The Earlybird: Today's headlines
- President Bush returned from the 34-nation Summit of the Americas in Quebec City on Sunday, where he signed a declaration for a Free Trade Agreement of the Americas by 2005, Reuters reports. But Bush "still must persuade lawmakers to give him the authority he needs to negotiate trade deals without congressional interference."
- The New York Times offers a transcript of the declaration.
- During the summit, Bush "portrayed opponents of free trade as isolationists," the Washington Times reports. But "the most enduring product of the Quebec summit may be the 34 leaders' approval of a 'democracy clause' that attempts to shore up the hemisphere's shaky democracies."
- The summit was "marred by clashes between anti-globalisation protesters and heavily armed police," Financial Times reports.
- Bush also met with Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien and Mexican President Vicente Fox during the summit to discuss energy problems, the Los Angeles Times reports. The leaders "said their energy ministers had created a working group to coordinate efforts to make their energy markets more efficient."
- Congress is back this week, and the Senate will begin debate over Bush's education proposals today, Reuters reports. Senate aides "said more time was needed for negotiations over Democratic demands for sharply increased federal funding for public schools."
- Florida is now "ground zero in the national debate over school vouchers," the Minneapolis Star-Tribune reports. "But while Republican legislators in Florida are eager to expand their governor's voucher program, President Bush is finding success far more elusive on Capitol Hill."
- House and Senate negotiators will "sit down this week to grapple with differences in their approach to the budget for the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1," AP reports.
- House Energy and Commerce Chairman Billy Tauzin, R-La., and ranking member John Dingell, D-Mich., "are expected to introduce legislation this week to help propel local phone companies into the $30-billion market of offering high-speed, long-distance data services," Reuters reports.
- "Some Republicans are complaining that" President Bush "failed to employ a sufficiently aggressive strategy to pass a $1.6 trillion tax cut, while Democrats are griping that the White House failed to negotiate with them in good faith," Roll Call reports.
- Federal Trade Commission officials "are expected this week to criticize the music industry harshly for failing to take definitive steps to halt the marketing of adult material to children," the Hollywood Reporter reports.
- Environmentalists celebrated Earth Day over the weekend, and the event's founder -- former Sen. Gaylord Nelson -- used the occasion to criticize "Bush's decision last month to reject the Kyoto Protocol, a treaty aimed at reducing heat-trapping gases that cause global warming," AP reports.
- On Sunday "Bush Cabinet members defended the president's environmental policies as a measured approach that balances the need for clean air and water with demands for energy and other natural resources," AP reports.
- EPA Administrator Christie Whitman said during an interview Sunday that "a White House energy task force will not specifically cite drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge as a vital option for easing U.S. energy shortages," Reuters reports. But she later said "she was not trying to suggest the administration was taking the refuge off the table for drilling."
- Well-water arsenic levels in Illinois "prompted an Earth Day skirmish in the Democratic battle with President Bush and his stance on the environment Sunday," the Chicago Tribune reports. Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., released a list of 27 Illinois counties "where water supplies would have fallen out of federal compliance under the rule issued by President Bill Clinton in January."
- "A Peruvian officer on board a CIA-operated drug-tracking plane authorized his country's air force to open fire on an aircraft" carrying missionaries on Sunday, USA Today reports. Two people were killed when the plane crashed.
- Intelligence officials said Sunday that the CIA personnel on the plane "objected strongly when a Peruvian fighter jet was given authorization to shoot down the flight before ascertaining who was on board," the Washington Post reports.
- Two people died and 50 were injured after a suicide bomber "detonated his explosives at a crowded bus stop" near Tel Aviv on Sunday, AP reports.
- Speaking at the Old York Road Temple-Beth Am Synagogue in Abington, Pa., on Sunday, former President Clinton "expressed deep disappointment over his inability to help create a lasting peace agreement" in the Middle East, the Philadelphia Inquirer reports.
- Cmdr. Scott Waddle, "the commander of the U.S. attack submarine that collided with a Japanese trawler," will "be formally asked to quit the Navy" today, the Los Angeles Times reports.
- Puerto Rico Gov. Sila Calderon "and thousands of her supporters are on a collision course with the U.S. Navy that could lead to a skirmish late this week if bombing exercises begin anew on the Vieques target range," the Orlando Sentinel reports.
- On Monday "a group of pro-Chechen gunmen who seized dozens of hostages in an Istanbul luxury hotel... surrendered to the authorities and freed all their captives unharmed," BBCNews.com reports.
- The crew of space shuttle Endeavour visited the crew of the International Space Station this morning, CNN.com reports.
- A new poll shows New Jersey Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jim McGreevey with "a comfortable lead" over his likely Republican opponents, USA Today reports.
- All five likely Democratic candidates for Michigan governor spoke at the state party's annual Jefferson-Jackson Day dinner, the Detroit News reports.
- Newsweek reports that media mogul Michael Bloomberg, "who's done everything but announce his candidacy" for New York City mayor, would not take a salary if elected.
- The New York Daily News reports that New York City Democratic mayoral hopeful Mark Green is being criticized "for giving $1,200 to Americans for Peace Now, a controversial Jewish group."
- A slumping economy is squeezing Michigan's budget, the Detroit News reports. State lawmakers may have to trim the budget for "the first time in a decade," delay a planned tax cut or dip into the "rainy day fund."
- In Iowa, the Des Moines Register reports, "the struggle to balance next year's state budget will force lawmakers to extend their stay... by at least a week."
- The Mississippi River is approaching record flood levels in northeast Iowa, the Des Moines Register reports.
- The Ohio Supreme Court justice who helped craft the state's death penalty law now contends that "Ohio's high court has not properly monitored death penalty cases, raising questions about whether the ultimate punishment is unevenly imposed," the Cleveland Plain Dealer reports.
- USA Today reports that in Connecticut, the Mohegan Indian tribe "is scaling back plans for a $10 million aquaculture business because of mounting local and state opposition."
- Florida legislators are taking aim at the Florida Bar with a bill they say would eliminate the legal organization's "special status," the Orlando Sentinel reports.
- In California, AP reports, San Francisco officials "are prepared to make history by becoming the only city to pay for employees' sex changes."
- New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani (R) "yesterday defended his proposed cut in the city's personal income tax, saying some Democratic leaders just don't get it," Newsday reports.
- "The Rev. Jesse Jackson began a 25-city tour of Georgia to discuss the unfinished agenda of the New South," USA Today reports.
- AP reports that Michigan state Sen. David Jaye (R) could face ouster from the Legislature following his second arrest is less than a year.
- To commemorate the first anniversary of the day the INS returned Elián González to his father, about "100 Cuban activists peacefully gathered... to pray and sing" in Miami on Sunday, the Miami Herald reports.