The Earlybird: Today's headlines

Jeffords' big day, tax cut passes, Bush boosts 'charitable choices,' GOP pushes Rice for Senate, Sharpton goes to jail, Gore wins something:

• Sen. James Jeffords, R-Vt., will hold a press conference in his home state at 9:30 a.m. today, when "it is widely believed he will say he is leaving the Republican Party to become an independent member of the Senate," the Barre-Montpelier Times Argus reports.
• Jeffords was expected to make the announcement Wednesday, but he postponed it after meeting with a group of GOP moderates who were "making a last-ditch attempt" to prevent Jeffords from leaving the party, CongressDaily reports.
• If Jeffords does leave the Republican party, it "would give Democrats control of the Senate and raise tough obstacles for President Bush's agenda and nominations," the Dallas Morning News reports.
• "Senior administration officials and prominent Republicans close to the administration said that until late Monday, the White House was not taking seriously the chatter on Capitol Hill that" Jeffords "might be bolting the party," the New York Times reports.
• Democrats "have begun to pave the way for a relatively smooth transition to power," Roll Call reports.

• The Senate approved the $1.35 trillion tax cut package on Wednesday by a 62-38 vote, after "Democrats agreed to end their stream of amendments that had delayed final passage of the Senate bill for three days," the Washington Post reports.
• Now "the challenge for Republicans and the White House is to craft a final bill that will be acceptable to the more conservative House without alienating a bipartisan group of Senate moderates," the Boston Globe reports.
• The House approved the education bill Wednesday "after soundly defeating two Republican attempts to add private-school tuition vouchers for children in chronically failing schools," the Dallas Morning News reports.

• President Bush met with the Dalai Lama on Wednesday, and he said that "he supported the exiled Buddhist leader's efforts to begin talking with Chinese leaders about preserving Tibet's religious and cultural identity," AP reports. "Bush aides stressed that he received the Dalai Lama in his capacity as a religious leader, and that the visit did not indicate a shift in policy toward China."
• But China "accused the United States on Thursday of encouraging Tibetan independence activists" and accused the Dalai Lama "of being insincere about negotiations with Beijing," Reuters reports.
• Meanwhile, "China has accepted a U.S. proposal to dismantle a crippled American spy plane and return it to the United States in pieces," CNN.com reports.

• Bush on Wednesday called Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and asked them to "take steps" to end the fighting in the Middle East, AP reports. "There's been no letup in the daily clashes" despite Sharon's recent call for a cease-fire and a U.S.-sponsored truce plan.
• "Israel's Shin Bet security service said yesterday that a Palestinian in its custody had confessed to manufacturing mortar shells in the Gaza Strip at the behest of top Palestinian officials, challenging assertions by Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat that recent mortar attacks on Israeli settlements were the work of groups beyond his control," the Boston Globe reports.
• "The Israeli army has shot down a Lebanese plane which it said had crossed into its territory near the port city of Haifa, killing its pilot," BBCNews.com reports.

• Today Bush will be in Cleveland, Ohio, "to tour a social services center at St. Augustine Roman Catholic Church" and to boost "prospects for his 'charitable choice' proposal, which is parked in Congress amid withering attack from the left and the right," AP reports.
• Bush now wants "corporate foundations -- many of which place restrictions on their donations to religious groups -- to change their policies to sharply increase their donations to faith-based groups," the Wall Street Journal reports.
• Several senators who were "spearheading President Bush's initiative to finance social programs of religious charities said they were indefinitely delaying the legislation," the New York Times reports.

• Secretary of State Colin Powell arrived in Mali, Africa, Thursday for a six-day tour of the continent, and he "reassured the West African nation that the Bush administration had not abandoned the continent, as many here believe," the Washington Post reports.
• "The White House has overruled" Powell's "choice to run an important refugee bureau at the State Department and has insisted on a nominee who represents the Vatican's diplomatic mission at the United Nations," the New York Times reports.

• Bush said Wednesday that he will meet with California Gov. Gray Davis (D) next week when he visits California, Reuters reports. During the meeting, Davis "will renew his request that Bush give California's consumers some relief from skyrocketing electricity bills and power blackouts."
• California Gov. Gray Davis (D) "will issue an executive order today requiring that Californians be given at least one hour's notice before blackouts hit," the San Francisco Chronicle reports.

• "U.S. jets struck Iraqi air defense systems in the northern no-fly zone Wednesday after coming under Iraqi anti-aircraft fire," AP reports.
• A dozen illegal immigrants who had crossed the Mexican border died this week after "they tried to traverse barren Arizona desert in 115-degree heat and reach a highway," the New York Times reports.

• Oklahoma City bomber "Timothy McVeigh's attorney said he received several hundred more pages of FBI materials Wednesday," which means that "the FBI has found hundreds more documents since it first admitted two weeks ago that it had discovered 3,135 pages that were supposed to have been given to McVeigh's lawyers before his trial," AP reports.
• On Wednesday FBI officials said the agency has charged 88 people in a crackdown on Internet fraud during the past 10 days, Reuters reports. The crackdown "has broken up pyramid schemes, phony Beanie Baby auctions, and other scams that cheated 56,000 people out of more than $117 million."
• Officials said Wednesday that 11 people, "including four employees of the U.S. Department of Education, have been indicted for their alleged roles in a $1 million fraud scheme against the department," Reuters reports.
• The Rev. Al Sharpton was given a 90-day jail sentence Wednesday "for protesting near the United States Navy bombing site on Vieques earlier this month," the New York Times reports.

• "Leaders of California's beleaguered Republican Party... are now talking up" National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice "as a possible 2004 challenger to their real archnemesis," Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., Roll Call reports.
• "Gloria Tristani (D), a member of the Federal Communications Commission... this week confirmed that she'll run against" Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., in 2002, Roll Call reports.

• The three New Jersey gubernatorial candidates "provided a study in contrasts in what they said -- and didn't say -- about how they'd lead the state's vast and varied public education system" at "a breakfast of about 200 suburban school leaders" yesterday, the Newark Star-Ledger reports.
• Rep. Bob Clement, D-Tenn., said yesterday he will make an announcement next week on whether he will run for governor or not, the Nashville Tennessean reports.
• The Detroit News reports that former Gov. James Blanchard (D) is getting support "from a lot of young people" in his 2002 gubernatorial bid.
• Supporters of Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., are calling on Rep. David Bonior, D-Mich., "to step aside and allow a new Democratic Whip to take over for the long crusade to the 2002 elections," after Bonior announced he will run for governor in 2002. Pelosi is "one of two declared candidates to replace Bonior in the leadership" -- the other is Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Md., Roll Call reports.

• Former Vice President Al Gore and his wife, Tipper Gore, "will receive the Johnny Cash Americanism Award, the Nashville Tennessean reports. "The annual award is given to individuals who embody the" Anti-Defamation League's "fight against racism, prejudice and bigotry and the defense of democratic ideals."