>> capitol hill is buzzing over a new nonpartisan report and the headline is, jobs will be lost because of obamacare, but it is quite a bit more complicated. meanwhile, cvs is pulling cigarettes off its shelves and won't sell tobacco products at all anymore. president obama supports the move. >> so the big question this morning, will other pharmacy retailers feel pressured to do the same? and congressman henry waxman in his first television interview since announcing his retirement. we'll talk to that veteran coming up. good morning. this morning, there is a new obamacare fight on the hill. right now, democrats, including congressman chris van hollen are pushing hard over what they call misinformation over a new report from the congressional budget office. that hearing that you're looking at right there is getting started shortly. the report does project that obamacare subsidies will kre

united stat create an incentive and projects a loss of 2 million jobs associated with that. what does that mean? it means with people who work primarily to get health care coverage, not income, may decide to work less because they have alternative access to care and some people may work less because subsidies, quote, decline with rising income. top republicans are citing the report, including speaker john boehner, who said, "it confirms obamacare is making economic troubles worse." and many headlines summarize the report as news of job loss. "the new york times" blares, "health care law projected to cut the labor force," while "u.s. today" says it will cost 2.5 million workers by 2024. caused "the washington post" to make this call, the report is the worst headline this year for

democrats. let's bring in our company, molly ball and ed o'keefe. welcome to you both. molly, what do you make of this factual political debate? >> well, i think on the facts it is certainly true that it is not correct to say that the report concluded that obamacare is a job killer beyond what we previously knew, but there is a criticism that's fair here, which is to say that this is more evidence of basically the welfare expansion that is inherent in obamacare. there are people who are going to get a taxpayer subsidized benefit from obamacare and people are going to take advantage of that and there are plenty of democrats who would welcome that, if you're a single mom working three jobs to get health care, it's a good thing you'll be able to do that now, but i think it's also a sign of how badly this administration

and a lot of democrats have anticipated the effects of this law, that if this was such good news, why weren't they talked about it six months or a year ago, why weren't they telling everyone what a great thing this was going to be, that they'd be able to work less? >> that goes to the point in politics, you have to own the story, even though parts are complicated. i want to read one more policy item from the report so people understand what exactly we're talking about. ed, take a listen to this. it will appear that those so-called job losses are entirely a reduction in labor force participation and hours worked, relative to what would have occurred otherwise. that means it's not an increase in unemployment, where more workers are seeking but not finding jobs, or underemployment. if you translate that as a policy matter, what they are saying is this does affect the labor market, but it's not people losing jobs because their employers fire them. >> right.

but when it comes -- that's the policy argument, but let's remember most americans, most voters, aren't as well versed in it as you are or most reporters are and are going to see an official government report that's come out and raised concerns that perhaps this new law is going to, if not contribute to those people, at least sort of help make it happen and help make it happen potentially a little faster. look, you knew this was bad news when here on capitol hill as we tried to ask senate democrats, especially those running for re-election this year, about the report five, six hours after it came out yesterday that they were claiming they knew nothing about it. >> on that point, let me read from a senator who told reporters when asked about this quote, you guys are going to politicize it no matter what happens. your response there, because that seems on point with your observation, ed. >> well, we're not necessarily going to politicize it. we're going to report on it because it's from a reputable government entity, one of the

last few ironclad institutions here in town that isn't poisoned bipartisan politics, the congressional budget office, and if the government professional bean counters are raising these issues and concerns, and in many cases validating some of the concerns republicans have been raising for months, yes, it becomes part of the political conversation and it is going to make it a little more difficult for democrats to explain this when most voters aren't necessarily going to understand the nuances of it and are probably going to learn most about it in a 30-second television ad. >> i think you're hitting on why this is an issue that is obviously going to get political heat, but also one that can frustrate people. this is not an ideological debate, although there's differences on the aca, we know that. this is also a debate about empirically what this report means. when you look at the report, it is a large report about a lot of issues that touches on the aca. ed makes an important political point about attack ads. i want you to listen to one that's not new, but speaks to

the context here. take a listen. >> it's not about a website that doesn't work. it's not about poll numbers or approval ratings. it's about people. and millions of people have lost their health insurance. obamacare doesn't work. it just doesn't work. >> molly, that is the talking point there, that the law doesn't work and the law, quote, costs jobs or affects the labor market this way. we're also looking at paul ryan, who is beginning to speak at this hearing on this very issue. molly, tell us, is that kind of problem that ed's speaking to a big enough problem even if the rebuttal is that most of these attack ads on the jobs numbers will be potentially misleading? >> i think the point is that it doesn't have to be misleading to be a potent attack ad, and that the sort of bigger point here is that democrats, i think, have been hoping that, you know, the

website starts working, the problems with the law starts to get worked out. the deadlines pass and the disruption calms down and they are able to move on to other issues in advance of november, and republicans have made the bet, no, there is a large enough disruption caused in a variety of sectors, whether it's the labor force or the cancellation notices and so on, that this will stay in the headlines and it will continue to have unanticipated effects. and again, i feel like democrats have continually undersold the amount of disruption so they find themselves on the defensive and that's not a really good place to be politically. >> yeah, ed, i want to give you the final word here. molly uses the word disruption and there's no doubt any large scale social policy will be disruptive. i think it's definitely a fair observation that the white house is often trying to explain the disruptive impact rather than tell people, look, of course this is going to be hard, but this is something that was

necessary and any large scale economic plan like this is going to have all kinds of tradeoffs. >> look, i've been saying this a long time, failure is pretty clear. a website that doesn't work, people who lose their job or end up paying more or might go a few weeks without having specific coverage because of the transition from one plan to another. success is going to be much harder to measure. it's not going to be very easy to boil down into those messages that have to get to voters by november. success probably won't become real evident to most people until the next time they visit the doctor or take their kid to the emergency room, until they begin to see if this helped them or hurt them or happens, for example, to an older relative or neighbor and those things are going to be harder to measure. a broken website, concerns about more people leaving the job market, those are measurable, those are obvious. the success is going to be harder and it's going to take years for a lot of that to pan out. >> you're speaking to how do you sell a long-term program on a

short-term political time line, that's difficult for either party. molly ball, ed o'keefe, thank you to you both. joining us now, james clyburn. thank you for joining us and your thoughts today over the debate over the cbo report. >> well, thank you so much for having me. well, i think that what we have to do is remember one thing, there's a big difference in losing a job and leaving a job, and i think that what the cbo report says to us is that a number of people will be leaving their jobs. not because they are being pushed out, but because for the first time in their lives, they now have choices that they can make. they can choose to stay on the job if it's a productive job, they feel good about, rather than to be hostage to a work environment only because you needed to have benefits.

so the affordable care act is providing a plethora of choices for people that they've never had before, and because of these choices, they will be a bit more mobile in the workplace and if you really look at the report, that is what the conclusion is, more people will be leaving work rather than losing their jobs. >> congressman, i hear you speaking about choice. that is part of what any health care regulation's going to do, affect how people make choices. senator rand paul has a very different view here, that this is forcing macro economic choices that have a lot of cost. take a listen to what he said. >> well, we've always said that obamacare adds a cost to employment, and if you increase the cost of employing someone, you will cause unemployment, so if 2 million people won't get their jobs because of obamacare,

economists also say another million people may be prevented from getting a job because we have to manage such an enormous debt. >> is he wrong on the facts there? >> i think so. the fact of the matter is, there are people -- let me give one good example. there's a lady who works for the company who has a contract to maintain the building that my district office is in. i just got an incredible handwritten letter from her when i went home last weekend telling me about what the affordable care act has done for her. she's working where there aren't any benefits. she was playing out of that job for her monthly benefits, and she has a pre-existing condition. she's had her monthly bill cut in half, and for the first time, she's got free preventive care, and she is thanking god for

obamacare. and those who made it possible. so, you can go through and find anecdotes of people who are having cancellation letters and other things sent to them, but we don't get much reports from the people like i just mentioned, and that is what we have to do. if we talk to people who are being impacted positively by this, it just won't make headlines. the headlines are made when there's contention and people seeing negative kind of results. >> congressman, i understand that. there's certainly no doubt that conflict and bad news often get a lot more attention than the daily workings of it. i want to turn, as well, to the voting rights act, an issue that you have championed and led on. as you know, your colleagues, congressman conyers and sensenbrenner have a bill out just last month to try to respond to the supreme court. you've been a leader on this, so

we know where you stand, but what about your counterpart, eric cantor? i want to read something he said, "my experience with john liu wis in selma this year was a profound experience. i'm hopeful congress will put politics aside as we did on that trip and ensure the sacred voting in this country remains protective." can you update us, because a lot of people think if cantor makes good on that pledge, he can get this bill to the floor. >> well, i want to thank jim sensenbrenner and john conyers for working so closely and so diligently on this issue. this is an issue that's fundamental to our way of life, and it is something that we ought to take seriously. the supreme court, when it

rendered its decision, a decision i disagreed with and i have to live with, they said to us, okay, congress, go at it. you can update this formula and you're free to do so. so congress, through sensenbrenner and conyers and others, have responded to this and we have come up with a product which i think is very, very good. now, i saw "the wall street" editorial yesterday which i think is very, very disingenu s disingenuous. all we're saying here is when you demonstrate, that you are not being fair by people, you'll be covered. now the old law automatically covered about nine states, seven to nine, based upon how you define it.

this one covers four, and it says to people, these are the incentives you have not to ever be covered, but if you volley this, you will be covered. so what's wrong with that? it's a good law. i hope we can come together and i hope eric cantor will, as a leader of the republicans, put this bill on the floor and let us have an up or down vote. >> i think that's the question, congressman. he spoke about his time with john lewis. this is the time to look at a law that martin luther king, of course, helped to get on the books. congressman james clyburn, thanks for talking to us today. i want to turn to a winter storm pounding the midwest all the way to the northeast. more than 115 million people in two dozen states are seeing snow, sleet, and freezing rain this morning, making a nightmare of the roads and airports. more than 2,300 flights have

already been cancelled today. we have the storm covered for you on the roads with ron allen, but first we're going to go to meteorologist bill karins. what do you got? >> we can deal with the snow, we've had many snowstorms this winter, but now we have 650,000 people in pennsylvania without power right now. last night at midnight had power because of the ice storm that moved through and that's this area right in here and some of the ice is shifting into areas of northern jersey and southern new england. nine inches for kansas city, indianapolis seven, new york city, officially four. we're adding to the totals around boston. central pennsylvania overnight and early this morning and just outside of philadelphia, now it's right around freezing but the damage is done, the trees are down and in total if you add up arkansas, kentucky, pennsylvania, and new jersey, somewhere around three quarters of a million people without power. again, the heaviest snows have shifted to the north. as far as the timing of when

this ends, this is where we are at 11:00, 12:00, 1:00, still snowing in upstate new york and new england, then we quickly get rid of the storm by about 7:00 p.m. everybody but new hampshire and maine will be all done with that storm. a lot of buzz about the next storm. the good news, this will be a weaker version, typical storm, just with snow sunday night, into monday. not a nor'easter at this time. at least i can give people that, just a general snow instead of a big one. >> thank you, bill. now we're going to go to ron allen who's driving now in new jersey. ron, how are the roads? >> well, not bad, and a lot better than they were a few hours ago, because it stopped snowing. we woke up this morning and there was several inches of fresh snow on the ground and it was sleeting and there was freezing rain. now the precipitation, you can see it's really stopped, really eased up a bit. the road, this is a secondary road here in a town, i think

we're in summit, new jersey, every few blocks you get into a new town. now they are going to try to treat the roads, as well, get some salt and sand on them to try and stop them from icing over. we're still below zero, so that is the concern with this storm, of course, icing, freezing over. it's very treacherous. we were walking on the sidewalk and it's very, very treacherous. again, right now the precipitation stopped. the roads are getting clear and they are going to try to salt them and make sure they are not icing over. a lot of work here in new jersey. a lot of towns running out of money for snow removal and salt, as well, to treat their roads. back to you. >> be safe out there, ron. i know you're anchoring there, but don't do texting. tv is fine, no texting. big news from one of the stars at the olympics. chris jansing will get us caught up on the very latest. that's after the break. n that ck to vacation mode.

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now we turn to some surprising news at the olympics, snowboarder shaun white has made a major announcement. the two-time gold medalist is pulling out of one of the competitions after injuring his wrist tuesday. chris jansing is reporting live in sochi. chris, what can you tell us? >> well, this is a shocker. i have to tell you, ari, a slopestyle, this new x-games sport. he, of course, one of the biggest stars at these games, but after two stars were injured, one dropped out altogether because of a broken collarbone, he issued a statement today explaining why he decided to drop out of slopestyle. "after much deliberation with my

team, i've focused solely on trying to bring home a third straight gold medal in halfpipe for team usa. the decision is not one i take lightly, as i know how much effort everyone has put into holding the slopestyle event for the first time in history." of course, there were questions raised about the safety of the course, there are three big jumps in it, the last one a heart-stopping 72 feet high, and he said it was the course, concerns about the course that contributed to his decision. and it's a big blow to the sport, as well. new to the olympics, and, of course, shaun white being a competitor, would have brought a lot of eyes to the television set. ari? >> all right, chris, thank you. we'll have more reporting from you, of course, all week. now we're going to turn to the news feed this morning. new york police arrested four people overnight as part of their investigation into the death of actor philip seymour hoffman. police found more than 300 bags of heroin.

two of the suspects are charged with felony drug possession. police are looking into whether any of them directly sold drugs to hoffman. in other news, after 36 years on the run, police captured judy lynn heyman in san diego. for years, she used aliases to elude authorities and her own 32-year-old son had no idea about the fugitive past. now to new fallout from the search of justin bieber's private plane in new jersey friday. according to a report that was obtained exclusively by nbc news, the flight's captain indicated he had warned the passengers, including bieber, to cease smoking marijuana because it was making flying conditions dangerous. in fact, according to the report, the pilot chose to wear their oxygen masks during the flight to ensure they wouldn't risk inhaling any of that smoke. port authority police searched the plane, however, and did not find any pot.

the report indicates bieber and his father were, quote, extremely abusive to the flight attendant. the flight crew didn't press any charges and the passengers were allowed to go on their way. bieber meanwhile is facing legal trouble in both florida and toronto. a major decision coming from cvs, it's the first major drugstore in the country saying it will not sell cigarettes at all anymore. a former smoker, president barack obama says this is good for the country, but will other stores follow suit? that's coming up next. [ male announcer ] this is betsy.

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october. cvs says it just doesn't make sense for its employees to be selling these products. >> they are working with our patients and our customers who have chronic conditions like high blood pressure and high cholesterol and diabetes, and we know that smoking is extremely antithetical to helping people with their health care needs. >> let's bring in msnbc.com health policy and politics reporter geoff cowley. he says cvs sets a powerful example and today's decision helps my administration's efforts, as well as bring down health care costs ultimately, saving lives and protecting untold numbers of families from pain and heartbreak for years to come. put this in context for us. >> sure, i think powerful example were the key words there. cvs is a giant pharmaceutical

chain. it's got 3,700 outlets around the country and like other pharmacy chains in the united states, forever, it has been selling a lethal addictive product right there on the shelves in full display next to cough medicine and vitamins. it's at the forefront of a real seed change in the pharmaceutical or the pharmacy industry. they want to reposition themselves as an extension of the health care system. they are hiring clinicians, pharmacists, nurse practition practitioners, people to help extend the research of health systems and hospitals. >> one out of six jobs in the entire economy are related to health care, right, they are stand to lose about $2 billion, as i mentioned. that is a lot. are you saying that partly there's a business rationale they can make up more than $2 billion? >> i think there is a business rationale and they will certainly take a revenue hit in the short term, but they realize

their future is not in the convenience store business, their future is in the health care business. if you're going to be part of the health care system, you can't be selling a product that kills a half million people in this country every year. >> let's take a listen to this antismoking ad campaign and some of the rationale behind it, this is from our own "andrea mitchell reports." take a listen. >> it's sort of extraordinary to realize of established adult smokers, nine out of ten of them began smoking before they were 18 years of age, so this is an important group to target. >> that is the rationale for why they are spending more on these campaigns for children, basically the idea that our adult smoking problem in this country is almost entirely a problem of kids starting to smoke. >> that's right. and 2,000 kids are starting smoking every day. the tobacco industry is spending $1 million an hour to promote its products. the strategy among public health people is try to do what they

call denormalizing smoking. you do that by taking cigarettes out of prominent display space and you do that by changing the image of smoking among young people. that's what they are doing with these campaigns, it's what the cdc did earlier this year and the year before with its tips from former smokers campaign. it shows not only that you're going to die earlier if you smoke, but that you're going to be ugly, disfigured, disabled. that scares people. >> and that goes to stigma, right? there's a legal approach here that says we prevent certain people, mainly minors from having the access as a legal matter, but there's the stigma piece in which the ways the government can, without trampling the first amendment and speech rights, can the government send out its view, its message, which is this is bad, unhealthy, uncool? >> absolutely, and stigma has been one of the most successful tool that is we've had in

bringing the smoking rate down from 42% to 18% over the past couple of decades. you think about it, it used to be cool to smoke, people did it in airplanes and restaurants. it's now socially shunned. you have to go stand in the rain on the sidewalk to smoke, and this is an extension of the same thing. it's not cool, it's not what everybody does. >> right. it is striking when you see a big company do something like this. it's a reaction not only to government, it's a reaction to the culture, there's an interplay there and we talked so much about gridlock in washington, the push is a fairly bipartisan issue, as well. i think arguably some good news here. geoff cowley, thank you for talking to us today. >> thank you for having me. the international thirst of bourbon and tennessee whiskey is driving sales to a new record. we have details coming up in what's moving your money. [ angelic music plays ] ♪ toaster strudel!

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democrats are fighting back against another attempt by republicans to roll back a part of obamacare, pointing out that republicans are complaining about a part of the law they actually helped create. waxman, lever, and miller say the rules on insurance are hypocritical and they accuse gop leadership of hi pock ra si. some republicans want to end certain protections for insurance companies during the rollout of obamacare, which they call, quote, insurance bailouts. one idea is to threaten the debt default, but democratic congressmen say democrats are denouncing a model they created in 2003 to smooth out rate increases in prescription drug coverage under medicare. let's bring in the top democrat on the commerce committee, henry waxman, the eighth most senior member of congress, welcome. >> thank you. pleased to be with you. >> great. i want to talk to you first about the cbo report, your colleagues holding hearings today. your reaction to this debate

over where the labor market and the aca intersect and then anything else you want to add about the other aca issue we just mentioned. >> well, the congressional budget office didn't say people would lose their jobs, they said going into the future there will be some people who will not go into the labor market. some people are in the labor market just to be able to get health insurance. they need to do that anymore, but what the cbo did not take into consideration is that we'll have lower deficits because the health care costs will not increase as rapidly, and that that will help spur private investments and more jobs as a result. republicans just hate this law. they are doing everything they can since the very day that the president announced it to stop it from passing and now to undermine it, and we have voted, i don't know, over 45 times to repeal it on the house floor. you have to wonder why are they so obsessed with just repealing the law that is going to offer

millions of people the chance to get health insurance, even though they might have pre-existing conditions where insurance companies deny them in the past. if they have ideas for correcting it or making it work better, let's hear about them. now all they want to do is repeal it and scare people about it. >> congressman, you're hitting on the real issue, which is it a good faith policy debate, or is it a constant relitigation of whether this should be law, it is law, and i understand your point there. i want to turn to the fact that you announced just last week that you are retiring from congress after 40 years, and you wrote a pretty interesting op-ed sketching out how the progress in congress is slow, but not as bad as some say. we're going to put up on the screen part of your timeline based on that op-ed. you talk about how from when you first came into office in '74, you were holding some of the first aids hearings. in 1982, then in the '80s you were working on medicaid expansion for a decade.

it took all the way until 1990 to get the aids act, which many remember, named after a young man named ryan white, also the clean air act, nutritional labeling and education act. you point to as legislative successes that were a long time coming. you held some of the first tobacco and nicotine investigations and hearings. we've been talking about that shift in the news today with cvs rolling back tobacco sales. regulation bill president obama signed in 2009, the affordable care act, of course, in 2010. you can't see it, but we have up on the screen a fairly long timeline there, and explain to us your argument in that op-ed and that timeline. >> well, my argument is that congress can get things done on a bipartisan basis, but it doesn't happen overnight. we need to sometimes recognize it's hard work and determination and looking for different combinations to bring people along. right now it's discouraging,

because the tea party right wing republicans are quite extreme. they think compromise is a dirty word, and to talk to the democrats, they think is like complicit with the enemy, but it's so far out, so extreme of you that i think other republicans are going to reject it. republicans are having a civil war right now, and if they get captured by the right wingers, they are going to become a distinct party. >> we're putting images of you as a younger man and you've changed a little bit over the years, i'm sure you'd say. definitely aged, right, we all age, but congress has aged a lot of people argue there is something that's definitely changed for the worst. congress is a different institution from when you arrived 40 years ago. in fact, when you look at net worth of people in congress,

your colleagues, washington post found a huge disparity. the median net worth of american households hasn't changed much over the past decades, it's about $20,000, for our viewers, that tiny red sliver on the left, but congress's average net worth has ballooned, more than doubled. do you think, as you leave, do you think this gap, this political inequality gap between our representatives and our citizens is a big problem? >> the biggest problem is the top 1% -- even half of 1%, they are getting so overly rewarded for their wealth and increasing their wealth and the middle class is being pushed down. and we have this huge gap. it's not the congress that's super rich. there really is a class of super rich people and the republicans are going and trying to benefit them even more. >> congressman, let me push you on that more.

there's a lot of discussion about that, that's the large economy, but the question i'm trying to get you to engage on is whether it matters, whether the public should care that for some reason over the past several decades the people who end up in congress seem to be increasingly unusually more wealthy than their constituents, even compared, as we showed, to just 25 years ago. >> i think the people i worry about the views of their members of congress, not their personal profile, or their portfolio, you could have a low-income member of congress take a very right wing, pro wealthy positions and forget about the working people. and you could have people who are comfortable and that's why they feel they can be in congress and fight for the working people. franklin roosevelt, of course, was one of the wealthiest families in the nation. >> last question, congressman -- >> worry about their views and what they are fighting for. >> we're out of time. out of the bills you have been

involved with, which are the ones you're most proud of? >> i can't choose any one of them, environment, the health issues, they are all important. even ones that don't seem as great a magnitude still is very beneficial for the public, and that's why we need government and that's why we need congress to do its job in a bipartisan, effective way for the public interest. >> appreciate that, appreciate you spending some time reflecting on your record and what congress is up to. congressman waxman, thank you. >> thank you. just days after radioshack's feel good '80s super bowl flashback, a cold dose of reality for the struggling electronics retailer. mandy drury is here with what's moving your money. mandy, there is word radioshack is planning to close hundreds of stores after spending $4 million on that ad. >> right. you know what, i should also say a lot of people thought that ad during the super bowl was one of the best. i guess it was also kind of symbolic, because according to people familiar with the matter,

radio shack is planning to close around 500 locations in coming months. it is not clear exactly which of the stores it's going to close. they have about 4,000 company-owned stores and then fran chiechise franchises. you might remember back in october, radio shack secured $835 million in loans to refinance about $625 million of its debt and that freed up some cash for them to be able to overhaul, you know, there used to be the old school electronics store, now, of course, it looks more like an apple store, the new ones do. you can get cool gadgets and all kinds of cool things, so it is trying to restructure itself. >> i don't want to fact check you, but i don't think of radio shack that cool, it's where i get reporter devices and all that stuff. >> you should go to the one near me, it's brand new, it's beautifully laid out. i really should say that. yeah. >> good, i'm sure they appreciate the shoutout. we wanted to look at one other

thing, it is a good time to be in the alcohol business, even though as we've been reporting today, some vice-related products like tobacco are getting more pushback on the retailer side. it was a record year for the liquor industry. tell us about that. >> yep. we've got a big global thirst and we saw experts spike beyond the $1 billion mark for the very first time ever for last year, so bourbon and tennessee whisky revenues shot up higher here at home, rising by a projected 10.2% last year. it is really great news for the industry. it was the fourth straight year of record exports for these american made or american crafted spirits. you're probably wondering which countries around the world are enjoying the spirits, japan, number one, then germany, france, the uk, and you know what had the largest overall increase? nigeria. can't get enough of it apparently. >> real quick, mandy, is this because people like to drink?

>> well, if you're going to be buying a tennessee whisky, sure you like to drink, but i think the brand is gaining traction around the world, kentucky bridges about 95% of the world's bourbon supply, and, you know, who doesn't like a drink at the end of the day? >> mandy drury, thank you very much for your reporting there. we are going to turn to some olympics history you're going to have to see to believe. yahoo! sports compiled a list of olympic events that have been discontinued and you're going to see why. this is sort of like an athletes version of that old "snl" skit bad idea jeans. skijoring, where a skier gets pulled through the snow by a horse. sled dog racing was also a demonstration sport in the 1932 lake placid games. in 1948, the winter pentathlon.

and finally, a little something called ski ballet. that was part of the freestyle skiing competition in the '88 and '92 games. we are not making this up. if you want more, and i know you do, you can see all the discontinued sports at jansing.msnbc.com. [ male announcer ] a body at rest tends to stay at rest... while a body in motion tends to stay in motion. staying active can ease arthritis symptoms. but if you have arthritis, this can be difficult. prescription celebrex can help relieve arthritis pain

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we're honoring achievements in black history. our friends at the grooe owe have a great list of 100 influential. played for the atlanta braves, that broke a record previously held by babe ruth, and that wraps up this hour of "jansing and co." i am ari melber in for chris jansing. richard lui will be up next and i'll be back for "the cycle." when you're ready

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we start the hour with a weather alert. hundreds of thousands are without power and those who have to travel or commute face treacherous conditions. let's look at that. this latest storm dumping a nasty mix of snow, sleet, freezing rain from the great lakes into the northeast. winter storm warnings are from the missouri valley to maine, covering 77 million americans. very good day to you. i'm richard lui. this storm is causing such a mess. two planes getting stuck on a taxiway in detroit, new york's governor cuomo and new york has shut down a major highway, interstate 84 between the pennsylvania and connecticut borders. plow drivers say people need to stay off the roads. >> in the main part of the storm, some people are smart enough to get home, but some go off the road into the snow bank, et cetera. we're not out of the woods yet. we have a lot of stuff coming.

>> the governors of new york and new jersey have declared states of emergency. the other big problem, power outages from icing and right now pennsylvania is hardest hit with more than 650,000 customers affected. new jersey, about 90,000 there are without power. nbc's ron mott is live in westminster, massachusetts. ron, i see you've got a lot of the white fluffy stuff. >> vastly improved from this morning. most of the roads now have been plowed. you can see out the front window, there have been snow plows everywhere. they are trying to get salt down, as well. precipitation, very light. as you can see, very little rainfall. sleet, freezing rain earlier this morning. >> it is expected to disappear in this snow by the end of the day. i'm going to have to deduct. it said nine inches or so, i'm going to deduct a couple of inches from the ground last