Grips millions of americans. The polar vortex pushing frigid air from the north. Highs across the midwest will be well below zero. Nearly 3,000 flights cancelled today. Your flight is cancelled. Gotta love it. Gotta love it. Liz cheney is calling it quits on a Senate Campaign that not only caused ripples within the party, but within her family. Jahi mcmath has been moved from Childrens Hospital in oakland. We will not be saying where she went or where she is. Like to proceed to the downed aircraft. In aspen, colorado, one person is dead and two others injured. Today, the senate could hold a procedural vote on the longterm unemployed. Im not opposed to it. Im opposed with not having paid for it. Never would we never not have extended. Its the right thing to do. The call for americas help. A u. S. Coast guard icebreaker is now on its way to free the two ships stuck in ice. Costa rica, the bull catapulting her. Amazingly, she was okay. I bet she has a bruise or two. To the end zone, pulled down for the catch and the touchdown. Rivers leads the chargers to the victory. It is good San Francisco moves on, as they win here at lambeau field. And all that matters a missing greisman has been found in our nations capital. Nicholas simmons was found after he was spotted in a photo. The two plates are breaking apart, and thats exactly what you see happening behind me. No, no, you dont. You dont see anything happening behind you. This mornings eyeopener is brought to you by toyota. Lets go places. Welcome to cbs this morning. Gayle king is off. Great to be here. Great to have you back. Happy birthday. And happy new year. Thank you. We begin with the weather. Tens of millions of americans face a dangerous day of cold weather. A pool of arctic air is covering a huge area all the way to the deep south. Many cities expect to break low temperature records. Strong winds will make it fel even colder. Government offices and schools are closed today in several states. Indianapolis is making it illegal for anyone to drive, except for emergencies. We have reporters across the country this morning, and we begin with Dean Reynolds in chicago, one of the many cities where the temperature is well below zero this morning. Dean, how are you doing . Reporter well, were feeling pretty chilly here in chicago where the High Temperatures not expected to get much above 10 degrees below zero. Its 14 degrees below zero, and when theres a breeze, it feels like its almost 50 degrees below zero. As the deep freeze took grip of chicago, city officials preemptively closed cools and urged residents to stay indoors. These are extremely dangerous conditions and we urge people to take the necessary precautions to stay safe. Reporter illinois, like much of the midwest, could experience some of the coldest weather its seen in decades, and forecasters say the arctic air could linger through at least tuesday. Im not happy about that at all, to be honest with you. I kind of wish it wouldnt. Reporter the numbing temperatures follow sundays wintry blast of almost a foot of snow in some spots. Residents spent all day trying to dig out only for it to keep on falling. Its brutally cold. So no problems staying in two days in a row if we have to. Reporter throughout the region, windy, snowy, icy conditions made driving dangerous. A string of crashes and spinouts were reported in northwest indiana where several counties declared states of emergency. Were spending too much time getting people who dont have to be out unstuck. Wind chill of minus 10. Reporter still, it could keep away diehard football fans in the frozen tundra of green bay. 70,000 spectators braved singledigit temperatures to watch the San Francisco 49ers and good reporter beat the packers in one of the coldest games in nfl history. Now, if the temperature remains below zero through tuesday, itll be the first time in 20 years that chicago has had 48 straight hours in minus territory. Charlie, nora . Dean, thank you. Some of the worst of that icy weather is in minnesota, but cold in some areas described as life threatening. Ri rachel of wcco joins us. Reporter good morning. You are waking up to colderthannormal temperatures, but were dealing with brutally cold temperatures here in minnesota. Negative 22 is the air temperature, negative 47 with wind chill. Not only uncomfortably cold but incredibly dangerous. The governor cancelled all Public Schools across the state. And in minneapolis and st. Paul, many businesses are closed for the day, with schools and businesses closed most people will not be venturing outside. But those that do go outside will need to bundle up. Frostbite can hit exposed skin in less than five minutes. Brutally cold. And on this day, january 6th, the coldest temperature recorded in minneapolis and st. Paul was negative 27 degrees. We have not hit that quite yet. Hoping that we do not this morning. Charlie and nora . Rachel, chains. Hundreds of thousands are having a terrible time getting home. Already this morning, more than 3,000 flights are cancelled. Today is the fifth straight day of major air disruptions. Jeff is at Reagan National airport outside of washington. Jeff, good morning. Reporter good morning, charlie and nora. The weather may be a lot better out west, but theres still delays and cancellations at major west coast airports, including l. A. X. , and thats because of the weather in the midwest and the northeast. The headaches for passengers will continue this week. Across the country, some travelers werent stranded for hours, but for days. Our flight was supposed to leave on friday, so weve been stuck saturday, sunday, today, and now i have no idea when were going to get home. Reporter more than 12,000 flights have been cancelled or delayed as freezing rain hits the northeast, and close to a foot of snow paralyzed the midwest. At new yorks la guardia airport, some travelers were told theyd have to wait four more days for a departing flight. Were not blaming anybody. Hopefully, theyre going to do their best and well wait it out and see what happens. Reporter on sunday morning, jfk was closed for more than two hours after a delta jet carrying 35 people landed safely, then slid off an icy runway. And a similar scene on saturday at chicagos ohare where a Spirit Airlines flight departing for las vegas skid off the tarmac during taxi. There were no injuries in either incident. Close to 1,200 flights were cancelled in and out of chicago sunday. But it wasnt just the weather hampering weekend travel. New faa regulations for pilots went into effect this weekend. Pilots are limited to flying eight or nine hours, and they are required to get ten hours of rest between shifts, including eight hours of uninterrupted sleep. The new rules created a scheduling gap that left some planes without pilots. The reality of life is this is what was needed. We needed to make sure that our pilots were fit for duty. Reporter the airlines have sophisticated scheduling software, and theyve hired additional pilots. But the main obstacle for the Airline Industry over the last couple of days, and this week, will be the Winter Weather, the extreme Winter Weather thats hitting the midwest and the northeast, almost guaranteed to see those cancellations and delay numbers rise in the coming days. Charlie, nora . Jeff, thanks. In some cities like cincinnati today, will be the coldest day since the 1980s. Meteorologist megan garos of wbbm is with the icy forecast. Good morning, charlie and nora. All of cold air due to whats called a polar vortex. Its basically a large arctic cyclone that starts up in the poles, and when weakens, it send as very strong blast of very cold air much farther south than normal, so that is whats causing this bitterly cold air. In fact, twothirds of the country under some sort of wind chill warning, watch, or advisory this morning. And that will last for a couple days time. Record lows could be found today in over two dozen cities. The coldest air in 20 years. More than a foot of snow fell over the midwest, and as the system pushes east, rain for the east coast. Once that clears, places like new york city will go from 52 today to 10 tomorrow. Charlie . Nora . Megan, thank you. And we turn to politics and a surprise this morning from the daughter of former Vice President dick cheney. Liz cheney says she is dropping out of the race for u. S. Senate in wyoming. Jan crawford is live with the details. Jan, good morning. Why is she dropping out . Reporter shes indicating this morning that its for personal reasons. This is a sudden end, nora, to what was a rocky campaign, one that only divided her family but taught members of the republican party. Now, in the statement, she points to health reasons, she says Serious Health issues have recently arisen in our family, and and und the circumstances, ive decided to discontinue my campaign. My children and their futures were the reason, their wealth and wellbeing will be the overriding priority. We dont know who has the health issue, but the entire family has been in the spotlight after she declared her opposition to samesex marriage. That upset mary, her sister. She said, liz, this isnt just an issue on which we disagree, youre just wrong and on the wrong side of history. That drew in dick cheney, if you recall. He came out with a statement saying liz has always believed in the traditional definition of marriage. Shes also always treated her sister and her sisters family with love and respect. Lizs many kindnesses shouldnt be used to distort her position. Now, liz cheney moved to wyoming in 2012, and she was also kind of seen as this carpetbagger taking on mike enzi. So some Top Republicans never embraced her candidacy. They worried it would hurt the republican party, and this announcement this morning, now all that guarantees that enzi is, in fact, going to get the fourth term. Thank you. President obama is back at the white house after his twoweek hawaiian vacation. He and congress returned to a packed agenda. They will face off on Unemployment Benefits and obamacare. Harry reid went on the offensive sunday. Im really concerned about whats going on with republicans in congress. Repeat to your viewers, twothirds of the people in the house of representatives, the republicans, voted to close the government, keep it closed more than 16 days, and default on our debt. The republicans should get a life and Start Talking about doing something constructively. All they talk about is how bad obamacare is. They dont talk about anything to do to improve it. John dickinson is in washington. John, good morning. Reporter good morning, charlie. Happy new year, as well. And to you, too. And happy birthday. Thank you. Thank you very much. So whats the majority leader trying to accomplish here with these words, and will he be able to carry the fight to the senate the way he wants to . Well, its not hard to mistake it for an election year. Basically, democrats are doing a couple of things with this strong offensive. One, theyre changing the subject from last years difficulties with the Affordable Care act. But theyre also taking it to the republicans, defining them early, and in what is a tough election year, particularly in the senate. If you look at the landscape for Election Races in the senate, in seven seats where democrats are vulnerable, they are in states where mitt romney won the vote. And in six of the seven states, mitt romney won the vote by double digits. So with the tough landscape like that, democrats are moving quickly to try and define rpublicans here at the very beginning of the year. And theyre trying to define republicans by bringing up Unemployment Benefits. The president going to have a session at the white house today with those whose Unemployment Benefits have been cut. Thats their message, but is it likely that anything is going to get done in the senate on that issue . Well, talking to republicans in both the house and the senate, theres a lot of skepticism. If anything is going to get done, republicans say, it will have to be offset, that the cost of extending benefits will be offset from savings somewhere. Democrats believe, though, the larger issue of income inequality, which some republicans marco rubio, republican senator from florida talking about inequality, this is an issue in which democrat distalk about a range of issues to try to paint republicans as kind of unfeeling and uncaring. The republican response will be, we care about jobs, which is different. Lets create jobs, lets not necessarily deal with the problem of those people who are unemployed. And thats a battle well see all year long. John, we wanted to get your take on the buzzy story about Hillary Clinton in politico, there is a Shadow Campaign in the waiting, that shes already entertaining meetings from consultants about the primary calendar, ad rates, about how she should run for president. This is a problem for Hillary Clinton. In that great and well reported story, she is doing, and people with her interests in mind, are doing everything necessary to kind of look at the landscape, whats changed since the last time she ran, whats necessary to run, without committing her to run. A, that may be because she hasnt made up her mind herself. But, b, she would like to not be a candidate for as long as possible, because the minute youre a candidate, you take on fire. So how do you do both . How do you live in both worlds, and thats the tension in her story and in her life. John, good to see you. Thank you so much. And the airport in aspen, colorado, remains closed this morning. Federal investigators are trying to figure out why a private jet flipped and burst into flames while trying to land on sunday. The crash killed one of the copilots. The two others aboard were injured. One seriously. Officials say the flight originated in mexico and refuelled in arizona. A california girl declared brain dead is in the hands of her family this morning. The move follows a court battle last night and Oakland Hospital released jahi mcmath to the coroner, and then placed in the custody of her mother. She was taken to an undisclosed location where her family says shell be cared for. The 13yearold went into cardiac arrest last month after a tonsillectomy. The United States this morning is promising to help iraq fight off a new al qaeda offensive. Militants took over one important city and there is intense fighting in another. Clarissa ward has the latest. Reporter there is a possibility that iraq could be sliding into sectarian civil war. This was always the fear, worst case scenario, when the u. S. Pulled the troops out of country in 2011. [ gunfire ] reporter iraqi humvees pushed into the city of ramadi, firing at Al Qaedalinked militants who are in full control of fallujah. The citys in the western Anbar Province where at the heart of the unsurgency during the war in iraq. More than 1,300 americans died there. John kerry announced the u. S. Will offer assistance. Were not contemplating putting boots on the ground. Well help them in their fight. This is a fight thats bigger than just iraq. Reporter the militants fightng in iraq are members of the Al QaedalinkedIslamic State of iraq and syria, or isis, which has flourished in the power vacuum left by syrias civil war. As a recent interview, gentleman hadie recruiter bakri said he hopes the violence will spread. You want to see it spread beyond iraq . Yeah, beyond that. Its to establish islam in the region, and i believe the islamic spirit has really started in syria. Are we going to see an increase in terrorism . You want to call it terrorism, thats up to you. More suicide bombings . Oh, yes, definitely. Reporter iran has also offered to help the Iraqi Government in its fight, but that, of course, would only enrage the militants and many sunni muslims who already see iraqs shiitedominated government as an extension of iran. Charlie, nora . Thanks. Time to show you some headlines from around the globe. Afghanistan plans to release 88 prisoners. The United States considers them dangerous. American Officials Say theres proof they were involved in killing foreign troops. And the New York Times says jpmorgan may reach a settlement this week in the Bernie Madoff ponzi scheme, the civil and criminal settlements with federal authorities could total 2 billion. The bank is suspected of ignoring warning signs. New York Daily News says one man was killed at a highrise fire in man hahattan. The victim died of smoke inhalation. His partner remains hospitalized. The cause is under investigation this morning. Britains independent looks at the popes first trip to the holy land in may. He will visit israel and jordan over three days. And londons daily mail says today is blue monday. It is called the most miserable day of the year. Researchers look at millions of tweets. They found a spike in negative comments about the weather, broken resolutions, and debt. Its also a busy day for divorce filings. Well, how about that good news this morning . It can only get better. Yeah. I dont feel like its blue monday, do you . No, because youre back. I feel good about that, and i feel good about the year. I do, too. No reason to be , a man is rescued from life on the streets, thanks to a photo. The new is is back here on cbs this morning. Stay tuned for your local news. Announcer this portion of cbs this morning sponsored by vaseline spray go. Moisturizes deeply and absorbs in seconds. [ female announcer ] when youre serious about fighting wrinkles, turn to roc® retinol correxion®. One week, fine lines appear to fade. One month, deep wrinkles look smoother. 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