The Earlybird: Today's Headlines

Spence dies, DiIulio to resign, Dems charge reckless spending, CPI rises, Florida Dems plan fundraiser, Condit to give interview:

• 73-year-old Rep. Floyd Spence, R-S.C., died at 6:40 EDT Thursday "from complications following brain surgery," the Columbia State reports. On Aug. 9 he "slipped into a coma and never recovered."
• President Bush said in a statement that Spence will be remembered as a "true friend of the men and women in our armed services and a steadfast servant of his fellow South Carolinians," the Greenville News reports. State Election Commission Executive Director Jim Hendrix said that Gov. Jim Hodges (D) "must issue a writ of election and that would kick in a state law that sets a timetable."

• John DiIulio, director of the White House Office on Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, said Thursday that he will resign his position "as soon as a transition team can be put into place," Cox News Service reports. DiIulio "said he is leaving because he has accomplished the goals he set out seven months ago when President Bush asked him to run the new office. He also cited health reasons and a desire to spend more time with his family."
• A White House report released Thursday alleges that "federal officials routinely discriminate against religious groups when handing out grant money, taking constitutional concerns about the separation of church and state too far," AP reports.
• The report was "prepared as part of President Bush's drive to increase the participation of faith-based groups in the delivery of social services," the Boston Globe reports.

• Democratic leaders on Thursday "accused the Bush administration of shifting $4.3 billion from Social Security to cover what they call reckless budgeting," the Houston Chronicle reports. The accusation stems from an economic forecast expected next week from the White House budget office "that includes a projected growth rate of 3.2 percent next year -- up from this year's rate of less than 2 percent."
• The White House, however, denied they would be dipping into Social Security funds to pay for government spending, the Boston Globe reports.
• And despite the optimistic outlook projected for 2002, the White House "will lower its 2001 growth estimate to 1.7% from the 2.4% it predicted in its April budget request, acknowledging the economic drag caused by this year's business slowdown," the Wall Street Journal reports.

• The Consumer Price Index "rose modestly" in July, and the "number of workers filing for jobless benefits declined," AP reports. Analysts said that is "good economic news."
• Some analysts predicted the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates again next week, CBSNews.com reports.
• Meanwhile, "at least 26 states... are facing budget cuts in the wake of a sharp drop in the taxes they collect from investors rocked by the stock market's decline," the Boston Globe reports.
• The Industry Standard, a magazine created to report on the dot-com boom, "has published its last issue barring a last-minute rescue by some unexpected savior," the New York Times reports.
• Today Ford Motor Company is expected to announce that it will cut 5,000 jobs, the Detroit News reports. The job cuts are "part of an intensive and ongoing review of its operations."

• The Justice Department has turned down a request from conservative watchdog group Judicial Watch to investigate allegations that Rep. Tom DeLay, R-Texas, "offered meetings with Bush administration officials in exchange for campaign contributions," AP reports.
• "Secretary of State Colin Powell is likely to boycott a United Nations conference on racism in South Africa in two weeks because of expected criticism of Israel and former slave-holding nations," USA Today reports.
• Newly installed Immigration and Naturalization Service Commissioner James Ziglar visited an Arlington, Va., INS office Thursday and "pledged improved service," the Dallas Morning News reports.
• Bush administration officials "say they have the votes needed to confirm" Eugene Scalia, a labor lawyer and son of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, "as Labor Department solicitor," the Washington Times reports.
• Federal officials "confront a daunting challenge" to carrying out Bush's plan for federal funding of embryonic stem-cell studies: The University of Wisconsin holds a patent "to the human embryonic stem cell," the New York Times reports.

• "Four Palestinians were killed in a gun battle that erupted yesterday in a hospital in the West Bank city of Nablus after a Palestinian was killed when his car overturned on a West Bank road," Reuters reports.
• Bush called Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon Thursday "to discuss the importance of avoiding further escalation," the Washington Post reports.
• Moderate Arabs in the Middle East are warning "that U.S. reluctance to intercede directly to stop Israeli-Palestinian violence hurts America's international standing," the Wall Street Journal's "Washington Wire" reports.
• Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres "recently presented United States envoy to the Middle East David Satterfield and U.S. Ambassador to Israel Dan Kurtzer with a cease-fire proposal for Israel and the Palestinians that would allow tensions to ease," Ha'aretz reports. The plan would call on both sides to gradually reduce "tensions in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, area by area."
• U.S. "intelligence officials" said Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat ignored information about "the Hamas militant group suspected of orchestrating" last week's bombing of the Sbarro pizzeria in Jerusalem, UPI reports.

• The United States is planning a $250,000 media campaign to lobby for "a peace deal that would expand the rights of the ethnic Albanian minority" in Macedonia, the Washington Post reports.
• "A Macedonian policeman was shot to death by suspected ethnic Albanian rebels yesterday, puncturing a fragile truce on the eve of the arrival of an advance force of NATO troops who are meant to help implement a peace accord," Reuters reports.

• Virginia gubernatorial candidate Mark Warner (D) yesterday "unveiled an 'Agenda for the Cities,' which he said would address the decaying infrastructure and outdated tax codes that have caused problems for Virginia's growing urban areas," the Washington Post reports.
• New Jersey Democrats said Thursday they will sue following a Wednesday ruling that would allow the Republican National Committee to spend "an unlimited amount of money on advertisements promoting" GOP governor hopeful Bret Schundler "or calling for" Democrat Jim McGreevey's defeat, "so long as the national party and the Schundler campaign did not coordinate their efforts," the New York Times reports.
• Palm Beach County, Fla., Democrats are holding a fundraiser on Nov. 7, and "every Democrat considering a challenge to" Gov. Jeb Bush (R) is expected to attend, AP reports. Former presidential candidate Al Gore (D) and his 2000 running mate, Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., were also invited.
• Jeb Bush met with some of his top fund-raisers yesterday in Miami, the Miami Herald reports. "Bush campaign officials would not say how much he raised, but the governor asked each person attending to bring at least $10,000 worth of checks. So it's likely that Bush collected at least $1 million for the 2002 election."
• After Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge (R) "went to bat Thursday for Attorney General Mike Fisher" (R) with a gubernatorial endorsement, state Treasurer Barbara Hafer (R) "immediately announced yesterday that she's not planning to drop out of the race before the May primary," the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reports.
• "The question now becomes how long" Hafer's "energy can last, GOP insiders say," the Philadelphia Inquirer reports. Hafer said she "would have enough money and support to seek the nomination until the May 21 primary" and that Ridge's endorsement "contradicted recent national GOP efforts to support and promote strong female candidates."
• New York gubernatorial candidate Carl McCall (D) "visited community leaders and schoolchildren Thursday on the Puerto Rican island of Vieques" in support of ending Navy bombing of the island, the AP reports.
• Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan (D) said Thursday "he would welcome" former Commerce Secretary and Gore 2000 campaign chair Bill Daley (D) to the gubernatorial race, the Chicago Tribune reports. But Madigan said he would not make an endorsement.
• A "private Democratic poll shows that Mr. Daley would have a good shot at winning the Democratic primary in March, particularly since none of the eight other possible contenders is as well known and the vote might very well be badly fractured if the field remains crowded," the New York Times reports.
• California gubernatorial candidate Bill Jones (R) "on Thursday called on his potential Republican rivals for the governor's job to debate at the state GOP convention in Los Angeles next month" and to participate in "a 'series of regularly-scheduled debates' that he said would give voters a clear understanding of the candidates' positions and records," the Sacramento Bee reports.
• Governors at an Idaho conference of the Western Governors Association "called to discuss wildfires and energy devolved Monday into another denunciation of Gov. Gray Davis," D-Calif., "whose repeated failure to attend these sessions was said to be impeding solutions to the region's problems," the Los Angeles Times reports.

• Former U.S. Attorney in Birmingham Doug Jones (D) "began telephoning reporters around" Alabama "and sending out press packets, saying he would run as a moderate in 2002 and stress 'bread and butter issues,'" the Birmingham News reports.
• North Carolina state Sen. Eric Reeves (D) "abruptly ended his bid for the U.S. Senate on Thursday, withdrawing from the race for the Democratic nomination just two months after announcing his candidacy" for the seat held by Sen. Jesse Helms (R), the Raleigh News & Observer reports.
• Former governor and GOP presidential candidate Lamar Alexander "ponders a 2002 Senate race if" Sen. Fred Thompson, R-Tenn., retires, the Wall Street Journal's "Washington Wire" reports.

• "Virginia elections officials have agreed to list the affiliations of minor party candidates on state ballots" after the Libertarian Party sued the state Board of Elections for requiring the party to list its candidates as "Independents," the Washington Post reports.
• A U.S. district judge denied a request for a temporary restraining order to block construction of the World War II monument on the national Mall, "which is expected to begin later this month," Reuters reports.
• Bush yesterday directed federal aid to Tennessee, Kentucky and Washington, D.C., to help "deal with recent flooding and severe storms," Reuters reports.
• New York Gov. George Pataki (R) on Thursday filed suit with the state Supreme Court "over the base-line budget lawmakers approved earlier this month," the Albany Times Union reports.

• First lady Laura Bush "will testify on early-childhood learning programs, a pet issue, before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee," the Wall Street Journal's "Washington Wire" reports. Sens. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., and Jim Jeffords, I-Vt., invited her.
• Rep. Gary Condit, D-Calif., "will likely grant a television and print interview before Labor Day to offer his account of the controversy surrounding his connection" to missing intern Chandra Levy, CNN.com reports.
• Montana House Majority Leader Paul Sliter (R) died Wednesday night in a car accident, the Billings Gazette reports. He was 32.
• Karin Stanford, who had a 4 1/2 year affair with Jesse Jackson and had his child, told ABC's Connie Chung that "Jackson pulled the plug on his dream to run for president in 2000 because he feared the sex scandal that would result if his adulterous relationship and love child were exposed," the New York Post reports. The interview airs tonight.
• "The son of Nation of Islam minister Louis Farrakhan was shot twice in the legs by two men early Thursday at a home he was visiting on" Chicago's South Side, the Chicago Tribune reports. Joshua Nasir Hussain Farrakhan was in fair condition.