The Earlybird: Today's headlines

Bush's Taiwan decision, tax cut compromises, education debate, Harris' testimony, Torricelli's plea, Schwarzenegger's out, Davenport's floods, Robb's job:

• On Tuesday President Bush taped a television interview about weapons sales to Taiwan and said "the United States had a duty to aid Taiwan in case of attack by China and would do 'whatever it took' to help the island defend itself," Reuters reports. The interview ran today on ABC's "Good Morning America."
• And in an interview with the Washington Post, Bush said "he will scrap the annual review of arms sales to Taiwan, ending a policy used by the United States since 1982 to provide the island with weapons to defend itself against China."
• In Taiwan on Tuesday, "security analysts said the weapons mark an important step in righting the balance of power between Taiwan and China," the Dallas Morning News reports. Meanwhile, China "expressed 'serious concern' about the latest U.S. arms package for Taiwan and warned that it reserves the right 'to take further actions.'"

• On Tuesday Bush met with Republican congressional leaders and asked them "to take prompt action on his proposed tax cut and hold the line on spending despite lawmakers' calls for more money for education and other priorities," Reuters reports.
• After the meeting, senators said "they probably will settle for $1.4 trillion in tax cuts," the Washington Times reports.
• Republicans "said they expect to seal a deal with Democrats on tax cuts and spending by week's end," AP reports.
• Bush's budget may not provide enough funding to continue the federal government's lawsuit against the tobacco industry, the Washington Post reports.

• Senate Republicans "said they planned to open debate on" Bush's education reform plan today, Reuters reports.
• The Coalition Against Religious Discrimination, "an umbrella organization of clergy concerned about church-state separation," on Tuesday "released a petition urging lawmakers to reject a House bill that would give religious ministries that deliver social services wider access to federal funds," the Boston Globe reports.

• Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris (R) will testify on the Hill today about election reform, Reuters reports.
• "More than 1,500 election overhaul bills have been introduced in state legislatures, and just over 100 have passed," AP reports.
• And on the national level, about "50 bills on election reform have been filed in the House," Cox News Service reports.

• On Tuesday Bush "signaled his intention to impose a more corporate management style on the Pentagon bureaucracy... by nominating three business executives... to be the secretaries of the Army, Navy and Air Force," the New York Times reports.
• Bush awarded the 2001 President's Environmental Youth Award to three elementary school girls from Texas on Tuesday, the Dallas Morning News reports.
• Bush will speak about his tax cut plan today at Zephyr Field in Metairie, La., the New Orleans Times-Picayune reports. He will use the visit to try to persuade Louisiana Democratic Sens. John Breaux and Mary Landrieu to support his plan.
• Bush will be in Little Rock, Ark., tonight to attend a fundraiser for Sen. Tim Hutchinson (R), the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reports.

• Sen. Bob Torricelli, D-N.J., made a "plea to colleagues during a weekly policy lunch" yesterday "for their support as he faces a federal inquiry into allegations he took illegal gifts and cash," the Washington Post reports.
• Illinois state Senate President James "Pate" Philip (R), "the powerful... lawmaker who also is the longest-serving GOP county chairman in the state," said yesterday that he is not sure if he will back Gov. George Ryan's (R) 2002 re-election bid, the Chicago Tribune reports.
• New Jersey acting Gov. Donald DiFrancesco (R) aired his first radio ads of the 2001 campaign yesterday and "sent out letters to the GOP's 21 county chairmen and other party leaders, vowing to fight hard to reinvigorate his campaign," the Newark Star-Ledger reports.
• Tonight New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D) will hold her first fundraiser at her Washington home, raising money for Washington Democratic Sen. Maria Cantwell, the Baltimore Sun reports.

• Arnold Schwarzenegger announced yesterday he will not seek the Republican nomination for California governor in 2002, the Los Angeles Times reports. The actor "said he was merely postponing a plunge into politics until 'some other time.'"
• Venture capitalist and Virginia Democratic gubernatorial candidate Mark Warner "claimed a net worth of $200 million" and "has already raised more than $5 million" for his 2001 bid, the Richmond Times-Dispatch reports.
• The Norfolk Virgninan-Pilot reports that a "glitch in the arcane rules of the state Republican Party" might make it possible for Lt. Gov. John Hager (R) to abandon his gubernatorial bid, and instead run for re-election. A spokesman "said the politician is still committed to his bid for the GOP's gubernatorial nomination."
• The coordinator of Oklahoma Rep. Steve Largent's (R) 2002 gubernatorial campaign faulted the Oklahoma Ethics Commission on Tuesday, saying "it may be trying to influence the outcome of the election" by not allowing "the transfer of contributions from a federal campaign to a state campaign," the Tulsa World reports. "Largent has nearly $200,000 in his congressional war chest."

• The Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that police have the right to "arrest and handcuff people even for minor offenses punishable by a fine," the AP reports. The ruling was the result of a case brought by a Texas woman who "was arrested and handcuffed for failing to wear a seat belt."
• The court also ruled to limit lawsuits under the Civil Rights Act, saying "that individuals may not sue federally funded state agencies over policies that allegedly have a discriminatory effect on members of minority groups," the Washington Post reports.
• Today the court will hear a Massachusetts case challenging "a 1999 ban on tobacco advertising within 1,000 feet of schools, playgrounds, and parks," the Boston Globe reports. "If upheld by the high court, Massachusetts' far-reaching restrictions could be copied around the nation."

• The Mississippi River crested yesterday "at what is expected to be the third-worst flood in Quad-City history," the Quad-City Times reports. "Eight teams of federal and state officials are continuing to estimate how much damage the flood could cost in the 10 Iowa counties along the" river, which Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack (R) has declared state disaster areas.
• It "likely will be May before the river rolls back within its banks," the Moline Dispatch reports.
• Davenport Mayor Phil Yerington called Federal Emergency Management Agency Director Joseph Allbaugh "insensitive" yesterday after the director's "comments that American taxpayers are, in effect, subsidizing Davenport's aesthetic whimsies via flood relief," the Washington Post reports.

• California Gov. Gray Davis (D) "on Tuesday tapped a former Clinton administration official and executives from major construction firms to help speed completion of power plants," the Los Angeles Times reports.
• A brush fire in the Florida Keys "gobbled up more than 7,000 acres of grass on Tuesday and forced the closure of U.S. 1," the Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel reports. "This fire is one of several that have scorched more than 150,000 acres through the state over the last few months because of one of the worst droughts in the state's history."

• After security talks on Tuesday in the Middle East, Israel "promised to ease restrictions on Palestinian towns in exchange for greater Palestinian efforts to prevent violence," AP reports.
• Former Philippine President Joseph Estrada and his son, Jinggoy, were arrested Wednesday "on charges of economic plunder," CNN.com reports.
• Last night "a small propeller plane landed at a South Pole research station... to retrieve an ailing doctor," the New York Times reports. "It was the second rescue flight to Antarctica this week."
• American millionaire Dennis Tito will visit the International Space Station as a "tourist," the New York Times reports. On Tuesday a deal was reached that will allow him to "pay the financially pressed Russian Aviation and Space Agency up to $20 million to fulfill a lifelong dream of going into space."

• Former Sen. Chuck Robb, D-Va., will teach courses at George Mason University this fall, where he "will work for no pay," the Washington Post reports.