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The Earlybird: Today's headlines
- President Bush heads today to Kansas City, Mo., and to Billings, Mont., where he will continue pitching his $1.6 trillion tax cut plan, the AP reports.
- In Kansas City, Bush will speak to employees at Bajan Industries, a subcontractor to Hallmark Cards Inc., the Kansas City Star reports.
- The Billings Gazette reports on Billings' preparations for today's presidential visit.
- Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said Sunday he would "absolutely" rule out a 2004 challenge to Bush, Reuters reports.
- "Senior Bush aides say President Bush plans to keep current CIA Director George Tenet at the spy agency," reports U.S. News and World Report's "Washington Whispers."
- Massachusetts Gov. Paul Cellucci's (R) nomination as ambassador to Canada "is expected to be formally submitted to the Senate tomorrow," the Boston Globe reports.
- Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill said Sunday that he has changed his mind and "will sell his stock in Alcoa Inc., valued at about $100 million," the Washington Post reports.
- The Washington Post reports new details on the Bush administration's revised Iraqi sanctions: U.N. monitors would be posted just outside Iraq's borders and "at key foreign airports to prevent President Saddam Hussein's regime from importing military goods."
- The Los Angeles Times reports the Bush administration's reluctance to get involved in Macedonia "increases the risk that a Balkan war will once again threaten stability in southeastern Europe."
- "After days of waiting," the Macedonian government on Sunday mounted an offensive to force ethnic Albanian rebels in the hills above Tetovo to pull back farther into the mountains, Washington Post reports.
- Israeli Prime Minister Prime Ariel Sharon, the New York Times reports, "lashed out today at an American-sponsored fact-finding committee," calling its inquiry into the Israeli-Palestinian conflict unjustified and saying Israel made "a historic mistake" when it consented to the investigation.
- Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott said Sunday that raising the current $1,000 limit on individual "hard money" political contributions -- a move Sens. McCain and Russ Feingold, D-Wis., say they could accept -- is "critical" to the success of campaign finance reform legislation, the Washington Times reports.
- Reuters reports on the key tests McCain-Feingold faces in its second week of debate on the Senate floor.
- The Hartford Courant reports that today the Supreme Court "will hear arguments that could determine how easy -- or difficult -- it will be for... residents of California and at least eight other states to obtain marijuana legally for medical reasons."
- When first-year law students across the country begin classes in the fall, women will be in the majority for the first time, the New York Times reports.
- The Washington Post reports on the changing "voting behavior of the American electorate" -- the "transformation of voting patterns over the past three decades has weakened the long-standing link between income and voting among whites."
- The number of Americans in state prisons last year "increased at the slowest rate since 1971, though the total number of people incarcerated in the United States remained at a record high in 2000," the AP reports.
- Arkansas Rep. Marion Berry's (D) "all-but-finalized decision" to run for Senate "has not discouraged two other top Democrats" -- state Attorney General Mark Pryor and state Senate President Pro Tem Mike Beebe -- "from eyeing the contest" against Sen. Tim Hutchinson, R-Ark., Roll Call reports.
- A new Democratic poll in Colorado shows "that just 34 percent of Colorado voters would vote to re-elect first-term Sen. Wayne Allard (R) next year," Roll Call reports.
- Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan (R) "has endorsed City Councilman Nate Holden" (D) "in the April 10 special election in the 32nd Congressional District," the Los Angeles Times reports.
- New Jersey acting Gov. Donald DiFrancesco (R), saying that he was "tired of answering the questions of where this is from or that is from," released "a mountain of documents yesterday that detailed his income, law firm clients and investments over the last six years," the Newark Star-Ledger reports.
- In a "rare" move, Hudson County Democrats defended DiFrancesco yesterday "after his opponent in this spring's GOP primary, Jersey City Mayor Bret Schundler, attacked him for delaying the release of municipal aid figures," the Newark Star-Ledger reports.
- By Virginia Attorney General Mark Earley's (R) "count, he has a 48-percent-to-39-percent lead over" Lt. Gov. John Hager (R) "in the delegate race" to secure the GOP nomination for governor, the Norfolk Virginian-Pilot reports.
- Former Michigan Gov. James Blanchard (D) "said he is 'ramping up' his Democratic campaign for the state's top job in 2002," the Detroit Free Press reports.
- Bush will visit Michigan Tuesday, the same day state Attorney General Jennifer Granholm (D) will kick off her "much-anticipated five-city campaign swing through lower Michigan, in which she is to announce her Democratic candidacy for governor in 2002," the Detroit Free Press reports.
- Rep. David Bonior, D-Mich., "is taking clear steps toward" a 2002 gubernatorial bid, "quietly sounding out activists and raising money," Roll Call reports.
- A Buffalo News poll shows that New Yorkers "are not yet convinced" Gov. George Pataki (R) "should be rewarded with a third term in 2002." The poll also shows Andrew Cuomo (D) holding "a substantial lead over state Comptroller H. Carl McCall" (D) in the race for the Democratic nomination.
- Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) held a "daylong, closed-door strategy session" Saturday, which, among other things, "focused on the 2002 gubernatorial campaign with presentations on the Republican's 'political organization and vote goals,'" the Dallas Morning News reports.
- Pilots for Comair, the nation's second-largest regional airline, went on strike this morning, forcing a shutdown that could disrupt air transportation across the Southeast and Midwest, the Cincinnati Enquirer reports.
- "It's been a week since" California Gov. Gray Davis' (D) "order took effect" that requires "businesses to cut power use during the energy crisis, and enforcement of the rules has gotten off to a decidedly uneven start," the Los Angeles Times reports.
- Mississippi Gov. Ronnie Musgrove (D) "signed a law Friday mandating that public schools display 'In God We Trust' in classrooms, cafeterias and auditoriums," which goes into effect July 1, AP reports.
- "Southern states are mounting a war to stave off the foot-and-mouth disease" as "extra precautions are being taken at the South's seaports and airports," the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports.
- The New York Times reports some say the United States has not done enough to block foot-and-mouth disease at the border and "should it invade here, America would be hard pressed to stamp it out."
- First lady Laura Bush, Japanese Ambassador Shunji Yanai and Washington, D.C., Mayor Anthony Williams (D) were all "at the official opening ceremony of the National Cherry Blossom Festival at the Kennedy Center" Sunday, the Washington Times reports.
- A new article in Science and Justice shows that, contrary to what a special panel of the National Academy of Sciences decided, it is "more than 96 percent certain that there was a shot from the grassy knoll" on Nov. 22, 1963, when John F. Kennedy was shot, the Washington Post reports.
- Johnnie Cochran, the "man who won acquittals for O.J. Simpson and Sean "Puffy" Combs," has "volunteered" to help in 14-year-old murder convict Lionel Tate's case. Tate has been sentenced to life in prison, the Miami Herald reports.
- Big winners at Sunday night's Academy Awards: Best Picture -- "Gladiator;" Best Actor -- Russell Crowe ("Gladiator"); Best Actress -- Julia Roberts ("Erin Brockovich"); and Best Director -- Steven Soderbergh ("Traffic"); reports the Los Angeles Times, which also has a complete list of winners.
- On Saturday night, Washington's elite gathered for the annual Gridiron Dinner. Although the press wasn't allowed inside, the Washington Post provides "the basic facts... as gleaned, gossiped about and covertly recorded by microcassette."
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