when congress passes a bipartisan effort starting here, right at the beginning of the new year, who knows, we might actually get some things done this year. >> right now on "andrea mitchell reports", the president made it clear it's his new year's priority and senate moved one big step towar extending unemployment insurance. john boehner is quick to lower expectations for the bill in the house. is there any hope for a bipartisan compromise in a contentious midterm election year. >> best choice, pass it, no strings and get it done quickly. second best choice, finding a reasonable pay for that can work on both sides of the aisle. i would caution people, that's a lot easier sad than done. >> the polar express. >> stay home. don't come out. it's very, very cold.

that artic blast with a record breaking deep freeze leaving travelers on roads and railways and airports, frozen in their tracks. >> just stay up all night, 24/7 and wait and hope that i get out of here and it hasn't happened yet. >> waiting in line about a mile long to try to rebook. can't get any information from anybody. the airlines basic clip won't even answer the phone anymore. >> who is in and who's out? skiing superstar lindsay vonn makes a big announcement about her olympic future. while the end of a college football bcs era sees the end of another era. >> coming out. great return. 30, 40, daylight, green ahead! headed for the end zone! touchdown florida state!

good day, i'm andrea mitchell in washington. the technical term is polar vortex, but if you've been outside todays it's bone chilling cold. frigid temperatures enveloped two thirds of the you had, every state except hawaii is experiencing freezing temperatures somewhere today. the extreme cold means commuter miseries with thousands of delays and cancellations. more snow, up to 3 feet expected to lash the great lakes and midwest today. joining me now is ron allen from chicago where public schools are closed for a second day in a row. and from new york, wnbc meteorologist rafael mir an da. thank you very much. ron, first to you out there in the cold. it is brutal. any relief in sight? >> reporter: there has been,

andrea. we were having a spirited discussion with the crew because one of the producer was insisting that the temperature has reached 1 degree. i have negative 2 and everybody else -- yesterday it was negative 15 to 16 and of course there's a lot of snow around. they had record snowfall, 8 inches. it continues to be bad but it is improving. see the flags flying over the bridge. the windchill is do you know around negative 20 or so, 20 to 30, but the trend is in the right direction. the river obviously still frozen. you can see there's some more signs of life as you look around. a lot of people tried to make it to work today and that created a lot of travel problems because commuters wsh -- the system wasn't quite ready to handle the volume, perhaps and there were a lot of reports of traffic accidents and rail delays and the worst of it here perhaps in terms of travel has been the fate of several hundred amtrak

passengers, some from san francisco and los angeles stranded on several trains overnight because trains hitting a big snow drift. most of the passengers have now been bussed to safety in chicago. they are telling stories of being okay through the night, of course there was nothing anybody could do. the staff were doing everything they could to make people comfortable with food and water and so forth. it's still bone chilling and awful extreme cold. people are staying inside. the governor has warned and suggested that people go outside if things -- if you absolutely have to do something. there's still tlas delays at the airport and at o'hare, the main airport in chicago, hundreds of flights canceled again after thousands over the past couple of days. we're still in a deep freeze here. it's going to take a few days to thaw out. we'll hopefully get into the single digits today and double digits tomorrow and the end of the week there's a promise of 35 degree weather. believe it or not. we'll welcome it.

>> in terms of flight tracker, at least earlier today there were 750 flights at o'hare and additional flights at midway also canceled. and also this is a serious business because in the midwest states at least 11 deaths have been reported from the extreme cold. let's talk about that polar vortex now and what it means thanks to ron allen and his crew out there in the cold. let's go to new york and to rafael miranda. tell me, what the situation is with the polar vortex. let's go over it again. even though it's nothing new, but for it to break off and for some of it to break off from the pole, it's new to us, at least here. >> exactly. polar vortex happens every year, strengthens in the wintertime. it's a cold storm that sits across the arctic. what's going on and what's unusual about this cold outbreak, why we're seeing record low temperatures is this placement of that cold air, arctic air mass represented by

the bright white color across the northeast today, that's why we're in the deep freeze. this is something that happens every year. it's nothing new and not dangerous in itself. when it travels so far south we're seeing such unusual cold krogs the northeast today. when i set this in motion, that returns to the pole. and back around the north pole. that's going to happen over the weekend and into next week, but not today. we're still feeling the worst of it, windchill warnings extending across the great lakes and northeast windchill advisory for a large portion of the one third of the united states. look at these records that have been broken from the cold outbreak. we hit a record low of 4 degrees in new york city. that record was standing for 118 years in central park. now this is the cold eflt day on record for 4 degrees. atlanta also broke a cold record for the day, 6 degrees and we had the record low of 16 below in chicago. right now the windchills are still brutal out there, ranging from 5 below in new york city,

23 below in chicago and windchills below zero in lexington, atlanta, feels like 9 degrees at this hour. the winds have been howling in the northeast all afternoon and that will continue, winds gusting around 46 miles per hour in buffalo and winds between 20 and 30 miles per hour in new york city. temperatures have dropped sharply around 35 to 40 degrees over the past 24 hours. it feels even colder. it feels like 60 degrees colder in new york city. now there is some relief in sight. the jet stream takes a jog to the north as we head throughout the end of the week. big time relief is coming their way in terms of temperatures. ron is excited about 20s in chicago. we're looking forward to 50s in new york city, adding on a few degrees day by day. by friday, back to above average. it's not going to last too much long. tomorrow the winds die down in the northeast and things gradually improve. but 50s will feel good in the weekend. even though we have rain coming our way. we'll take the tradeoff there. >> absolutely, rafael, thank you

so much. for many of us it's an inconvenience, discomfort perhaps, for the homeless, the other disadvantaged, this is a life and death emergency. the coalition for the homeless in new york city, mary, thank you. how are you coping? do you have the resources you need? >> andrea, as you probably know, we have record homelessness in new york city, over 52,000 people, including 22,000 children just in our shelter system. and so the coalition is out every night feeding many thousands of people on the street, helping people get blankets and make it through the cold snap. we're very happy we have a new administration to work with to restore housing cut backs that mike bloomberg put in place that led to such a catastrophe in new york. >> in terms of the amount of food needed and other resources, tell me what the private sector is doing as well. we know the civic community in

new york has been remarkable. >> absolutely. people from every walk of life stepped up. people committing themselves blankets and food and but what we're seeing and you led the show with this, that attempt now to cut back on unemployment benefits, you know, if the sequestration goes through, we'll lose 185,000 section 8 vouchers, 185,000 vulnerable families with children that are going to be homeless. it all ties together. the private sector has stepped up. but it can't begin to make up for these enormous cut backs that we're seeing in washington and in many states. >> mary, thank you very much. it's going to be top of mind. and that opens the door to administration action and congressional action as well. today the senate cleared a major procedural hurdle at least one for more than 1 million americans this morning, the first step for the push to extend unemployment insurance

for another three months. >> we've got to get this across the finish line without obstruction and delay and need the house of representatives to vote for it as well. [ applause ] that's the bottom line. >> but not so fast. speaker boehner has already made it clear it is unlikely to pass the house. one month ago i told the white house that another extension of temporary emergency unemployment benefits should not only be paid for but should include something to help put people back to work. to date the president offered no such plan. if he does, i'll be happy to discuss it. joining me now, tom perez, the secretary of labor in the obama administration. thank you very much and happy new year to you. what can you look forward to as you see the opposition in the house, several more hurdles in the senate, and as you heard from the speaker i just mentioned, they want to see it paid for.

is there any compromise possible? >> i think today was an important day day moving forward with the senate invoking cloture to proceed in the senate. there's a long bipartisan history of support for extending long-term unemployment compensation benefits and that's because it's the right thing to do. it's the smart thing to do. five times during the administration of president bush extensions were granted with no strings attached. just recently when congress passed the bipartisan budget, there was a three month extension for the so-called doc fix, which is medicare doctors, the payments to them were extended for three months, no strings attached. i think we can do the same thing here. it gives us an opportunity to work out a longer term solution. but the reality is, if congress fails to act, given the current level of long-term unemployment, it would quite literally be unprecedented for them to do that. it is really the right thing to do and smart thing to do because

people like katherine hackett, there with the president, she and 1.3 million others didn't get their check yesterday. they are making unconscionable choices between their food and their heat. she talked about keeping the heat at 58 degrees and always having to wear a coat and hat. she's lost 15 pounds during her remarkably tragic journey. she's looking for work every day. and that's what people are doing. and this lifeline they are getting has been cut off. we need to restore it. >> is there any hint -- you've been in meeting with the president today and others in the white house, any hint though of real talks going on? any compromise going on behind the scenes there? >> well, again, the president is always open to good ideas and we -- he continued yesterday talking to members of the senate. he will continue to talk to others and frankly he's had a number of things on the table in terms of investing in job creation. there's been a number of people

saying you don't have a plan for jobs -- actually, that's not right. the president has put forth a very aggressive growth strategy that involves investing in infrastructure, roads and bridges. a tax cut for businesses which would finance these infrastructure investments, immigration reform which would grow the economy. investing in skills which we spend a lot of time on in the department of labor so people have the skills to compete for today's and tomorrow's jobs. i think we can get all of these done. i hope we can continue in the long rich and appropriate bipartisan tradition of extending emergency unemployment benefits. it's not called emergency unemployment compensation for nothing because for people like katherine hackett and others, they have moved from distress to catastrophe as a result of the loss of these benefits. >> what is your outlook also for unemployment more generally? do you continue to see the

unemployment picture improving in the weeks -- well, friday i guess are your next numbers, in the weeks and months to come? >> you know, the economy is sloelly and steady moving in the right direction. we've had 45 consecutive months of private sector job growth to the tune of 8 million jobs. you see manufacturing on the rise. i was at a ford plant in louisville, kentucky recently. five years ago and in the depths of the recession, down to 700 employees, now they are at 4400 and growing. that doesn't even include their supply chain. you see other sectors that are growing. i talked to employer after employer who says i want to hire more people because the climate is right for me to grow my business here in america. and sho, we have to work to make sure that people have the skills to compete for those jobs and make sure that we pick up the pace of our growth. the president would be the first to say and has said we need to

pick up infrastructure, passing immigration reform, a tax cut for businesses that would finance the infrastructure investments, these are ways to grow the economy even faster. the best way to help katherine hackett and 1.3 million people who lost benefitses and 3.6 million others who stand to lose thi benefits this year if congress doesn't act is to grow the economy faster. because the biggest source of gdp growth is when we have more consumption. when you put money in people's pockets, they spend more. when they spend more, businesses hire more, the economy grows. when you take -- when you get rid of unemployment benefits and when you don't have a fair wage, when the minimum wage as it is now is too low, people don't have money in their pockets and can't spend. and the economy doesn't grow fast enough. i'm confident we can move forward. we've done it before and done it

in election years. 1996 was an election year. the minimum wage was raised. a lot can get done if we march on the will. that's what people want, want us to get the job done here in washington. >> tom perez, thanks for being here. >> pleasure to be here, an dree gentleman. >> the most accomplished skier will not have a chance to defend her olympic medal in sochi, lindsay vonn needs surgery. the skiing star underwent major knee surgery 11 months ago but not recovered to compete after a series of set backs and ended with this positive notes, this means there will be an additional spot so one of my team malts can go for gold. thank you for the love and support. i'll be cheering for all of the olympians and especially team usa. [ dennis ] it's always the same dilemma --

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i think the american people are really looking for in 2013 is a little bit of abalt. let's do the common sense thing and do what's right. >> president obama setting the stage for midterm election battles to come. mark halperin for msnbc and "time" and amy, happy new year to both of you. let me ask you first, amy about the retirements, house retirements, cook is now saying six seats could be up for grabs. >> that's right, what you're looking at right now, we saw the latest retirement was tim ger

lack from suburban philadelphia, we've seen really competitive races for the house in years past. number of moderates on the republican side have decided to retire in virginia the problem for democrats is these are happening in midterm years, not presidential years. usually turnout is going to be lower. that's going to help republicans. the second part is redistricting, that helps to make the seats a little safer than they were a few years ago. and finally, the real question is these are seats that the president barely won or barely lost. can the turnout be a big factor there to help these democrats? the question for republicans is, what kind of candidate are they going to get out of the primaries. what we've seen with tea party candidates coming in and succeeding, beating more establishment candidates, we could see that on the house side too. democrats really want to see some of these more radical right of center candidates winning a

primary. that will give them an f a good opportunity to win those seats. if not, i still think republicans have a chance, even on holding these suburban seats that in the past have been very competitive. >> and the big prize is of course the senate. mark halperin, when we talk about the senate, we hear mike bloomberg is contributing his money to the senate pack, the leadership pack from harry reid and chuck schumer trying to hold the senate. but there had been information that i had as recently as two weeks ago that he was resisting pressure from schumer and reid to defend mark pryor, not o attack him on the gun issue, that he was really single issue focused on guns. at the risk of jeopardizing senate for the democrats, has that changed? >> even as you reported in the new york times and i've confirmed, they resisted in

treaty from president clinton to layoff mark pryor. that one may be a special case because mayor bloomberg does care a lot about the issue. contribution, a couple million dollars to the committee to help democrats in the senate races is part of a larger play on the democratic side, yes they have a lot of dangered incumbents but doing fine raising money and this is a group of incumbents under no illusion how tough things will be. obama care tightened their races up. there's not one of them anything like a goner. most of them face b and c level candidates. none of them have big scandals. it's very hard, unless there's a big national tide to beat an incumbent senator and the contribution from bloomberg again representative of the fact that democrats continue both at the senate level and house level to raise a lot of money in an off year where the president's party typically doesn't do very well. the money isn't going to be

decisive in any of these races but it doesn't hurt. >> what about nationalizing the race? mark, and then amy, unemployment xpengs, let's say it goes down and minimum wage, is that the best that the president can hope to do to nationalize the race and make it a question of income inequality and try to get the base out? >> i think those two issues, we'll see how this plays out. i'm of the belief that republicans will end up caving on these smaller fights, not small ir for the individual but the macro politics. to the extent they don't and some individual members vote against extending unemployment benefits again, vitally important for families and people around the country, a matter of politics thinking that's dividing the republican party right now. same on minimum wage. you will see the president's party need to make the argument. if they successfully do that,

that right now looks like their best play. >> and how successful can the white house be at minimizing the attacks on health care? >> a lot of attacks on obama care are things that democrats can't do anything about. whether this is successful or not is out of the hands of the people who voted for this bill in the first place. that is going to be a driving message here. and obviously the president, democrats successful in making the economic case in 2012. but that was a very different kind of year. this was a midterm not a presidential. the approval rating much lower today than it was back in september of 2012. the biggest thing to look for is obama care, how that succeeds or doesn't and then the president's overall approval ratings going into fall. that's going to determine how successful democrats will be. >> thank you both so much. >> happy new year. >> the bcs went out with a bang. the final college football championship game of its kind had no shortage of fireworks last night.

florida state veflted auburn 34-31. thrilling finish complete with a 100 yard kickoff return giving florida state the yard. auburn answered with a 37 yard touchdown run. winston found wide receiver kevin benjamin in the end zone with only 13 seconds left ending a winning streak. this is this moment, daring fake punt at the end of the second quarter which really did become the play of the game, ultimately changing the momentum in florida state's favor. if i can impart one lesson to a

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ramadi as the conflict spreads from syria across the border to iraq potentially engulfing an entire region. the u.s. offered fire missiles but no u.s. combat troops. joining me is richard engel. this is deja vu all over again and enormous tragedy to see iraq engulfed in sectarian war fair in the very place where the surge helped regain those cities and where we lost so many american lives as you witnessed yourself. >> well, it must be incredible depressing for american troops who served there and commanders and the civilian contractors who contracted to this effort to see once again al qaeda in the center of fallujah in the center of ramadi. right now the iraqi government, particularly prime minister al

maliki has an enormous problem. it's not clear how he's going to solve this problem. so far he has chosen to escalate, sending tanks and artillery to ramadi, the city remained surrounded. al qaeda militants are in the center of fallujah. but today the iraqi defense ministry said it's not going to enter fallujah or invade the city yet because it's worried about creating civilian casualties. the city is surrounded and being attacked by air strikes and by the occasional artillery bombardment, refugees are leaving but the militants aren't giving up. they are still there. if a al maliki invades, it's going to be a bloody situation. when the united states invaded, it was a blood j situation. the iraqis will be cruder in their types of offensive without the o sophisticated intelligence of the united states at its

disposal. if al maliki starts killing lots of sunnis in fallujah, particularly fallujah but also ramadi, then we could have a open civil war in this country, a fully declared civil war, which would be dramatic escalation. >> and richard, vice president biden called al maliki yesterday and john kerry spoke about this in the last couple of days. what they've been urging him to do is be more aggressive but their disappointment is he did not work with the sunni moderates with whom pelt tray us and others worked to try to spark the sunni awakening and regain control of fallujah during the war. they've been very disappointed with al maliki. >> reporter: incredibly disappointed. i've spoken to a lot of u.s. military commanders and american officials involved in the iraq

war project, if you will. and they for years have been frustrated with al maliki saying he's not bringing the sunnis on board. he's treating the sunnis who are 20 to 25% of the population like second class citizens like criminals, not giving them adequate political representation. now when the war just across the border in syria exploded, it destabilized iraq. it inspired the sunnis in there who were already feeling down trodden it take up arms and try to topple their government. they believe it is a sectarian government like the one in syria. so what do you do now? united states is saying we want you to be more inclusive but we want you to be tougher. what exactly does that mean? we want you to go in and blast fallujah, kill a lot of sunnis and try and pass fi the city or do they want you to go back and readdress the old roots of the

problem, that were al maliki was considered a sectarian leader who wasn't bringing in sunnis. does he invade fallujah or try to reach out? >> the u.s. are hands off and rearming with the missiles and unarmed drones, surveillance drones, but u.s. troops, there are 100 high level trainers in baghdad and 100 security people in baghdad guarding the embassy but no boots on the ground. that is the claim from the u.s. side. thank you so much richard -- >> pleasure. >> your last thoughts. >> reporter: i was going to say, if al maliki goes in based on the kinds of artillery and tanks he's been sending to the outskirts of fallujah, it's not going to be an offensive with drones. it's going to be shelling. it's going to be tanks moving through the streets.

there's not an indication that it will be quick or effective. this could be drawn out street to street fighting which a lot of american veterans know exactly how hard that is. the militants have book by trapped the streets and puts in ieds which they have a tremendous amount of experience building because they were using them against marines in fallujah for years. if al maliki goes in, he'll go in very heavy and it will be a loss of life. if he goes in. the indications are maybe he will. but he said he's not going in yet. >> richard engel, thanks so much. >> and the big freeze has made it dangerous to travel no matter if it it's train or planes or automobiles. three amtrak trains froze in their tracks 80 miles from chicago. they had to spend night on the stalled trains but there was light, heat and working toilets. . i love my contractor, and i am so thankful to angie's list

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in 1971 the theft in government offices outside of philadelphia remained a mystery unsolved for more than 40 years until the two unleakly perpetrators anti-war activists revealed themselves. they face no legal jeopardy today because of the statute of limitations having long expired. nbc's national investigative correspondent michael isikoff has the exclusive details. >> reporter: a mystery for 43 years. the night the nation was gripped by the fight of the century, frazier at madison square garden. burglaries stole 1,000 secret documents outside of philadelphia. the culprits never found. >> we did it. someone had to do it. >> reporter: now a surprise confession. >> we just took all of the files. we didn't sort anything. >> reporter: in an exclusive nbc news interview, the burglaries,

anti-vietnam activists admit they committed the crime to expose that they believed were illegal activities by the fbi. >> massive illegal surveillance and intimidation. >> reporter: she cased the office posing a as college student leaving no fingerprints. >> i never took my gloves off. >> reporter: her husband drove the getaway car. >> i was sitting by myself in the station wagon and getting very scared. >> reporter: the documents exposed efforts to spread paranoia among left wing groups and surveillance program started by j. edgar hoover. bettie metzger was the first to get them in her mailbox. she wrote about how it led to new rules permitting snooping. >> it's safe to say that the fbi was never the same again. >> reporter: the statute of limitations as long expired but

the ex-agent who investigated it back then, says the theft remains inexcusable. >> they are rationalizing a criminal act. i don't believe such people have the right to pick upon themselves and make decisions. >> but they are proud of what they did and a mess for a man they say for their modern day edward snowden. >> from wihistle blower to another whistle blower, hi. >> it's such a blast from the past to think back on the anti-war movement and what it meant back then. i was in philadelphia in those days and this was a huge case. >> of course. look, the era of the time, anti-vietnam war and ver gan brothers -- >> and the illegal surveillance by the hoover fbi. >> exactly. i think it's that is probably the most significant development. that reference from this document led to these massive

disclosures of illegal surveillance by the fbi. i asked the fbi for comment and one of the things they said, which was so fascinating, a number of events during that era, including the burglary, contributed to changes in how the fbi identified national security threats and to the guidelines. so they were not disputing that this burglary led to real changes. of course the parallel with snowden for many people is so striking here, including the burglaries themselves, saying had it not been for the burglaries, we wouldn't have known and they are saying if it not been for snowden we wouldn't know about nsa -- >> in this book, the burglary. thank you for your reporting. >> stay with us. the superintendent of the hit fill philomena joining me next. fedex one rate. really makes my life easier. maybe a promotion is in order.

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the new hit film "philomena y, sometimes forced by catholic nuns to give up their babies and never see them again. judy dench has been nominated for three golden globes for her portrayal of the real philomena lee. >> i want to know if he's all right. >> perhaps they can help with the details. >> i don't think that's going to be possible. >> you're a journalist. >> i used to be. >> a roman catholic -- >> yes, no i used to be. >> fiphilomena lee and her daughter join me now from burbank. how do you feel about the portrayal of -- excuse me, the portrayal of yourself in the film? >> at first we didn't know what to make of it. we were working on it for last ten years. as i say, once we got judy dench portrayed me quite well indeed.

she's done a good job. >> and there's again a lot of criticism that the film is anti-catholic and now today the newest attack comes from the catholic league, which says in a statement, that this is a tale about an irish teenager who abandoned her out of wedlock son and because of the good efforts of nuns adopted by an american couple. it maligns the nuns as well as catholic teachings. i'd like you to give you a chance to respond to that. >> i did not abandon my son. i did not. anthony was born on july the 5th in 1952. and my own father had disowned me and my mother had died when i was 6 years of age. when i became pregnant, i ended up in a square run by the nuns. i looked after him for three and

a half years, did the laundries while i was there for three and a half years. i did not -- i was only a teenager at the time and i have not run the catholic religion down. i'm a catholic -- i did lose some of my faith after anthony left for america. and then i went to england and studied and went to school in liverpool for two years and then went on down to where i live now, lovely town outside london. i became a psychiatric nurse for 30 years. and but i did not abandon anthony, he was told when i came looking for that i abandoned him at two weeks old. i worked in the home for three and a half hours until he was taken away and adopted. i did not abandon him at all. >> mom was left with no choice at that time but to sign him away for adoption because there were no other options.

just the wait society was at the time. and the film isn't -- hasn't set out to attack the catholic church in any way. >> no. >> as far as we're concerned. the things in the film are actual facts that happened and anthony went looking for mom and they didn't tell him where she was. they had her name and address the whole time. that is a fact. he went three times. and they wouldn't tell him where she was -- >> judy, i want to ask you how this affected your life and life of your family, the film and all of the attention being paid to your mother's story? >> it hasn't affected it in any bad way at all. it's been actually very positive. it's been positive in that we've heard lots -- i've heard from lots of people in very similar situations and i think the story has -- has helped a lot of people to come forward with their stories.

>> and jane and fiphilomena, ho do you feel about pope francis, because a lot of us have seen in his teachings and in his behavior in his responses peopl new approach, maybe perhaps not to the doctrine but certainly to the affect and humanity coming from the church. do you see a change in rome? >> so far, no. i think i quite agree with what he's doing. i think he's going to be -- he's only been in a short time really. he's for the people. he comes out of the vatican and he's for people. what i think about it, i think he will be good for rome and he will be good for the catholic church as well. i am a firm believer in the catholic church and i haven't run the catholic church so i think pope will be quite good for the catholics and for the

catholic church. and for the world really. >> i was going to say what you have done in having your story told is very, very brave indeed. so we thank you for joining us today. >> thank you. >> thank you very much. >> we look forward to how the film does and the awards which start with the golden globe ceremonies on sunday. thank you very much. >> thank you. >> returning to politics, which political story will make headlines in the next 24 hours? that's next here on "andrea mitchell reports." uh-huh. yea. alright, whenever you get your stuff, run upstairs, get cleaned up for dinner. you leave the house in good shape? yea. yea, of course. ♪ [ sportscaster talking on tv ] last-second field go-- yea, sure ya did. [ male announcer ] introducing at&t digital life. personalized home security and automation. get professionally monitored security for just $29.99 a month. with limited availability in select markets.

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which political story will make headlines in the next 24 hours? a return from mark back with us. >> limited distribution of

marijuana in new york. it's not something that supporting decriminalization or anything. he's doing it by executive action. it is similar to gay marriage. huge sea change in public opinion about this. i'm quite surprised the federal government isn't under more pressure to try to enforce the law against marijuana in colorado and other states. this experiment will continue. it's keeping up with public opinion not just in new york but most places around the country. i think andrew cuomo is a savvy politician and wouldn't do this if he didn't feel some pressure in some sense this is where the people in this state would like him to go. it's a limited program. not as broad as other states adopted in the area of medical marijuana. >> it's a symbol from andrew cuomo. he gets ahead of the curve rather than following the curve and leading the way on this. thank you so much, mark. that does it for us. for this edition of "andrea

mitchell reports," following the show online. richard lui has a look at what's next on "news nation." >> coming in the next hour, the latest on the arctic blast that has 49 of 50 states at or below freezing. right now atlanta is colder than anchorage, alaska. chicago colder than siberia's largest city. plus, we're live on capitol hill where the house is just minutes away from starting its first session of the new year and where the senate just cleared the first hurdle to restoring jobless benefits to more than 1 million out of work americans. we'll have reaction including what president obama and house speaker john boehner said shortly after that vote. plus, convicted child molester jerry sandusky testifying from jail in a bid to get back the penn state pension he lost the day he was sentenced. it's all coming up next on "news nation." asional constipation,

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[ phillips' lady ] live the regular life. and i had like this four wheninch band of bumpsles it started on my back. that came around to the front of my body. and the pain from it was- it was excruciating. i did not want anyone to brush into me to cause me more pain than i was already enduring. i wanted to just crawl up in a ball and just, just wait till it passed.

hi. i'm richard lui in for tamron hall. "news nation" is following that deep freeze across the country. a deadly arctic blast brings historically low temperatures, schools and roads remain closed, massive travel delays grow even worse. residents in major cities across the midwest, northeast and into the south are being warned to stay indoors. the weather is being blamed for at least 11 deaths. all but one of 50 states, hawaii, are seeing temperatures at or below freezing or below normal. it's all part of the so-called polar vortex. a massive air from the north pole has pushed unusually far south. this nasa image captures how far down it reaches. as many as 187 million people are feeling the effect of this system. >> stay home. don't come out. it's very, very, very co