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The Earlybird: Today's headlines
- Thursday's meeting between President Bush and Chinese Vice Premier Qian Qichen "highlighted the sharp discord between the United States and China on security issues and human rights, but appeared to do little to resolve it," the New York Times reports.
- "Bush told Qian that he believes the United States and China can have 'good relations'" despite their differences, the Los Angeles Times reports.
- When he met with Qichen on Thursday, Bush "'forcefully raised' the issue of an American scholar jailed in China," UPI reports. The "vice premier and Chinese officials promised to look into whether Gao Zhan, detained for about a month along with her five-year-old son, knew she was in violation of Chinese law when she was arrested for allegedly breaching state security."
- Bush will visit Portland, Maine, today to tout his tax plan, the Portland Press Herald reports. He will visit the Salvation Army Senior Center and will give a speech at the Merrill Auditorium to "Chamber of Commerce members, their employees and guests."
- Bush said Thursday that the United States did the right thing by expelling four Russian spies, the Houston Chronicle reports. Bush "promised a more pragmatic approach to dealings with Moscow." Forty-six more Russians have until July to leave the United States.
- Russian officials said Thursday "that four U.S. Embassy officials would be kicked out of Russia," AP reports.
- The State Department expulsions were "a sign of the blunter and tougher foreign policy" the Bush administration intends "to pursue over the course of the next four years," the Washington Post reports.
- "The number of Russian spies working under diplomatic cover and conducting espionage in the" United States has increased by almost 40 percent "in the past five years to Cold War-era levels," USA Today reports.
- Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld has met with Bush to discuss "his intention to pursue dramatic reforms in the way the nation's armed forces are organized," the Washington Post reports. One change may be "to call on the Navy to stop building huge aircraft carriers and start designing a new, smaller carrier that is less vulnerable to missiles."
- The Bush administration on Thursday ended "the 48-year-old practice of letting the American Bar Association evaluate judicial candidates before they are nominated," the Houston Chronicle reports.
- In its fourth day of debate over campaign financing, the Senate on Thursday "rejected an amendment requiring unions to reveal in writing how they spend union dues on certain political activities," Reuters reports.
- Legislators from both parties began talking about a compromise on the bill, and Bush told a group of Republicans that he would not necessarily veto campaign finance reform if Congress approved it, the AP reports.
- Some senators "expressed growing frustration yesterday that the two-week debate over campaign-finance regulations is diverting them from more important work on tax relief and the budget as markets plunge and the economy slumps," the Washington Times reports.
- The interest group Americans for Reform "released a television ad Thursday" supporting the McCain-Feingold bill, CNN.com reports.
- UPI offers a "backgrounder" on the issue of campaign finance reform.
- The House Ways and Means Committee on Thursday approved a tax cut for married couples, Reuters reports.
- The committee "rammed through a second installment of President Bush's tax-cut plan by a party-line vote," National Journal News Service reports.
- Senate Republicans said Thursday that "they want to rush $60 billion in tax cuts to Americans this year on top of the $1.6 trillion, 10-year reduction that President Bush has championed," AP reports.
- Senate Finance Committee Chairman Charles E. Grassley, R-Iowa., said "he would raise the top tax rate in President Bush's tax-cut plan and accept a trigger that ties the cuts to future surpluses to win Democratic support," the Washington Times reports.
- Bush's education plan was introduced in the House on Thursday, Reuters reports. The plan "would require annual student testing in reading and mathematics, and would dedicate $5 billion over the next five years to help all children learn to read by the end of the third grade."
- Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, D-D.C., and Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., on Thursday introduced a bill that would "exempt residents in the District from federal income taxes until the nation's capital wins a vote in Congress," the Washington Post reports.
- "Two Virginia Democrats" on the board of D.C.'s Metro system could use "a 'jurisdictional veto' to block congressional efforts to ensure signs for the subway stop at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport reflect the airport's formal name," the Washington Times reports.
- And Metro officials announced yesterday that children "no longer will be arrested by Metro Transit Police for eating or drinking at a Metro stop or on a train or bus," the Washington Times reports.
- The Dow "rebounded" on Thursday, and the Nasdaq "was down only modestly," the Los Angeles Times reports.
- "The Dow, well on its way to a 20 percent decline from its record high last year, was saved by strength in Microsoft and Intel, two of the youngest companies in the century old index," CNNfn.com reports.
- "The Mir space station returned to Earth in pieces today," AP reports. It hit the water in the Pacific Ocean.
- On Thursday "Israeli forces shelled a post... manned by Yasser Arafat's presidential guard unit, killing a police officer," AP reports.
- Cuban leader Fidel Castro met Thursday with the "men who had spent years plotting to subvert his government or to kill him for the United States," the New York Times reports. "The meeting... opened a three-day conference organized by American historians, scholars and open-government advocates who have helped to force access to secret archives of American, Cuban, British and other governments."
- Jason Hoffman, an 18-year-old student, opened fire at Granite Hills High School outside of San Diego yesterday. Five students, including the gunman, were wounded, the San Diego Union-Tribune reports. The Los Angeles Times reports that "Hoffman has not been arrested but is in police custody at Sharp Memorial Hospital, where he underwent a five-hour surgery."
- Charles Andrew Williams, "accused of killing two students and wounding 13 people in Santee, Calif.," will appear in court Monday. His lawyer will "announce plans to challenge the constitutionality of Proposition 21, the ballot initiative passed last year that allows the 15-year-old shooting suspect to be tried in adult court," the Los Angeles Times reports.
- Democrat Mike Kelleher, who ran against Rep. Tim Johnson, R-Ill., in 2000, "made the first move toward getting back into congressional politics" by announcing Thursday "that he has submitted a statement of candidacy to the Federal Election Commission," although he is not sure if he will run yet, the Champaign-Urbana News-Gazette reports.
- "A source close" to New Hampshire Sen. Bob Smith's (R) campaign "said Smith's plans" to run for re-election "will not be changed by news that" Rep. John Sununu, R-N.H., "may run for the Senate seat Smith has occupied since 1991," the Manchester Union Leader reports.
- Montana state Sen. Mike Taylor (R) said "he's considering a run against" Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., the Missoula Independent reports. Taylor said he would not make an official decision "for awhile."
- "Democrats say they urgently need to start an election winning streak," and Democratic National Committee Chairman Terry McAuliffe "insists the involvement of the" DNC "at all levels will be far higher than in the past" and that the body is already in "full campaign mode," AP reports.
- New Jersey gubernatorial candidate Jim McGreevey's (D) campaign "denied any knowledge" that the state's Irish Leader newspaper was produced by "a longtime Democratic operative" and "was supported by ads purchased almost exclusively by individuals or firms that have supported McGreevey in the past," the Newark Star-Ledger reports.
- New Jersey Republican candidate Bret Schundler "yesterday accused" his primary opponent, acting Gov. Donald DiFrancesco (R), "of using his office for political purposes," the Newark Star-Ledger reports.
- New York Gov. George Pataki (R) "kept up his strong hints Thursday that he will seek a third term in 2002" with a fund-raiser that brought in more than $3 million, the Albany Times Union reports.
- Michigan Attorney General Jennifer Granholm (D) has planned a fund-raiser for early next week, "and some who planned to contribute are having second thoughts now that she's running for governor." Initially, the event was planned to raise funds for her re-election, AP reports.
- Former Rep. Mark Sanford, R-S.C., "will become the fourth Republican to formally enter the race for the GOP's 2002 nomination for governor" on Monday, the Greenville News reports.
- "California's power grid operator boosted its estimate of potential overcharges by major electricity suppliers from $5.5 billion to nearly $6.3 billion Thursday," the Los Angeles Times reports.
- "One man was seriously injured and four others were hurt when a large portion of scaffolding collapsed Thursday afternoon during preparations for Sunday's Academy Awards ceremony at the Shrine Auditorium" in California, the Los Angeles Daily News reports.
- The Maryland state Senate "overwhelmingly approved yesterday two bills aimed at cracking down on drunken driving." One bill would lower the legal blood-alcohol driving limit to 0.08, the Baltimore Sun reports.
- The Seattle Post-Intelligencer reports that Boeing's announced move from Seattle has provided a new excuse for intensified partisan bickering.
- "Pennsylvania education officials announced plans last night to transfer control of an entire school system to three private firms," the Washington Post reports.
- "Sirhan Sirhan, serving a life prison term for assassinating" Robert Kennedy "in 1968, was denied parole Thursday for the 11th time," Reuters reports.
- Marcella McCall, daughter of New York gubernatorial candidate Carl McCall (D), "was arraigned on a second-degree larceny charge for allegedly writing $97,000 in worthless checks to cover personal charges run up on her corporate credit card," the New York Post reports. One "law-enforcement source described her as a 'clothes-aholic' and compulsive shopper."
- "Stanford University economist Mark McClellan, brother of deputy White House press secretary Scott McClellan, is expected to be named to one of the two remaining slots at the Council of Economic Advisers," the Wall Street Journal's "Washington Wire" reports.
- Former Rep. Jay Dickey, R-Ark., "was appointed Thursday by Gov. Mike Huckabee [R] to the University of Arkansas board of trustees," the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reports.
- Former Rep. Edward Mezvinsky, D-Iowa, "was charged with 66 counts of fraud and related offenses in an indictment by a federal grand jury," AP reports.
- Thomas C. Dorr, an Iowa farmer, was named Wednesday undersecretary of agriculture for rural development," the Des Moines Register reports.
- The president of a New York marketing firm has "approached the NBA Players Association to find out whether" players would be interested in being paid to get "corporate logo tattoos that were visible when TV cameras zoomed in for closeups," the New York Daily News reports.
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