you're only young once. unless you have a subaru. (announcer) the subaru xv crosstrek. symmetrical all-wheel drive plus 34 mpg. love. it's what makes a subaru a subaru. a survivor's story. a 7-year-old girl walks away from a small plane crash then finds a home nearly three-quarters of a mile away. you'll hear from the man whose door she knocked on. a critical find. reports today on what searchers may have found in connection with that airasia plane that went down last week. we'll bring you the very latest. they're here hundreds of new laws all across the country from the important to obscure. we'll run you through some of the most interesting. and attack of the drones the new concern over all of those flying objects that turned up as christmas gifts this year.

what might the government do to control them? hello, everyone. it's high noon in the east, 9:00 in the west. welcome to "weekends with alex witt." alex is off. i'm ayman mohyeldin. here's what's happening. we begin with a developing story in kentucky. faa investigators are at the site of a plane crash where a 7-year-old girl is the only survivor. the crash killed her parents, sister and cousin. the piper aircraft was headed from florida to illinois. it lost contact with air traffic controllers about 6:00 last night. the "associated press" said the faa confirmed the pilot reported engine trouble while flying over southern kentucky. the young girl came to the home of larry wilkins. here's what he said. >> she's only 7 years old.

and for a 7-year-old, she was very, very composed. it's like i said to the other news agencies, i'm getting a lot of attention here. but she should be getting the attention. >> of course i'm sure right now the attention should be on her physical recovery and even emotional and psychological after going through what she went there, after experiencing that and seeing her family. what did you do while you waited for the authorities to arrive? was she talking to you at all or what happened? >> yes, ma'am. she was talking. but she was very very difficult to understand because she was -- her lips were trembling and she was crying on and off a little. but not like you would expect the normal 7-year-old to do. so i'm assuming she was quite a bit in shock. >> i understand that you also tried to accompany her to the hospital but you weren't allowed? is that correct. >> that's correct. >> what happened there? >> well she wanted me to go

with her because i guess i was the only person she recognized. of course the emts scared her when they put the neck brace on her and put her on the board that they put her on and strapped her down. she was scared. and she said, you go with me. but they wouldn't allow that. i even said well i think i'll just go to the hospital. and they said it won't do you any good. they won't let you in. >> for what you went through, you sound very composed yourself. have you had time to kind of settle in and realize what exactly happened to you and what happened to her? >> no, not really. i get kind of emotional talking about it. >> naturally after seeing and experiencing what you went through and hearing her story. let me ask you this, is there any indication that you might see this girl again just to kind of give her a hug, if anything?

i can't imagine what she's going through in the days to come knowing that the family was traveling from florida to illinois and she's there in kentucky without any family members as of yet, if they have to travel. any indication -- are you going to make any attempt to try to see her if that's possible? >> if they notified her family, they will be here. she was from nashville, illinois which is from paducah, probably, 110 miles or so. so her family should be here. >> the survivor has been treated at a local hospital for nonlife-threatening injuries and has been released. police are not disclosing her name at this moment. patrick mcmurtrie is on the scene in lyon county kentucky joining me from the woods where the little girl hiked through. visualize for us what this girl had to go through to get help. >> reporter: first, let me set it up for you.

she's alone in an overturned plane with her family dead next to her, outside the plane wreckage is a fire. she's got a broken wrist. somehow she manages to pry open that plane and crawl out and this is what she sees if she can see anything. it's the middle of the night, it's dark it's rainy. and this underbrush is so thick, there's oak trees everywhere. there is zero visibility inside these woods. 7-year-old girl wearing shorts a tank top, a blooz r blooddy nose, a broken wrist. navigates her way through a mile of this thick underbrush because she saw a light, a beacon of light. that's mr. wilkins' home. that's the only light in this entire area that was shining and that little girl somehow was able to find that and make her way through this underbrush and mr. wilkins said by the time she got there, her legs and arms were cut up and she was bleeding. and she was just trembling and crying. but he said she was amazingly poised.

we spoke to him. and you heard the interview that was done last night. we spoke to him just a little while ago and he broke down in tears when he said if he could just give her a hug he would. and when the emt came to take her away he did not want to let that little girl go. he's so thankful she's okay and he hopes to see her again. >> what an incredible story of tragedy and survival. do we know anything about the investigation, what may have caused the plane to go down? seems like we may have lost patrick there. moving on to weather and the arctic blast that is tightening its grip on parts of the nation. check out this blinding snow in amarillo, texas, as a huge storm system moved east. the storm is expected to drop more than a foot of snow all the way from kansas city to maine. the national weather service says more than a half inch of ice could accumulate on roads and power lines. drivers had a tough go of it in wichita falls, texas. and it's about to get even colder.

the weather channel's dr. greg postel is here. what more do we know about these weather conditions? >> it's going to get snowier and colder over the next several days. the chances for snow over the midwest and great lakes later on today and tonight, going from northeast kansas through parts of wisconsin, illinois, chicago included, maybe 1 to 3 inches of snow is going to come largely tonight and tomorrow morning. i'll time it out city by city. there's kansas city. by 2:00 in the morning, another batch of snow will be moving through des moines rockford illinois, madison, milwaukee, even green bay. tomorrow afternoon, it clears out back in here but more lake-effect snow is in parts of michigan and western new york state, ohio and western pennsylvania. but it is going to get a lot colder in the northeast and the midwest. but we're also dealing with snow and freezing rain right now.

it's very dangerous to travel across pennsylvania and new york state. these interstates are very bad. start off as snow here. that's bad enough on your travels. but it's the freezing rain where the rain comes down and freezes on contact that makes the roads like skating rinks, very dangerous. a lot of storm reports and accidents out that way. let's time it out for the northeast, showing you that sort of -- we'll get a burst of snow in england overnight tonight. may get several inches out of this. but the good news is behind it some warmer air briefly makes an appearance to turn everything over to rain. that's the really good news about this because that snow and the sleet and the freezing rain by tomorrow morning, etch in northern new england will be gone with all of that relatively warm air moving in. here's how much snow we expect to come in. 8 to 12 in maine. but it is going to get very very cold next week in the middle of the country and in the northeast. the coldest air of the season.

stay tuned for the latest. ayman, back to you. >> bundle up. greg, thank you very much for that update. new york city today remembers a police officer struck down in the line of duty. detective wenjian liu and his partner, rafael ramos, were gunned down on december 20th as they sat in their patrol car on a brooklyn street. ramos' funeral was held a week ago. but the tensions between officers in the police force and mayor bill de blasio became very public when officers turned their back as the mayor spoke during that funeral. police commissioner william bratton wants no such display at today's wake. he said in a memo to police officer, a hero's funeral is about grieving, not grievance. msnbc's adam reese is outside the funeral home in brooklyn. adam, you're out there, you get a sense of what's going on in the street with some of these officers. will they adhere to the commissioner's memo? >> reporter: ayman, i can tell you relations between the rank-and-file and the mayor continue to be strained and efforts to bring them together

haven't really worked out. a meeting between the union and the mayor this week just ended up in more finger-pointing. be interesting to see if the officers heed the commissioner's call not to turn their backs on the mayor when he gives his eulogy tomorrow. the wake here begins in about an hour. it will last till 9:00 tonight. the funeral tomorrow, 11:00. we expect to see officers from all over the country coming here to pay their respects. officer liu was 32 years old, seven-year veteran of the force. he's the first chinese officer to be killed in the line of duty. boat he and officer ramos will have streets named after them here in new york city. and both officers will be promoted to detective posthumously. >> do you get a sense -- we know that tens of thousands turned out for the funeral of detective ramos. what do you think we're going to see with the outpouring this weekend? do we expect same numbers, same crowd? >> reporter: i can expect to see much of the same. we see officers already today

from stockbridge, massachusetts, a group of 22 officers from l.a. so a lot of officers thousands tomorrow maybe as many as 20,000 to 25,000. >> adam reese with that update for us. thank you very much. the alleged plotter of one of the worst terror attacks against the united states is dead today. he was accused of masterminding the 1998 al qaeda bombings of the u.s. embassies in kenya and tanzania. he was in federal custody in new york city awaiting trial and reportedly died of sudden complications from chronic liver disease. u.s. commandos apprehended him in a daring early down raid outside his home in libya back in 2013. 12 americans and more than 200 kenyans and tanzanians is were killed in those embassy bombings. more than 6,000 people applied for driver's licenses in california as the state became one of ten states allowing undocumented immigrants to legally drive. friday was the first day they could apply.

the new law requires a proof of identity and a state residence. >> this is a dream come true pretty much, getting my driver's license. >> i was dreaming about it like three years since i came here. >> the state expects 1.4 million to apply for licenses in the first three years. a runaway puppy is reunited with her owners after a cross-country trip brought her from washington state to pittsburgh. it started when the dog became loose in washington. a truck driver thought she was a stray dog and picked her up. he drove her all the way to pittsburgh and gave her to an animal clinic. the owners then used social media and several phone calls to track down the puppy. >> i'm very excited. so glad to have her home. he's a well-traveled dog. >> she's happy to be home. she's probably anxious to get back to a place she recognizes. >> penny is a 7-month-old puppy

who ran off two weeks ago. the new clues at the bottom of the ocean in the crash of the airasia jet. how technology is helping searchers find debris. and later, a new year with a whole lot of new laws. a look at some of the rules that went into effect when we said hello to 2015. constipation, diarrhea, gas, bloating? yeah. one phillips' colon health probiotic cap each day helps defend against these digestive issues with three strains of good bacteria. approved! live the regular life. phillips'.

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high winds and heavy seas are hindering the search efforts for the wreckage of airasia flight 8501. despite the weather, indonesian officials said teams have located some significant objects on the seabed. no survivors have been found. 30 bodies have been recovered so far. nbc's kelly cobiella is in surabaya with all the details. >> reporter: search-and-rescue officials said they found large objects on the sea floor.

they're in about 90 feet of water. they've been trying to operate some remotely operated cameras under water to get a better look. these were spotted by sonar. it's not clear which part of the plane they've come from. one of the objects is 30 feet long and 15 feet wide. the head of indonesia's search and rescue said he's confident all four of these objects did in fact come from the airasia plane. meantime searchers brought more bodies to shore today. however, they did not recover any bodies. the toll stands at 30 at this point, 30 bodies recovered with four bodies identified. one of those was a flight attendant who worked for airasia for just under two years. tony fernandez, the founder of airasia, attended her funeral late friday. at the same time his airline is coming under scrutiny now. indonesian officials have grounded all airasia flights from surabaya to singapore and back indefinitely while they look into some sort of permitting problem.

airasia says they're aware of this grounding and they're cooperating with the investigation. ayman? >> kelly cobiella for us there in indonesia. let's talk a little bit more about this ongoing search for the flight 8501. joining us is bart jensen transportation reporter for "usa today." bart, good afternoon. let's talk about the technology being used here. you wrote about this tracking systems that have been used to monitor commercial airliners. unfortunately, it's also a story that you covered last spring with the disappearance of the malaysia airlines flight. with all of the advancements that are out there, why are we not able to constantly have the location of all flightses all all of the time? >> thanks for having me. the problem is over water, you don't have the typical radar contact that you do over land. so it becomes a matter of having the planes communicate with satellites and a lot of planes in flight around the world don't yet have constant communication with satellites at this point.

>> so in these search efforts, we've seen both high technology and methods as simple as people literally looking out the window of a plane with binoculars. what are the most effective methods in an ongoing search like this? >> if there is satellite communication as there was with air france 447 in 2009 which crashed midway over the atlantic, you can try to narrow down where you think the plane went down. in this case they had pretty good radar contact that got them close to where the plane went down. at that point it becomes a matter of looking out the windows of a plane, looking from ships to try to find surface debris. and with any luck the surface debris leads you to the rest of the wreckage on the ocean floor. >> when you look at a search like this where do you see some of the gaps in our search technology? where are we really held back? >> well after the malaysia disappearance last march,

airlines worldwide got together, formed a task force to try to keep better track of planes over oceans. they're discussing options like trying to make sure you know where a plane is within one nautical mile every 15 minutes. now, over 15 minutes, a plane traveling 500 miles an hour would still move 125 miles. that's still a very large area for planes and ships to search. so they're going to continue discussing that. there's another meeting in march of international airlines. >> from what you've seen has indonesia been capable of conducting this search as effectively as possible? >> well the search seems to have gone fairly well in finding surface debris already, and now potentially finding large pieces of the fuselage. what's still very important is to find the recorders. one recorder for voices in the cockpit, one recorder for data about how the plane was behaving. those have not yet been recovered. they like to get those early

because clues from those recordings can tell searchers what is the most important pieces of wreckage what might have gone wrong. >> bart jensen, thank you very much for that. we'll be following that story. what luck has to do with weather you get cancer new search says a lot. and how getting away from it all could really pay off for you. many people clean their dentures with toothpaste or plain water. and even though their dentures look clean, in reality they're not. if a denture were to be put under a microscope we can see all the bacteria that still exists on the denture and that bacteria multiplies very rapidly. that's why dentists recommend cleaning with polident everyday. polident's unique micro clean formula works in just 3 minutes, killing 99.99% of odor causing bacteria. for a cleaner, fresher brighter denture everyday.

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not answered. intercepted! ohio state's going to win it. >> what a game that was. ohio state's victory over alabama victory, attracting 28.3 million viewers. the game was the most watched broadcast in cable tv history. >> and the green bay packers entered the year's nfl playoffs on top of the fan interest list. a new marketing study finds 84% of adults in green bay have either attended watched or listened to a packers game over the past year. woman, your words mean nothing to me! >> hey hey hey hey oh crap. >> light-hearted humor helped make "guardians of the galaxy" the top film in 2014. that beat out "the hunger games" by more than $15 million.

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welcome back to "weekends with alex witt." it's time now for headlines at the half. moments ago, a federal appeals court declined to delay the start of the boston bombing trial. lawyers for dzhokhar tsarnaev requested to delay the trial. it's been denied. heat from a slow-burning fire kept investigators from searching for more bodies aboard a charred greek ferry. parts of the ferry have been burning for almost a week now. greece says 19 people are still missing. new research shows the primary cause of most adult cancers could be bad luck. doctors created a statistical model that found that three major factors that cause cancer are heredity environmental

factors and random dna mutations. the obama administration is retaliating against north korea for its hack of sony pictures. it's the first action taken by the administration and posing a new round of sanctions, president obama signed that executive order friday. it authorized sanctions that would effectively affect three north korean entities and ten individuals. nbc's senior white house correspondent chris jansing is traveling with the president in hawaii and has more on all of this. chris, what are the details of this executive order and these sanctions? >> reporter: this is unprecedented. an unprecedented step by the white house for what it calls north korea's destructive and destabilizing conduct. now, the north is already one of the most isolated countries in the world. and there is debate about just how effective these sanctions will be. but u.s. officials believe they will make it harder for them to make money from selling ballistic missiles small arms and ammunition. it's giving new meaning to the

terms cyber wars an unprecedented response to the sony hack attack and threats against theaters that showed the movie "the interview." president obama signing new sanctions aiming to further isolate key north korean entities and disrupt the activities of close to a dozen critical north korean operatives. operatives who do a lot of kim jong-un's dirty work, especially in arms sales. with operations around the world from russia and iran to syria, china and namibia. >> basically those in charge of moving money around for the government. >> reporter: officials say the targets of the sanctions actually weren't involved in the hacking itself. >> but they are members of the network that allows kim jong-un to be able to procure the components of a nuclear and missile program that can threaten north korea's neighbors and can potentially threat tennessee united states. >> reporter: and they make money for the regime, funding the north's nuclear and ballistic

missiles programs. this is the first time sanctions have been used to respond to this kind of cyber crime, reflecting a growing concern that potential attackers are more sophisticated and more dangerous. the sony attack shut down three-quarters of the computers and servers at company headquarters. and while some analysts have raised doubts north korea is behind the hack the white house says skeptics didn't see the intelligence the president did. and with the fbi still investigating the sony breach the administration is promising more repercussions to come. in fact the president is looking at plans that could include both public and covert operations against north korea. those plans are also designed to send a message to other potential cyber terrorists. cross a line, and there will be a price to pay. ayman? >> nbc's chris jansing traveling there with the president, thank you for that. today in torque, a final farewell, mourners gathering in brooklyn for the wake of slain nypd detective wenjian liu. the killings of liu and his partner, detective rafael ramos, have created a widening rift

between the police department and mayor bill de blasio. as protesters across the nation have demonstrated over police conduct. joining me now is democratic congressman gregory meeks, also a member of the foreign affairs committee and the financial services committee. thank you very much for joining us this afternoon. last week we saw the funeral of ramos, some of the police turned their back on the mayor when he was speaking. is there a fine line between when police can appropriately protest? is that becoming less distinct? >> look, it's a democratic country. everybody has the right to voice their opinions. however, when you're a public servant as members of the police department, as i am, there's certain decorum that you should keep. and i would think that police officers showing basically the lack of respect for the office of the mayor also then worsens relationships with the community because when you hear the community say that the police in certain communities don't have the respect for them this seems

to tie in and causes us to have a bigger rift as opposed to trying to come together and trying to figure out how all of the voices are heard. >> speaking about that rift, obviously it is still widening. we don't feel it is getting any narrower. what do you think the mayor can do from his end and what can the police do from their end to bring the rift to an end? >> they have to listen to one another. the mayor tried to bring folks together. if the condition that the police department or particularly mr. lynch, because it's not all of the police officers i want to be clear on that. it's just a few that have grabbed the headlines, a few who have turned their back on the mayor. but if they say they will listen to hear the concerns that the mayor brings with regards to what the community thinks because the mayor didn't come and speak out of the abstract he's listening to the constituency that elected him also, as well as the fact that we're listening and the people in the community, that we've got to work together with the police department, we should be able to move forward to continue the

great partnership that we should have in our great city. >> let's switch gears. you serve on the foreign affairs committee. last week the very big international development, the united states and nato officially ended its mission in afghanistan from a combat operation to an advisory one. but they will still keep -- the u.s. will still keep 11,000 troops on the ground. is this officially over or are we just semantics here changing the name of the operation but still very much keeping our men and women in harm's way? >> i was just in afghanistan a week and a half ago. there's very much a war still going on on the ground in afghanistan. and our troops, those 11,000 that are there, are there but in a different capacity. they're not going out, from what i've understood from being on the trip to lead combat. but they're trying to advise members of the afghanistani military who to do and how to do it and give them additional intelligence. met with the general there and he seems to understand the shifting in roles and understanding that there's going

to be a further drawdown as we get into 2015 where there will be eventually little to no american troops there by 2016. >> anything you know that indicates we're avoiding a similar mistake that we made in iraq with what happened with isis in iraq and neighboring syria as well? >> i think the hopeful side of it is the election of this new president. what took place in iraq was, number one, the president who was elected went against the sunnis and against the kurds and didn't try to bring people together. the same thing that we had initially in afghanistan. but 7.5 million afghanistan people came out and elected this new president against the taliban. and so to me the hope is that the people will continue to stay together. the leadership the new president, he's decided to bring on as prime minister someone that was in another party as well as the deputy prime minister. so there's three parties trying

to work together. that is the hope that will stabilize afghanistan and let us remain there just in an advisory role. >> let's talk about washington. you're heading down for a new session of congress on tuesday. it's the first time perhaps that we're going to see a democrat in the white house but with both houses of congress controlled by republicans. a lot of people are worried we're going to see a lot more bipartisan fighting taking place. what do you hope this new congress will achieve? what do you think they will achieve? >> i'm hoping they will move from whatever president obama wants, they go the opposite way. i happen to have been in the house previously when bill clinton was the president for the first two years i was in office and there was a republican house and a republican senate and at least there was an issue of trying to work together. there was an attempt to try to work together. i hope that they are not just coming in to say no and not agreeing to sit down to try to compromise. compromise is the key to this and when you come in saying that

"it's my way or the highway," that's difficult. we have a few things we could compromise on. but if they come to bills to eliminate the president's health care and try to get rid of immigration reform we're not going anyplace. >> do you envision seeing president obama relying more on collect executive orders or is he going to put his party ahead of his decisions -- he's not worried about any other elections. the he going to play more about the party or go ahead with what he wants to do in these final years? >> some in the party have criticized him because he's not thought about party in that sense. he thought about america and trying to move america forward. and he gave ample room and space for the republicans to join him but they turned their back on him. when the presidents decided to do that he must move forward. he's willing to sit down with taxes and trade and try to figure out how we can work together.

but he's not going to allow them not to accomplish anything as the new majority leader said he wanted to do at the beginning of his term in 2008. >> congressman, good luck to you in the new session of congress. >> thank you. >> we invite you to watch "meet the press" tomorrow. among the guests senator barrasso, they'll discuss if even more divided political systems can get anything done in washington. she's tomorrow on "meet the press." with a new year comes new laws on the books. and in 2015 we're seeing everything from a law against a certain type of selfie that's correct, to drones that paparazzi use. nbc's kristen welker takes a look. >> reporter: 2015 may be the year that tamed the tiger selfie. there's a whole tumblr tinder guys with tigers. but this could break the law in

new york. over the hollywood hills, a new california law grounds paparazzi from flying droughns like this one. singer miley cyrus couldn't stop in her own backyard. oregon and alaska legalized the use of marijuana. also in 2015 many americans could see more green. 21 states raised the minimum wage in response in part to strikes by fast-food workers. n san francisco and oakland, it's $12.25. and that snapple and gatorade, in some regions, will cost you a tax. illegal immigrants will be able to get driver's licenses in connecticut and california.

but those documents won't work as valid ids to board an airplane. and in the big apple, folks who want to get rid of their old apple computers or other electronics will have to recycle. the goal? to cut down on waste. but if new yorkers want to make 2015 the year of the tiger, they can just keep it like this. kristen welker, nbc news, washington. in a moment the ins and the outs for predictions for 2015 including what's in store for people who use a popular dating smartphone app. i take prilosec otc each morning for my frequent heartburn. because it gives me... zero heartburn! prilosec otc. the number 1 doctor-recommended frequent heartburn medicine for 9 straight years. one pill each morning. 24 hours. zero heartburn.

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"birdman." but for 2015 it's all about kurt russell. is he making a comeback? >> he is. and one reason why is quinton tarantino tarantino. he's in the new tarantino movie. he has a way of remaking careers. i think this has been the year -- i think 2014 showed us that stars like matthew mcconaughey can make a comeback. and we're really rooting for them. >> in 2014, swiping right was in. now apparently saying hello is in. what's that all about? >> it's time. if your mother is telling you to get on tinder, that means you're out. you're definitely out. it's time to actually bring things back to basics. you have an advantage over folks on the internet. if you're out there, just saying hello, say hello in the grocery store, say hello in the gym, try it. i think this might be the new trend for 2015. >> time for me to close my

tinder account, it seems. 3-d printers were the rage in 2014. but now it's playdoh. what's going on there? >> sometimes we're just making fun of ourselves and we got so excited over the things you could print with a 3-d printer in 2014 including a 3-d gun that we saw come out. the fact is we were doing this as children. we were doing it with legos and playdoh, we were making 3-d devices long before 3-d printers. >> here's my question. if you're not somebody in the know, how do you even know these things were in? how can you even find out what's in and what's out if you're not in the know? >> a lot of these things are reading the tea leaves. we're hearing rumbles on places like reddit and just thinking about it. it's sort of looking back on the year that we had. and if you feel like when you look at the list that you don't understand it that's the way it

should be. at the end of 2015 you'll look back and say, yeah that was right. >> we've heard speculation about hillary clinton running for president. but now bernie sanders might be jumping in the race. are we seeing a shift from ready for hillary to ready for bernie? >> we are. we love a good dark horse story. senator bernie sanders describes him as a democratic socialist. he is currently gauge whether or not he can run for president in 2016. i think we'll be hearing a little bit more from him this year. he's trying to not raise his money from corporate donors and that's a pretty tough thing to do. i think his average donation is about $28. >> let's switch a little bit to pop culture. it's the song everybody loves or everybody loves to hate. what about "let it go"? >> if you just heard of it, you probably don't have kids. this is from the movie "frozen" which was not only one of the

biggest movies we saw in 2014 it was also one of the biggest albums. it sold more than beyonce's record. so a lot of folks know the song from their kids. eddie vetter sang it in june on stage at one of his conversations. we say, let it go. find something new to sing. >> this is a real expression that i learned. it's called lumber-sexuals, who are they and what is overtaking them? >> you know lumber-sexuals because they're your bartenders they're actually now all over the hill. seeing a lot of beards seeing flannels, it's the opposite of the metrosexual we saw in the '90s. if your brother has a beard, he's a lumbersexual. what we're seeing is a return to actual -- instead of wearing the beard and the flannel, people trying to make it. they're living lime lumberjacks and we call them urban nomads.

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you're looking at live pictures there outside the funeral home where the wake for new york police detective wenjian liu is expected to get under way shortly. we're seeing some pictures there of police officers beginning to gather to pay their respects. this is ahead of his funeral which is scheduled to take place tomorrow. will also be attended by the director of the fbi, as well as new york city mayor bill de blasio and other dignitaryiesdignitaries. more on that coming up a live report in our next hour. you're looking there at live pictures from brooklyn. retail experts say that this

hot gift for the holiday season was mostly recreational drones. good news for retailers like amazon and best buy. but apparently not a welcome development for the faa which has launched a new safety campaign along with entry groups known as "know before you fly." patrick, thank you for joining us. a lot of drones being sold both recreational recreationally, also a huge commercial aspect to it. bun aviation analyst told us that in 2015 consumers worldwide will spend $4.5 billion on drones. how crowded is the sky going to get? >> the faa anticipates there could be as many as 30,000 drones over u.s. airspace by the year 2020. this is just the beginning of that. these are becoming much cheaper. you can buy a pretty good one for a hundred bucks. and the rules surrounding them that's the thing that's going to

really determine how ubiquitous these will be in the future. you can fly a drone for leisure as long as you keep it in your line of sight and you don't fly within five miles of an airport. but a lot of people point out that really limits their use. people that want to use them to survey outside of the line of sight, which is what you want a flying robot with a camera to do, to explore the world with you or anyone that wants to use them commercially, there's a bunch of different rules that apply to them. if you want to use the drone you got for christmas to take pictures of a house that you want to put up on a real estate website or do photography that you want to charge money for, you have to seek a special exemption. and that just makes the process a lot more complicated. but as long as you're using it for no monetary purpose, you're pretty much free to go if you stay within those rules. >> do you think when it comes to the issue of recreational drone use, is it a simply passing fad or trend? >> no i think this is going to be much more common in the

future. >> it's going to stay with us? >> right. i think that drones -- the drone air shot is going to become passe pretty quickly. but there could be in the future delivery. delivery drones is a complicated thing to do. it's not something a drone can naturally do. there's a lot of math required to stick different-sized objects onto drones and still have them fly in the same way. but that's definitely something that amazon and google and other companies are looking to do. >> we know the faa is struggling to get its head around this. the faa has missed several deadlines to deliver its rules for small commercial drones. at this point, they're not expected to give their recommendations until 2017. what does that mean for businesses and are there any indications yet what those new rules will look like if and when they are issued? >> in november "the wall street journal" leaked a copy of some

of the proposed new rules that the white house is currently considering and the white house is also seeking comment from other sections of government, including the department of defense. what we know right now is that it's anticipated that when the faa begins to unveil some of those proposed rules -- and between now and 2017 there's going to be a long process where different rules are leaked and are talked about. one of the things that has a lot of people worried is a potential requirement that anyone that's doing commercial drone operation have a pilot's license. that's going to make drone delivery for a company like amazon or google really hard because you're going to be hiring a completely different class of people that have a lot of very expensive training and a lot of training hours behind them as opposed to really anybody. and advocates argue that it's really apples and oranges, that flying a small two to ten-pound robot versus a cessna, very different. >> patrick, thank you very much for that. certainly something we'll be following and closely watching in 2015.

more now on the 7-year-old sole survivor of a plane crash in kentucky. we'll have a live report from the woods that she hiked just to get some help.

the miracle of the lone survivor, a 7-year-old girl walks away from a plane crash and an unforgettable tragedy. how she made it out alive. the hunt for the disaster. searchers discover what might be the fuselage of that ill-fated airasia flight. good-bye to a hero. a wake begins for one of those two murdered new york city police officers. while the city's top cop has a message for the rank-and-file. new laws while congress struggles to get anything passed. more than 900 new measures have just gone into effect in one state alone. and bear fight. a renewed cry from britain for the return of winnie the pooh. good day to you, everyone. welcome to "weekends with alex

witt." alex is off today. i'm ayman mohyeldin. now here's what's happening. the latest now on a developing story out of kentucky where the sole survivor of a small plane crash is a 7-year-old girl. faa investigators are on site. ntsb investigators won't be there till this evening. the plane was headed from florida to illinois when the crash killed her parents, sister and a cousin. she walked for nearly a mile through dark woods until she came to the home of larry wilkins who took care of her until authorities could arrive. >> the best i can tell probably 30 minutes that she walked. and that was a pretty good job. >> the girl was treated at a local hospital and released earlier today. patrick mcmurtrie from our nbc affiliate is in lyon county, kentucky, and he joins me now from the very same woods where this little girl hiked through to get some help. how was she able to find her way in the dark through that brush?

>> reporter: ayman, it truly is a miracle that a girl dressed in a tank top and shorts she'd just come back from a florida vacation, no shoes on barefoot was able to make her way, disoriented in pitch-dark blackness and rain to find help. at first, she kind of got lost through the underbrush. but amazingly, she saw the only light that's in this entire community lit up. it's a security light over at mr. wilkins' house. and she was able to come through hollows and through the brush and make it to his house. when she got there, he said her legs were bloody and arms scratched up. scared to death. the little girl just had her family die in a plane crash. the plane came through the trees, flipped over and landed. she had a broken arm. she was able to somehow get the seat belt off and get that sheet metal from the plane bent back just enough so she could crawl through this little space.

and amazingly not knowing where she was, she was able to find the one person who was home in this entire community. and mr. wilkins helped her out. amazing story. >> have you had a chance to see the crash site? do you know what is the latest with the investigation on the scene there? >> reporter: well, they are back in these woods. it's about half a mile back through these thick woods where the plane actually came down. we were told the plane was clipping the trees as it came down. they got in contact with air traffic control in memphis and said they were having engine difficulties. it's a seven-passenger plane, about a $2 million plane. when it went down it clipped the trees, flipped over and landed down. right now, the ntsb is trying to figure out in thef the pilot of this plane, if it was her plane. the little girl said it wasn't a plane he was used to flying but he was an experienced pilot. >> patrick mcmurtrie, thank you

for that update. aviation expert tom bunn joins us for more analysis on this deadly crash. tom, what's your initial reaction when you hear a crash like this? have you ever had have you ever heard a story like this where everybody on the plane dies but only a sole survivor? >> no it's truly astounding. but what's not surprising to pilots is that a light plane crashes because it's not perhaps generally known, but about one out of ten private airplanes at some point crash. there's about 4,500 models of this airplane made. there have been 450 accidents involving that airplane. it's very easy for an amateur pilot to get into a tight situation, particularly at night and particularly when there's weather. >> looking back at some of the information we have and the type of plane that was involved the pilot reported engine trouble and there was a distress call that was made.

what do you think could have happened given the overall conditions that we've learned? >> it's a two-engine airplane. if there was trouble with one engine, the plane should have been able to fly on the other engine. if he had engine trouble on two of the engines, sounds like icing of the engines. >> and what concerns you about the possible impact of weather in a situation like this? >> well the weather, it was raining pretty routinely through the night and flying at the altitude you would probably use. it's pretty close to the freezing level, even though it's maybe 50 degrees on the surface. so you could get icing on the wings even. this plane is equipped with de-icing. and engine anti-icing. but if it is correct this person was not that familiar with the plane, that might have also played a role. >> some of the reports suggest this was a trip that was supposed to be taken over about 1,000 miles. given the nature of this plane, is that a long-distance for this

type of plane to fly over -- >> it's a stretch for that airplane. doesn't give them much reserve. when he's in a tight situation, he might have been thinking, how much fuel have i got left? should i turn around? i just have to say, it's really easy for an amateur pilot to get into a situation where they're in over their heads. oftentimes, they don't have enough experience to know they don't have enough experience. >> ntsb investigators are expected to be on the site this evening. the faa investigators are already there. let's start off by looking at what are they going to be looking for initially? what's their first step in this investigation? >> they'll be trying to piece together pieces of the wreckage to determine what was the problem -- what was the nature of the problem he ran into. >> and i suspect obviously this girl the survivor she'll certainly be somebody that they can rely on for some important information?

>> well, i don't know. i would think about most 7-year-old kids wouldn't have -- wouldn't be able to tell you very much about things technically with an airplane. she might act sort of like a voerd does on an voice recorder does on an airliner. >> tom bunn, thank you for that analysis. we want to point out the girl has been treated for injuries at a local hospital and has been released but police have not yet released her name. high winds and heavy seas are again hindering the search for airasia flight 8501. despite the weather, indonesian officials said teams have located a number of large objects on the seabed. no survivors have been found but 30 bodies have been recovered so far. nbc's kelly cobiella is in surabaya indonesia, with the very latest details on that. >> reporter: today's search and rescue officials announced they found four large objects on the sea floor. they're in about 90 feet of

water. they've been trying to operate remotely operated cameras under water to get a better look. these were spotted by sonar. it's not clear which part of the plane they've come from. one of the objects is 30 feet long and 15 feet wide. the head of indonesia's search and rescue said he's confident all four of these objects did in fact come from the airasia plane. meantime, searchers brought more bodies to shore today. however, they did not recover any bodies. the toll stands at 30 at this point, 30 bodies recovered with four bodies identified. one of those was a flight attendant who worked for airasia for just under two years. tony fernandez, the founder of airasia, attended her funeral late friday. at the same time his airline is coming under scrutiny now. indonesian officials have grounded all airasia flights from surabaya to singapore and back indefinitely while they look into some sort of permitting problem. airasia says they're aware of

this grounding and they're cooperating with the investigation. ayman? >> nbc's kelly cobiella there for us in indonesia. heat and smoke continue to keep italian investigators from searching the hold of a greek ferry for more victims. at least 11 people died in the december 28th fire aboard the ship as it traveled from greece to italy. the ferry was towed into a port in italy friday morning. authorities believe more bodies will be found once recovery workers are able to board the still-smoldering vessel. new york today remembers a police officer struck down in the line of duty. detective wenjian liu and his partner, rafael ramos, were gunned down on december 20th as they sat in their patrol car on a brooklyn street. ramos' funeral was held a week ago. but the tensions between officers and mayor bill de blasio became prominent when the officers turned their back on the mayor while he was speaking. the police commissioner wants no such display today or tomorrow.

the commissioner said in a memo to officers a hero's funeral is about grieving, not grievance. nbc's adam reese is outside the funeral home in brooklyn. adam you've been out on the streets covering this story since it happened. do you get a sense that the officers will adhere to the commissioner's memo and not turn their backs on the mayor? >> reporter: ayman, good afternoon. relations between the mayor and the rank-and-file continue to be strained for quite a while now. so efforts to bring them together really haven't worked. a meeting this week between the union and the mayor ended up in more finger-pointing. it will be interesting to see if the rank-and-file here heed the commissioner's call and don't turn around when the mayor gives his eulogy tomorrow. the wake has just begun. it will last till 9:00 tonight. the funeral is at 11:00 tomorrow. we expect to see both new york senators as well as the fbi director for the funeral. officer liu was 32 years old, a seven-year veteran. he is the first chinese officer killed in the line of duty here

in new york city. now, two streets will be renamed after officers ramos and liu. and they will both be promoted to detective posthumously. ayman? >> adam you talked about some of the dignitaries that are expected to attend tomorrow's funeral. tens of thousands of mourners turned out for the funeral of detective ramos when that happened. do you think we're going to see the same kind of outpouring over the weekend? >> reporter: i can tell you we're already seeing officers from all over the country. 20 officers from l.a. a group of officers from texas, massachusetts, ohio, as far away as wisconsin. so probably at least 20,000 25,000 officers back here again tomorrow, a week after ramos' funeral. >> and you've already -- we understand he's already been raised to the level of detective, that's correct? >> reporter: that's correct. they were both promoted posthumously to detective first grade. >> adam reese, thank you very

much for that live report from brooklyn. developing now, no delay. about an hour ago, a federal appeals court declined to delay the start of the boston bombing trial. lawyers for dzhokhar tsarnaev requested a delay of the trial. jury selection begins on monday is expected to last for about one to two weeks. it's the by-product of america's new energy boom. coming up next. and it's icy and dicey. an arctic blast delivers a wintry wallop. new vidal sassoon salonist. first, brush roots then, blend through lengths. our most advanced system outside the salon. it's more than colour. it's a work of art. i have the worst cold with this runny nose. i better take something. dayquill cold and flu doesn't treat your runny nose. seriously? alka-seltzer plus cold and cough fights your worst cold symptoms plus your runny nose. oh, what a relief it is.

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the incredible free fall of prices at the gas pump shows no sign of letting up much to the delight of drivers everywhere. today's national average for

regular is 53 cents less than a month ago and about $1.11 less than what we were paying last year on this date. in california undominanted immigrants are quickly taking advantage of their new right to drive. more than 6,000 applied for a driver's license yesterday the first day they could do so under a new california law that requires a proof of identity and simply proof of identity and a state residence inside that state. about 1.5 million undocumented immigrants are reportedly eligible for the new driving privileges. the state expects to spend $140 million over three years to handle the increased workload. 2015 is beginning with a barrage of nasty weather in parts of the united states. the grand canyon got hit with snow. and other places are under blizzard warnings. the weather channel's greg postel has more. doesn't look too good out there. >> we have some snow to deal with later on this afternoon in parts of the midwest.

you see a stripe of 1 to 3 from northeast kansas all the way into northern illinois perhaps chicago, madison, milwaukee, and minneapolis. that's really going to come down in earnest, i would say, tonight. you see how it times out. by midnight tonight, a burst of snow across this region. that's going to be moving eastward, probably getting into chicago in the very early morning hours. but by later on in the afternoon, it looks like things clear out pretty much from west to east, left with a little bit of lake-effect snow here. let's turn our attention to what's going on in the northeast. we've got a lot of snow and even worse for travel, freezing rain. right out there, that's rain coming down from the sky and freezing on contact. that's moving through new york state and pennsylvania now. it's going to be working its way toward the northeast. you'll get your snow in the northeast but then it's going to turn over to sleet and freezing rain. that's through the afternoon hours today. you see how everything moves off towards the northeast. there goes the snow, a few inches of snow in new england

before it turns over to sleet and freezing rain overnight tonight and tomorrow morning. but it's going to turn to all rain likely by tomorrow, even up here in canadian border to melt away all the ice and snow that had accumulated. ayman, back to you. we're hearing for the first time a frantic 911 call made by a police chief in georgia after he said he accidentally shot his wife in the middle of the night. but what happened inside the home remains a mystery. nbc's gabe guatemalatierrez is in peachtree city georgia, with the details. >> reporter: the police chief's wife has just been upgraded from critical to serious condition at last check. detectives, though, still had not been able to speak with her. the local police department here has given this case to state investigators who are now listening to this call very closely. peachtree city police chief william mccullom called 911 just

after the zint. he told the dispatcher his wife had been shot in the back in their bedroom in their home near atlanta. >> it was an accident shot twice accidental? >> yes. >> who shot her? >> me. >> how did you shoot her? >> the gun was in the bed. i went to move it. it went off. >> reporter: investigators later confirmed she had been shot only once. not clear why her husband said yes, when asked if she had been shot twice. but a family member tells nbc news that he's hard of hearing. >> the gun is on the dresser. >> you're the chief of police in peachtree city. >> unfortunately, yes. >> reporter: he urged the dispatcher to get officers there quickly. >> oh, my god. >> what's your name, sir? >> how the hell did this happen? >> reporter: with help on the wife, his wife could be heard crying. >> are you all right, dear?

i know you're not all right. still breathing? >> reporter: police are now investigating how his department-issued weapon similar to this one, could have accidentally fired. this store owner says it's possible but would require someone to push the safety and trigger at the same time. >> you would need to have a round in the chamber ready to go. >> reporter: his career in law enforcement spans almost three decades. he was first hired in georgia in 2012 an officially took over as chief a few months ago. the couple divorced in 1999 but police confirm they moved back in together. and he referred to her as his wife. >> our thoughts and prayers truly are with maggie and with will. >> reporter: the chief hasn't been chargeded with a crime but is on paid leave. the democratic attorney says it could be at least a week before he decides what charges if any should be filed. ayman? >> nbc's gabe gutierrez. the new york library has

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duracell quantum. lasts up to 35% longer than the competition. it's a tug of war decades in the making over an iconic teddy bear. the original winnie the pooh, the stuffed animal on which stories and movies were based, the bear has been on american soil since it was given to the american publisher of the book "the house at pooh corner" in 1957. it's now on display at the new york public library. but the british want it back. quote, winnie the pooh is not just a reference to a fictional bear but to a national concept of a childhood eden an identifiable woodland in which stuffed animals, belonging to an archetypal nursery, roam in gentle complacency.

matthew joins us now. >> winnie the pooh is as british as the queen. he's an incredibly important icon for the british population obviously with the british children generations of british children have grown up with him. just as generations of american children have grown up with him. but he's identifiably british. >> this battle has been going on for some time even leading to the british government, believe it or not, giving its okay with the teddy bear staying in the u.s., this was back during a visit by former british prime minister tony blair. here's a "new york times" article from back then quote, after a morning of breast-beating over the proper home for winnie the pooh and four other british-made dolls, including a news release issued by city hall quoting pooh himself, the british government said yesterday that it would not request the turn.

what's different now? >> people decided they wanted the bear back. christopher robin's also tuned in with acquaintances and friends where he says he doesn't care if the bear remains in the united states. much like in the book he said he left his childhood behind him so the bear is a symbol of childhood and it can stay there. the british population isn't necessarily in step with that. one of his acquaintances said christopher robin may have moved on from childhood but many of us have not. therefore we'd like to see winnie the pooh come back to these shores. >> let's talk about whether this return is going to happen. why is the u.s. not keen on returning it to the uk? >> well the new york public library has a simple reason for not returning it. the bear is not in particularly good shape. it's close to 100 years old right now. it was used. as we know from the books,

winnie the pooh was dragged down the stairs behind christopher robin. christopher robin had winnie the pooh with him throughout his childhood. it became an attic-type bear, a bear on a shelf. but it's still a very old and fragile teddy bear. there are sentimental points to be gained from sending this bear back to the uk. but these points tend to vanish if the bear is destroyed in transit. >> thank you very much. >> and there's quite a bit of concern it would not make the trip. it's a very fragile animal. >> matthew, thank you for what could be a diplomatic crisis between two allies. thank you very much. the new year ushers in a groundswell of support for 2016 candidates. but who's in the running? that's up next after the break. ? because it helps me skip the bad stuff. i'm good. that's what i like to call the meta effect.

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welcome back, everyone, to "weekends with alex witt." i'm ayman mohyeldin. we're following this developing story for you. new york mayor bill de blasio and police commissioner william bratton leaving just moments ago the wake of nypd detective wenjian liu. they arrived shortly after the top of the hour and stayed for about 15 minutes. liu and his partner, rafael ramos, were shot and killed by a gunman on december 20th as they sat in their patrol cars on a street in brooklyn. friends and family have been paying their respects since the memorial began at the top of the hour. tomorrow is the funeral service for liu and we'll be covering that right here on msnbc. now the other developing story we've been following, this one out of kentucky. federal investigators are now at the site of last night's plane crash where a 7-year-old girl is the only survivor from that deadly crash. the crash killed her parents, sister and cousin. the girl walked for nearly a mile through dark woods until she came to the home of larry wilkins who took care of her

until authorities could arrive. >> pitch dark in the rain barefooted. she had one sock and dressed for florida. she had on short pants and a light shirt and it was 38 degrees. the best i can tell walked about 30 minutes that she walked. and that was a pretty good job, especially for a little girl like that. >> you didn't want to let her go by herself to the hospital. >> no. she wanted me to go with her. they wouldn't let me go. tough kid. >> when you heard a knock on your door last night when this happened, i'm sure that's the last thing that you were

expecting to see when you opened the door. >> of course. the little dog started barking. i thought the coon was robbing the dog food again. >> what would you say to that little girl if or when -- >> glad she's alive. and tell her how brave she is. outstanding. >> the girl has been treated for injuries at a local hospital and has been released. though police have not yet released her name. joining me now on the phone is former nbc aviation correspondent bob hager. bob, over the years you've reported on so many of these tragic stories for nbc. but have you ever heard of any story quite like this with a single sole survivor a child, 7 years old. >> this is miraculous particularly how she works her way through the woods. i covered one where there was a single survivor. it was 28 years ago back in detroit. and that was a 4-year-old girl.

and she is alive today. she was badly injured. it was a trash on takeoff of northwest airlines from the detroit airport. she was sitting near the rear of the plane. and that sometimes makes a difference because it's a more structurally sound part of the plane. but when the plane crashed, he was thrown free. the cases that i know of oftentimes it depends a lot on where you're sitting because back there in the back of the plane or at the point where the wings cross the fuselage too, is a strong area of the plane. they're stronger areas. particularly i find if people are thrown free of the wreckage that's happened a couple of times, and then they can survive a fire and things like that. that's a factor too. >> bob, from your aviation understanding and your expertise, what makes a survival like this possible? >> well i think it is where you're sitting. if you're thrown clear from the plane where you absorb less of the impact.

and age seems to be a factor too. i saw something about where roughly a third of the lone survivor incidents that somebody studied had been children. so i think there it's the weight of the body as one is thrown from the wreckage or when the impact occurs when the plane hits, that a child's body is lighter. so the impact may be less. i think, too, could be in the case of that age, the flexibility of the developing bones, the muscular structure and so forth somehow makes it easier for a child. oftentimes when an infant falls from a window or building from a couple of stories up and sometimes they survive, i think that has something to do with it too. this girl is clearly very very lucky. >> how do you think investigators will proceed with respect to the 7-year-old? presumably they need to talk to her but how does her emotional welfare figure into the time line of the investigation? >> they would be very delicate about that considering it's a child.

i'd want to be very very careful about the emotional state of the child. and also then you have to think what is it you're really going to glean from a conversation with that young girl? i think more than likely, since the pilot did off a call and mentioned he was having engine trouble, they'd want to look at the engines in the wreckage and also the question of could he have possibly run out of fuel? that would also cause the engine to sputter and the plane to go down like that. >> bob hager, thanks for that insight. >> thank you. the white house is striking back against north korea in response to the sony hack. on friday president obama signed an executive order issuing a new round of sanctions sanctions. those sanctions would affect at least north korean entities and ten people who work for those groups or for the government directly. nbc's senior white house correspondent chris jansing is traveling with the president in hawaii. chris, will these sanctions have an impact and what are they aimed at doing exactly?

>> reporter: that's the $6 million question isn't it ayman? you'll hear some disagreement about that. north korea's already one of the most isolated countries in the world. they've had some form of sanctions against them since the '50s. it's pretty tough to know exactly what's going to happen. and there are people who think it will be marginal. from the white house perspective, it's a broadening of what we've already done. and they're aiming at the pocketbook. they want to go after kim jong-un and the source of his financing, particularly for his nuclear program. what's really interesting is that the ten people they're going after, the white house acknowledges they had nothing to do with the hack itself but they are people who sort of work on the inside doing kim jong-un's dirty work a lot of it dealing with arms sales, money that then can go into their nuclear program. there's a second aspect of this though. it's to send a message, a message to kim jong-un and to other would-be hackers that this is not going to stand. we've heard a lot about this being in retaliation just for the hack and obviously that was

significant, shut down at sony headquarters three-quarters of their computers. but white house officials say it was about the threat made against theaters and theater-goers and the attack on our constitution and the right to free speech. they hope this sends an important message on those fronts as well. >> chris jansing, traveling with the president, thank you, chris. 2015 means one thing when it comes to politics. it's one year closer to 2016 presidential elections. but it also means it's time for political heavyweights to start doing some serious talking. so who will they be? here's nbc's peter alexander. >> reporter: before crews could finish sweeping away the 2015 confetti, the political world has moved on to 2016. >> 2016 is going to be the year of the political rerun or the spin-off. >> reporter: just consider all the familiar names in the mix, bush, clinton, paul and plenty of others. time is of the essence. barack obama announced his candidacy a full 21 months before 2008's election day.

>> i stand before you today to announce my candidacy for president of the united states of america. >> reporter: analysts say potential candidates need to move quickly to lock up support from that political sugar daddy, donors with deep pockets. who will show their cards first? just this week hillary clinton jolted 2016 watchers with this e-mail announcement that turned out to be a fund-raising letter for her family's foundation. clinton's inner circle indicated she may not announce either way until spring which could throw a wrench into other democrats' plans. >> the biggest challenge right now for hillary clinton is coming up with a real message, a real reason that she is running other than just the fact that she is hillary clinton. >> reporter: former governor jeb bush is actively exploring a run, this week resigning all of his corporate and non-profit board memberships including with his own education foundation. new jersey's chris christie said he'd discuss it with his family over the holidays.

texas senator ted cruz has never been shy about his ambitions. and a recent twitter skirmish over cuba between rand paul and marco rubio had 2016 written all over it. peter alexander, nbc news, washington. >> joining me to talk about it now is jimmy williams and mercedes schlep. thank you for joining us. mercedes what can we expect to see candidates come out and announce their intentions to run for the white house officially? >> i think sooner rather than later. maybe the february to march time frame. they have quite frankly till the summer to make a decision. i remember when governor romney announced, it was in the

summertime as opposed to president obama who announced in february of the year before. so, again, i think you're going to start seeing this all come together in the next few months. it's critical for them to make these decisions because they've got to seal in their donors. and they're also pulling together their political staff as we speak. >> right now, the two front-runners are jeb bush and former secretary of state hillary clinton, the latest cnn/orc poll shows the former secretary of state leading bush by 13 points. but do you think americans really want either a bush or a clinton in the office? >> well, listen i used to think there was a massive sort of bush fatigue, if you will. but i think that what most people want is the person that's actually credible and can do the job. so i used to think it was bush fatigue. i don't think that anymore. i used to think it was clinton fatigue after clinton. i don't think that anymore. i think that again, people just judge the candidate on the candidate's qualifications.

and jeb bush and hillary clinton are both imminently qualified to be president of the united states. the question becomes, does bush actually pull the trigger and the same thing for secretary clinton, does she do the same? i suspect both will end up doing that. >> mercedes, do you think that jeb bush is the right candidate to help republicans win back the white house or can he even get through the primaries? >> well i think that's going to be a big challenge for governor bush. obviously he has a very conservative record when he was governor of florida. with that being said obviously when he talked about his positions on common core and immigration, that has been quite a problem with the conservative base. i'd like to see his speech come cpac which will be when the conservatives come together in the last four days of february. and i think that's going to be an interesting time for him to really deliver a strong message and will it be enough to help bring together and unite the base of the republican party which will be a challenge.

>> here's a quote by hillary clinton, the a.p. said such a decision would set off a chaotic shuffle in the democratic party as candidates now considered long shots become instant contenders and politicians now planning to skip the race give it a new look. will a decision not to run by hillary clinton give republicans an edge and what would it do to the democratic field? >> under the current electoral map, it's very hard for the republicans to win the white house first and foremost. secondly, hillary clinton is going to run. thirdly, to pick up on what mercedes said about bush's conservative bona fides. the republicans in the southern states are going to move all their primaries up to march 1st. if they do that what you will have coming out of iowa new hampshire and south carolina is for all intents and purposes the most conservative candidate at that point winning pretty much every single primary. if that's the case and hillary clinton does run, then it's a

much easier task for her to go back into the white house through the front doors than it would be if the republicans nominate someone with a more moderate position. i don't see how jeb bush can get through alabama, georgia, mississippi on march 1st if they do that. that's a problem for the republicans. >> mercedes you mentioned that governor bush may not be able to bring together all the dispaired parts of the gop. can there a candidate that can unite the party? >> it's a wide-open field. that's why the debates will be critical. they all have their strengths. governor scott walker governor mike pence -- be interesting to see how it plays out. but for jeb bush iowa and new hampshire will be difficult. when looking at south carolina and florida, it starts to open up and get easier for him. the key to jeb bush is he has the political campaign machine ready to go. similar like hillary clinton. these people have that sort of

base in terms of their campaign machines ready and set to go. the question is, can he bring the donors on his side and can he bring the conservatives along? part of it is going to be courting that conservative base. >> long two years. but never too early to start talking presidential politics. thank you both very much for joining us. coming up next losing weight is one of the most popular new year's resolutions and one of most broken ones at that. i know that personally. in just a moment, the secrets of getting skinny from old friend mara schiavocampo. she'll explain how she lost 90 pounds almost accidentally. . i better take something. theraflu severe cold doesn't treat chest congestion. really? new alka-seltzer plus day powder rushes relief to your worst cold symptoms plus chest congestion. [breath of relief] oh, what a relief it is. at legalzoom you can take care of virtually all your important legal matters in just minutes. now it's quicker and easier for you to start your business, protect your family, and launch your dreams. at legalzoom.com

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i was 50 pounds overweight. i got pregnant and gained 40 pounds in pregnancy and really wanted to lose the baby weight. so i changed things in my life. the road opened up in front of me after i made certain changes. and i looked up and all of a sudden i had dropped all this weight. i never set out to lose that much weight. >> you mentioned some of it comes down to food. what are some of the successes you had with the way you eat and the food that you ate? >> that was the single biggest realization for me. sounds obvious. common sense isn't so common. i'd been trying to lose weight my whole life. you have to devote most of the energy to the food. even personal trainers will tell you the food is the single biggest factor. what i did, i eliminated the foods i had no control over the foods i abused including all flour products all dairy, most grains. i've added some of those back. and wine. once i have one glass, let's finish the whole body. >> we have been to a few meals where some of that's been violated.

>> i don't know what you're talking about. >> what role did exercise play in addition to the food? >> exercise is really really good for you. it's important for your overall health. i work out days a week because i love it. it's fun and makes me feel good. it's a really small part of weight loss. you devote a lot of energy at the gym to lose weight you'll be discouraged and disappointed. but should work out because it's fun a good stress reliever. you should not count on that being the thing that will help you lose a lot of weight. what loses a lot of weight is eating the right foods and not eating too much of them. >> does this book apply to men as well? >> absolutely. it's all simple stuff but it's not easy. so i was committed to telling people what i think they need to hear not what they want to hear, men, women, children, parents, it's for everybody. >> i got some reading to do ahead of me. mara schiavocampo, thank you so much. i appreciate it. congratulations on the success of this book. >> thank you. >> thank you. the new year means more than

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last year's congress was one of the least productive in mod he were history. while gridlock clogged washington apparently state lawmakers were getting things accomplished from the landmark to the mundane. the california legislature passed more than 900 bills in 2014, many of them went into effect this week. joining me now is melody gutierrez, political reporter for the "san francisco chronicle." the law that seems to get the most attention is the drivers license one for undocumented immigrants immigrants. how will this work? >> right, this law went into effect yesterday. there were as of 3:00 p.m. 11,000 people who came in and with their documents and that were approved by the dmv in order to get these licenses. these documents could be anything from a birth certificate from a foreign country, different passports are

eligible as well. so there's different combinations of these documents and this is a law that was passed in 2013 that they've actually spent the last year trying to approve what documents would be eligible. >> and how are the driver licenses playing politically? >> it's interesting. there really wasn't a lot of pushback when it went into effect yesterday. it was obviously a highly troersial billtroers ial controversial bill when it was in the legislature in 2013. >> a number of laws related to the sexual assault to yes means yes and statute of limitations. >> the confirmive consent is at state universities in california they are required to have sexual assault policies that say when you're disciplining a student for an alleged sexual assault, no longer does the student who is the accuser have to prove that they said no. they have to prove that both

parties said yes, and when it comes to the revenge porn law, that's something that actually in 2013 there was a law that said that you can't unknowingly to the person whose picture is being distributed online distribute that picture in order to embarrass or humiliate that person. >> let me ask you quickly, what are some of the more obscure laws that you found? >> right. there's certainly a lot of obscure laws. there were big ticket items like big round water regulations, but one that i thought was really interesting was on mug shots. there was what was called the mug shot racket. that is where websites take the publicly available mug shots and post them and then charge people in those photos to take them down so if you're embarrassed and want your mug shot off of this website, that's shooting up to the top of google then you google your name you have to pay money. that's now illegal in california. >> melanie gutierrez a lot of laws for ordinary citizens.

thank you for joining us. that wraps up "weekends with alex." alex will be back next week. up next "caught on camera." we'll be back here the same time tomorrow on msnbc.

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