The Earlybird: Today's headlines

Fox's surprise remarks, missile defense debate, Dems' budget request, Schundler's hecklers, Peterson's Reno strategy, Gramm replacement plots:

• Mexican President Vicente Fox on Wednesday asked President Bush "to agree this year on sweeping immigration proposals that could be fully implemented by the end of their terms," the Dallas Morning News reports. Bush did not make a commitment on the issue.
• Fox's comments "broke from the diplomatic routine of cordial comments and polite asides," the Boston Globe reports. "White House aides acknowledged that the administration was caught by surprise by the specificity of Fox's request."
• During an interview with Washington Post editors, Fox said that he wants to make sure "that more and more Mexicans that are in the United States come to this regulated position, or legal position the faster the better, and the more rights that are respected them, labor rights and other, be accomplished."
• Today Fox will address a joint session of Congress to discuss the immigration issue, Reuters reports. He "faces a skeptical audience."

• Bush hosted a state dinner for Fox Wednesday night -- "a fiesta spiced with chorizo pozole, tequila sauce and plenty of backyard fireworks," the Houston Chronicle reports.
• USA Today has a list of guests who attended the dinner.

• "China said on Thursday its foreign minister would pay an official visit to the United States from September 20 to 21 to discuss missile proliferation and prepare for a Sino-U.S. summit in October," Reuters reports.
• "China will soon deploy its first road-mobile intercontinental ballistic missiles, a new long-range strategic weapon whose predicted range includes the western United States," the Washington Times reports.
• In Russia, the Kremlin on Wednesday "ruled out the possibility of reaching a substantive agreement with the United States on missile defense before a planned November summit between President Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin, saying it would take a year or more to settle the issue," the Washington Post reports.

• Congressional Democrats on Wednesday "stepped up calls... for President Bush to scrap his budget and write a new one in the face of shrinking federal surpluses, but Republicans insisted there will be enough money to meet the nation's priorities, including defense and education," Reuters reports.
• Sen. Daniel K. Inouye, D-Hawaii, on Wednesday "endorsed President Bush's bid for up to $18.4 billion in extra defense dollars next year as the GOP searches for the 60 Senate votes needed to make the first payment on the president's military transformation," the Washington Times reports.
• Meanwhile, "Democrats on the Senate Armed Services Committee plan to cut $1.3 billion from the Bush administration's $8.3 billion request for ballistic missile defense this week," the Washington Post reports.

• Bush is preparing "to invoke executive privilege to keep secret documents about prosecutors' decision-making," AP reports.
• Today the White House may defy an order from the General Accounting Office to release the names of people who met with Vice President Dick Cheney "and task force staffers while the administration was devising its proposal to encourage energy production and conservation," USA Today reports. If the administration does not release the names, it could be taken to court.
• A government audit found that the Department of Housing and Urban Development "wasted $1.1 million on a program that told public housing tenants which gemstones, types of incense and clothing colors would best improve their self-esteem," AP reports.

• At a Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions hearing, "Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy G. Thompson acknowledged yesterday that little more than one-third of the embryonic stem-cell lines that President Bush had said were available to federally funded scientists are fully developed and currently adequate for research," the Baltimore Sun reports.
• The newly recognized hepatitis G virus "seems to interfere with HIV, slowing its progression and prolonging survival of AIDS patients," AP reports. Researchers are studying ways the virus could be used to treat the AIDS virus.

• "A pipe bomb thrown by Protestant extremists exploded yesterday at the entrance to a Catholic school" in Belfast, the Boston Globe reports. Four police officers were hurt and "scores of students" were "shaken and traumatized."
• "Israel, reacting to mortar bomb attacks, fired missiles at Palestinian security offices in the Gaza Strip yesterday in violence that coincided with preparations for possible cease-fire talks," Reuters reports.
• Aerospace company Lockheed Martin announced Wednesday that "Israel has signed an agreement exercising its option to purchase an additional 52 U.S.-built F-16 jet fighters," UPI reports.
• "The European Union will open talks with Iran next week on a trade pact -- a move in line with its policy of promoting ties with the Iranian regime but likely to cause friction with Washington," the Wall Street Journal reports.

• New Jersey's "physician lobby endorsed Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jim McGreevey yesterday, saying he has a history of protecting patient rights and understands the problems health care consumers face," the Newark Star Ledger reports.
• "A vocal group of about 20 protesters dogged" New Jersey gubernatorial candidate Bret Schundler (R) on Wednesday during a "six-hour bus tour of his 'successes' as mayor of Jersey City," the Bergen County Record reports. Schundler "was unfazed by the demonstrators."
• Former Rep. Pete Peterson, D-Fla., "spent Tuesday and Wednesday in South Florida, primarily to meet privately with potential donors and convince skeptics that he can overcome" former Attorney General Janet Reno's "fame and loyal following" in the race for governor, the Miami Herald reports. He also "suggested" that "Reno's record... including her role in authorizing the raid of the Branch Davidian compound near Waco, Texas, could play a role in the primary."
• Rep. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., "said he will consider running for the job" of Vermont governor after Gov. Howard Dean (D) announced yesterday he will step down, the Burlington Free Press reports.
• Michigan Lt. Gov. Dick Posthumus (R) "has confirmed what just about everybody already knew: he's running for governor next year," the Chicago Tribune reports. Posthumus said he will "concentrate on the 'three Es' -- education, the economy and the environment."
• Illinois GOP "insiders are worried about" Attorney General Jim Ryan's (R) electability because he "faces an attack from the right" from state Sen. Patrick O'Malley (R), and "from the left, Lt. Gov. Corinne Wood [R], a social moderate, is expected to enter the race and attack Ryan for his strong stance against abortion," AP reports.

• Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) "met privately" with President Bush on Wednesday "to discuss how Republicans can hold onto" the Senate seat of retiring Sen. Phil Gramm, R-Texas, the Houston Chronicle reports. One possibility "is to find an inducement for Gramm to resign now. Then Perry could appoint" Rep. Henry Bonilla (R) "to the seat in an effort to avoid a bloody GOP nominating contest."
• "Instead of rallying behind a single candidate -- to try to avoid party infighting before the next election -- Democrats, Republicans and independent analysts expect a free-for-all in the rush to replace" Gramm, the Dallas Morning News reports.
• Former College of Charleston President Alex Sanders (D) announced Wednesday that "he's running for the U.S. Senate seat held by retiring" Sen. Strom Thurmond, R-S.C., AP reports.

• In a debate with candidates running for the Massachusetts 09 special election, state Sen. Stephen Lynch (D) "broke with the other leading Democrats by supporting President Bush's tax rebate plan," though he said "he thought the plan was too weighted toward the wealthy," the Boston Globe reports.
• "Emily's List has funded one of the hardest hitting and most disputed ads of the 9th Congressional District campaign" to show its support for state Sen. Cheryl Jacques (D), the Boston Globe reports. The group also "funded a telephone poll in which voters were told" that Lynch "was a tax cheat."
• As he resigns from the House, Rep. Joe Scarborough, R-Fla., "hopes to leave Congress today a little differently than when he entered it in 1994 -- quietly," the Pensacola News Journal reports.
• South Carolina Republican state Sen. Joe Wilson "formally declared his candidacy for the U.S. House," promising "to continue the legacy of the late" Floyd Spence, D-S.C., the Columbia State reports.

• House Majority Leader Dick Armey, R-Texas, "yesterday urged" House Democratic leader Richard Gephardt, D-Mo., "to personally address" California Rep. Gary Condit's (D) "continued service on the Intelligence Committee," the Washington Times reports.
• Condit's father, a Baptist minister, said of the controversy surrounding his son: "Satan had a big-time role in this," the New York Post reports.

• Oklahoma County District Attorney Wes Lane said Wednesday that the state "will follow through with plans to prosecute and seek the death penalty against bombing conspirator Terry Lynn Nichols for his role in the 1995 bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building," the Oklahoman reports.
• Virginia Gov. Jim Gilmore (R) on Wednesday "created a task force of public officials and marine biology experts to assess the safety of coastal waters after two Virginians died in separate shark attacks over Labor Day weekend," the Norfolk Virginian-Pilot reports.
• California Gov. Gray Davis (D) "signed legislation Wednesday that prohibits insurers from canceling policies because of claims from hate-crime damages" the Sacramento Bee reports.