captioning funded by cbs good morning. i'm chris wragge. >> i'm erica hill. good to have you with us. i hope you're warm, wherever you are. >> it is cold out there. about 15 here in new york but we know that is one portion of a nation that is under a massive deep freeze right now. a gentleman we haven't seen in the last couple of weeks. ted williams. this video taken by the columbus sdach when ted was originally sdovered on the side of i-71 in columbus. >> it was that video that was posted. at one point, i think up to 20 million hits on youtube. he became a national sensation. had his first exclusive interview here on "the early show." so many people were pulling for him to use that golden voice and getting him off the streets. he is here with us exclusively in the studio this morning and joining us in his first interview since he left a treatment center. he had gone into alcohol and drug adrikion center and find out why he left and what is next for him and where he has been the past month plus since all of that happened. >> a man with a golden voice and had some golden opportunities, a lot of of them and we have to see if the opportunities have been squandered or if he is on the right path. we begin with a snow and bitter cold gripping much of the nation. cbs news don teague is in dallas where you are getting hit hard again this morning. >> reporter: good morning, erica. this is the last thing residents in texas wanted to see. we have had fren and sleet and now snow here in the dallas area. this is all accompanied by bone-chilling cold. it's another winter blast in the plains and southeast. wind gusts up to 47 miles per hour whipped the texas panhandle all day tuesday, creating whiteout conditions that forced road closures overnight. and for those who did venture out into the cold, they were he met with windchills reaching a staggering 27 below zero, leaving some with hypothermia. in denver, plow crews got a late start, leaving drivers to deal with snow-packed roads. parts of kansas received up to a foot of snow. wichita had more than 5 inches. and residents throughout the nation's midsection suffering through a week of bitter cold have had enough. >> i look forward to the spring! >> reporter: but winter has an icy grip. overnight windchills plummeted below zero behind the cold front, while cities in its path are still preparing. oklahoma was pounded by up to 18 inches of snow last week. road crews are still cleaning up the mess, even as officials scramble to find enough road salt to battle what could be another foot of snow. >> we're down to about 20 tons of mixture which we were nearly zeroed out before we got this load of salt in here yesterday. >> reporter: and road crews in arkansas are also preparing for heavy snow and thinking what millions of americans are about winter 2011, enough already! well, the windchill is currently about 5 below here in dallas, as this snow and ice continues to fall. you can see there's traffic moving on one side of the freeway. they have had to close the other side of this freeway because it's just impassible. it's also a bad story at dfw airport where at least 120 flights have been canceled as this bitter storm just keeps moving through. erica? >> pretty miserable. don teague, thanks. now to the crisis in egypt this morning. the government has issued its sternist warning yet saying they will not tolerate the protests much longer but the demonstrators refuse to budge. elizabeth palmer is in cairo for the latest for us. good morning. >> reporter: good morning, chris. you can probably see them not budging behind me. in fact, they are flooding in and completely confounding the skeptics who thought that long ago they would have gone home and given up. the tent city in tahrir square is growing. as this protest entered its third week, they are determined to make history. yesterday, the protesters filled the square in what may have been the biggest show yet. in the center of this vast space which has become a symbolic heart of the uprising, a monument to the young people killed in the first wave of violence made of their bloodied clothes. some of the new energy came from the release of google executive wael ghonim arrested he and held in custody ten days and he came to address the crowd and said, today, it's a time for all of us, egypt, above all. but, so far, gh on onim doesn't want to take up a former leader's role in this extraordinary movement. the normal bustle of city life is resuming all around the demonstrations. the protesters themselves recognize if they want to keep momentum and force political change, they are going to have to come up with new tactics. yesterday, a group surrounded parliament and reporters say they prevented egypt's prime minister from getting to work. but it was temporary. and the tens, even hundreds of thousands of people who want hosni mubarak to leave office have received only vague promises of reform from their government. now, as you mentioned, the vice president did warn the protesters that more civil disobedience wouldn't be tolerated but it's hard to know when the government decides not to tolerate what exactly they are going to do about it. chris? >> cbs' elizabeth palmer for us in cairo, thank you. >> interesting. you imagine that front row seat she's had enter from the very beginning of this and we see how things change by listening' and hearing the crowd behind her. >> when the egyptian government think the protests will die down and yesterday come out in full force and the biggest protest to date. jeff glor is here with other headlines we are following for you. good morning. >> good morning to everyone at home. oil tanker headed for the u.s. was hijacked off arabian peninsula this morning. "irene so" 200 miles off coast of oman attacked by armed pirates and it was carrying 2 million barrels of crude oil and 25 crew members on board. a vote extended key provisions of the patriot act put in place after 9/11 has failed in the house. cbs news congressional correspondent nancy cordes is in washington with details on that this morning. nancy, good morning. >> jeff, good morning pow. >> reporter: it was an embarrassing miscalculation for gop leaders who failed to anticipate the level of opposition in their own party and called a special vote one that requires two-thirds majority to pass but 26 republicans voted against the vote. this would extended roving wiretaps and secret surveillance of foreign aspects and aspects to business records and all in the patriot act that supporters argue are vital to homeland security. >> the terrorist threat has not subsided and will not expire and neither should our national security laws. >> reporter: 122 democrats voted against the extension arguing it infringing on civil liberties and they were joined by enough tea party affiliated republican lawmakers who consider it a big government invasion of individual privacy. >> how about the patriot act which has the broadest reach and the deepest reach of government to our daily lives? >> reporter: gop leaders blame democrats for bringing down a bill that the president supports. they are likely to schedule another vote under regular house rules which would require only a simple majority to pass. jeff? >> nancy cordes in washington, thank you. this morning, italian berlusconi they are saying should stand trial for sexual misconduct. he is accused for paying for sex with a 17-year-old girl and using his influence to try to cover it up. ber llusconi is 74 years old an denied any wrongdoing. the first lady said the president has kicked the habit. after smoking cigarettes she says her husband has not smoked in almost a year. she is very proud and when somebody is doing the right thing, i don't mess with them. it is 9 minutes past the hour now. we turn to marysol castro for the first time. our first check of weather. good thanks so much. that's your latest weather. now over to erica. >> good morning to you. we turn to a break-through in the treatment of best cancer. a new study concludes women with early stage breast cancer do not benefit from undergoing the extensive procedure of removing lymph nodes and it's something that actually has been standard procedure for decades in the treatment of this disease. joining us this morning with the details is "the early show" medical correspondent dr. jennifer ashton. we are only talking about women here, not men with breast cancer because the study only looked at women. >> right. >> what is so ground-breaking about this it's called a potential game-changer? >> we are talking about a procedure known as lymph node desection which was the standard of care treating early breast cancer and specifically we are talking about a lymph node known as the watch dog lymph node of the cell and the first limp know node to pick up cancer in the breast. in the past when this lymph node contain cancer. this study and others before it showed there was no survival benefit at five years and no outcome in the women who had the more extensive procedure so the thinking is less is more, why do do a procedure if it doesn't markedly change the outcome. >> will this change the diagnosis? >> many breast cancer experts have are saying this is a practice changer like anything. a lot more research needs to be done but the results of this study are being described as interesting and provocative and potentially affecting 40,000 women in this country a year with early stage breast cancer and potentially it may make this procedure the more extensive one obsolete. >> instead of the full lymph node removal more akin to chemo and radiation? >> just the lump will be removed and one lymph node instead of many more. >> helps when you break it down for us like that. thanks. >> a pleasure. now to the latest troubles for lindsay lohan who is expected in court today facing felony charges for allegedly stealing a one of a kind necklace and could face a parole violation both of which could mean she is headed back to jail. cbs news national correspondent ben tracy has the story. >> reporter: lindsay lohan's life has long been a mess, but now it's getting much worse. >> did you steal the necklace, lin lindssy? >> she is allegedly stealing this necklace. when a search warrant to search the house the necklace appeared. >> she contacted lapd officials turned in the necklace. >> reporter: she is charged with felony grand theft and if convicted she faces up to three years in prison. >> this is really serious. this is way more serious than her duis in the past. >> reporter: the jewelry store claims to have surveillance video of lohan trying on the necklace on the 22nd. they believe she was loaned the necklace and could keep it if she is photographed wearing it in a major publication. she says she has witness to back up her story. earlier this week, her attorney said when it comes to theft, we vehemently deny these allegations. an employee at the betty ford center say the actress hit her during her rehab and still on probation for her 2007 drunk driving case meaning any trouble with the law could send her straight to jail. >> this is a girl that is supposed to stay on the straight and narrow and she has two serious allegations. assault and shoplifting. >> reporter: staying out of trouble seems to be one role lindsay lohan cannot play. ben tracy, cbs news, los angeles. joining us now is cbs news legal analysts jack ford. good to see you this morning. >> good to see you. >> she has taken bad maver to the next level. talking about a felony charge. if convicted and found guilty of this charge, what real type of punishment are we looking at here? >> very serious things. the drunk driving charge, generally speaking, they are not crimes. they are serious, obviously, but motor vehicle offenseses. once you get into this category, range of sentences judge has available but could be a maximum of three years and you're talking about three years in prison. you're not talking about three years probation. probation could be an option but talking about the potential for serious jail time. >> we're talking about being associated with real criminals now. this is a different type of prison than what she has been used to. >> yeah. when talking about motor vehicle violations they are usually within the municipality and talking about count jail for that sentencing time. once in this category you're talking about state prisons. >> we talked about the probation she is on stemming from a dui in '07. >> when you're on probation, one of the conditions is you can't violate the law. we know that last time she was in court judge said to her if you come back here and you violate this probation i'm going to send you. remember at this stage these are just allegations. she hasn't pled guilty, hasn't been found guilty. if he she pleads guilty know you have a violation of that. judge could bring her in and sentence her separately on the violation probation so she could do some jail time based on that and she could do some jail time based upon the allegations of theft. she has the potential of both. they could merge them but might stand independent of each other. >> as far as a defense, we are seeing there is video. jewelry store says one thing and lindsay lohan's friends say another thing. >> it comes down to criminal intent. that is the definition. you take something from somebody else with the intent to take it and keep it yourself. if i'm her lawyer i'm looking at a criminal intent type of defense saying, look. maybe this was a terrible misunderstanding and maybe she didn't have the permission of the jewelry store but she thought she did. for whatever reason she thought either a conversation she had with a worker there or something her assistant said she thought she had the okay to do this. when she found she didn't she turned it in again. it was a misunderstanding and not a crime i suspect is what you will see them arguing. >> jack ford, thank you very much. still ahead, ted williams, the man with the golden voice hit a few bumps on the way to fame including a stint in rehab. we will talk to him, his first exclusive interview since leaving treatment when we come back on "the early show." this is "the early show" on cbs. . your comforter. okay. mr. cuddles... toilet paper? 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[ engine revs ] [ flag blowing in wind ] just ahead an exclusive update this morning from ted williams. the man who went from being homeless, to being an overnight youtube sensation in this video taken by a "columbus dispatch" reporter. >> he also realized pretty quickly he wasn't exactly ready for all the success, and he is here to tell us all about that coming up in just a couple of moments. good to have him here with us this morning. this is his first exclusive interview since getting out of that rehab. some thought maybe he could use a little bit more time there to really hash things out. we're going to talk to ted and see why he did choose to leave early. >> and also see what's next for him. it's been quite a road over this last month or so. a lot of offers came his way. are those offers still on the table based on everything that's happened? we will get you the full story from ted himself. that's just ahead as we mentioned right here on "the early show." >> this portion of "the early show" sponsored by kay jewelers. every kiss begins with kay. - i'll be home soon. until then, i have my wingman helping me out. tommy? - i helped dad pick it out. - it's beautiful. - behind every open heart is a story. tell yours with my open heart collection at kay jewelers, the number one jewelry store in america. there are millions of reasons to give one, but the message is always the same: keep your heart open, and love will always find its way in. - i love you. - i love you too. 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