still pretty heavy. >> not to you? >> reporter: maybe a little bit. >> you can say i'm wrong. that's okay. >> reporter: i would never say you're wrong, no. then i'll see you in the hallway at 30 and you'll just walk by. >> don't go there. just get going. >> reporter: there's the capitol back there, alex. it's still snowing pretty hard. maybe a little lighter. the flakes aren't quite as big. four inches and counting. we're looking for as much as a foot of snow here in indianapolis. the governor has already activated the national guard highway assistance teams. he wants them out on the road. that's 24 teams, four each. not so much for right now. this is dangerous driving, but as the wind picks up, we get snow and blowing snow. then the dangerous life-threatening windchills. in fact, the windchill tomorrow morning will probably be 60 to 70 degrees lower than now. o'hare airport, what a horrible

week for trying to get in and out of there since last sunday with all the snow. now more snow and cold temperatures. they have already scrubbed about half their entire schedule today. departures, arrivals. if you're getting out of there or trying to get there, long delays of three to five hours. also delays back east because we have the ice earlier at jfk, laguardia, and kennedy airport. so the big deal is the polar vortex. really, it's the north pole literally coming down into the upper midwest and across the lakes into the northeast. today it's warmer in the northeast. tomorrow, maybe 50 in new york city, boston with some rain. this arctic air mass is the coldest air in over two decades and will shift in that direction. those of you back in the northeast and mid-atlantic and even down south. temperatures in atlanta tomorrow and tuesday will only be in the mid-20s. so everybody basically in the east, midwest, down to the gulf coast will have some way shape or form at varying degrees, but all well below average.

>> seems like there's no escaping it. okay. mike seidel, thank you very much from indianapolis. the arctic air mass will deliver unprecedented drops in the temperatures over the next couple of days. today lexington, kentucky, will go from a high of a 45 to a low of 7. tomorrow, cleveland goes from a high of 20 degrees to minus 10. new york city will see a 37-degree drop tomorrow from 50 to 13. meanwhile, some frightening moments for the passengers on board this delta jet that skid off a runway at new york's jfk. no one was injured. the airport is back up and running now. and we're giving you a live look at jfk right now, where it appears some of the weather has cleared a little in the foreground. sure can't see the skyline of new york city as you usually can. right now in wisconsin, green bay is getting ready for what could be the coldest nfl game ever. nbc's dylan dreyer has been fighting through the freezing temperatures. >> reporter: hey, alex. it's about 6 degrees here in green bay with the windchill feeling like 11 below zero.

now, this area is known for the cold. in fact, the green bay packers have played in five of the top ten coldest nfl games on record. four of those were played here at lambeau field. no wonder why it's called the frozen tundra. there have been a lot of comparisons between this game and the ice bowl in 1967. but keep in mind, at that game it was 13 degrees below zero with windchills at minus 48 degrees. game time temperature today should be around 5 degrees with a windchill of 15 below. so still extremely cold, dangerously cold. but the coldest is still yet to come. the national weather service in minneapolis calls this deep freeze, quote, historic. forecasters are warning of the lowest temperatures in 20 years. >> we're talking subzero highs. >> reporter: arctic air is pushing far south and east, covering an enormous swath of the country. more than 100 million americans will be affected. records could fall in places from michigan to georgia, where

they could see single-digit temperatures. minnesota's governor says it's just too dangerous to send kids to school. big school districts in wisconsin, including milwaukee, are out too. perhaps more than a million kids will stay home monday. >> flights will just get canceled, canceled, canceled. >> reporter: between the cold and snow, nearly 7,000 flights have been canceled across the country since thursday. the ripple effect of airport delays in the northeast and midwest is spreading from denver to palm beach, florida. >> we got rerouted to st. louis because we couldn't land. the airport got shut down twice while we were in the air. i was in st. louis for an entire day. i got two or three flights canceled on me. >> reporter: out on the roads, there will be more snow in the midwest and rain in the south, bringing the possibility of flash freezing. >> we tallied over 8,000 calls. >> reporter: that's a record for aaa in new england. they say it's a good idea to start your car over the weekend. >> take a quick trip around the block just to get the blood flowing in the vehicle so monday

morning when you head out, you turn that key and it turns on. >> reporter: but officials are warning people to stay off the roads. if a car fails, its driver and passengers will be stranded in subzero conditions. crews dealt with frozen water lines fighting this fire north of providence at the start of the weekend. in the end, the structure was frozen and destroyed. dangerous conditions also for the homeless or anyone who's going to be outside for any length of time. it's very important to keep checking for frostbite. >> one of the things that people will see first would be intense redness and pain. that's going to be followed by numbness. >> that will be a major concern in green bay today, as fans get ready for another ice bowl. so as we go into tonight, we'll see temperatures go from about 6 degrees for a high temp down to about 22 degrees below zero. windchills tomorrow will feel like it's 50 degrees below zero. all of that cold air is eventually moving into the northeast. areas like new york city, we could see a drop from 50-degree

highs today down to about 13 degrees by the time we get to tuesday. so this is a cold, arctic blast that isn't going to retreat until the middle to end of next woo week. alex? >> all right. thanks for the heads up. more on this cold weather in a few minutes. you can always check the latest weather in your area any time by going to weather.com. let's go to politics. new today, president obama is back in the white house after spending the holidays in hawaii. the president departed hawaii late last night and arrived back in the nation's capital this morning. first on agenda, extending unemployment insurance. but the challenge, getting republicans on board to do it. here's gop senator rand paul today. >> i'm not against having unemployment insurance. i do think, though, that the longer you have it that it does provide some disincentive to work and there are many studies that indicate this. so what i've been saying all along, we have to figure out how to create jobs and keep people from becoming long-term unemployed. >> on the opposite side of the aisle, democratic senator chuck schumer had this response.

>> most of the people i meet who are on unemployment are people who have had jobs for 25 years, lost them, and they've been knocking on doors every week. i think it's a little insulting, a bit insulting to american workers when rand paul says that unemployment insurance is a disservice. they want to work. >> nbc's kristen welker is at the white house for us. kristen, with the president back in washington, is this topping his agenda? >> absolutely. this is item number one. president obama calling for an extension of unemployment insurance benefits in his weekly media message. he's also going to hold an event here at the white house. this as the senate prepares to hold its first vote tomorrow. i know that democrats still struggling to get the 60 votes needed to fend off a filibuster. republicans saying that they'll get behind this three-month extension, which comes with a cost of $6.5 billion, only if that is offset with spending cuts. democrats are saying, let's just pass this short-term deal and

then we can hammer out a longer term deal that might come with some offsets. more broadly, alex, president obama, congressional democrats are going to be making income inequality a big issue in 2014. president obama expected to call for an increase in the minimum wage during his state of the union address, which will come in february. here's a little bit more of what gene sperling had to say. >> we do admit that the worst legacy of this great recession is the crisis of long-term unemployment. and as jim says, we have to hit it on all fronts. we have to do job creation and work with ceos, but we have to give them support. >> another big item on the president's agenda, getting immigration reform passed. you'll recall a bipartisan bill pass the through the senate, but there was really no movement on that in the house. but his biggest priority will be

turning the tide on health care. as you know, a rocky rollout in 2013 of the health care website. the administration has gotten the website functioning far more smoothly. more than 2 million people have enrolled, but there are still some glitches with the enrollment applications. so the administration will be focused on getting those glitches worked out. it is key for this administration to make that happen in order to turn the narrative around on health care so that the president can focus on the other items on his second-term agenda. >> i think you even added things to his agenda. so break is so over, clearly. all right. thank you so much. >> so over. >> no more break. thank you very much. >> thanks. so we have coming up after the break, it was a mayday miracle. take a look at this. there's one pilot who ended up on a very busy new york highway. how? after the break. ♪ we're gonna be late. ♪ ♪

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now to what's being called nothing short of a miracle. a pilot in a small plane forced to land on a very busy new york highway. here's part of the edited call for help. >> mayday, we're losing engine. where should i land? >> [ unintelligible ]. >> i don't see anything. >> now for what happened during that call, we turn to nbc's kristen dahlgren on the scene. >> reporter: hey there. take a look. this is where that plane came down, right in the middle of the major deegan expressway. what has people most amazed is nobody was seriously injured. it's being called the miracle on the major deegan, a stretch of highway just north of manhattan. the single-engine plane was on a sight-seeing flight saturday afternoon when it lost power and started going down. closer and closer to stunned

drivers below. >> i couldn't believe what i was seeing. >> reporter: a quick-thinking road crew out after the recent snowstorm saw the disaster unfolding. >> we started slowing down the traffic so nobody could get hurt and the plane doesn't get hit by the cars. the plane hit the ground. they came straight down, they hit the tree tops. >> reporter: the small plane touched down, careening to a stop without hitting a single car. >> the plane struck down in the right-hand lane of the northbound. skidded approximately 100 yards to a stop. the three passengers on board were safely removed. one of them with minor injuries. >> reporter: the pilot and two female passengers were treated and released from the hospital within hours. >> he explained to me that everybody was fine. there was no fires in the airplane. there was no sparks. they were having engine trouble. >> reporter: engine trouble that could have ended in disaster were it not for that road crew

and a pilot who seems to have done everything right. >> he flew the airplane exactly the way his training would have taught him to. he kept his head. the results are really good. i think it's a success story in every conceivable way. >> reporter: the faa is now investiga investigating. the ntsb may as well. the plane has been moved off the highway. all that hydraulic fluid cleaned up and the road back open and moving on what's expected to be another busy travel day. >> okay, kristen. thanks so much. over 2 million people have now signed up for private health care plans on the federal and state exchanges. in a new interview this morning, senator schumer argued the successes he's seen in new york are soon going to hit the federal exchange. >> we're ahead of projections. i hear from people left and right, i'm getting much better health care now than i had before. that's going to start happening around the country. >> joining me now is kelly kennedy, health policy reporter for "usa today."

good day to you. >> thanks. >> at the end of november, we had about 360,000 people signed up. in just a month, you hit this 2-million mark. what caused such a quick turn around? it was a busy season, the holidays. granted, the website was working better. what do you think it was? >> i think it was a combination of factors. the news was getting out the website was working. i think it was also getting out that people had signed up and were seeing their premiums and telling their friends. but i think the deadline was the biggest thing. i think that december 23rd, you have to sign up by december 23rd to get january 1 coverage was the one that got erve signed up. >> yeah, i'm curious, is there an estimate on how many people now have health care that did not before, when you include those with the pre-existing conditions or might now be covered by their parents until they're 26? >> i believe the white house said it was 8 million. so you've got 2.1 through the exchanges. you have 4 million through medicaid. then you've got a bunch of people who signed up under their

parents' insurance because they were younger than 26. >> here we are beginning of january. 2.1 signed up. the cbo has a target of 7 million by march. the white house has certainly embraced that for a while. is that number possible, hitting that 7 million? >> i'm not sure. i mean, the white house recently has been playing that number down and saying what's more important is having a pool of healthy and sick people. but i also know that during the -- when the website went down and they said they were going to be able to handle a certain number of people a day, they lowballed it. i'm wondering if they do expect more than they're saying just in case. it's possible. we had several -- we had thousands of people, hundreds of thousands of people signing up in one week in december. so i mean, potentially they could still get their 7 million people. >> i'm looking at your latest article, kelly, in which it looks at some of the health care changes that are coming with the new year. what do you think is going to have the biggest impact? >> i think the biggest thing that people who are not enrolled

in the exchanges, who already have insurance are going to see is i think doctors will start laying out their prices. i think they're going to have to because a lot of us are in these high-deductible plans now, so you need to know how much you're spending and compare and contrast. in the past, you haven't been able to go to the doctor and say, how much is this mri going to cost. they're going to have to be able to tell you that now. that's the biggest thing as a consumer. >> something else you note here is that there are 36 governors up for election this year. how do you anticipate obamacare playing on the state level? >> i think it's really interesting. because you've got 4 million people who are already enrolled in medicaid, and not all of the states expanded medicaid. so you have republicans saying we want to repeal medicaid, but now you have 8 million people who are enrolled because of the law. so that's going to play out -- who knows how that will play out politically, but probably not very well. then you have these governors up

for re-election who may not have expanded medicaid in their states. seems like they're con stitch wents are going to say, why is it that i can get insurance through medicaid in california but in indiana, where i'm paying taxes that go into the same pot, i can't get expanded medicaid. so that'll be interesting to watch. >> it will indeed. we know we'll do so with your help. kehl i did kennedy, thanks. as we follow the plunging temperatures, we're going to go to one of the coldest places in the country next. of the little room over the pizza place at 315 chestnut street. the modest first floor bedroom in tallinn, estonia and the dusty basement at 1406 35th street. it is the story of the old dining room table at 25th and hoffman avenue. the southbound bus barreling down i-95. ...and the second floor above the strip mall at roble and el camino. ♪ this magic moment it is the story of where every great idea begins. ♪ so different and so new where those with endless vision

and an equal amount of audaciousness believed they had the power to do more. time and time again. ♪ and then, it happened at dell, we're honored to be part of some of the world's great stories. stories that began much the same way ours did. in a little dorm room -- # 2713. ♪ this magic moment ♪ i think we both are clean freaks. i used to scrub the floor on my knees. [ daughter ] i've mastered the art of foot cleaning. oh, boy. oh, boy. oh, boy. [ carmel ] that drives me nuts. it gives me anxiety just thinking about how crazy they get. [ doorbell rings ] [ daughter ] oh, wow. [ carmel ] swiffer wetjet. you guys should try this. it's so easy. oh, my. [ gasps ] i just washed this floor. if i didn't see it i wouldn't believe it. [ carmel ] it did my heart good to see you cleaning. [ regina ] yeah, your generation has all the good stuff. [ daughter ] oh, yeah. aflac! got 'em.

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it's a brazen burglary in newark, new jersey, caught on surveillance tape, and it happened early friday morning during that blizzard. three suspects smashed their truck into the store's metal security gate and got away with expensive electronics. the owners say this is the second time they've been hit by thieves during a storm. new york could soon become the 21st state to allow medical marijuana. "the new york times" reports governor andrew cuomo will formally announce plans to

loosen laws. administration terribles say the policy will be more restrictive than in other states and will be subject to new york health department standards. it's a tale of two trapped ships, and the u.s. coast guard called to action. that's next. rn chowder. i mean, look at it. so indulgent. did i tell you i am on the... [ both ] chicken pot pie diet! me too! [ male announcer ] so indulgent, you'll never believe they're light. 100-calorie progresso light soups. if you have a business idea, we have a personalized legal solution that's right for you. with easy step-by-step guidance, we're here to help you turn your dream into a reality. start your business today with legalzoom. we're here to help you turn your dream into a reality. so i can reach ally bank 24/7, but there ar24/7.branches? i'm sorry, i'm just really reluctant to try new things. really? what's wrong with trying new things? look! mommy's new vacuum! (cat screech) you feel that in your muscles? i do... drink water.

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as strong as a love that never fades. iams. keep love strong. with 2x the meat. love the iams difference or your money back. welcome back to "weekends with alex witt." at 29 past the hour, here are your fast five headlines. secretary of state john kerry said today the u.s. will support iraq in its battle against al qaeda-linked militants who've overreturn two cities, but he said u.s. troops will not be sent to iraq. meanwhile, a senior iraqi commander says it will take two to three days to drive out. pope francis will travel to the holy land for the first time in late may. dennis rodman has named a former team of nba playersen if an exhibition game in north korea. it will be held wednesday. and amazon ceo jeff bezos is

said to be feeling better after a kidney stone attack. that happened while he was on a cruise over the new year's holiday. he was flown back to the u.s. for treatment. those are your fast five headlines. let's go back to the big developing weather story. in indiana, the roads are becoming impassable. the temperatures are expected to drop dramatically. it's a scene expected to be repeated across this country. what is causing the mercury to drop so dramatically? the weather channel's dr. greg postel is here to explain. >> thanks, alex. a big winter storm is rolling across the ohio valley and midwest. the national weather service has winter storm warnings in a big stripe from missouri through michigan. this is a big-time snow event thav that's going to unload quite a bit of snow. early this afternoon, moving it northeastward from the mid-south. this area in blue is moderate to heavy snow at times. that will include places like indianapolis and detroit, where

it's already snowing now but will get heavier through the later afternoon hours. as this storm moves on off to the northeast into the canadian provinces late tonight and early monday morning, warmer air will be brought into the east. they'll likely experience mostly rain. the problem is, this storm moves off into the north, arctic air will be spilling back in behind it. even if the northeast, for example, you don't see much snow, if any, with this, very cold temperatures may lead to freezing of wet roadways and wet soils around the region once the system has moved on by. that arctic air will be very quick to move in. this is how much snow we expect all across the ohio valley from now until the end of this event through monday. that area shaded in purple is a good 5 to 8-inch swath. look at these brutally cold temperatures settling in during the day on monday. look at these numbers. they fall throughout the overnight hours. tuesday morning, 13 in new york. 8 in washington, d.c. exceptionally cold air, at least for a couple days following this

big winter storm. >> okay. dr. greg postel, thank you. russian president vladimir putin has announced he's lifting a controversial ban on public protests during the olympic games in sochi. with just a few weeks to go until those opening ceremonies, the venues are ready, but there is still some big security concerns. joining me now, nbc chief foreign correspondent richard engel, who's in sochi, russia. richard? >> reporter: alex, we are now in sochi, and behind me you can see two of the olympic stadiums for the winter olympics. we are just about one month away. the very large rounded stadium is ice hockey. the smaller one next to it is curling. there have been a tremendous amount of money spent on these stadiums. here in sochi just a few months ago, a few years ago, there was almost nothing here. russia has spent to date about $50 billion to build these stadiums, to build infrastructure,ing to build roads and train stations and to build an entire town where these

skiing events take place, about a 40 minute's drive from here. as you know, so far security has been overshadowing these games and already there have been two terrorist attacks, one against that train station, the other against the bus station. they were about 400 miles from here, but they took place in volgograd, which is a transit hub, potentially for people who are coming to sochi. analysts we've spoken to say there is a fairly high risk of terrorism taking place, perhaps not here very close to the olympic park because there is already a tremendous security blockade in place. but perhaps somewhere else in the country. the biggest concern is that these will be acts of extremism carried out by militants from the north caucasus. they've already said they want to carry out attacks during the games to try and embarrass russia, particularly to embarrass vladimir putin. putin, however, who was just here the other day in that rink

behind me ice skating, trying to show these games are going to be safe, that the country is ready, putin says these will be the safest olympics ever, and we're already seeing tens of thousands of security personnel brought into here and the surrounding area. alex? >> okay, richard engel. thank you so much from sochi. now to the ice drama in antarcti antarctica. a u.s. ice breaker is on the way to free the two ships stuck in ice. we're talking about that russian research ship that was carrying 52 passengers, and a chinese ship that evacuated those passengers. it's going to take time for the coast guard to get there. let's go now to nbc's vanessa cutterford. first off, do you know when the coast guard is set to arrive and how many people total are still stuck out there? >> hi, alex. well, it'll take the u.s. ice breaker about a week to get there because of the vast distances involved and the slow progress through the ice. it's coming from sydney, australia, and was meant to be on another mission, going to an

american research station near the ant aarctintarctic. now it's on the way to the russian research ship and the chinese ice breaker. the crew woke up to find huge blocks of ice moving slowly around their ship and an iceberg blocking their way. the good news is the 101 chinese crew and the 22 on board the russian ship all have plenty of supplies. so there's no immediate danger. in fact, the chinese ice breaker is hoping it may even be able to break out possibly tomorrow. the wind direction is due to change and the crew are hoping that moves some of the ice that's in their way. alex? >> now, vanessa, any concerns for these crew members on both the russian and chinese ships? are they in any peril? i know we've talked about food supply, for one. are they set that way? >> no, they're in no peril at

all. they have plenty of supplies. in fact, the people who were on the russian ship, the scientists and journalists who were evacuated, they're now on their way back to australia. they're feeling very relieved they've been rescued but a little sorry that the people who went to rescue them are now trapped themselves. in fact, they have written hand-written letters to thank them for all the work they've done, and they've been scanned and faxed to the chinese crew on board. >> yeah, i don't know about you, but we've been covering this story now for quite some time. i have all my fingers crossed that the u.s. coast guard cutter is going to be just fine getting there. i mean, i guess there's no guarantees, but i hope they have favorable conditions at least. it seems that way. >> don't we all have our fingers crossed, alex. the good news is the polar star is a much heavier ice breaker. in fact, the biggest the u.s. coast guard has and can cut much thicker ice than the others. we're dealing with blocks of ice in some places ten feet thick. that ice has defeated ice breakers from china, from

france, and australia. as i said before, hopefully the chinese ship will make it out before the polar star gets to them. but if not, the polar star, it's a big ship. surely it's got to make it through. >> all right. thank you. from 3d printer to driverless cars, the biggest technology event of the year opens its doors today in las vegas. the consumer electronics show previews some of the year's hottest must-have gadgets. over 150,000 tech industry experts coment from all over to see which ones will win over the minds and wallets of consumers. joining me now from las vegas with a preview is lindsey turntine, the editor in chief of the tech website see net. with a welcome to you, lindsey. lots of great gadgets people are talking about this year. do you have a favorite? >> oh, man. there's so much to explore. i'm really excited about all the connected home tech that's going to be happening at this show. there's going to be some interesting announcements about different ways to connect all of the technology in your home, even outside of your living room. this show has always been huge for televisions and home theater.

it will continue to be, but there's a lot more happening in different corners of your home. it'll be really exciting. are you talking about samsung? i mean, they in particular, right, they're showing off some huge ultra high-deaf curve tvs anne connectivity. >> they're showing off all kinds of things. they announced recently a new platform that they intend to connect all the samsung devices in your home that can talk to each other. so an internet connected television connected to your tv, but then also in the future potentially connected to other devices maybe from outside manufacturers. so possible connections with home security so there's a single app from samsung that you can use to control all different aspects of what's going on in your house, even when you're not there. but samsung is just one of the companies that's thinking about this. we're very early in the show yet. actually, the show starts on tuesday. so over the next 24 hours when the press gets its first look a at a lot of new announcements, i think we're going to see a ton more from other players. >> yeah. how about these new basis

fitness brands? they seem to be bigger than anything right now because they keep track of your steps and your pulse, right? >> yeah, this is -- the basis band is a smart watch. it's one of many smart watches, wearable, fitness devices on the market right now. it got another early announcement out the door before ces set the basis band, which is a little more expensive than the other fitness trackers you might have heard of because it senses some interesting things like, you know, your sweat and your pulse. it's also going to start to make sleep tracking more sophisticated. it will tell you not only when you've been sleeping but what type of sleep you're in and how you slept over the night, whether your sleep was calm or restless or whether you were in r.e.m. sleep. so that's pretty interesting. i think again, sort of a bell weather. that's going to be a lot more in wearable tech that gets announced. >> wearable tech but of a different sort, the google glass inspired companies that are going to show off new versions of smart glass this year. does anything stand out to you?

>> i think a lot of that will be sort of development on some of the technologies that you may or may not have heard of. there are a few growing competitors to google glass who are trying to get sort of out the door before glass does. i think we'll see a number of those kind of cropping up around the show and incremental updates. also some interesting updates in display technology that you can wear on your head. these devices look kind of crazy, but something like occulooccul occulous rift. >> okay. a very busy week ahead. thank you very much, lindsay. have fun. >> thank you. should other states start selling pot to make money? and wouldn't it be easier to fight america's drug problem if marijuana was legal? the big three is going to weigh in next. [ male announcer ] we all deserve a good night's sleep. thankfully, there's zzzquil. it's not for colds, it's not for pain, it's just for sleep.

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of arctic air, and it is blasting much of this country with certain areas seeing some

of the colder temperatures in decades. that includes green bay, wisconsin. that's where the weather channel's janelle cline is braving the elements. how cold are we talking about, and why don't you have your hood up, young lady? my goodness. >> reporter: it is cold, alex. i'm not going to lie. it is tough out here. in fact, we're talking about temperatures that will be below zero by the time kickoff happens at 3:40 central. and the wind is really the bigger factor here. gusts between 15 and 25 miles an hour. so take a look at the range we're looking at today. we will see temperatures, actual temperatures, at 22 below. then you add in the wind and you really are talking about a tough, tough situation out here for fans, packers and 49ers alike. of course, this, though, is not the coldest nfl game, not by a long shot. that happened here on new year's eve 1967 when we saw windchills here in green bay, wisconsin, of negative 45. people still talking about that game here in green bay. in fact, so cold that one fan

actually died from cold exposure and several others got fros frostbitten. so this is notoriously cold here in green bay. of course, at lambeau field, people here are ready. one local store giving away 70,000 hand warmers. fans will also be able to get free coffee and hot chocolate to warm up. they will be ready. they know this is going to be a great game for them to see. they're more than willing to stand out in this cold and to sit out in this cold, even some of them will be sitting on alum numb benches. you can imagine how chilly it will be. >> okay. there's just no way. i mean, i know these are hearty fans and hearty players, you green bay fans it. anyway, good luck with that. listen, no hood, the hair looks great. i get it. thank you. well, it is time for the big three. today's topics, going to pot, how much help, and this week's must reads. we're going to bring in my big three panel. only, there's only two. we have msnbc contributor robert

traynham and professor of political science jason johnson. i have to say, guys, we were going to be joined by jonathan alter, but there's a small fire going on in new york city, and he got rerouted. it's just not going to happen. so you guys have to pick up the slack, all right? just saying. robert, first to going to pot. "the new york times" says new york governor andrew cuomo is going to unveil plans to make the state the 21st to allow medicinal marijuana. colorado launched the recreational sales just last week. is the era of marijuana being illegal over? do you think police should expend their efforts to fight pot when it's now legal in some states? >> well, that's the million-dollar question. it really is whether or not it should be decriminalized or illegal. i think it should be decriminalized, but i'm not sure about the illegal part. this is an ongoing conversation weave been having for quite some time. what we know is there are some doctors out there that do prescribe it. there are a lot of people out there suffering from arthritis

and other muscular diseases that find some type of benefit from marijuana. as a libertarian, i feel as though an individual, so long as they're of age, should be able to use it. however, i do think that we need to crawl before we walk on this topic. >> jason, marijuana was once part of the war on drugs. for the first time, a majority of americans, 58%, support legalizing it. so what do you think is behind this reversal in attitude? >> well, because more people are using it. more people have access to it. they haven't necessarily seen a problem with the results of people using marijuana on a regular basis. whether it was bill clinton or barack obama, you know, we see that people can still be successful even if they were pot heads in the past. from a policy question, it's interesting. it the tax revenue going to be worth the money they'll lose from the federal government. that's the real question. >> hey, look who joined us in the studio, jonathan alter. did you come just to prove me wrong? >> there was a fire. the dog did not eat my homework.

>> it's true. anyway, we have to share our time fairly. by all accounts so far, jonathan, this has been successful. in colorado, a million dollars in sales just that first day alone. the tax money earned, we should say it helps the state improve infrastructure. a third of it goes to building schools. on the basis of that, do you see this spreading to other states? you think legalization could become some thing politicians would publicly endorse? >> we have to wait and see what happens in washington state and colorado. this is an experiment, really. i think it's too early to say it's been successful beyond, you know, the tax receipt. so let's see what happens over the next six months and year, and if it proves to be a genuinely successful experiment, you will see it spreading. in the meantime, governor cuomo's decision in new york state indicates that medical marijuana is now spreading pretty quickly. it's legal in 20 states and you're going to see that extend

probably to most of the rest of them. >> and right now governor cuomo says he'll allow 20 hospitals across the state to prescribe marijuana to its necessary patients. let's move on to how much help. secretary of state john kerry today said the u.s. would support iraq's fight against al qaeda. he says the u.s. will not send troops, calling the battle l, quote, their fight. so jonathan, big picture here, what is the united states' responsibility? >> you know, this is such a disturbing turn of events, essentially what's happened is al qaeda has filled the vacuum that was created when the united states and some allies kind of disengaged some from the region. this is what john mccain and lindsey graham were warning about. the big issue moving forward is, is getting involved, getting between essentially iranian proxies and saudi proxies, because iran and saudi arabia

are now the two major powers in the region, is getting in the middle of their fight in the national interest of the united states? the obama administration has decided no. so what we're going to be watching now for months and maybe years to come is arabs killing each other and we'll have to learn how to stand on the sidelines because there is no appetite in the united states for stepping in. >> wow. i got to tell you, jason, disturbing, sobering is part of my conversation with "new york times" chief correspondent john burns. here's what he told me. >> i regret to say this because i was wrong one of those who experienced saddam hussein's rule in iraq which was ghastly beyond words. and hoped that something better would come from his downfall. i'm coming to the conclusion that the american military traces in iraq, all that america

sent out to achieve and all that it spent so heavily for in terms of blood and pressure as president bush used to say is going to be washed away. >> that's what i was calling disturbing, very sobering. so jason, what is your response when you hear that? >> it's true. and part of the reason this has happened, it's not just you because the united states left. it's because the shia majority has been oppressing the sunnis. so we can't step in and play cowboy because we're looking at the difference between al qaeda who is trying to move back into iraq and also basic insurgents of people unhappy wiabout a corrupt government. we will assist, but we can't put boots on the ground because this is an internal political struggle. very similar to syria. we have to not make the mistakes of the past. >> if not troop, what kind of support will the u.s. provide? >> intelligence. probably some other type of maybe whether it's hiring some

individuals out there that can come in and help them arm themselves, if you will. remember, this is a conflict that has been going on for 700 years. but i suspect the main thing that we'll do is intelligence support. coming up next in today's must read, gospel, guns and the war on poverty. we're gonna be late. ♪ ♪ ♪ oh are we early? [ male announcer ] commute your way with the bold, all-new nissan rogue. ♪ to prove to you that aleve is the better choice for him, he's agreed to give it up. that's today? [ male announcer ] we'll be with him all day as he goes back to taking tylenol. i was okay, but after lunch my knee started to hurt again. and now i've got to take more pills.

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we're back with the big three must reads. rob beaert robert, what is your must read? >> the "new york times" has a story about president johnson addressing the country about the war on poverty. and the question is whether we're better off and in some ways we really are. there are millions that are just hanging on because of food stamps and you about a webecaus but the other question is whether or not we're still advancing, where or not we're creating an irn radioment from a political standpoint but also from an economic standment. and that's the question. >> that is a great article.

so thank you. jonathan, what is yours? >> also from the "new york times," a front page story about a now former columnist from guns and ammo magazine, dick metcalf. and he's been a very strong supporter of gun rights, owns many guns, have written in many columns in many magazines over the years. he was summarily fired, stripped of any association with any of these magazines because he gared to say that the second amendment like the first amendment and any others can be regulated. can allow for some reasonable regulation. >> that's going to definitely be a must read. how about jason, yours. >> yes. from grantland, it's about the pass of james avery who many of us either you knew as shrek the rat, or uncle phil. whether you saw yourself as will

or carol go or carlton bank, it was a great read. >> and that is a wrap. coming up next, "meet the press". [ baby cooing ]

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of the dusty basement at 1406 35th street 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 ♪ too small. too soft. too tasty. [ both laugh ] [ male announcer ] introducing progresso's

new creamy alfredo soup. inspired by perfection. from nbc news in washington, the world's longest running television program, this is "meet the press" with david gregory. >> good sunday morning. happy new year. it is a bitterly cold morning as an arctic blast of freezing air is roaring through the midwest. temperatures will plunge below zero in the midwest, where they're playing some football today, to the east coast with historical lows predicted. this morning president obama left hawaii after his two-week vacation to come back to a much colder d.c. than hawaii, at least, to try to jump start his agenda for 2014. so the stage is set for some of the key battles this year. back to work. as president obama returns, he begins a fight with republicans over the economy, restoring jobless benefits, raising minimum wage. that's what we'll be talking about.