captions by vitac www.vitac.com join the millions of people taking back their privacy welcome, everyone. you are in the cnn newsroom. i m omar jiminez in washington in for jim acosta. at any moment, the senate will release its bipartisan border bill. but even if it can pass the legislation, the bill is set to face stiff opposition from house republicans. speaker johnson has said, it s dead on arrival. that s quoting him. that s even before he s seen it at all. that has hakeem jeffries slamming house republicans has wholly owned subsidiaries of donald trump. the white house saying speaker johnson is tying himself in knots to delay border. first, we are tracking severe weather on the west coast. the los angeles fire department is warning people to evacuate some parts of southern california, as the area braces for potentially life-threatening flooding conditions. i want to get right now to the cnn weather center, where meteorologist alisa rafa is tracking that extrem
good morning, to our viewers in the usa and around the world. i m john avlon. it is monday, december 18th. it s 5:00 a.m. here in new york, noon in tel aviv, where the u.s. defense secretary is scheduled to meet now with his israeli counterpart. secretary lloyd austin s mission is to press israeli officials on specific milestones for progress in israel s war against hamas, as civilian casualties climb. here s democratic senator chris van hollen talking to abc this sunday. we do have unacceptable levels of casualties. we see loose rules of engagement, way looser than anything that the united states would exercise. we would not drop a 2,000-pound bomb on a refugee camp to target a hamas commander. a senior defense official tells cnn that austin will, quote, want to hear very clear articulation of the israeli self-assessment today. that same official has confidence in the israeli military and so he s there to ask questions and learn more about their plan. elliott gotkine
Today a strong ridge of high pressure will build in over the Great Basin and Intermountain West. So temps should take a big jump tomorrow to above well normal thru Saturday in the Owens Valley.
Today a weak shortwave crosses the Sierra Crest / Western Great Basin and brings just enough moisture to support isolated, high based convection over Mammoth and the Crest. Other than that, mostly uneventful weather for our Forecast Area this week.
A little cooler today, then a shortwave ridge builds over the region on Wednesday, bringing warming temperatures to near seasonal values. Then a back door front drops into the area Thursday,