in cincinnati, road crews are working 12-hour shifts treating roads with beet joyce juice, because it works better than salt in these freezing temperatures. in atlanta, coldest temperatures in 18 years, single digits, closing schools and businesses. central park broke a 118-year-old record this morning. the low there, 5 degrees. and in new york and boston, jetblue planes are scheduled to begin taking off again this hour after grounding flights for 17 hours because of the deep freeze. the cold triggered an avalanche of flights. >> waiting in line, which is about a mile long to rebook, can't get any information from anybody. the airlines basically won't even answer the phone anymore. >> in chicago, the brutal cold forced the cancellation of commuter trains this morning, as well. and that's where nbc's ron allen joins me live. good morning, how's it looking there? >> reporter: a little bit less extremely frigid than yesterday. it's negative 10 degrees.

yesterday it was negative 15 or 16 and the wind chill is still 25, 30 negative below. you can see some of the flags over there, they are not blowing as much as yesterday, but it's still pretty intense out here. also this is michigan avenue. you can see a lot of people, some people, yesterday it was completely deserted. that's causing, ironically, more problems. reports we're hearing from people commuting in is that the roads are in really bad shape, a lot of traffic accidents because people are not staying home as much as they were yesterday. they are trying to get out and get on with lives and work and that's causing problems. again, icy, frigid conditions here. this area is usually packed with people, but today it's not. also at o'hare airport, we're hearing this morning hundreds of cancellations. there were literally more than 1,000 yesterday, so travel in and out of here is still bad. schools are closed, public schools, catholic schools. here in this area, we've heard reports of at least four deaths related to the weather. a man shoveling snow had a heart

attack, another person died in a car accident, so still very, very dangerous. perhaps in the distance you can hear a siren, which we've heard from time to time here, which are ambulances and other hospital emergency vehicles. again, this is a dangerous situation out here and they are having some problems from time to time. >> improvement is marked by minus 10, it's not a good day. thank you, ron allen, get in from the cold. going from bad to worse, a lake-effect snowstorm could drop five to six feet of snow in upstate new york. more from the town with the unlikely name of mexico. katie, good morning. >> reporter: hey there, chris, we are here in a very windy and snowy mexico, new york. that's mexico, new york. not mexico down south where it's presumably very beautiful and warm right now. it is negative 1 degrees out here right now. about negative 25 with the wind chill, and the wind is really the issue. it's that frigid wind coming off

lake ontario and it's the snow around. we would have quite an accumulation if not for the gusts going from 35 to 40 miles an hour. any time in the next few minutes, it will pick up and you'll see it kind of knock me around. in fact, i was hiding behind this tree earlier. new york state is under a state of emergency right now because of this weather. highway 90 in buffalo is shut down. there's a blizzard there. it's the first time that has happened since 1993. highway 89 by me also shut down. they are calling that a soft closure, so if you are driving on it, you could get a ticket, but there's no actual roadblocks. when all is said and done as this system finally passes over some time tomorrow, we should be seeing feet of snow out here, actual feet of snow, not inches, that is if the wind doesn't blow it all away. chris? >> katy tur from mexico, new

york. there were many years when i played the role of katy tur. it's not fun. all because of the polar vortex. what is it and how the heck do we get rid of it? >> some people think we made it up, but it's been around for a long time, just usually the weather geeks would talk to each other about it, but it has this time and all it really is it up in the north pole in the wintertime especially, you get really fast winds and in the middle of the fast winds, there's a center of it. well, that's where the cold air is. if it breaks apart and the jet stream captures some of it, it can dip down into the country. it happened this year, bad in '96, also '94. those are the last two significant cold outbreaks to be compared to this one. they were worse than this one. it isn't unprecedented, but been a long time, almost 20 years since we've done this. right now, 17 states have wind chill warnings. warmer in the southeast with the

sunshine today. record lows set in chicago, kansas city, cleveland, pittsburgh, new york, philadelphia, atlanta. there are more, too. buffalo had a new record low at minus 6 in the blizzard, ridiculous, by far the worst weather of the country today is in buffalo. also in raleigh, record low. wind chills themselves, this is dangerous stuff. not the minus 50 we had yesterday, but minus 20 to minus 30, widespread from new york city all the way back to fargo. good news is, the temperature change map, this shows you the temperature now compared to yesterday. we've gotten significantly warmer. denver, kansas city, even dallas and minneapolis. that's because we have the big january thaw under way. this will, by the time we get to friday, saturday, sunday, almost everyone in the country will be back to normal, if not warmer than normal. just in time for the weekend. >> can't come soon enough, bill karins, thank you. let's go to washington now. lawmakers even had trouble getting in last night because of the weather, so they delayed that vote on unemployment benefits. that will now happen within the

next half hour. not clear, though, that democrats have the votes to move this forward, and right after the vote, 11:40 a.m., the president will hold his own event at the white house on unemployment, pushing republicans to extend benefits for the 1.3 million americans who lost them last month. >> you put that money in people's pockets, they spend it. most economists say this will create some 200,000-plus jobs. >> but the real story is that there are thousands of others in connecticut who are basically not homeless today only because of those benefits. >> there is an opportunity here for the republicans to demonstrate their willingness to help those who are hurting, those who are struggling. . right now we're only a vote or two shy. if we do it again and again, the pressure mounts and we'll get it done. >> from unemployment to the minimum wage, the battle lines are drawn for what's shaping up to be a major political battle in 2014. one of the president's top economic advisers insists this is not about politics, it's

about doing the right thing, but clearly there will be ramifications for the november elections. i want to bring in a.j. deon and cary budoff brown. good morning. >> good morning. >> e.j., for democrats, is this about doing the right thing mixed with good politics? what's happening here? >> i think in washington doing the right thing is always mixed with politics, and i think, first of all, on the unemployment issue, this ought to be a no-brainer and has historically been a no-brainer in our politics. senator dean heller, republican, was talking to luke russert earlier and he noted that president george w. bush spoke strongly in favor of extending unemployment benefits when the unemployment rate was lower than it is today. he said, people need this to pay their rent and buy food, and as you mentioned earlier, this is good for the economy, because it pumps money into the economy and we still need job growth. but politically, i think the

republicans are putting themselves in a dangerous position on this, which is why you're seeing this slow creep towards 60 votes in the senate. it looks like the democrats may now be only one vote short, and if the senate does pass this, i think that does create pressure on the house to do something, because most americans know these folks aren't collecting unemployment because they don't want to work, they are collecting unemployment because there aren't enough jobs yet. >> tantalizingly close for the democrats, probably a vote away. president obama was working the phones late last night. i think he comed susan collins, mark kirk, but on the other side, you have the heritage and club for growth telling republicans they've got to vote against this. what's it looking like, will the votes be there, at least for this preliminary vote coming up in 20 minutes or so? >> i think it's still unclear, and i think the tension point right now for that narrow band of republicans who are considering voting for this but have not yet committed is whether it's going to be paid

for, and that's a big battle within the capital, because even though unemployment benefits have not been paid for in the past, both ways, but in recent years, they've often tried to find offsets and that creates a precedent the democrats are not comfortable with. unemployment benefits extending them, funding them, or believed to be, you know, emergency spendings, particularly the emergency benefits these are considered and the idea of making this about how to pay for it could really hamstring the water in the future when they want to up benefits and extend them, and it just creates a, you know, real battle within the capital within republicans and democrat ons th this issue for decades wasn't funded. >> how did we get to this point, e.j.? 14 of 17 times this has not been an issue. as carrie points out, this hasn't always been a question of offsets. what's changed?

>> well, i think there's a polar vortex around washington politics. you've had a republican party that move well to the right of where they were. i mean, george w. bush was a conservative. a lot of conservatives said, we're not for all these complicated programs, but we know that unemployment insurance is a basic program because the economy sometimes goes south, and so now you have pressure from groups like club for growth, like the heritage action, that put republicans in a very difficult position in their primaries. i think the number is at 14 out of 17 times when we extended unemployment it wasn't paid for. this is just a normal thing, and it actually in the long run pays for itself because of the money it pumps back into the economy, so i think this is about a republican party moving right that is now reconsidering that move to the right, so this is an important moment. >> carrie, regardless how this vote goes, and i think everyone would agree with e.j. this is

important. the president has his event coming up at 11:40. can he exert some pressure or does it have to come from the american people, from voters, because frankly his poll numbers are low right now. >> the president has a huge bully pulpit in terms of igniting sort of a fire among voters and people to contact their members of congress. i think a direct in terms of pressure exerted on republicans, it's been believed that when he does speak out, it does not generally help the vote count in the capital, in the senate, but he certainly has the power to mobilize people, make an issue, keep it an issue. it's part of a broader story line narrative that he's pushing now, which is about income inequality, pushing the minimum wage, so this is part of a bigger agenda that, you know, it's pretty clear he's not going to let it die, and he's going to try to push it. it's something that he believes is a big unmet promise that he's made, you know, going back to

2008, to narrow that. and he's pretty focused on doing that. i think if republicans hope this is a one-off for the president, i don't think it will be. whether it has a direct impact today on a vote, it's hard to tell. there's a lot of republicans who are saying they are willing to do this, they just have to figure out how to pay for it. you can see a scenario where it goes down today, they go back to talks and maybe something comes out of that. >> i think one of the interesting things going on here, e.j., as we talk both about income inequality and the middle class, republicans aren't seeding the entire narrative to the president and democrats. marco rubio is going to give this major speech on poverty on wednesday. paul ryan is going to sit down with brian williams to talk about his plan for the poor. eric cantor is going to suggest school choice will help poverty. rand paul going to pitch his economic plan to detroit. are those speeches, e.j., going to help the republicans with their own narrative? and against what has been the

democrats argument that the republicans are not the party concerned about the poor and the middle class? >> well, i think it shows how much changes in the air that republicans, who a year or two ago were only talking about big government spending and deficits, now realize they have to talk about economic inequality and declining social mobility, so that already is a big change in what i see in broad terms as a progressive direction. and i think the question will be that old walter mondale question, where is the beef? can the republicans actually propose steps that would reduce inequality? i would love nothing better than to have the parties in a contest over who has the best answer to inequality, but if you're not willing to raise minimum wage and not willing to extend unemployment benefits, then i think you have a problem. >> e.j. dionne, carrie budoff brown, thank you to both of you. checking the news feed, skier lindsey vonn's dream of winning a medal in 2014 is over.

this morning she issued a statement saying she is out for sochi. "i did everything i possibly could to somehow get strong enough to having no acl, but the reality has sunk in that my knee is just too unstable to compete at this level." vonn, of course, one of the marquee stars of the olympics. she had surgery last february to repair her knee after a crash, came back to compete but reinjured the knee in november. now she says she's going to have surgery soon and will try to be ready for world championships next year. his stint in rehab may be over, but trey radel is getting back to work on capitol hill, just about two months after admitting he bought cocaine from an undercover agent. he vowed not to resign and hired a top ethics lawyer in d.c. a panel is looking at whether radel violated the code of conduct. vice president joe biden put in a call to prime minister al-maliki and the sunni leader of parliament. the u.s. plans to deliver more

missiles and surveillance drones to iraq this year, but has repeatedly stated, no boots on the ground. the saga continues. now the former seattle teacher who went to jail in the 1990s for sleeping with and later marrying a 12-year-old student is under arrest again. she missed a court appearance in connection with driving without a license charges, was put in jail, and was put on bond a few hours later. she and her then-student now have two children together. will republicans vote to extend unemployment benefits? we'll ask congresswoman marsha blackburn. that's next. ♪ yeah, he's clean, boss. now listen to me, duck. i have an associate that met with, uh, an unfortunate accident. while he's been incapacitated, somebody's been paying him cash. now, is this your doing? aflac? now, if i met with some such accident, would aflac pay me? ♪ nice. this is your stop.

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it's a vote with potentially far-reaching implications for the 2014 elections in november, and immediately for 1.3 million

americans whose unemployment benefits have run out. we are just minutes away from that procedural vote on extending unemployment benefits, and right now insiders say the outcome is too close to call. joining me now, republican congresswoman marsha blackburn. good morning, congresswoman. happy new year. >> good morning. and to you also. >> where do you stand on this? >> well, i am against extending the unemployment benefits. i think the only way we can consider this is finding the right amount of offset to pay for it. you know, we've spent $520 billion over the past five years on the unemployment benefit. that's cbo's number. the short-term extension is another issue of how do you pay for this and how do our children and grandchildren, who are ultimately going to have to pay the principle and interest on this, bear this cost? so those that are saying you would have to have some well

defined and steadfast offsets for this are exactly right. >> well, this did used to be a bipartisan issue, congresswoman, 14 of the last 17 times unemployment was extended it wasn't paid for, and let me just play for you what republican senator dean heller said just about an hour ago on "the daily rundown." >> even when republicans had control under the bush administration, we increased emergency unemployment without a pay for for the very reason that you're talking about, luke, that is it does have some added stimulus to the economy. as you mentioned, milk, eggs, paying rent, whatever the case may be for these hard working americans that need this help. >> does he have a point, congresswoman? >> well, he has a point. let me say a couple of things. number one, the best economic stimulus there is, is a job. we've been saying for years, where are the jobs, what has happened to the economy, and the president should be shifting his focus, harry reid should shift his focus, instead of saying

here is a temporary fix, let's get to the root of the problem. chris, i think that's what the american people are saying. >> it's a three-month extension, time to work out some other details potentially, so you have a three-month extension and the independent nonpartisan congressional budget office says this is going to help the economy. let me read from their report, extending energy unemployment benefits would raise gross domestic product and employment in 2014, relative to what would occur under the current law. recipients of the additional benefits would increase their spending on consumer goods and services. that increase in aggregate demand would encourage businesses to hire more workers than they otherwise would, particularly given the expected slack in capital and labor markets. >> and let me give you a broader scope response to that, because any time the federal government is sending funds out, it means they are taking more out of hard working americans' pockets in order to pay for this.

now, what we need the president to do is to say the obama economy is not working. the labor force participation rate is the worst it has been in 40 years. out of the 7.3% unemployment, 2.6% of that is the long-term unemployed. what he needs to do is be working the phones and say how do we move some of these bills like the skills act, which is languishing in the senate and would help with workforce development and jobs training. how do we look at rules and regulation and taxation policy that is hindering the ability of so many americans to get back to work? i had someone last week tell me, you know, i want to get up, put on a clean shirt, go to a job, work all week, fuss about working so hard, and look forward to having the weekend off. that is what people are wanting to do. they are so frustrated with washington, d.c. and a big difference is, when this president came in -- >> i don't think, congresswoman,

that -- >> we have $17 trillion in debt now. we're borrowing 40 cents of every dollar that is spent. we cannot continue this and the american people are sick and tired of the can kicking. >> i think that's true and i also don't think democrats would disagree with you. we're almost out of time, but i have to ask you, what do you say to the people in your state, 8.1% higher unemployment rate. >> i have great, incredible amounts of compassion. i want to solve this problem. it is just untenable that so many people have been unemployed for this amount of time because this economy has created an environment where employers cannot create jobs. the uncertainty, the overregulation, the overtaxation, the way washington picks winners and losers. the way the irs has done politically motivated audits,

the way the epa has done politically motivated audits. chris, the american people are fed up with this. it is not a partisan issue. it is about getting this country on the right track to prosperity for all americans. that should be the goal. >> congresswoman marsha blackburn, thanks so much. >> thank you, chris. from a curved tv to gadgets you can wear. the future is on display right now. it is the consumer electronics show in las vegas. we're going to show you the coolest stuff coming up.

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across america. yet every day he's given a chance, the senators from five republican votes, that's what's needed right now in the senate for the bill to extend unemployment benefits for more than a million americans. those republicans, though, under pressure from conservatives. >> these republican right wing

groups hold enormous power in the senate, and right now, unfortunately, the vast majority of their caucus are listening to those folks. >> we just don't think that the program is effective. there's plenty of evidence that suggests it actually contributes to people staying out of work longer. >> let me bring in democratic strategist keith boykin. looks like that vote has been delayed by a few minutes, but i want to put this in the context of politics and the 2014 elections. keith, obviously, this has been a key part of what the democrats have been talking about. we're going to hear from the president in about an hour about this. how does this play into 2014? >> well, i think the american people are behind the democrats on this. they are behind on unemployment, on minimum wage increase, and to a certain extent on the issue of food stamps because republicans are betrayed since mitt romney and before as a heartless party that doesn't care about the 47% of people they think are moochers and this opposition to

unemployment benefits is an extension of that, if you will. now you see people like marsha blackburn, oh, we would support it if we have an offset, but they don't care about it when it's a republican priority, only when it comes to helping the middle class do they care about paying for things. >> there's no doubt that the 47% comment was devastating for mitt romney. there's no doubt that the president's focus on helping the middle class was key to his victory in 2012. republican dean heller, who's a cosponsor of this bill that's going to be voted on says politics shouldn't play any role in the vote, but we all know where we are. let me play for you what chuck schumer says, because he thinks republicans are going to pay a price in november. >> the turning away of the middle class is dominated by one party. the refusal to do things that even mainstream republicans did, like unemployment insurance, like minimum wage increases,

even five years ago is hurting them. >> is it? >> you know what, this is a very tough situation to be in for republicans. number one, we are not against the working class. we are not against the middle class. we are not against unemployment benefits. what we want to do is pay for it, and pay for it responsibly. a lot of people said increase the payroll taxes. well, that in return hurts the working class, so it's not that we are against helping, we want to be responsible about helping, and we want to pay for it. look, 4.1 million people are continued out of work for over 27 weeks. that's a lot of people that have been out of work that are dependent on things. we are not saying that we want to ax this across the board, we want to do this responsibly. >> but there are people in the republican party, dean heller, kelly aye ayotte and others, and

this offset thing in paying for it is a ruse. as if we didn't know the republicans were opposed to unemployment benefits all along. >> we want something more long term. >> let's have a one-year plan then. >> not a band-aid over a band-aid. >> these talking points are so helpful, it's almost like frank lutz sat in a room to allow them to say it, but they do not believe in helping people who are unemployed, they don't believe in helping people get a living wage instead of a minimum wage. >> where's the end of the road? we need job creation. look at obama's green jobs, that created one job for van jones. >> this is how you create jobs. if you have more people getting money on a regular basis, they'll start circulating that money into the economy and that

creates more jobs. republicans spend 41 times repealing obamacare and start focusing on the jobs bill the president proposed two and a half years ago, maybe we'd make progress. >> the polls do show -- >> i'm sorry to get distracted, but this is upsetting to hear this. >> 53%, for example, of the american people support an extension of unemployment benefits. 60 percentile people who believe the minimum wage should be increased. the numbers are with the democrats on this. >> we support it, it's just we want to pay for it. the problem of it is and the spin of it, we are a bunch of angry people in a party that want to hurt the poor and the middle class. >> how did you pay -- >> this is not our brand. this is not what we are about. >> how did you pay for the bush tax cuts, for the iraq war? how did you pay for the medicare extension that george bush -- >> i understand that we have passed this before without strings attached. i understand -- >> only when it comes time to

helping the middle class now that president obama is in charge we have to pay for everything. this pays for itself because people have more money. >> you really think the republican party is antimiddle class, antiworking people, you really think that's what we're about? we are about family. >> when rand paul says it's a disservice to the middle class and to workers to have an unemployment extension, that shows you where the republican party is, and they know it's hurting them. in 2014, it may temporarily help them with the people who show up, but they will lose in 2016 because of this. >> to be continued, thank you. we are continuing to watch the senate floor. thank you both for coming in. >> thank you. right now, former penn state assistant football coach jerry sandusky is fighting to have his $4,900 a month pension restored. the retirement fund says he forfeited that extension when he admitted to molesting young boys in 2012. sandusky is expected to testify by video conference from jail. a federal judge strikes down

a key part of chicago's new gun law, saying the law went too far, that it's unconstitutional to ban gun stores from selling handguns inside the city. he wasn't convinced banning the sale of the guns reduced violence, either. the city can appeal. history has been made. janet yellen is now the first woman to ever lead the federal reserve. the senate approved her nomination by 56 to 26 vote yesterday, the smallest support in the fed's 100-year history, but it is worth noting some senators weren't able to get back in time because of the massive airport delays because of the weather. yellin replaces ben bernanke, who is stepping down at the end of the month. it's the showcase for the coolest, hottest gadgets, today we get a glimpse at the electronics show. brian joins us from las vegas. good to see you, and the one thing i'm hearing maybe most about, the busiest product is the world's largest hd tv.

>> yeah, i want to find the home where it fits, that's my first goal. this is from vizio, well known brand, and this is 120-inch tv, but not just 120 inch, that's huge. it's also extra wide. 25% wider than the wide screens we buy today. it's kind of hard to imagine the presence of this thing when you're at it. it also has 4k, ultra hd. so it's got a lot of acreage and it rams a lot into it. when they release the price, that should be about as big, as well. >> bigger than most new york city apartments, that much i know. the wearable tech, which a lot of people on my team already have is all the buzz. i know you've come across interesting fitness gadgets. >> yes. there's one from a company called tao, and what it does is if you imagine a little puck shaped thing and you actually

can press it while doing different kinds of isometric exercises, so this thing will sense pressure and coach you to do these kinds of exercises. there are many different types, and then keep your records and show you how you're doing. another one is called foot logger. it's like a smart shoe insole. put this into your shoes, it relays the pressure your foot is putting down in very precise ways. it can be used to hmonitor how you run or walk or folks who have parkinson's, because one of the early indicators is a shuffling gait and you lean forward a little. it can detect that and indicate early someone is developing parkinson's. >> amazing stuff. then the place near and dear to my heart, the kitchen, what do we have going on there? >> connected appliances are everywhere. one of the things most important here was lg has rolled out home chat, so this is how you would

interface with your connected fridge or dish washer or whatever it may be. these are all on the market, is by texting it. so you might text your refrigerator, i'm going to be away for a couple of weeks and it might text back to you, seriously, should i go into low power mode, and you text back yes. it's better than getting another app to learn. it's a smart innovation. we'll see how well it works. >> the friend who always answers your text, which i like about that. and the other big thing people like is home security. what's going on? >> yeah, there's a lot of do it yourself home security. today we have an alarm company come in, install sensors and charge $30 a month to monitor them. i don't know if they monitor them all that well. they don't want to set off false alarms. the trend now is diy stuff. one system called ismart alarm, you buy cameras, door sensors, whatever you may want, door

locks, and it all talks to your smartphone, wherever you are in the world, you get the alert and can look at the camera and see what's going on and call police. there are pros and cons to that, but i think it's going to have a lot of appeal for not just security, but awareness and control and know who's coming and going. >> the most fun place on the planet this week, thanks so much. good to see you. "forbes" is out with its 30 under 30 issue, highlighting stars in 15 different fields. we pulled out women who made the list in sports. tennis star maria sharapova is the world's highest paid female athlete. surfer alana blanchard. megha parekh, vice president of the jacksonville jaguars, and lindsey vonn, reported earlier is out for the sochi olympic games out for a knee injury is on the list, as well. ble for tw.

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the senate is just starting to vote. the first test vote on unemployment insurance in the next 15 minutes. they said they would start and we're seeing they are just about to get under way. joining me now, senator tammy baldwin, democrat from wisconsin, senator, good morning. >> good morning. >> do you democrats have the votes? >> well, we are awfully close. as of my last reporting, maybe one shy, and we hope that will develop shortly, but we'll have good news to proceed to the full debate on extending emergency unemployment compensation, because it's really a crisis in the united states, and in my home state of wisconsin right now, that needs to be addressed. >> well, let me ask you about your home state. led the nation in new jobless claims in december, but your republican counterpart in the house, as you know, paul ryan, points to data showing that unemployment, long-term unemployment, would actually be hurt, that it would enhance long-term unemployment if you

make this vote. what do you say to him? >> you know, i just don't buy that set of arguments. i think that we have discovered over and over again that emergency unemployment compensation as we recover from a deep recession, especially in states like wisconsin that have been lagging behind, that this has, first of all, the impact of keeping families out of poverty, including many, many children across this country, but additionally, it has an immediate ripple effect in the economy, because if you could think about it, somebody who's unemployed, looking hard for work that will support a family is going to use those unemployment compensation funds immediately and invest them right into the local economy, whether it's paying for auto fuel, for electricity, or for groceries for your family, and so this money is infused right back into the local economy and helps with recovery all the way around, but really the critical impact on keeping families out of poverty and being the difference between making it each month and not, is critical.

it's a crisis right now. >> marsha blackburn was just on, and she said that the democrats are misrepresenting the republicans' position. the republicans want to help the people who are unemployed, they just want it paid for, in spite of the fact 14 of 17 times there has been no offset. let me play what senator paul said objecting to the cost of unemployment benefits. >> i'm not opposed to unemployment insurance, i'm opposed to having it without paying for it. >> $6 billion is what they say a three-month extension will cost. now we just heard on the floor, i don't know if you had a chance to hear it, mitch mcconnell saying he's willing to vote for this if there is a one-year delay in obamacare, which would pay for it. your reaction. >> here they go again is my reaction to that. look, there's a way that we deal with emergencies, and when we're talking about emergency unemployment compensation, the president, as you indicate, has been set that we just go ahead

and address the crisis. that said, i think that it is really hollow of an argument for the republicans to be saying that they care about this population of people and yet not being willing to step up and vote for this. we've got to get this job done, but we also have to acknowledge what are the alternatives if children are plunged into poverty because of the lack of this, if there's greater reliance on other programs. this is something that is cost effective and, as i say, has immediate infusion into local economies as people are able to keep on buying their groceries and paying their electric bills and fuelling their gas tank. >> senator tammy baldwin, you have to vote and are also heading over to the white house, where the president is going to have something to say in about an hour. thank you so much for being with us. >> thank you, chris. today's tweet of the day comes from the weather channel's mike seidel, who posted a picture from indianapolis of an

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we are keeping our eye on the senate floor, where the vote has just gotten under way. it is a procedural vote on unemployment benefits. we've already seen mark kirk of illinois, john mccain of arizona voting no. we'll keep you posted on where that vote stands. to politics now, and there's a 5:00 shadow that lit up the twitter verse. white house press secretary jay carney debuted the look at yesterday's press briefing. he joked the book was an homage to mark noeler. noeler then tweeted, finally, i'm a trend setter. meantime, the popular netflix series "house of cards" is out with a new trailer featuring a familiar face to us here, "hardball" chris matthews.

>> this goes all the way to the white house. >> it might. >> the full second season will be released february 14th. senator lindsey graham was headed back to washington when his plane made an emergency landing yesterday. passengers reported hearing strange sounds onboard and went back to the greenburg-spartanburg airport. liz cheney called mike enzi personally. enzi described the call as brief and said he's keeping the cheneys in his prayers. she says because of family reasons. in san francisco, there's a new push to get rid of a law that gets, get this, bans people from using their garages to store anything but cars. so you can't keep a bike in there, no lawn equipment, just cars. no boxes of junk, guys. the city supervisor, mark farrell, says the laws are unnecessary and makes people who store the stuff in their garage scoff laws. so we'll see where that goes.

but that's going to wrap up this hour of "jansing and co.," i'm chris jansing. brian shactman up next in today for thomas roberts. >> that would change my domestic situation significantly and make more work for me. chris, thank you very much. the agenda next hour, deep freeze gripping much of the nation, 49 states experiencing some type of cold weather right now. even the south being sucked in today by the so-called polar vortex. this weather, dangerous and deadly. we have reporters blanketing the country. meantime, the senate is voting right now on whether to leave 1.3 million americans out in the cold when it comes to unemployment benefits. president obama will speak live surrounded by americans who need that helping hand. and the rush to the altar by same-sex couples in utah grinds to a screeching halt. the courts decide whether they have that right. what happens to the now more than 1,000 gay and lesbian couples that already tied the knot? that and more in just three minutes on msnbc. ] no, no, no! stop!

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breaking news at the top of this hour, right now the senate is voting on a bill to extend unemployment benefits. for clarity, though, it's a cloture motion, necessary first step to begin the actual consideration of the issue. 60 votes are needed. 1.3 million people currently impacted by the freeze in benefits on december the 28th. good morning, everyone, brian shactman in. we'll have more on what's happening on capitol hill this morning but begin with a weather alert. arctic invasion, otherwise known as the polar vortex, and you know it's bad when we're wishing for wind chills to be in the single digits. all across the u.s. we're seeing the most dangerously cold temperatures in decades. how about this for a nugget, all 50 states, including hawaii, had some form of freezing temperatures today. the newspaper headlines prove this is all everyone is talking about. from d.c., to illinois, even florida. here in new york city yesterday

morning, a balmy day in the 50s. today we broke records for cold, as cold literally has some towns in siberia and the south pole. literally. in fact, part of canada had the same temps as mars, just record breaking all across the board. it's painful, biting, brutal, and deadly impacting millions of people. >> stay home. don't come out. it's very, very, very cold. >> the freezing temperatures have been a total nightmare for anyone trying to fly. already today there have been hundreds of delays and cancellations. >> waiting in line, which is about a mile long, to try to rebook. can't get any information from anybody. the airlines basically won't even answer the phone anymore. >> one piece of good news, jetblue started flying again in the last hour. yesterday they wanted crews a chance to rest and catch up for customer. the misery not isolated to the air, but also the