Oh the 450pound snowmobile lands on his head. How are you doing over there, jimmy . Im just kidding, i dont give a [ bleep ]. The next greatest generation will be one of men and women who will fight and die together to protect this nation. On cbs this morning. The hope is that we can now finally defeat the taliban by giving them the silent treatment. Captioning funded by cbs welcome to cbs this morning. Today Vice President joe biden is bringing the battle of gun control right to the heart of the opposition. Biden is taking his case right to progun virginia the move comes after democrats in congress rolled out their plans. Nancy cordes is on capitol hill. Nancy, good morning. Reporter good morning. And they started with perhaps the most controversial measure, an assault weapons ban. It was a key component in the recommendations that Vice President biden made to the president earlier this month, and this morning, he will be making his case for it in a speech in Richmond Virginia which gets under way in about an hour. Mr. Biden is even taking the fight online making his gun control argument thursday in a web chat. Im much less concerned, quite frankly, about what youd call an assault weapon than i am about magazines and the number of rounds that can be held in a magazine. Reporter the bill Senate Democrats introduce thursday would ban both. Its a tougher version of the assault weapons ban that congress let lapse in 2004. This version closes some of the loopholes that manufacturers were able to exploit last time. Militarystyle assault weapons have but one purpose, and in my view thats a military purpose, to hold at the hip if possible, to spray fire to be able to kill large numbers. Reporter the bill would ban the sale and manufacture of 157 different weapons, though people who currently own those guns would be allowed to keep them. How are you going to go hunting with Something Like that . You kill something theres nothing left to eat. Reporter but so far that argument has not swayed Congressional Republicans who argue the real issue isnt guns its Mental Illness. Thats what weve got to figure out how to deal with how to identify those people cure them if we can, separate them if we must and prevent them from obtaining dangerous weapons in any case. Reporter and democrats have another challenge, some of their own members disagree with a ban or come from rural states where voting for the ban would be politically perilous. Some of the Senate Democrats like monday montanas max baucus mark pryor and mark begich are up for reelection in 2014. Feinstein says she knows she has an uphill battle. You know, i did this once before. This is a complain. If it takes one year two years, three years, i have just been reelected. Were going to stay the course. Reporter she points out there are more than 2,000 types of hunting and sporting firearms that would not be affected by this ban and this is just the first in what democrats say will be a series of bills that they are going to unveil over the next couple of months that deal with gun violence Mental Illness and school safety. Charlie and norah . Nancy cordes thank you. Republicans across from the country are in charlotte, North Carolina, this week, trying to come up with a new game plan to win voters. Last night louisiana governor bobby jindal had tough words for his fellow gop members. We got to stop being the stupid party. Im serious, its time for a new Republican Party that talks like adults. Its time for us to articulate our plans and our visions for america in real terms. Its no secret we had a number of republicans that damaged the brand this year with offensive and bizarre comments. Im here to say weve had enough of that. Former mississippi Governor Haley barbour, good morning. Good morning, charlie. Republicans have been the stupid party, says the governor of louisiana. Well, the point he made is exactly right, when you consider what two Senate Candidates one in indiana and one in missouri, the comments that they made were stupid comments offensive comments, and in todays world, when a candidate in one state says something the negative effect of that can spill over to lots of other candidates and bobby jindal was exactly right. Its interesting, though charlie, that one of those candidates todd aiken, actually received more than 1 million of Campaign Contributions from the democratic leader of the senate harry reids pac helped that guy win the republican primary, and that was well reported in the state of missouri after he made that comment, you could see why the democrats wanted to run against him. Governor it was an interesting speech by Governor Jindal yesterday and he called the partys obsession with government bookkeeping a rigged game and a wrong game. That the party needed to focus on more things. Do you think that was a repudiation of the paul ryan approach or the tea Party Approach that focuses on fiscal matters . No, i dont think it was at all. It was an honest stimtatement that when you talk in washington budget terms youre committing yourself to a lot of things that not only the public doesnt understand, but its very misleading. In washington, it is a cut when spending goes up but just not as fast as was planned. For the average American Family that is spending goes up more slowly. For the left, they say to the public theyre cutting spending by trillions and trillions even though spendings going up to get in that jargon and to use that lingo, bobby jindal is exactly right, we need to make the truth obvious to voters. Governor theres certainly a lot of soulsearching i think going on with the Republican Party and Governor Jindals speech last night exemplified that. However you hear people like Speaker Boehner saying its president obama trying to annihilate the gop. Is president obama do you think the problem or do you think the party itself has to make some policy changes in order to recruit and attract different voters . This is my 12th president ial election. Ive been around where we won a few more than we lost ive been around where we lost. This is an election that republicans are upset about because they feel like they could have won, that the president , youre talking 51 of the vote. Youre looking back at the campaign. That explains that. It seems to know from peggy noonan and a whole range of people especially the speaker to accuse the president of trying to annihilate the party, that takes it to the future not the past. Well look this is the most political presidency weve ever had, its the perpetual campaign, as soon as the campaign was over and we started talking about the first serious piece of business the fiscal cliff, the Obama Administration ran it purely like a political campaign. If you heard the president s state of the Union Address where the vast majority of americans are worried about Economic Growth about job creation about these gigantic unprecedented deficits and the debt that our country has, he hardly mentioned that. All right, governor. In his inaugural dress. Governor barbour, good to see you. Thank you norah and charlie. The nations deep freeze is creating problems. Firemen in lawrence massachusetts, had to fight two fires in the subfreezing weather, dealing with frozen hydrants and hose lines and in chicago these are new pictures of the snow as it falls on the windy city this morning. Chicago is one of many places expecting a wintry mix today says meteorologist augustyniak of our minneapolis station wcco. The snow falling in the midwest already where chicago is getting some snow detroit is getting some snow and all in response to the warmer air which will slowly be developing across the east and northeast. The ice has been a problem especially north of i40 and in northern tennessee through kentucky and later today working into Western North carolina western South Carolina a quarter of an inch of icing at most, enough to slick up the roads for sure and there are schools closed already there. Little farther north in the cold air from north of virginia to washington, d. C. To new york city, developing through the evening commute, some light snow enough to cause problems especially in the evening commute for d. C. One to three inches there, looks like an inch or less in new york city. For cbs this morning, im Mike Augustyniak from minneapolis. From weather to the economy, you hope the World Economy is on wall street, but now in switzerland. Many are in davos for the annual World Economic forum but this year their focus is not on europe. Anthony mason joins us from davos. Anthony good morning. Reporter good morning, charlie. Maybe its the bracing mountain air but theres been a pronounced mood swing in davos. 12 months ago it looked like the financial collapse in europe could lead to a global recession. What a difference a year makes. In the hallways and meeting rooms of the World Economic forum where top bankers, Business Leaders and politicians come every year to swap intelligence theres a sense the Global Economy has finally turned a corner. As ken frazier, ceo of pharmaceutical giant merck. I think the u. S. Economy is poised to take off. I think its been through some tough times. I think its the strongest economy in the world. Reporter the imf forecasts the Global Economy will grow 3. 5 this year a healthy number, and if theres debate about how soon things will get better, muhtar kemp the ceo of cocacola, is confident theyre not going to get worse. A year ago there was a lot of fear here. Thats largely gone. I dont think it is right to say its gone. Think of it as walking on ice that isnt too secure. But i think everyone expects the ice to hold. Reporter what could crack that ice . If congress and the white house cant agree on the deficit or the debt ceiling. Will washington work is the theme of a seminar in davos today. House majority leader eric cantor, who is here will have to answer. Thats the question on a lot of peoples minds, why cant the u. S. Get its act together . You know i think the thing that differentiates the u. S. From so many of the other countries especially in the eu we know how to fix our problem, and were just at lagerheads as to which way to go. Reporter but the head of the International MonetaryFund Christine Lagarde said here the u. S. Has to confront this. If those decisions are postponed again well it will be pushing the can down the road again which was the reproach that we made against the europeans and i dont think that the u. S. Should fall in that trap. Reporter and with the u. S. Economy now showing renewed strength, the feeling here is that the u. S. Could help pull up the rest of the world, if washington could just get out of the way. Charlie, norah . Anthony mason thank you. In the International Press institute reports that 132 journalists were killed around the world last year and reporting on the war in syria is especially dangerous for westerners. More than two months ago american freelance correspondent james foley was abducted by armed gunmen and hasnt been heard from since. Hes a friend of our own correspondent Clarissa Ward who is now in london. Clarissa, good morning. Good morning, norah and charlie. And you know james foley. How concerned is everyone . Certainly his colleagues. You know him. Everyones extremely concerned, as you said before james was abducted by armed gunmen on thanksgiving day. He was on his way out of syria, trying to reach the Turkish Border and since then really nothing has been heard from him. We dont know who has him, we dont know what the motivations were for kidnapping and really in that part of syria theres no way of narrowing it down. It could be rogue or criminal elements from within the Free Syrian Army and rebel fighters it could be extremist elements. It could also be there are still pockets of regime presence in northern syria, in the province and of course there are the proregime militias known as shabihab so its hard to get a sense of who has james. If syria is one of the most dangerous places for reporters to cover, how do you cover the story . Its incredibly challenging. This is not the same as reporting from iraq and afghanistan where you were traveling with a conventional army, where you had access to medical care if something were to happen to you. Traveling with rebel fighters trying to ascertain which groups are the most efficient or the most disciplined or the most accommodating to western journalist journalists, its really almost like cracking a safe and theres an enormous amount of prior preparation that needs to be done before you take a trip into a place like syria, and even with all that preparation, its still incredibly incredibly dangerous. Theres an inherent level of risk that is impossible to mitigate and thats why youre seeing so many journalists being killed in syria. Clarissa ward congratulations on the dupont award. Thank you very much for joining us this morning. Turning to the case of manti teo, the football star defended himself before a National Television audience but as chip reid reports theres word of yet another twist. What i went through was real you know the feelings the pain the sorrow that was all real. In his first tv interview since the scandal broke, allamerican linebacker manti teo told katie couric he didnt know what to do or say after receiving the news that the supposed girlfriend he only knew over the phone and who he thought had died of leukemia hadnt died at all. I think what people dont realize is that the same day that everybody else found out about this situation, i found out. Reporter what teo did over the next few days was continue to tell interviewers that the love of his life had died a tragic death back in september. To see your son being accused of promoting a story prolonging the story and lying about this story. Im proud of this guy. I really am. Hes not a liar. Hes a kid. Reporter and the strange story continues to twist in the wind. Thursday the lawyer for alleged hoaxster Ronaiah Tuiasosopo said he pretended to be the nonexistent girlfriend in a long series of phone calls to the football star. It didnt sound like a man. It sounded, sounded like a woman. Hey babe im just calling too to say good night. I love you. I know that youre probably doing homework or out with the boys. Reporter tuiasosopo is a singer who posted video tops the internet. Teo by his own admission spent hundreds of hours on the phone talking to someone he thought was lenay kekua. And at that time on december 8th, two days after i found out she was alive, as a 21 years old, i wasnt ready for that. Reporter the stakes for teo are enormous. He had been widely expected to be a first round nfl draft pick but this bizarre event plus his poor play in the College Football championship game have put his future in doubt. For cbs this morning, chip reid, washington. It is time to show you some of this mornings headlines from around the globe. Haaretz reports on the egyptian revolution that toppled president hosni mubarak. The New York Times says north korean officials warn they plan a third higher Level Nuclear weapons test the Weapons Program is aimed at the united states. The wall street journal says president obamas pick to head the securities and Exchange Commission could signal a shift, Mary Jo White, known for going after white collar crimes. Usa today reports new tax hikes for roads. Massachusetts is consideringdering raising the States Gasoline sales and income taxes or imposing a tax based on how far someone drives. Virginia wants to end its gasoline tax and increase the sales tax instead. And the Washington Post has details of a new strain of norovirus. It appeared in australia last march and is spreading in britain. Here in the u. S. Its caused half of the 266 norovirus outbreaks since september. Its responsible for about all right. Starting out with a lot of clouds around the bay area, fog thick around san jose. Reports of some scattered light showers outside today. Visibilities down to a quarter mile in concord and napa so watch out for fog. Hit and miss scattered showers. Highs in the 50s and 60s. Cold air on the weekend and maybe a few cold showers. Warming up next week. Weather report sponsored by new pantene. Healthy makes it happen. Deaths each year. The Search Engine that is searching you. Googles is handing over more information about its users to Law Enforcement than ever before. What theyre looking for and if you need to worry. Plus sat lake city is known for snow skiing and now smog. If you see it you probably dont want to be breathing it. Well show you why the air is so dirty in utah this winter on cbs this morning. Announcer this portion of cbs this morning sponsored by discipline da no calorie sweetener. Splenda makes the moment yours. Just before that rich sweetness touches your lips. The delightful discovery the midsweetening realization that you have the house all to yourself. Well, almost. The sweet reward making a delicious choice thats also a smart choice. Splenda nocalorie sweetener. W