The Earlybird: Today's headlines

Bush's labor and trade posts, Ashcroft's Bob Jones speech, Clinton's economic report, Hillary's committee assignments, AOL-Time Warner's merger, Civil Rights Commission's Florida hearings, Riady's guilty plea:

• On Thursday, President-elect George W. Bush tapped Elaine Chao to serve as Labor Secretary, filling a position that was vacated earlier this week by Linda Chavez, Reuters reports. The Washington Post profiles Chao and reports on reactions in the labor and business industries to her nomination.
• Bush also named named Robert Zoellick as U.S. trade representative, the Washington Times reports. Zoellick has worked in the State and Treasury departments in the Ronald Reagan and George Bush administrations.
• Donald Rumsfeld, nominee for defense secretary, went before the Senate Armed Services Committee Thursday, the New York Times reports. He called "for a sweeping revision of the nation's deterrence strategy and weaponry, advocating increases in military spending, the deployment of a national missile defense and a tougher stand toward China and North Korea."
• During the hearing, Rumsfeld "said constructing a defense against ballistic-missile strikes, cyberterrorism and bioterrorism would be among his top priorities," the Wall Street Journal reports. "Rumsfeld received praise from Republicans and Democrats at the hearing and is expected to easily win the committee's support."
• The New York Times reports that environmental groups are banding together to oppose the nomination of Gale Norton as interior secretary. There will be a news conference today in Washington, D.C., attended by members of the Sierra Club, Friends of the Earth, the League of Conservation Voters, Republicans for Environmental Protection, the Wilderness Society and the Natural Resources Defense Council.
• Former Sen. John Ashcroft received backing on Thursday for his attorney general nomination from conservative supporters, who accused "'the extreme left' of trying to kill" Bush's "call for bipartisanship," Reuters reports.
• A tape of Ashcroft speaking in 1999 at Bob Jones University will be received today in Congress, the New York Times reports. Some "suspect that--given the highly conservative audience Mr. Ashcroft addressed--his comments might have included something so inflammatory as to prevent Mr. Ashcroft... from being confirmed."
• The Wall Street Journal's "Washington Wire" looks at some possibilities for second-tier posts in the Bush administration: Former Florida Rep. Bill McCollum (R) is a candidate to head the immigration service. Arkansas Rep. Asa Hutchinson (R) "is mentioned as a possible deputy attorney general. Current Deputy Attorney General Eric Holder is asked his willingness to stay on until the post is filled."

• President Clinton delivered his final economic report Thursday, saying "the country is not slipping into recession and that its long-term prospects have been enhanced by technology and fiscal discipline," the New York Times reports.
• Speaking at Northeastern University on Thursday, Clinton thanked Massachusetts residents "for standing by him 'in good times and bad' during a tumultuous eight years," the Boston Herald reports. And earlier in New Hampshire, business owners stood on the streets to greet Clinton, the Manchester Union Leader reports.
• An Arkansas judge has extended the deadline in Clinton's disbarment case, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reports.
• Clinton said yesterday he was "just having fun" and "and meant no offense... when he said Bush only won the election because Republicans stopped Florida's vote counting," Reuters reports.

• Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., on Thursday was given a seat on the Health, Education and Labor Committee, the New York Post reports. She also was named to the Budget and the Environment and Public Works committees.
• The Wall Street Journal reports that "women will have unprecedented influence in the new 50-50 Senate after winning coveted seats on Finance, Commerce and Appropriations committees that have been largely male preserves."
• Sen. Jesse Helms, R-N.C., said Thursday that foreign aid should be "funneled to the needy through private charities and religious groups instead of a government agency," the New York Times reports.

• "Israelis and Palestinians resumed high-level peace talks Thursday night," the Washington Post reports. Reuters reports that President Clinton admits it is not likely there will be a deal before he leaves office, and it will be up to the incoming Bush administration to try to reach a deal.
• On Thursday, President Clinton issued a statement of regret for the killing of civilians during the Korean war, and the Pentagon said "that U.S. soldiers killed groups of South Korean refugees early in the Korean War because North Korean soldiers were hiding among them," the Washington Times reports.
• The Algerian Embassy in Northwest D.C. was destroyed by fire Thursday, the Washington Post reports.
• China is "pushing" to join the World Trade Organization soon, the Wall Street Journal reports.
• The Swedish government said Friday that Raoul Wallenberg, "the Swedish diplomat spirited away by the Red Army in 1945 after saving thousands of Jews from the Nazis, may still be alive," Reuters reports.

• The FCC on Thursday approved the merger between AOL and Time Warner, the Wall Street Journal reports.
• Yoichiro Kaizaki, president of Bridgestone, resigned Thursday but "denied his resignation was related to the recent crisis" with tires that caused SUV rollovers, Financial Times reports.

• The U.S. Civil Rights Commission held a hearing Thursday to hear complaints "from black voters in Florida who said they were wrongly turned away from the polls in November's presidential election," CNN.com reports.
• Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R) testified "that he had no reason to anticipate the kind of widespread irregularities that marred the presidential vote in Florida," Reuters reports.
• "As the commission opened a two-day hearing into voting irregularities in the state, a black minister testified he was wrongly accused of being a felon and almost lost his vote," the New York Post reports.
• And the "American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois filed a lawsuit in federal court Thursday seeking to end punch card ballots in the" Land of Lincoln, the Chicago Tribune reports.

• A report investigating the escape of seven Texas inmates from a state prison was released Thursday, saying that "procedural violations and oversights aided the prison break," the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reports.
• On Thursday, the threat of blackouts in California ended after "the combination of conservation and added power buys" allowed the emergency to be downgraded, the San Francisco Chronicle reports.
• But the state was pelted by "drenching rain, hip-deep snow and towering waves" on Thursday, AP reports. It was "the most powerful storm since destructive El Niño deluges three years ago."
• Oklahoma inmate Wanda Jean Allen was executed Thursday, the Oklahoma City Oklahoman reports.
• Two committees in the Virginia Legislature on Thursday recommended freezing Gov. Jim Gilmore's (R) no-car-tax plan, the Richmond Times-Dispatch reports. It was "the legislative equivalent of a demolition derby."
• Maryland Gov. Parris N. Glendening (D) is proposing a "significant boost" in education spending -- an "8.5 percent increase in spending on Maryland's public schools next year," the Baltimore Sun reports.
• South Carolina Gov. Jim Hodges (D) on Thursday fired the state's prison director after a series of scandals, including one in which guards allegedly "allowed prisoners to have intercourse over eight months in the first family's rented home in Shandon and in buildings on the grounds of the Governor's Mansion," the Columbia State reports.

• Virginia Gov. Gilmore was on the stump Thursday in the Richmond suburbs, where he "shared the spotlight with the party's two candidates for governor," Attorney General Mark Earley and Lt. Gov. John Hager, the Richmond Times-Dispatch reports.
• Former New York Gov. Mario Cuomo (D) "said Thursday that state Comptroller H. Carl McCall, a potential Democratic candidate for governor, did little to help the party hold onto the job in 1994 or win it back in 1998," the Albany Times Union reports.

• James Riady, an Indonesian billionaire and Democratic supporter, on Thursday agreed to a plea agreement that requires him to "pay an $8.6 million fine and plead guilty to using foreign corporate funds to back Bill Clinton's 1992 presidential campaign," AP reports.
• After she leaves the State Department at the end of the month, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright "will head the board of the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs," AP reports.
• Former "ultraconservative" Rep. John G. Schmitz, R-Calif., died Thursday at the age of 70, AP reports.
• "More than 80 years after his death, Teddy Roosevelt will receive the Medal of Honor for leading a charge at San Juan Hill in the Spanish-American War a century ago," AP reports.