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The Earlybird: Today's headlines
- Testifying before the Senate Budget Committee Thursday, Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan "gave considerable support to President Bush's push for a tax cut, saying such a measure could do 'noticeable good' if the U.S. economy continued to struggle," ABCNews.com reports.
- Greenspan also said that "California's electricity crisis is threatening to undermine America's decade-long expansion," the Los Angeles Times reports.
- The New York Times has a transcript of Greenspan's testimony.
- Federal Reserve policy makers will "meet next week to decide whether to cut interest rates again," the Wall Street Journal reports.
- President Bush is considering "easing air-pollution rules to spur construction of power plants" in California, the Wall Street Journal reports.
- California "consumers were given some temporary relief when a Stage 3 alert was lifted for the first time in nearly two weeks," AP reports.
- President Bush on Thursday "touted the education plan he released this week" at D.C.'s Merritt Elementary School, which is made up of mostly poor, minority students, the Washington Post reports.
- Bush met with Catholic leaders Thursday "as part of his effort to reach out to the religious community and his focus on faith-based solutions to problems like alcoholism and prison," Reuters reports.
- Secretary of State Colin Powell on Thursday told staffers that he has asked the White House for more money for the department and that he will "review technology" and "promote diversity," CNN.com reports.
- "Democrats on Capitol Hill were compiling a list of alleged misstatements made by" Attorney General nominee John Ashcroft "that will be used in an attempt to persuade uncommitted colleagues when Ashcroft's nomination reaches the Senate floor," the Washington Post reports.
- Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., denied assuring Bush that Ashcroft would be confirmed, Reuters reports.
- Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., became the third senator to announce that she will vote against Ashcroft, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reports. She joins California Democratic Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer.
- During a health care forum Thursday, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., "lashed out at" Bush's "tax cut plans and warned him against rolling back abortion rights," Reuters reports.
- A group of senators and media watchers -- including Sen. Joe Lieberman, D-Conn. -- on Thursday "scolded video game makers Thursday for continuing to market violent games to children, but credited the industry for getting nearly all its manufacturers to use a voluntary rating system," AP reports.
- Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., will hold his first town hall meeting on campaign finance reform Monday in Little Rock, Ark., the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reports.
- Rep. Joseph Thompson, R-N.M., a critic of the war on drugs, this week handed out passes to other members of Congress "to see the drug-war drama 'Traffic,'" AP reports.
- Senate Republicans have handed out their committee assignments. CongressDaily has a list of new member placements.
- An earthquake in western India today has killed more than 500 people, Reuters reports.
- Intelligence reports say that "China is buying U.S. weapons technology illegally through front companies in Hong Kong and Singapore," the Washington Times reports.
- Zoran Djindjic was confirmed Thursday as Serbia's new prime minister, the New York Times reports. In a speech, he "promised democratic reform and regional and economic stability."
- Rep. Dan Burton, R-Ind., has begun a congressional investigation into former President Clinton's "controversial last-minute pardon of wealthy financier Marc Rich," CNN.com reports.
- Some of the people whose letters were "used to help persuade President Clinton to pardon" Rich said Thursday that they did not know the letters would be used for that purpose, the New York Times reports.
- Secret Service said Thursday that Clinton ordered "Secret Service protection temporarily extended for his daughter, Chelsea, and former Vice President Al Gore," AP reports.
- Chicago Mayor Richard Daley (D) said that "Clinton tried to steal the spotlight on Inauguration Day," AP reports.
- Bill and Hillary Clinton are being criticized for receiving "$190,027 worth of furniture and other gifts" during their time in the White House, AP reports.
- It didn't stop with taking the W's out of the keyboards: White House staffers have reported acts of "apparent vandalism" by outgoing Clinton staffers, including "sliced phone and computer lines" and "obscene messages left in copy machines," the Washington Post reports. Former Clinton staffers said the acts were meant to be funny.
- "The man who slipped past Inauguration Day security to casually shake President Bush's hand says he was delivering a message from God and was granted a mystical ability to pass undetected," AP reports.
- Virginia Lt. Gov. John Hager (R) officially filed his candidacy for the Republican nomination for governor in 2001 yesterday, getting the "the jump on his opponent," Attorney General Mark Earley, who followed suit a few hours later, the Richmond Times-Dispatch reports.
- "Some Republicans have begun urging" Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., to run for governor in 2002, the Kansas City Star reports.
- In Texas, businessman Tony Sanchez Jr. (D), is "considering a 2002 bid for governor," the Houston Chronicle reports. Sanchez raised "more than $127,000 for Bush's Republican presidential campaign."
- Centre County commissioner Scott Conklin (D) has an uphill fight in his race for Pennsylvania's 9th District seat, which is being vacated by the retiring Rep. Bud Shuster (R). He would become "the first Democrat in 67 years to wrest control of this south-central Pennsylvania Republican fortress," the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports.
- A man convicted of killing three people in 1985 was executed in Oklahoma Thursday night, AP reports. Billy Ray Fox "was the sixth inmate executed in Oklahoma this month, with four more scheduled to die in the next six weeks."
- "David Duke appears to have found a new audience for his racist views in Russia: members of the State Duma, the lower house of parliament," the Boston Globe reports.
- Former White House aide Linda Tripp filed "a suit claiming damages against the Defense Department over 'shameful leaks' about her job hunt designed to 'humiliate and embarrass her,'" CNN.com reports.
- After a tough custody battle, the original Howdy Doody will be sent to a museum in Detroit, the Hartford Courant reports.
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