The highway sits closed as emergency crews finish cleaning following accidents caused by ice and low temperatures in Richardson, Texas, Thursday, Feb. 11, 2021. A winter storm brought a coating of ice to parts of Texas. (AP Photo/LM Otero)
At least five people were killed Thursday in a massive crash involving 75 to 100 vehicles on an icy Texas interstate, police said, as a winter storm dropped freezing rain, sleet, and snow on parts of the U.S.
The number of injured was still unknown as police were still working the accident on Interstate 35 near downtown Fort Worth, police said. Police set up a reunification center for family members at a community center.
Farther south, in Austin, more than two dozen vehicles were involved in a pileup on an icy road, and one person was injured, emergency officials said.
Elsewhere, ice storm warnings were in effect from Arkansas to Kentucky, while another winter storm was predicted to bring snow to Mid-Atlantic states, the National Weather Service said.
More than 125,000 homes and businesses were without electricity Thursday morning, largely in Kentucky and West Virginia, according to the website poweroutage.us, which tracks utility reports.
Meanwhile, officials in central Kentucky were urging people to stay home due to icy conditions.
Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear said state offices would be closed due to the weather. He declared a state of emergency, which he said would free up funding and help agencies coordinate as they respond to reports of slick roads and downed power lines.
Crews were responding to numerous calls of downed icy tree limbs and power lines, Lexington police said in a tweet that urged people not to travel “unless absolutely necessary.”
Actors Courtney B. Vance and Tosin Cole joined Cheddar News’ senior reporter Michelle Castillo at South by Southwest to talk about their new series “61st Street” on AMC. The show takes a look at the harshness of Chicago’s criminal justice system. When asked what he hopes the audience takes away from this show, Tosin Cole said, "Just some empathy and just showing a different perspective."
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A new coalition called "Organizations For Pay Equity Now", or "OPEN" imperative, has launched with the goal of eliminating the gender pay gap among pre-IPO startups by 2027. More than 200 founders, CEOs and investors have already joined the coalition -- and it's only expected to grow. Emily Sweet, Lead of the OPEN imperative, joined Cheddar's Opening Bell to discuss the new coalition and how it plans to achieve these ambitious goals.
Netflix launching a test to let primary account holders pay an extra fee for users outside their households. This comes as the streaming giant grapples with illicit password-sharing with over 30 percent of all Netflix users sharing their password with at least one person, according to research firm Magid.
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Neonvest is a platform connecting startups and entrepreneurs with experts in the VC space. The startup says it's in the process of raising a seed round of approximately $2.5 million from a mix of angel and institutional investors. Aakash Shah, co-founder of NeonVest, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.
Amazon closed its deal to buy MGM's many content brands for $8.5 billion, and Michael Pachter, a managing director at Wedbush Securities, joined Cheddar News to discuss the e-commerce giant's second-largest acquisition to date and how he thinks it will all pay off. "To make a movie today, you just can't even think about it for less than 30 million bucks, so 4,000 movies, I mean that's several billion dollars worth of assets," he said, noting how it would also add to Amazon's little-known ad-supported IMDb TV service. "I don't know that the IMDb TV guys actually talk to the Amazon Prime Video guys, but a lot of content, it makes the value of a Prime subscription much, much greater, and people are far, far less likely to churn even if they're only buying one package every three months."
