THE BIG CHILL: The temperature in Des Moines, Iowa this morning was 10 below zero, causing political analysts to speculate endlessly on what will be the effect of the weather on turnout for tonight’s Iowa Caucuses, the opening of the presidential primary season. There’s no absentee voting in the caucuses — you have to show up.

  More than 100 million people in the US are under a freeze warning as what the weather forecasters call an “Arctic Blast” has descended on much of the country. Snow is expected in the South and snow squalls in the northeast.

  The National Weather Service reported wind chill readings yesterday of 19 below zero in Arkansas, 9 below in Dallas, and 60 degrees below zero — that’s right, 60 below — in Montana.

  The AFC Wild-Card game between the Buffalo Bills and Pittsburgh Steelers was postponed yesterday because of a whiteout blizzard in Buffalo. The game was re-scheduled to this afternoon at 4:30. The stadium was actually calling for volunteers to help clear the field. 

IT’S POLITICAL: Nikki Haley holds a slight edge over Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in the bitter fight for a distant second place in tonight’s Iowa Caucuses. The average of Iowa polls has Haley at 18.7 percent and DeSantis at 15.8 percent of the vote. 

  Donald Trump polls at 52.7 percent, but a win for Haley could establish her has the #1 alternative to Trump. 

VIDEO THREAT: Hamas militants yesterday released video of three Israeli hostages along with the disturbing message, “Tomorrow we will inform you of their Fate.” The three include Noa Argamani, 26, the young woman filmed being taken away from the site of the Nova rave massacre on the back of a motorcycle. The others in the video are two men, ages 53 and 38.  

BORDERLINE BEHAVIOR: The US Border Patrol says a woman and two children drowned in the Rio Grande River Friday evening near Eagle Pass as Texas military personnel blocked federal officers from saving the three migrants trying to enter the US.

  Under the direction of Gov. Greg Abbott, Operation Lone Star took control of Shelby Park in Eagle Pass, which faces the Rio Grande, an area that has been used to process migrants. 

  Alerted to a group of migrants in distress, the Border Patrol called the Texas Department of Public Safety and Texas National Guard then drove over to Shelby Park, according to Democratic Rep. Henry Cuellar, who was briefed on the incident. “Border Patrol agents then made physical contact with the Texas Military Department and the Texas National Guard at the Shelby Park Entrance Gate and verbally relayed the information,” Cuellar told Texas Public Radio. “However, Texas Military Department soldiers stated they would not grant access to the migrants—even in the event of an emergency —and that they would send a soldier to investigate the situation.”

  The three bodies were recovered by Mexican authorities.

GEORGIA ON MIND: Accused of having an inappropriate romantic relationship with the lawyer she hired to prosecute the Georgia election interference case, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willisyesterday claimed to be the target of a racist smear.

  While not addressing whether she has a relationship with Nathan Wade, Willis defended his credentials. The closest she came to an admission was telling the congregation in an historically Black church yesterday that the only perfect person was Jesus and, “Today, what he has brought you is his very flawed, hardheaded and imperfect servant.”

  Michael Roman, a former Trump campaign staff member who faces charges in the case along with Trump and 13 others, filed the accusation that Willis has a romantic relationship with Wade. 

  The accusation filed without supporting proof or documentation notes that Wade has never prosecuted a major case and that he and Willis have been seen around town together in what appears to be a personal relationship. The filing claims Willis has profited from tax funded payments to Wade by going with him on vacations that he sometimes paid for.

SLEEPLESS: Fox News has dropped ads for “MyPillow” owned by conservative activist Mike Lindell, a prominent 2020 election denier and ally of Donald Trump. 

  Lindell claims Fox is in a snit over his hiring of former Fox host Lou Dobbs to anchor on his website, FrankSpeech.com, but The Washington Post reports that it’s because Lindell has failed to pay his advertising bills at Fox. MyPillow was Fox’s second biggest advertiser in 2023.

THE OBIT PAGE: Edward J. Epstein, the skeptical and iconoclastic journalist who questioned whether John F. Kennedy was killed by a single assassin and that whistle-blower Edward Snowden was really a Russian spy, has died in Manhattan. He was 88.

  His nephew said the cause was complications of Covid.

  Epstein wrote more than two dozen nonfiction books, many diving into alleged government conspiracies and corporate malpractice.

THE SPIN RACK: The Pentagon says it shot down a Houthi missile aimed at a US Navy ship. — The crash landing of a hot air balloon in the southern Arizona desert yesterday left four people dead and another critically injured. — The principal of Perry High School who was credited with acting heroically to save students during a mass shooting earlier this month has died of his injuries. Dan Marburger was 56. — Federal prosecutors say they will seek the death sentence for 20-year-old Payton Gendron, the white supremacist already serving life in New York for killing 10 Black people at a Buffalo supermarket. The feds are charging him with a hate crime, punishable by death. 

BELOW THE FOLD:  Archaeologists deep in the Amazon have discovered a network of cities dating back 2,500 years. They describe wide streets, long, straight roads, plazas, and clusters of large platforms found in the eastern foothills of the Andes, in Amazonian Ecuador.

  The scientists credit the use of laser light from above to penetrate the jungle canopy and identify the remains of 6,000 structures. 

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