and then provide for texas families and employers should be hiring texas to fill job openings. if job training skills are needed the state will work to provide them we already supported job training programs to achieve remarkable success. i met stacy from the houston area. just a few years ago, she was homeless. that change after she went to do the job training program and worked her way up the ranks in just a few years going from home this to be a homeowner and when she told me how much she is making i let her know she is now earning more than the governor of texas. opportunity. that's what it's all about we have faced some hard times but we never shy away from challenges. we embrace them. we adapt and overcome and grow stronger as a result. this session the legislature can continue that legacy and help texans across our state exit this chapter even stronger. we can help them achieve the boundless opportunities that exist only in texas. and just as texans have united them put their differences aside to support one another through the pandemic. we at the capital must come toget

amy: then tohe growing crisis inside prisons and jails in texas. >> texas prins were alady in bad shape an then this happened. thgs are getting dire. toets are overflowing with feces. the prisoners are not getting enough to eat. amy: all that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the quarantine report. i'm amy goodman. president biden has signed a major disaster declaration for parts of texas after devastating winter storms last week cut power to millions, created water shortages, and left an estimated 70 people dead around the united states. in conroe, texas, cristian pavÓn pineda, an 11-year-old honduran boy, died in his family's mobile home after it lost heating, like many other homes in the houston area. his family has filed a long -- wrongful death lawsuit against texas's power companies which they say put profits over customers' lives. another young victim, an eight-year-old boy from honduras, drowned last week while attempting to cross the freezing rio grande from mexico with his family. his family was reportedly returned to mexico by u.s. border agent

in texas -- and texas is not alone -- we have had a huge radical shift in the oversight of electricityy from regulatory protections to protect people and ensure reliability. and instead, a reliance on market forces. and texas is the clearest case of this where instead of enforcing mandatory reliability standards for owners at power plants, texas instead relies on huge price increases to incentivize power gerators to deliver electricity even during perilous times like winter ice storms. so what we saw was as prices spiked to $9,000 a megawatt hour, which is astronomical -- typical is $20 a megawatt hour -- there were thousands of texans that signed up for retail rate programs that were directly tethered to the wholesale price. and during most times when power prices are normal, many of these customers saw some bill savings. and that is the way the company's market it, these plans to households. but then of course when prices spiked, these companies simply passed on those extremely high prices on to their customers. so the real question here is, what on earth were regulators thinking in

we must protect texas jobs for texas families. employers should be hiring texans when they have job openings. if job training skills are needed, the state will provide them. we already supported job programs that achieved remarkable success. a bright one from the houston area. just a few years ago she was homeless. that changed after she went through the job training program at s and b engineers and constructors and began to work her way up the ranks. in just a few years she went from being homeless to becoming a homeowner. when she told me how much she is making, i let her know she is learning more -- he is earning more than the governor of texas. opportunity. opportunity is what texas is all about. there is no doubt we face hard times these -- this past year but as texans we never shy away from challenges, instead we embrace them, we adapt and overcome and grow stronger as a result this session the legislature can continue that legacy, help texans across our state exit this chapter even stronger. we can help them achieve the opp

so, there's a number of states affected in addition to texas, but texas one of the worst because it's so far south. when you look at the building codes down there, it's really not made for temperatures that are this low that happen that often. last time this happened was over 50 years ago. so in addition to the cold temperatures that's causing significant impacts to individuals, it's having collateral effects to the water systems, to the fuel systems, and what we're doing now is responding to those to help texas out. the president, as you said, issued an emergency declaration this weekend that authorizes us to direct the federal government to support the state of texas, needs it may have. you talked about a lot of the resources we sent down there. we do have a very large warehouse in the texas area already, but we're also sending stuff over from atlanta and energizing a lot of our contractors and working with a lot of different groups that would bring assistance to the area, to help those that are nr need. >> i know that the president's emergency declaration allows fema, which is you,

i've been around these texas democrats a lot, texas republicans. there are real talented people. i'd like to have a democrat, but i think there are plenty enough people to do this, and i think they'll kind of figure out how to do the grid. they have a little bit of a cowboy stand and it bit them. they're going to have to -- they have a lot of smart people in texas. they'll figure this out. there's a lot of talented people in texas and a lot of them are elected and a lot are in the congress of the united states. >> a state of 30 million americans certainly has its share of talented people. hey, mark, let's talk about the senate. i don't know whether it's mcconnell's senate or trump's senate, but they certainly have operated as a bloc over the past several years on the republican side of the aisle. any of these issues that biden is floating, whether it's coronavirus relief, whether it's outreach to iran, whether it's immigration reform, an area where republicans have certainly made positive noises in the fact -- in the past. any of that going to cause people to at least be tempted

texas doesn't. texas is alone in the continental united states in having its own stand-alone texas-only power grid. they have it purposely never convey any power across any state lines, so there isn't any interstate activity that could legally be regulated by the federal government, so the federal government cannot regulate anything about texas power production and distribution. and so, texas power and distribution falls apart in the cold. they run it the texas way. they don't like regulations! they don't like requirements about being resilient in bad weather, despite their previous examples, their previous experience of living through exactly this sort of thing. after the fiasco in 2011 and those recommendations from ferc, texas announced some best practices for all its power producers, but that's just what they were, best practices. it didn't actually require any of them to do anything. and so, texas' power producers didn't do anything, and now texas is reliably a state where the power turns off s

we see you wearing texas flag mask as if texas is always on your mind. in your state, this is what's happening. >> it was colder in my living room inside than the refrigerator. that's how cold it was. >> there was no water in the store. we only have two cases of water left. we're trying to divide it between two families. >> right now we're just -- we're really concerned about how fast the temperature is dropping inside. >> it's, you know, even you stay in your house and you are cold and you freeze to death and you have no food. this really what's happening in houston. this is people ease lives right now. or you go out and go from hotel to hotel hoping you find something and you risk getting covid. >> for whatever reason, cancun cruz, you thought it was a good idea to abandon the millions of people you're responsible for who are freezing and fearing for their lives to come here instead. only to come back home and lie about it. joining me now is former communications director for the democratic national committee. mj hager, former texas senate democratic c

it really is a texas cartel. they like natural gas, they like petroleum, they make it hard on other alternatives. but yes, they do much better in the north, new jersey does better with their electricity through winter storms. texas is just out to lunch right now. >> thank you, douglas, be safe. we wish you well, hope the power comes back on. thank you very much. >> okay, thanks. >>> check back in with sylvia, a texas mother of five, three children with special needs who has been devastated by the texas power outages and she joins us now. it's so good to see you, last night we were by phone and now i get to see you and your beautiful family. thank you so much. so we spoke last night on the show about how hard the situation is, hitting your family and one of our viewers reached out to help today. so tell us about that. >> well first of all i want to say thank you to everybody. we've just had an overwhelming response from all over the world. all your viewers, we had a viewer, mr. raymond boyd, reached out and he was

as of tonight dozens have died in texas. the electricity part of the problem is starting to resolve now, although still tonight the number of texans without power remains in the hundreds of thousands. some of them for four straight days now. even with improvements, they may not last with many very cold temperatures in the forecast. texas regulators are warning they may again have to kill power in parts of the state that have power now may yet lose it. as regulators turn off some neighborhoods, some places that have power, again, they're anticipating have to do that to keep further strain off the unstable, unsupported grid in that state. texas grid managers saying if that does happen, they'll try to limit power disruptions this time to no more than 12 hours at a time. but on top of what everybody's already been through, knowing now may yet have the lights go off again is just beyond words. but this catastrophe with the power in texas, it is not a problem that can get fixed with the flip of a switch. the knock-on effects of de

today mounting devastation in texas and over there there are. almost 30. i hope the death toll from freezing temperatures and widespread outages rising higher officials in texas reporting at least 70 deaths with dozens of homes that lost their heat but officials say the full death toll could take months to really want to acknowledge just a man human suffering we. have when people lose power there are heartbreaking consequences when we had to make tough decisions when the storm came in and really didn't have a choice texas county d.a. jose garzon opening a criminal investigation into whether any person or entity should face charges for the outages it was a fault of man whose responsibility it was to ensure that these assets were functioning in case something like this 100 year freeze if you will would come 5 board leaders of texas' power grid operator urquhart now stepping down following outrage over the deaths caused by the outages scrutiny only intensifying when it was revealed that all the board members live outside of texas at that they would probably t

tonight, day five of the humanitarian crisis in texas. the good news, power's been restored to most of the state. the number of households without electricity is down from 4 million to around 100,000. but there's a new danger putting texans at risk, millions are now confronting a water crisis. 13 million texans don't have safe drinking water due to cracked pipes, frozen wells, and water treatment plants that have been knocked off-line. the people of texas are suffering because of decades of republican intransigence. republicans refuse to take action to weatherize water systems from the cold, and the texas tribune reports texas officials knew winter storms could leave the state's power grid vulnerable, but they left the choice to prepare for harsh weather up to the power companies, many of which opted against the costly upgrades. texas republicans are to blame for these failures, let's be clear, and democrats are now working to right these wrongs starting at the top. on february 14th, the first day of the power outages in texas, president

of texas is about texas, and it's about greed. it's about taking shortcuts. it's about not providing infrastructure. it's about not winterizing generators. going to mars, you have the jet propulsion laboratory in pasadena. you've got nasa. and they are -- the federal government invest in it. texas is this weird only state that controls all of its energy, doesn't do energy sharing. i think the electric reliability council of texas is going to have a lot of lawsuits. you're going to have trial lawyers galore looking at this and, you know, even companies should be able to get hazard pay, people that are working at a grocery store or something that are weathering horrific conditions just to keep these cities humming. >> well, douglas, there's so much in there because, okay, they're not on the national grid, which is -- you know, do that, but then you get this. but they could have winterized all of that because there are wind turbines in places that are a lot colder than texas. they're running just fine. you know, the natural gas and o

tonight, the alarming acknowledgement from the head of the texas utility, revealing the texas power grid was in his words just seconds and minutes from a full catastrophic blackout, that this could have been even worse. and serious questions about why they didn't fix the power grid after a similar disaster ten years ago. the report back then, the findings, potential solutions. was any of it followed? some families tonight now boiling snow to use as their main water source, empty grocery stores and this evening, the storm that's not over. the northeast still bracing for what's on the way and rob marciano timing it out. >>> also tonight here, the backlash after texas senator ted cruz left his state in the middle of this emergency when millions were without power to go on vacation in cancun. the images going viral, showing him with his family boarding a flight to mexico, asking houston police in the middle of the emergency to help escort him at the airport. senator cruz returning home tonight. what he said at the airport and now our team has learned when he originally planned to return. >>>

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in texas.se are just the ones that i can find. the alliance's crowning achievement was the creation in 1887 of a statewide alliance exchange. the exchange was the brainchild of the president charles w mccue, a medical doctor and lawyer and journalist. with the exchange, mccue promised to collectively market the cotton crop of the 100 plus alliance members of texas, and to do purchases of equipment and supplies. the exchange built a state-of-the-art headquarters and warehouse in downtown dallas. amid much fanfare, texas farmers trumpeted their liberation from the listless merchants, cotton buyers, and other middlemen who they believed were robbing them of their hard-earned products. but their relation was short-lived. the exchange itself needed credit to operate, and bankers and merchants refused to extend that credit. before the end of its second year, the alliance had collapsed, bringing down with it many of the local cooperatives. so the alliance stood at a sort of crossroads by 1890. allianc

pedro: el gobernador de texas anunciÓ dos cosas.ilidad ? regreso contigo. teresa: me parece muy buena decisiÓn. nosotros regresamos despuÉs de una breve pausa con mÁs de esta ediciÓn especial . no le cambiÓ . locutor: despuÉs de una pausa, las duras decisiones de miles de migrantes. seguir, quedarse o devolverse. personas por todas partes que viven con diabetes tipo 2 están despertando a lo que es posible con rybelsus®. rybelsus® funciona diferente para bajar el azúcar en la sangre que cualquier otra pastilla para la diabetes, porque trabaja de estas tres maneras: aumenta la insulina, baja el azúcar y demora la salida de los alimentos. la mayoría de las personas que tomaron rybelsus® redujeron su nivel de azúcar en la sangre y lograron un a1c por debajo del 7%. las personas que tomaron rybelsus® perdieron hasta 8 libras. y rybelsus® no aumenta el riesgo de eventos cardiovasculares serios, como ataque cardíaco, ataque cerebral o la muerte. rybelsus® no es para personas con diabetes tipo 1 o cetoacidosis diabética. no uses rybelsus® s

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el estado de texas no es parte de ninguna red.dilema es que es un tema de que ya se veÍa venir, y por quÉ no se prepararon. entonces todos esos temas los vamos—— los vamos a discutir el domingo en aquÍ y ahora. borja: una situaciÓn que ha dejado decenas de muertes asÍ que por supuesto vamos a estar pendientes, muchas gracias. aquÍ y ahora, esta ediciÓn especial, crisis en texas este domingo a las 7:00 — 6:00 centro por las pantallas de univision. tambiÉn en texas un camiÓn con unas 900 tortugas marinas afectadas por el frÍo llegÓ al acuario de corpus cristi. esta es una de las mÁs importantes operaciones de rescate en la historia de ese centro. las tortugas marinas son especies de sangre frÍa y dependen de su entorno para mantener su temperatura corporal. con el frÍo son incapaces de nadar y pueden tener neumonÍa y lesiones. vamos a hacer otra corta pausa pero al regresar tenemos todos los detalles de la ediciÓn nÚmero 33 de "premios lo nuestro" en donde tambiÉn participÓ la vicepresidenta kamala harris. entÉrate de comencemos con

in fact, into the teens near galveston, texas. think about texas alone.both size and population in the united states. this largest expanse, covid vaccine disruptions, water supply issues are now becoming a concern as well. we're watching this economical and humanitarian challenge just unfold right before our eyes. 2.7 million customers without power across the u.s. at the moment. focusing in on texas, we're talking about 12 million texans impacted without power at the moment. and you think about this. water pumps need electricity to run and function, not to mention the burst pipes. so 141 of the 254 counties in texas impacted by water supply issues at the moment. we're talking about temperatures 30 to 40 degrees colder than where they should be this time. year. it is brutally cold from dallas to houston. there is some relief in sight. you can see the temperatures warm but that means a thawing of the i'm that within texas. o the northeast. an ice tomorrow moving across. >> thank you very much. we appreciate that. millions in texas without power for days on

got a texas moment for the ages. it has three key features to it familiar to anybody who's followed the politics of the state the last couple of decades. the first is a slavish devotion to markets. markets are the be all and end all and markets fix everything. that's the attitude about everything here in the state of texas, except when they don't fix things. in this case, markets did not fix things, did not anticipate the problem adequately and have left us where we are. the second is a stubborn independence. you alluded to this earlier, we don't want to be overregulated or told what to do especially by the evil federal government who we sue and sue to keep at a safe distance. if you go back and read a story that we published ten years ago about the electric grid problems at that time, what she says then is true today. that is the reason that we have our own grid is because we don't want to deal with the feds. the third is that unshakeable belief in our own awesomeness where you have politicians in texas dunking on t

the last one is texas. secretary castro, that's the agency that runs the energy -- the power system in texas. and the state officials have been trying to blame the dysfunction of that system on people who've had nothing to do with the design of it. >> oh, that's right. greg abbott went on fox news and he's trying to blame aoc and the green new deal, which is not even in place right now. but the important point here is that this is not a breakdown in the system. this is a system that is broken down by design. a system that did not require the winterization of either the thermal production facilities or any other type of energy production facilities. did not incentivize it either. and a system that is allowing outrageous price gouging, price spikes, just to give you a sense, that went from $30 per megawatt hour to $9,000 per megawatt hour at the very time when texans need it the most. and there was reporting out today quoting one of the natural gas producers that said that this experience had been like hittin

in texas where we begin this morning.h a humanitarian catastrophe unfolding in the united states. millions of people in texas waking up to day four of freezing weather, but this is about way more than just the weather. they're facing brutal conditions, no power, no water. in some places no heat and no one fully accepting responsibility. one family north o

you have family in texas, are they doing ok? joe: it's cold and there are pipe issues in the house i think. alix: what are you watching? joe: the price of electricity absolutely exploding higher. these moves that we are seeing in the various electricity markets, just look, just look at spot power. $9,000 cap, up 53,000%. there's all kinds of church. we could go to the hubs that only alex knows about in oklahoma, but electricity is gonna blow. alix: for more on the market impact, i want to welcome the founder of [indiscernible] in terms of the moves we are seeing in the market, how long do these go for? >> all we know is that it's mandatory and we have to consider the long-term impact that we can see and when we look out it's really a two week shortfall. if we just look at how bad some of this freezing has been when you level in natural gas, oil, and then the refining side. a lot of them had to trip up their equipment freezing with power failure and we have seen about 10 bang per day get lost on national gas sites. when we kind o

this week, the texas system, which is operated by the electric reliability council of texas or ercot,usations of being unprepared for the storm. >> i'm taking responsibility for the current status of ercot. again, find what has happened unacceptable. >> reporter: planning for a once in a decade storm is expensive but it is possible and worth it, says el paso electric, if it prevents disasters like what we're seeing in texas this week. >> when we saw what happened to our community in 2011, we made a decision and we said, never again. >> reporter: now, this doesn't mean that winter storm was not challenging here in el paso. in fact they had employees working around the clock, making sure the city did not suffer the same fate as others in this state. they did say that about 3,000 households lost power, but fewer than 900 were for more than five minutes, and they say that almost every household had power back on within a few hours. dianne gallagher, cnn, el paso, texas. >>> all right. still ahead, republican voters slam an ohio congressman for doing the, quote, unthinkable, voting to impe

and you are there in texas. how have you been -- just before we go, quickly. >> i've been incredibly fortunate to have the power on, but our university has had rolling black outs, and have many colleagues and friends who have been in dire circumstances throughout the rest of the state this past week. >> well, our thoughts and much love to you all. thank you. atmospheric scientist, thank you very much for joining us and sharing your expertise. >>> more now on the climate crisis. the u.n. released a new climate change report. among the sobering findings in the lengthy document, species and ecosystems are vanishing faster than ever. at the current rate global warming will reach 1.5 degrees celsius around 2040 and earlier. and a quarter of the world's so-called disease burden or death and loss of health stems from environment related risks such as exposure to toxic waste and pollution as we heard there. and the report says governments could play a major role in protecting the planet as the world reemerges from the p

republic of texas. then in 1845, texas was annexed by the united states. in 1861 we had the confederacy in charge, and then four years later, we were back to the united states, but probably the single factor that shapes san antonio's character and its appearance and its very being was its isolation on the texas frontier where inland where a couple hundred miles from the texas coast, and the only way to reach san antonio was by ox cart from the texas coast, and that took a couple of it days when it wasn't raining. and when there wasn't mud. it was a very difficult city to get to until san antonio finally got a railroad in 1877, at which point san antonio began to explode. the tourism business was one of the first that took off because san antonio had been a familiar topic of magazines and other publications, periodicals in the united states. people, reporters would love to come to san antonio and report on what it looked like, and so there's a great awareness of this. this didn't totally please people li

as texas experiences record-low temperatures, more than 600,000 homes remain without power after texas's under-regulated electrical grid collapsed. some texans are sleeping in their cars for heat. more than 12 million texans face water disruptions. residents in houston, austin, san antonio, and other areas have been ordered to boil tap water to ensure its safety. but many don't have electricity to do it. some parts of the state have no running water at all. texas is also running out of food as the storms have disrupted key supply chains. the powerful winter storms have left at least 38 people dead across texas and other states. we will go to houston, texas, after headlines. life expectancy in the united states fell by a full year during the first six months of 2020 largely due to the coronavirus pandemic. it is the largest drop since world war ii. life expectancy for black americans dropped 2.7 years and 1.9 years for latinx people. according to the centers for disease control, the overall death rate from covid-19 for black americans is three times higher than for white americans. meanwh

the texas governor is a republican, man.crats that you're spitting out dribble on a swivel, rather than blaming the daughter blamer who fled to mexico, also, don't you have chores that you should be doing. that is why today, the republicans who clearly will defend, well, anything, that fellow republicans do from insurrection to abandonment are the absolute worst. donment are the absolute worst i'll be eating a calzone from doughballs in aurora. (doorbell) rock on. tonight i'll be eating lobster thermidor au gratin. really? sh-yeah, and monkeys might fly out of my butt. make it two calzones! bipolar depression. it's a dark, lonely place. this is art inspired by real stories of people living with bipolar depression. emptiness. a hopeless struggle. the lows of bipolar depression can disrupt your life and be hard to manage. latuda could make a real difference in your symptoms. latuda was proven to significantly reduce bipolar depression symptoms, and in clinical studies, had no substantial impact on weight. now i'm feeling conne

the state of texas is going to fix it.ernor abbott was right when he called on the legislator to investigate why the grid wasn't ready and to make sure this never happens again in the state of texas. >> sean: yeah, i didn't see much criticize, criticism that you could use federal help but s always that double standard. you made the right call coming back. you also can be a father. there is also something called technology. i think there is a lot of sanctimony and politics being played in this attack. look, governor perry made me an honorary texan. that is why i made the call to you and governor abbott. i feel a responsibility for americans that actually don't hate me like the state i'm living in in new york. anyway, welcome home, senator and all the best to our friends in texas and hopefully we get this fixed soon. when we come back, new york governor cuomo and his administration according to a report under real federal investigation on top of the state, criminal investigation with their handling of the covid-19 nursing ho

how texas has handled things of. well it's very much the sense as i said that there has been an acknowledgement that the failure of the electrical grid in texas is not a federal issue it is a texan issue and the governor of texas and those who govern texas after accept responsibility for this failure but as you heard in john hindrance report as well this is a new unique sequence of events for the state of texas in terms of weather conditions being experienced that haven't been before the state is just not set up to deal with such extreme conditions that being said the governorship within texas has been criticized for a long period of time in terms of not putting in proper infrastructure development now this is something that has been discussed in washington and very clearly this is an opportunity as i mentioned for the federal government to get a foot into a state that has resisted federal intervention for so long so this is perhaps a change perhaps not in the nature of texas itself but in the nature of how it is gov

well in texas well the 1st thing to point out is that in texas each person uses $2.00 to $2.00 and a quarter times the electricity compared with the person in california so that is very inefficient energy system they don't have much energy efficiency buildings or not whether it is very well so they have a lot of heat and cold losses and so that's the 1st thing so there's a huge demand for energy and then with this it's very rare that you get this cold temperature in texas and it happened in 2011 as well but you know everything frozen nuclear plant nuclear reactor was shut down because of the cold 50 percent of the enter the electricity is purchased from natural gas and the natural gas mining was shut down as well as the distributions as the national generation and some wind turbines were. frozen but not all of it and maybe about 35 percent but it's you know there are other countries like denmark where they have her 50 percent of their wind sort of 50 percent are interested from wind and there's no problem at all that's because they're prepared with you know devices on the turbines to

you see what's happening in texas. should be a straight tell, man, we've got to care about our brothers and sisters there, figure out how to help, help the red cross, watch, wait. but, no, it's about politics. oh, this is what's going to happen with the green new deal. where'd that come from? he knows it's not accurate. but why even make the point in this context? it's all related. we are addicted to the animus. and it's not going to be easy to stop. "cnn tonight," the big show with the big star d. lemon now. >> you are absolutely right. i was speaking to a friend in texas just moments ago before i came on, and she said that she and her kids, her dog, her husband, they're hunkered down by the fireplace. they haven't had any water. they don't have -- no running water, no electricity. they're charging their cell phones, they have to go out in their car, start the car, warm up a little bit, charge the cell phones, and then go back in the house. and the first thing i said, well, what's going on? isn't it the wind turbines?

coming up, the crisis in texas continues.et their power back, but they are still grappling with this massive water crisis now. millions of texans do not have safe drinking water. nearly half of the state has been ordered to boil their water. some only have access to snow. many people still dealing with these burst pipes and major damage to their homes. overnight a huge fire broke out at this san antonio apartment building shortly after the water was turned off there. the water crisis is also putting a major strain on hospitals. some hospitals having to move critically ill patients to other facilities. other hospitals hauling in water just to flush the toilets. last night president biden spoke with the texas governor and he is sending fema with federal supplies and resources to the state. >> ted cruz is having a tough time explaining why he hopped a flight to cancun this week while texans were freezing in the dark. the senator is back now in texas, attempting to quiet the uproar. he initially lied about the trip. he lied claim

and because it's all about deregulation, texas said never mind. so i do think there's going to be a lot of facts come out that will be hard for abbott to get by, but you know, look at what they've gotten by with over the last four years. it is the new normal. when you're going to look bad, just lie and blame it on somebody else. >> and you know, again, it's part of a new republican game plan in the age of trump. jeffrey goldberg, it's government by gesture. you have donald trump in his campaign talking about building a wall and having mexico pay for it because of the invasion of mexicans when, of course, as we have said for five years, illegal border crossing from mexicans was at a 50-year low under barack obama. then two years later, during the 201 campaign, donald trump started lying about caravans coming to america filled with disease and leprosy. and then -- and you have now -- well, of course, covid. we could talk about that all morning the lies he spread about covid, but here you now have texas governor with people

texas in crisis. hundreds of thousands of residents still without power and heat after days of brutal cold temperatures. >> i'm nervous. i'm nervous. i don't know what's going to happen. >> our house is 32 degrees inside. we're worried about the pipes. >> reporter: residents documenting the damage. some posting photos on social media of frozen pipes bursting, sending water and ice into their homes. >> we had no firewood left and we started using things in the house to keep the fire going. and seeing my two sleeping babies under a bunch of blankets in front of a fireplace that was slowly going out was heartbreaking. >> many are seeking refuge wherever they can, including warming centers or furniture stores. >> you could freeze in the middle of the night. so we had to find some place to go. >> reporter: some even sleeping in their cars to stay warm. >> it's not like sleeping in your own bed. but we were warm. >> reporter: grocery stores running low on food, nearly 12 million texans are experiencing wate

not really in texas. in order to compete in this heavily deregulated market, electricity producers there sell power as cheaply as possible. experts are ringing alarm bells, urging the country to prepare for the next extreme storm. what could texas have done differently? and what can other states learn from this crisis? joining us now are michael craig, an assistant professor of energy systems at the university of michigan and kia collier, a reporter for "the propublica texas tribune" investigative initiative. kia, i wonder if i could start with you. the ceo of ercot said this on thursday about its decision to implement rolling blackouts. watch. >> if we hadn't taken action, it wouldn't have been we waited a few days to see what happened, it was seconds and minutes, given the amount of generation coming off the system and the demand going up significantly. >> seconds or minutes away from uncontrollable blackouts. let me just ask the blunt question -- did ercot know what it was doing in this situation? did

why he says he was just being a good dad, and heads back to texas.'s devastating toll: tonight, the largest drop in u.s. life expectancy since world war ii. and minority groups have been hit even harder. plus, why researchers are saying one dose of the pfizer vaccine may be enough to protect you. the nursing home scandal: the f.b.i. and federal prosecutors are now investigating new york governor andrew cuomo and his administration's reporting of nursing home deaths. sweeping immigration reform: president biden unveils a new plan, including an eight-year path to citizenship. mission mars: after seven minutes of terror, nasa lands the rover "perseverance" on the red planet to hunt for signs of past life. the race to save thousands of turtles struggling in the texas cold. and, the young champion defeats the legend, in a battle for the ages. this is the "cbs evening news" with norah o'donnell, reporting from the nation's capital. >> o'donnell: good evening to our viewers in the west and thank you for joining us. we're going to begin with breaking news to

senator who represents texas, and the people of texas have a right to expect you to have their backs. i want everyone to remember that this is a man who loves calling out elites and libs. that's why i said i'll tell you why it was a ritz-carlton. elites. elites. so i guess flying off to mexico to go to the ritz-carlton while everybody suffering, that's not elite. did the elites make you do it? maybe it was the squad. i don't know. those text messages from "the new york times" show heidi cruz trying to get their neighborhoods from one of the richest neighborhoods in houston to go to a country the cdc says travelers should avoid. talk about america first. did they go to miami? did they go to ft. lauderdale? did they go to the keys? did they go visit mar-a-lago? nope. not america first. mexico. we all know that we're in the middle of a pandemic. why are they even traveling at all and then trying to blame it on their kids? you call that being a good dad? it's not what i call being a good dad. it's infuriating. it's hypocritical. again, maya angelou said it. when people show you who they a

steven wanted to know more specifically, why texas, why does this all happen in texas? it have happened somewhere else, is a way to put it? >> populism was not restricted to texas. it was a national movement and it was strong in the midwest, in the mountain west especially. it's hard to say exactly why texas ended up being so unique. i think most scholars suggest that texas being still a relatively frontiers state, and of course the birthplace of the alliance was out there in the western cross, riding out there, the area west of fort worth, which was just sort of emerging from each frontier state. i think the idea maybe was that people who ventured out there were maybe a little less bound by tradition, maybe a bit more free thinkers in some ways. certainly sam johnston, lyndon johnson's grandfather, fit this description. he ran cattle. he was a cattleman and ran cattle herds up and down the trail to kansas during the heyday, and took his wife with him. i think they may be tended to work outside the box a little bit. also, texas was not quite as enthrall into what stephe

so texas has to do a better job of being prepared.ou're right, in 2011 that was a catastrophic storm, not as bad as this one, but we should have at that time required power generators to weatherize their equipment so this type of thing wouldn't happen. it was left to be completely voluntary. >> mr. cooper, there was a story in the "texas tribune" on wednesday about how the texans running out of food as weather crisis disrupt the supply chain, as i was listening to you, i thought of this article because, you know, once things get back up to the point where you are able to get enough -- enough food again, and enough water again to texans, the fact that this -- the food supply chain has been disrupted where, you know, livestock grows are running out of feed, how long do you think the food disruptions in particular will last once the power is back on, once the water is back on? >> you know, it's going to be a very long-term recovery for texas agriculture. i talked to some dairy farmers dumping milk because they couldn't get trucks there t