The plot thickens on whats known as be gate. She did not sing live. To which i respond to a bing starspangled so what . And all that matters. We flat tell the other person. Were totally simpatico. On cbs this morning. I was asked to perform at the white house. What . No, no, no, not like that. At the white house. This must have been during the clinton administration. No. Welcome to cbs this morning. Much of the nation is waking up to a fourth day of extreme cold. This will give you an idea how bad it is. This chicago fire left the building covered in ice. Dean reynolds is in one of the chilliest parts of the country, minneapolis. Dean, good morning. Reporter good morning, norah and charlie. It has been a mild winter across the country up until now. Last couple of days temperatures have dropped about 20 degrees below normal and thats cold even for those used to harsh winters. Its really cold. Really, really cold. Ive got two pants on, a jacket, and a sweater, so im cold. Reporter as the bitter freezing air tightens its grip on the midwest, folks are bundling up any way it can. I got everything on, gortex, boots, long johns. Reporter for a fourth straight day temperatures across the region are expected to plunge dangerously low. This is real bad, horrible. Freezing, frigid. Reporter in minneapolis tuesday the mercury hovered well below zero. Factor in windchill and it felt even worse. My toes are frozen. The grounds like a huge magnet sucking in the heat. Reporter the frigid air didnt stop this dog from venturing out into Lake Michigan in chicago where it had to be rescued. Earlier they were forced onto the balcony. Reporter with such low temperatures frostbite can set in within minutes making cold snap even more dangerous for the homeless. The people you encounter, though, their lives are in danger in this weather, right . Yes. Reporter he works for Stevens Human Services in minneapolis. We rode along with him as he looked for anyone in need of warm shelter. Is there ever a time when you say, look its just too cold we cant go out . No. If our folks are outside, then we can go outside. Reporter now, this morning there is heavy lakeeffect snow in both ohio and upper new york state. And while back here the temperature is about 7 degrees above zero, but its not expected to go much higher, and these cold conditions are expected to persist into the weekend over much of the eastern half of the country. All right, dean. Thank you for braving the cold for us in that report. Also in minneapolis this morning meteorologist Mike Augustyniak of our cbs station wcco who says the northeast could get a nasty surprise at the end of this cold snap. Good morning, charlie and norah. The coldest air has moved just to the east this morning. Its across the northeast after giving chicago its first subzero low yesterday in over 7 hundred days. Weve now got Single Digits in detroit, pittsburgh, below zero in burlington. Factor in the wind and it feels like 20 below there. 4 below in boston and 5 below in pittsburgh. The story is not much better for tomorrow. The overall weather pattern wont change with the cold stuff settled in the northeast and back in the midwest tomorrow as well. The jet stream, the storm highway is going to have to reconfigure until we get a warmup and by the weekend it could be happening. As that is happening there could be several inches of snow moving toward the midatlantic and toward boston. Nothing like the snow and cold air that fell in the last couple of days. Almost 2 feet in parts of new york and 6 to 8 inches in the Western Shores and lake superior. For now its just cold. On capitol hill this morning Republican Leaders want to freeze lawmakers salaries unless Congress Gets serious about budget cuts. It could be a key to the house vote today on the debt ceiling battle. Nancy cortes is on capitol hill. Good morning. Reporter good morning. That vote is set to take place in the next couple hours. This is the week we thought the big fight over raising the debt ceiling was going to get under way. Thats Something Senate democrats havent managed to do since 2009. No budget, no pay. That is the message from the House Republican leader. Americans believe if you dont do your job, you shouldnt get paid. Thats the basis for no budget, no pay. Reporter the bill they will be voting on today calls for a temporary suspension of the debt ceiling until midmay, but it requires the house and senate to craft budgets by april while members salaries will be held in escrow. Paul ryan explains the strategy. In the house, democrats and republicans have been leading by offering budgets and offering alternatives. The senate hasnt even done that. All were saying is lets get the senate in here to do that to see how were going to figure out the problem not just try it. Reporter still its a big change for republicans. They said they would demand 1 dollar in spending cuts. They changed course at the end of a retreat last week where there were repeated threats to shut down the government and allow a default has hurt the partys standing with voters. Eight in ten americans want the debt creeling to be raised though 60 want to see it paired with spending cuts. The white house applauded the new gop position. The House Republicans make a decision to back away from a brinkmanship that was very concerning to the market, to the business and to the people. Reporter democrats say they will pass a budget this year, that they planned to do so all along. And there are other spending fights coming up which is another reason, charlie, that House Republicans felt comfortable over the debt ceiling for now. Thank you. And one of secretary of state Hillary Clintons final appearances before stepping down could be one of the most contentious. Clinton is on capitol hill right now giving her long awaited testimony today about the attack that killed four americans. Margaret brennan is on capitol hill this morning. Good morning. Reporter good morning to you. And secretary clinton will face harsh questions. She was unable to make previously scheduled testimony due to illness. In her opening statement, clintons voice cracked as she recalled receiving the bodies of the u. S. Personnel killed in benghazi. Clinton spoke about the progress made in fixing what investigators called saw stemmic failures, and drew a connection between the recent terror attack in al skwraeura and an assault. Shell also be pressed on whether there are connections between what happened in benghazi and the recent terror attack in algeria. Now Senate ForeignRelations Committee john kerry will not take part in todays questioning. Also in washington cbs political director john dickerson. Good morning. Good morning, charlie. What impact could this have with the republicans wanting to know whelp what did she know, when did she know it . Thats the big question firefighter president for president clinton excuse me secretary clinton if she some day wants to become president. If she has ambition for the presidency later, she has to answer these questions in a way that dont irritate the central irritation of republicans, which is the response from the administration has constantly been political, that nobodys gotten a straight story and that as developments have come out that have changed the response from the administration that because it was during the campaign season, that and the president and everyone else was answering in a political way, not a substantive way. Underneath that, of course, is the substantive question. What did they know before it happened and were they asleep at the switch . Another big story today is the debt ceiling and the House Republicans plan that they will plan. What do you think the republicans strategy is . Well, the republicans strategy is to take some of the heat off of them. They looked at the situation, saw they would get an excessive amount of blame if there continued to be this fight over the debt limit, and so they said lets take some of the heat off of us. We have other fights we can engage in. We have some fights on crucial spending, too much spending in washington, and lets try to put some pressure on democrats. Now were talking that the Democratic Senate has not passed the budget in four years. Now the democrats have lots of explanations for that, but one they have they didnt want to take on political fights in the Democratic Senate. So this allows republicans to put pressure democrats and the senate regular people out in the country why you cant pass a budget. Isnt that a minimum job requirement. So that takes heat off the House Republicans trying to put it on the democrats, gives them a little better position for the fights theyre going to be in. Youre not only the political director for cbs news but a writer. You said the president has decided accommodations didnt work and his only remaining option is to pulverize. Some conservatives have jumped back at you. What do you say to the criticism that theyre making, first of all . Go ahead. Well, yeah. Theres been a strong reaction from some conservatives. They thought i was giving the president my personal advice and there was some pretty aggressive language in the piece. I wasnt trying to give advice. I was trying to highlight in a stark way what seems to be an impossible way to avoid the conclusion of this second term. We know the president wants to be transformational, not just bounce along. We know theres not much time before hes a lame duck. Hes pick add controversial agenda for the second term and hes decided to write off instead of cajole and schmooze the gop. Thats a conclusion they made in the white house. Given all those facts, what does an ambitious president try to do . The only solution i could come up with is get aggressive. Now he suggests that thats exactly what hes going to do. Thanks, john. And the top u. S. General in afghanistan has been cleared of any misconduct in connection with the investigation of the general petraeus sex scandal. Petraeus resigned as a cia director last fall after kelley said his mistress had been threatening her. They said they were slandered and harassed after their names were revealed. This morning American Military are bringing french troops and equipment to fight north africa. Theyre fighting in northern mali. Elizabeth palmer is there this morning. Reporter the military operation is an International Effort and the pentagon is now saying its involvement could last another two weeks. On the main airfield in the capital bamako, a huge operation is under way. U. S. Transport planes are critical. At this stage they are limited in part of the effort, carrying more than a hundred tons of cargo they picked up in france. Colonel kevin oliver is one of the commanders. Primarily what youll see is a lot of vehicles and then the french troops requirious to support those vehicles and drive them. Reporter the french operation is aimed at these fighters, financed by smuggling and kidnapping. Over ten months theyve conquered town and town. Less than 300 miles from the capital, the french launched a series of air strikes, and this one captured by civilians on cell phones. Now French Ground troops along with malian soldiers are pushing back, reclaim their territory. Their aim is to reclaim the towns and force them to retreat completely into malis northern desert. Were on our way north now into the zone of military operations, but neither france nor the u. S. Wants to get involved in an openended and what could be a very long complex process. Theres a lot of pressure on neighboring african countries to save their military to help try to restabilize mali. For cbs this morning, elizabeth palmer. And google reported growing profits yesterday. Today apple may post its first drop in profits in a decade. Rebecca jarvis is with us this morning. Good morning. Good morning. Now were hearing about profits. Whats happening . Well, first of all we should explain why people care about this story because anyone with Retirement Savings in the country probably owns apple. Its one of northeast widely held stocks out there. Whats happening out there . A couple of things. First, the iphone 5, the new iphone, its expensive to make for apple and fewer people, it looks like, are buying it. So thats what were going to be looking for in this report. Whats going on with the new higher priced iphone and what can they tell us about the future because everything weve learned so far from apple is all the new products in the pipeline are renditions of earlier products. We havent heard yet about this new blockbuster something along the lines of what it was before they ever were introduced into the market. Its also true theyre getting much more competition from people like samsung and others. Much more competition. And google, the samsung system has taken away the spot from the iphone both here in the u. S. And abroad overseas. Time now to show you some of the mornings headlines from around the globe. Benjamin netanyahu will be able to remain in power. A strong showing by more moderate rivals may force him to include them in his new government. The Houston Chronicle reports a suspect has been charged with a shooting at a community college, an argument escalated between two men when one pulled a handgun. He wounded the man and a maintenance worker. The Washington Post says new federal rules would severely restrict medical research on chimpanzees. It would send all 450 into retirement. Usa today says existing home sales are expected to continue marching upward. Last years sales hit their highest level in nine years rising more than 5 in 2011. Wall street journal says some countries are waking up to the problem of tired workers. Theyre investing in programs to help employees sleep better like sleep hygiene courses and melatonin regulating lighting. Sleep deprivation costs u. S. Companies more than 63 billion a year. We all want to know how to sleep better, but i dont know what sleep hygiene courses are. All right. Finally some big changes in our weather. The clouds have moved back onshore and, well, we could see a few showers headed around the bay area today. Nothing too dramatic just yet. Over san jose, you have plenty of clouds there but staying dry so far. I think as we head in toward the afternoon, well see a better chance of rain, some of it making its way up into the north bay now. Temperatures cooler today, 50s and 60s. Maybe more importantly, some showers today, but it opens the door now we could see more showers late in the weekend. Ncer this National Weather report sponsored by neutrogena rapid wrinkle repair. Visibly reduce wrinkles in just one week. Cities and schools are putting cameras on buses catching everything passengers do and say. Were looking at your well being. We dont want the government starting to record all of our conversations everywhere in public. Well go onboard this morning looking at the controversy over technology, safety, and privacy. 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