captioning sponsored by cbs this is the "cbs evening news" with scott pelley. >> pelley: good eveningnning with an ending and we're doing this to give you a better idea of what's been lost. there was a car wreck in manhattan last night nothing remarkable, except the one person killed was bob simon. simon was in his 19th season on "60 minutes"," and before that he'd spent nearly 30 years on this program. he was among the most courageous and gifted reporters of our time, and he reminded us how good journalism can be. >> reporter: i'm from bronx. and in fact it took a long time before cbs would put me on the air because i had such a thick bronx accent. we're going to pick up an american. >>american. >> pelley: the voice would become unmistakable, the perspective indispensable. >> reporter: they don't know how many communists they're up against. they do know the enemy bunkers are less than 30 feet away. >> pelley: bob simon hurryied to southeast asia in 1971 because as he put it, history was being made. >> reporter: civilian casualties were not announced bus it was another case of destroy

captioning sponsored by cbs this is the "cbs evening news" with scott pelley. >> pelley: this is our western edition. eight feet and climbing-- that is how much snow has piled up in new england this winter, and if it's not more than the people can stand, it is more than the roofs can. today, this one in sutton, massachusetts, gave way. that's at least 74 fallen roofs in the state this season. also on the verge of collapse, temperature records as arctic air plunges as far south as florida. the huge area in purple that you see here will have lows overnight in the single digits or less. jamie yuccas is in minneapolis. >> reporter: minneapolis' generally wild winter came to an abrupt halt.at temperatures struggled to crack zero and wind chills hit 31 below. frostbite in this cold can happen in 30 minutes or less. minnesotans tried to take it in stride. >> i really like the uniqueness it brings to the day. you never know if your car is going to start. you never know if something is going to break at your house from the cold. >> reporter: it's the same frozen story throughout the upper mid

the "cbs evening news with scott >> pelley: tonight, thousands >> pelley: tonight, thousands mourn three muslim students gunned down in north carolina, but was it a hate crime? more snow is headed to places that have too much already. bitter cold, too. and we'll remember bob simon, a reporter's reporter, who turned words into sweet symphonies. ♪ ♪ ♪ >> reporter: and if you ever questioned that music is the universal language, watch this. ♪ ♪ ♪ a german-speaking teacher tutoring a french-speaking african how to sing an aria in italian. captioning sponsored by cbs this is the "cbs evening news" with scott pelley. >> pelley: good evening. this is our western edition. we're beginning with an ending and we're doing this to give you a better idea of what's been lost. there was a car wreck in manhattan last night-- nothing remarkable, except the one person killed was bob simon. simon was in his 19th season on "60 minutes," and before that, he'd spent nearly 30 years on this program. he was among the most courageous and gifted reporters of our time, and he reminded us just how good journalism ca

captioning sponsored by cbs this is the "cbs evening news" with scott pelley. >> pelley: this is our western edition. more than 130 million americans are in need of a nighttime cold remedy. advisories are up for dangerously low wind chills. this is indianapolis, where it feels like it's minus 15. in much of the northeast quarter of the u.s., a siberian express will make it feel double digits below zero-- minus 19 as far south as the carolinas. there have been 19 deaths since the weekend, and we'll start our coverage tonight with dean reynolds. >> reporter: there was a lot of negativity across much of the country today as the february freeze wore out the minus sign. actual temperatures fell below zero from north to south, a day unfit for man nor beast. two dogs nearly drowned in an icy marsh near revere, massachusetts, but lived to swim another day. near philly, it was chilly as the coast guard tried to keep the delaware river from freezing over.s boston was again looking skyward for more snow, to be sure, but also at icicles as tall as buildings.hi earlier this week in michigan, froz

here's scott pelley. >> pelley: tonight, frozen solid, a wind-chill of 85 below with a snowstorm hitting the south and heading east. we're at the scene of a fiery oil train derailment that has forced two towns to evacuate. bank robbers make off with as much as a billion dollars and an amazing end to a marathon by a runner who just wouldn't quit. >> you are one tough young lady! captioning sponsored by cbs this is the "cbs evening news" with scott pelley. >> pelley: we'll begin with breaking news. this is getting worse by the minute. a train pulling more than 100 tankers of crude oil has derailed and exploded in west virginia. oil is pouring into a river that supplies drinking water and two small towns are evacuating. bryan hughes of our charleston affiliate wowk is at the scene. bryan, what do you have? >> scott this an incredible scene where the fire continues the rage back behind me. at this point we've been able to count with by fact lars about eight rail cars that are on fire. official estimates from csx is that this is a 109-car train two locomotives. they said only one is on fire b

scott pelley. >> pelley: tonight dangerous cold, more snow for northeast, and maybe a blizzard. the president weighs in on the murder of three north carolina muslims. an alabama police officer is charged with assaulting an innocent man. and steve hartman reveals his idol. >> reporter: i was hoping to steal his secrets. captioning sponsored by cbs this is the "cbs evening news" with scott pelley. >> pelley: good evening. old man winter is showing how cold-hearted he can be. valentine's day will see some of the coldest temperatures of the year. the area that you see here in purple will have lows in the single digit. blizzard warnings are up for parts of new england, including boston where snow is the last thing they need. jericka duncan is there. >> reporter: with a wind chill at minus 13 degrees, boston city workers and the national guard were digging out neighborhoods before the next major snowstorm. boston has already received more than 74 inches of snow over the last 30 days. mayor marty walsh: >> we're preparing for this weekend's snowstorm, so snow removal is our top priorit

captioning sponsored by cbs this is the "cbs evening news" with scott pelley. >> pelley: good evening. jordan's king abdullah ii hurried to the white house tonight after what appears to be the savage execution of a jordanian air force pilot who was might fooiting in the u.s.-led coalition against isis. jordanians had been holding vigils for the 26-year-old who fell into the hands of the islamic terrorist group when his plane went down in syria christmas eve. today, isis put out this video showing the pilot in an orange jumpsuit. then, he's murdered, not a beheading this time, but something equally cruel and inhuman. he's set on fire. we're not going to be showing you that. we don't know when the execution was carried out, but isis chose to release the video just as jordan's king was in washington. and holly williams has been covering isis from the beginning. she joins us tonight in northern iraq. holly, what can you tell us about the video? >> reporter: well, scott it's a highly produced video including graphics and multiple camera angles. it runs about 22 minutes, at the end of which

washington. >> pelley: good evening. this is our western edition. tonight, investigators from the national transportation safety board are on the scene of a horrifying rail disaster. it happened about 20 miles north of new york city at the end of the tuesday evening rush. a commuter train out of grand central terminal slammed into an suv that stopped on a crossing. the explosion lit up the night sky. the driver and five on the train were killed. several others were injured. vinita nair is in valhalla new york. >> reporter: investigators spent the day sifting through charred wreckage trying to figure out why this train, packed with more than 600 commuters, plowed into an suv at 60 miles per hour. it was an horrific scene of twisted metal, smoke and flame visible for miles in the night sky. james wallace was in the second car of the train. >> we started to smell gasoline fumes and the fire was getting larger up front ahead of the car. i started thinking this is not the place we want to be. we need to go. >> reporter: polic

triangle. >> pelley: good evening. this week, kayla mueller became the face of america's war against isis. and late today, with her death fresh in everyone's mind president obama asked congress to become his full partner in the war against terrorists who are now responsible for the deaths of four americans and countless others in syria and iraq. he asked congress to officially authorize the war that he's already been waging. major garrett's at the white house for us tonight. major. >> reporter: scott, the white house said the war resolution is intentionally fuzzy. it opens the door to u.s. military operations to rescue hostages, gather intelligence, or kill senior isis leaders. it rules out "enduring offensive ground combat operations," and imposes a three-year limit on the president's authority to combat isis. >> the resolution we've submitted today does not call for the deployment of u.s. ground combat forces to iraq on syria. it is not the authorization of another ground war like afghanistan or iraq. >> reporter: th

captioning sponsored by cbs this is the "cbs evening news" with scott pelley. >> pelley: this is our western edition. today for the first time we saw the man behind the mask in those gruesome beheading videos. mohammed emwazi has become the face of isis and the barbaric horrors it has inflicted on the innocent, including four americans. tonight we know the path he took from birth in kuwait to boyhood in britain to his new life as the world's most infamous executioner. here's clarissa ward. >> reporter: for six months he was the masked face of terror, but now the world has seen the real face of mohammed emwazi. this photograph was taken in 2006 with emwazi wearing a pittsburgh pirates baseball cap while he was at westminster university. you can see the distinctive eyes that would become so recognizable. it's a very different picture from the smiling school boy of ten years old when he talked on his yearbook page about wanting to be a soccer player. he said he loved video games and french fries. university records show a competent if unexceptional student with a degree in business mana

captioning sponsored by cbs this is the "cbs evening news" with scott pelley. >> pelley: good evening. private information about millions of americans is in the hands of cyber thieves tonight. they broke into a database at this country's second largest health insurancer. it's called anthem, and it runs blue cross blue shield plans in more than a dozen states. the company says that database contains 80 million records including names, birth dates and social security numbers. a gold mine for identity thieves and con artists. it is not known if the hackers got health records. kris van cleave begins our coverage. >> reporter: anthem was one of thousands of health care companies warned twice last year by the f.b.i. that their industry was particularly vulnerable to hackers. in 2014, there were 42 cyber attacks targeting health providers, compared to just five in 2010. in this document, the f.b.i. cited the industry's lack cyber-security standards and said they were being targeted for a list of reasons. jim trainor is second in command at the f.b.i.'s cyber division. >> one was the-- kind o

captioning sponsored by cbs this is the "cbs evening news" with scott pelley. >> pelley: good evening. today winter made history. the storm that dumped 20 inches of snow on the midwest over the weekend moved into the northeast, and in parts of new england, this is now the snowiest ten-day period on record with accumulations totalling five feet. we have team of correspondents covering this latest storm. first we'll go to michelle milner -- miller in boston. michelle? >> reporter: bostonians were still trying to dig out from the two feet of snow from last week's storm when this one started delivering on average an inch every hour. tonight we're nearly one foot and counting. as soon as the snow started to fall, boston deployed an army of 600 clean-up crews to city streets, clearing 6,000 truckloads of snow. >> some might see it as bad but we've seen a lot worse here. >> reporter: plow truck operator billie mcdonald is on his 16th straight hour of overtime. what makes your job so difficult right now? >> it's like a track. you are just constantly doing a loop around this track. that's what

the "cbs evening news with scott pe >> pelley: tonight, >> pelley: tonight, isis claims another american hostage is dead. but the terrorists say they're not responsible for the killing of kayla mueller. we have reports from holly williams and charlie d'agata. carter evans on a winter storm bringing strong winds, heavy rain and flooding to the west. meteorologist eric fisher reports more snow is coming to the northeast. anna werner has the improving economy numbers, more jobs, more job seekers, and for the first time in a long time, higher wages. and steve hartman "on the road"" with an extraordinary mother and child reunion. captioning sponsored by cbs this is the "cbs evening news" with scott pelley. >> pelley: good evening. this is our western edition. we can think of no greater contrast between good and evil than kayla jean mueller who dedicated her life to helping people in need and th terrorists who claim today that she is dead. if true, mueller, 26 years old from arizona, would be the fourth american to die in the hands of the islamic terrorist group known as isis. while the others

captioning sponsored by cbs this is the "cbs evening news" with scott pelley. >> pelley: this is our western edition. much of america it is a dangerous night to be outdoors. there are winter weather advisories across the south, wind-chill advisories across the northeast and another storm is sending temperatures plummeting and vehicles skidding across the ice. we have two reports and a forecast. first adriana diaz in texas. adriana? b >> reporter: scott, this is one of dallas' busiest highwayumpe intersections. normally this would be bumper- to-bumper traffic, but this on- and-off sleet storm has brought roadways to a crawl. so far there's been one traffic- related death and 300 accidents. it looked like a monster truck derby on interstate 40 justid outside amarillo. 25 vehicles, mostly semis,br banged up and broken after sliding on icy roadways. outside dallas, drivers had to reverse off an icy highway ramp, and one driver tried to push another up a slippery incline. tony hartzel is from the texas department of transportation. >> sleet is a little more challenging because people thin

captioning sponsored by cbs this is the "cbs evening news" with scott pelley. >> pelley: good evening. old man winter is showing how cold-hearted he can be. valentine's day will see some of the coldest temperatures of the year. the area that you see here in purple will have lows in the single digit. blizzard warnings are up for parts of new england, including boston where snow is the last thing they need. jericka duncan is there. chill at minus 13 degrees, boston city workers and the national guard were digging out neighborhoods before the next major snowstorm. boston has already received more than 74 inches of snow over the last 30 days. mayor marty walsh: >> we're preparing for this weekend's snowstorm, so snow removal is our top priority in the city of boston right now. >> reporter: crews are hauling away 1500 truckloads of snow per day. four snow melters are working around the clock melting nearly 1,000 tons of snow an hour. the arctic blast is affecting an estimated 127 million people across 27 states and the district of columbia. >> it's chris from the meals program. >> reporter

captioning sponsored by cbs this is the "cbs evening news" with scott pelley. >> pelley: well, the hits just keep coming. with storm after storm this scene in maine today was all too familiar, a pile-up on an icy interstate. less familiar is the winter the south is having. in shreveport, there was a rare chance to make a louisiana snowman. snow, sleet and freezing rain are falling from texas to the carolinas to virginia. a blast of arctic air will freeze the night in the north. here's jericka duncan. >> reporter: blizzard conditions in et that, maine triggered this 40-car pile-up along i-95, leaving a mangled trail of vehicles and injuring at least a dozen people. >> just as i came to a stop, a woman came around and slid in front of me, and an 18-wheeler went flying by us on the inside and slammed into all those cars that were stopped and then people started piling into the back of me. >> reporter: it's the coldest february on record in many parts of the northeast. harrisburg pennsylvania, hartford, connecticut, worcester, massachusetts, and rochester, new york, all broke records. it ha

>> pelley: tonight, tragedy on the tracks. six are killed when a commuter train collides with an suv. vinita nair is at the scene. jeff pegues looks at the danger at america's railroad crossings. caught on video, a taiwanese airliner crashes on takeoff but there are survivors. seth doane has the latest. desperate civilians rise up against i.s.i.s. holly williams in syria with a school teacher turned sniper. ben tracy at ground zero with the measles outbreak. pressure grows to make childhood vaccinations mandatory. and jamie yuccas with martha flynn. when it snows in the country she's in fat city. >> i've raced before with the starting temp at minus ten. captioning sponsored by cbs this is the "cbs evening news" with scott pelley, reporting tonight from washington. >> pelley: good evening. tonight, investigators from the national transportation safety board are on the scene of a horrifying rail disaster. it happened about 20 miles north of new york city at the end of the tuesday evening rush. a commuter train out of grand centr

captioning sponsored by cbs this is the "cbs evening news" with scott pelley. >> pelley: good evening. in just a few short days america came to know kayla mueller and her too short life that was dedicated to helping people in need. so today when her family confirmed that she had died as a captive of isis, the entire country shared their pain, pain that was visible on the faces of her friends and relatives. mueller was captureed by the islamic terrorist group in syria in the summer of 2013. david martin now on how her family learned of her death. >> reporter: there is no good way to find out your 26-year-old daughter has been killed but surely an e-mail from isis with a picture of her body is one of the worst. by monday morning intelligence analysts had confirmed that it was kayla mueller, and that she had died recently although the exact cause of her death could not be determined. it was a tragic end for a young woman described by her aunt lori lyon as noble beyond her years. >> she has done more in her incredible 26 years than many people can ever imagine doing in their lifetime. kay

captions by: caption colorado comments@captioncolorado.com >> pelley: >> pelley: tonight, painfully cold. americans caught in an avalancheds. of falling records. a new obamacare glitch could delay tax refunds. the ferguson police chief breaks his silence right here. >> are there some things you know that you need to change? >> pelley: and steve hartman on the road. old man winter grants a little girl her wish. >> that's what grandparents do. it's in the contract. captioning sponsored by cbs this is the "cbs evening news" with scott pelley. >> pelley: this is our western edition. they couldn't see russia from their houses, but millions of americans could feel it. today, the siberian express brought the kind of cold that makes tears run from your eyes and freeze on your face. in at least 75 cities, it was the coldest february 20 on record. 2 degrees in new york, 2 in philadelphia and far south in plant city, florida, 32. there have been at least 26 deaths so far. this is a shot of lower manhattan with the hudson river on the left being shot by our friends at cbs 2 with their helicopter, an

>> pelley: tonight, the v.a. >> pelley: tonight, the v.a. secretary answers for falsely saying that he served in special forces. >> that was wrong, and i have no excuse. >> pelley: dozens are injured when a commuter train hits an abandoned truck. cbs news investigates-- is safety compromised when some airline pilots fly longer hours than a federal limit allows? and senior power. meet one gold medal grandma with a message-- >> i'm old. if i can do it, get with it. captioning sponsored by cbs this is the "cbs evening news" with scott pelley. >> pelley: this is our western edition. this morning, a commuter train hit a truck that was abandoned. no one was killed but 21 of the 58 people on the train were taken to the hospital. tonight, four of them, including the engineer are in critical condition. omar villafranca is at the scene. >> reporter: the explosion and flames lit up the sky after the metrolink train struck the truck just before dawn. ould see three of by daylight, you could see three of the five of the 7.5-ton rail cars toppled over lik

captioning sponsored by cbs this is the "cbs evening news" with scott pelley. >> pelley: this is our western edition. we'll begin with breaking news. this is getting worse by the minute. a train pulling more than 100 tankers of crude oil hasar derailed and exploded in west virginia. oil is pouring into a river that supplies drinking water and two. small towns are evacuating. bryan hughes of our charleston affiliate wowk is at the scene. bryan, what do you have? >> scott, this an incredible scene where the fire continues the rage back behind me. at this point we've been able to count about eight rail cars that are on fire.csx official estimates from csx is that this is a 109-car train two locomotives. they said only one is on fire, but clearly that is not the case. also crude oil has spilled into the canal river. just moments ago csx and the coast guard had to use our cameras to look across the river to identify the actual rail car numbers so they can possibly t disconnect these rail cars and identify other rail cars that could have potential problems. >> pelley: bryan, do we know any

>> pelley: tonight, america on ice. sliding on it, sailing through it ducking under it, and leaving thousands in the cold and dark. the west virginia disaster raises new fears about railway accidents waiting to happen. the jury hears what the gunman told police after he shot "american sniper" chris kyle. and it's not heav heaven. it's iowa. the hawkeye discovery that has some folks on cloud 9. captioning sponsored by cbs this is the "cbs evening news" with scott pelley. >> pelley: it's dangerously cold in much of the country, and this summed it up for us. in new jersey, a teenaged girl ventured out on to the ocean ice in sandy hook bay. she fell in, but first responders were willing to risk their lives in order to save hers. temperatures tonight will be well below freezing deep into the south. at least 11 deaths are blamed on this storm that brought snow from tennessee to new england. more than 400,000 homes and businesses are without power. we have a team of correspondents covering the relentless wilderness. first, jer

captioning sponsored by cbs this is the "cbs evening news" with scott pelley. >> pelley: they couldn't see russia from their houses, but millions of americans could feel it. today, the siberian express brought the kind of cold that makes tears run from your eyes and freeze on your face. in at least 75 cities, it was the coldest february 20 on record. 2 degrees in new york, 2 in philadelphia and far south in plant city florida, 32. there have been at least 26 deaths so far. this is a shot of lower manhattan with the hudson river on the left being shot by our friends at cbs 2 with their helicopter, and right down there in that boat stuck in the ice is our own vinita nair on the hudson between new york and new jersey. vinita. >> reporter: that's right, scott. commuters are not only battling those record lows here on the hudson river. they're also battling these huge chunks of ice that you can see behind me. the port authority tells us that for the past two weeks or so they have been sending tug boats out ahead of the ferries just to break up some of the ice but this is even bad compared t

>> pelley: the man behind the mask. now we know the identity of the terrorist in the beheading videos. also tonight the latest winter storm makes the old south look more like new england. an answer to that age-ole question: what are they smoking in washington? >> it feels great. it feels like freedom. >> pelley: and freedom is all they wanted but the sheriff was on their tales. >> it's a llama drama unfolding. captioning sponsored by cbs this is the "cbs evening news" with scott pelley. >> pelley: today we learned the identity of one of the most despicable men on the face of the earth, the masked terrorist that we have all seen too many times in the past year in videos of the execution of hostages held by isis, including the beheading of three americans. tonight mark phillips in london tells us who he is and what we know about him. >> reporter: he's the masked face of isis in all its brutality, and now he has a name. the executioner nicknamed jihadi john, who figures in at least five gruesome beheading videos, is really

captioning sponsored by cbs this is the "cbs evening news" with scott pelley. >> pelley: good evening. we can think of no greater contrast between good and evil than kayla jean mueller who dedicated her life to helping people in need and the terrorists who claim today that she is dead. if true, mueller 26 years old from arizona, would be the the fourth american to die in the hand of the islamic terrorist group known as isis. while the others were beheaded, isis claims mueller was killed by a jordanian air strike, part of the u.s.-led air campaign. keeping in mind that there's no confirmation of any of isis' claims today, holly williams gindz our coverage. >> i am in solidarity with the syrian people. >> reporter: kayla mueller wanted to help syrians. after working with humanitarian aid groups in india israel, and the palestinian territories, in 2012, she went to turkey where hundreds of thousands of refugees were fleeing syria's bloody civil war. she also ventured across the border to the chaos of war-torn aleppo. it was there in august 2013 as she left a hospital run by a medical aid

captioning sponsored by cbs this is the "cbs evening news" with scott pelley. >> pelley: this is our western edition. today we learned the identity of one of the most despicable men on the face of the earth, the masked terrorist that we have all seen too many times in the past year in videos of the execution of hostages held by isis, including the beheading of three americans. tonight mark phillips in london tells us who he is and what we know about him. >> reporter: he's the masked face of isis in all its brutality, and now he has a name. the executioner nicknamed jihadi john, who figures in at least five gruesome beheading videos is really mohammed emwazi, a 27- year-old college graduate from london. his accent was first hint. >> this is james foley, an american citizen of your country. >> reporter: for months, as isis romped across syria and iraq british and american anti- terrorist officials were known to be aware of the masked figure's identity, but they refused to release it presumably because they were trying the trace his links to other isis figures. armed with a computer sci

>> pelley: tonight the v.a. secretary answers for falsely saying that he served in special forces. >> that was wrong and i have no excuse. >> pelley: dozens are injured when a commuter train hits an abandoned truck. cbs news investigates-- is safety compromised when some airline pilots fly longer hours than a federal limit allows? and senior power. meet one gold medal grandmawith a message-- >> i'm old. if i can do it, get with it. captioning sponsored by cbs this is the "cbs evening news" with scott pelley. >> pelley: today, the man brought in to restore credibility to the department of veterans affairs had some explaining of his own to do. secretary bob mcdonald corrected a misstatement that he made last month on this broadcast about his own military record after the statement was questioned by several retired officers. this comes, of course, at a time of controversy around prominent journalists who have been accused of inflating their war records. here's wyatt andrews. >> that was wrong and i have no excuse.