The Earlybird: Today's headlines

China standoff, tax cut reductions, oil drilling plans, recount puzzles, Davis' TV speech, S.C.'s Dem candidate, Rather's apology, Cuomo's 'Sopranos' poll:

• Secretary of State Colin Powell on Wednesday expressed "regret" for the "Chinese fighter pilot missing after a collision with a U.S. Navy plane," AP reports. Chinese officials "welcomed the expression of regret" and said it was a step in the right direction.
• But the United States and China remain "deadlocked" over how to resolve the five-day standoff, UPI reports.
• China has "ruled out a second visit to the 24 stranded air crew until the US 'takes a co-operative approach,'" Financial Times reports.
• Damage to the American plane indicates that "the Chinese pilot zoomed up underneath and smashed into one of the lumbering spy plane's four engines" during "an aerial version of chicken," National Journal News Service reports.
• The incident "has revived one of the oldest rivalries in the Republican Party -- between those who want to do business with and those who want to fight communism," the Dallas Morning News reports.
• On Wednesday some lawmakers said "that the crisis has galvanized congressional support for sales of advanced weapons to Taiwan," and officials said it "has hardened" President Bush's position on the issue, the Washington Times reports.
• House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., on Wednesday said he was concerned about "a trade trip that a group of congressmen is planning to China over the April recess, in light of the standoff between Beijing and Washington," CNN.com reports.

• On Wednesday the Senate gave a "stunning blow to President Bush's tax-relief proposal" by "lopping off $450 billion worth of tax cuts to save money for education and debt relief," the Houston Chronicle reports. Senators voted 53-47 "to limit any tax-relief measure to $1.15 trillion."
• Meanwhile, the House voted to repeal the estate tax "after an emotional debate that pitted rich against poor in a confrontation over who should carry the tax burden," the Dallas Morning News reports. The proposal was part of Bush's tax cut plan.
• Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., has introduced legislation that "would strengthen safeguards against imported meat products that may carry mad cow disease," the Chicago Tribune reports.
• Theodore Olson, Bush's nominee for solicitor general and the man who argued the president's case before the Supreme Court last year, "can look forward to tough questioning at his Senate confirmation hearing" today, AP reports.

• The Bush administration "has proposed reversing a federal policy that required all ground beef used in government school lunch program to be tested to ensure that it is free of salmonella," the Washington Post reports. Officials said that "less costly alternatives for protecting meat safety could be as effective."
• Bush's budget also is expected to include cuts in "programs intended to make buildings and factories use less energy and to generate more power from the wind and the sun," the New York Times reports.
• In a speech to the American Society of Newspaper Editors on Wednesday, Attorney General John Ashcroft "outlined what he called a 'clear agenda to make America a more secure and safe place,' including strict enforcement of existing gun and drug laws and a commitment to every person's civil rights," the Washington Times reports.
• "The government will begin issuing national organ donor cards as part of an aggressive effort to increase the number of donations," AP reports.

• The Interior Department is finalizing its plans to drill for oil and gas in "millions of acres of federal land that contain protected wildlife and scenery," USA Today reports. "The centerpiece of that effort is winning congressional approval for drilling in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge."
• Meanwhile, "a number of moderates" in the Senate are "lining up to oppose" the administration's proposal to drill in ANWR, the Wall Street Journal reports.

• "Israeli soldiers on Thursday fired on a convoy carrying the Palestinian Authority's top three security officials, as they returned from talks with Israeli counterparts in Tel Aviv," Financial Times reports.
• British Prime Minister Tony Blair said Wednesday that the "number of confirmed foot-and-mouth cases has finally crossed into four figures -- 1,003, up from 500 just 12 days ago -- but the policy of killing infected animals and those thought to have been exposed appears to be slowing the spread of the livestock disease," CBSNews.com reports.

• Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan testified before the Senate about trade Wednesday, but he "gave no new insight into the economy," the Wall Street Journal reports. Greenspan "warned that the current economic slowdown could lead to increased protectionist pressures."
• The stock market in Japan improved Thursday after a tech stock rally, Financial Times reports.
• Tech stocks in the United States also could improve today with the help of Dell Computer's announcement that "it expects to meet fiscal first-quarter profit and revenue forecasts," CNNfn.com reports.
• On Thursday the Bank of England "cut interest rates by 0.25% as it responds to a slowdown in the global economy," BBCNews.com reports.

• Several current and former Marine pilots have said that a design flaw in the V-22 Osprey aircraft caused the December crash that killed four people, the Washington Post reports. The flaw "had been known for months but went largely uncorrected."
• "The Pentagon canceled plans Wednesday to provide a public explanation of why it contracted with firms operating low-wage plants in China and other countries to manufacture millions of black berets for the U.S. Army," the Los Angeles Times reports.

• The review released yesterday by the USA Today and the Miami Herald shows "just how subjective a hand recount can be," the Washington Post reports. Some "combinations of circumstances the newspapers considered less likely could have given the election to former vice president Al Gore."
• The study "also showed how hard it is to find the ballots that produced the Florida postelection chaos," the New York Times reports.
• A Miami Herald review of ballots in Broward and Palm Beach Counties showed that the canvassing officials "could have credited hundreds more ballots to" Gore "if they had counted every dimple, pinprick and hanging chad as a vote."
• AP reports that under such standards, Gore "would have had a net gain of 1,815 votes above the hand recounts certified in the two counties."

• California Gov. Gray Davis (D) will speak for five minutes on statewide television tonight to address Californians about the power crisis. The Los Angeles Times reports his speech "will sound something like this": "Here's what happened: I inherited the mess. For 12 years, not one major power plant was built. And there was a massively flawed deregulation scheme."
• AP reports that "California has secured $4.1 billion in loans to help pay back state money spent to buy power for three financially struggling utilities."

• The drought in Florida "is cramping the alligator style this mating season," which "will send more of them into neighborhood canals searching for food and mates," the Palm Beach Post reports.
• The Ford Foundation will award a $50 million grant to Harvard's Kennedy School of Government "to set up a new global program to promote government innovation," the Boston Herald reports. It is the largest gift in the history of the school, and "the second-largest ever received by Harvard University."

• As part of his probable re-election campaign, New York Gov. George Pataki (R) has sent out a fund-raising letter warning that "Democrats in Albany are trying to spend more and more of your hard-earned tax dollars on bigger and bigger government programs," the New York Post reports.
• University of South Carolina President John Palms, who is considering a Democratic Senate bid, has purchased the domain name www.palmsforsenate.com -- "one of the most solid indications that Democrats have finally found a candidate to seek" Republican Sen. Strom Thurmond's seat, Roll Call reports.
• The National Republican Senatorial Committee "has hit the radio airwaves in Oregon and New Hampshire, chiding Democratic Govs. John Kitzhaber and Jeanne Shaheen for their stances on state tax controversies," Roll Call reports. Both Kitzhaber and Shaheen are considering running for Senate in 2002.
• Oklahoma first lady Cathy Keating "has scheduled a formal announcement Saturday" announcing her bid for the 1st District seat currently held by Rep. Steve Largent, R-Okla., who is planning to run for governor, the Tulsa World reports.
• "Aides and friends" of retiring Rep. Joseph Moakley, D-Mass., "appear to be lining up behind" Max Kennedy (D), though Moakley has not formally endorsed any candidate, the Boston Globe reports.
• Virginia state Sen. Randy Forbes (R) "was expected to receive calls" yesterday from President Bush and Majority Whip Tom DeLay, R-Texas, encouraging him to drop his bid for lieutenant governor and pursue the open 4th District seat vacated by the death of Rep. Norman Sisisky, D-Va., Roll Call reports.

• CBS anchor Dan Rather "formally apologized Wednesday for what he called a 'serious mistake' in speaking at a Democratic Party fund-raiser," the Washington Post reports.
• Today kicks off the annual Masters Tournament, where Tiger Woods is in the running for what some are calling a "grand slam," the Augusta Chronicle reports.

• New York gubernatorial candidate Andrew Cuomo (D) "launched a comprehensive poll earlier this week." One of the questions asked what voters "think the hit HBO show 'The Sopranos' is doing to the image of Italian-Americans in New York," the New York Post reports.
• In Illinois, an "Italian-American lawyers' group says it will sue the makers of HBO's 'The Sopranos' series today for offending the 'dignity' of Italian-Americans by implying most of them are mobsters," the Chicago Sun-Times reports.