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The Earlybird: Today's headlines
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Bush's first day
- On Monday, his first official work day, President George W. Bush will begin "line-by-line reviews of the executive orders and regulations" former President Clinton put into place, the Washington Post reports. "Among those likely to be overturned, officials said, is an order by Clinton that restored federal funding for some groups that offer abortion counseling overseas."
- Bush will meet with Congress this week to discuss education reform, including plans "for legislation that includes school choice for parents, more testing for students and penalties for schools that don't meet academic standards," USA Today reports.
- Sen. Zell Miller, D-Ga., will co-sponsor Bush's tax cut plan with Sen. Phil Gramm, R-Texas, the Washington Times reports. Gramm will hold a press conference today.
- Bush's agenda won't be the only one on the plate: Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., is expected to introduce campaign finance reform legislation today, the Washington Post reports.
- The Oval Office was redecorated for Bush in less than 24 hours this weekend, the New York Times reports. On Sunday Bush took a tour of the White House and "greeted some of the 2,200 people who had obtained tickets to the traditional first-day open house."
- Both protesters and police "were able to claim victory" after the inauguration weekend, the Washington Post reports. Only five arrests were made, and "few scuffles broke out."
- The Washington Times reports that police "allowed hundreds of protesters to overtake bleachers reserved for ticket holders at the inaugural parade."
- Hours after Bush was sworn in as the 43rd president, seven Cabinet nominees were approved in a voice vote. They are Colin Powell as secretary of state, Paul O'Neill as treasury secretary, Donald Rumsfeld as defense secretary, Rod Paige as education secretary, Spencer Abraham as energy secretary, Donald Evans as commerce secretary and Ann Veneman as agriculture secretary, AP reports.
- Powell said he wants "to scrap many, maybe even most, of the punitive sanctions imposed by the United States," the Los Angeles Times reports.
- Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., said he hopes that all of Bush's Cabinet nominees will be approved by week's end, Roll Call reports.
- Lott "warned that if partisans drag" Attorney General nominee John Ashcroft's confirmation hearing "out too long, it will extract a price in an evenly divided Senate, where progress on almost anything will require cooperation across party lines," the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports.
- A Bush spokesman said Sunday that there "is no difference of opinion" between Bush and O'Neill "on the issue of tax cuts... pushing aside speculation about a dispute," Reuters reports.
- The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee will hold hearings for Labor Secretary nominee Elaine Chao on Wednesday, AP reports.
- Bill Clinton began his life as an ordinary citizen this weekend, going out for coffee in New York with a motorcade of only two cars, the New York Times reports.
- Former Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr said Sunday that Clinton's plea agreement with Independent Counsel Robert Ray was "a very reasonable and sensible solution," AP reports.
- One thing many of the 176 people Clinton pardoned Saturday have in common is that they have political connections to the former president, the Washington Post reports.
- The State Department on Sunday advised Americans not to visit Congo because of political turmoil there, AP reports.
- A state funeral for Congo's recently assassinated president, Laurent D. Kabila, will be held Tuesday, the New York Times reports. After that, his son Joseph, "who is in his early 30's, is to be sworn in as president."
- Palestinian and Israeli negotiators began another round of peace talks in Egypt Sunday night, the New York Times reports.
- New Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo began assembling a Cabinet Sunday, AP reports.
- "U.S. pollution-fighting experts arrived at the Galapagos Islands on Sunday to help clean up" an oil spill, AP reports.
- Roll Call reports that, using "history is a guide," we should see midterm elections that are "a boon for House and Senate Democrats, who stand a hair's breadth away from capturing majorities in both chambers."
- As soon as Bill Shuster, son of retiring Rep. Bill Shuster, R-Pa., announced his candidacy, the "sparks were already flying," Roll Call reports. "Rep. Shuster slammed a likely rival, Blair County Commissioner John Eichelberger, as 'unfit to hold any position of public trust."
- Former Rep. Ron Klink, D-Pa., who lost a 2000 Senate bid to Sen. Rick Santorum (R), "said he was considering opportunities in broadcasting and lobbying and had 'no abiding desire to run' for office again," the Philadelphia Inquirer reports.
- Sen. Jean Carnahan, D-Mo., "has officially set up a campaign committee, but aides say that doesn't mean she's decided to run for re-election next year," the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports.
- And Rep. Jo Ann Emerson, R-Mo., said "it's unlikely that she'll run for the U.S. Senate next year -- whether or not" Carnahan "seeks re-election," the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports.
- The absence of Tommy Thompson (R) from the 2002 Wisconsin gubernatorial race "is likely to fuel a money race unlike anything" the state has ever seen, AP reports.
- Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack (R) "raised $997,700 during 2000, in preparation for an expected second run for governor in 2002," the Des Moines Register reports.
- "A small group of advisers to" former New York Gov. Mario Cuomo (D), "plus some new blood, will step up work this week in preparation for a possible run for governor by former federal Housing Secretary Andrew Cuomo," the Albany Times Union reports.
- Following more power blackouts Sunday, California Democrats today will unveil a plan to allow the state to "become one of the largest owners of hydroelectric power in the nation and use profit from those plants to borrow as much as $12 billion to buy electricity," the Los Angeles Times reports.
- Robert W. Mong Jr., president of the Dallas Morning News, apologized in the newspaper today for hate literature that "was slipped into a copy of the newspaper Sunday morning at a northwest Dallas grocery store."
- A study being released today by UCLA and the American Council on Education shows that college freshmen study less, AP reports. "Freshmen also seem to have little interest in politics and are smoking and drinking less."
- "Monsignor Theodore E. McCarrick, the newly installed Archbishop of Washington, was elevated to a cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church by Pope John Paul II yesterday," the Washington Times reports.
- Byron De La Beckwith, 80, the man who killed civil rights leader Medgar Evers, died Sunday, the New York Times reports.
- His plan to stay out of public life didn't last long: The Rev. Jesse Jackson thanked his supporters Sunday and indicated he's ready to get back to work as head of the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, AP reports.
- Former President Ronald Reagan returned home from the hospital Saturday "and will continue physical therapy sessions in the comforts of his Bel-Air home," AP reports.
- Today is the 28th anniversary of the Supreme Court's Roe vs. Wade decision that legalized abortion, AP reports.