good morning, kendis. the president did briefly lay out his legislative goals for the year ahead but his message was mostly focused not so much on lawmakers in the chie chambe at voters in the audience at home. >> the president of the united states! >> reporter: making his way up the house chamber aisle for his last state of the union address, president obama called for more civility in politics. >> how can we make our politics reflect what's best in us and not what's worst? >> reporter: flanked by his vice president and for the first time by new house speaker paul ryan, president obama focused his message on the future, saying the country must figure out how to adjust to a changing economy, to tackle climate change and to fight terrorism. >> if this congress is serious about winning this war and wants to send a message to our troops and the world, authorize the use of military force against isil. take a vote. >> reporter: but republicans challenged the president. >> the president's record has often fallen

. >> reporter: good morning, kendis and reena. that's right. the latest iowa polls show that it is tight for both political parties, but especially on the ted cruz and donald trump neck and neck. at liberty university trump made an appeal for evangelical voters. >> two corps inthians, 3:17, that's the whole ball game where the spirit of the lord, right -- >> reporter: the spirit of the trump blasting cruz on "this week." >> he's a nasty guy. nobody likes him, nobody in congress likes him. nobody likes him anywhere. >> reporter: cruz tweeting this janet jackson video in response to being called nasty. don't mean a thing to me >> reporter: cruz says he's getting under trump's skin. >> donald seems to be rattled. >> reporter: cruz's campaign continues to hammer trump over his, quote, new york values. releasing this 1999 video trump in his own words. >> hey, i lived in new york city and manhattan all my life, okay, so, you know, my views are a little bit different than if i lived in iowa perhaps. >> reporter: one person not talking trump, hillary c

reena, kendis? >> thank you. president obama is taking a no traditional approach to his final state of the union address. in this video, he explains he won't zero in on past progress or goals for the year ahead but plans to focus on his optimistic vision for the country. that seems to be an attempt to frame the presidential election just before the first primary votes are cast. >>> coverage of tonight's state of the unioncracy begins rights here on abc at 9:00 eastern time. we'll have reaction tomorrow morning on "world news now." >>> the democratic race for the white house is becoming more of a horse race every day. hillary clinton is now suddenly in a fight to hold on to iowa in a statistical dead heat. and over in new hampshire, sanders is leading by four points at a forum for the democratic candidates in des moines hosted by our sister network fusion, both sanders and confident. inevitable candidate for the democratic nomination may into the be so inevitable today. >> anybody can win. i meanhis is -- who woul

good morning, paul. >> thanks, kendis, reena. from the north will actually bother the good old southern folks and bring very cold air down towards the tennessee valley region and into the evening time it'll stay cool throughout portions of florida. travel problems, great lakes and towards the northeast more lake-effect snow and snow showers developing throughout the northern rocky mountain states then along the california coast, widespread scattered showers, it's going to cause localized flooding and serious travel problems. kendis, reena. >> pau williams at accuweather. >>> three of the americans freed by iran are in germany recuperating from their ordeal reuniting with family members and receiving visits by members of congress. "the washington post" reporter jason rezaian spent 1 months in iranian custody and says he's feeling good physically and his family agrees. >> he's definitely lost some weight. but, you know, really did, i mean, he was joking, we were joking around. you know, and really did act the same. >> rezaian says

reena and kendis? >> our thanks to lauren in los angeles. >>> track and field's international government body reportedly knew about widespread russian doping but did nothing about it. documents obtained by the associated press indicate the international association was so concerned it feared some athletes might actually die. yet for six years the iaaf did nothing about the use of drugs and transfusions and only pretended to be shocked when the scandal broke last year. >>> at least one nfl team is moving this summer. the league's owners have given return to l.a., which the team left in 1994. the san diego chargers can join the rams. if not the oakland raiders might get a shot at southern california. otherwise, the raiders are staying put. the rams will start playing in l.a. this summer. but the team's new stadium won't be ready for three years. >> looks pretty nice, though. >>> college-bound students in one colorado town are getting extra scholarship money thanks to the pot industry. yeah. back in novem

i'm reena ninan. >> i'm kendis gibson. here are some of the top headlines we're following this morning on "world news now." >>> it's all over for the blizzard of 2016. there's no more snow in the forecast for now. but there's plenty of clean-up ahead. in particular in washington and baltimore. federal offices in d.c. closed today. >> officially, washington got a little more than half as much snow as baltimore because the national weather service snow measuring device at the airport stopped working. it was buried by all the snow, full coverage straight ahead. >>> and american airlines flight forced to make an emergency landing in canada overnight after severe turk lens. an airline spokesperson says the injuries are not life-threatening. >>> and it will be denver versus carolina at super bowl 50. the panthers rolled over the arizona cardinals, 49-15 for the nfc title. the broncos held off the new england patriots 20-18. those are some of our top stories on this monday, january 25th. >> announcer: from abc news, this is "worl

morning, paul. >> thanks, reena, kendis. listen, i know everybody's skittish about the mere mention of the word snow. we're not expecting any more snow. but the snow we have will complicate matters because it's melting right now. there's so much of it, and we're expecting a tremendous amount of icing to occur because those puddles are going to freeze throughout the overnight period. tricky driving as a result of that. stars the rest of the country is concerned, we're looking for the messiest of weather along the mississippi valley region. cold weather just to the west of the rain and snow and stormmaker. snow up towards the great lakes. mixture of freezing rain and sleet throughout the ohio valley region and showers in the deep south culminating in thunderstorms. kendis, reena? >> paul, thank you. >>> breaking news overnight. severe turbulence on a flight from miami to milan has forced the plane to divert to canada. the seven people have been hurt and taken to a hospital. among those are three crew members. at least four amb

ninan. >> i'm kendis gibson. here are some of the top headlines we're follolowing thi morning on "world news now." >>> in the race for the white house, donald trump gets yet another boost in the polls. while hillary clinton struggles for new support in her battle with bernie sanders. details in a moment. >>> new visa waiver rules could be announced today designed to make it harder for europea who have traveled to isis hot spots to enter the u.s. >>> the head of the consumer product safety commission calling for us. pension of all online sales of all hoverboards until there is better testing and proof of safety of the devices. this after number of the boards caught fire. >>> and the nfl has its first male assistant coach. kathryn smith will help the bills special teams, buffalo also hired the first female scout in the nfl 30 years ago. thos are some of our top stories on this thursday, january 21st. >> announcer: from abc news, this is "world news now." >>> we're going to begin this half hour with th presidential

kendis, marci, back to you. >> thank you. on the campaign trail, another day, another positive poll for republican donald trump. the new figures show trump with 34%. his biggest lead yet in new hampshire. ted cruz is a distant second at 14% followed by a slightly surging jeb bush, tied with marco rubio at 10%. >>> on her first full day as trump supporter in chief, sarah palin was at last -- was a last-minute no show at a morning rally in iowa and rejoined the campaign later in tulsa where she talked about war veterans and problems adjusting to civilian life alluding to her son track adjust calling it the elephant in the room. >> i can certainly relate with other families who feel these ramifications of some ptsd and some of the woundedness that our soldiers do return with. it is now or never for the sake of america's finest that we have that commander in chief who al respect them. >> no word yet from the trump campaign why palin missed that earlier event in iowa. >> hillary clinton didn't waste any time using an image of trum

. >> i'm kendis gibson. we're going to start this half hour, of course, with the disappointment or the excitement would you say? >> we're going to go positive on this. >> we're going to go positive. >> the excitement in having more than half a billion dollars up for grabs come this saturday because of last night's powerball jackpot. >> he'so excited that the drawing waa bust. so saturday's prize swells to an estimated $675 million. >> exactly. >> the largest jackpot in u.s. history. so still last night's prize no slouch. it was the sixth largest jackpot ever. powerball players were buying tickets up until the very last minute. unfortunately the odds against them one in about 292 million. >> i assume those odds are increasing right about now. if you have been holding that winning ticket, the numbers are really cute numbers. it's great to look at. they really mean absolutely nothing for the vast majority of the country. >> so weird. >> is that so depressing? unless you're a partial winner. >> several people, i

. >> i'm kendis gibson. and to welcome you, i shut point out. >> my goodness. >> got some popcorn for you. >>>> this -- that's just mean. i actually would probably pick some of this off and still eat it. why is this here. >> it's just a prop. >> keep it there just to get my hopes up? >> yeah, exactly. >> thanks. >> that's typical for me. a lot of people over the next few days will need comfort food because of the weather and then some. the folks in the nation's capital really needing comfort about now. the massive snowstorm is taking aim at i an huge part of the eestsern u.s. this weekend. >> areas that could get six inches orrore extend from near the mississippi river all the way to cape cod with two feet possible in some areas. more than 50 million people who will see significantnowfall which could bring traffic in the region to a halt. >> here's the deal. it's already had a big impact in the nation's capital. and the big storm hasn't even arrived yet. had the washington, d.c. area got less than two inches

reena, kendis? >> yeah, i thought that was a you know, it is a big moment for people like governor nikki haley giving the response. bill clinton did it. we know senator marco rubio did it. how did nikki haley do? she's been talked about as being a potential vp candidate. >> reporter: well, the reaction to her address depends on which side of the republican divide you ask. speaker ryan, other republican leaders are commending her for her performance. on the other hand, donald trump supporters and several republican pundits are not so happy about her speech. they didn't like that veiled dig at trump. ann coulter, for example, tweeted that trump should deport her. pretty harsh. >> all right. thank you. thank you, bazi kanani there on capitol hill. >> and stay with abc news as we get more reaction to last night's address. we'll bring you some of the lighter moments, as i mentioned, later this half hour. >>> but we want to get to our other major story this morning. a confrontation between the u.s. and ir

. >> i'm kendis gibson. and if you happen to be holding a powerball ticket like we are, then you mig as well as just do what i'm going to do. how many numbers did we get right? >> we got zero. >> zero. it's worth about this much. i thought it would be a lot more dramatic than that. >> sitting next to you is kind of dramatic. i wish everybody could have witnessed the setup that this took. >> it's always bigner person. >> yeah. >> on tv, it just doesn't translate. >> i prosecutor appreciate your enthusiasm. >> we'll try again for saturday. >> don't pull a muscle. >> or a hernia. too late. yeah, i mean, $675 million the big jackpot. >> i'm buying another one. >> yeah, of course we will. >> so you get another chance saturday because the prizes he said will be an estimated $675 million. the largest jackpot in u.s. history and up till last night's force buying a shot at financial freedom hoping they would have the right combination of numbers for that winning ticket. it was just not to be. >> just so you know the

. >> and i'm kendis gibson. very excited about "the bachelor" and to get the details on the kiss count because i just turned it on for like a half an hour. yeah, the kiss count was very, very busy might have broken last night during that half hour period. >> you love your bachelor, don't you? >> yes our analyst is there getting everything prepped. we do want to talk about people who -- talk about what's being billed as the first major event of the 2016 political year. that happened last night in des moines, iowa. >> the brown and black presidential forum at drake university hosted by our sister station fusion had the three democratic candidates appearing on stage separately all answering questions about education, criminal justice, health and the economy. t the discussion eventually focused on the race itself. >> anybody can win. i mean, this is -- who would have thought donald trump would be leading in national polls. i mean for those of you ever thought about running for president, take heart. i mean -- >> it