rachel maddow starts now. thanks to you at home for joining us this hour. this is the time when weird stuff starts to happen. i don't mean, 9:00 on msnbc is when weird stuff starts to happen. a week before iowa is when weird stuff starts to happen. it's around this time every four years when we get two things happening at once. first, beltway reporters start writing these wistful sing song lullbyes. simultaneously every four years, at this time you see those articles from the beltway and in iowa, at the exact same time, stuff starts to get really

freaking sketchy. in some cases it gets corrupt. iowa may be rural and land locked. they are pros. be on your toes. be ready for anything. we're now seven days from iowa. last time around in 2012, it was six days from iowa when we got a shocking change on the republican side michele bachmann did very well. she won the straw poll. she locked up a lot of endorsements in the state and six days before the iowa caucus in 2012, her statewide campaign co-chair called a press conference to announce at that late date, he was changing his allegiance. he would no longer be the iowa state co-chair. instead, he was going to support ron paul. the michelle bachmann campaign went nuts.

it was this big shocking ripple through the race. nobody knew to expect it. nobody knew what was going on. we know what was going on. turns out her iowa co-chair switched the allegiance six days before the caucuses because they paid him to. that michelle bachmann, iowa state co-chair, he was an iowa state senator at the time. he had pled guilty to federal charges. he admitted taking money from the ron paul campaign and helping cover up that bribe. he's facing up to 25 years in prison in this iowa republican caucuses bribery case. the reason he hasn't been sentenced yet is because it turns out the case is still ongoing. three ron paul aides were indicted last august. one of them had the charges dropped. one was convicted and one of them was acquitted. the one acquitted is now being charged again. prosecutors indicted him again

this past november. this is not ancient history. this is what happened the last time around in the republican caucuses in iowa. last presidential cycle this bribery thing happened. there are still pending charges and one guy is awaiting sentencing. there's ongoing drama and suspense around who is going to go to prison and how long in the bribery republican caucus from 2012. there's no drama or suspense about that. the bribery definitely happened. it's only a question of who will get in trouble. that's how republicans this iowa not only did it in 2012 but it's how they have been doing the caucuses for a while. that's how it seems based on the indictments. part of the reason we got all this lurid detail in the ron paul campaign bribery indictments is because they have a long back and forth

negotiation between the ron paul campaign and state senator about how much he wanted to get paid when he was going to take this bribe for his support. the state senator had elaborate expectations as to how much his endorsement would be worth on the open market in the iowa republican caucuses because he knew there was a real market for it. the reason he knew it was a market is because the michelle bachmann campaign had been bribing him too. he was trying to trade up. so, yeah, at one level the iowa caucuses are adorable. how quaint, how sweetly small town america. on the other hand they are kind of gangster and not just about the process. also about the results. just looking at the last time the republicans held their caucuses in iowa. remember who won the iowa caucuses in 2012 on the republican side? if you don't remember, don't beat yourself up about it. there are a lot of right answers to that question.

night of the iowa caucuses in 2012, this was the first thing that the iowa state republican chairman announced about the results of the caucuses. >> i can report with 1770 precincts reporting rick santorum received 30,017. congratulations to mitt romney, winner of the 2012 caucuses. >> the state republican party chairman comes out and says mitt romney won. that was the night of the caucuses. two weeks later turns out mitt romney did not twin iowa caucuses. republican party, two weeks after the caucuses were held, told the des moines register for their edition that came out the morning of january 19th, quote, it's a split decision. split decision. how is it a tie?

shouldn't there be a tie breaker? later that afternoon the republican party of iowa decided to change its mind again. they decided they would decide who won the tie. they decided it wasn't mitt romney and it wasn't a tie after all. a different guy won it. rick santorum won. that same morning the party said it was a split decision but in the afternoon the state party chairman said this. >> it is indisputable that the certified caucus result had rick santorum winning by 34 votes. i feel i owe senator santorum and supporters an apology. >> you're daring this then a victory for rick santorum? >> yeah, the certify vote

result. >> the last time republicans held their iowa caucuses they said mitt romney won and then it was a tie and then rick santorum. in the end who got the delegates from the state of iowa for 2012 after they went through that whole make it up as we go along. it was neither of them. >> and, now, now, 16 weeks after the voting happened and mitt romney was declared the winner and 14 weeks after rick santorum was declared the winner, now it appears that ron paul is the winner. >> mitt romney won first and then it was a tie and then rick santorum and then ron paul got all the delegates or at least almost all the delegates. that was before three of his aides got indicted for the way they bribed their way to that victory. can we call it a victory? iowa gets treated like it's a cross between hallmark card and a norman rockwell painting and a slice of apple pie with a puppy on top. iowa has been kind of a banana

republic in recent years. i do not mean the clothing store. after the debacle in 2012, not only did ron paul get all the delegates and indictments that year, ron paul supporters also briefly took over the iowa republican party. that lasted for a few years before iowa's long serving republican governor decided to end all of that. he waded into iowa state internal republican politics and took back over the party threw the ron paul lights out. he's the longest serving governor in u.s. history in any state. he's serving his sixth four-year term iiowa. terry is a fixture. he's been through a lot of iowa caucuses and always said he will

stay neutral so as not to put his thumb on the scale for that pristine, ethical contest. this year he's stretched, if not broken that promise. he's not endorsed a candidate but he did go out of his way to say last week, that he explicitly opposite of endorses ted cruz. he's not telling iowa republicans who they should vote for, but he is telling them don't you dare vote for ted cruz. which is way to put your thumb on the scale. >> i believe it would be a big mistake for iowa to support him. the only poll that counts is the one they take on caucus night. i think it would change between now and then. >> iowa's long term governor speaking last week.

it may have had an effect. the polling that's come out over the last few days does show ted cruz losing his lead in that state. three polls have come out of iowa in the last two days. all three of them show donald trump now polling ahead . it includes the latest poll out from fox news that shows donald trump leading ted cruz in the state by 11 points. new polling in new hampshire tonight also has donald trump doing well. even better than he's been doing before. the fox news poll that's out tonight has donald trump leading ted cruz in that state by 17 points. the cbs news poll out in new hampshire has him leading big in new hampshire by 18 points. the cnn poll has donald trump leading by 20 points. it had looked before like ted cruz was going to win iowa. donald trump is now ahead in the polls again in iowa and he's

really ahead in new hampshire. sort of feels like donald trump had a little scare there for a while from ted cruz but with numbers like these there isn't much reason to be scared anymore. chris christie polling at roughly 6 or 7% in new hampshire which has him tied for fifth place. most days he's further behind than that. he's betting all of his presidential prospects on new hampshire. he's moved the new hampshire full time. he hasn't basically moved there new hampshire full time. he has moved there full time. he went home to new jersey to oversee response to winter storm jonas. it hit new jersey with a ton of snow and pretty serious coastal flooding along the jersey shore. he said he wouldn't have to leave new hampshire to oversee the response of the storm. he said this isn't our first rodeo. he relented. on friday night he went back to new jersey. he stayed there saturday and saturday night and by sunday he was back in new hampshire. he has faced criticism that he

left his state in the lurch. he shouldn't have rushed back to soon. they still need him instead of running his distant campaign for president in new hampshire. tonight, he appears to have lost his cool a little bit. lost his ability to handle the question with any degree of civility when this very, very, very nervous young woman dared to put the question to him tonight. he blew up. >> hi. i actually went to school in new jersey. i have a lot of friends. >> bless you. where? >> pennington. >> i had a quick question. with a lot of family and friends living there, they had me ask why are you here in new

hampshire campaigning instead of helping the damages done by the coastal flooding by the storms? >> it's already done. it's already done. >> okay. >> tell me why you think it isn't. >> i have friends family, calling sending videos and pictures all over the state. >> all over the state. >> all over the state. there's been one county that's flooded in the state. one county. that was cape may county. the one county that flooded. i don't know where from all over the state since we have 21 counties where that's happened. second, i don't know what you expect me to do? you want me to go down there with a mop. >> you want me to go down there with a mop? governor chris christie yelling at a nervous girl tonight in new hampshire. after that happened tonight, the governor got some very, very good news.

the boston herald is based in boston. it's widely read in new hampshire in the heavily populate southern part of new hampshire. it just issued its endorsement in the republican presidential primary and they have given their endorsement to chris christie. they said he's a smart and principled candidate with a real shot at uniting his party and broadening its appeal in november. so says the boston herald tonight. you want him to go down there with a mop. i told you this is when stuff starts to get weird. got a lot ahead tonight. stay with us.

one county that flooded. i don't know from where all over the state since we have 21 counties where that's happened. second, i don't know what you expect me to do. you want me to go down there with a mop.

>> new jersey governor chris christie in new hampshire asking sarcastically if he should clean up the storm damage in his state with a mop. i think there were two counties that flooded, not just the one. that sarcastic retort tonight at a town hall to a very nervous young woman, that was right before governor christie got the news that the boston herald endorsed him in the republican primary for president. they are based in massachusetts but widely read in new hampshire, population center in the state. it's a big get for chris christie. that said, the other major boston paper, which is widely read in new hampshire particularly in southern new hampshire is the boston globe. tonight the boston globe has released their republican presidential endorsement as well. they have picked john kasich. chris christie and john kasich have hinged their campaigns on new hampshire. they are all in and looking for

exactly this kind of establishment boost to their prospects. it will be interesting to see if the endorsements have an impact on the polls in new hampshire. in iowa, the equivalent of the boston heralb and boston globe rolled up into one and based inside the state is the des moines register. they picked hillary clinton for for their democratic endorsement and for their republican endorsement, they picked marco rubio. he's running third. he is in that position nationwide, third place as well. donald trump and ted cruz are far out ahead in the polls in iowa. in what was a genius political move by each of them, both of these candidates, donald trump and ted cruz decided they would not try for the des moines register.

each refused to meet with the editorial board. they aren't even in the running for the endorsement. that has two genius political consequences. it means that neither can be faulted for not winning the endorsement. they weren't even competing for it. number two, it's sort of devalues the endorsement that marco rubio did get for the paper because it makes it look like he's the establishment guy who wanted the paper to like him and bothered competed for something ted cruz and donald trump wouldn't have wanted if they had gotten it. the race is so weird this year. i love it. it's great to see you. >> thank you. >> one week out from the caucuses. is there something you can see

from close up that we can't see from a national level in terms of who's doing a good job organizing? >> no. i think you nailed it. this looks like it's a two-man race. you noted the polling here with donald trump. he's opened up a bit of a lead. ted cruz and donald trump are way ahead of the rest of the pack. we're looking at the fascinating dynamic between the two of them as being decisive going into week out from the caucuses. you've got donald trump very sort of non-traditional candidate attracting a non-traditional following in iowa. the question is whether he's going to be able to turn those people out. you've got ted cruz who is a very much a traditional iowa candidate and really drawn a lot of support, a lot of official support from social conservatives, evangelicals and faced some of the head winds you mentioned with the comments from our governor and the beating he's taken from donald trump. >> obviously the governor is a figure without parallel in other states. not only is he the longest serving governor in history, six

different four-year terms. he knows not only how the state works, but he knows how the state functions in national politics. do you think it is an influential thing? do you think it's had an impact that he said do not vote for anybody named ted cruz? >> we're going to have to wait to see. he's thinking about the business and economic interest of the state. the ag industry and biofuel interest. that's interest he was representing. that is a big force within politics here, within republican politics here. the counter weight within the republican party would be the social conservatives and evangelicals that are ted cruz's base.

we'll see. eventually to find out how much that takes the edge off of cruz's support here given his base is with social conservatives. >> jason, thanks a lot. nice to have you here. >> thank you, rachel. one of the interesting things about iowa caucuses here, one week from tonight. it's seeing whether they are as chaotic on the republican side as they were in 2012. people forget that 2012 was complete chaos on the republican side. we still never found out who won. i'm looking forward to seeing if they've got their act together as much as i'm looking forward to seeing who will do well. stay with us. lots more ahead.

imagine what it feels like to be parent living in flint, michigan. specifically, imagine what it feels like being the parent of a kid enrolled at local elementary school like brownell. it's one of three schools where the water levels were found testing above 15 parts per billion for lead. the lead levels were exceeding federal safety guidelines. a follow up investigation after the initial october readings found that 12 of the 23 drinking fountains and faucets in one of the school's buildings, drinking fountains and faucets that you see here used for drinking but also used for cooking and food prep for the kids in the school cafeteria, almost half had led parts exceeding 15 parts per billion. some tested as high as 166 parts

per billion which is ten times the amount that's supposed to set off alarms. imagine find that out about that school if you're parent of a school at that kid. imagine how that must feel if you're sending your kid there every day. the way the schools have reacted is part of the unsung part of this story. the way the schools have reacted will surprise you. that's one of stories from wednesday night. we'll hold a town hall meeting on the lead poisoning crisis in that city. we're going the hold that meeting at the brownell holmes academy. it's called town hall. it's going to be airing here 9:00 wednesday. we'll be broadcasting from that school. cannot wait.

this is the most recent cover of time magazine. it shows a 2-year-old from flint, michigan whose skin is covered in rash. the family believes it's a result of bathing in that city's lead poison water. the woman who took this picture of this little 2-year-old kid is photographer for the detroit free press. her name is regina boon. getting a time magazine cover is a big deal. she's done some amazing photos. on this story to have it be a local paper's photographer

getting the cover shot is good. another up with of the detroit free press's excellent photographers who has done really good work is named ryan garza. he did an amazing photo essay. these are some of the images of it. he did it at a free clinic at downtown flint. it was sponsored by herb sanders who put on this event with his own money to help test local residents for high levels of lead. they were offering blood tests for lead levels. oh, my god, did people turn out. lines out the door and out the building. ryan's photos are just hart wrenching. this is of 3-year-old caden who is getting a blood test and screaming while the blood sample is being taken. the man holding him is his grandfather. the next photo shows the grandfather wiping away his own tears after seeing what his

little grandson just went through. the doors to this clinic didn't open until 10:00 a.m. on saturday this weekend. there was already a line of people waiting to get in an hour and a half before that. by 8:30 a.m., there was already a line for when the doors opened at 10:00. two hours in after they opened the doors volunteers had to turn residents away because they run out of testing kits. that's how great the demand was to get tested. there's also a lot of memes on the malicious facebook page. it says freedom fries.

it's chalked full of big bullets. you might expect this from a malitia's facebook page. it's also taken an unexpected turn. they has been in flint handing out bottled water alongside the american red cross. on sunday, the group gathered at flint city hall and while it might have seemed like a malitia-esque second amendment rally. they were there to demand accountability over the overgoing lead poisoning water crisis in flint. the group handed out cases of water to flint residents from the back of their trucks. one of the bright spot, unusual moments in this crisis is it's

brought together groups you might not expect to be allies. these are two brothers. they are from chicago and they traveled from the south side of chicago to flint this weekend to help respond to the crisis. they just gathered up water donations on their own from people they knew and brought the donations to flint on their own. they are not affiliated with anybody. they just came, these two >> i am overjoyed to see everybody out here supporting this city. i'm from chicago, south side of chicago. this is my little brother nate. we drove up here by ourselves. >> welcome. >> we don't represent any organization but humans need water. with that being said me and my little brother drove up here with a couple of donations from

friends and family. we made about four or five trips to walmart. we have handed out over 100 cases to families. >> thank you. >> at the fire station on mlk avenue and crosby. we're trying to do our part. i know when i got back home and tell my store and nate tells his story, we will be back and there will be more of us next time. >> thank you. >> thank you. >> god bless you. >> i just want to say chicago is with you. i'm so happy to have met all the wonderful people of flint. you've been nothing but kind to us since we got here. we're going to help out. >> unity. >> unity. there was some unexpected unity. some new alliances outside flint city hall this weekend. but unity on how best to tackle the crisis. unity in terms of purpose. unity in terms of how to get it done, how to fix the problem overall. that turns out to be severely lacking. you'll never guess who the culprit is. you'll totally guess who the culprit is. that story is next.

what i've got here is letter

that was sent to the state of michigan from the obama administration. they sent michigan this 18-page letter. it was a list of things the state has to do to address the lead poisoning crisis in flint. the letter said within five days they have to create a website where they will post all of their water testing results, all the testing plans, weekly status reports. within ten days they have to hand over all the lead testing results from flint from the last three years. within ten days they have to hand over inventory of homes connected to water lines with service lines made out of line. they have to hand over the information in excel or a similar format which should be hilarious given the last system they used to catalog the last location of lead pipes was this drawer of tens of thousands of index cards. now the epa wants it in spread sheet form, stat. this order went to the state of michigan on thursday. it's not a list of recommendations. the government is saying you're

ordered follow the tasks and complete them by specific deadlines set forth in this order. the state of michigan received this order last week and the schneider administration, which created this disaster responded by saying got your letter. thanks for writing, but we really don't think you have the right to tell us what to do. governor rick schneider's administration was legally obligated to respond within one day of receiving this order. they did, but the response from his administration to this very specific, very detailed federal order reads we question whether the epa has the lead authority to order a state and its agencies to take the actions outlined in this order. the schneider administration caused this disaster, they know

they did. they admit they did. now as if the city of flint isn't dealing with enough, thanks to them. they are telling them to back off and stop telling them what to do. leave it to them to sort it out. that response from the state came on friday night. the federal government has responded back. the feds have written back a one page, one paragraph letter saying not only do they have the legal authority but michigan better step on it. the state must immediately commence and continue work to meet the obligations as ordered. the epa says state officials must comply and expect, quote, full implementation of the order. one page, one paragraph. feds to michigan, get moving. joining us now is editor of the flint journal which has been advocating fiercely for the town.

thanks for being here. >> thank you for having me. >> the schneider administration is responding to the federal government, in part, by pushing back against the epa and saying you have no right to tell us what to do. is that boilerplate? should we have expected that? >> i don't think we should have expected it. i think, at this point, actions speak louder than words. we have heard a lot of apologies but we haven't seen much in the form of action. the idea they are spending time of arguing with the epa instead of developing plan to replace the lead lines the mind boggling. this is energy better directed at solving the problem. >> last week president obama said he would speed $80 million to michigan. you got $5 million to help and then he said while he was in detroit for the auto show and talking to the conference of mayors said we're going to get $80 million to michigan. the white house suggesting the money should go toward the crisis. do we know if the governor will commit to using the $80 million to flint? >> no. my last communication on friday

is i was told they were evaluating options. it seemed the president wanted it to go to the crisis. i don't think it was any coincidence. i was told we're studying the issue. again, this is the governor that is hiring pr firms. where are the engineering firms. let's get the lead lines dug up and replaced. there's no time to wait on this. >> your newspaper, the flint journal has called for governor schneider to release e-mails in the crisis. he's posted his e-mails from two years of the crisis, 2014 and 2015. he hasn't posted anything from this year and anything from 2013 or before. why did your paper call for those extra years? those additional years to be disclosed by the governor?

>> to see what else was going on as far as what communications there were prior. it was really surprising when we got the e-mails and there was only a handful that were written by the governor. transparency, saying it is great but there's more information out here. maybe it's in the form of text messages or e-mails from earlier but more needs to be released here. i would encourage the governor to reconsider his idea of keeping secret the communications by his staffers, by his appointees. this information needs to come out. >> editor of the flint journal, thank you. thank you for your paper's work on this and thanks for understanding us what's going on. appreciate you for being here. >> thank you. >> for the record, we asked governor schneider's office about his e-mails about flint water from 2013 and 2016.

we have ask for e-mails from 2012. we want 2012, 2013 and 2016 to go along with the other years. the governor's office has not responded to our request. michigan radio supports that subpoenas in a class action lawsuit have gone off. they are suing over the flint water disaster and asking for those documents and more from rick schneider's office. we don't know if they will get the records and the messages they are seeking from the schneider administration, but they're trying. they are taking it to the courts. we'll be right back.

we're going to back in a moment with a story i cannot report. there is news to report, but i cannot report because one republican governor's office has gone nuts. this is so strange, this is the weirdest interaction we've had with a sitting governor since mark sanford disappeared when he was in argentina with someone

who wasn't his wife. this is the weirdest thing with a governor's office we have had since mark sanford went missing. it explains why i can't tell you what's about to happen in one american state. that story is next. you forgot the milk! th's lactaid®. right. 100% real milk, just without the lactose. so, no discomfort? exactly. try some... mmm, it is real milk. lactaid®. 100% real milk. no discomfort.

now the traffickers, these are people that take drugs. these are the people named

d-money, shifty. they come up here and sell their heroin and go back home. incidentally, half the time they impregnate a young, white girl before they leave. >> he later explained he had nothing to apologize for in those remarks because maine is very white. >> i was going impromptu and my brain didn't watch up to my mouth. instead of saying maine women. i said white women. i'm not going to apologize to the maine women for that. if you go to maine, you will see that we're essentially 95% white. >> we are super white, you guys. no harm, no foul. who was offended? maine governor is an unusual kind of governor. that means under governor paul le page leadership the state makes unusual kind of news. when we last left maine governor

lepage in the wake of his d-money impregnating a white girl comments maine was on the eve of a big debate in their legislature over whether or not he would be impeached on abuse of power allegations. that effort took up a good chunk of the legislature's time a couple weeks ago. ultimately it went nowhere, though. democrats and the leadership joined republicans to postpone the paul lepage impeachment effort indefinitely. when the impeachment effort fell apart, governor lepage called the whole thing "foolishness." but he also left an open question that's of significant consequence for his state. because in the days before the impeachment debate the governor had threatened that he would skip his annual state of the state address. he decided that if the legislature wanted to impeach him then he just wasn't going to do that thing this year. >> why am i going to go up and face people and talk to them in an audience that just a day -- you know, a week or two before they're trying to impeach me?

that's just silliness. so why don't we just i'll go to work, keep working, i'll send them a letter and call it a day. >> governor paul lepage doesn't want to give the state of the state this year. not if it means talking in person to the legislature that just debated impeaching him. he raised the prospect that he might skip the whole speech this year, submit it in writing instead. but then the impeachment thing fell apart and now we're left with this interesting open question. since it turns out you're not being impeached, governor, is the speech back on or are you still literally going to mail it in for maine's state of the state this year? simple question. we reached out to the governor's office to ask. and i've got to tell you, we do this kind of thing all day long, getting basic information from all different kinds of public

officials. this is what we do. this is a normal thing. this is what we sent. "hi. wanted to see if the governor's made a decision about whether or not he'll give the state of the state address in person to lawmakers or if he still plans to send a letter. do you have any information on that decision yet? thanks!" "why does rachel maddow have such an unnatural obsession with governor lepage? her neurotic fixation on him is kind of bizarre." that was the response from the governor's office. that was the whole thing. very strange. so we tried again. "is this seriously your response? should we take this to mean that the governor has not made up his mind?" response from paul lepage's office. "it's a serious question. does rachel have tied to maine? if not what's her weird fascination with him?" so that's a no? we tried again. "hi. i'm going to try one more time on our question about governor lepage's state of the state this year. has he made a decision whether he will give the state of the

state address in person or if he will send a letter instead? we really are just looking for an answer to that question. if you can't answer it is there someone else we can try to speak with?" thanks very much. governor's response, "of course i can answer it. but you first. what's with maddow's obsession with the governor?" admit it. at this point you'd start to be a little obsessed as well. so we wrote back once more to the governor's office. "this is becoming a strange interaction. we are just trying to get some basic information about a statement the governor made. we are covering this like we would any other newsmaker or public official in the country. or obsessiveness is only about the news. and governor lepage is making it hard to get basic information about the governance of that state and that is starting to feel newsworthy too." response from the governor's office. nothing. so seriously, i cannot tell you whether or not maine is getting a state of the state address this year because the governor apparently finds it very offensive that i would even want to know. so all i can tell su that the state of the state address usually takes place by early february, but apparently you're a sicko if you want to know any more about it than that. so says the governor of that fine state. just amazing.

measuring snowfall is hard to do because gravity. as the snow piles up, as it accumulates, the weight of the snow on the top of the pile starts to press down and crush the snow at the bottom of the pile. so even if you drop a measuring stick into the ground and it says 30 inches, you're likely waiting around in more than that because the last snowfall is squishing down the early snowfall. calculating snowfall accurately is a hard thing to do. and that is why the national weather service has developed a set of guidelines and a tool for measuring snow correctly. accounting for the gravity problem. and that tool, that highly specialized tool, is a board. no, seriously. it's a board.

there are so many great questions in life for which plywood is the answer. and this is one of them. at weather.gov you can see some pictures of the specialized snow measuring board in action. look at it go. basically, you get your board and you get a measuring stick and you put your board in an area that is free of snow drifts. and every couple of hours you measure the accumulation on the board. then you wipe it away. then you essentially rinse and repeat throughout the storm. once it stops snowing, you add up all of your measurements that you took over the course of the storm and presto change-o that is your total snowfall. good system. official snow measuring board. and that's where they take the

measurement that gets reported to the national weather service. and that is the official spot from which we get a snow total for washington, d.c. but this weekend in the middle of that ridiculous storm this weekend the good folks at reagan national airport who measure the snow, they lost the board. they lost it in the snow. dropped it and then couldn't find it. ah! folks at reagan national had to improvise their calculations by measuring in a bunch of different areas and averaging out those numbers and now those flawed numbers stand as d.c.'s official snowfall measurement. even though nearby official totals at dulles airport and vwi airport those are nearly a foot higher than those being reported they lost the snowboard. d.c. officially got 17.8 inches of snow this past weekend. which sounds like a lot. but that means the storm did not officially crack the top three blizzards of all time in d.c. but maybe it was actually way more snow than that and we'll never know. because they lost the board. they lost the board! who knew snowfall measurement was even done with a board? once washington manages to dig the board out at reagan airport, i would like to suggest maybe

they tie a little leash to it, maybe handcuff it to the snowboard wrangler for the duration of the storm next time? i'm sorry, d.c. your storm was probably bigger than they say it was. i know you say that to all -- never mind. that does it for us tonight. it's tuesday, january 26th. right now on "first look" -- iowa voters caucus in six days as the democrats make their final case. >> we will raise taxes. yes, we will. what i believe in is creating a government that works for all of us not just the handful of people on the top. that's my definition of democratic socialism. >> they throw all of this stuff at me. and i'm still standing. i've been on the front lines of change and progress since i was your age. i have been fighting to give kids and women and -- and the people who are left out