Will Israeli Troops Enter Gaza This Week?; Will Washington Act on Immigration Crisis?; City of Tomorrow, Solving Energy Crisis
MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN ANCHOR: You are in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Miguel Marquez in New York. This hour, we are fast-forwarding to the week ahead, we'll take a look at all the stories you'll be talking about and hearing about coming up this week. Let's begin with our five questions for the week ahead. Question number one: will Israeli troops cross the border near Gaza this week? It certainly looks possible. Israel today warned that more scenes like this could happen at any time. This is what's left of the house belonging to the chief of police in Gaza. An Israeli airstrike destroyed it last night, killing the police chief and we are told, his entire family, 18 people in all were killed. Israel warned everybody in northern Gaza today to stay away from all Hamas sites for their own safety. Question number two, will Washington take action to address the immigration crisis? Tens of thousands of children have shown up at the U.S. border with Mexico in recent months. President Obama has proposed a $3.7 billion spending bill to ease the crisis but Republicans say the bulk of any new spending should be used for deportations and to beef up border security. Question number three, what will its prostitute accused of killing a Google executive say to the judge? Alix Tichelman will be in court on Wednesday accused of manslaughter after allegedly injecting heroin into Forrest Hayes. And Georgia police say she may have done it before. Tichelman's ex-boyfriend died of a heroin overdose, but it was ruled an accident. And question number four, can a salvage team successfully move the Costa Concordia? The process is being called -- a complex operation never before attempted. It's been two years since the deadly accident off the Italian coast. And ten months since the doomed cruise ship was brought upright and secured. Question number five: with the World Cup over, will Americans still care about soccer? Interest ramped up when the U.S. did better than expected in the early rounds and plenty of Americans followed the months long competition through today's final between Germany and Argentina, but will it be enough to sustain interest in this sport in the months and years ahead? By the way, Germany just won. It's a picture of the German chancellor. CNN's top story today and the question that will dominate international news this week, will Israel take this latest Middle East conflict to the next level and cross into Gaza? So far, the fighting has been in the air back and forth across the border. Rockets launched from Gaza landing inside Israel, triggering Israeli airstrikes that Palestinian officials now say have now killed 168 people and wounded 1,100. CNN's Ben Wedeman is in Gaza City for us, where families are deciding that their homes are no longer safe.</s>BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The clock is ticking. It's time to go. Israel ordered the inhabitants of this area in northern Gaza to leave by 2 p.m. Sunday. Hamas told them to stay put. "I don't answer to them," says Ahmed, "I do what's best for us." He is sending his family to safer ground in Gaza City, relatively safer, that is, although he will stay behind. Luckily, he caught a taxi to take them away and not a moment too soon. These children have heard the crash of shelling and air strikes for days now. But it still terrifies them. This is the third time in the last five years Ahmed's family has had to flee their home. (on camera): Like everybody in this area, we're leaving, too. It's dangerous. There's shelling there. There's some people staying behind, basically to guard their houses, but as the men back there told me, 80 percent of the people in this area have already left and at this time, the deadline to leave ends in 35 minutes. (voice-over): On the drive into Gaza City, empty streets and rubble from the Israeli airstrikes. By taxi or mostly by foot, the people fleeing the north are heading to United Nations' schools, more than 1,000 in this school alone. Food has yet to be provided. The only source of sustenance, a water tanker. Um Jamaa and her family of 15 fled their home at 2:00 in the morning. "We told the kids, get up, get up," she tells me. "We walked all the way here. This baby needs milk, but we don't have any. We have nothing. Not even safety." There's little to do here but wait until the fighting stops and they can go back to their homes, if they're still there. Ben Wedeman, CNN, Gaza City.</s>MARQUEZ: That's our Ben Wedeman in Gaza City for us. Thank you. Back now to immigration, our second question for the week ahead, no easy answers to the growing crisis along the Mexican border and no shortage of talk in Washington about what should the -- the U.S. should do and what it should not do about it. CNN's Erin McPike has more from the White House.</s>ERIN MCPIKE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Miguel, both Republicans and the Obama administration are looking to take action on the border crisis in the coming couple of weeks. Well, this week, we could see a clearer picture of the concessions each side will have to make. Listen here to Arizona Senator John McCain on "STATE OF THE UNION" this morning discussing his assessment of the situation.</s>SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), ARIZONA: We need to spend about $6 billion to have our borders secured. The president wants 3.7 billion. If this keeps up, he will ask for another $3.7 billion next year. It's got to come to a halt.</s>MCPIKE: And that is why we're seeing renewed calls for comprehensive immigration reform. To that end, McCain is also trying to team again with New York Senator Chuck Schumer. He is a Democrat, as well as Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, to maybe bring up comprehensive immigration reform again before the midterm elections. Now, separately, Texas Senator John Cornyn, a Republican, is partnering with a Democrat, though in the House, Henry Cuellar, also of Texas, to introduce legislation of their own to address the border crisis. And part of that legislation would basically be to speed up deportations along the Texas border back to home countries for these undocumented minors. In addition to that, a group of House Republicans traveled to Guatemala over the weekend and this week, they are due to present their findings to House Speaker John Boehner. The trick is going to be encouraging House Republicans to bring a bill to the House floor and see what they may do in terms of agreeing with President Obama on this $3.7 billion as a separate matter. Now, to that end, Republican Bob Goodlatte, he's a congressman from Virginia, made some comments of his own this morning. Take a listen here.</s>REP. BOB GOODLATTE (R-VA), JUDICIARY CHAIRMAN: I would definitely pass emergency funding targeted for what's necessary, but most of the money that the president's asking for is to continue the process of further transporting these children and adults, by the way, further into the United States and that, I think, is what the American people don't like to see.</s>MCPIKE: So, as you heard there, there is some momentum from both sides to of the aisle to fix the border crisis, do something about this current problem, and we will probably see some developments on that this week.</s>MARQUEZ: All right. Erin McPike for us -- thank you very much. The possible murder of a Google exec has exposed the seedy side of Silicon Valley. Lots of men, lots of money and sex for sale, a possibly poisonous combination in the heart of the tech industry.