a catastrophic winter storm is developing and it's not just snow. atlanta and parts of the south are bracing for an ice storm that could knock out power to millions for days. also snow problems in sochi. conditions are less than ideal for snowboarding and skiing, as the snow there, it's turning to mush, yet it cost shaun white a medal. the meeting with the pope, got to show his film at the vatican. his fight for families and open adoption records. very good wednesday morning to you. we begin with another crisis averted. the white house and democrats standing their ground and claiming victory in a mostly party line vote. the house voted to raise the spending limit on the nation's credit card. it was a move that could threaten john boehner's speakership. boehner agreed to allow the vote without any strings attached, that avoids default on the nation's debt, but that's also

why the republican rim with conservatives calling for boehner's head. here's what tea party patriots are saying, a clean debt ceiling is a complete capitulation on the speech aker's part. it is time for him to go, fire the speaker. boehner's reaction? what? me, worry? >> it's the president driving up the debt and the president wanting to do nothing about the debt that's occurring will not engage in our long-term spending problem, and so we'll let his party give him the debt ceiling increase that he wants. >> all right. >> oh, my, what a wonderful day, plenty of sunshine coming my way. >> humming along as he left the meeting. let's bring in congresswoman debbie wasserman schultz. i imagine you also like zippidy

doo da yourself, thinking everything's okay, but that vote on what he put out yesterday, that could come today in the senate, the measure expected to pass, though ted cruz wants a 60-vote threshold. boehner's move surprised many in his own caucus, did it surprise you and what do you think his strategy is right now? >> well, what continues to astonish me is that you've got john boehner, who is skipping along and humming a nice little tune while 199 of his caucus members voted to default. you know, democrats have been steadfast with president obama that we need to pay the nation's bills, that we cannot bring our economy to the brink of default and economic disaster and we need to pass a clean debt ceiling. thankfully, speaker boehner at least realized this was not something that he should allow

to continue to twist in the wind out there, but, you know, he is really, essentially, dealing with a caucus of individuals who think that it's okay to just blow off paying the nation's bills and jeopardize our economy, potentially throwing us back into another significant recession. it's just -- it's so fiscally reckless that it's stunning. >> so, his decision then to put out that clean vote, clean bill, excuse me, what does that tell you, though, about how he might be running the house in the future, though? is this a new boehner? >> i think that at least one person, john boehner, seems to recognize that at the end of the day, he has a very hard core group of tea party extremists, who are most of the time running the show there, but even john boehner, i think, realized that it was essential for us to put a bill on the floor that allowed

us to pay the bills when there was nothing that would please any of these extremists, but who most of the time he allows to run the show. >> now, democrats -- >> i don't think it's anything more than that. >> right. i want to shift now to what the democrats are doing, your party's doing, you're about to embark on your annual retreat. the question now is, what's the plan for getting stuff done? with what has just happened with speaker boehner and the increase there of the debt ceiling and being able to pay those bills that have already been approved, what does this mean in terms of your party's move going forward to get something done? do you think this means you'll be able to perhaps work together on issues like minimum wage and immigration reform? >> well, we've consistently reached out to the republicans as has president obama and said we want to work with you. we want to sit down and find common ground on issues like job creation and continuing to kick our economy into an even more

robust economy, focusing on making sure that more americans can climb the ladders to the middle class. that's why we support increase the minimum wage to make sure those economic opportunities are there, and those are the things we'll be talking about at our retreat, but unity around those issues is really important. just like making sure we stayed unified on a clean debt ceiling so we could pay the nation's bills and keep our economic recovery moving. >> what specifics can you offer to get those items done that you're going to -- >> what i was going to say, at the end of the day, while we certainly will continue to extend our arms out to the republicans to work with them, we, as the election approaches, i think likely are going to be in a situation where we have to present the contrast between democrats and republicans on those issues, where republicans have actually introduced no legislation that actually would focus on job creation. they name a lot of bills jobs, they put the word jobs on a lot

of their bills, but nothing that seems to focus on anything other than helping the wealthiest americans become even more wealthy, and that's just not the way the american people are right now. >> talking about the election, let's move forward past 2014 and go to 2016. you're probably counting the days, too. 1,000 days away from the 2016 election. >> you know what, i'm not counting the days actually. the media is counting the days. >> you're certainly aware of it, thinking of today and tomorrow, no doubt. you're aware of this, private papers belong to diane blair released, they reveal conversations about the monica lewinsky affair, some republicans say this is all fair game here. are they right here? >> it's stunning that the republican leadership is so obsessed with hillary clinton and anyone's personal, private family business that they would drudge up 20-year-old issues like that, is not only not fair

game, it's offensive, and i think it's another example of their ability to alienate women across this country. and in the war on women, it's just another opportunity for us to show that republicans just don't get it and why republican women in a recent poll said that the democratic party understands the issues important to women and place them in a higher priority. and that's why we're going to continue to win women and it will matter in 2014 and in 2016. >> congresswoman debbie wasserman schultz, thank you for your time today. >> thank you. >> let's bring in ken vogel and perry bacon. you were both listening. ken, we'll start off with you here. conservatives, when we talk about what boehner did, they are fuming over him backing off the debt ceiling demands. for instance, club for growth saying, we thought it was a joke. heritage action, a clean debt ceiling suspension is

irresponsible. john boehner must be replaced as speaker of the house. so, when you look at this response here from the right, is speaker boehner, is he in trouble? >> well, he's not in trouble, because there's not going to be an election for house speaker until after the midterm elections, and this is actually pretty smart strategy for the midterm elections. it is, in a way, a direct challenge to some of these tea party groups. they do have a lot of money. they could make problems in the primaries, but what he is gambling is he would rather have the fights and squabbles and messiness in the primaries than give democrats a huge issue to come after republicans in the general election, which he would have done, had he allowed his caucus to steer him and to steer the nation. >> you think it was a smart move? >> i do think it was a smart political move. it could be one that hurts him. it also gives cover to some of these same members of his caucus, who in some ways were fearful of or even beholden to, as democrats would say, some of

these tea party groups, because they can say, look, we didn't vote for it, it was speaker boehner and the democrats, so it kind of sets a course where they won't have primary challenges, even as some of these tea party groups are looking to primary to make a point. >> did the speaker, though, give up an opportunity when you talk about giving messages of fighting for something, he did come out and say, you know, look, this is up to the democrats, they need to work on a bipartisan solution here when it comes to funding the government, and it's their fault. he was pointing across the aisle as he went for this clean debt ceiling vote. did he hear, when you think of what the speaker has done, did he come away here with a win and pointing at the democrats when he did that? >> he blames obama for everything, that's not surprising. the key thing is, he avoided another fight like the government shutdown. ken is right, this was good politics. the republicans want to focus on

the health care law and not on their internal squabbles and the key thing to note here, harry's said he should redesign, but none of the actual members of the house so far, house republicans, are saying boehner should step down. those people actually put him in power, they are the key group to watch, and so far they voted against this, but a lot of the members acknowledged this bill had to pass. they didn't want to vote for it themselves, though. >> you see the leadership here is split some, going with speaker boehner, some not, perry. >> paul ryan has voted for the increase before. he's voted for the compromises before, so i'm not surprised he votes against this in this case, but the key thing is, eric cantor voted for it. we're talking about boehner being replaced, cantor is his number two. it's hard to see why republicans would want to replace boehner with cantor. >> thank you both.

politico's ken vogel, as well as perry bacon. appreciate it. coming up, chris jansing live from sochi gets us caught up to speed on all things olympics. shaun white, u.s. women's hockey, and the medal count, just to start. plus, is the lack of snow having an impact there? and there's plenty of wintery weather in the south. a check on the impacts right after the break. dad, why are you getting that? is there a prize in there? oh, there's a prize, all right. [ male announcer ] inside every box of cheerios are those great-tasting little o's made from carefully selected oats that can help lower cholesterol. is it a superhero? kinda.

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i just wanna feel normal. to help, sleep train is collecting pajamas for foster children, big and small. bring your gift to any sleep train, and help make a foster child's night a little cozier. not everyone can be a foster parent, but anyone can help a foster child. yeah, it's day five of competition at the olympic winter games, but it doesn't exactly feel like winter there in sochi. temperatures hovering around 50-degree mark. there's still snow on the hill somewhere. the warm weather has been taking a toll on the slopes, causing plenty of falls and the cancellation of the alpine downhill practice run. the medal standings right now, team usa is in fourth place with two gold medals, seven total.

our own chris jansing has been there live in sochi all so far. chris, you know, those weather conditions might have affected shaun white, some are saying, who missed the podium in his marquee event, the halfpipe, the finals that were there yesterday. and now folks are wondering, okay, so he didn't make it to the gold platform, but is he going to now, you know, hang up his snowboard? is he going to retire? >> you know, relationship chard, he was going for the three-peat, he has two golds already, he wanted to make it three in a row. he did not. the expectation was he would not be back for another olympics, but this morning on the "today" show when he was asked about that, let me play for you what shaun white had to say. >> i'm doing my math. you'd be 31 years old when the games in south korea roll around. is there a chance you could come back and go out on top? >> i think so. i think so. what do you guys think? [ cheers and applause ] need everybody now more than ever, so, yeah, thank you, guys. >> yeah, you hear the support

for him, obviously, if not the biggest name, one of a handful of stars here at these winter olympics. also there was a lovely moment after he found out he didn't win the medal, he actually jumped a fence and went to see a couple of make-a-wish kids, one of them a little girl who said she wanted to marry him. a very sweet moment, and i think, you know, he's going to have a lot of thinking to do about what his future holds. he's got a lot of business opportunities, whether he will stay with snowboarding to the extent he has, will be a decision for him to make. >> 31, old man, white hair by then. come on. >> just remember, the silver medalist in halfpipe yesterday was 15, so snowboard years are different than you and i. >> you're right. so, you got to meet two very amazing young women, and they are making a splash right now. >> that's erin hamlin. i've known her for more than four years, she's from upstate new york, remson. she was the reigning world champion when she went into the

last olympics. if you remember, there was a tragedy on the course, they shortened it. she finished out of the medals, was not one of the favorites this year, and came home with a bronze. it was really exciting to talk to her, because not only is it something very personal for her and her family has worked very hard with her, but she becomes the first single luger in the history of the united states to medal in that sport, so the sport is thinking that's very big for them. i also want to mention for you devin logan, she is the silver medalist in ski slopestyle. she had a bad injury. she blew out her knee. she spent the year studying the judges, what are they like, what do they score on, and she ended up with a silver. fun seeing both of them today, richard. >> today's events, very quickly? >> women's hockey, oh, my gosh, i was outside talking to the usa and canada, this is going to be a preview of the final. just finished up, canada pulled it out 3-2, but, boy, was it an

exciting game. shani davis, he's going for the three-peat in the 1000 speed skating, i talked to him a couple of days ago, he is on fire, very, very focused. everybody loves figure skating, the pairs figure skating, we love it because they do the lifts and the throws. the russians are favorited in that. and i should tell you, tickets, they still claim about 90% sold, 75% of the sales going to russians, so you know where the cheering is going to be tonight in the figure skating venue. >> well, i'll be cheering here for new york for america, no doubt, as you will be there. chris jansing, thank you so much. look forward to your report tomorrow. of course, she's got a full recap of today's events in sochi, report on nbc nightly news with brian williams tonight. coming up, we'll check in on what could be the worst winter storm this year. the snow is already falling in atlanta. will ice paralyze the south? it's already having an impact on the airports. (knochello? hey, i notice your car is not in the driveway.

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historic devastation expected from a winter storm. we're watching that here on msnbc. up to 100 million people are affected from texas to new england, and the big concern is ice. and here's a live picture of columbia, south carolina. can you see it where the snow makes a pretty scene, but hey, bill karins, looking at that, everything's whited over there. >> that's columbia, south carolina. >> you wouldn't know it. >> no. >> that monster of a thing you're watching. >> yeah, it's well under way, the ice storm part is already taking place, especially to the south of columbia, right along interstate 20 coming out of atlanta, augusta, georgia. that's where it's been right around 32 degrees. columbia is at 28, that's why they've had mostly sleet and snow and the heavy snow is moving north. charlotte, if it's not snowing yet, it will hard soon. raleigh is going to get a heavy batch during the day. the ice part of the storm is

ongoing, will continue through the evening, columbia, southwards near the augusta area. and after the snow, we will get ice around fayetteville to raleigh later. how much snow are we talking? some of these big cities, charlotte, eight inches of snow, raleigh could end up with as much as six inches of snow. those are the higher totals. atlanta, one to three, mostly of sleet. further to the north, we're also going to get significant snow out of this. the heavy band of snow over i-95, d.c., philly, new york, at 7:00 a.m. tomorrow morning, during the peak of the rush hour. d.c. should have six to eight inches on the ground, philly, four. philadelphia, five or six. you get the picture, difficult morning commute in the northeast. it moves out pretty quickly during the afternoon. we get a break in the storm and then the storm on the way out will bring a little snow. the one other thing imented to show you that's pretty cool, mississippi, alabama, arkansas,

louisiana, florida is the only state right now in the country that has no snow. >> it's good to be in florida. it is great to be in florida right now. >> a lot of tickets being booked. >> that's where we're all going to go. thanks so much for watching that for us. let's get right to the weather channels, jim cantore out of augusta, georgia. jim, we learned 85,000 people in georgia without power right now. i heard your reports earlier. ice, ice, baby. >> yeah, really is. whatever kind of ice we're talking about here. what's interesting in augusta is this is from 2:00 a.m. to sunrise, quarter to a half inch here. you can see it all over the trees, then we changed over to sleet, which doesn't accumulate on the trees and power lines, that's a good thing. that said, in augusta, 13,000 people without power. these sleet balls kind of bounce off and accumulate on the ground. the more of this we can get, the better, all right, because we're not going to have extensive, you know, crop loss and tree loss.

this is bad enough, especially if we're going to see winds kick up 30, 40 miles per hour. what the computer models are telling us is actually getting back to freezing rain this afternoon. that's a worst-case scenario for augusta and that's what we don't want to happen. as we look across the savannah river, rooftops, lawns, river banks, covered with sleet, which has been happening the last three and a half hours here. we're hoping to stay sleet, guys, that's the hope, but if not, if we go back to freezing rain, this quarter inch to half inch could be three quarters to an inch of ice, that means major, major problems and the power outages are going to go way up. >> those trees falling over. jim cantore, thank you, my friend. closing arguments are under way in the trial of a florida man accused of shooting an unarmed teenager after an argument over loud music. yesterday, michael dunn took the stand in his own defense. >> everything he said and did

cemented the fact that whatever he threw up against that looked like a gun, was a gun. >> and at that point, were you shooting only to defend yourself? >> yes, i was. >> the jury could get the case this afternoon. now this afternoon, president obama will sign an executive order raising the minimum wage for federal contractors. their pay will go from $7.25 an hour to $10.10. this only applies to new contracts affecting about a few hundred thousand workers. president obama is also pushing congress to raise the minimum wage nationwide. you can watch the president this afternoon streaming live on msnbc.com. the popular baby gear company graco is recalling 3.7 million car seats due to a problem with the buckle. the company saying dropped food, food and drinks, that can make them stick and difficult to unlatch. the company also says it doesn't affect the performance of the car seat. you can head to the company's website for more information on replacing that buckle. hey kevin...still eating chalk for heartburn?

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senator claire mccaskill said out loud what a lot of democrats up for re-election might be thinking, that president obama will not help if you're running in a red or purple state. >> if you were running for re-election in arkansas, louisiana, or north carolina, would you invite the president and campaign side-by-side with him? >> you know, probably not. the president's numbers are not strong in my state or in arkansas or louisiana or north carolina. >> on top of that, democrats will see a slew of new republican ads being released today attacking them on obamacare. >> more than 2 million americans will either quit their jobs or cut their hours because of obamacare. senate democrats have actually crafted, in my view, an extraordinary piece of legislation.

>> joining me now is democratic pollster, margie o'mara and joe watkins, a former aide to george h.w. bush. great to see both of you. margie, kick it off for us, we know red and purple-state democrats, vulnerable right now, but is it enough to distance themselves from the president? and you heard claire mccaskill very clear, no, i don't necessarily want the president there. >> i think for any democrat running, wherever they are running, the secret is going to be to communicate personally to voters, to make sure voters understand their story, and also know and make sure voters know that the candidate understands them, that the candidate really cares about what voters are going through, and that's something that democrats in purple states, red states, blue states, have a very clear advantage over republicans on. republicans favorability as a party is just been sinking. it's lower than democrats' popularity. republicans in congress and the

republican-led congress have record-low approval ratings, so i think democrats are going to have a lot of strength just in the image to both parties. >> is the president kryptonite to some of these candidates? >> i don't think the president is kryptonite. a lot of these candidates have had and will continue to have points of differentiation between themselves and the president and that's typical in these more republican-leaning or purple states, and i think that is consistent with what we've seen, you know, whether you have republicans in blue-leaning areas and democrats in red-leaning areas, and that's normal. that's a normal part of the variation that we have on the democratic side, the big tent we have on the democratic side as opposed to the more narrow cast on the republican side. >> margie, margie, please. >> all right, you'll get your word right now, joe. let's talk about the republican tent. you know the koch brothers spending big right now on tv

ads, north carolina spent more than $8 million so far, more than all the democratic outside groups in every senate race in the country combined, and if you were to look at those numbers at this current pace, that's more than $27 million by election day. that will be a number in here, joe, never seen in the state before, and the key point they are making as you saw on some of the ads we showed a moment ago, obamacare, obamacare, obamacare. is that enough to decide the races? >> i think so. i think at the end of the day, you have to reach out to americans, whether democrats or republicans, and point out what isn't working for them, and every american, because the affordable care act or obamacare, as known by others, is a federal mandate. it means every american, every business person, has to abide by it and because of that, everybody's been impacted. so if you're a woman and you're a small business owner, even if you like the president, you've been hurt by the affordable care act. >> you know that's businesses

exempt, that's 96% of people. >> margie, margie, you talk to a small business owner who doesn't have the money to pay for services, to pay for an accountant or lawyer and come to interpret for her or him, if you're a man who owns a small business and they are scared to death right now. they know it's going to impact their profits, not going to hire anybody new because they don't want to have to be forced to pay for the health care of new workers. >> but they are not. >> if you're a regular person and don't own a business and you thought you were going to be able to keep your health care because you like your health care plan, nothing was wrong with your plan and you liked your plan and liked paying what you pay for your plan and found out, like so many americans did, that now you cannot keep your plan and the plan you have to opt for is more expensive and gives you less, has a high deductible, you're angry about that and all these commercials are doing is pointing out if you don't like it, you have an option to do something about it by electing a republican.

>> george watkins and margie omera, we have to leave it there. >> thank you so much. wall street is on its longest winning streak of the year after words from janet yellen. mandy drury is here with what's moving your money on this wednesday. mandy, i hope it's the beginning of a nice run. >> you know wall street hates uncertainty. i think it was janet yellen's message of continuity that encouraged the market. there was no abrupt turn in her language and the message really was, unless the economic outlook significantly changes, they are not going to change the pace of the taper. >> she put this plan together she's supporting. she's saying, yeah, let's do this, let's do this. >> absolutely. she's extremely familiar with the communication language bernanke has been using. you could have almost ripped what she said from past statements. but what's also interesting is she reiterated the stock market is not in a bubble. that's a green light to the market and also what's really getting lost in all of this is that earnings season, the

earnings season has turned out to be a whole lot better than a lot of people were expecting and that got lost earlier in the year. >> which turns into jobs and buying, which is good for the economy. let's move to a very important subject here, bacon. >> that is so important. the most important topic of the day. everything is better with bacon. >> i was waiting for you to get to it. let's talk bacon. >> last year, 2013, it was a record year for bacon sales. nearly $4 billion worth of bacon sold. up 9.5%, and i think smithfield, you know, the pork producer company, they did a survey and apparently 65% of americans support bacon becoming our national food. imagine that. >> that's right. >> here's more proof on the wild popularity of bacon. let's have a look. >> just wrap your favorite cut of bacon around the perfect bacon bowl form and cook. the easy way to make delicious edible bowls out of bacon for fun, savory, crunchable yum. you'll have tasty, perfect bacon

bowls. >> i love this commercial. i've seen it a bunch of times. >> it came out late last year and since then, about 2 million units of the perfect bacon bowl have been sold, but wait, there is more, this week, going on in atlantic city's tropicana casino, there is a bacon festival, and you can get all kinds of things, like bacon-flavored vodka, you can get a blt with a whole pound of bacon. i don't know how you get your chops around that. what else, bacon milk shakes, bacon cupcakes, bacon beer, bacon flavored toothpaste and bacon flavored floss. imagine flossing your teeth with the flavor of bacon. >> i'm pro bacon but i have to draw a line there. mandy drury, appreciate it from cnbc. have the olympics inspired you to get out doors and explore the winter?

some unusual snow sports you can try, check out fat biking, allowing you to ride on ice and snow. ice boating, the boats are fitted with runners to allow for sailing across solid bodies of water, also fun. shovel racing. this is what i got to do this year. you slide downhill on a shovel, using the handle to steer, of course, be careful. snowkiting, kind of like kite surfing in the summer. and it used to be an olympic sport, skijoring. if you want more, go to jansing.msnbc.com. looks like fun. >> what about sitting inside by the fire? >> that's fun, too.

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allergies in children? new research says it might. oral immune therapy, the practice you give trace amounts of a substance as treatment is known to help various food allergies, and after treatment, peanut allergy patients could safely eat some peanuts. the future of afghanistan's security is up in the air right now, as yet another high-ranking u.s. official says president karzai will not sign a new security agreement. >> it's my own view, not necessarily company policy, is i don't believe president karzai is going to sign it. >> now, it means there's no deal to keep u.s. troops in the country long term. the security deal and karzai's secret talks with the taliban are a huge concern for afghan women, who are worried this will set them back to a time they had almost no rights and no protections. i'm joined now by deputy director of the women and foreign policy program on the council on foreign relations and author of "the dressmaker of

khar khana." the gains made by afghan women described as fragile, but reversible, are we seeing significant progress made, numbers that you've put out and are familiar with, 69 women in parliament, 2 million girls in school, over 1,500 policewomen, and 3,000 midwives out there. there's a lot at stake here, it would seem. >> absolutely, and i think women have actually used this last decade to do all the things that are pretty familiar to a lot of your guests, right, so they've really vocalized, strategized, organized, and have been fighting for their own rights. there's a march they organized for later this week to speak out on behalf of themselves and keep all the progress they've made from being rolled back, and they are getting together to try to make sure the presidential candidates hear their voices and don't push backward, but they are up against conservative forces that have been surging ahead the last few years.

>> i want to share something from "the new york times" and describe some of the afghan women, quote, victims whose in-laws, husbands, fathers, and sons have broken their arms and legs, chopped off lips, tongues, and noses, pulled out fingernails, sold them, stabbed them, and left them for dead. now, gayle, a new law would stop them from testifying against their attackers in these situations. are we headed back to the days of hard-line restrictions on women, this description that we see in "the new york times"? >> i think wait and see, but not if it's up to women. i have done stories on all of those things and as a reporter, they do change you. there are incredible stories of hardship and brutality you haven't even seen given to animals, but what you see now are women speaking out. there are more cases reported and personally i don't think that's because there's more

violence going on, i think it's because more women are speaking out and there are networks of shelters around the country that women are running for other women, so you see women fighting against this rollback, but they are up against parliamentary and people in power fighting them. >> you have been on the ground over the last five years. you go back and you speak with these afghan women. what are they telling you, and what are their lives like? is it like mulla malala yousafz do they face that kind of danger? >> it depends where you are, but there's no question, you have never met tougher women committed to getting themselves and their daughters educated. i've done a lot of stories on girls that risk their lives, acid attacks, risk night letters, risk family threats, just to be in a classroom. that you see all the time, and what you also see is the tenacity and real desire to make sure that they don't go backward, and i think right now, so many times this discussion

about afghan women is seen as sort of a pet project, but the truth is, if you're going to have a stable, secure afghanistan, which everyone wants, women have to be a part of it. >> let's talk about some laws that are being discussed there in afghanistan. there's a law that would reduce the quota of women in parliament from 25% to 20%, a law that would protect domestic abusers, what's behind this attack on women's rights and with women in parliament, can they stop this? >> it's going to be hard to stop, but you do see women doing something very smart, which is getting the international community and reporters like you to pay attention to the fact they are waging what felt like a lonely fight and they now have a international consensus mobilizing that this shouldn't happen. you have women fighting this is not right, this shouldn't happen, and when we get enough power, we're going to make sure that changes and what they are trying to do is smart, which is make their fight everybody's fight. it's not about whether afghan

women have a day in court, it's whether the country's stable enough that american troops don't have to go back in and that's with women being a part of it. >> thank you so much. thank you for your time today. >> pleasure to join you. today's tweet of the day comes from the girl scouts. "out of all u.s. engineers, only 11% of women. this woman is dedicated to raising this number." they include a founder about the toy series goldy blocks for the next generation of female engineers. gy relief. and zyrtec® is different than claritin® because it starts working faster on the first day you take it. zyrtec®. love the air. [ sneezes ]

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the comeback trail.

there is no map. no mile marker. no welcome sign. one day you may find yourself here. and you'll need someone to bring you back. to carry you home. at liberty mutual, we believe with every setback there's a chance to come back and rise. liberty mutual insurance. auto, home, life. to politics now. several notes from last night's state dinner, the honor guest there, french president francois hollande. hollande is fresh off a public and messy break up with france's first lady. blue and black silk karolina

herrera gown, if i said that right. singer mary j. blige performing there. there were several celebrity sightings, including steven colbert, bradley cooper, julia louis dreyfus. she tweeted out this pick of her, saying that was an unforgettable evening, thank you, joe biden, barack obama, and michelle obama. well, the oscars are less than three weeks away and one of the movies up for best picture is about a young unwed mother who is forced to give up her son for adoption when she was 18. >> i know this woman. she had a baby when she was a teenager. she's kept it secret for 50 years. >> you're talking about a human interest story. perhaps those older nuns can help us with some of the details. >> i don't think that's going to be possible. >> why not? >> you're a journalist. >> i used to be. >> roman catholic? >> yes, well, i used to be.

>> in an ending hollywood would have a hard time topping, filomina meeting with the pope at the vatican. also producer and co-writer of the movie, which is up for best adapted screen play. a lot of awards here. steve, i want to start with this here. you've put a lot of time and energy into this movie and finally getting to meet and speak with pope francis, what was that like, what happened? >> well, it was fantastic. it was -- we were there in line waiting for him. the signal had come out from the vatican that philomena was invited by the pope. i'm sure he was briefed by his advisers about the movie. >> what did he say about the movie? >> him specifically, he hasn't said anything specifically himself about the movie, but his advisers who saw the movie, one of his senior advisers,

guillermo, his personal private secretary, said when they saw the screening, they thought it was entirely consistent with the pope's message of openness and forgiveness and tolerance, which is entirely consistent with the tone of the movie. >> now, i want to play a little built of a clip of what philomena said after she met with the pope and we'll listen to that very quickly. >> he was such a contrast. so forgiven, as all them years ago, it was such a thing to have a baby out of wedlock, but yesterday i felt all my sins, you know, he really made me feel that they were going to do something about it. >> do something about it, steve, for those who are unfamiliar with what had happened systemically related to the church, tell us about what she means. >> well, the reason we were invited by the vatican wasn't to see a movie, it was actually

because there's a charity that's been set up in philomena's name for the behest of an organization called catholic adoption alliance, which is a pressure group that's set up to help mothers and children of these unwed mothers who are shamed by the church in the 1950s and '60s, help them trace their children, because the law in the u.s. and the uk, it's enshrined in law you have rights to information to gain you the access. that's not a right in the republic of ireland, and so it's -- the philomena project, which has been set up, was to try to pressure the church. >> and you're talking about a group of girls and women out of wedlock having children in these institutions and their children were taken away from them. >> yeah, it was a systemic thing in ireland and many other countries, too, carried on until the 1980s where if you had a child out of wedlock, the only way you could go to was a mother

and baby homes. the women's human rights were violated, as they were not given any kind of due process. they were incarcerated and their children were forcibly adopted. they were made to sign a contract. >> taken away and given to other groups of parents. >> many of whom were in the u.s., who came to ireland to adopt these children. they did have a better life there. >> prevented from finding their children. >> well, in this case. i mean, sometimes -- it's kind of pot luck, if you find someone that's helpful, they help you, but if you don't, they don't. in philomena's case, she was obstructed at every turn. >> and up to 60,000 stories. so many stories there. you're up for four oscars, good luck, my friend. steve coogan, appreciate you coming by to talk about the movie, as well as the organization. that wraps up this hour of "jansing and co." i'm richard lui in for chris

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hello, everyone, i'm craig melvin. topping our agenda today, old man winter's fit of rage continues. what's being called the catastrophic winter blast is bearing down on the south right now. snow and ice has knocked out power to more than 100,000 homes. more than 5,000 flights have been delayed or cancelled so far. amtrak is cutting service to some parts south of d.c. already. meanwhile, in parts of atlanta and augusta and the carolinas, streets are slick. those trees are encased in ice. ice right now is the biggest threat. forecastest say they are worried about what this storm is going to bring. >> i think this one's not getting enough attention because it actually could be much worse than some areas of the deep south than we've seen all winter long. >> it's going to be historic in its devastation. >> it will be catastrophic as it

continues throughout the day, because we're talking about a quarter inch of ice, inch of ice in this area, with some strong, gusty winds. >> big problems in the airports, too. when you've got 75% of your fleet that has to come in and out of atlanta, that's already been cancelled, you're going to have some big backlog issues right into the weekend. >> and it's already started. lots of passengers stranded at atlanta's international, the world east busiest airport. it could take until next week until airlines are able to clear that backlog. here's north carolina's governor just moments ago. >> i hope we're overprepared and underwhelmed by this storm. we are not anticipating to be underwhelmed by this storm. i hope the forecasters are wrong. >> and take a look at nasa's picture of the storm from space. almost a third of the u.s. population, roughly 93 million people are under some kind of winter weather advisory right now, and as the