ed lavandera is in dallas tonight. what's the latest? >> reporter: well, anderson, right now the bottom line is the question that everyone wants the answer to is exactly when is the power going to be fully restored across this state? and sadly tonight, we don't have a firm timeline on when exactly that is happening. the state officials with the power grid system say that they are essentially at the mercy, at the power plants across the state to get the power systems back online. there are about 680 power plants across the state, we're told, that about 180 of those have been impacted in some way. officials here are saying they're hoping that the power can be fully restored in the next day or two, but there is not a lot of certainty that goes with that and warmer temperatures above freezing are not expected to stay around until this weekend. so it could take some time for everything to thaw out. >> what are officials saying about when power will be back on? and how much credibility do those officials have tonight given what they've been sa

, cnn, laredo, texas. >> thanks to ed lavandera for that important reporting. >>> it's been one weekce the military coup in myanmar. activists, civilians and the like are taking to the streets, demanding democracy. we'll show you more, straight ahead. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ for every trip you've been dreaming of, expedia has millions of flexible booking options. because the best trip is wherever we go together. ♪ sure, your health insurance tells you to see a doctor but, um, look around. these days it's not that easy. you're telling me. but humana helps make it easy. human care gives you tons of ways to talk to your doctor: phone, computer, in person, or tablet. hey jean! hi! this is just a quick follow up. your numbers are looking great. you don't even have to put on shoes. ooo! easy peasy. you like that, huh? mhm. humana. a more human way to healthcare. at visionworks, we want you to feel safe humana. and we want you to see yourself in your new glasses and think, "ooh!" but if you get home and your "ooh" is more of a "hmm..." you have 100 days to change your mind. that's the visionworks differe

cnn's ed lavandera joins us live tonight in dallas. ed, good evening to you. thanks for joining. hundreds of thousands of people still remain without power. more than 13 million are dealing with water disruptions. this crisis is far from over. give us the latest, please. >> reporter: it is far from over, but it has really changed dramatically since we last talked to you last night, don. remember last night we were at about 1.8 million households without power. that has dropped to under 350,000, probably around the 300,000 mark at this point. so that is an improvement. and officials with the state power grid system say that none of the outages that remain is being caused by problems at power plants across the state. however, that means it might take a little bit longer to get those homes back online because we're talking about power line damage, the physical damage left by the winter storm. and as you alluded to, the water issue is really a problem all across the state. some 13.2 million people affected by water issues across the state. that's half the population of texas. so it's

let's go straight to dallas, to cnn's ed lavandera. ed, this storm has disrupted so many things.hat you're hearing from folks and how bad is it? >> reporter: snow and ice blankets the state, and frustration also blankets this state as the political finger pointing continues today as right now 3.6 million texans still remain without power. this is one of the thousands of substations that generate and move power to neighborhoods across the state. this particular one provides power to 17,000 people. we're told that this is missing power to 1500 people. this is the frustration people are dealing with well into this winter storm. and the finger pointing is going on. the governor of texas, who has come under a great deal of fire because of the way he has handled this as well is saying that he's calling for an investigation of the state agency that runs the texas power grid, just so people know, texas runs on its own power grid, separate from the rest of the united states. we spoke with the ceo of that power grid agency just a short while ago. and he told us that because of what ercott,

>> ed lavandera, thank you so much. you're right about that. i want to bring in doug brinkley who has been without power and water. i'm so sorry this is happening. thank you so much for joining us. frigid temperatures in austin. millions of people without power. you're in the thick of it. how are you doing? >> i'm hanging in there. my family's hanging in there but there's bad news everywhere you turn. i tried to get out of my driveway. there are branches left in roads. they have no salting devices or any way to de-ice or get rid of ice and governor abbott has been making a fool out of himself over and over again angering the people of texas. it's not just ercot that will be having laws. texas, energy state known for exporting energy doesn't have even the most rudimentary ways to turn on electricity for people. i was in katrina, don, i learned about the 48 hour window if you don't get to people with rescue, relief, power pretty quickly, you're going to have unnecessary death on your hand. >> it's a catastrophe already. what are you using, flashl

ed lavandera for us. k you, ed. >>> now, if you would like to help the people there in texas that have been impacted by the winter weather we have a list of resources on our website to help you help them. cnn.com/impact. and thank you for doing so. >>> confirmation hearings for president biden's attorney general start tomorrow. merrick garland, what he will say when he goes before the senate. >>> new covid stats reveal numbers we haven't seen in the u.s. since november. is the curve finally starting to flatten? that's the big question. and the vote that could bring relief to millions of you struggling to make ends meet right now. izza.” we use fresh, clean ingredients... to make a masterpiece. order our new pepperoni and four cheese flatbread pizzas for delivery or pickup today. panera. anything your wild child does pampers cruisers 360° fit can too with a stretchy waistband and adaptive 360° fit so they can move the way they were born to [music]: born to be wild pampers cruisers 360° fit (man) i'm a veriz

cnn's ed lavandera has more from dallas. >> reporter: millions of texans are once again spending a brutalnd dangerously cold night in their homes, this is because there are still millions of people without electrical power in their homes. this is the third night in a row that power is still out to millions of homes across the state because of this winter storm that blew in sunday night into the state. there is another storm expected to come through on wednesday as well. but the question remains when will the electrical system be back up to full strength to get people the ability to warm up their homes. and as hard as it may seem to believe, we just don't have a clear answer at this point. we spoke with the chief executive of the texas power grid on tuesday who said they hoped to restore power on tuesday and wednesday, it's not clear that's going to happen. we've heard from local and state officials who seem to suggest that there are other issues at play here. the governor is saying that natural gas pipelines are frozen. so it could take longer to restore that power. and get that power int

ed lavandera, wear a hat. for god's sake, your hair will handle it. >> i'm going to toughen this out. >> thanks, ed. appreciate it. >>> republican richard burr censured by his state party overnight for voting to convict the former president. north carolina's republican chair joins me to talk about the decision, next. s. with a companion that powers a digital world, traded with a touch. the gold standard, so to speak ;) >>> overnight, north carolina republican party voted unanimously to censure senator richard burr for his vote to convict the former president at the senate impeachment trial. joining us now, michael watley, the chair of the north carolina republican party. mr. chairman, thanks for being with us. can i ask. you had a tornado in your state overnight. some really, really dangerous weather. you, your family, everyone you know okay? >> yes, sir. we are good, but we're certainly praying for those families down in brunswick county and appreciate the effort of our first responders to make sure that they

let's go to our national correspondent ed lavandera. he's joining us from dallas right now. is dire for millions of people right now. >> reporter: it is, wolf. and the sad news here once again tonight is that there's no real clear timeline on when things are going to get better and get everyone back on line. there are about 680 power plants across the state. 180 of those roughly have been taken off line by this winter st storm. the deep texas freeze is inflicting pain and frustration across the state. for three days millions of people have been unable to heat their homes, temperatures dropping to life-threatening levels and causing chaos. linda shoemaker had to leave her home for a warm shelter to protect her 101-year-old mother. >> my mother said, i'm going to stay home and, you know, cover up with all my quilts. i said, mother, you could freeze in the middle of the night. >> reporter: the bitter cold has now turned to heated anger over the catastrophic failure of the state's power grid. >> every source of power that the state of texas has has been compromised. >> reporter:

ed lavandera live from dallas. thank you. >>> despite his fellow texans suffering, freezing, going hungry, some of them even dieing, senator ted cruz last night flew to cancun, mexico for a family vacation. there were pictures of him at the airport and on the plane that popped up on social media and moments ago he confirmed that was him. he felt he needed to trade the prickly cactus of his podcast for invite issing palm trees it of the youk yukon peninsula and crews use police resources to make his way to the sky zone. houston police confirming moments ago cruz's staff requested assistance to get him to the airport. the irony here is thick, because one of cruz's re-election selling points in 2018 was he helped texans during the harvey disaster. >> when disaster struck, texans came together helping each other. everyone doing their part. like ted cruz, who brought home billions in disaster relief and passed emergency tax relief for those hit by hurricane harvey. >> no official, state or federal harks been more involv

ed lavandera is on the frowned for us in dallas. >> reporter: christine and laura, officials with the state power grid system say none of the remaining power outages is being caused by problems at the power plants across the state. that is the first time we've been able to say that in the last four nights. having said that, it is another frigid night with temperatures well below freezing. they're continuing to point fingers over what went wrong in the weather disaster. governor greg abbott says he takes responsibility for the issues at ercot. they run the state power grid system. he leveled a new round of attacks on the executives at ercot who says they assured him there would be enough power to get through the winter storm. ercot officials said they had to make the decisions they made because they were seconds if not minutes away from a catastrophic failure that could have taken months to repair. christine and laura. >> ed lavandera, thank you so much. >>> first came poor judgment, then came the lies but no one saw the text chain among friends. ted cruz now admits his trip to cancuns

ed lavandera, many of these cities simply not equipped to handle this kind of freezing cold weather.fficials, local officials describing this as unmitigated disaster, what happens unfolded in texas. a sliver of good news, we're at the peak of the number of people without power was 4.4 million in texas alone earlier this morning, and that number has dropped now to about 3.2 million. so, we spoke with the ceo of the texas power grid that operates the system. he says they're hoping to have the system and all of the power generated to get everyone back online in the next day or two. but it has been a day of political finger pointing here in this state, as there is a great deal -- the blame game sshlly is going on, jake, as many people are trying to figure out exactly what went wrong with all these power supplies and not enough power being generated, for a storm that was well advertised. many people here knew it was on the way. we're standing out here, outside of one of these substations where not everybody is fully getting the power that they need to get their homes warm. and it has been

ed lavandera, cnn, dallas. >>> well, the wife of convicted drug lord joakim el chapo gus man has been arrested on international drug trafficking charges. she was arrested monday at dulles airport just outside of washington. the u.s. justice department ms charges her with conspiracy. prosecutors say she also helped her husband escape from a mexican prison back in 2015. el chapo is now serving a life sentence in a u.s. prison. >>> well, as the u.s. surpasses yet another terrifying death toll, it is a big week for president joe biden's stimulus bill. we'll look at how the bill is expected to fare in the house and senate. >>> also ahead, president joe biden sits down with prime minister justin trudeau. why the vaccine is expected to be a hot topic. back with that in a moment. learn more at grammarly.com/business. do you have a life insurance policy you no longer need? now you can sell your policy, even a term policy, for an immediate cash payment. call coventry direct to learn more. we thought we had planned carefully for our retirement. but we quickly realized that we needed a way to sup

>> ed lavandera, tha reporting. >>> well, in washington, the battle over stimulus continues. of those stimulus checks be key to helping struggling americans or not? a nonpartisan economist with the numbers, next. ok, just keep coloring there... and sweetie can you just be... gentle with the pens. okey. okey. i know. gentle..gentle new projects means new project managers. you need to hire. i need indeed. indeed you do. the moment you sponsor a job on indeed you get a short list of quality candidates from our resume database so you can start hiring right away. claim your seventy five dollar credit, when you post your first job at indeed.com/home. university of phoenix is awarding up to one million dollars in new scholarships through this month, because hope fuels opportunity. see what scholarship you qualify for at phoenix.edu >>> president biden and republican senators are still pretty far apart on key details of the next covid stimulus plan. bottom line, democrats want to go big. is that better? with me now is the leading expert on poverty in america, dr. raj chedi, professor

. >>> right now let's go to our national correspondent ed lavandera. he's in dallas which has been hit so hard. ed, texans are struggling to get ahold of drinkable water as the texas naightmare continues tonight. >> reporter: it is, wolf. most of the victims who died, died from hypothermia and carbon monoxide poisoning. millions will spend the weekend just trying to find water. a military plane transporting 84,000 bottles of water from california landed in galveston, texas. thousands of people are driving through massive food and water distribution sites in houston and san antonio. >> i don't think any of us was expecting this, for it to be like this. it's all about survival right now until it starts getting warm. >> no water. and i have a 7-year-old. it's tough. >> reporter: some 16 million texans are battling water disruptions as more than 1,200 public water systems across the state are fighting to fix disruptions caused by the winter storm and power grid failure. the worst of the texas freeze is over. state officials say the power grid emergency is n

but first let's go straight to ed lavandera. he's been all over this in texas. ed, what's the story? is it improving at all? >> reporter: well, we're actually seeing dramatic improvements. last night when we were finishing up our reporting, there were about 1.8 million households across the state that still didn't have electrical power. i just checked. that number is down to about 417,000 households across the state that are still without power. so, obviously a great deal of movement and dramatic change here in less than the last 24 hours. however, it is still going to take some time. state power grid officials say that the majority of -- or what appears to be one of the bigger problems for the remaining people without power is that it could be damage to powerlines that crews have to go out into the field and repair that it's not necessarily a power generation issue at this point or it's getting more into that area. so, that is going to take some time to be able to get the crews out into the field where they need to be. and one of the most significantly hard-hit

deal of scepticism, especially among the critics of the republican leadership in this state. >> ed lavandera on top of the story for us. ed, thank you very much. we will talk to you soon. >>> now i want to bring in matthew dowd, the former chief strategist for president george w. bush. he lives in texas and he has been dealing with the water and power crisis like millions of his fellow texans. matthew, sorry you are having to deal with that. we appreciate you coming on. let's talk about the millions of you and your former texans dealing with water disruptions, people can't find food. you are dealing with frozen pipes. tell us what you and your family have been through just the past few days. >> thanks for having me on, don. i mean i have been more blessed, i think, than many others. i lost my power like most people here in this community did, and we had rolling blackouts, which were more like rolling lights on. we had the lights on for a shorter period of time than the blackouts, and my pipes have frozen. so our power is back on, but i have my pipes are frozen. i have to try to see if i can

cnn's ed lavandera takes a look at why. >> reporter: several times a day, customs and border protections of migrants at the bus station in mcallen, texas. >> when did you cross? >> reporter: edwin crossed the border the day before with his son. >> reporter: rubio is part of a rise in arrivals at the southern border that's been slowly increasing since last april. the migrants are driven by the covid pandemic and the devastation left by two major hurricanes. cpb reports about 73,000 people were apprehended at the border. these migrants have permission to move on with notices to appear in court. the biden administration continues to warn migrants that in many cases they'll be turned away, but the fact of the matter is there are still some of these migrants who are being released. what we've seen here in mcallen is many family units. you can see mothers and fathers and many young children. they wait inside an old nightclub that's been turned into a catholic charity shelter run by sister norma. she tells us it's a confusing time on the border because while some families are being released, t

cnn's ed lavandera reports this morning from dallas. >> reporter: christine and laura, it is the thirdillions of texans without electrical power since the storm blew into the state sunday night into monday. another night of spending and living in dangerously cold and brutal conditions inside their homes. the million dollar question still remains when exactly will the power be turned on for all of these people suffering through these conditions. and as hard as it may seem to believe, the answers just aren't clear yet. we spoke with the chief executive of the texas power grid who had told us that they had hoped to have power restored in most cases, perhaps by wednesday. but it's not exactly clear that's going to happen today. in fact, the governor of texas has been telling local reporters here in the state that there are problems with the natural gas pipelines, that natural gas essentially is frozen in those systems. and natural gas is what powers the heating systems for millions of homes across this state. so, this is a situation that appears that it might get worse before it gets bette

ed lavandera is in dallas for us. what is the situation? >> reporter: hey, anderson. here tonight, we know that the death toll across the state of texas after what has been an absolutely miserable week is at 26. most of those victims died after hypothermia and exposure to carbon monoxide poisoning and it highlights that even with another night of frigid temperatures coming, the worst isn't over yet. a military plane transporting 84,000 bottles of water from california landed in galveston, texas. thousands of people are driving through massive food and water distribution sites in houston and san antonio. >> i don't think any of us was expecting this and for it to be like this. so it's all about survival right now until it starts getting warm. >> no water. it's real bad. and i have a 7-year-old. and it's like it's tough. >> reporter: some 14 million texans are battling water shortages as more than 1,200 public water systems across the state are fighting to fix disruptions caused by the winter storm and power grid failure. the worst of the texas freeze is over. state off

cnn's ed lavandera went to the border for a look at the impact of the trump administration's policiesand president biden is expected to sign a series of executive orders beginning the rollout of an immigration plan and even though he might be talking about unity and bipartisanship, immigration is just one of those issues that makes that aisle much wider and much harder to reach across. the immigration debate in america is a political mine field. and right out of the gate, president biden is facing legal challenges. the president issued a 100-day pause on deportations, but a federal judge has temporarily blocked that move. but biden is ready to move on other issues. isa mendez came to laredo, tex awith her parents at the age of 2. she's now 33. everyone in her family, including her four children are u.s.s is the, except her. mendez is one of the hundreds of thousands of people known as dreamers. president biden is proposing a pathway to citizenship for these immigrants who have been able to live in the u.s. because of the obama-era program known as daca. >> we've lived four years of tr

ed lavandera, cnn, laredo, texas. >>> iran is still enriching uranium and challenging joe biden to make first move. the u.s. president is saying no. in an interview, president biden said they will not lift sanctions on iran, particularly not while tehran enriches more uranium. former president trump violated the deal by leaving it and so it's up to the u.s. to rejoin it and lift sanctions. u.s. officials are in talks with european allies to figure out their next moves. >>> despite a military coupe, thousands of protestors are out in the city streets of myanmar. we will get the latest in a live report. want to make a name for yourself in gaming? then make a name for yourself. even if your office, and bank balance are... far from glamorous. that means expensing nothing but pizza. your expenses look good, and your books are set for the month! ...going up against this guy... and pitching your idea 100 times. no, no, no! no. i like it. -he likes it! ...and you definitely love that. intuit quickbooks helps small businesses be more successful with payments, payroll, banking and live bookkeepin

i want to start tonight with cnn's ed lavandera on the ground for us in >> reporter: the temperature in jose's house in del rio, texas, is 35 degrees. he lost power sunday night. >> i just stay in this room. keeps the room warm. >> reporter: he can handle the cold but he needs a generator to keep his oxygen machine going. he spent three weeks in a hospital intensive care unit recently battling covid-19 flgt. he still needs around the clock oxygen. >> i'm nervous. more nervous than i was, when the power will come on. that's a lot, around the house, that is a lot of people but not me. i don't know why. >> reporter: the bitter cold has turned to heated acker over the catastrophic failure of the state's power grid. texas governor greg abbott made the rounds on texas television news programs to say it is a total failure of the organization which runs nearly all the state's power grid. he has called for an investigation and for executives to resign. >> it stands for electric reliability council of texas. and they showed that they were not reliable. most of texas runs on its own power grid,

i want to go to cnn's ed lavandera. he is in dallas. this is a catastrophe, ed. again, as i was telling chris, i was speaking to one of my friends tonight. she has no water, no power. she said they're rolling water and rolling power. she hasn't gotten any information. i understand that you have got some new information. and i hope some people in texas are watching us on their phones or if they happen to have power give us that information so they'll know what's going on. >> reporter: right. well, the organization you've been talking about, ercot, which is the semi-private agency that oversees the state power grid system, they're saying tonight that they're hoping that by tomorrow morning they will have enough power back on line that they can resume the rolling outages, which is what's supposed to have started -- been happening since sunday -- late sunday night into early monday morning. this is a little bit to essentially spread the pain of all of this across more people. they're saying that those rolling outages could resume by some point tomorrow morning becaus

ed lavandera joins us from dallas. the weather is actually improving, we should mention. another day. >> reporter: yeah. it's going to take some time. now starting to move into the part of the people

>> ed lavandera, thank you so much. >>> president biden facing his first foreign policy test involvingader. ♪ if you have moderate to severe psoriasis or psoriatic arthritis, little things can become your big moment. that's why there's otezla. otezla is not an injection or a cream. it's a pill that treats differently. for psoriasis, 75% clearer skin is achievable, with reduced redness, thickness, and scaliness of plaques. for psoriatic arthritis, otezla is proven to reduce joint swelling, tenderness, and pain. and the otezla prescribing information has no requirement for routine lab monitoring. don't use if you're allergic to otezla. it may cause severe diarrhea, nausea, or vomiting. otezla is associated with an increased risk of depression. tell your doctor if you have a history of depression or suicidal thoughts or if these feelings develop. some people taking otezla reported weight loss. your doctor should monitor your weight and may stop treatment. upper respiratory tract infection and headache may occur. tell your doctor about your medicines and if you're pregnant or planning to b

. >> i want to go to dallas and cnn's ed lavandera. the organization that managing the power grid, ercot, its ceo repeatedly asked about ercot's accountability in all this. what can you tell us? >> reporter: they have been saying throughout, especially in the last two days, as the governor of texas has unleashed a barrage of criticism at that organization for what he says is a failure, an epic failure here in this state, but ercot officials, the name of the agency that runs the state's power grid system, says they did what they had to do to protect a much larger catastrophe. those officials saying seconds if not a couple minutes away from a total collapse across the grid. that is a political fight that will continue to play out in this state, in the coming days and weeks. state lawmakers are in session in off then. obviously, this is something that will continue to play out, but the more pressing matter at hand right now, brianna, is just where we are in terms of getting out of this crisis, and the good news is that those state power g

ed lavandera is in dallas. ed, tell me what you know now. >> reporter: well, the governor here in the state of texas has faced a week of blistering criticism. and after all of that, he says today that he accepts responsibility for the issues at ercot, the state's power agency. he once again leveled severe criticism at the top executives at that agency who assured him the state would have enough power to get through this winter disaster. we know now that wasn't the case. >>> texas is bracing for another dangerously frigid night. >> we are not yet out of this. we will not stop until normalcy is restored to your lives. >> reporter: as another winter storm barrels in, the governor is requesting a major emergency declaration. >> what a nightmare. oh, my god. >> reporter: local officials are fed up and fearing the worst. >> the truth is that right now we're just trying to keep people alive and safe for the next two days. >> we expect to see that death count rise. >> it is a mass. it is a mess. >> reporter: while power

ed lavandera is outfront. >> reporter: the immigration debate in america is a political mine field andthe gate, president biden is facialing legal challenges. the president issued a pause on is ready to move on other issues. mendez came to laredo, texas with her parents at the age of 2. she's now 33. everyone in her family including her four children are now u.s. citizens, except her. mendez is one of the hundreds of thousands of people known as dreamers, president biden is proposing a pathway to citizen ship for these immigrants who have been able to live in the u.s. because of the obama era program known as daca. >> we've lived four years of trump vincstringing us along wi fear and anxiety. i'm hopeful something positive will come out of these different legislations, or these executive actions that biden has brought. >> reporter: the trump administration wheeled out four years of controversial programs that critics often described as inhumane but that many conservatives have celebrated. there are still 611 children separated from their parents as part of the trump administration's ze

. >> reporter: i'm ed lavandera in dallas. texas motor speedway has been turned into what is believed to be one of the largest coronavirus vaccine hubs in the country. in a place where you're used to seeing cars driving at 200 miles per hour, instead, you're seeing the slow lane of cars through 16 lanes to get the vaccine. you have to have an appointment. and health officials in denton county north of ft. worth say about 10,000 shots were administered on tuesday. and the goal is to vaccinate 30,000 people this week. >> reporter: i'm bianna golodryga in new york. pointing to research that schools can safely reopen with proper mitigation, north carolina's governor roy cooper is urging schools to resume in-person instruction, cooper, a democrat, made his comments one day after state republicans filed a bill requiring north carolina k through 12 public schools to give students the option of in-person learning. cooper said while he won't issue a mandate to reopen schools, he hopes local school boards will take action, adding that r

cnn's ed lavandera on the ground for us in dallas. >> reporter: christine and laura, millions of texans once again spending a third night in frigid cold temperatures across the state. and unfortunately, there is no clear time line as to exactly when the electrical systems will be fully restored here in this state. state power grid officials say they're hoping that in the next day or two that all of the power plants that have been adversely affected by this winter storm will be able to get their systems back up and running once again generating the power needed to warm up millions of homes across the state. quite frankly, there is not a clear time line about when that's going to happen. warmer temperatures above freezing are not expected to be here until this weekend. so this is an event that could take longer to get out of than originally anticipated. the finger pointing and the political blame games continue. the governor of texas, greg abbott, is blaming ercott, which is the state power grid system, saying they need to be investigated and that executives need to resign. ercot official

cnn's ed lavandera live with more in texas. >> reporter: good morning, alisyn. well, it has been a brutal night for millions of texans across the state as you mentioned. temperatures in single digits and nearly 4 million people here in this state without power and the finger pointing is int intensifying about what has gone wrong. >> reporter: freezing temperatures and power outages are pummelling areas from texas through the plain states. more than a third of the country reached temperatures below zero on monday. texas is receiving the brunt of the storm with millions across the state left with no power and no heat. >> we all see the current situation. i'm not going to sugar coat it. the next few days are going to be very tough. there's a high chance the power will be out for these folks until the weather gets better, which will not be for a couple of days. >> reporter: the city of abilene that has a population of more than 100,000 residents was forced to shut off water last night due to power outages. the lacking infrastructure for these conditions is a major c

cnn's ed lavandera is live in dallas.hen we say millions of people, we are talking, what, half the state that doesn't have clean water? >> reporter: yeah, really is stunning to think of it in those terms. more than 14 million people, about half the population of the state of texas. that is a problem and a number that hasn't really changed since friday. so clearly this a process that's taking a long time to correct and that is because in a lot of places you drive around you see busted water main pipes on streets that are taking crews a long time to get to. you have busted pipes in people's homes. so a combination of issues and headaches that people are battling with. that coming as in large part the power is coming back on. i think the last check is under 40,000 people still without electrical power. a far cry from what we saw at the worst of this winter storm, which is about 4.5 million households across the state that didn't have power. so that situation has improved. but the water situation continues to be a problem, an

. >> it's crazy to think, i was talking to our colleague ed lavandera earlier this week who said texans were seconds away from catastrophic failure as if what they have been experiencing hasn't been that. are officials disclosing the details of what went so long? >> that particular is extremely interesting. for starters the ceo of ercot is not calling this a success story is what he's saying is this could have been so much worse in that looking at a day's long blackout like what we saw could very well have been a month's long blackout or at least for an indeterminant amount of time, so what he is saying is that they are going to have to go through and figure out what went wrong here and figure out what can prevent them from that happening in the future. >> let's go to hues top. two judges in harris county texas, judge jermaine tanner who works in the texas district court and judge shannon baldwin serves in the court as well and is the first openly lbgtq judge. 19 black women were voted to serve on the bench. they call themselves black girl magic judges, so your honor and your honor, wel

days before biden was sworn in as president, this is what trump supporters said to our ed lavandera. >> i want my president trump standing up there being inaugurated as the next -- as an extended president of the united states. all i can say is the biden and kamala would never be my president. >> man no raju is out front on capitol hill. manu, pretty incredible exchange between yourself and senator johnson. we know the facts here. as mitch mcconnell said, these were people wrapped in trump flags, chanting in his name, as kevin mccarthy told trump in that heated call that day, these are your people, your supporters. yet senator johnson is continuing to put this out there, and other republicans are still saying it's information. >> reporter: ron johnson has actually been making that case publicly for -- since january 6th, essentially. he's told me repeatedly he does not think the people that came into this building are the same trump supporters that he knows, suggesting at yesterday's hearing that perhaps, according to this eyewitness account that he referenced, that it was not trump s

once again tonight, it's ed lavandera. >> reporter: the temperature in jose's house in del rio, texashe lost power sunday night. >> i just stay in this room. keeps the room warm. >> reporter: he can handle the cold but he needs a generator to keep his oxygen machine going. he spent three weeks in a hospital intensive care recently battling covid-19. he still needs around the clock oxygen. >> i'm nervous. i'm nervous. i don't know what is going to happen when the power is going to come on. that's a lot of around the house, a lot of people to have light, but not me. i don't know why. >> reporter: the bitter cold has now turned to heated anger over the catastrophic failure of the state's power grid. texas governor greg abbott made the rounds on texas television news programs to say it a total failure of the organization known as ercot that runs the state's power grid. he called for an investigation and executives to resign. >> ercot stands for electric reliability counsel of texas and they showed they were not reliable. >> reporter: most of texas runs on its own power grid separate from

border, i mean, that's going to be the huge challenge on the flip side here as we heard from ed lavandera'snts may be getting the idea that biden is easing border controls, which could trigger a rush for the border and encourage, you know, coyotes and smugglers. how does biden get the balance right here, the need for humane policies versus encouraging a mass ex owe does which could create its own humanitarian crisis? >> first and foremost, people do not leave their home country just because, they leave because they're forced to leave because of violence, because of, you know, famine, war. that's why they leave. so what president biden does in this immigration plan is invest every year $1 billion to ensure that central american countries which are right now devastated and who are seeing this outflow of people because they can't -- they can't survive in their home country. so he's investing in what we call root causes. so that gives me a lot of hope because i think we all recognize if we don't fix what's happening in home countries to force people to have to migrate, then we're not going to m