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Central U.S. faces record-setting cold snap

15 February 2021
Dan Ackermann

Records are falling across the central U.S. on Monday, with snow in Houston and extremely dangerous low temperatures across the plains states.

The big picture: "More than 50 million people could see temperatures dip below zero during the next several days as the record-setting deep freeze envelops the country," WashPost reports.

  • Millions are without power in Texas and neighboring states.
  • A group of utilities across 14 states called for rolling outages because the supply of reserve energy had been exhausted, AP reports.
  • Nearly 3 million Texans lack power as of this afternoon.

Between the lines: The Gulf States are used to hurricanes, not polar vortexes. The entire state of Texas has been placed under a disaster declaration.

The bottom line: "Grand Forks, N.D., hadn't reported a temperature above zero since Feb. 6 and probably won't until at least Monday afternoon," the Post noted.

Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times

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Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.

Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.

The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.

  • The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.

What the transcripts say:

  • Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
  • The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
  • Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."

Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.