Interstate 85 was closed Saturday night between Dale Earnhardt Boulevard at Exit 60 and Exit 63 because of a multi-vehicle pileup blamed on weather conditions.

Road hazards, flight cancellations and closures are mounting as a winter storm moves through the Piedmont and High Country.

A powerful storm threatening howling winds, flooding and heavy snow is bearing down on the East Coast. Its forecast path includes some coastal communities in the Carolinas more accustomed to hurricanes than blizzard conditions.

Hundreds of people gathered Friday outside the federal courthouse in uptown Charlotte to protest recent actions by federal immigration authorities in Minneapolis.