captioning sponsored by macneil/lehrer productions >> woodruff: in the middle east, a proposed cease-fire collapses and israel accuses hamas of capturing one of its soldiers. good evening. i'm judy woodruff. also ahead, the u.n. warns of catastrophic consequences if west africa fails to stem an ebola epidemic and two americans infected are returning to the u.s for treatment. as california grapples with one of the worst droughts in decades, farmers dig deep below the surface to tap underground water resources, but those wells might run dry, too. >> too many people view the groundwater system as a big black box that is going to keep

supplying water for them indefinitely; its not. >> woodruff: and it's friday, mark shields and david brooks are here to analyze the this week's political roller-coaster in congress. those are just some of the stories we're covering on tonight's pbs newshour. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: ♪ ♪ moving our economy for 160 years. bnsf, the engine that connects us. >> i've been around long enough

to recognize the people who are out there owning it. the ones getting involved, staying engaged. they are not afraid to question the path they're on. because the one question they never want to ask is, "how did i end up here?" i started schwab with those people. people who want to take ownership of their investments, like they do in every other aspect of their lives. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> woodruff: after a failed attempt at a cease-fire, the fighting between israel and hamas is escalating again. israeli soldiers have moved

deeper into southern gaza in search of one of their soldiers who apparently was captured. to date, the conflict has resulted in the deaths of at least 1,500 palestinians-- mainly civilians-- and israel has lost 63 soldiers and three civilians. our chief foreign affairs correspondent margaret warner has more. >> warner: the flares and explosions that rattled gaza overnight quieted as the ceasefire-- which held the most promise for allowing a resolution to the 25-day long crisis-- went into effect at 8:00 a.m. in israel, soldiers rested by their tanks. and in gaza, thousands of residents flooded into the streets, some restocked supplies, others surveyed the damage. but in less than two hours, the cease-fire blew up. israeli defense forces spokesman peter lerner charged hamas broke the truce when militants attacked israeli forces dismantling tunnels inside gaza territory under their control. >> at half past 9:00 this

morning, two terrorists came out of a tunnel. one of them detonated himself in a suicide bombing attack, killing two soldiers. another one came out, shooting with an automatic weapon and in the aftermath of that we noticed that we had an officer that had been abducted into the tunnel. indeed we began to pursue this attack, we went to the tunnel. >> woodruff: israel responded quickly with tanks firing toward the southern gazan town of rafah. residents scrambled for cover, and palestinian officials claimed at least 50 people were killed in the shelling. israeli officials declared the cease-fire over, and by day's end 62 palestinians and two israeli soldiers were believed dead. this afternoon, president obama had strong words for hamas's reported actions: >> i have unequivocally condemned hamas and the pals ynts factions responsible for killing two israeli soldiers and

abducting a third almost minutes after a cease fire had been announced. and the u.n. has condemned them as well. and, you know, i want to make sure that they are listening. >> warner: the father of the soldier israel reported captured-- second-lieutenant hadar goldin-- said he was hopeful his son would be returned. >> ( translated ): we want to support the israeli army and the state of israel in its fight against hamas in gaza and we are certain that the army will not stop under any circumstance, and will bring hadar back home safe and sound. >> warner: but hamas denied any knowledge of a captured soldier. and a spokesman denied breaking the cease-fire: >> ( translated ): the israeli enemy is the one that breached the truce, when israeli special forces entered the eastern side of rafah. the palestinian resistance clashed with them, and this was our right to defend ourselves, according to our understanding

>> woodruff: and palestinian protesters clashed with israeli forces in the west bank. the 72-hour cease-fire was to be followed by israeli-palestinian negotiations in egypt on finding a durable solution. president obama said today the u.s. will continue pursuing that track. officials in cairo said the invitation to both parties still stands. and margaret joins me now. what's the issue here? >> one issue, there are issues about who started it. you heard the israeli version that their soldiers were operating within their line of control and were ambushed in a way that was described, and you've heard hamas say, no, the israelis started it, they've made up this story as a pretext to start offensive actions and that they had moved up their line of control during the period between however late last night the deal was struck and 8:00 a.m. the israelis say that might be true, they're still looking into that, but it's irrelevant both sides used the interim.

the big dispute is whether there was a soldier captured and if so did hamas do it. >> woodruff: why wouldn't hamas take responsibility for this which is what they've done in the past? >> that's the huge mystery. in the past, they have corrode about such whims. basically, judy, there are so many different theories out there and nobody really knows. one is hamas didn't actually order it but a dissident faction that didn't agree with the cease fire and one u.n. official said there are factions within factions, it's not just the military versus political wing. the other very interesting theory is that if this happened in the heat of battle and it sounds as if it really did and in the confusion of battle, if this soldier was seized and secret aid way in a basement somewhere in this area, it is possible the hamas leadership doesn't actually know, because communications have almost totally broken down within gaza, there's almost no electricity, people can't charge cell phones and so on, so if you notice what

the palestinian and hamas spokesmen keep saying is we can't confirm we have one yet. >> woodruff: what happens, if the israelis can't find the soldier, what's next? >> right now they are totally focused on finding the soldier and they kicked in what they call operation hannibal which is what they always plan to do, seal off the area and go house to house. of course, they're still clearing tunnels and going after rockets, they will not speculate about what they will do next. there are a loft u.n. officials that are afraid if they don't find the soldier, benjamin netanyahu will be pressured to announce a big expansion. but i was told by israelis yesterday they were stunned by u.s. condemnation of their attack on this school which was a u.n. shelter and they're going to think twice about expanding operations further. >> woodruff: just in a second, if what happened today cannot

bode well with -- >> no, p.l.o says they will send a delegation, the egyptians are sending a delegation. israeli officials told me absolutely not, our focus is on military action and we're going into the sabbath and, so, i think if this soldier is not found dead or alive, if he is not found, that the prospects are just more carnage. >> woodruff: margaret warner, thank you. >> woodruff: a team of 70 international investigators fanned out across the eastern ukraine crash site of malaysia airlines flight 17 today. they combed through the wreckage, locating some of the remains of as many as 80 victims that had been missing since the plane was shot down two weeks ago. fighting still raged nearby. the ukrainian national security spokesman confirmed at least ten soldiers were killed when their convoy came under attack by pro- russian separatists. >> ( translated ): there is information that the ambush was by the rebels who are trying to

defend the area from the ukrainian army. they are doing that because it is a strategic point that would allow us to cut off luthansk from donetsk-- two rebel strongholds. >> woodruff: in washington, president obama insisted the u.s. is doing everything it can to prevent russia from intervening in the ukraine crisis. he said president vladimir putin should want to cooperate in order to lift tough economic sanctions on his country. but mr. obama acknowledged, "sometimes people don't always act rationally." a controversial and much- protested anti-gay law in uganda was invalidated today. the country's constitutional court ruled it was "null and void" because the parliament didn't have a quorum when it was passed earlier this year. the law imposed sentences of up to life in prison for those who engaged in homosexual relations. president obama acknowledged today that the u.s. tortured al qaeda detainees captured after the 9/11 attacks. he confirmed the white house has

turned over a declassified report to the senate about the c.i.a's interrogation techniques. the president made some of his most expansive comments to date with reporters this afternoon. >> even before i came into office i was very clear that in the immediate aftermath of 9/11 we did some things that were wrong. we did a whole lot of things that were right, but we tortured some folks. we did some things that were contrary to our values. >> woodruff: the president added he could understand why this happened, that law enforcement officials were "real patriots" under "enormous pressure." separately, he expressed his full support for c.i.a director john brennan, who faced calls to resign from two senators today. an internal c.i.a report concluded some agency employees spied on a senate computer network while they were preparing a report on the

agency's interrogation program. brennan has ordered an accountability board to investigate. before heading out of town for its august break, the senate managed to finish some business. it sent a bill to president obama to revamp the department of veterans affairs, and it backed a bill to fund highway and transit projects through next may. on the house side, republican members tried to hammer out revised legislation on immigration after a border bill completely unraveled yesterday. we'll come back to that with shields and brooks a little later in the program. july was an excellent month for car sales in the u.s., helped along by deep discounts. ford, chrysler, toyota and nissan all had double-digit gains. and even in the midst of its massive recall effort, general motors' sales were up 9% over a year ago. on wall street, u.s. markets rounded out their worst week in two years. the dow jones industrial average lost nearly 70 points to close

at 16,493. the nasdaq fell 17 points to close at 4,352. and the s&p 500 dropped five points to close at 1,925. for the week the dow, nasdaq, and s&p all fell more than 2%. still to come on the newshour: an ebola outbreak ravages west africa, what the latest jobs numbers say about the state of the u.s. economy, california farmers look underground for water to combat the drought, mark shields and david brooks, plus, how the n.f.l is dealing with domestic violence. >> woodruff: now, the latest on the ebola outbreak in west africa, which is moving faster than efforts to contain it. the disease has struck hard in three countries-- guinea, liberia and sierra leone-- which is the epicenter. a liberian government official who'd flown to nigeria's largest

city, lagos, died of the disease in a hospital there. two american aid workers infected in liberia-- 33-year- old kent brantly and 59-year-old nancy writebol-- will be sent back for care at emory university hospital in atlanta. it's the first time any ebola patient has been sent back to the u.s. for treatment. this afternoon, dr. bruce ribner of emory said there was no cause for alarm among the public. >> from the time air ambulance arrives in metropolitan atlanta area up to and including being hospitalized at emory university hospital we have taken every precaution that we know and our colleagues at the c.d.c know to ensure that there is no spread of this virus pathogen. >> woodruff: hari sreenivasan in our new york studios picks up the story from there. >> sreenivasan: to date, 729 people have died out of more

than 1,300 documented or suspected infections. today, the world health organization said it would launch a $100 million plan to deploy more health workers to the region. it came one day after the c.d.c warned americans not to travel to the affected countries unless necessary. dr. tom frieden is the director of the c.d.c and he joins me now. first off, what can you tell people to assure them that this disease will not spread to atlanta or other parts of the united states as we bring these patients back? >> well, first off, it's really important to understand how ebola spreads and how it's spreading in africa. the outbreak there is the worst we've ever seen, but ebola doesn't spread from people who don't have symptoms. so if you have contact with someone who is exposed but not sick, you can't get it. second, ebola isn't spread by casual contact. it's not spread through the air. it's spread through body fluids.

that's why, in africa, the two main ways it's spreading are by healthcare when there's not good infection control and funerals where there's handling of bodies. in this country, we have plenty of ways to make sure if a patient with ebola ends up here, we have isolation facilities in every major hospital in the country and isolation procedures that would prevent healthcare workers from becoming exposed or infected and, of course, if anyone were to die, we have safe burial procedures. it's hard to control in africa, it's easy to stop in the u.s. >> sreenivasan: so if it is easy to stop, why the extraordinary measures, the private charted jet, the isolation unit that contains the patients? >> the issue is that the stakes are so high. so if you have a lapse in infection control in a hospital, as happens sometimes, you may get an infection or a healthcare

worker may get infected or spread it to another patient. that's usually not fatal. in ebola, the fatality rate ranges from 40 to 90%. so because the stakes are so high, it's not that we do different procedures, it's that we have to make sure that they're absolutely secure, they're absolutely well done. >> sreenivasan: is the c.d.c. giving guidelines to other government agencies who might be coming in contact, whether customs and border patrol, homeland security? we obviously have people and goods coming back and forth from africa, the affected areas as well. we know we have a conference coming up next week where lots of african leaders are expected to come to d.c. >> we work very closely across the u.s. government. there are conferences next week, as you mentioned. but, of course, africa is a large continent. there are three small countries within the continent and steps are being taken to see about the

delegations coming from those countries. but the bottom line is that, to protect americans, fundamentally, we're doing three things. first, controlling the outbreak where it's spreading. that's the most effective and the best way to do it because that's the source. second, we're helping each of these three countries do better exit screening so they'll reduce the likelihood that someone who is either sick or has been exposed leaves and becomes infectious in transit or when they arrive somewhere else and, third, we're learning people throughout the u.s. healthcare systems of what to think about in case someone comes from liberia or sierra leone within three weeks and has a fever, what do you do? in most cases it's the flu or a cold, but in some it's ebola, and you isolate. >> sreenivasan: the world health organization said it's

spreading faster than their ability to contain it. does that concern you? >> absolutely. we are very concerned about the situation in africa and west africa and these three countries. it's the largest, most complex and diverse outbreak of ebola and crossing borders, so when it's controlled in one country, it flares up in the other. controlling ebola is possible. even though we don't have vaccinations, we know how to stop it and we've stopped every outbreak that occurred to date and i am confident we'll eventually stop this one but the challenges are huge because you have to have the contact tracing and case management right. if you miss one case, it's like embers in a forest fire, it reignites and you have to start the process all over again. >> sreenivasan: briefly, i know that you're sending additional doctors to the region. any concerns for their health? >> we have safety as the first peple to unsafe staff, so we

environments. we plan to surge the c.d.c. response and we're planning to send 50 more staff to the region in the next 30 days to help with the response, to help find patients, track contacts, make sure they're effectively isolated, do the laboratory work to see where the infections are occurring and whether there are infections and improve the response overall including communication because there have been many misconceptions in the region. this is a new disease to west africa. it's a big contrast to other places where we've worked where after many years we've worked, we have productive and constructive relationships with everyone ranging from traditional healers to ministries of health. here, we have to reinvent that system in a new place. >> sreenivasan: director tom frieden of the c.d.c., thank you very much. >> thank you very much. >> woodruff: this has been an important week for gauging the health of the u.s. economy.

we learned on wednesday that growth was better than expected. and today's jobs report shows solid hiring again. it points toward a strengthening economy, especially when compared to the earlier part of this recovery. but the limits of the labor market are still very apparent. as newshour economics correspondent paul soloman found out part of his ongoing reporting: "making sense of financial news". >> reporter: the july jobs jump was a bit lower than expected but it still marked the sixth month in a row the economy grew by 200,000 plus jobs, according to the survey of employers. the last time that happened? 1997. >> the recovery continues. call the economy the little engine that could. it keeps on puffing and puffing and getting us up out of the hole the great recession created. >> reporter: economist justin wolfers is a senior fellow at the brookings institution. >> it's not spectacular but we're creating enough jobs that we're really starting to make progress. >> reporter: more evidence:

employers added 15,000 more jobs in may and june than was first reported. and employment growth was fairly broad-based, from engineering, to retail and manufacturing. but at the same time the unemployment rate, based on the monthly survey of households, rose slightly, from 6.1 to 6.2%. what does wolfers make of that? >> that's statistical noise. what we're seeing is the unemployment rate falling a quarter point, a half point over the last three and six months, getting people back to work. there's still a lot to get back to work but if we keep going at this pace, we're gonna bring them all back. >> reporter: m.i.t nobel laureate economist peter diamond is also encouraged by the job gains, but he's been tracking more troubling trends in the labor market as well. for example: >> the very large number of people who have part-time jobs, and want full-time jobs. the very large number of people who were discouraged workers who

would like jobs but weren't actually searching because and the variable that to me is a big clue to what's going on: how extremely low the quit rate is. >> reporter: the quit rate? >> the workers who quit who were they have confidence they can get a better job. they're way low and that's a sign of a weak labor market, that's the reason wages are not doing as well as you might expect given the hires and given the steady drops in the unemployment rate. >> reporter: compared to pre- crash days, says diamond, some 400-500,000 less quits per month. so you mean somewhere near half a million fewer americans per month are leaving jobs to get new ones, meaning that half a million jobs that would have been available to people who were unemployed, aren't? >> yes. the way the job market works is

people move up not just a job ladder with seniority inside a sizable firm, but by moving from firm to firm, from lower paid jobs to higher paid jobs. >> reporter: indeed, wages rose just a penny an hour in july, an annual rate of .5%. wolfers' explanation? >> there's so much pressure from the people without work that those who do have work can't or don't feel ready to ask for a wage raise. >> reporter: and, wolfers adds, fewer people quitting their jobs, and less turnover in the jobs market in general, has other implications. >> the burden of unemployment is being borne by a small number of people. so there are two ways we could have 6% unemployment: it could be a lot of turnover and each of us unemployed for a short period of time, or not much turnover and the burden being borne by a small number of people, unemployed for a much longer period. now unfortunately, that's the situation we're in. so reduced turnover and dynamism is also largely explains why it

is that long-term unemployment remains so high and i think remains the biggest problem for this recovery. >> reporter: so when the headlines say, "good news! 200,000 or more new jobs being created every month" -- you say, in context, not so good, because there isn't nearly as much churn in the economy. not nearly as many people leaving jobs for new jobs as there had been. >> that's right. when you think about churn in the labor market, it's a good thing. because it's a vital part of how we get our labor market to be more efficient. >> reporter: but isn't the overall drop in unemployment a very good thing we asked diamond? >> that is progress. and if it had happened in half the length of time, think how much better off we would have been. >> woodruff: new statewide curbs on water use are taking effect in california this week as it grapples with a major drought.

the entire state is suffering from a severe dry spell, and the latest data show nearly 60% is experiencing exceptional drought. as the debate about conservation moves to underground water, scientists and politicians are trying to remedy the situation with research and new rules. newshour special correspondent spencer michels reports. >> reporter: in normal years, this outcropping is an island, surrounded by water that flows downhill from yosemite national park. but this year the island is gone, and don pedro lake, in california's central valley, is an ugly bathtub with an expanding ring around it. most major california's reservoirs are less than half full. rainfall has been sparse, and economists say the state-- which produces nearly half the nation's fruits and vegetables-- faces a drop of $2.2 billion in agricultural revenue, and the

loss of 17,000 farm-related jobs because of the drought. some crops-- 5% of the total-- have not been planted or removed because there isn't enough water. felicia marcus heads the state agency responsible for dealing with the shortage. >> this is the most serious drought that we've had, not just in our own generation, but in our grandparents' generation. it's going to have a much greater impact because we have millions more people, much more farmland, agriculture production dependent on it and more endangered fish and wildlife that don't have the resilience they once did. >> reporter: water usage has actually increased slightly this year. and although much of the focus on overuse has been in urban areas, agriculture consumes about half of california's water in dry years. for decades, california has developed and relied upon water --in rivers and canals and reservoirs-- to quench its thirst. but now, with such highly regulated surface water in short

supply, water under the ground is assuming a new role. >> the drought has brought to the fore an issue that has divided californians for years: how-- and whether-- to manage groundwater. that's the water farmers and others get from wells, and scientists would like to figure out how to map it, and how much of it there is. on a fallow farm near sacramento, michael parks has been hired to drill for water, so the owner can plant a new field of almond trees. with almost no surface water available farmers are turning to groundwater, and are willing to pay increasing fees to find it >> ever since the drought has been going, we've basically been running 24/7. >> reporter: and what are the customers telling you? >> to "hurry up; get to their property as quick as possible." >> reporter: there are almost no restrictions and no oversight on drilling for groundwater in

california, unlike most other states. >> the price of almonds and walnuts are up, so a lot of people are putting in new orchards, and if you don't have the water, obviously you can't grow the tree. >> reporter: but groundwater is not an infinite resource, though scientists have a hard time quantifying it. at the center for watershed sciences, at the university of california at davis, hydrologists graham fogg and thomas harder are looking for facts. and answers. >> too many people view the groundwater system as a big black box that is going to keep supplying water for them indefinitely. it's not, it can be over drafted it is being overdrafted in many areas, and there are consequences to that. >> right now we have the historically lowest groundwater levels that we've ever experienced in california. we're using more water than we're able to replenish. >> reporter: farmers like jake wenger agree there's a problem.

surface water allocations are down significantly this year in the modesto irrigation district. wenger and his father farm 400 acres-- mostly walnuts and almonds-- near modesto, and they see well water as the solution up to a point. >> the question becomes: as a person who can sink a well, do you have the right to pump as much water as you can possibly get out of that well, especially if it's damaging a neighbor? >> reporter: what's the answer to that question? >> well, no. i don't think anybody should be able to pump water just for the sake of pumping water, and that's where you're starting to see around the state where people want to sell groundwater. >> reporter: but how much water can wenger and other safely pump out of the ground? and who should decide? >> a lot of times we can over react, and so i think looking forward we have to make decisions based on science, based on sound science, and right now that's one of things that we're missing a little bit when it comes to understanding groundwater, is what exactly is happening underneath our feet. >> reporter: the state wants to know that too, and marcus fears

subsidence or sinking of land if too much water is pumped. >> we want to know what the sustainable yield is on a basin, how much time they have,. we also have issues where the ground is sinking so rapidly that infrastructure is crumbling, flood control is being lost, and that's something we want to know. >> reporter: the hydrologists have attempted answer those questions by mapping some areas and monitoring usage, but they've been hampered by a california law that allows farmers and drillers to keep well information private and unavailable for study by researchers like fogg. >> you cannot gain access to those well logs. drillers record what the material is that they penetrate, and how the well is constructed. those provide fundamental data points for which we can connect the dots and basically make road maps of the subsurface. >> reporter: farmers including

wenger fear the government would use well records to dictate how to farm. >> you could open yourself up to a lawsuit from somebody saying you are not putting that water to beneficial use. now you lose the freedom of being able to produce whatever you want on your own property, now you have someone else determining what crop you can grow and how much water you can use to produce it, and that's not right. >> reporter: wenger favors providing information on an area-wide, not an individual basis. but some underground water sources are drying up and predictions are various aquifers will become depleted. so policy makers are debating whether there should be new statewide rules or only local control. >> neighbors' wells have started to run dry in a variety of locations. so that's why you have an ongoing dialogue happening around the state, calling for some state action to help encourage locals to actually manage this resource in a fair and equitable way. >> reporter: grape grower al rossini wants to be sure the

state has a minimal role. >> i think farmers are a better manager of the groundwater than bureaucracy is. we know what we have, we know the value of it, we cherish it and we use it wisely. >> reporter: rossini has figured out his own way to manage groundwater on 1,000 acres in eastern stanislaus county. he's installed wells on his land in foothills that have no surface water. he's got sensors in the ground to determine moisture, and he sits in his office and decides when to water, and how much. >> the technology from here to the type of irrigation that was available 20 years ago, this has saved over 40% water savings annually. >> reporter: although he has enough water so far, he's working on a plan for his eastside water district to collect rainwater because he fears what will happen when wells run dry. >> the banks will come to you and say, "hey no water, no financing."

the problem with the drought is it's got fingers like a spider. >> reporter: others-- farmers and scientists-- are proposing ways to put wastewater into the ground, to recharge the aquifer. they are depending on science and technology--even nasa groundwater maps from space, plus some old fashioned water politics-- to help them survive a drought that some scientists say could last a very long time. >> woodruff: house republicans were racing to pass something on the border crisis after a day of confusion and chaos on capitol hill thursday. for a taste of what went on today, here's some of what we heard from both sides. we were able to to have 218,

arguably the most monumental vote we will take in this entire term dealing with the issue that the american people care about more than any other and that is stopping the invasion of internationals into our country. >> it is almost as though they despise and hate all our children because even the children that came before them that have pledged allegiance to the flag of the united states all of their lives, loved this country, and the president has afforded them an opportunity to become legal, they want to put them in an illegal situation. >> woodruff: it caps off what's been a roller-coaster week in u.s. politics. and here to analyze it all: shields and brooks... that's syndicated columnist mark shields and "new york times" columnist david brooks. so, gentlemen, high tempers at the capitol yesterday and today. david, what do we make of all this? >> it's sort of happening on two levels. there's the political meta level and the substance level. the meta level is nothing is

going to pass, nothing is going to happen. this is all about negotiating a bill that has zero chance of becoming law. so it's ted cruz and house members positioning against the leadership, we've had some things positioning for the voters. so it's all about positioning. as for the substance, i frankly don't understand the republican position at all. you have a refugee crisis, you have these kids coming here. there's a need for a balanced approach. yes. you have to secure the boarder, yes, there have to be hearings, yes, there has to be a sped-up process and money. some sort of balanced approach seems sensible. securing the border, deporting some who can sent back fairly, but then having hearings to figure out who's who. and the republicans, basically the political emphasis that's come out is deport, deport, deport, wall, wall, wall. seems to me to make little sense in the short term and extremely damaging for republicans in the long term. >> woodruff: how do you make

sense of it? >> judy, first of all, these kids -- and they are kids, overwhelmingly, in chaos, exploitation and violence, and somehow that's been lost in the debate in washington. i mean, the view somehow this my group of invaders who are actually kids who are thousands of miles from home and don't speak the language. the majority are saying get tough on the kids. a law signed in 2008 by president bush provided them legal counsel, forget that, let's ignore that and go forward. i accepts in the republicans right now in the house a political imperative and that is they recall 2010, four years ago, in the month of all, which was when that election really changed with the town meetings in their home districts, and none of them wants to go back,

apparently, or very few of them run a risk having somebody stand up and accuse them of amnesty, that you are going to let illegals, undocumenteds in. so i agree with david, they've labored mightily and produced this mouse that's going nowhere, is still born and not even symbolically impressive. >> woodruff: if they feel so strongly about this, why aren't they able to come together and get something passed? >> a couple of reasons. first, a lot of people in this country, legitimately, think there is no control of the border and this issue illustrates the chaos on the border and that's fair. secondly, the republicans drew the point the original bill, the 2008 law passed under president bush has some role in drawing people up here and that probably doesn't need it to change. >> this is the one that made it easier for children to come in.

it sense a false note that people can send their kids and they will be let in. so that's fair enough. this is about the g.o.p., this is not about passing legislation, not about we should pay attention to the leaders and compromise, this is about making a statement that will sound good on fox. they want to make a statement to sound good on tv or a sound meeting but it's not actually governing. ted cruz met with a bunch of house members and sort of helped organize this. so which senator is going to stand up and be the anti-cruz? who is going to stand up for republican values but i believe in governorring? so far, that person has not emerged. >> sort of cynically, democrats are playing a bad field in this election. the president's job rating is below 40s, in the 30s in

some key battleground states. in addition, people think the country is heading in the wrong direction and the intensity is with republicans in most polls over the democratic voters and the republicans are kicking this away. they've taken an issue which was the administration's responsibility, the border, any administration's responsibility, and all of a sudden they've clouded it up, playing defense, trying to explain it, and steve king, who is the most ardent anti-comprehensive immigration republican of the house, he's chariotling that this is the bill i picked from my menu and that's exactly where i don't want to be. >> all the guts and all the courage are on one side and the policy flows to where the courage and energy is and there's been very little courage on the other side. i might disagree and it's too soon to tell whether this affects this election.

>> woodruff: that's what i wanted to ask. >> the gallup organization does which party are you leaning toward and the democrats are always ahead because they have a lower turnout so the democrats have the leaning advantage to do well in the fall term. right now they're lening toward advantage, only 2% more people say they're leaning to become a democrat than republican, that's a small margin historically, the similar margin that existed in '94, 2002, 2010, which were all good republican years. so if i were to look to the polling, i still think it's a good republican year unless this has an effect in the next weeks and months ahead. >> i think it has affect on the republicans, not what 2010 did, but in a strange way some democrats are looking -- especially presidential, those concerned with the 2016 race -- are almost saying, given the performance of the house republicans in the last couple of weeks or even this session and the trouble they have been

for john boehner and the revolts they've led and all the rest of it, it might be the best thing for the democrat's political advantage if the republicans control both the house and the senate after the 2014 election and then -- >> woodruff: that's cynical. it's cynical, but they have no governorring philosophy. 52 times the house republicans voted against the affordable care act, to repeal obamacare. to this day as we sit here, there is no republican healthcare plan. this is five years. >> they dispute that. they have an agenda. i think there's a broader agenda. >> woodruff: i want to come back to david's point that where's the anti-ted cruz. there is a big school of thought in the republican that this is the wrong way to go, but where are those folks? >> i'm not even talk about

moderates, there are very conservative numbers that dislike cruz and think we have the govern, we just believe in the institution, he has not emerged. >> they have anti-cruz -- ted cruz did something that's really unprecedented, as a senator meeting with a couple dozen house members to basically revolt against the leadership, and this is the first test of the boehner and mccarthy leadership and this is going to be the new team after eric cantor's defeat and resignation and, you know, they've got egg all over their face. that purpose, what did it achieve? >> woodruff: you're right. this is the first chance for them to show what they can do. tough subject, but i do want to turn us for the last few minutes to the middle east. you talked to margaret about it, especially since the latest cease fire hasn't worked out, do you see any way through any light, anything positive to

bring this to a place of resolution? >> well, i mean, i hope there is. i hope with seeing the price people are paying in lives, just what it has done, it strikes me that israel in parlance has won the battle and lost the war or is in danger of losing the war, and i think if you look at the poll of the developed countries, the united states stands alone in its unflinching support of israel. israel has a sense of a negative influence in the world among great britain, among australia, south korea, japan, you name it, and the united states has been stalwart and, for the first time, you've seen in this experience support drop, and it's dropped, interestingly, among younger voters, voters under the age of 30, people who

don't go to church. it's basically the emerging democratic majority -- latinos, african-americans -- so i think, in that sense, it's important that there be a peace achieved, reached, an accord reached and war stopped. >> woodruff: david, do you see division or lasting separations between the u.s. and israel coming out? >> no, i don't think so. and in many ways there's been more unity in the middle east itself. these countries are more or less on israel's side. you notice how quiet they have been because they all think the solution is to weaken hamas, and i think that is the solution in israel. a west wing novelist said what would you do if an assassin puts his child on your lap and starts

shooting your nursery school? the israelis are united they need to weaken hamas and the surrounding neighborhood supports that so i think we're in for a longer war and bloodshed but the weak withennenning of hamas seems a goal of value. >> woodruff: in the meantime, the steady pictures of casualties -- >> the children. it's the children at the border and it's the children in gaza. i mean, the children have absolutely no influence, no voice on who's at war and who isn't, but the one thing i would say about israel is it's been a long time since israel has sought the moral good of syria and sawed area. those are not exactly ethical -- >> just talking about the alliances, unification within large parts of the world, not qatar and turkey, but against hamas. >> woodruff: tough all the way around. mark shields, david brooks, thank you both. for what congress is doing on

immigration tonight check the rundown on our web site. finally tonight: as the national football league gets set to kick off its pre-season this weekend, a domestic abuse case-- and the league's response to it-- has cast a dark cloud over the playing field. jeffrey brown has our story. >> i let so many people down because of 30 seconds of my life that, you know, i know i can't take back. >> brown: baltimore ravens running back ray rice spoke publicly yesterday. the first time since receiving a two-game suspension and fine. he was arrested in february for domestic violence against his then-fiancee, now wife, janay palmer. a t.m.z sports video showed him dragging her, unconscious, out of an elevator. >> that night, you know, i just replay over and over in my head. you know, that's not me. my actions were inexcusable and, you know, that's something i have to live for-- have to live with the rest of my life. >> brown: rice-- one of the n.f.l's leading rushers-- has entered a pretrial intervention program. when he completes it, criminal

charges against him could be dropped. the case and its aftermath set off a firestorm of public criticism that the league's punishment was too lenient. but today commissioner roger goodell defended his decision. he spoke at the n.f.l hall of fame in canton, ohio. >> i think what's important here is that ray has taken responsibility. he's been accountable for his actions. he recognizes he made a horrible mistake that is unnacceptable by his standards, by our standards, and he's got to work to re- establish himself. >> brown: several members of the media also took heat for their coverage of the situation. e.s.p.n analyst stephen a. smith sparked an uproar when he said women shouldn't, "do anything to provoke wrong action." for his part, without specifics, rice said yesterday he plans to help fight domestic violence in the future. sportswriter and columnist christine brennan of "usa today" and abc news has been covering this story. she joins me now.

welcome, chris keen. >> thank you. >> brown: first of all, as so often, this is about the incident and then the response, right? fill in the blanks for those not following this. >> yes, well, of course, you have this terrible incident and the video which brought it home to so many people, ray rice the star running back for the baltimore ravens and announce of a two-game suspension. there was a five-game suspension once for a player for stomping on someone. there have been much longer suspensions for many, many other things. >> brown: well, performance-enhancing drugs. it riles people up. >> two games seems almost like nothing and it was a three-paycheck, so $529,000 for two games. and that occurred about a week ago. actually more than a week ago, jeff, and literally the conversation still has not stopped. so this criticism of the

national football league and commissioner i found heartening, as bad as the decision was, as lenient as much as the n.f.l. literally fumbled the decision, i think the reaction has been wonderful to see how people reacted against the n.f.l. >> brown: tell us a little more about ray rice. i mean, the feel of this. he is a very talented football player. >> oh, absolutely, and his record, as everyone has said, has been clean. so that may well have gone into the calculation, and it did when the commissioner roger goodell said there have been no previous incidents. so two games is what he felt was appropriate. my response to that and so many people's response is, of course, that doesn't matter, an abuser is an abuser and when you see what he did and how he's drilling his soon-to be-life's body out of the elevator, he's boy scout to that point or not, seems like everything changed. >> brown: you saw his statement yesterday? >> i did, yes. >> brown: and what would you take from that? >> it was a start to me.

a young man clearly out of his element. of course, all of his own doing, all self-induced, no sympathy at all. but what i would have liked to see was more a concrete statement of what he specifically wants to do -- money, time, donations. looking in the camera and saying to men like him who have abused women that we've got to stop this, obviously he wasn't up to that. let's hope that he can start to take ownership of this and lead the way as the n.f.l. hopefully does a lot more on this issue. >> brown: this, of course, is a very violent sport and has had a lot of different incidents through the years. do you see this as fitting into some larger problem for the sport or not? for the sport not knowing quite how to deal with responding to something like this? >> actually, i think, yes, the violence is there, but seems to me the n.f.l., being the biggest lead in the country, the most popular by far, that this is their opportunity to be a leader in this. they have so many young men,

obviously, in the league, and why not look at this as the opening to putting considerable might and effort behind a cause that is so important, an issue that is so important in this country? so i look at it as an opportunity. people say, oh, it's a violent sport, that's an excuse, of course, and i think the n.f.l. should be beyond allowing those excuses to exist. >> brown: and you said it is most popular sport. the season will start soon. do fans care? is the league looking at this as potentially damaging? >> i have never seen a reaction to something go on this long and be this strong and i think that's great in the sense that i think the decision was wrong. so it will carry over certainly into gains where they start playing on the road. i'm sure ray rice is going to hear. on the other hand, ravens fans were cheering him and saw them pop up on the board the other day.

so fans are fans and cheer for the jersey let's hope the same approach comes up where people say if this man moved down the street from me i would be horrified to find out what he did and let's hope the fans react in a negative way towards him not that you want to take it out more on him but that it's wrong and the n.f.l. is getting the idea that this is unacceptable in 2014. >> brown: thank you so much. thank you so much, jeff. >> woodruff: again, the major >> ifill: we misspelled tom frieden's last name. we apologize. developments of the day. israeli troops searched southern gaza today for an army officer they believe was captured by hamas fighters. his apparent capture as a cease- fire collapsed, only hours after it was agreed to. president obama acknowledged the u.s. was involved in torture in the immediate aftermath of the

9/11 attacks and the stock market closed out its worst week in two years. on the newshour online right now: new parents know the feeling of sleep-deprivation, and now research has revealed that moms remain at dangerously high levels of fatigue, even after her baby is sleeping more regularly through the night. read more about those findings, on our rundown. all that and more is on our web site, newshour.pbs.org. and a reminder about some upcoming programs from our pbs colleagues. gwen ifill is preparing for "washington week," which airs later this evening. here's a preview: >> ifill: you know that saying about getting stuck between a rock and a hard place? you pick the controversy -- immigration, transportation, veterans affairs, russia, ukraine, israel, gaza and tight spots abound. we'll tackle them all later tonight on "washington week."

judy? >> woodruff: tomorrow's edition of pbs newshour weekend millions of poor americans are now eligable for health and we'll be back, right here, on monday when african leaders travel to washington for the first ever white house summit to explore u.s. collaboration with the continent. that's the newshour for tonight. i'm judy woodruff. have a great weekend. thank you and good night. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> charles schwab, proud supporter of the pbs "newshour." >> carnegie corporation of new york. supporting innovations in education, democratic engagement, and the advancement of international peace and security. at carnegie.org. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions

and friends of the newshour. >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. captioning sponsored by macneil/lehrer productions captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org 

this is "nightly business report" with tyler mathisen and susie gharib. not too hot, not too cold, july's employment report may have been just right, but does it leave the federal reserve leeway to keep interest rates low? >> stocks struggle, the major indexes fail to recover from yesterday's steep losses and the s&p 500 the worse lost in two years. >> less is more. why proctor and gamble believes the way to bulk up sales is to slim down. all that and more tonight on "nightly business report" for friday, the first of august. i can't believe it's august. good evening i'm tyler mathisen. >> i'm sue her rir