The Earlybird: Today's headlines

Bush expresses regret, tax cuts come back, market looks up, Japan PM steps down, HRC vows no future White House bid, Hawaii teachers strike, DeLay & DCCC settle, Cellucci heads for Canada:

• On Thursday President Bush offered regret for the Chinese pilot missing after Chinese and American military planes collided Sunday, and he said "that his administration was 'working all diplomatic channels' to secure the release of the American air crew held in China," the Dallas Morning News reports. Bush made the comments after his speech to the American Society of Newspaper Editors.
• Some Bush administration officials said Thursday there is "hope of resolving the standoff," and "there was talk with the Chinese of formulas that would allow both sides to save face and move toward freeing the plane's crew," the New York Times reports.
• "Privately, Bush administration officials said they were optimistic the crisis... will be resolved in the next few days," the Washington Times reports.
• U.S. diplomats met with the plane's 24 crew members today, AP reports. No details about the meeting were made public.
• Sen. Don Nickles, R-Okla., on Thursday canceled his plans to lead a trade delegation to China while the standoff continues, Reuters reports. Meanwhile, a 22-member congressional delegation may still travel to China as part of a separate trip on Saturday.
• While Secretary of State Colin Powell has a high-profile role in the ongoing situation, the voice of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is "missing," the Wall Street Journal's "Washington Wire" reports.
• Bush still supports China's entry into the World Trade Organization, CNN.com reports.

• Today Bush will be in Milwaukee to throw the "ceremonial first ball at the first regular-season game at Miller Park, the Milwaukee Brewers' $400 million stadium," the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports.
• Several members of the Texas Legislature "appealed to President Bush on Thursday for more federal funds" for Medicaid "and greater flexibility to run the program as they see fit," the Dallas Morning News reports. The plea came during a meeting and White House tour.
• Bush will travel to Poland in June as part of his trip to Europe, AP reports.

• The Senate is expected to vote on Bush's $1.6 trillion, 10-year tax cut plan today, the Boston Globe reports. "There were strong signs yesterday that the Republicans were failing in their struggle to win enough votes for the plan."
• Senators on Thursday "voted to restore about $100 billion of the $450 billion Democrats slashed from Bush's 10-year tax cut proposal on Wednesday," Reuters reports. They "agreed to an $85 billion tax dividend this year, up from the $60 billion plan Republicans proposed, and an additional $60 billion in tax cuts in 2002-2003."
• Bush "will not accept" the cuts Democrats made to his tax cut plan, the Washington Times reports. In an interview, Bush "chief political strategist" Karl Rove "sent new signals to Capitol Hill that the White House believes the two sides are moving closer to a compromise tax cut figure that the president would accept."
• Congressional negotiators "are near agreement on an education package that contains most of what President Bush wants -- but not vouchers that parents could use to send their children to private or parochial schools," USA Today reports.
• Congress may not approve a prescription drug plan this year because of fighting between Democrats and Republicans "over how it should be financed," Reuters reports.

• The stock market improved Thursday as "the Dow Jones industrial average gained more than 400 points and the Nasdaq composite index posted its third-largest percentage gain ever," the New York Times reports.
• The Japanese government on Friday approved an "emergency economic package" that would set up "a government-backed fund to purchase up to" $88 billion worth of stock "owned by banks," Financial Times reports.
• European stock markets were losing ground Friday, and "investors remained in an extremely nervous mood," BBCNews.com reports.
• Because of the economic slowdown, companies in the United States "are spreading the pain by reaching across their global networks to cut costs and improve profitability," the Los Angeles Times reports.

• On Friday "Israeli helicopter gunships attacked Palestinian security force targets in the Gaza Strip," CBSNews.com reports.
• A group of 300 legislators on Thursday sent Bush a letter urging him "to reassess U.S. relations with the Palestinians, who they blame for the upsurge of violence in the Middle East," Reuters reports.
• Japanese Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori said Friday that he will resign, AP reports. He had been "under fire for months over verbal gaffes and missteps."

• "As part of a security crackdown that has followed the arrest of alleged spy Robert Hanssen," FBI Director Louis Freeh "and other top bureau leaders will take polygraph tests," USA Today reports.
• The Bush administration said Thursday that it will not "ease salmonella testing requirements on meat for school lunches," as the Agriculture Department had proposed, AP reports.
• "Attorney General John Ashcroft yesterday said the Bush administration intends to ask Congress for an additional $102.5 million for programs to combat violence against women," the Washington Times reports.

• A new study by USA Today, the Miami Herald and Knight Ridder shows that "voters in Florida's majority-black precincts were nearly four times as likely to have their 2000 presidential election ballots invalidated than voters in precincts that are overwhelmingly made up of white voters."
• On Thursday a Florida state Senate committee unanimously passed a bill that will "ban the embattled punch-card ballot and place an electronic vote-counter in every precinct next year," the Miami Herald reports.

• California Gov. Gray Davis (D) "acknowledged to a statewide television audience Thursday night the need for an" electricity rate increase "that would average" 26.5 percent, the Los Angeles Times reports.
• AP reports that while "speaking from his Capitol office in a televised five-minute speech, Davis lashed out at federal power regulators for failing to help California and defended his handling of the state's energy problems."

• Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., "yesterday ruled out ever running for president -- a startling declaration that seemed to leave even her own aides stunned," the New York Post reports.
• A new poll shows New York gubernatorial hopeful Andrew Cuomo (D) trailing Gov. George Pataki (R) by a "mere" three points, the New York Daily News reports.
• The Boston Globe reports that Massachusetts gubernatorial hopefuls "were busy last month trying to look serious and beat a campaign-spending deadline" -- Lt. Gov. Jane Swift (R) raised more than $180,000 in March, and "former state senator Warren E. Tolman spent nearly $33,000 on office equipment, supplies, and printing" in the same month.
• Virginia state Sen. Randy Forbes (R) officially dropped his bid for lieutenant governor yesterday and announced his intention to run for the 4th District seat left open by the death of Rep. Norman Sisisky, D-Va., the Richmond Times-Dispatch reports.

• The Ohio Federation of Teachers plans to file a lawsuit challenging charter school funding "within two weeks," the Washington Times reports. The lawsuit will be the first of its kind.
• "More than 12,000 public school teachers are marching the picket line" in Hawaii today, and the state's "schools were shut down after months of contentious negotiations with the state over pay raises," the Honolulu Advertiser reports.
• New Jersey acting Gov. Donald DiFrancesco (R) called on state Supreme Court Justice Peter Verniero to resign yesterday "for having deceived the Senate Judiciary Committee during his 1999 confirmation hearings," the Trenton Times reports.

• The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and Majority Whip Tom Delay, R-Texas, reached a settlement on charges "that DeLay had engaged in extortion and money laundering," the Washington Post reports.
• The Senate confirmed Massachusetts Gov. Paul Cellucci (R) as ambassador to Canada last night, the Boston Globe reports.
• Senate "Democrats sought to cast doubt Thursday" on Theodore Olson, who has been nominated as court advocate, the Wall Street Journal reports.
• "Eugene Scalia, son of Supreme Court Justice Scalia, is in line to be the Labor Department's solicitor, the agency's top legal job," the Wall Street Journal's "Washington Wire" reports.
• A federal judge has ruled that Linda Tripp can "sue former Clinton administration officials for alleged harassment," Reuters reports.
• Zach McCallum, oldest son of Wisconsin Gov. Scott McCallum (R), "faces a misdemeanor charge of disorderly conduct for his alleged involvement when a woman was injured at a party last year," AP reports.