The battle in the ballroom is back. We are live from los angeles to kick off our exclusive dancing with the stars reveal. The cast bus arriving just moments ago. Youre about to find out why its the biggest season ever and it starts now only on gma. And we do say good morning, america. It is time. Once again, dancing with the stars is back and this is going to be a huge one. The 20th season the tenth year. So who will be in the cast . Were counting down to that. Lara is live in l. A. Not alive, tom bergeron and erin andrews and the dancing pros and dj kalkutta were going to find out very soon who will be battling for the mirror ball trophy. That is ahead. We want to get right to that new winter storm. Snow and ice across the south. Deep freeze from illinois all the way to maine. Ginger is tracking it all for us. Good morning, ginger. Good morning to you. I am about ready to stop stepping outside and have tears come out from the wind and cold. It is 4 in new york city. The windchill is subzero and we are not alone. People from maryland all the way to New Hampshire sending me pictures of their dashboards and saying seriously, look at this. It feels like 20 below in Binghamton Erie 19 below. Pittsburgh broke records and then we talk about the snow and ice in the south. That picture was just from north of austin texas. Now theyre dealing with another storm coming their way. Winter weather advisories in place for dallas and everywhere east and you can see why. Those two storms now one thats already in the south, one thats coming from the four corners there going to go ahead and move on. Our Steve Osunsami is just north of atlanta in adairsville where theyre seeing it at this point, steve. Reporter good morning, ginger. What started off as freezing rain has now turned into ice and then snow. Across north georgia alone this morning, classes at nearly 100 schools are either canceled or delayed. Overnight White Knuckle drivers losing control. Trucks cars and even planes slipping and then crashing. He should have not slammed on his brakes. Reporter in dallas in semi hit a patch of ice and nearly fell off the highway. And at the dallas ft. Worth airport, the ice led to thousands of canceled flights and then this. An American Airlines jet sliding off the runway 68 passengers and crew were frightened but were unhurt. Thank this everlasting winter for hundreds of accidents monday. This latest arctic blast bringing dangerous travel from coast to coast. In amarillo a 37vehicle pileup. We wanted to get together and do some good for some people. Reporter it took five jeeps with the drivers working together to help free tractor trailers that jackknifed across the highway. We freed the highway so thats pretty good accomplishment. Reporter in the northeast the falling ice is crashing on to cars. Id say a foot long probably half a foot wide like this. Reporter this man was hurt when a large piece of ice fell off a trunk and into his windshield while he was driving. He needed 30 stitches and is recovering this morning. Weather might also be to blame for this explosion in new jersey. A tanker blew up after the driver lost control flipping it over an exit ramp. I looked across the way and theres like a towering inferno of smoke. Reporter this is setting up a very slippery commute this morning. We saw one depth on the way here and that is likely to be one of many this morning. George. Sure is. Steve, thanks very much. We go to washington now and a showdown over Homeland Security. A fight between democrats and republicans over immigration is holding up funding for the whole department and at midnight friday the deadline is many looking. Jon karl is at the white house and this is them preventing our borders. What happens if Congress Cuts off funding . Reporter if congress cannot pass a bill by friday at midnight funding runs out. That means 30,000 federal workers will be furloughed ordered to stay home. Another 200,000 at the department the vast majority will be required to go to work because theyre called essential but they will have to work george without pay. This includes most of the secret service, the border patrol. Those tsa screeners at airports. The white house wont say whether or not this would actually endanger National Security but what they say it certainly wouldnt make us any safer. Deadlines have a way of concentrating minds. What is the chances this gets worked out. Reporter i think it will at the very least with a temporary agreement that keeps the Department Going for another month or so but a tough call. Remember republicans are fighting against the president S Immigration action. They want that stopped and they dont want to fund the department unless that action which they deem illegal is stopped. Okay johnn, thanks very much. The Veterans Affair secretary is under fire. He was captured making false claims about his military service. Robert mcdonald is now apologizing for saying he was in the special forces and Abcs Martha Raddatz has the latest and joins us from washington with that this morning. Good morning, martha. Reporter good morning, robin. This comes after the suspension of nbc anchor Brian Williams for exaggerating experiences in iraq and accusations of exaggeration then strong denials from foxs bill oreilly about his war coverage. But this morning, it is a member of the president s cabinet who is under fire. He is the head of our nations troubled Veterans Affairs, the man brought in to clean up the department but now bob mcdonald has created some trouble of his own. That is mcdonald in a cbs report talking to Homeless Veterans claiming service in the countrys elite u. S. Special forces. Army . What unit . Special forces. Special forces. What years . I was in special forces. Reporter but that is simply not true. Mcdonald is a veteran and west point graduate but he did not serve in special forces a tightknit highly Trained Group which includes navy s. E. A. L. S and green berets some of whom called mcdonald out for making that claim. Overnight, mcdonald admitted his error in a statement saying i incorrectly stated that i had been in special forces. That was inaccurate and i apologize to anyone that was offended by my misstatement. I have Great Respect for those who have served our nation in special forces. The apology was quickly acknowledged by the white house. We take him at his word and expect that this will not impact the important work hes doing to promote the health and wellbeing of our nations veterans. While mcdonald seems to have the backing of the white house it is the veterans ss whose support he needs and making claims when he was in an elite group when he was not could hurt that. George. Well watch, thanks. We turn to health news and what could be a game changer in fighting the recent explosion of peanut allergies. A study shows feeding peanut products to infants can cut the risk of developing the allergy and we bring in dr. Richard besser. This goes against everything weve been hearing. Every once in a while a study comes out and you say, wow. This goes against everything i was taught as a pediatrician and what ive been telling parents. Weve been saying to parents that the best way to prevent peanut allergy in your children is hold off on peanuts for the first three years of life. Turns out that was wrong. In this study they took 640 babies between 4 months and 11 months they were all at high risk of peanut allergies. Half said no peanut for the first five years of life the other they said peanuts three times a week and followed them. At five years those who are peanuts three times a week 80 fewer of them had peanut allergies. What was behind the explosion . You and i didnt have this . You know one of the thoughts is that weve made the world too clean for children. This idea that our children need to be exposed to things early in life so that our immune system tones down. It gets used to seeing these things so when it sees them later it doesnt develop all these reaction that is were seeing right now. What should parents do with this new information . If your child has Food Allergies or at high risk they need to be skin tested before you do anything here because they may already have an allergy but for other children you want to start them being exposed to a wide variety of foods when theyre babies and thats very very important. Weve changed how we feed babies now. No milk no honey but Everything Else is good to go for babies in the first year of life. Parents can have a lot of questions and will you be taking them on twitter this morning. All morning. Now to that bizarre kidnapping and attempted bank robbery in connecticut. Two suspects still at large after paralyzing one neighborhood there. A Bank Executive, tying up his mother at their home threatening to kill both of them. Abcs gio benitez is in new britain, connecticut. With the very latest on all this. Good morning, gio. Reporter good morning to you, robin. Investigators right now believe these crooks were trying to get into the vault here at this Small Community bank really using some hollywood tactics to get it done. This morning, the search is on for two men believed to have held a Bank Executive and his mother hostage in a dramatic bank robbery scheme that paralyzed parts of connecticut evacuateing apartments and locking down schools. Theres no question that this was a very scary situation. Reporter just after 8 a. M. Monday, Police Responding to a report of a Home Invasion at this house in bristol. Amonging to a local banks chief financial officer, Matthew Yussman seen here in his facebook profile. It infiltrated with the s. W. A. T. Team police from plainvillecame. Police from newington and brought one of those big humvees. Reporter sources telling abc news two men tied yussmans 70yearold mother to a bed leaving something that looked like an explosive device under the bed and they put another device on yussman forcing him to drive 20 minutes to the achieve credit union where he is an executive threatening to detonate the device under his mothers bed and kill him if he didnt empty the vault. Yussman never making it into the bank but managing to call a colleague who called police. They encountered an adult male in a Motor Vehicle who had what appeared to be an explosive device strapped to his person. Reporter authorities rendering the devices safe. The two suspects getting away without hurting yussman or his mother. The investigation does remain very fluid, very active and is expected to continue into the near future. Reporter and right now, those two men are still on the loose but police say that there is no threat to the community right now this morning. Again, mom and son are okay this morning. That is what is most important but youre saying the authorities about the suspects no real leads here . Reporter well right now police arent telling us a whole lot but we dont even know at this point if they know who these guys even are. All right, gio, thanks very much. We turn to that scare at Wesleyan University where a dozen kids have been hospitalized two in Critical Condition after taking a bad batch of molly. Abcs david wright has the story. Reporter this morning, authorities here in middletown are trying to trace the source of drugs that caused a serious situation. Your patient is a 20yearold male chief complaint, overdose. Reporter a close call for a dozen kids at this elite new england college. Its very just shocking. Reporter early sunday morning ambulances rushed eight patients from two dorms and this coed campus club known as the eclectic house to a local hospital. Four more checked themselves in. Got another one on foss hill. Reporter the symptoms consistent with an overdose of a designer drug known as molly. Fast heart rate high blood pressure. Agitation, ha hallucinations but that can quickly progress to more severe symptoms. Reporter molly is the street name for a pure christa lean powder form of mdma or ecstasy home made in a lab and often cut with other drugs. An overdose can cause liver, kidney or heart failure. Two of the wesleyan cases were serious enough that the patients had to be airlifted to hartford hospital. Keep in mind you never know what youre going to get. Theres no guarantees and a drug dealer is not going to tell you whats in that magic pill theyre selling you. Reporter the wesleyan president now issued a campuswide statement, please please stay away from illegal substances and warning one mistake can change for good morning america, david wright abc news middletown connecticut. Thanks to david for that. Gma weekend anchor dan harris in for amy with the other top stories. Good morning, everybody. Well start with breaking news. The latest active aggression from isis kidnapping at least 90 christians in syria. Activists say Islamic State fighters took them monday as they overran several villages in or the eastern syria. Not clear what they plan to do with them. This abduction followed the recent beheadings of 21 egyptian christians in libya. A big setback for Chris Christie the governor of new jersey. A state judge says he broke the law when he slashed 1. 6 billion in payments to the state pension fund. He now has to make up the difference. Christie has promoted himself as a governor who cuts spending without raising taxes. A wild pursuit near los angeles. A man wanted for reckless driving sped away from police weaving through traffic reaching 135 miles an hour even hitting a pedestrian. Police finally rammed the truck causing it to lose control and slam into another car. The driver surrendered after a 30minute tanoff. His passenger was not hurt. And look at this horrifying crash in boston. A pickup truck slamming into a light pole on the highway flying off the upper deck and plunging down to the lower deck beneath. Oncoming cars hit their brakes to avoid another crash. Amazingly this driver survived and he has now been charged with drunk driving. Fog may be to blame for the boat crashing into a restaurant in florida. The people inside ran for their lives after hearing the loud crash. Seven people were on the boat at the time. Two of them got hurt but not badly. Also from florida this morning a rescue team led by seaworld worked overnight to save more than a dozen manatees that got stuck in a 36inch storm drain. Manatees are often attracted to warmer water in drainpipes during winter. This morning nasa says that streak of light seen overnight in the sky over montana, idaho and utah was not a meteor but likely the remains of a rocket that launched a chinese satellite, the burning rocket was about 90 miles above earth at the time. Finally, tired of shoveling know this winter . Look at one guy in canada look at what he did. He trained his Labrador Retriever to do it for him. Her name is elsa fittingly and fittingly she loves the snow. Here she is clearing the backyard hockey rink. Interestingly, i have taught our three cats to do a similar trick where they stare at me blankly with barely con he will haved attempt while i clean up the hairballs they have coughed up on the rug. Not quite the same thing but a similar spirit, i think. Maybe next year. I love how elsa was wagging her tail. She does love the snow. Now to drier weather in the southwest perhaps. Not look at this. Hail in Southern California yesterday. See it covering the ground here in this backyard. A land spout you were just looking at just before. Now that same low pressure system that is going to, tcreated that is going the move off to the east. 63 will be the high in las vegas. This is after a day where they had snow on the ground in some of the suburbs los angeles goes to story. Remember i was telling you guys bright brilliant sunshine in l. A. After a rainy and cool weekend. 63 san francisco. Almost 70 in san diego. Phoenix will be in the 60s with that low very close there. You know who feels warm . The folks waking up in fog. Tampa just over a quarter mile of visibility. 1 mile in naples 1 mile key west. It will burn off to a beautiful day. Its spring break type weather. Were talking 80s for miami. Back to fort myers West Palm Beach daytona cooler and that stationary front makes everybody colder north of there. And that icy pocket were watching in the steep south. Thats the big picture. We got to get your local forecast in 30 seconds. Good morning everyone, dave murphy here with an update from accuweather. Storm tracker 6 live double scan shows you dry conditions but as we head outside bundle up. Weve got temperatures down into the Single Digits in a lot of spots. Were running at about 10 degrees in philadelphia and wind chills even though the winds are fairly light theyre actually making it feel like its close to zero in a couple neighborhoods. 24 is todays high. Not as windy as yesterday but wind chills in the teens later on. 35 tomorrow with a passing flurry. Back into the 20s on wednesday. Or i should say thursday and friday. Spring but somebody is getting a jump start. Walk through that path and dream of warmer weather. Great idea. It is a great idea. That helps a little bit. A little. Okay coming up on gma, the latest on the las vegas mother murdered on her front lawn. The suspect is in court and her husband is speaking out this morning. Also ahead, one of the winners of that massive Powerball Jackpot, she is here, a mother of four telling us all about her big plans. Its an abc news exclusive. And zendaya firing back against surprising comments about her red carpet look. Why shes calling it an ignorant slur. You see the dancers there on dancing with the stars. The big cast reveal in just a little bit. Who will be battling it out for the mirror ball trophy in season 20 . Kraft natural cheese starts with fresh milk carefully selected from only us dairy farms. Because we know it takes something amazing, to make something amazing. Get inspired at kraftrecipes. Com [ female announcer ] know