Skyfall: Snow is dumping today on the Mid Atlantic region from Virginia and north into New England. Roughly 30 million people live in the blizzard zone with the heaviest accumulations expected in Washington, DC and Baltimore. Motorists have been stranded on Interstate 75 in Kentucky. Philadelphia has a foot and city crews are already trying to clear Times Square in New York.

Our Baltimore stringer tells us, “Probably 16 inches on my favorite chair out in back, maybe more, and still counting.”

The governors of 10 states have declared states of emergency. Nearly 3,600 flights have been cancelled and 420 are delayed.

Television crews are out in force. CNN is on the job with their “dash cam.” This morning they got the excusive on a car trying to get off a highway exit ramp.

WCBS television in New York promises in a promo that they’ll be reporting, “From the city to the suburbs, our reporters with our Mobile fleet, Mobile Two, and our mobile weather lab, out in full force … Eye on the Storm, powered by Chevy. Find new roads.” Preferably plowed.

The Envelope, Please: In the wake of boycotts by major stars protesting the lack of Oscar nominations for nonwhite actors, the Motion Picture Academy has vowed that it is going to change its nominating and voting to include minorities.

Academy president, Cheryl Boone Isaacs said, “The academy is going to lead and not wait for the industry to catch up.” The Academy is loaded with white fogies who probably don’t even watch a movie like “Straight Outta Compton” to decide whether it’s worth a nomination. The Academy has about 6,200 permanent members, who are like the Politburo of the Oscars. One of the rule changes is that their membership will be reviewed every 10 years.

Politics: Eight days out from the Iowa Caucuses, Donald Trump’s average lead in Republican polls is 34.8 percent, close to double his closest competitor, Ted Cruz, at 18.8 percent. For the Democrats, Hillary Clinton leads Bernie Sanders 51.2 to 38 percent.

But in Iowa it’s closer for everyone. Trump leads by less than 3 percent; Clinton by just over 3 percent. A defeat for either could be a turning point. Yesterday Trump released an ad portraying Cruz as soft and confused about his votes on illegal immigration. “We have people pouring in. They’re pouring in. And they’re doing tremendous damage,” Trump says.

A Cruz ad skewers Trump for using the power of eminent domain to take the home of an elderly woman to make a casino parking lot in Atlantic City. It says, “Trump won’t change the system, he’s what’s wrong with it.”

Clinton has turned to attacking Sanders on everything from health care to foreign policy and Wall Street. She even attacks his “electability,” which is one of those circular political arguments. Any candidate who can gather enough votes is electable, and at least in New Hampshire, Sanders will get more votes than Clinton.

The Obit Page: Bill Johnson, the brash downhill racer who took it to the edge and predicted, “I’m going to win the gold medal,” has died at age 55 in an Oregon nursing home. In 1984 he became the first American man to win an Olympic gold in alpine skiing. His triumph was followed by a messy life capped by a brain injury in a 2001 training accident while he was trying to make a comeback. His life and health deteriorated, never matching his flash of brilliance in Sarajevo.

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