The Earlybird: Today's headlines

Hanssen hearing set, Bush goes back to school, Barak rejects joint government, civilians distracted Greeneville crew, Supremes consider illegal immigrants, Cochran goes for five, Carter hits Rich pardon, Florida tavern apologizes, WH gunman gets no bond, Lynne Cheney attacks Eminem:

• Robert Philip Hanssen, a 27-year veteran of the FBI, "was arraigned Tuesday on charges of spying for Moscow for the last 15 years in what FBI Director Louis J. Freeh described as one of the most damaging espionage cases in U.S. history," the Los Angeles Times reports. "A preliminary hearing has been set for March 5." The Times has a copy of the affidavit in the case against Hanssen.
• "The damage caused by Hanssen's alleged spying is impossible to calculate right now," the Washington Post reports. First, "FBI and CIA counterintelligence specialists will have to 'go back over the entire 15-year period and sort out all the anomalies that occurred.'" Officials said Hanssen "was in a position to neutralize many of the activities of the FBI."
• Hanssen's arrest shows that, though the Cold War is over, "Moscow has shown no inclination to rein in its foreign intelligence activities," AP reports.
• AP has a list of recent major espionage cases in the United States, including those of retired Army Reserve Col. George Trofimoff, who "was accused last year of spying for the Soviet Union and Russia for a quarter of a century," and former CIA counterintelligence officer Aldrich Ames, who "pleaded guilty in 1994 to spying for the Soviet Union," AP reports.

• Speaking at an elementary school in Columbus, Ohio, on Tuesday, President Bush lobbied for his education agenda, the Columbus Dispatch reports. He "used the Columbus stop to stress the need for setting standards and measuring results."
• Bush then headed to St. Louis where he worked to "build public support" for his $1.6 trillion tax cut, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports. He used one local family -- "who would see their federal tax bite almost disappear" under his plan -- as an example.
• Bush will visit Townsend Elementary School in Knoxville, Tenn., today to further discuss his education plan, the Knoxville News-Sentinel reports.
• Interior Secretary Gale A. Norton said Tuesday that the Bush administration will not "overturn any of President Bill Clinton's designations of millions of acres of federal land as national monuments," the Washington Post reports.

• Secretary of State Colin Powell said Tuesday that he strongly supports Friday's U.S. and British air strikes against Iraq, the Washington Times reports.
• "Most governments in the Middle East" other than Israel "have strongly criticized the military action," the Christian Science Monitor reports.

• Outgoing Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak on Tuesday threw "plans for a unity government into disarray" after he said he would not serve in incoming Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's Cabinet, AP reports.
• On Tuesday, "Palestinians threatened revenge against Israel at Tuesday's funeral of an Islamic militant gunned down in a refugee camp, allegedly by Israeli special forces," AP reports.
• A former lieutenant in terrorist Osama bin Laden's organization testified Tuesday during "the trial of four men accused in the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings in Africa" that "several militant Muslims left Osama bin Laden's alleged terrorist organization after it began eyeing possible civilian targets in a holy war against Americans," AP reports.

• One of the crew members aboard the USS Greeneville submarine before it hit a Japanese fishing boat told investigators that "he was distracted from his job by the presence of civilians aboard," the Washington Post reports.
• "The USS Greeneville's sonar detected noise from a vessel, but the crew concluded it was a small boat at a safe distance before the submarine surfaced and rammed the Japanese trawler Ehime Maru," the Washington Times reports.
• While officials review the policy of allowing civilians on military vehicles, "the Army is barring" them "temporarily," Army Times reports.

• Today the Supreme Court will hear arguments over whether it is unconstitutional for illegal immigrant criminals who cannot be deported but have already served prison sentences to be kept in prison because of their illegal status, the Washington Post reports.
• The court on Tuesday "cleared the way Tuesday for deportation proceedings to begin against Michael Negele, a... man who hid his record as a Nazi concentration camp guard to gain U.S. citizenship," the St. Louis Post Dispatch reports.
• The court "stayed out of disputes Tuesday over the right to salvage a crashed U.S. warplane off the coast of Florida and two sunken ships off Virginia," AP reports.
• And the court upheld a California law that allows the state "to selectively add weapons to the list of banned models while allowing the sale of nearly identical guns," CNN.com reports.
• "Napster Inc. offered $1 billion to the recording industry Tuesday to settle the copyright infringement suit that threatens to shut down the free Internet song-swapping service," AP reports.

• Sen. Thad Cochran, R-Miss., announced yesterday that he will run for a fifth term "with $370,000 left in the bank from his last campaign in 1996," the Jackson Clarion-Ledger reports.
• In New Jersey, "former Rahway City Councilman Jerry L. Coleman announced yesterday that he will run as the Green Party candidate for governor this year." Coleman "said he would campaign on a platform to reduce the state's reliance on property taxes to pay for education, and to improve the state's health care delivery system," the Newark Star-Ledger reports.
• Jim McGreevey, the Democratic candidate for governor in New Jersey, released his last eight tax returns yesterday, the Trenton Times reports. McGreevey called on his two Republican opponents, Jersey City Mayor Bret Schundler and acting Gov. Donald DiFrancesco, to do the same
• Virginia state Sen. Emily Couric (D) said yesterday that Attorney General Mark Earley (R) should resign, the Richmond Times-Dispatch reports. Couric claimed that Earley "is blurring 'the lines between his official duties and campaign activities'" in his gubernatorial bid.
• The Tulsa World reports Oklahoma Rep. Steve Largent (R) "spoke with Republican state lawmakers Tuesday about his plans to run for governor in 2002."

• The Virginia state Senate passed a bill yesterday "making 'morning-after' contraception pills easier to get but left off a House amendment that would require minors to get parental permission before they could get the pills," the Richmond Times-Dispatch reports.
• A tavern owner and a waitress in North Florida have agreed to pay a $500 fine and write an apology letter after being accused of "refusing to serve Maryland lawmaker Talmadge Branch," who is black, "unless he moved to another section of the bar," Reuters reports.
• Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris (R) "will recommend a $200 million, three-year move to electronic voting statewide by 2004," the Miami Herald reports.

• Robert Pickett, the "man shot outside the White House two weeks ago," is being held without bond until his trial on a charge of assaulting a federal officer, AP reports.
• Former President Carter said Tuesday that former President Clinton's pardon of fugitive financier Marc Rich was a "disgrace" and that Clinton "abused his power" by granting it, AP reports.
• Julius F. Nimmons, president of the University of the District of Columbia, resigned yesterday. "Nimmons' resignation takes effect June 30, and the university is aiming to name the new president by July 1," the Washington Times reports.
• "Lynne Cheney said Tuesday she is 'amazed and dismayed' that rock star Elton John is going to perform with rapper Eminem" at tonight's Grammy Awards ceremony, the Los Angeles Times reports.
• Paul Adler, who served as a fund-raiser for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., "pleaded guilty Tuesday to mail fraud and tax evasion charges," AP reports.
• Michael Skakel, nephew of Robert Kennedy, will be arraigned today. Skakel is "charged in the 1975 bludgeoning death of his neighbor, Martha Moxley," AP reports.
• Former New York City Mayor Ed Koch (D) "is recovering from pneumonia" in a city hospital, the New York Daily News reports. Koch is expected to be released Friday.