The Earlybird: Today's headlines

Bush focuses on National Guard, Civilians were at submarine controls, Greenspan says economy's OK, Mideast violence escalates, president says enough with Clinton, Gallaudet suspect arrested, Valentine's Day sparks protests:

• In Norfolk, Va., on Tuesday, President Bush said he would "lead the military through what he called a 'revolution in the technology of war,'" but he did not make any specific proposals about what that future would look like, the Norfolk Virginian-Pilot reports.
• Bush did pledge "new spending today for unmanned weapons and other futuristic military technology" and "suggested that his administration may cancel some major weapons systems to pay for his plans," the Washington Post reports.
• Bush and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld will visit a National Guard unit in Charleston, W.Va., today, where they will "focus attention on the expanding role being played by National Guard and Reserve forces," the Charleston Gazette reports.
• Bush will meet with Colombian President Andres Pastrana "later this month to review the two countries' efforts to curb narcotics trafficking," AP reports.

• "A civilian guest was at the controls of the USS Greeneville attack submarine just before it collided with a Japanese ship off Hawaii" on Friday, but "it is not certain whether" a civilian's actions "would have had any effect on the rapid rise of the submarine through the water," National Journal News Service reports.
• The Coast Guard is still searching for the nine missing Japanese who were on the ship, "even though experts say that no one could survive at sea this long," the New York Times reports. "The accident has prompted predictions from some analysts of damage to the longstanding security alliance between the United States and Japan."

• Testifying before the Senate Banking Committee on Tuesday, Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said that "the risks of a serious economic downturn" are small and that he was "optimistic growth would rebound quickly from its steep decline of the last six months," Financial Times reports.
• The heads of five television networks will testify about the 2000 election before the House Energy and Commerce Committee today, CNN.com reports. They will "explain how they plan to fix the vote-counting system that led to their embarrassing miscalls in the Florida presidential election" and will "ask Congress to establish a uniform poll-closing time for the nation."
• The Senate Education Committee on Tuesday "agreed not to include President Bush's private school voucher plan in their education reform package," Reuters reports.
• Sen. Tom Daschle, D-S.D., and Rep. Richard Gephardt, D-Mo., on Tuesday sent Bush a letter asking him to meet with the members of Congress who have sponsored an alternative patients' rights bill, CNN.com reports.
• A group of wealthy Americans, "including Warren E. Buffett, George Soros and the father of William H. Gates, are urging Congress not to repeal taxes on estates and gifts," the New York Times reports.
• Treasury Secretary Paul H. O'Neill told Congress Tuesday that "the Bush administration will resist any tax cut that exceeds $1.6 trillion over 10 years," the Washington Post reports.
• "When 220 or so House Republicans meet this morning at the Capitol to receive informational packets on tax cuts and education reform for the upcoming recess, their folders will include -- for the first time in anyone's memory -- 'talking points' provided by the White House," the Washington Times reports.

• Massachusetts Gov. Paul Cellucci (R) was officially named ambassador to Canada, the Boston Globe reports. Lt. Gov. Jane Swift (R) will become the state's first female governor and the nation's first pregnant governor.
• On Monday, Bush tapped Richard Armitage, "a former Navy SEAL, Vietnam veteran, weightlifter and best friend of Secretary of State Colin L. Powell," as deputy secretary of state, the Washington Post reports.

• Eight people died and 20 were injured Wednesday after "a Palestinian driver crashed a bus into a bus stop crowded with Israeli soldiers and civilians during morning rush hour," AP reports.
• On Tuesday, "Israeli helicopter gunships tracked down and assassinated a Palestinian police commander," the Chicago Tribune reports.
• More than 170 people died Tuesday after an earthquake struck El Salvador, Reuters reports.

• "The U.S. Census Bureau plans to announce today its estimate of how many people it missed during its 2000 Census as well as how many were probably counted twice," the Detroit Free-Press reports. The estimate could affect whether "the bureau will use statistical sampling surveys... to correct undercounts and overcounts."
• A preliminary review released Tuesday showed that "the 2000 Census missed a smaller percentage of people than in 1990," AP reports.

• Discussing the congressional investigation into former President Clinton's pardon of financier Marc Rich, Bush said on Tuesday, "I think it's time to move on," CNN.com reports.
• "One week after the House Government Reform Committee started its hearings on Rich's pardon, the Senate Judiciary Committee was beginning its own investigation Wednesday," AP reports.
• As part of the investigation into the Rich pardon, a Little Rock, Ark., "foundation raising money for the Clinton presidential library" was subpoenaed Tuesday and told "to disclose by next week all contributors who have given or pledged more than $5,000 toward the project," the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reports.
• After Clinton announced Tuesday that he would locate his office in Harlem, New York City Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani (R) announced that the city has a lease on the space the former president wants to rent, the New York Times reports. The New York Post reports that Clinton was "a big hit" when he visited Harlem Tuesday.
• Many companies are not considering hiring Clinton as a speaker because of the ongoing scandals surrounding him, ABCNews.com reports.

• Jersey City Mayor Bret Schundler (R) kicked off his campaign for his party's nomination in the New Jersey gubernatorial race by "promising his conservative programs would lower tax rates for homeowners and offer more school choice for parents" and "denouncing... his chief opponent in the Republican primary, Acting Gov. Donald T. DiFrancesco," the New York Times reports.
• Virginia Lt. Gov. John Hager "claimed victory yesterday in the first intramural battle for the Republican gubernatorial nomination," the Richmond Times-Dispatch reports. In Williamsburg, early-named delegates to the state party convention supported Hager over Attorney General Mark Earley by 22-9.
• Jim Denny, the father of two children injured in the Oklahoma City bombing, said he will begin his campaign for the GOP nomination for governor by traveling "across Oklahoma to talk to people about what they want from state government," the Daily Oklahoman reports.
• Illinois Gov. George Ryan (R) "fired back Tuesday at" Sen. Peter Fitzgerald, R-Ill., one day after the senator "said he hopes the governor does not run for re-election." The governor said Fitzgerald "should spend more time worrying about Congress and less about Ryan's political future," the Chicago Sun-Times reports.

• There is speculation that Matthew Maxwell Taylor Kennedy, the ninth child of Robert and Ethel Kennedy, "is the newest wild card in a looming race to succeed ailing" Rep. Joseph Moakley, D-Mass., the Boston Globe reports.
• Rep. Greg Ganske, R-Ia., "is the first Republican to start looking for cash" to challenge Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Ia., the Des Moines Register reports. Ganske is expected to announce his candidacy "sometime in the not-too-distant future."

• "A power-sapping cold snap put California at a renewed risk of blackouts Tuesday as lawmakers considered expanding the state's role in the electricity business to help two huge utilities out of debt," AP reports.
• "Amid accusations of mismanagement and vote fraud, Missouri Gov. Bob Holden [D] says he is 'leaning toward' replacing all four members of the St. Louis Election Board," the St. Louis Post-Disptach reports.
• Joseph Mesa Jr., a freshman at Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C., was arrested last night for the murders of Benjamin Varner and Eric Plunkett, both also freshmen at the school for the deaf, the Washington Times reports.
• "Alberto W. Vilar, a Cuban-born billionaire and arts patron, is giving the Kennedy Center $50 million," the Washington Post reports. This is the largest gift ever received by the center.
• "The Aryan Nations compound" in Idaho "that for two decades spawned some of the nation's most violent neo-Nazis was sold yesterday to a mother and son whose lawsuit bankrupted the hate group," the AP reports.

• Clarence T. Broad, a horse trainer for Rep. James Traficant Jr., D-Ohio, "was sentenced to 27 months in prison yesterday for plotting to harm a federal witness who was to testify about the congressman," the Cleveland Plain Dealer reports.
• William Asa Hutchinson III, son of Rep. Asa Hutchinson, R-Ark., was arrested Sunday for drunk driving charges for the second time in five years, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reports.

• In India, right-wing Hindus campaigned against Valentine's Day "by storming into shops, burning banners and threatening love-struck couples with retribution," the Los Angeles Times reports.
• By the end of this Valentine's Day, Americans will have spent "over a billion dollars on candy and $300 million on cards, sent 110 million roses and surrendered 36 million heart-shaped boxes of chocolate to sweetie pies near and far," the Washington Times reports.