0 >> cbs local news is on now. go out and surv captioning sponsored by cbs >> garrett: tonight, 36 million americans facing winter storm threats from texas to west virginia. at least two killed after freezing rain and ice caused deadly pileups across the lone star state. dangerously cold temperatures hit the midwest before moving into the northeast. cbs's omar villafranca has details on this dangerous ice storm. george santos recuses himself. the embattled republican temporarily steps down from two congressional committees amid a flurry of investigations. what are you saying about the decision. trump pleads the fifth -- cbs news has the video excerpts of former president donald trump's 2022 deposition in his new york fraud case. alec baldwin officially charged in the rust shooting death. prosecutors detail what they say the actor did wrong the day the cinematographer died. and a new clue in the case of two missing monkeys at the dallas zoo. why police want to talk to this man. his is the "s eveng h donnell,g om natiopita tonight from new york. >> good evening and thank you for joining us on this tuesday night. norah is on assignmet. i'm james brown. tonight, former president donald trump pleads the fifth during his deputies ahead of a $250 million fraud lawsuit filed by new york's attorney general. plus alec baldwin has been formally charged with involuntary manslaughter in the fatal shooting on the set of his film rust, along with movies weapons specialist. first a massive winter storm system is targeting the nation's midsection with ice, sleet and snow. winter storm alerts are spread across 14 states. officials are urging residents to stay off the road and be prepared for power outages. at least two deaths in texas have been reported. thousands of flights have also been delayed and canceled, mostly in the south. cbs's omar villafranca will start us off tonight from memphis. good evening, omar. >> reporter: good evening. memphis is under an ice storm warning. let me show you exactly what that means. there's a thin layer of ice all on these trees and on the road, and it's causing all kinds of problems from texas to tennessee. tonight, a dangerous winter storm is gripping the south, snarling travel from texas to kentucky. creating chaos on the roads. >> slow down, don't take these roads for granted. >> reporter: and canceling thousands of flights. texas bearing the brunt. thunder sleet and freezing rain reported across the lone star state, making roads look more like ice rinks. >> it was so slushy, i thought i was driving through an icy. >> reporter: officials blaming the wicked weather for hundreds of crashes. at least two people are dead. >> because of icing, many roads in texas will remain very dangerous for the next 24 to 48 hours. anybody who needs to be out driving needs to be very cautious of the conditions. >> reporter: txdot is using more than 2,000 trucks and other equipment to clear the roads but is still warning residents to stay home. nearly half the flight going into and out of atlas are canceled or delayed for hours, and tens of thousands of customers are without power. the governor assuring residents that the grid is keeping up with demand. >> there is not anticipated to be any challenge to the power grid in the state of texas. >> reporter: but some are relying on old fashioned horsepower to keep moving during the storm. across the river in arkansas, the governor there has declared a state of emergency. now, schools across this region had been closed -- will be closed wednesday because of the weather but this storm is expected to move out of here tomorrow. >> omar villafranca in memphis, thank you. this winter weather and bitter cold is far from over. meteorologist chris warren from our partners at the weather channel. good evening, chris. >> reporter: good evening, james. another round of impactful sleet and freezing rain and some snow for parts of texas, arkansas, mississippi and tennessee, ice storm warnings posted again into tomorrow. all right already, a quarter of an inch to almost half an inch of ice. we've seen across parts of texas, arkansas and into tennessee, with the potential for more ice, doubling the amounts we've already seen in some areas, a glaze to even damaging ice, so we can expect more power outages, dangerous travel and very cold temperatures into the northeast, after new york went every day in january, james, with temperatures above average. orure.,s, thank you for the embattled congressman george santos has told fellow republicans he is temporarily stepping aside from two congressional committees amid ongoing investigations into his campaign finances and other issues. cbs's caitlin huey-burns has more. >> reporter: with legal scrutiny intensifying, congressman george santos told a private meeting of his republican colleagues that he was sorry for being a distraction and looked forward to clearing his name. are you confident that you will be cleared. >> yes, i am. why. i have nothing to hide. f you don't have anything to hide, why do you think there is an investigation. >> reporter: santos informed house speaker kevin mccarthy of the decision to temporarily step aside from his new committee assignments last night. >> it was a group decision. going through the ethics on some of these concerns. we'll allow -- the voters have elected him. he will have a voice here in congress, and until he answers all those questions, then at that time he will be able to be seated on the committee. >> reporter: with a narrow house majority speaker kevin mccarthy has defended santos right to stay in congress even though a new poll show 789% of voters in his district say he should resign including 71% ofmg multiple times. >> reporter: sapts who admitted to lying extensively about his background and work ow on anything and everythinghis is always going to be above board. it's largely always been above board. i'm just going to go the extra ep freshmen lawmakers, that's not enough. they want him to resign altogether and say his recusal today is like someone quitting before they were about to get fired. j.b. >> caitlin huey-burns reporting. cbs news obtained video excerpts of former donald trump's deposition in the new york attorney general's fraud investigation. trump repeatedly pleaded the fifth, refusing to answer questions about his or his company's finances. here's cbs's ed o'keefe. >> reporter: near the start of the deposition, former president donald trump tells new york attorney general letitia james that he would be invoking his right against self-incrimination. >> anyone in my position not taking the fifth amendment would be a fool, an absolute fool. >> reporter: so over 400 times >> tin- question. >> reporter: -- the former president invoked the fifth. ay genal james accusesame the former president, his three children and their company of a long running scheme to inflate the value of their properties, something investigators asked trump about. >> the valuations include false and misleading valuation statements, correct. >> same answer. >> reporter: former prosecutor harry litman. >> he was disciplined and just said same answer, same answer, because the stakes are high. he couldn't beat trump. eth a really vivid demonstration of the justice system catching up with him and making him abandon his normal playbook. >> reporter: not since bill clinton sat for a deposition in a paula jones case has a sitting or former president been seen taking questions from investigation. in trump's deposition two days after the f.b.i. searched his mar-a-lago home, he was an loud to make a statement and used it to lash out at james. >> this is the greatest witch hunt in the history of our country. >> reporter: trumps' attorneys had no comment. civil trial expected to go soon. >> new investigation into president biden's handling of classified documents? >> reporter: cbs news learned that the f.b.i. searched the penn biden center in washington in mid-november after lawyers for the president found about ten documents with classification markings there. two sources tell us the search was conducted in cooperation with representatives for the president, but his attorneys, the white house nor the justice department had previously disclosed details of the search, james. >> thak you, ed. the white house says that vice president kamala harris will travel to americans tomorrow to attend the funeral of tyre nichols, the 29-year-old father and fedex worker who died after being beaten by members of a plemps police department. as the city of memphis and the nation mourns, the reverend j. lawrence turner says the public funeral will focus on the way nichols lived and not the way he died. . we want to be sure we're focused on celebrating tyre's life. we will not allow the way he died to define the totality of his life. >> reporter: five former police officers have been charged with nichols murder and the district attorney is considering filing charges against seven other first responders. tonight alec baldwin has been formally charged with involuntary manslaughter along with a weapons expert in the shooting death in the western rust. prosecutors say more than a dozen safety violations occurred on the set. chris warren joins us. >> reporter: the new charging documents lay out a chain of events where prosecutors say there were multiple opportunities to avoid tragedy. the documents alleged alec baldwin missed required firearms training before the film began. he was given his own training session but baldwin is said to have been distracted and talking to his family on the cell phone during training. video and pictures around the time of the shooting show multi-million instancesbin hadne trigr ofbawiaimed he didn't fire the weapon but friendsics prove the trigger had to be pulled for the gun to fire. attorneys call the surcharges miscarriage of justice. as it stand tonight, if convicted, baldwin could face up to five years in jail. j.b. >> kris van cleave reporting. tonight, a possible lead in the investigation into the disappearance of two monkeys from the dallas zoo. police released a photo of a person of interest, following a string of mysterious and troubling incidents. we get details from cbs's janet shamlian. >> reporter: tonight, police are looking for this man in connection with two monkeys missing from the dallas zoo, the photo in this video of the same man wandering the zoo grounds were taken sunday before the emperor tamarin monkeys, which look like this, were reported missing monday. zoo officials say they believe the monkeys were taken, calling their habitat intentionally compromised. >> there are several markets for this type of monkey, some just for people who want to keep them as pets and the other for peo t. >> reporter:he n thelast four month aftereras and security were put into place. a clouded leopard escaped earlier this month, the fencing cut, the animal found nearby. the monkeys found cut and none escape. january 1. a vulture found dead, the bird reportedly had an unusual injure, the cause of death is pending. janet shamlian, cbs news, houston. >> reporter: a decades-long mega drought fueled by climate change is nearing a tipple point for states in the west. the colorado river is the main supply of water for 40 million people, but the river and reservoirs are now running dry. in partnership with the weather channel, cbs's ben tracy shows us that as water becomes scarce, wall street sees profits in our new series "protecting the planet." >> come on back. >> reporter: colorado ramper joe bernal woulde source of water, the colorado river. that river is your lifeline. >> all we we have is the river. >> reporter: and the river is why someone new bought this land just down the road. water asset management owns that property. >> reporter: when you first heard of them, what was your reaction. >> surprise and concern. they are concerning because they're large. >> reporter: water asset management is a new york investment firm with offices inside this building. in the past five years, it has bought at least $20 million worth of land in western colorado. >> these are folks that have identified the drought as an opportunity to make money. >> reporter: an dimueller's job is to protect colorado's share of the river. asset management have acquired 25 million acres of land with water rights with it. >> in an attempt to not use the water and send it downstream for money. >> i view them as vultures. >> reporter: that's prett d i pres o wreques an i three years of is firm's strategies is to fro s including farmers and municipalities. >> when you need water, water is the only thing that will . >> why is water so scarce in the west? greg posteol explains. >> reporter: colorado river relies on snow -- snow melt. the river flow has dropout by about 5%, adding to a 20% reduction over the past century. >> reporter: the nation's largest reservoirs are hitting record lows. it's so bad, congress is allocating $4 billion that can be used to pay tarmers to not use their water, making water rights even more valuable. so whose land is this? >> water asset management. >> reporter: joe bernal is leasing land from water asset management. he say apin e their n neighbors. wilbe watcr what may be coming. >> reporter: ben tracy, cbs news, grand junction, colorado. >> police say a man armed with an a.r.-15 rifle opened fire today inside a target store. how it all endedneck.