The Big Melt: All that snow and ice that crippled the East Coast from Atlanta to Boston is melting today. Atlanta, 43, Washington, 40, NYC, 36. But a new storm is moving in over the weekend.

The Deal: Comcast is buying Time Warner Cable for $45 billion. It’s a merger of one company hated by its customers with another company hated even more. Brian Williams of NBC News, which is also owned by Comcast, announced the deal without critical evaluation, which tells you what’s wrong with megamergers like this. When you sort through the bizspeak about shareholder value, what it means is that if the government approves this deal, your cable bill is going up no matter what they say. And ComWarner still won’t answer the phone.

Decision: A federal judge has struck down Virginia’s ban on same-sex marriage. Judge Wright Allen wrote, “Our Constitution declares that ‘all men’ are created equal. Surely this means all of us.”

World: Tens of thousands of people have evacuated after a volcano erupted on the island of Java. Two people died when the weight of falling ash collapsed their home. The area is covered by a blizzard of gray.

Family Feud: A package bomb that killed a rural Tennessee lawyer and his wife this week was planted by their son-in-law, according to authorities. John Setzer, 74, died Monday when the bomb blew, and his wife Marion, 72, died Wednesday of her injuries. Forty-nine year old Richard Parker, who lived next door to his in-laws, was charged with two counts of murder. Police did not give a motive.

The Obit Page: Actor Ralph Waite, 85, patron of the 1970s Depression era television series “The Waltons” has died. Waite was the wise father to Richard Thomas, who played “John-Boy,” a kid who wanted to be a writer. Waite said he took the job to make a little money, and he did. The show lasted nine years, making Waite a father figure to the country.

Political Forecasting: In the midst of a record book blizzard, New York Mayor Bill de Blasio got into a snow squall with NBC weatherman Al Roker, who complained over Twitter that New York schools were open yesterday while schools all around were closed. Roker tweeted from his sunny seat in Sochi, Russia (65 today), spelling the mayor’s name incorrectly, “Long range DiBlasio forecast: 1 term” The mayor said he had kept the schools open because working families depend upon them and the heavy weather came faster than predicted. De Blasio said, “It’s a different thing to run a city than to give weather on TV.” For one thing, a weatherman can be wrong every day.

Sochi: All the following results have already appeared on television.

>American men swept gold, silver, and bronze in the slopestyle skiing. In order: Joss Christensen of Park City, Gus Kenworthy of Telluride,  and Nick Goepper from Mt. Hood. The US coach said, “I still don’t believe it happened.”

>Four time Olympic medalist Evgeni Plushenko, 31, pulled out of the men’s skating because of back trouble and immediately announced his retirement from competition. Plushenko fell during warm-ups and was clearly in too much pain. After winning gold in the team competition, Russia now has no backup to represent the host country in men’s skating.

>In men’s hockey, The US squad of NHL pros pounded Slovakia 7-1. The Russian pros beat Slovenia 3-2.

>A forerunner sled hit a track worker at the bobsled venue, breaking both his legs and giving him a concussion. Two other workers jumped to safety. Why the three were on the track during the run is unexplained. An alarm is supposed to sound when a sled enters the chute.

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