This cold temperatures can cause frost bite and hazardous situation within minutes. The elderly, the very young and the disabled can be especially affected by extreme weather. 

 

Some areas will see temperatures 30 to 50 degrees colder than average. 

 

2014 is getting off to a dry start in California which depends heavily on winter rain and snowfall to fill reservoirs that supply farms and cities. NPR’s Kurk Sigler reports this is on top of last year which was one of California’s driest on record. 

 

The 2013 moisture totals are alarming in California. Los Angelis would normally get about 14 inches of rain, Oakland about 22 inches. But both cities for instance received less than four the entire year. The state drought manager Bill Croil says the situation in the Sier Anavana Mountains is even worse. 

 

"This is really a historic dry year for California. In Northern Siers it's the driest since [our annual] records were begun in 1905.” 

 

Like the rest of west California cities and farms depend on melting snow in the spring to fill the reservoirs, but snow pack levels across much of the Sire and Nevada are at just 20% of normal. Kurk Sigler, NPR News.

 

In Syria rebel groups have united in a new organization to push al-Qaeda linked fighters out of the country. NPR’s Dabbera Amers reports.

 

The unprecedented battle began on Thursday when a new rebel coalition called the Army of the Mujahidin issued a challenge on Facebook, “drop your weapons and leave Syria”. According to activists, the rebel alliance has driven the al-Qaeda group out of two towns in the north and retaken a border-crossing on the Turkish frontier in two days of fighting. The al-Qaeda militants known as ISIS were once welcomed by rebels and civilians alike who saw them as experienced fighters in the battle to topple the Syrian regime. But as ISIS gained territory in the north, their brutal tactics alienated many Syrians. In a statement on its website, the new rebel coalition accused ISIS of “killing, stealing and storming our houses while we were busy fighting the regime". Dabbera Amers, NPR News, Beirut.

 

The US embassy in Beirut is telling Americans in Lebanon to avoid hotels, western-style shopping centers and social events where US citizens typically gather. The embassy calls the sites likely targets for terrorist attacks. The warning follows a series of deadly bombings and other violence in the Lebanese capital linked to the civil war in neighboring Syria. 

 

This is NPR.

 

Fighting continues in Iraq’s Ambar province as Iraqi government troops and tribal leaders battled al-Qaeda linked fighters who are making gains in the strategic cities of Fallujah and Ramadi. Secretary of State John Kerry says the United State will help the Iraqi government but stressed not by providing troops.

 

A federal court has agreed to decide whether people arrested for crimes while they are in the US illegally can automatically be denied bail. NPR’s Ted Robins reports the case challenges an Arizona law. 

 

Arizona voters passed a law in 2006 which ordered state judges to deny bail if an undocumented immigrant was accused of a serious felony. The rationale was that those defendants would not show up in court if they were released. But lawyers for the ACLU say the law is really just an unconstitutional way to punish undocumented immigrants. They say judges should have the discretion to grant bail depending on individual circumstances. A three-judge penal of the nine Circuit Court of Appeal sided with the state. But now the full appeals court has agreed to hear the Arizona case. Ted Robins, NPR News.

 

Congress returns to session this week. The Senate is back tomorrow when it’s scheduled to vote on a three-month extension of long-term unemployment benefits. The program expired last weekend, leaving more than a million unemployed Americans without the supplement. The House gets back to work Tuesday. Majority Leader Eric Kantrer says the first order of business is a bill dealing with data security under the Affordable Care Act. Democrats say they will press for a bill to extend jobless benefits and raise the minimum wage.

 

I’m Babra Klein, NPR News in Washington.