koi kinds of men that can troubleshoot it. they ll be on their own. the next ten or so men will be men who have had problems with the claus trophobia, men suffering from hypertension and diabetes. the next men will be the men that are strong enough that when their colleagues are leaving them, they ll be able to hold it together for the final hours and be able to leave the mine at the at the very end and not break when they re basically left in the mineshaft alone. patrick ottoman, we ll stay in close touch. patrick, thank you. president obama s asking congress for $50 billion to upgrade aging u.s. infrastructure. he s proposing a six-year plan to rebuild roads, railways and more. senior administration officials suggesting that they could be paid for by closing tax loopholes rather than by incurring new national debt. the president says the united states is following behind
though, following tests of the rescue capsule, which was lowered within about 40 feet of the chamber where the men have spent the last two months. cnn s patrick ottoman is on the scene in chile. first, let s get the details of had rescue from chad myers. chad, what else do we know about this rescue operation? i understand the actual lift out of the mine will not be entirely vertical. that is correct. it is actually at an 80-degree an angle to the vertical. that only matters because what they did to this capsule. unlike the capsule that was used in the cue creek mine, which was the yellow one, they installed wheels. wheels on the phoenix to go up better at the angle because they knew that this thing would just bounce all the way up and down along this kind of this inverted shaft here because it is not quite on the vertical. wheels on the top and wheels on the bottom. also inside will be oxygen.
there at the mine. patrick ottoman is joining us on the phone right now. what s going on, patrick, right now? wolf, we re seeing practice runs being done. they re gearing up for this rescue. they ve done quite a bit today in terms of lining the mine hole, doing that first test that chad discussed, lowering the capsule down to almost the mine floor. we ve seen help coicopters taki off and landing. that s how they ll transport the miners to the hospital. it s quite a large operation. they want to get every detail just so. how are they going to determine the order of the miners leaving, patrick? you know, it s become something of a point of contention. the government officials want to go like this. they want the five most technically adept miners, the miners who are quite competent, have been in good shape throughout this ordeal, to go first. if there are any issues in the capital ride, those are the
the republican candidate for new york governor is denying he hates gay people. remarks about homosexuality and whether it s a valid way of life. i m wolf blitzer. you re in the situation room. powerful explosives found, in all places, a cemetery in new york city. it s raising lots of questions right now about who put it there and what they might have planned for the explosives. let s go right to our senior correspondent, allan chernoff. in new york, what are we learning? very bizarre story. eight bricks of military grade explosives found in a very small cemetery in the east village of manhattan. this at second avenue and second street. apparently found in a plastic garbage bag. eight bricks. this is strange the way they were found. it was found by a volunteer yesterday. but they didn t call it into the police today. not set to go off. no imminent danger to anybody. the bomb squad was called. no buildings were evacuated. they mentioned they were found on the ground in the b
a bill that bans some ethnic education classes. first, a look at some of the other top stories of the day. three people are dead in washington state after a standoff between deputies and one of their own. this is gig harbor, washington, just northwest of tacoma. authorities say pierce county sheriff s deputy allen miren shot his wife s parents yesterday and then barricaded himself and his two children in his home. the children got out safely, both in-laws, however, were killed. a s.w.a.t. team found the gentleman dead in his home later on after that. this was a six-hour standoff that went on there in washington state. and safety diminishes in bangkok as anti-government protesters renew their battle.tbattle. at least 18 people are dead. six were killed today. we ll take you to bangkok today live. here we go again, that ash cloud spewing from a volcano in iceland can jam up air travel in both britain and germany for the next few days. britain says it could close some air