The Earlybird: Today's headlines

Campaign finance reform countered, tax plan expanded, bankruptcy reform passed, Ranger berets switched, Massachusetts inmate freed, Russian plane hijacked, California blackouts feared, Schundler's record attacked, Vermont gay marriage hurt, atheist activist remains found:

• President Bush sent a letter outlining his "principles" on campaign finance reform to members of Congress Thursday, Reuters reports. Bush's ideas include "a requirement opposed by many Democrats that unions get permission from members before making political donations." The Washington Post has a list of Bush's "reform principles."
• "The White House announcement was interpreted by many as a sign that Bush opposes" the campaign finance reform bill by Arizona Sen. John McCain (R) and Wisconsin Sen. Russ Feingold (D), the Houston Chronicle reports.
• The Senate will debate campaign finance reform next week, and it "stands a better chance of passing in Congress than at any time in the last decade," Salon.com reports. The debate will test McCain's "post-campaign national popularity, his ability to work with (or around) an antagonistic White House, and a close friendship with a fellow senator who in this debate is shaping up to be his greatest opponent."

• The Bush administration is "quietly encouraging" Congress to pass an even larger tax cut than the $1.6 trillion one the president proposed, USA Today reports. They said a large tax cut would "stimulate the flagging economy."
• "House Republicans said Thursday they will move in the coming weeks the remaining parts of President Bush's $1.6 trillion tax cut plan that would eliminate the 'death' tax, reduce the marriage penalty, and increase the child credit," UPI reports.
• Senior Democrats on Thursday accused Bush of exacerbating the economic downturn with "pessimistic comments," UPI reports. The "White House responded that the President was merely telling the truth about the economy to the American people."
• The United Seniors Association, a conservative seniors' group, began running radio ads today "featuring former television host Art Linkletter" to promote Bush's tax-cut plan "in states where the group hopes to sway U.S. senators to support the president's tax-cut plan," the Dallas Morning News reports.

• On Thursday the Senate approved a bankruptcy reform measure that would make it more difficult for people to "erase their debts in bankruptcy courts," AP reports. The House passed a similar measure two weeks ago.
• House Republicans on Thursday "opened a coordinated campaign to begin imposing new restrictions on abortion, starting with a bill that would impose penalties on people who harm a fetus during an assault on a pregnant woman," the Washington Post reports.
• A Gannett News Service study has found that Congress has become "more polarized between Democrats and Republicans."

• Today Bush will meet with Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern in Washington, D.C., the Boston Globe reports. The two will discuss the Good Friday peace agreement between Catholics and Protestants in Ireland.
• Bush may visit China in October, the New York Times reports. "The White House held off on an official announcement of the visit even though Prime Minister Zhu Rongji prematurely mentioned it in Beijing."

• "The Army's elite Rangers, stung by the service's decision to require all soldiers to wear their distinctive black berets," will begin wearing tan berets, USA Today reports.
• USS Greeneville crew members testified Thursday that "three civilians who were at some of the controls of the submarine Greeneville when it collided with a Japanese trawler played no role in the accident," AP reports.
• Bush "on Thursday endorsed legislation that would effectively increase the amount of money available for families of military personnel killed in a recent string of deadly disasters," Reuters reports.

• "Three people are reported to have been killed as Saudi Arabian security forces stormed a Russian airliner hijacked by Chechen rebels" on Thursday, BBCNews.com reports. The "hijackers were arrested and more than 120 hostages were released."
• An explosive device placed "between two buses at a garage" killed two people and injured several others in Baghdad early Friday, Reuters reports.
• "Three members of Yasser Arafat's Fatah group accused of planning a bomb attack in Jerusalem have been arrested," AP reports.

• Former Massachusetts inmate Kenneth Waters, 47, was freed Thursday after his "murder conviction" was "vacated by newly tested DNA evidence," the Boston Globe reports. Waters was sentenced to life in prison in 1983.
• Bud Welch, "whose daughter was killed in the Oklahoma City bombing," is asking people to forgive convicted bomber Timothy McVeigh, AP reports.

• "Over the last eight years," Jersey City Mayor Bret Schundler's (R) "mayoral and gubernatorial campaigns have received at least $135,000 in campaign contributions linked to companies that have won" tax "abatements while he has been mayor," the Newark Star-Ledger reports.
• Oklahoma state Treasurer Robert Butkin "announced Thursday he will not run for governor in 2002, despite encouragement from friends and others in the Democratic Party," the Daily Oklahoman reports.
• Max Kennedy (D) moved closer to running for retiring Massachusetts Rep. Joe Moakley's (D) seat yesterday with a visit to Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino (D) yesterday. Menino has not endorsed a candidate for the open seat, the Boston Globe reports.

• The Bush administration said yesterday that power "blackouts 'appear inevitable' in California this summer and could spill into neighboring Western states," AP reports. "Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham told a U.S. Senate hearing that the administration is trying to find ways to increase power supplies in the West."
• The Vermont state House passed a bill yesterday outlawing gay marriages, the Barre-Montpelier Times-Argus reports.
• Violent storms that ripped through North Florida and South Georgia yesterday morning have left at least one dead, the Tallahassee Democrat reports.
• In the face of the worst drought in Florida's state history, the "toughest watering restrictions South Florida has ever seen will be in place by the end of the month," the Orlando Sentinel reports.
• McDonald's USA is opening a diner-style restaurant in Kokomo, Ind., hoping "to double its business in the United States in 10 years without doubling its number of restaurants," AP reports.

• U.S. Attorney Wilma Lewis, the top prosecutor in Washington, D.C., "announced yesterday she will resign effective April 20," the Washington Times reports.
• "Eastman Kodak Co. said on Thursday it has nominated" former presidential nominee Bill Bradley (D) to its board of directors," Reuters reports.
• "Former Sen. Rod Grams, R-Minn., has accepted a job as a senior adviser with" D.C. consulting firm Hecht, Spencer & Associates Inc., which he said "does not preclude him from accepting a position in the Bush administration or running for political office," the Minneapolis Star Tribune reports.
• The remains of Madalyn O'Hair, "America's spokeswoman for atheism," have been identified, the Austin American-Statesman reports. O'Hair had been missing since 1995.

• The National Taxpayers Union will release a study today that shows former President Bill Clinton was the most "frequent flyer" of any president, the Washington Post reports. His foreign travel "probably cost more than half a billion dollars."