The Earlybird: Today's headlines

Bush's health plan, Congress' tax moves, stock market's desperation, State Dept.'s Russian spies, Hagel's frank 2002 talk, Vermont's mad cow sheep, Boeing's search for a home, 18-year-old's mayoral bid:

• Speaking to the American College of Cardiology in Orlando on Wednesday, President Bush said he does not support a "patients bill of rights" that would allow people "to sue their HMOs for as much as $5 million," the Orlando Sentinel reports. Bush does support other aspects of the legislation.
• Bush said he will veto any patients' rights bill that does not have "caps on damage awards," the St. Petersburg Times reports.
• Some members of Congress said Bush "was siding with the managed-care industry over patients," USA Today reports.
• Bush and Chinese Vice Premier Qian Qichen will meet today and discuss human rights issues in China and U.S. weapons sales to Taiwan, "which Beijing opposes," Reuters reports.
• Today Bush will attend the opening of the Pope John Paul II Cultural Center, "a $65 million museum in Northeast Washington that combines solemn spirituality and high-tech entertainment," the Washington Post reports.

• On Wednesday the House Budget Committee approved Bush's federal budget plan, which includes a $1.6 trillion, 10-year tax cut plan, Reuters reports. The committee voted "23-19 along party lines after a 12-hour session."
• House Republicans on Wednesday "unveiled a $400 billion tax bill" that "goes well beyond what the White House had envisioned" for the second portion of Bush's tax-cut plan, the Houston Chronicle reports.

• During its third day of debating campaign finance reform on Wednesday, the Senate killed an amendment that would have required "unions and corporations to seek permission from their members and shareholders before spending money on political activities," and senators "approved an amendment to make television ads cheaper for political candidates," the Houston Chronicle reports.
• Bush's education reform plan will be introduced in the House today, Reuters reports.
• Legislation was introduced in the House Wednesday to further Bush's "faith-based agenda" by allowing "religious organizations to compete with secular groups for federal grants to address social concerns," the Houston Chronicle reports.
• The House Veterans' Affairs Committee on Wednesday approved a bill that would appropriate $550 million "to cover 'urgent' construction and repair needs for veterans' health facilities," National Journal News Service reports. The bill could reach the House floor later this month.
• House committees "are poised to receive a 10.9 percent increase in overall funding this Congress, less than half the amount they originally requested," Roll Call reports.
• Washington leaders -- including former Kansas Sen. Bob Dole (R) and Mayor Anthony Williams (D) -- testified to Congress Wednesday that Pennsylvania Avenue in front of the White House should be reopened, the Washington Post reports.

• The stock market fell again on Wednesday, and investors are now "looking for something -- anything -- to turn the markets around," CNNfn.com reports.
• Meanwhile, "U.S. stock-market woes dragged almost all the indexes" in Asia down on Thursday, CNN.com reports.

• On Wednesday the State Department "ordered the immediate expulsion of five suspected Russian spies," the Washington Post reports. "As many as" 50 more Russian intelligence officers may have to leave the country in the next few months.
• On Wednesday, Secretary of State Colin Powell and Chinese Vice Premier Qichen met and discussed their differences over Taiwan, AP reports.
• "The Bush administration has pulled the plug on the CIA's high-profile role as a broker between Israeli and Palestinian security services, urging the two sides to cooperate directly," the Washington Post reports.
• "Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld is looking to create an Iraq Transition coordinator position" to take over the job of Iraq policy, UPI reports.

• The California state power grid operator said yesterday that wholesale "electricity suppliers overcharged California by about $5.5 billion between May and last month, and that money should be refunded to the state's taxpayers and financially strapped utilities," the Los Angeles Times reports.
• Mexican President Vicente Fox visited California on Wednesday, and he said "Mexico, Canada and the United States must work together to craft a common energy policy," AP reports.

• "Ethnic Albanian rebels declared a cease-fire Wednesday and renewed their call for talks with the Macedonian government, which has repeatedly said it will not negotiate with what it calls terrorists," the Los Angeles Times reports.
• Rumsfeld said "the United States has 'no plans' to send ground troops to" Macedonia "or increase the number of American peacekeepers in neighboring Kosovo," the Los Angeles Times reports.
• Public support for Margalit Harshefi, a woman "convicted five years ago of failing to prevent the murder of" Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, is growing, the Boston Globe reports.

• Ruling in a South Carolina case, the Supreme Court said Wednesday that "pregnant women cannot be screened for drugs without their consent and prosecuted with the results," the Greenville News reports.
• The court also ruled that "employers can force workers to take job-related disputes to arbitration rather than to court," AP reports.
• A judge in Oklahoma ruled Wednesday that it is not unconstitutional or double jeopardy to try Terry Nichols on 160 first-degree murder counts for his role in the Oklahoma City bombing, the Tulsa World reports.

• "The Mir space station reached a lower orbit today," and Russian officials are now trying to steady it, AP reports.
• Four fishing boats from Washington "suddenly have found themselves smack-dab in the middle of the zone where the dilapidated Russian Mir space station is expected to splash down tomorrow," the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reports.

• Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., said to a group of lobbyists yesterday "that the midterm election in November 2002 will have an impact on everything Congress does between now and then," CNN.com reports.
• California state Sen. Kevin Murray (D) has raised $400,000 -- more than any other candidate -- in his bid to fill the seat of Rep. Julian Dixon, D-Calif., in a primary election April 10, Roll Call reports.
• Maryland state Sen. Christopher Van Hollen Jr. (D) announced yesterday that he has formed an exploratory committee to decide whether to challenge Rep. Connie Morella, R-Md., Roll Call reports.
• Denver Councilwoman Ramona Martinez (D) "thinks she can capitalize on organized labor's dissatisfaction with" Rep. Diana DeGette, D-Colo., "for voting for permanent normal trade relations with China last year, as well as some perceived dissatisfaction with DeGette's outreach to various community groups" in the 2002 election, CongressDailyAM reports.

• A new poll shows Wisconsin Gov. Scott McCallum (R) with 82 percent name recognition among likely voters, which "was much better news than a poll last year, when he was lieutenant governor." The 82 percent "was comparable to state Attorney General James Doyle, so far the best organized Democrat running for governor in 2002," the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports.
• AP reports that California Gov. Gray Davis' (D) endorsement of Antonio Villaraigosa (D) for mayor of Los Angeles may "strengthen his support among Villaraigosa's allies," and "Hispanic support could be critical for his success."

• In Vermont, 233 sheep have been seized and "will be taken to a federal laboratory in Ames, Iowa, where they will be euthanized and tested for signs of" mad cow disease, the Barre-Montpelier Times-Argus reports.
• Chicago, Denver and Dallas are all being considered for a new home for the Boeing Co., which announced yesterday it will move from Seattle, where it has been located for 85 years, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reports.
• A committee in the Arkansas House has "endorsed a bill that would require that evolution be labeled as a 'theory,'" the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reports.
• The state House in Illinois "approved a $170 million program Wednesday that would give college students with a B grade average full scholarships to state universities and community colleges," the Chicago Sun-Times reports.
• In New Jersey, two "2nd-grade boys playing cops and robbers with a paper gun have been charged with making terrorist threats," the Tribune News Service reports.