The Earlybird: Today's headlines

Bush holds presser, HRC skirts brother mess, Ashcroft visits Log Cabins, E. Dole could be drug czar, Navy report blames Greeneville crew, FBI looks for more spies, California sees the light, new Wisconsin gov holds inaugural galas, Sen. Kennedy cashes in, Rep. Crane recovers from car crash:

• British Prime Minister Tony Blair is at Camp David today to meet with President Bush, CNN.com reports. The two leaders are expected to discuss "U.S. plans for a missile shield, European defence proposals, the situation in Iraq and trade relations."
• Bush and Blair also hope to "establish a solid friendship" during the meeting, FoxNews.com reports.
• During his first press conference Thursday, Bush said "he was determined not to get mired in the controversies of his predecessor and to stay focused on his agenda before Congress," the Dallas Morning News reports.
• Bush tried to "redirect public attention to, and amass public support for, his proposed $1.6 trillion tax cut" during the press conference, the New York Times reports.
• Bush's budget, which will be revealed next week, "will reserve about $1 trillion over 10 years for privatized Social Security accounts," the Wall Street Journal's "Washington Wire" reports.

• At a press conference Thursday, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., said she did not know that "her brother had been paid to help two convicts win clemency from her husband, former President Bill Clinton," and that she was "very disappointed" in him, CNN.com reports.
• Hugh Rodham tried to use his ties to the White House on many occasions during the Clinton presidency, the Washington Post reports.
• Clinton half brother Roger Clinton also tried "to win pardons for friends and associates," the New York Times reports. "All of the requests had been denied."
• House Government Reform Committee Chairman Dan Burton (R) said that for the Marc Rich hearings, the committee will "sanction the head of Clinton's library foundation if he refused to disclose his fund-raising efforts," Reuters reports. Burton has "accused the William J. Clinton Presidential Foundation of withholding information about library contributors."
• No presidential library foundation in the past has been directed "to reveal its donors, and no law clearly prohibits such an inquiry," the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reports.
• The New York Post has a list of all the people Clinton pardoned before he left office.
• A federal judge has thrown out a lawsuit brought by a woman who claimed Clinton "tried to prevent her from publishing a book 'loosely based' on her relationship with him," ABCNews.com reports.

• House Majority Leader Dick Armey, R-Texas, on Thursday said he would like to meet with NAACP President Kweisi Mfume to discuss the "lingering racism" that "exists in America," the Dallas Morning News reports.
• Attorney General John Ashcroft talked with the Log Cabin Republicans, a gay group, about civil rights on Thursday, AP reports. "Ashcroft promised to enforce the law and thanked the group for their help during his confirmation."
• House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., said he hopes to pass Bush's $1.6 trillion tax cut plan by July 4, Reuters reports.

• The Wall Street Journal's "Washington Wire" reports that former presidential candidate Elizabeth Dole (R) "is a potential choice for drug czar."
• National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice filled in a number of key spots on the National Security Council Thursday, Reuters reports.

• A confidential Navy report puts the blame for the USS Greeneville disaster on its crew members, the Washington Times reports. The report "documents a series of errors by the... crew shortly before the submarine rammed a Japanese fishing boat, stating that a critical periscope scan was too brief and not high enough to detect the oncoming ship."
• "The skipper of the USS Greeneville has told Navy investigators that he was aware from sonar soundings that a ship was in the vicinity before the submarine made a rapid ascent to the surface and crashed into a Japanese fishing vessel on Feb. 9," the Washington Post reports.
• A Navy public court of inquiry into the incident won't happen until after March 5, the New York Times reports.

• Investigators have obtained "hundreds of letters and computer messages they believe were sent between FBI Special Agent Robert P. Hanssen and his Russian handlers," and they believe the letters could lead them "to other possible spies," the Washington Times reports.
• The FBI had "evidence that Russia had a significant pipeline from the United States government" for several years, "yet the F.B.I. failed to conduct a rigorous internal review of its own personnel," the New York Times reports.
• "Until FBI investigators targeted Robert P. Hanssen as a possible Russian spy late last year, they focused on a covert CIA officer who now may be cleared as a result of Hanssen's arrest," the Washington Post reports.

• Israeli Prime Minister-elect Ariel Sharon said he wants to strengthen relations between his country and the United States, CNN.com reports. Sharon "said relations with the U.S. had suffered during Palestinian peace talks as the focus of their partnership had shifted."
• On Thursday, Bush said "he is disturbed that China is helping Iraq build a more sophisticated and effective defense against American and British air patrols," AP reports.

• For the first time in almost six weeks, California has "called off all power alerts." The "last time California had been free of all alerts was Jan. 13," the Sacramento Bee reports.
• The energy problems "have pushed inflation in San Diego County to its highest level in almost two decades," the San Diego Union-Tribune reports.
• The "talks between the government and the state's cash-strapped utilities apparently stalled without an agreement on a rescue plan," AP reports.

• Florida Gov. Jeb Bush's (R) "task force on election reform is wrapping up its work this week and will soon send recommendations for sweeping changes in the state's voting procedures and equipment to the governor and the State Legislature," the New York Times reports.
• Florida state Democratic lawmakers have "demanded an investigation into a company that was paid $4 million by the state to purge Florida's voter rolls before" the 2000 election, the Orlando Sentinel reports.

• New York Democratic gubernatorial candidates Comptroller Carl McCall and Andrew Cuomo "exchanged harsh attacks" yesterday for the first time, the New York Post reports.
• New Jersey gubernatorial candidate Jim McGreevey (D) "has made a campaign issue of the growing state debt, which nearly doubled over the past seven years to more than $17 billion," the Trenton Times reports.
• Wisconsin Gov. Scott McCallum (R) has stepped up his campaign efforts for 2002 by holding two "inaugural galas," the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports.
• A new poll shows that Michigan Democratic voters would rather see former Gov. James Blanchard (D) run for governor in 2002 than either Attorney General Jennifer Granholm (D) or Rep. David Bonior, D-Mich., the Detroit Free Press reports.
• Michigan Secretary of State Candice Miller (R) is the state GOP hope "to help widen the party's control of the House of Representatives in 2002," the Detroit News reports. She is expected to run for the seat being vacated by Bonior, who is expected to run for governor.

• Vermont Gov. Howard Dean (D) and Tennessee Gov. Don Sundquist (R) plan to "ask their fellow governors to support a Medicaid reform plan that would give states more flexibility," AP reports.
• Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., "spent more than $2.3 million last year, despite putting in only a few token appearances on the campaign trail." Kennedy's "spending spree" included a "$2,600 per month apartment" for his father-in-law and a $160 bottle of champagne, the Boston Herald reports.
• Rep. Phil Crane, R-Ill., was injured in a car accident yesterday. He has been released from the hospital, the Los Angeles Times reports.
• New Jersey state Sen. Raymond Zane "said yesterday that he plans to run for a ninth term as a Republican after more than three decades as a Democrat." He has the support of the state GOP party, the Newark Star-Ledger reports.
• Marilyn Quayle, wife of former Vice President Dan Quayle, "has resigned her job with an Indianapolis law firm and says she's leaving the legal profession" to go back to school, the Indianapolis Star-News reports.

• One person died after a 128-car pileup on I-95 near Washington, D.C., during Thursday's snowstorm, the Washington Post reports. Today's driving conditions should be an improvement: "The weather today should be dry, with temperatures in the forties" so some of the snow will melt.
• Many offices and schools are closed today because of Thursday's snow. The Washington Post offers a guide of things to do if you have the day off.