The Earlybird: Today's Headlines

Bush on education, Biden on ABM, Cheney on tax cuts, Boston and New York vote today, Dole jumps in, Kerrey has a boy:

• President Bush discussed his education plan at Justina Road Elementary School in Jacksonville, Fla., on Monday, challenging Congress to pass the education bill negotiators are working out, the Jacksonville Times-Union reports.
• Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R) joined the president in Jacksonville, and the George W. Bush "complimented his brother's effort to improve education in Florida," the Tallahassee Democrat reports.
• "There was no mention Monday of the election or of the governor's likely opponent, former U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno, but the joint appearance signals that the brothers' political fates both next year and in 2004 are intertwined," the Miami Herald reports.
• Today Bush will give a speech about reading at Emma E. Booker Elementary School in Sarasota, Fla., the Sarasota Herald-Tribune reports.

• Bush called Russian President Vladimir Putin yesterday to "buttress their personal relationship," the New York Times reports. Meanwhile, Russian Defense Minister Sergei B. Ivanov said that he opposes America's missile defense plans.
• Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del., said during a speech at the National Press Club Monday that "the United States could trigger a new arms race by abandoning the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty and forging ahead with a missile defense system despite allies' concerns," AP reports.
• Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said Monday that "he has ordered commanders to reduce headquarters staff by 15 percent next year," the Washington Times reports.

• Congressional Republicans on Monday "pushed new plans for tax and spending cuts, while the White House retreated to a more cautious, wait-and-see posture," the Boston Globe reports.
• Vice President Dick Cheney said during an interview with the Wall Street Journal that "the Bush administration is taking 'a good hard look' at a capital-gains tax cut to try to boost the economy, suggesting it could be linked to a minimum-wage increase to make it palatable to more Democrats."
• Many Democrats are now calling for tax cuts, "upstaging not only Republicans but also their own party leaders," the Washington Times reports.
• But a new ABC News/Washington Post poll suggests that a majority of people are willing "to roll back President Bush's $1.35 trillion tax cut to help deal with the shrinking federal budget surplus."
• And the Alternative Minimum Tax -- a "little known" part of the tax code -- could reverse much of the promised tax relief during the next 11 years, the Washington Post reports.
• The National Association of Business Economists predicts that the economy will begin recovering by the end of this year, but the turnaround will be slow, ABCNews.com reports.

• "The National Academy of Sciences has concluded that arsenic is so dangerous in drinking water that stringent levels set by the Clinton administration and later suspended by the Bush White House were justified but perhaps not strict enough," the New York Times reports.
• A separate report from the NAS says that "stem cells from human embryos offer 'unprecedented opportunities' for treating a host of diseases, but it suggests that the research program that President Bush approved may not be sufficient to realize them," USA Today reports.

• Bush presented Australian Prime Minister John Howard with "the ship's bell of the USS Canberra" during a ceremony Monday that celebrated the 50th anniversary of the two nations' military alliance, CNN.com reports.
• During a meeting of the China-U.S. Joint Economic Committee Tuesday, officials agreed "to find areas for economic cooperation but left aside more thorny issues," Reuters reports.
• On Monday the Bush administration "blacklisted a right-wing paramilitary group" in Colombia "as a terrorist organization responsible for hundreds of massacres in its war against leftist rebels," the New York Times reports. Today Secretary of State Colin Powell is scheduled to meet with Colombian President Andrés Pastrana.
• The Iraqi News Agency reported today that the Iraqi military "has shot down a U.S. spy plane near the southern Iraqi city of Basra," CBSNews.com reports. "The U.S. military task force in the Persian Gulf could not immediately be reached for comment."

• Israel and the Palestinians have agreed to hold talks today, "but prospects for a meeting were complicated by a dispute over the site and Israel's blockade of a West Bank town," AP reports.
• "The UN Security Council yesterday ended an arms embargo imposed on Yugoslavia in March 1998, lifting the last international sanctions against Belgrade over its crackdown on ethnic Albanians in Kosovo," Reuters reports.

• A survey from the media research firm Myers Reports shows that Fox News "is closing the credibility gap as well as the ratings gap" with CNN, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports.

• The Democratic and Republican primaries are being held today in Massachusetts' 9th District, "and the Democrat who emerges is favored to win the seat next month," the Boston Globe reports.
• State Sen. Stephen Lynch is considered the Democratic front-runner, with polls showing Lynch, "who lives in the same South Boston neighborhood" as the late Rep. Joe Moakley (D), "holding a strong lead over other Democrats," AP reports. Massachusetts Secretary of State William Galvin "predicted a 24 percent voter turnout."
• The seven-way Democratic race, "fought for weeks in slick television ads and brochures, ends with the brute force of field workers pulling warm bodies to 253 precincts from Taunton's South Coast to Southie's peninsula," the Boston Herald reports.
• National Journal.com offers a Massachusetts 09 Tip Sheet with information on the candidates, polls and ads, and a link to election results.

• Sen. George Allen, R-Va., "who as Virginia governor pushed through his plan to abolish parole in the state," said yesterday that GOP gubernatorial candidate Mark Earley "was an important supporter of the policy," while Democratic candidate Mark Warner "was part of the opposition," the Washington Times reports.
• Warner "has sought to make the governor's race a referendum" on Gov. Jim Gilmore's (R) "stewardship of state finances, focusing relentlessly on this year's budget impasse between the Republican incumbent and a General Assembly dominated by the GOP," the Washington Post reports. Earley "has struggled to craft a compelling message."
• "Following a weekend of bloodshed in Israel," New Jersey GOP gubernatorial candidate Bret Schundler arrived there yesterday afternoon "with New Jersey Jewish leaders and was reminded of the violence at a memorial service for 15 people killed in an attack on a pizza parlor here last month," the Newark Star Ledger reports.
• An appellate court ruled Monday that New Jersey's "voter registration laws violate the constitutional rights of minor parties by not offering categories other than Democrat, Republican, or independent," AP reports.
• Rep. David Bonior, D-Mich., who is running for governor of Michigan, "said yesterday that he will resign as House minority whip on Jan. 15, which will open the way for a fierce battle to fill the Democrats' second-ranking post in the chamber," AP reports.
• The Democratic race for Illinois governor "tightened Monday" when Cook County State's Attorney Richard Devine "decided not to seek the governorship," and former Justice Department official John Schmidt "said he is dropping out" of the gubernatorial race to run for attorney general, the Chicago Sun-Times reports.

• 2000 presidential candidate Elizabeth Dole (R) "is returning to her hometown" of Salisbury, N.C., "to announce today that she will launch a campaign to become the next U.S. senator from North Carolina," the Raleigh News & Observer reports.
• Former Charlotte Mayor Richard Vinroot (R) "unsuccessfully ran for governor of North Carolina last year, but refused to accede to the desires of party leaders in Washington to give Dole a free shot at the GOP nomination," the Washington Post reports. Vinroot "has begun running radio ads promoting his candidacy."

• Mark Green (D) yesterday "capped off his wire-to-wire front-running" New York City mayoral campaign "with a prediction of victory" even though Fernando Ferrer "had him clear in his sights for a Democratic showdown in two weeks," the New York Post reports.
• A runoff will be held Sept. 25 "if tonight's winner fails to secure at least 40 percent of the vote," the New York Daily News reports. Polls "show such an outcome likely, although a large pool of undecided voters -- up to 20 percent -- is adding a degree of unpredictability."

• An underage drinking charge against presidential daughter Barbara Bush "will be wiped from the 19-year-old's record now that she has completed community service and other requirements," AP reports. But "Jenna Bush's underage drinking charge will go on her record as a conviction," and a judge "fined Jenna Bush $500 and suspended her license."
• A Modesto, Calif., grand jury rejected flight attendant Anne Marie Smith's complaint that Rep. Gary Condit, D-Calif., "obstructed justice by allegedly asking her to sign an affidavit stating they didn't have an affair," AP reports.
• Condit's "political ally and protege," state Assemblyman Dennis Cardoza (D), "plans to run for" Condit's seat, AP reports.
• "The prospect of a long prison sentence" for Waterbury Mayor Philip Giordano (R), Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman's (D) 2000 Senate opponent, "increased dramatically Monday when Waterbury State's Attorney John Connelly charged him with six counts each of sexual assault, risk of injury to a minor and conspiracy," the Hartford Courant reports.

• Former Sen. Bob Kerrey, D-Neb., "became a dad for the third time yesterday, and this time, the baby was born in the Big Apple," the New York Post reports. Kerrey and wife Sarah Paley "gave birth to a son named Henry at 12:23 p.m."