Transcripts For FOXNEWSW Happening Now 20140129

jon: and "happening now", the deep south paralyzed by several inches of snow and ice. hello to you, i'm jon scott. >> hi, everybody, hope you're off to a great day so far, i'm jenna lee. thousands of people stranded overnight. highways looking like parking lots in georgia, alabama, carolinas and farther north in virginia as well. if people didn't spend the night on the road they were stuck in schools and businesses because of a rare and sudden winter storm, weather that the south isn't used to handling all the time. jonathan serrie is live from montgomery, alabama, with more now. jonathan? >> reporter: jenna and jon, that's really the key. dealing with a winter storm in the south is like dealing with a hurricane in the northeast. take a look at this video from montgomery. you're looking at the overpass, this is an entrance ramp to i-65 from i-85 where we saw a jackknifed struck. city and county crews are out trying to clear roads and bridges which have become slick with the ice trying to do so as best as they can. take a listen. >> it happened so infrequently here. we don't have really any deicing. we don't have the salt. we don't have the chemicals we could put on the road and deice. so we're left to kind of be in the situation where all we can do is sand the bridges, try to get the traction established back and try to make it somewhat passible so that people can use them. >> reporter: and take a look at this video from atlanta. early tuesday rush hour turned into an overnight ordeal for many motorists although forecasters had predicted the possibility of snow, local officials say they didn't realize the snow would come so far north and they didn't realize the storm would arrive as quickly as it did. so most schools remained in session. people went to work. and then when the snow started falling mid-day, everyone tried to head home at the same time. as you can imagine there is a lot of fingerpointing going on. even at this hour people are still stranded in cars. at a news conference just moments ago atlanta america seem reed said one of the lessons there needs to be staggered release times for schools, businesses, government offices the next time there is a sear rushes winter storm in atlanta. now i would like to show awe live remote from our photographer jeff burton who is on i-85 between atlanta and the al became state line. as you can see very little traffic. but what little traffic it is it is moving along albeit moving slowly. as you look closely at the roadway there is still plenty of ice. that is why officials in georgia and alabama are urging folks who don't have to be out on the roads to continue staying at home until all of this ice melts away. back to you guys. jenna: sounds like good advice. jonathan, thank you. jon: president obama trying to turn the tide ahead of the midterm elections in november today talking up his proposal to increase the minimum wage. that is one of the major policy pitches he laid out last night in the state of the union address, part of a packed agenda aimed at rebuilding his political standing and reinvigorating the democratic base. let's talk about it with karl rove, former senior advisor and deputy chief of staff to president george w. bush and a fox news contributor. was this a speech less about the state of the union and more about the state of democratic re-election chances in november, karl? >> yeah, jon, i think you're right. a lot of the speech was old, old familiar themes. minimum wage, unemployment benefits, immigration, climate change, this was all designed to do two things. one is to give democrats a series of talking points what they were supposedly trying to achieve this year and then to be they want.me the republicans if the was also more in the terms of words. he tried to stiffen the spine of democrats with obamacare by proclaiming its great success. he tried to add to the democrats by saying there is war on woman and women making less than men. no specific proposal what he wanted to do but he was trying to add to the democratic narrative what they were all about. the new in the speech was relatively small and very unimpressive and probably mostly unachievable except by executive action. even then the my-ras a new retirement device, the white house fact sheet says it will be a vehicle for people to invest in u.s. treasurys and government guaranty on the value of their retirement account. i'm not certain how the treasury department can do that by executive order by fiat without the united states congress will give you ability to give federal guaranty just like we do for bank accounts. i don't know exactly how you can do that and a lot of the new was along those lines. >> there was a question about that. there was this moment when he talked about bypassing congress. ii want to play this for you and talk a little bit about on the other side. >> but america does not stand still and neither will i. so wherever and whenever i can take steps without legislation to expand opportunity for more american families that is what i'm going to do. [applause] jon: i found it kind of odd, there, karl. he is talking about bypassing congress to put programs or you might say laws into place. wouldn't be an actual law without an act of congress but talking about bypassing congress and congress gives him an ovation? >> well the democratic side of the house chamber rose, democratic senators and house members rose but nobody was standing up on the right side of the house. i want to be precise about this. a president, regardless of party does have executive authority. jon: sure. >> the question, are the executive orders based in statute? that is to say has the law said to the president you have discretion to act in this instance? so the test of what the president's going to do in using hims pen as he so famously said yesterday whether or not actions he takes are statutorily based. the problem with this president he doesn't seem to care what the law has to say. there is no statutory authority for a president to exempt a entire class of people from immigration law enforcement, yet he did it. there is no provision in the affordable care act to give him ability to unilaterally suspend the employer mandate so he did it. the real test, is the president going to take authority he has to temporarily take an action under statute that could be reversed by a future president? or is he going to simply say if congress doesn't do what i want to do, i don't care what the law says, i don't care what the statute says, i don't care if there is no power to do it and dare somebody to take me to court and hope my new emappointees on the d.c. circuit court of appeals and hope the supreme court doesn't take the case. i think frankly more bluster and bluff than it is reality but we'll see. jon: yeah. we already are, well the president has already taken off from andrews air force base. he is hitting the road on one of these most state of the union speaking tours that every president does. but what is interesting where he is not going are states that have democratic senators facing re-election this year. states in which, you know, republican, well, mitt romney won the last time around. he is not going to places like that to buck up those senators. why? >> well, they don't want him there, that's why. we saw it recently when senator kay hagen of north carolina made every effort, looked like contortionist making sure she was not in the state when he came to north carolina. it is not just in red states but in purple states n 2010 republicans picked up states that barack obama won in 2008, two years previously. wisconsin, home state of illinois, ohio and pennsylvania and florida among them. even for example, he will go to wisconsin. his approval numbers in wisconsin are dreadful. and so we're likely to see that this president like so many before him, in his second midterm election is not going to be a welcome visitor to a lost places in america for political campaigns. jon: we're going to be talking next hour with senator john thune about some of the electoral prospects for democratic senators in some of these tough states. karl rove, thanks for giving as you preview you. >> bet, thank you. jenna: well a new ruling halting a sex abuse case against a doctor already convicted of murdering his wife. what the judge ruled in martin macneil's latest legal battle. we'll get you up-to-date on that. a border patrol crash, and grounds the entire fleet. the question it raises about border security next. keeping up with these two is more than a full time job and i don't have time for unreliable companies. angie's list definitely saves me time and money. for over 18 years we've helped people take care of the things that matter most. join today. what does that first spoonful taste likok. honey bunches of oats. ching! mmmm! mmmm! mmmm! wow! it's the oats. honey. yeah. honey bunches of oats. this is a great cereal. jon: right now new developments and some crime stories we're following. a court ruling delays the upcoming sex abuse trial of a former utah doctor convicted of killing his wife in a separate case. a judge ordering martin macneil to undergo a mental competency valuation. jail officials say macneil tried to kill himself with a disposable razor blade. british police are reportedly in portugal to discuss questioning and arrest of several suspects in the 2007 disappearance of this girl, little mad -- madeleine mccann. the suspects are reportedly three who participated in a burglary ring and called each other numerous times in the hours after the little girl went missing. a south african cable provider announcing it will launch a4 hour channel covering the murder case against star athlete oscar pistorius. the channel will start up on march 2nd, the day before the olympian goes on trial for the murder of his girlfriend, reeva steenkamp. jenna: border security concerns after a 12 million-dollar drone crashed off the coast of california. officials say it was on a security mission when it suffered a mechanical issue. now the rest of the fleet is grounded. the rest of the fleet from covers the mexican border. william la jeunesse live from our los angeles bureau with more on this story. william, what will be the effect of security along the border because of this decision? >> reporter: let's start with this. homeland security operates 10 drones. largest fleet outside the pentagon. the predator took off from an army base in southern arizona and developed trouble. motor, avionics, electrical fuel system, dhs did not specify. but as a precaution it grounded the entire fleet which monitors border security along the mexican, canadian borders. not wanting to risk crashing into a populated area, jenna, they ditched the predator into the pacific 20 miles southwest of san diego. the wreckage was retrieved by the cpb and coast guard. >> airplane wasn't going to stay airborne for the entire flight. they would have to set down somewhere. and they couldn't predict that between the ocean and arizona. >> reporter: now each drone costs 12 to $20 million depending on the surveillance equipment on board. as a result of this, jenna, you have $200 million of hardware sitting in hangars, in florida, texas, arizona and north dakota. jenna: that brings us back to the original question, what does it mean for security? >> reporter: these things can be very effective. a predator can basically stay aloft for 20 hours. cheaper to operate than a helicopter. can't be seen or heard. it can detect illegals from 25,000 feet high or follow a load of drugs across hundreds of miles. frequently when agents on the ground lose sight of a group and need tracking in remote areas there is nothing better but they are not without problems. this is the second dhs drone crash since 2006. logs show many missions are canceled or terminated due to undisclosed problems that affect the aircraft or surveillance system. so we don't know how long this fleet is going to be down but i can say this first-hand, i've been to port waa chewing ga where this took off. the bad guys know the drones are up. they use spotters to monitor when predators take off and when they land. they move their loads accordingly. so, right now you might expect a bump if you will, in drug and illegal traffic right now on the southwest border. again, we don't know how long the fleet will be grounded. back to you. jenna: very interesting story. william, thank you. jon: well a murder trial underway for a woman accused of murdering her husband's ex-girlfriend. the latest testimony in the amanda hayes trial as her daughter takes the stand. and president obama talking about an official end to the war in afghanistan saying some troops will remain after 2014. this as afghan president hamid karzai refuses to sign the agreement that would allow that. so how do we move forward from here? 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[ male announcer ] it fills you up right. jon: right now new testimony to tell you about in the trial of a north carolina woman accused of murdering her husband's ex-girlfriend. patti ann browne live in our new york city newsroom with that. patti ann? >> reporter: hi, jon. grant hayes is already serving life without parole for the murder of laura jean akerson and now his wife amanda is on trial for first-degree murder and accessory of the fact. grant hayes had two sons with his former girlfriend laura and they were in the midst after bitter custody battle when she turned up dead. the north carolina husband and wife point the finger at each other. grant is appealing his conviction. amanda's lawyers say she wasn't even home when the murder occurred. sean testified that she was living in north carolina in 2011 when her mother called on july 14th asked to borrow a vacuum cleaner. prosecutors say laura akerson was killed the day before in the apartment that grant and amanda hayes shared with their infant daughter. amanda hayes doesn't deny hiding evidence after the fact. her defense is that grant owe r coerced and threateninged her to dispose of body. lawyers say grant is charming sociopath who had her under his spell. she had $1,880,000 and $177,000 worth of jewelry when she met grant. when she was with him she lost the money and most of the jewelry was paused. she was act a stress in minor tv parts in the owe key, sopranos and "stepford wives." she moved to the virgin islands with her daughter and there she met grant. amanda's daughter is back on the stand today. also yesterday an investigator who reviewed phone calls and emails between akerson and amanda hayes testified that there was significant animosity between the two. jon? jon: we'll continue to watch that interesting trial. patti ann browne, thank you. >> thanks. jenna: we'll switch topics here now. the president promising to declare an end to the war in afghanistan by the end of this year saying afghanistan will take responsibility for hits own future. he said that last night of course at the state of the union. he also said that any troops remaining beyond 2014 will only help continue to train afghan forces and carry out counter terror operations. now as our president makes these declarations the president of afghanistan is making declarations of his own. hamid karzai is accusing the united states of insurgent-style attacks that he says the u.s. government either aided or conducted to undermined his authority. he also is refusing to sign a security agreement that would allow american t in place as the president is laying out. so what is the right way forward in afghanistan? some interesting comments from frederick hagen in the wws -- "wall street journal" saying this. withdrawl from afghanistan whether financial or military or both will be a defeat for the u.s. and a victory for al qaeda. it's really, it really is that simple. let's bring in frederick kagan. director of american enterprise institute critical threats project. fred, great to have you back on the program. >> thanks for having me, jenna. jenna: some strong comments there, a loss for us an a win for al qaeda. why do you think that? >> well, al qaeda was born in afghanistan. this is their historical homeland. this is the area that it means an enormous amount to them. they claim wrongly to have chased the soviet union out in the first place and they're waiting to be able to declare wrongly again that they have chased us out as well. that will be a huge success for a movement that unfortunately has gained a lot of strength over the last few years in a lot of different areas of the world. this would be a crowning achievement for them in many respects. it really doesn't matter how we sell this to ourselves or to the world. the fact if we abandon afghanistan and it falls apart they will present it as a victory and that is what will mater. >> what should we do instead? >> we should maintain a presence. the fact is that the afghan people have shown that they want us there. there was a loya jirga which is meeting of most significant elders in the country in november that voted for the agreement and voted to keep our troops there and pressed karzai to sign the problem is not that afghans don't want us. the problem is that a lame duck president who is fading as graciously as possible out of office in hamid karzai is making things hard and we frankly are paying too much attention to him at this point. jenna: instead we should be doing what? in iraq as we know when the prime minister, when the government there said we're not going to allow you to keep troops here either, we'll not allow them protection, that was the end for us in iraq and all of our troops are gone now. so what is the alternative if hamid karzai continues to use these accusations and continues to say, i'm not signing anything, what options do we have. >> the alternative is simple. hamid karzai will not be president after this spring. there is election coming up there will be a new president in afghanistan and hamid karzai is not running. what we should be doing and what president obama should be doing i thank you, mr. karzai for your opinions but we don't care what you think. when there is new president in office we look forward to signing the agreement with him, keeping in mind just about all the major candidates for president in afghanistan said they would sign the agreement and urged karzai to sign it. what we need to do is take the artificial time pressure off. stop making karzai so important. wait until his successor takes office and then sign the deal with that successor. i think there is very good reason that successor will want to sign the deal with us. jenna: let's talk about a little bit about our approach to afghanistan in general. it is interesting in the article you compared and contrasted the way not only our country but the soviet union addressed afghanistan. one of the quotes that you used is this quote from a then candidate, barack obama. and what he was saying about afghanistan. let me just play that quote for us quickly and then i will get your reaction to it. >> above all i will send a clear message, we will not repeat the mistakes of the past when we turned our back on fan began following -- afghanistan following soviet withdrawal. as 9/11 showed us the security of afghanistan and america is shared. today that security is most threatened by the al qaeda and taliban sanctuaries in the tribal regions of northwest pakistan. jenna: during the state of the union last night, fred, the president said he will not allow our sons and daughters to be mired in open-ended conflicts. he said large deployments drain our strength and may ultimately feed extremism. so compare and contrast two perspectives if you will. what do which know from the past about afghanistan the mistakes different administrations made, different countries have made that we can not repeat again if we want to stay secure as a country? >> look we know what happened when the soviets pulled out of afghanistan, the united states declared victory and decided that we had no further interest even though the battle then raged between islamist members of the jihad, of mujahadeen and more moderate members of the mujahadeen. we decided we had no dog in that fight. we did nothing. no one is talking about an invasion here. we didn't even support with any kind of assistance the people who were fighting against the groups that have now been killing our soldiers. we had an opportunity to remain engaged without putting boots on the ground then. now it will require some boots on the ground but still not a massive deployment. and the question is, are we going to pursue the definition of insanity here? we know what happens when we abandon afghanistan. the president has made an enormous amount of points about how we didn't pay enough attention to afghanistan after the invasion of iraq and look what happened. everything he says and that everything history tells us suggest that is it is critical that we remain involved in a reasonable way, not with hundreds of thousands of troops which aren't necessary but a reasonable way we can sustain in order to prevent reputation of mistakes of the past which led to the destruction of the world trade center, attack on the pentagon and deaths of thousands of americans on americans soil. jenna: daily images of those days. fred, real quick before i let you go. reasonable deployment of troops. how many numbers, how many troops would you be talking about in a reasonable way? >> look if you were going to perform the mission, the limited mission the president is talking about it would require 30,000, 25,000 troops which is less than we kept in korea for 60 years. the president is talking about 10,000 troops. i think that's too low but i think that it's sustainable and something that a future president could look at again and see if it is actual adequate. once you go to zero, you're out, you're done and not going back. you have every reason to suggest the situation will collapse, al qaeda will regain sanctuary and americans will be once again at risk. jenna: fred, we'll have you back to talk about specific ideas you have and talk about afghanistan. we're only brushing the surface. we're limited as always on live television. thank you for making time with us today. >> thank you, jenna. jon: a rare winter storm hits the deep south leaving thousands stranded on highways, schools, office buildings. the latest on the snowstorm that shut down atlanta. and a new york congressman's rant going viral. what he threatened to do to a reporter with the cameras rolling. jenna: well right now a quick look what is still to come this hour on "happening now." a new york congressman threatens to throw a reporter off a capitol hill balcony because of the question that journalist asked. it is all caught on camera. we'll show you the whole thing. plus a new report on the deadly asiana plane crash. why the victims are now taking some of the blame. the latest travel troubles for alec baldwin, all coming up. jon: now this fox extreme weather alert. snow and ice paralyzing the deep south. schools and offices remain closed today after a winter storm. thousands of drivers left stranded overnight on icy roads as children were forced to sleep at school thousands of them. hundreds of flights also canceled. meteorologist maria molina has the latest. she is in the fox weather center. >> hi, jon, what a mess across parts of the southeastern states throughout the overnight hours and even started as early as yesterday afternoon and we picked up several inches of snowfall but that storm system now really coming to an end. we have freezing rain and some sleet earlier across portions of louisiana. that is already wrapped up. that storm system impacting parts of the gulf of mexico and you can see just offshore charleston we do have areas of freezing rain but much quieter weather right now. the storm produced as much as five inches of snow in portions of north carolina, specifically in the city of maxin in north carolina. parts of virginia picking up half a foot of snow. in portions of georgia, looking accumulations generally in atlanta area two and three inches of snow. slightly higher amounts north of the city and it produce ad nightmare here on the roadways. on highways people were stuck in their cars overnight like you mentioned. we're expecting the snow to continue to melt as we head into this weekend. today, not so much. temperatures stay around the freezing mark. look at the weekend, we're talking about temperatures above average, possibly in the 60s possibly by sunday. that is welcome news. for now it is very cold even for parts of the southeast. look at atlanta, 20 degrees your current temperature. at 28 degrees in awe augusta. charlotte, north carolina, 28 degrees for the current temperature. factor in the wind, we're talking single-digit windchills. in city of atlanta, feels like 10 in montgomery. in jackson, mississippi, the current temperature, 16 degrees. mobile, 11 degrees windchill as you head out the doors. windchill temperatures out there so it is very dangerous. high temperatures warming up into the 20s in chicago, in minneapolis. it will be warming up across the midwest, jon, those areas have been dealing we have cold temperatures as well over the last several days. they're finally above zero. that is good news. jon: all those people stuck in their cars, spending the night out on the highway, i can not imagine. >> if you're a parent and your child is on a bus overnight, or in school, and you can't get ahold of them, that has to be just heartbreaking. jon: what a mess. maria molina in the fox weather center. >> thanks. >> anybody who works full time should ever have to raise a family in poverty. [applause] and that is why i firmly believe it's time to give america a raise. [applause] jenna: well the president again pushing for the minimum wage increase he called on for and during his state of the union address last night. the president speak about income inequality this morning at a costco in maryland. he is making a few different trips, a few different stops today, talking about that. joining me doug holtz-eakin, a former director of the congressional budget office and president of american action forum. christian dorsey is director of external and government affairs at the economic policy institute. both great guests, great titles. nice to have the band back together. you guys are always great together. appreciate you joining us. christian, let me start with you, the president is making this the top priority for the economy, a raise, a raise for the minimum wage. why? why is that where to start now? >> well, i think the president is trying to do a few things here, jenna. one, it's to spotlight something that has become over time a glaring, glaring inadequacy, that is america's low-wage workers who are subsisting on 7.25 an hour. that is something that is just not economically sustainable. it is something that is not fair for families. and there certainly is the ability for, for companies to pay their workers a decent wage, a wage that keeps them above deep poverty levels. jenna: christian, if i could, i will get to the issue of fairness in a moment, doug, but i have to run to just a brief break. we had breaking news out of south where the really bad weather took place. jon, you have more on that? jon: georgia governor nathan deal is taking to the microphone to address citizens of his state. they are in a mess down there. let's listen in. >> children either with them or on buses by 10:00, excuse me by 9:00 p.m., it was down to a thousand and this morning there are only about 400. here again, state troopers and national guard will be escorting those children back to their homes or escorting the buses as they attempt to once again return those children back to their homes. the marietta school system at 9:00 p.m. last night had about 1400 children. this morning they're down to about 480 students and here again, local police are providing the escorts for buses to return those children this morning back to their homes. we've also had troopers, state troopers at their schools there in the marietta school system as well. douglas county, they had about eight to nine hundred children that stayed overnight in some 23 different schools and this morning they were down to 220 children hand they too are having the services escort services provided so those children can return home. cobb county, as of about 9:00 last night had anywhere between 1500 and 2,000 students. some 320 spent the night overnight in their schools. and once again, the national guard and the state troopers are providing escort so that those children can be returned back to their, to their homes. gwinett county, they did not have any children stranded overnight and all children had been returned home and accounted for in gwinett system as well as the decatur school city system was in the same situation. the dekalb county fared very well. they had only six students being sheltered in a police precinct and that was because of the urgency of the situation for those six children. cherokee county had about 415 children that spent overnight in their system. they only have about 15, excuse meme about 50 children remaining as of this morning. have been ie offices of the school superintendents of each of these school systems that i have just enumerated. now, we in addition to thanking the teachers and the staff and the national guard and the state troopers who have been working to make those children a priority, i want to simply say, thank you to the citizens of our community here in the atlanta area particularly. and it has happened not only here but happened in other parts of the state where this storm has adversely affected normal transportation. that is that neighbors are helping neighbors. and neighbors are also helping strangers, people they don't know, folks who have become stranded and they're offering assistance and any kind of help that they can. i think that is typical of what georgians do to help people who find themselves in difficult situations. now, the agency that is have been working together, cooperatively, with the mayor's office and with the city of atlanta personnel are numerous. i want to call on several of them to come and briefly tell you what they have been doing and the success that they have had up to this point. and first of all let me start with the department of transportation commissioner keith golden. if you would come up and give us an overview of what your folks have been doing. >> thank you, governor, and just an update from what we've been doing since last evening. we continued to work on our roadways. this is a statewide effort for the department of transportation. we had crews working throughout the entire state. late last evening as things started to break in the southern regions we were able to start repositioning some of our crews to come north. throughout the day through last night we were moving folks in from our northern districts and the office on the eastern side of the state and this morning we're able to move folks from the southern districts up to help us. by this afternoon we'll have about 70 snowplow trucks out working. the department of transportation really works two different plans. one is a statewide plan and one is a metroplan. when we have a statewide plan we have to leave those forces in their districts until their roads are under control. and metroplan sometimes we're able to reposition those people and have additional 50 or so pieces of equipment. we were not able to do that until later today. so we're in the process of doing that. we've been very focused what the governor gave us directions last night on make sure people got home safely as we could, get them off the roadway. begin to move the tractor-trailers out of the roadways and continue to clog the roadways and focus on stranded vehicles so we could treat the roads. we've been treating roads most of the evening. we'll continue most of the days as we have the roadways basically clear from traffic and we're making good progress in that area. thank you. >> we'll get to questions in a few minutes. i'm sure you will have questions of each much these individuals after they made their presentations. next i would like to ask the head of the georgia state patrol to give you up-to-date what our state troopers have been doing. >> thank you, governor. good morning, everybody. state troopers worked 1254 accidents during this period. of that there were 130 injuries. so far there have been two fatalities. one is weather-related and other one is in coal quit county and not weather-related. as of last 24 hours, 1254 accidents, 130 injuries and one weather-related fatality. state troops have three priorities in particular today. that is escorting d.o.t. equipment where the equipment needs to be used to clear the roadway. number two wrecker services to clear vehicles out to re-establish lanes of travel and three, motorists assists particularly two areas. if you look i-20 westbound, i think all 4,000 commercial motor vehicles are showed up in the area. we're concentrating on six flags hill and try to get that moving there is a tractor-trailer jackknifed across river bridge on i of it 75, just north of the i-85-275 interchange north of town. we'll have d.o.t. to think that again and try to establish that lane or that corridor of travel. in particularly page porter of atlanta towing has been absolutely outstanding in assisting troopers and the d.o.t. in this effort today and we really appreciate her help in particularly just getting cars out of the way to establish those lanes of travel. so, we're working hard. troopers are work 16 and 20-hour shifts. we brought in 110 extra personnel from around the state. in our preplanning we have teams from each of the geographical regions. we brought those in and they will be here for the duration. thank you. >> next let me ask major general jim butterworth who is of course head of our national guard here in georgia to tell you what the national guard folks have been doing. >> thank you, governor. good morning. the national guard began yesterday at the encouragement of the governor and the gema director to insure our team was ready and in place for any possibility of the inclement weather. as a result and after a great deal of collaboration we went into action last night. to date we have cleared over 40 buses, over 100 passengers that were vannedded in buses. our mission continues to be critical need. and that is specifically food, water and assistance preferably, assistance to provide transportation to shelters. we could use our resources available to provide that transportation and that is what the governor has encouraged us to continue to do. we received a mandate directly from the governor we will not rest until 100% of individual that may be in harm's way have been offered assistance. so we'll continue the mission until we're complete. thank you, governor. >> we also brought in our department of natural resources and commissioner mark williams will tell you what his folks are doing as well. >> thank you, governor. our dnr rangers are deployed throughout the entire affected region but we've concentrated 15% of you are entire force in the metro area. last night it was stranded children on buses was our primary focus and stranded motorists. today we'll move into our priorities, that we're continuing to perform motorist assist. welfare checks of elderly and children as requested. assistance of local le and transport disperal of water and mre's much i would also like to tell you about two motorist refuges opening. opening at red top mountain state park on exit 285. that's to the north. and then to the south is indian springs state park, exit 188. those will be open for any stranded motorists to seek refuge. >> and then of course the individual who has overall responsibility through georgia emergency management agency, charlie english, will sort of give you an overview of how all of these various departments have been working together. charlie. >> thank you, governor. gema responsibility, if all the plans work as planned, and you don't have a lot to do but in events like this it supersedes all kind of preplanning and so you go into a crisis management mode. our job is to execute priorities of the governor, which was take care of the schoolchildren, clear the roads, and ensure public safety was maintained. the efforts that you hear the state agencies that just spoke is indicative of that type of team work and the task forces that were put together. >> thank you, charlie. let me tell you a few other things that we have made sure as much as possible are functioning. in speaking to our health agencies of the state of georgia -- jon: it is a snow and ice storm. not all that unusual in the northern part of the country but in the deep south, this is crippling. cars and trucks have come to a grinding halt on some of the interstates in the atlanta region. a number of deaths caused as a result of this weather. it has really paralyzed atlanta and much of the south. you hear the governor there and other state officials talking about how they are going to respond, trying to get those thousands of people who are stranded overnight in cars and trucks off the road and thousands of schoolchildren who couldn't get home because the buses and maybe their parents couldn't transport them. it's a mess in the south. we'll stay on top of it. back with more coverage in a moment. save up to $500 on beautyrest and posturepedic. get a sealy queen set for just $399. even get 3 years interest-free financing on tempur-pedic. keep more presidents in your wallet. sleep train's presidents' day sale is on now. jenna: weather down south. we were talking a little bit about income inequality and also about the president's desire to raise the minimum wage in this country. back with us, coal akin, former director of the congressional budget office. and christian dorsey, director of ex-sternnal government affairs from the economic policy institute. christian, before i rudely interrupted you you were making a point about fairness and raising minimum wage and get folks in poverty out of poverty. what do you think about that? >> well, if you're coming to me, jenna, i think there are important things the president's highlighted. with a bad economic recovery, we have a lot of workers who have given up. fewer workers in america are working than best recession. median family income actually declined. the trouble the minimum wage increase doesn't solve those problems. indeed it's a very poor tool to solve poverty issues in general. only .4 of america's workers in poverty and being paid minimum wage. he highlighted an important issue, nothing about the minimum wage solves that problem. jenna: what would solve the problem, doug? >> we need better economic growth. certainly policy, tax reform policies mentioned last night i would like to see serious push on that front. immigration reform could boost economic growth. that was mentioned last night. these are required to work with congress to be successful. he said pretty clearly he is not committed to that strategy. jenna: christian, what do you think about that? critics say the president, if we want to create a better economy a better america for everybody including those in poverty, really about job creation rather than focus on wages? >> well it is really a little bit of everything. it is not going to be one wage policy or one jobs policy that will actually restore the kind of growth that is going to make the american middle class vibrant. it will take a lot but the minimum wage is one step, but it's a key step, one that reflects popular sentiment of country. as well as reality that families can not make it on 7.25 an hour. i agree with doug, certainly this is not a tool to solve poverty. because it is not the tool doesn't mean we shouldn't employ a useful tool to make sure we move ourselves on right track. jenna: christian what do you think is the immediate impact? the president would like to raise minimum wage through executive order for federal contracted workers. what would be immediate effect on economy for that? >> that will improve livelihoods about a quarter of a million people, far less than if congress will actually pass a federal minimum wage increase at same level, which would affect roughly 27 million people. so really the president's specific, concrete action that previewed last night is really only going to solve 1% of the minimum wage problem. jenna: okay. >> so this is really critical early step. jenna: apologize, christian. only 20 second, doug but then which i will get cut off. is this a good first tray? quarter of a million people. is it a good try to see what happens? >> great politics. it will have zero economic impacts really. he will have a couple contractors get paid more. the government will be more expensive. i don't think that takes us down the right path. jenna: doug, christian, thanks for rolling with us. it's a big topic. we can spend more time with breaking news. appreciate it very much. >> take care, jenna. >> we will have more "happening now" after this quick break jon: right now today's top headlines and brand new stories you will see here first. jenna: a big story today, the city of atlanta paralyzed by a winter storm. snow and ice stranding motorists in their cars overnight. schoolchildren as well. a live report straight ahead on the situation down south. also a giant cruise ship carrying hundreds of sick passengers now make making its way back to port. we'll be there live when it docks. also could the botched rollout of obamacare help the republicans win the senate in november? u.s. senator john thune answer that is question as he joins us live coming up. it is all "happening now." a dangerous deep freeze hitting the south. it's a big story. welcome to the second hour of "happening now," i'm jenna lee. jon: much of that area is paralyzed. i'm jon scott. a rare winter storm crippling the region. take a look here, near jackson, mississippi, a semi-truck flipping over during the storm. we're told the driver got out essentially uninjured. three people are killed in alabama as icy roads are blamed for many, many car crashes. take a look at atlanta. major interstates turned into parking lots, stranding motorists all night long. the national guard even called out to help. here is georgia's governor nathan deal moments ago. >> yesterday at six p.m. fulton county schools had about 25,000 children were either on buses or in their schools. their various schools in their system. by 9:00 p.m. it was down to 5,000 children that we were either on buses or in schools. and this morning there are no children on buses and there are about 2,000 of the fulton county school system's children that are still in their schools. jon: buck lanford, fox affiliate in atlanta. what is happening there now, buck? >> reporter: jon, let me show you behind me. we're at our fox studios. we got 2 1/2 inches of snow we measured last night. places like new york and other parts of the northeast 2 1/2 inches of snow. doesn't sound like a whole lot. that is a different story here in atlanta. there are really two reasons for that. atlanta is not really quipped with the proper trucks, sat and sand to handle a major snowstorm. number two the time this hit was mid different day when kids were at school. everyone was at work. when this began yesterday about 1:00 in the afternoon, everyone tried to head out at the same exact time. if you're familiar with atlanta, the downtown area, i-75, i-85, i-20, three major interstates come together which can create traffic problems. this create ad traffic nightmare the likes we haven't seen around here. we haven't had snow since 2011. you can understand why the city has not invested in the trucks and equipment. this turned into an absolute nightmare. you're talking about people literally in their car 24 hours. some people are still not home. governor deal did call out the national guard. they delivered food and they delivered water. they have been pulling school bus on the side of the road. people are literally running out of gas and abandoning cars all over the interstate and metro atlanta area. the problem, temperatures were about 20 degrees right now. there will not be a lot of melt. this is story we'll continue to stay on top of probably the next 24 hours. jon: really scary for a lot of stranded people i know. buck, thanks very much. jenna: for more on what is happening in atlanta, let's bring in mike morris, a reporter from the "atlanta journal-constitution." he joins us live by the phone hopefully warm and inside, mike. here is question for those of us on the outside looking in. was this a freak weather event or did somebody drop the ball as far as preparing for what was to come? >> i think it was probably a combination of both. atlanta gets a snow like this about every couple of years and it had been predicted but i think, some of the school systems particularly, i think they did sort of drop the ball by having classes. jenna: do you have any, any family in any of those schools? were you yourself caught in any of the traffic on the streets? >> i was not. i ended up staying here at the tv station where i work all night and working most of the night and my son is out of school. so i didn't have anyone there except my sister was caught in the traffic jam trying to get home from work. she lives in downtown atlanta and lives about 20 miles away and it took her about six 1/2 hours to get home yesterday. jenna: wow, she is one of the lucky ones, mike. >> exactly. there are a lot of people ended up spending, being in their cars all night. some are still in their cars. jenna: wow, still in their cars. what is being done to get them out? >> right now they're trying to get most of the big-rigs, the tractor-trailer trucks blocking the interstates, they're trying to get them cleared so they can treat the pavement with deicer and start getting the pavement cleared so people can get out. jenna: hopefully they do. i can't imagine being stuck in that type of a situation. mike, great to talk to you. thank you so much. >> sure, anytime. jon: well, right now two major hearings on capitol hill. our nation's top intelligence officials at a senate intelligence committee hearing on the biggest threats to americans. it is just wrapping up now. meanwhile the obama administration is trying to put the nsa scandal to bed. attorney general eric holder meeting with the senate judiciary committee on how to balance americans rights to privacy with national security. >> it is imperative that we continue striving to protect our national security while upholding the civil liberties that all of us hold dear. on monday we took a significant step forward in this regard when the department acted to allow more detailed disclosures about the number of national security orders and requests that are issued to communications providers. the number of customer accounts targeted under those orders and requests and the underlying legal authorities. jon: which have team fox coverage now. chief intelligence correspondent catherine herridge is live in washington. first though, let's get to chief congressional correspondent mike emanuel. he's on capitol hill. mike? >> reporter: jon, good afternoon attorney general eric holder is speaking about national security and surveillance and protecting civil liberties. so far a lot what you expect to hear from him. the attorney general was asked a variety of other subjects and brought with him this piece of news. >> we generally do not discuss specific matters under investigation i can confirm that the department is investigating the breach involving the united states retailer target. and we are commit sod working to find -- committed to not only finding perpetrators of these sort of data breaches and individuals who exploit the data via credit card fraud. >> reporter: let's take a live look at the senate judiciary committee where eric holder faced questions on the range of topics including the president's belief marijuana is no more dangerous than alcohol and impact on neighboring states on recreational marijuana laws in states like colorado. iowa chuck grassley focused on concerns nsa employees, spying on wives, ex-s, former loved ones. >> can you tell me if anyone at nsa has been prosecuted for this conduct, if they haven't, why they haven't been prosecuteed? >> i think the concern that you raise is a very legitimate one and we will get a response to you in greater detail but the fact that, there were, those referrals but the fact that members of the nsa who have access to this information, access to these techniques, these capabilities would misuse them for, i think you're right as you said in your statement, using them for essentially personal use, being app look to spy on people with whom they had relationships is totally inappropriate. >> reporter: questioning continues at this hour. no major fireworks so far but we will see if that develops. jon? jon: mike emanuel on a capitol hill. mike, thank you. jenna: well the biggest threats facing america right now is the focus of a critical hearing underway on capitol hill. the nation's top intelligence officials are now briefing congress about threats to our national security including the damage caused by the nsa leaks. >> the stark consequences of this perfect storm are plainly evident. the intelligence community is going to have less capacity to protect our nation and its allies than we've had. and this connection i'm also compelled to note the negative morale impact this perfect storm had on the ic workforce. jenna: chief intelligence correspondent catherine herridge is live in washington with more on this. catherine? >> reporter: thank you, jenna and good morning. nsa leaks, the damage to the u.s. intelligence community and billions it will cost to rebuild lost capabilities to collect data have dominated the hearing this morning before the senate intelligence committee. the committee was told former nsa contractor edward snowden took some documents if you stacked them one on top of the other it, would stretch more than three miles into the sky. the majority of documents are not related to americans privacy rights but rather sources and methods overseas and u.s. alliances. >> minimize the threat by, as we make these modifications and alterations but in general this is big hand-little map. we are in total will certainly have less capacity than we had in the past. >> reporter: and throughout the hearing multiple witnesses testified that the snowden leaks were providing a road map for terrorist groups and in some cases the u.s. government's ability to track movements and listen to communications has been lost all together. >> the tourists are -- terrorists are becoming more sophisticated and going to school on a repeated disclosures and leaks so it allowed them to bureau in. makes it much more difficult to find them and address threats they pose. >> reporter: the witnesses also testified that syria is now a magnet for al qaeda and its followers with more than 26,000 extremists in the country now. of that, 7,000 are fighters from the west and the potential for those fighters to return to their home countries including the u.s., to launch plots is real and growing. this was described as part of the larger picture that al qaeda is more diffuse with five franchise operations in 12 countries. >> the probability of attack now compared to 2001 is at least for me is a very hard question to answer because principally because this very dispersion and diffusion of the threat. >> reporter: so what witnesses testified to is that you have two developments going now within the u.s. intelligence community. one, that they have less capability or capacity to gather information overseas. at the same time, that they need more capacity because groups like al qaeda are more geographically dispersed and they're operating in different safe havens globally and when you bring these two things together director clapper testified that he can not say with any certainty that the threat is less today than it was a decade ago, jenna. jenna: some scary revelations there for sure. catherine, thank you. >> reporter: you're welcome. jon: reaction still coming in to the president's state of the union address last night. mr. obama says he will move his agenda forward whether congress agrees or not! but is the president's power play a sign of desperation? our political panel weighs in with some thoughts on that. a dream adventure for a 16-year-old girl ends in a terrible accident. a first-time skydiver endures a terrible event. how she's doing in a live report coming up. when you have diabetes like i do, getting the right nutrition isn't always easy. first, i want a way to help minimize my blood sugar spikes. then, a way to support heart health. ♪ and let's not forget immune support. ♪ but now i have new glucerna advance with three benefits in one. including carbsteady ultra to help minimize blood sugar spikes. it's the best from glucerna. 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[ male announcer ] you're welcome. ready? go. jon: with you or without you and we're talking about congress. the president vows to act alone if needed to implement his agenda but does president obama threat to issue more executive orders show that his goal of ending partisan politics is really not succeeding? let's get into it with juan williams, fox news political analyst. also jonah goldberg, editor-at-large of nationalreview.online and a fox news contributor. mr. obama, juan, is saying if congress won't go along with the things he wants to do he will make an end-run around congress, issue executive orders whenever he can, good idea or no? >> it his only idea at the moment. he was a frustrated man and i was worried yesterday he would come out be pretty resigned to dealing with unpopular congress an attack that congress. i don't think that is what he did. i think he benefited from the idea there are such low expectations for what he can do given the congressional intransigence especially among tea party republicans in the house and simply said here are some steps that i want to take, things we can do. the only real direct threat was to say he would veto any effort to place further sanctions on iran at this moment. jon: juan, let me stick with you for just a second. unpopular congress, yes, but each of its members were duly elected just as he has and they have ideas and constituents to serve. why not try to bridge some of these differences and work together? >> well, that is exactly, i think that the tone he tried to set last night, jon. which is unit, but we have differences but we have to work together. year of action. let's not, progress, history doesn't stop. i will not stand still. but the fact is that people do go beyond politics. right now i think that the reason that congress is in such disrepute with the american people it has just become an arena for more and more politics, endless politics, endless fingerpointing and not getting anything done. i think the president indirectly was trying to say to the american people he doesn't want to be part of that mess. jon: well, you say, jonah, that the president has turned off a lot of independents through his actions thus far and that's pars now. >> right. first of all this idea that he is going to use the executive power of the presidency is not exactly a new idea. they have been talking about doing this. they have been doing it in certain respects for years now. so, in some ways all they're doing now, shows you the paucity of ideas and paucity of an agenda that this is what they're falling back on, simply brag that the president has the power to do these small-ball things unilaterally but on the biggest issue of is entire presidency he acted unilaterally. the executive branch was in control of obamacare and completely fumbled the rollout. i'm not suring about bragging he will continue to go his own way whenever congress doesn't agree with him, is that useful to him. i think really what he is doing more than anything else is simply sort of, as bill clinton did, saying he is still relevant. he is trying to sound that he is in charge at things. this white house is basically at siege. doesn't know what to do and how to do it. last sunday's "washington post" with a white house aide, now that the election is over they don't know how to craft an agenda without dealing with it as opposition to the republicans. it is seen as stopping the bar barron republicans. jon: we'll see what happens when the president tries to implement things he talked about last night. juan, jonah, thanks for sharing your votes. jenna: the violence in syria taking an enormous toll. tens of thousands of innocent lives are affected. a nation rich in history left in ruins. before and after photos show what is going on in the country. it is more than a week with iran scaling back the nuclear program in exchange for easing of sanctions. coming up we'll ask ambassador john bolton if that is the case. coming up next. jenna: now more than a week into the framework deal with iran over its nuclear program but israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu is already critical of any progress made. he says iran's pursuit of a nuclear weapon is only pushed by six weeks. meantime the president, president obama is threatening to veto any new sanctions against iran while this process is taking place. joining us now former u.s. ambassador to the u.n., john bolton. also a fox news contributor. mr. ambassador, take a moment to talk about where we are right now with iran. what is actually happening inside iran when it comes to this nuclear deal that we have forged for the next six months? >> well essentially, in terms of the nuclear aspect of the deal, very little has changed inside iran and that's why prime minister netanyahu estimates that the total impact on iran's nuclear weapons program is simply to push it back six weeks. i have seen estimates by non-partisan observers that push it back four weeks. jenna: what does that mean by the way? four weeks away from what? >> from enriching enough uranium to produce a weapon and thereby produce it. all that iran really agreed to when you strip away the rhetoric is not to go ahead where they are now. and that's why they believe it's a big victory. they're not dismantling any of the infrastructure of their nuclear weapons program. jenna: some of the images we may get simply by the way this is discussed by different politicians and seeing on our screen is some tools they can use to enrich uranium. they're not actually pulling out this equipment and dismanning he willing it the way we imagine? >> no, but while we're on the subject, iran made it clear they intend to continue to do research and development work on more advanced generations of centrifuges. if they decide at some point to begin production of those, their enrichment capacity will be miles ahead what it is today. jenna: so they could be actually farther ahead after this agreement than they are now? >> this is a pattern iran has followed before. when rouhani, the new president was their chief nuclear negotiator in 2002 and 2003, that is what iran did, they agreed to terri halt because they were having difficulties. then they started again when it suited them. jenna: let me play a little sound from the president during the state. union because he had a short statement about iran but significant. here is what the president had to say. >> if john f. kennedy and ronald reagan could negotiate with the soviet union, then surely a strong and confident america can negotiate with less powerful adversaries today. sanctions that we put in place helped make this opportunity possible. but let me be clear, if this congress send me a new sanctions bill now, that threatens to derail these talks i will veto it. [applause] for the sake of our national security, we must give diplomacy a chance to succeed. jenna: your reaction to that statement? >> almost simple-minded. we had diplomacy with iran over 10 years, indirectly at first through the european union and iran consistently demonstrated during that entire period that it uses diplomacy to its advantage. it is a complete none second wit ture to say we negotiated with russia. the circumstances are different. the reality that we face is different. jenna: so you can't compare the two? >> apples and oranges. jenna: ambassador, great to see you as always. >> thank you. jenna: jon? jon: there may be progress in peace talks to report between syrian opposition leaders and a government delegation. reuters now reporting that for the first time syrian negotiators discussed the possibility of a transitional government but a deal to allow human human aid into the -- humanitarian aid into the besieged city of homs is tolled. there is the latest video of fighting there earlier this week. look at some incredible images of destruction caused by the war. a fire ripping through this marketplace in aleppo, damaging shops that go back to medieval times. heavy fighting ruining this mosque that dates back to the 12th century. the holy site said to house the remains of the father of john the baptist. jenna: passengers and crewmembers from a cruise ship are set to dock today. we'll have a live report from the scene there and what is behind this mystery illness. also a new documentary offering an intimate look at the life and recovery of someone we know well on this show. coming up we'll speak live with army staff sergeant travis mills who is back. his new york city film premiered tonight with an update. travis, what is going on? >> living that dream. let's say you pay your guy arnd 2 percent to manage your money. that's not much, you think except it's 2 peent every year. go to e*trade and find out how much our advice and guidance costs. spoiler alert. it's low. it's guidance on your terms not ours. e*trade. less for us, more for you. too small. too soft. too tasty. 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[ male announcer ] while identity theft can't be completely stopped, no one works harder to protect you than lifelock. you even get a $1 million service guarantee. that's security no one can beat. you have so much to protect and nothing to lose when you call lifelock right now and get 60 days of identity theft protection risk free. that's right. 60 days risk free. use promo code notme. order now and get this document shredder to keep sensitive documents out of the wrong hands. a $29 value free. don't wait until you become the next victim. ♪ ♪ >> happening now, a cruise ship carrying hundreds of sick passengers is headed home. it will dock this afternoon at a port in new jersey forced to cut short the 10 day caribbean excursion. more than 600 passengers and crew came down with a massive stomach bug. dr. marc siegel in new jersey has more for us. >> explorer of sees d due to reh port at 2:00 p.m. the number of new cases is dropping dramatically. a lot of people are getting better. over 3000 people on board, 629 have gotten sick including 54 crew members. the bug is still unidentified. the cdc is investigating in atlanta to see what it is. we spoke to the head of preventative medicine of just how easy this is to get. >> it is so contagious because it is so infectious. it takes almost nothing, just a few viruses to infect another person and make them sick. so close contact, and also in adamant services can be contaminated and you can get sick that way. you have to be careful in every account. >> the cdc has been traveling with the ship since tha st. thos and not letting anybody disembark on the way. they will disembark here at 2:00 p.m. and some people will have to go to hospitals, some two hotels. we got a statement about what they're going to do next, and they said "it will be the third addresses in a teasing procedure the ship has undertaken since we became of the issue and we will provide a window of more than 24 hours where there are no persons aboard the ship which is a significant help. the ship is due to go back out at 4:00 p.m. on friday after they sanitize it c can understand there's a lot of pressure on them to get this cleaned. jon: they are going to have a lot of work to do. dr. marc siegel. thank you. >> my goal is to let them know i keep working, i keep going hard. if i give up, i'm giving up on my family. every day is a challenge. jenna: that is staff sergeant, one of the five amputees from the war in afghanistan and iraq. he was wounded in afghanistan of april 2012 when an ied explosion took both arms and both legs. we have been lucky enough to follow him since he was injured and watched with a whole lot of all at times for his progress being combined the hospital bed, walking and running. that is an old video. that is even more updated. the last time visited was last year where he showed us his daily workouts and what life is like for him and his wife, kelsey and daughter, chloe. since then he embarked on a brand-new adventure as a movie star. a movie star. >> i guess. i was fortunate out of dallas, texas with the supporting staff, contacted us and wanted to do a short film. struggles and adversity making it out all right. it turned into one day of filming and the filmmaker sntar. 30 minutes at least. and then we went into filming again, 40 some hours straight. came up with an hour-long documentary. jenna: we saw a small portion of it, which what does it take the viewer through? >> it talks about how we met, and takes us, in mexico, home video and it takes my other deployments and my wife and i have a baby, went through the iphone footage, me getting better and being able to sit up and me walking, running and stairs and everything. a couple of neat facts, the medics and the documentary saving my life. they are in their reenacting. he came from his base to shoot as well. jenna: you reenacted the scene where you got hurt. >> i knew the ending, i knew what happened. the director wanted more. i told you three times, that is it. i said i appreciate it, but i didn't realize how impactful it would be on the documentary reacting to it. it was fine. but it is neat they got to be a part of it. jenna: you have a big premiere tonight. this is new york city premiere tonight. times square. >> the capital at washington, d.c., was fun, but times square. jenna: almost a sold-out event. if you hundred people will watch it for the first time tonight. for those who will not be able to be there, what do you think is the message of the film, what do you think people walk away feeling after they watch it? >> nothing is too hard to overcome. i am not a saab story. it shows kelsey getting the phone call. she reenacted that. kind of crazy. i did not know they had things to right around. i opened it up, yellow flower, polkadot, purple, whatever, got my chili beans. went and checked out, had to pick up my dog. that is my job. i walked out, got in the van, opened it up, bag groceries. i am a horrible cook. jenna: that is a pretty big accomplishment. from where we saw you in the beginning and the hospital bed, trying to get back up and go from that point to drive yourself to the grocery store and do the things you normally did. >> i forgot how far i came. back she had a private screening with the crew. tears are falling a little bit, amazinwaiting to see where i st, lost 110 pounds. put some back on, working on that. jenna: you are looking great. >> could not even rollover. my first step i am crying. jenna: manly tears, right? >> the manliest her tears you cn find. and then welcoming me home and everything. jenna: if they want more information about the movie, they can go online. before le i let you go, wants to ask about another thing you're doing as well. you are trying to get into movie film festivals and everything but also work on your next project which is motivational speaking. tell us a little bit about that. >> never thought me talking would have people helping with their stories. there is my new logo. jenna: for your foundation? >> yes. on sale for about a week. i go around and speak and tell my story and talk about other things, i relate my life experiences with other people. i told him at the end if you're proud of where you are at present plea, look at where you are at now. be proud of that. i think a lot of people look too far to the future and don't look at what they have. i'm going around opening eyes, hopefully. not a sob story. i'm here to tell you a joke. jenna: you have a lot of good jokes. i don't know if a lot of them are appropriate for television, but they are excellent, hysterical. they are good, they are funny. >> they are generated, but they are corny. jenna: i will see you at the premiere tonight. i am emceeing the event tonight. my husband will be with you, jon will be there, a whole affair with "happening now." >> if you see me in public, don't think i am not ugly, they just do such good work year. jenna: thank you. jon. jon: he is an inspiration. the midterm elections still months away but republicans are pulling out all the stops to shift the balance of power. the topics they are stressing swing any voters their way, or do democrats have the better message? we will talk about it coming up. and a southern snowstorm shuts down the city of atlanta and many others across the deep south. your forecast tracking this dangerous temperatures dip coming up. >> are you ready for this show? >> it is like leno. what are you talking about today, kid? >> we will have reaction to the state of the unio union that you haven't heard yet. >> and jon just mentioned the storm in the south. what a doozy. we will be live down there as well. we will see you. >> see you then. cúp,@s#b ... ... ... ... ... ... ... okay, listen up! i'm re-workin' the menu. mayo? corn dogs? you are so outta here! aah! 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[ bottle ] ensure®. nutrition inharge™. jon: november seems a long way off but campaign for the midterm elections are already well underway. the g.o.p. is looking to take advantage of the botched rollout of obamacare and the president's low approval rating to win enough seats from the democrats take back the senate. democrats have 21 senate spots open, seven seats in state mitt romney actually carried in 2012. the g.o.p. 15, only one of them carried by president obama in 2012. so it looks like advantage goes republicans here, can i take back control the senate? turning now to talk about that possibility, a member of the senate finance committee and chairman of the senate republican conference which makes him the number three republican in the u.s. senate. good if you to be with us today. having heard the president's state of the union address last night, are you optimistic or pessimistic about what it means for your party's chances come november? >> i thought what was ironic about the speech last night was 45 minutes into it before he even mentioned his signature law, obamacare. when he did, he didn't talk about the pain it is causing millions of americans across this country. and after the speech you had democrats, some of the states you mentioned where they're running reelection races this year go out and issue statements that creates distance and separation from the president which suggests they are doing everything they can to run away from the track and change the subject because i know how detrimental it will be to win reelection after casting the deciding vote for the obamacare legislation creating so much harm, economic harm the constituents an individual states. jon: 10 months is a long time in politics. that is how far we are from the november elections, things could turn around for obamacare and the democrats. >> that is possible. we obviously would love to see the president come to us and want to work with us on some things that would create jobs and the overall state of the economy, which people are very skeptical writes now. my sense is a lot of these things are getting back into the environment and the landscape for this environment. the obamacare story only gets worse for democrats in washington, more canceling coverage, more increases, or out-of-pocket costs for people in this country for higher co-pay and deductibles and fewer choices when it comes to doctors. that is not going to change, more and more americans feel the impact of this, they will be asking their senator why did you cast the deciding vote for somebody causing this kind of harm for some the families around the country. jon: they have been looking to pick up seats in states like alaska or arkansas currently represented by democratic senators running for reelection this fall. states that voted for mitt romney last time around. but now we read you're looking at may be expanding the playing field quite a bit, states like michigan and virginia all of a sudden, maybe even oregon look like they could be competitive races. >> i think as the year plays out, they can change certain issues that have a short shelf life in politics but i don't think the overall state of the economy, the problems with obamacare, the things the president is doing to make it more expensive for people in this country coming to the energy, those things aren't going away. those are the things people are thinking voter voting on at election day, very hard for the states you just mentioned running for reelection, but the board does expand dramatically because a lot of other states that could come into play when you're talking about those type of issues and the democrats here in the senate and the president be responsible for the policies that have created these kind of economic results from other people in people in all these states. jon: it is good to talk politics with you. jenna: the president getting harsh criticism, democrats in red states distancing themselves from the policies ahead of the midterm elections. a texas teenager injured after skydiving accident, family says the parachute didn't open, didn't operate the right way. how she managed to survive falling 3000 feet to the ground. >> 911, what is your emergency? >> a first-time jumper get hurt out here. came down pretty hard under the canopy. that is all i can see. [ male announcer ] bob's heart attack didn't come with a warning. today his doctor has him on a bayer aspirin regimen to help reduce the risk of another one. if you've had a heart attack, be sure to talk to your doctor before you begin an aspirin regimen. the recent increase in cafeteria prices is not cool. when you vote for flo, we'll have discounts. ice-cream discounts. multi-cookie discounts. pizza loyalty discounts! [ kids chanting "flo!" ] i also have some great ideas on car insurance. [ silence ] finding you discounts since back in the day. call or click today. i like her. jenna: a texas teenager is recovering in oklahoma hospital. she is suffering from a host of injuries but recklessly she is still very much alive after terrifying fall from more than 3000 feet. her parents say her parachute failed to open properly while skydiving. live with more on this story. >> incredible story. the teenager expected to make a full recovery and get this, her father is already saying once she is healed, she wants to give this another whirl. only now with an instructor. she snapped this photo with her dad just before the jump of an oklahoma. most states require skydivers to be 18 years old and urge tandem jumps where you are strapped to an instructor before you go so low. but they drove to oklahoma where you can jump by yourself at age 16 with parental consent and after completing a class. so they get up in the plane, her father jumps first and then mackenzie goes, but her primary parachute did not open fully according to her family. she spiraled to the ground from more than half a mile up. >> her vertebrae broken half, her pelvic bone completely split in half, should more broken bones in her back, she has two broken ribs, her teeth, she hits the ground but she did not hit the ground, she, god's hands caught her. jon: the owner of that skydiving company, we should tell you, tells the local news station in oklahoma that her parachute operated just fine. he says it did open but somehow began to rotate, which sometimes happens. it is unclear why did in this case. he goes on to say mackenzie was trained to handle something like this and claimed that she did not use that training to sort out the problem. investigation into exactly what went wrong here continues, but no doubt that teenager lucky, lucky, lucky to be alive today. jenna: what a story. thank you. jon: here is something you don't see everyday. the pope joining the ranks of actors, rock stars and models landing on the cover of "rolling stone" magazine. he is fast becoming a larger force in pop culture. or call it pope culture. we will have more in just a couple minutes. get this pope francis is something of a rock star. he graced the cover of rolling stones magazine. the first pope to do so. he has a message of inclusiveness and pope graffiti that is appearing on a building in rome. >> america's news headquarters starts right now. >> thank you, guys. the deep south is in a dope freeze and much of that frozen in a crippling blast of arctic weather. >> theuation is dire. cars are stranded for miles and drivers had to slope in their cars or seek shelter in stores and schools and shelters. students stuck in schools overnight. and a woman gave birth overnight on the highway. the governor sent help to get

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