Harder to find, and inflation is skyrocketing. One example a single bar of dove soap used to cost about 60 cents. Two years later, its almost two dollars. Woodruff those are just some of the stories were covering on tonights pbs newshour. Major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by and by the alfred p. Sloan foundation. Supporting science, technology, and improved Economic Performance and Financial Literacy in the 21st century. And with the ongoing support of these institutions and foundations. And. This program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. And by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. Woodruff businesses have won a second major delay in complying with the president S Health Care law. Within the Treasury Department today announced Mediumsized Companies with 50 to 90 employees will get an extra year until january 2016 before facing tax comply next year. But only for 70 of fulltime workers. Companies with fewer than 50 workers remain exempt. Well explore whats behind the announcement right after the news summary. Peace talks between the government of syria and the opposition resumed today in geneva. There were no immediate signs of progress. Back in syria the red crescent said that another 300 civilians were evacuated from the beseiged city of homs. Well have a closeup look at the situation there later in the in iraq, a group of insurgents intraining accidentally set off their own car bomb killing 21 people. Police say the wouldbe terrorists had gathered near the city of samarra, in an orchard, when the bomb exploded. In addition to those who died, two dozen suspects were arrested. The monthlong flooding thats drowned huge swaths of southern england is still getting worse. The thames river burst its banks today, 20 miles upstream of london, inundating small towns and villages. We have a report from tom clarke of independent television news. Reporter it started as a flooding crisis, its now an all out war on water. The flooding far below is now into its eighth week. These fields around the submerged village of morland are the new front line. But the earth works arent to save the village but keep the floodwater where it is. To protect the town of bridgewater from almost inevitable flooding theyre throwing up an emergency dyke across there as fast as the diggers can dig it. Then, these pipes and pumps fresh off the boat from holland are going in a new River Channel being dug there to try to get water from behind the dyke into the River Parrett which drains to the sea. The problem theyve got is if theres more flood water than those can handle anyone living on this side of the dyke is going to experience worse flooding than they have done already. Theres growing anxiety here about whether homes and livelihoods are being sacrificed to keep others dry. Beyond the row continues over whether the Environment Agency has failed on floods. Visiting seed offenses in dorset, the Prime Minister refused to back the agencys chair attacked by ministers over the weekend. This is the time to get on and do everything we can. I back the Environment Agency. I back the work they are doing. Everyone has got to get on with the work theyre doing. Thats all im saying. Therell be time later on to talk about these things. Right now everybody has got to focus on the job in hand. Reporter to defend his staff on the ground, today lord smith hit back. The chairman is here to be a punch bag. To stand up and take the flak. But my staff are doing a hugely dedicated professional job. These are exceptional circumstances. Every time its the worst ever, its the highest ever, its the longest ever and that means that all our old assumptions about what flood defenses the country means are almost certainly not good enough. Reporter few on the ground in the somerset levels would disagree with that. Ever since people have lived here, theyve had to cope with floods. But theres a realization that this is something new and a wooduff england has been battered by a string of storms, producing its wettest january since 1766, when king george the third was on the throne. As of today, samesex married couples in the u. S. Have gained more legal rights under federal law. Attorney general eric holder announced it over the weekend. The change includes those living in states that do not recognize gay marriage. Among other things the policy means, gay couples do not have to testify against one another in court. And, theyll be able to file for bankruptcy jointly. A College Football standout has announced hes gay, three months before he takes part in the n. F. L. Draft. Michael sam is an allamerican defensive end at the university of missouri. He made his announcement in interviews overnight. Well have a full report on sams coming out, and the reaction, later in the program wooduff the deep south braced today for its second major winter storm in two weeks. Two inches of snow paralyzed the Atlanta Metro area two weeks ago. Now, the region is expecting rain and snow tomorrow, followed by sleet and freezing rain on wednesday. In advance, georgia governor nathan deal has declared an emergency for nearly a third of the state. Were not looking back, were looking forward. 9 next three days are going to be challenging days for the state and for local government and for private entities. We want to make sure that we are as prepared as possible. And that we can respond as quickly as possible. Wooduff the previous storm triggered an epic traffic jam that left thousands of cars abandoned on highways, and students trapped on buses or at schools. This time, atlantaarea schools have canceled school for tomorrow, and many workers have been told to stay home. The weather is also an issue at the Winter Olympics in sochi, russia, but because its so warm. It was 61 degrees fahrenheit there today, and ski jumpers had to stop practice when the snow got too soft. As for the days results, a spoiler alert tune out for a moment, if you dont want to know who won just yet. In skiing, american Julia Mancuso took bronze in the womens supercombined ski event. The gold went to germany. Canadian athletes won the mens moguls, and the 1,500 meter speedskating event. French president Francois Hollande has arrived in the u. S. To begin his state visit. He traveled with president obama to charlottesville, virginia, today where they toured Thomas Jeffersons monticello estate. The third american president once served as an envoy to france. Hollande is traveling alone, after a recent separation from his longtime partner, over revelations hed had an affair with an actress. U. S. Immigration rules are easing for those seeking asylum here who might have a form of past connection to a terrorist. Since 9 11, anyone believed to have given even limited Material Support to terrorist groups was automatically banned from the u. S. The department of Homeland Security says the change gives it flexibility to consider more of an applicants background. On wall street, it was a relatively quiet day. The Dow Jones Industrial average gained seven points to close near 15,802. The nasdaq rose 22 points to close at 4,148. Still to come on the newshour more delays to the Affordable Care act; the struggle to help civilians in the wartorn syrian city of homs; what sanctions have done to daily life in iran; an n. F. L. Draft prospect comes out publicly as gay; plus, u. S. s complicated relationship with russia; and robots in the opera. Woodruff the Health Care Laws mandate for midsize and larger employers was originally supposed to take effect this year. Now, in a surprise move, the Obama Administration has decided to delay part of that mandate for a second time. Midsized businesses get another year before facing a penalty. And the government is easing the requirements for large companies, as well. Its also prompting renewed criticism from republicans like House Speaker john boehner who argue the individual insurance mandate should be repealed. Reporter alex wayne follows all this for Bloomberg News and he joins us again. Welcome back to the program. Thanks. So spell out exactly what these changes are that were just announce a couple of hours ago. Sure, so companies that employ between 50 and 99 workers now dont have to worry about this mandate that they provide Health Insurance coverage at all until 2016. Companies that employ 100 people or more will have to comply with the mandate starting next year in 2015. But they only have to koferb 70 of their workers in 2015. Woodruff so here it early february. We thought all this was coming. Why did the administration make the change . So they are under a lot of pressure from business groups, trade associations and lobbying groups to give these companies a lot of notice before any rules were set in stone, that they have as much time as possible to participate. That is why they releed them now, so the companies have the rest of the area to prepare for these changes and make whatever changes they need to make to their own Health Benefits programs. Was there a hint that this was coming. Not much. We are knew they were working on this regulation. We knew it would come out early in the year. We did not know really that they were going to make these broad changes to really the letter of the law. I think it caught a lot of the by surprise. Woodruff do we know how many are affected, weather biggor medium. Different numbers going on. The Administration Says that 96 of all u. S. Businesses arent affected by the prn date at all. They are too small, under 50 workers. 50 or fewer. Right, you dont have to cover any of your workers if you employ that number of people. But about only 30 million americans work for companies that small. So given the also of the population, most americans are working for companies that are going to have to provide Health Insurance at at some point. And what do you, i mean clearly republicans are being critical saying the president should extend this to the individual mandate to repeal that. Do we know, is it too soon to know who likes this, who doesnt like it . What are you picking up . Business groups are very happy about it they were actually surprised, pleasantly surprised. They werent expecting this much flexibility really, no complaints there. Republicans as you said think that all of these allowances for companies should be extended to regular americans. I think its hard to disconnect this from the election calendar too. The Congressional Elections are coming up in november. And this change is going to mean that a lot of Small Businesses that would otherwise have to be figuring out how to change their benefits programs in the fall to comply with obamacare dont have to worry about it. Woodruff so what is your i mean youve been reporting on this nonstop for months. Yeah. Woodruff is it your sense that there could be still more changes to come . Do you think this is the last in a series of changes were going to see . How do you read how the administration is dealing with this. I would say its hard to guess at this point. They seem to make changes as problems arise. In order, i suppose the administration would say theyre trying to be pragmatic and trying to deal with issues that are brought to their attention. In this case they got a lot of comments from the Business Community about this set of rules, in particular. If were talking about the individual pan date i wouldnt expect many changes before the end of the year. I think people are still going to have to comply with that. Give us a flavor, alex, of what businesses were saying. What were they saying. And how were they saying it to the administration. The how is they were lobbying them. And the way that is done with the administration in washington is you write letters to the administration, essentially. Laying out your viewpoint. But the things that they wanted were more flexibility, more time. In a nutshell. They wanted to cover fewer workers. For instance, theres been a lot of concern about covering parttime workers and people right at this threshold of 30 hours. Another break they got today, they wont have to cover seasonal workers. People who work six months or less per year. Thats another ask from business. They pretty much got a lot of what they wanted here. Woodruff but the administration had been talking to them about what changes to make . I mean oh, sure. Woodruff there were conversations. Oh, absolutely. Theres i dont want to call it an opendoor policy for the administration and business groups. But if you are a Large Business group in town, somebody like the National Retail federation, the association of manufacturers, the chamber of commerce, you can get in the door. At the treas rebuilding or in the white house itself, and you can have your voice heard. Woodruff so just in a nutshell to wrap this up, who are the folks out there then who wont get coverage as soon as they thought they were going to . So if you are a worker of a company that employs between 50 and 99 people, and your company doesnt offer insurance right now, theyre probably to the going to offer it next year either. So you should probably prepare to go seek coverage on your own. Woodruff those are the main folks. Those are the main folks. Woodruff and perhaps some of the Larger Companies as well. Yeah. Woodruff all right, alex wayne from Bloomberg News, thank you very much. Thank you. Woodruff appreciate it. Woodruff now to the humantiarian situation in syria. Aid officials rushed today to evacuate more women, children and elderly from the blockaded city of homs after a fragile ceasefire there was extended for three more days. Patrick mcdonnel has been reporting on the evacuation in homs for the los angeles times. He spoke to us via skype from damascus a short time ago. Woodruff patrick mcdonnel, thank you very much for talking with us. Now that we know the ceasefire is being extended, what is the situation in homs. The situation in the old city is extremely delicate as you know. There is a three day operation in which Something Like more than 700 people were evacuated from old homs. Some aid was delivered. However, there were extensive mortar attacks and gunfire attacks on the convoy. And a number of civilial civilians were killed, at least ten to our knowledge. So it is a very delicate operation but it has got answer lot of International Attention t was mentioned in geneva and i think the government of syria which is looking for some International Support from the United Nations really wants it to work. Woodruff well, what do you know about what people there on the ground are saying, what they believe about how its going . Frankly, among supporters there is quite a lot of resentment about the fact that food is being brought in to rebels who in the view of many people in governmentcontrolled areas have, you know, wrought havoc on the country. So there is quite a lot of resentment on this. So i think the government is hearing that. Last night they brought up some of the people from the old city we were surprised to see quite a few young men fighting, more than a hundred. And i was standing with some army people, they were up set to see young men coming out. And so there is a mixed opinion. At the same time i think there is a recognition that the Syrian Government is looking, you know, for is looking for some International Support and theyre under pressure to provide humanitarian aid. And this is to do it. Woodruff we know there has been shooting, there as been violence since the ceasefire was supposed to have gotten under way. Who is responsible for that . Well, i think, you know, like a lot of things in syria it is imponderable. Each side blames the other. Each side theoretically have reasons to want to the on the convoy so we really dont know. I hate to give that answer but i dont think we know definitively. More than suggestion mondays since the chemical attack from damascus. We still dont know definitively who did those. So its been, a lot of if, massacres, its hard to know who did them. The attacks on the convoy, we have another situation where each side blames the other and who exactly is responsible is not exactly something we can ascertain. Woodruff tell us who is in homs, rate now. What are the conditions lake for People Living there . The conditions are obviously very, very primitive. We did talk to some people who came out particularly the first day. There was some food, but not a lot of food. People talked of it is getting warmer, some greens growing wild in lots and you know, in yards. People are afraid to leave their homes. One gentleman told me i was afraid if i stuck my head out the window it could be blasted into a dozen pieces. So its obviously very grim. There is very little medical care. Until the aid went in on saturday there hadnt been an official delivery of aid for more than 18 months. So the situation there is very grim. The estimates are there were Something Like 2,500 people in there, that was a rough estimate. And theyve gone about 700 out. So i think the aide workers suspect there is about 200 in them. Some are elderly and infirm had. There is a christian population of perhaps a hundred people in there according to some clerics i spoke to. Many of them are having trouble getting to the spot where they are being picked up. So there are no no christians came out in those three days but th