The Earlybird: Today's headlines

Cheney's angioplasty, Santana's school shooting, Bush's day at the Merc, Senate's slower tax cut pace, KKK's Supreme Court clearance, Russia's tunnel reaction, Clinton's closed mouth, California's power deals, Bloomberg's latest mayoral move:

• After he complained of chest pains, Vice President Dick Cheney was hospitalized Monday and given an angioplasty "to repair a partially blocked artery," the Dallas Morning News reports. Dr. Jonathan Reiner of George Washington University Hospital "said tests found that 'as of now, there is no evidence'" Cheney had another heart attack, and Cheney "could be released from the hospital as early as Tuesday."
• Cheney's chest pain was "caused by a complication that occurs fairly frequently among patients who have undergone the kind of treatment Cheney received in November to restore blood flow to his heart," the Washington Post reports.
• Reiner said, "There is a very high likelihood he can finish out his term in his fully vigorous capacity," AP reports.
• AP has a chronology of Cheney's heart troubles.

• Charles "Andy" Williams, 15, will be arraigned as an adult in court on Wednesday after he "opened fire with a revolver" at Santana High School in Santee, Calif., Monday morning, "killing at least two students and wounding another 13 people," the San Diego Union-Tribune reports.
• Some students "said that they had heard Williams... muttering threats last week and over the weekend," but they "shrugged them off," the San Francisco Chronicle reports.
• The incident "is sure to renew debate about campus safety and metal detectors," the Sacramento Bee reports. California Gov. Gray Davis (D) "told CNN he would favor metal detectors if he were to head a school."
• The Los Angeles Times reports that "prospects are slim that a Republican-controlled Congress and White House will enact new limits" for guns.
• The school had an "elaborate security plan" but still was not prepared for the incident, the Los Angeles Times reports.
• President Bush said the shooting was a "disgraceful act of cowardice," Reuters reports.

• Bush met with legislators Monday and "agreed... to push for a comprehensive reform of the Medicare old-age health system this year," Reuters reports.
• While in Chicago today, Bush will have lunch with Mayor Richard Daley (D), the Chicago Sun-Times reports. House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., "urged" Bush to meet with Daley. AP reports that Bush will promote his economic plan and tour the Chicago Mercantile Exchange.
• The University of Oklahoma's "national championship football and softball teams" visited Bush at the White House on Monday, the Oklahoma City Oklahoman reports.

• Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott said Monday that the Senate probably won't act quickly to pass Bush's tax cut plan, AP reports. Instead, senators will wait to see how the "tax package affects other national priorities."
• Senate Democrats said Bush's campaign to win their votes for his tax cut is "pushing them away instead of drawing them in," the Houston Chronicle reports. "Democrats say the rhetoric of bipartisanship came to an end when the House GOP leadership decided to force a vote this week on the president's tax plan."
• The "vast majority" of House Democrats will vote against the plan, the Washington Post reports.
• The Senate on Monday began debating bankruptcy reform that would make "it harder for individuals to wipe out their debts" and that is similar to legislation passed by the House last week, Reuters reports.
• Today Senate Republicans will work "to repeal as too costly the Clinton administration's regulation to curb repetitive stress injuries in the workplace afflicting about 1 million U.S. employees," Reuters reports.

• Bush nominated his former campaign manager, Joe Allbaugh, to head the Federal Emergency Management Agency, AP reports.
• Bush will keep Clinton appointee Roger Ferguson on as vice chairman of the Federal Reserve, Reuters reports.
• Bush nominated Kenneth Dam, "a law professor and former top State Department official," to the post of deputy secretary of the Treasury, the Washington Post reports.
• Ralph F. Boyd Jr. "is expected to be nominated to head the Justice Department's civil rights division," AP reports.

• The Supreme Court on Monday "let stand a federal rule requiring a number of states to reduce interstate drifting of air pollution," Reuters reports. The decision was "a defeat for utilities and industry groups."
• The court also refused to hear an appeal from the Missouri Department of Transportation, which means that Missouri can't prevent the Ku Klux Klan from participating in the state's "Adopt A Highway" program, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports.
• The court turned down an appeal from power companies and states, which "cleared the way yesterday for the Environmental Protection Agency to enforce new regulations aimed at reducing air pollution in the eastern half of the United States," the Washington Post reports.
• The court also refused to hear the appeal of "a California high school valedictorian who was barred from giving a graduation speech in which he planned to ask the audience to 'accept God's love' and live by 'Jesus' example,'" AP reports.
• AP has a summary of all of the decisions the court made on Monday.

• A federal judge refused to grant bail for accused spy Robert Philip Hanssen, CNN.com reports.
• The Russian Foreign Ministry wants details about the "secret tunnel for electronic eavesdropping beneath what was then the Soviet embassy in Washington." The Ministry said that if the tunnel exists, it "will be a flagrant case of the violation of generally recognized standards of international law concerning foreign diplomatic missions," the Washington Post reports.
• The court of inquiry into the USS Greeneville incident began Monday, and the families of the Japanese victims arrived at court for the day's hearing, the Honolulu Advertiser reports.
• During the hearing, an admiral testified that "a lengthy lunch for guests aboard a U.S. submarine forced a nearly 45-minute delay in the emergency surfacing maneuver that ended in a fatal collision with a Japanese fishing boat," AP reports.

• Former President Clinton said he "will not accept an invitation by a Senate committee to talk about his Inauguration Day clemency orders," the Washington Times reports.
• "The Clinton library foundation on Monday turned detailed information about its contributions over to congressional investigators," the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reports.

• Israeli Prime Minister-elect Ariel Sharon finished putting his Cabinet together Monday, the New York Times reports.
• "China has decided to increase defense spending this year by 17.7 percent, its biggest expansion in real terms in the last 20 years," the Washington Post reports.
• "A special U.N. envoy failed in a last-minute appeal to Afghanistan to save Buddhist sculptures and other art declared 'un-Islamic' that the country's ruling Taliban says should be destroyed by today," the Los Angeles Times reports.
• The space shuttle Discovery is scheduled to lift off from Florida on Friday "with the station's second resident crew, the first research hardware for its new Destiny science laboratory, and the gear to spur the addition of two more major components by midyear," the Houston Chronicle reports.

• A report released by the Alliance for Better Campaigns shows that the top 75 media markets took in 76 percent more revenue from political ads in 2000 than in 1996, the New York Times reports.
• Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R) said yesterday "his top election priority is replacing outdated equipment in the 26 counties where it is most needed," and that includes removal of punch card ballots by the 2002 election, the Tallahassee Democrat reports.

• Yesterday the state of California "struck deals with power generators to supply enough electricity for as many as 7 million homes," the Los Angeles Times reports.
• "The state has reached 40 long-sought long-term contracts and other agreements to keep power flowing to customers of two financially ailing utilities," AP reports.
• Davis said "Californians will have to cut their power use at least 10 percent this summer to avoid blackouts," the Sacramento Bee reports.

• Over the weekend, three Oregon Republicans "jockeyed to show who could best end the party's long losing streak" and secure a gubernatorial bid. "State Labor Commissioner Jack Roberts, Portland lawyer Ron Saxton and Portland venture capitalist Craig Berkman" all spoke at the annual Dorchester Conference, the Portland Oregonian reports.

• Antonio Richardson, accused of murdering two sisters in 1991, is set to be executed in Missouri tomorrow. The mother of the sisters is "asking that his life be spared" because Richardson "was 16 at the time of his crimes and has been classified as mildly mentally retarded by experts," the New York Times reports.
• "Boise's new public-access TV station is running two white supremacist shows, including one whose sponsor, the Rev. Matt Hale, says he wants to teach children to be 'as racist as possible,'" the Idaho Statesman reports.

• "Michael Bloomberg, widely expected to run for mayor of New York, on Monday stepped down as chairman of the financial news and information company he founded," Reuters reports.
• Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan turns 75 today, Reuters reports.
• Linda Tripp will not be involved in the HBO documentary being done on Monica Lewinsky, the Chicago Tribune's "The Inc. Column" reports.