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The Earlybird: Today's headlines
The Bipartisan Era
- "House Republicans selected a new set of committee chairmen yesterday," the Washington Post reports. Two changes included making Rep. Bill Thomas, R-Calif., as chairman of Ways and Means and moving Rep. Henry J. Hyde, R-Ill., "from the chairmanship of the Judiciary Committee to the panel that oversees foreign policy."
- Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss., has recommended a "power sharing" agreement between Democrats and Republicans that would provide for "equal membership on committees," the Washington Post reports. Many Republicans are opposed to the idea, the Washington Times reports.
- Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., on Thursday began their push for a campaign finance bill, AP reports.
- Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., is considering joining the centrist New Democrat Coalition, the Wall Street Journal's Washington Wire reports.
- Rep. Bud Shuster, R-Pa., announced Thursday that he will retire Jan. 31, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports. Shuster served in Congress 28 years, and his son, William, is likely to run for his seat.
- Today, President Clinton is expected to declare "nearly a third of the country's federal forest land off limits to most logging," AP reports.
- Former Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. John M. Shalikashvili (Ret.) today will "present a report to President Clinton today recommending 14 steps to build bipartisan support" for the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, the Washington Post reports.
- On Thursday, Clinton signed an order that will create a counterintelligence board "to devise a more effective strategy to combat spying," the Washington Post reports.
- In The Middle East, Thursday was the second day "in which no casualties were reported in the West Bank and Gaza Strip," the Wall Street Journal reports.
- Mexico City's air--some of the worst in the world--is "getting fresher," the New York Times reports.
- The Labor Department said Thursday that "the number of Americans filing new claims for state unemployment insurance climbed to its highest level in more than two years," AP reports.
- Even though the Federal Reserve cut interest rates by half a percentage point Wednesday, "nobody knows how low the Fed will have to go to avoid" an economic tailspin, the New York Times reports.
- Sears will close 89 stores around the country in order to improve profits, the Washington Post reports.
- Beginning Sunday, it will cost 34 cents to mail a letter in the United States, the New York Times reports.
- CBS News is planning to check "multiple sources for vote tallies" and to increase "its reporting manpower in hotly contested states" in future elections to avoid the mistakes that were made in 2000, the New York Times reports.
- The Seattle Times and its largest union on Thursaday agreed to end a 46-day strike, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reports.
- George magazine, which was founded by the late John F. Kennedy Jr., will stop publishing in March, CNN.com reports.
- Officials in California are considering "a possible state bailout of private utilities struggling to pay runaway electricity prices," the Los Angeles Times reports.
- A California wildfire that began Wednesday and has burned more than 10,000 acres was caused by a cigarette tossed from a vehicle, AP reports.
- Investigators in Texas have determined that a December fire set on a boat partly owned by President-elect Bush was arson, the Austin American-Statesman reports.
- The search for seven inmates who escaped from a Texas prison and killed a police officer on Christmas Eve will expand beyond the state border after the FBI issued new warrants Thursday, the Dallas Morning News reports.
- The state of Texas is suing Exxon-Mobil for "tens of millions of dollars" in in production royalties that it says were not paid to the state, Financial Times reports.
- Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R) has been subpoenaed to "testify before a federal civil rights panel investigating allegations of voting irregularities in Florida's presidential election," the Miami Herald Reports.
- Sen. Strom Thurmond, R-S.C., is planning to nominate his 28-year-old son, Strom Jr., for the job of United States attorney for South Carolina after Bush's inauguration, the New York Times reports.
- President Clinton on Thursday attended the funeral of Jack McAuliffe, 83, father of Democratic fund-raiser and Clinton friend Terry McAuliffe, AP reports.
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