The Earlybird: Today's headlines

Happy 100th, spy plane inspection, Peres visit, tax debate, IMF meetings, Jersey GOP turmoil, O'Connor's future, Gore's popularity, Bush's media charm:

• Today President Bush will acknowledge his 100th day in office "with a lunch for lawmakers aimed at promoting bipartisan cooperation," Reuters reports. Polls show "showing favorable job approval ratings ranging from 56 percent to 63 percent."
• Bush's advisers "say privately that they made some mistakes" during the first 100 days, and they are now "making some changes to avoid future missteps," USA Today reports. One change is that "staff briefings for President Bush now focus on fewer issues at a time and deal with them in more depth."
• "The 100-day marker against which presidents are judged is a yardstick that journalists have devised in recent years," the Washington Times reports.

• On Sunday China said it will allow U.S. officials to "inspect the damaged Navy reconnaissance plane that made an emergency landing on Hainan Island," the Washington Post reports. The news is "a sign the government is preparing to return the plane and may be trying to reach out to the United States."
• Federal officials think hackers from China vandalized the Web sites of the Departments of Labor and Health and Human Services over the weekend, AP reports. "A picture of Wang Wei, the Chinese pilot who was killed in a collision with a U.S. Navy surveillance plane April 1, was posted on Saturday on Labor's Web site."
• On Tuesday Bush is expected to "deliver a speech at the National Defense University on his plans to develop a missile shield in conjunction with cuts in nuclear arms, steps he pledged during the presidential campaign," the New York Times reports.

• Bush will meet with Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres today in Washington, the Los Angeles Times reports. Peres is "hoping to convince... Bush that his government is using diplomacy, not just force, to quell violence in the West Bank and Gaza Strip and to restart peace talks."
• Yesterday Peres was in Egypt and Jordan, where leaders put forward a plan that "calls for a four-week cooling-off period to reestablish an atmosphere of trust and build a basis for peace negotiations to resume," the Boston Globe reports.

• Legislators will continue negotiating Bush's tax cut plan this week, and "Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, says the size of a compromise tax cut is coming into focus: $1.3 trillion over 10 years," USA Today reports.
• "The White House has mapped out a broad May offensive to push its tax cut to victory," U.S. News and World Report's "Washington Whispers" reports. The plan includes giving "those who want more than the expected $1.2 trillion cut... promises of support for future legislative moves to bring the total to $1.6 trillion."
• If a tax cut is approved, its effects on the economy might not "bring much help before the fall," the Wall Street Journal reports.

• During an interview on Fox News yesterday, Vice President Dick Cheney "dismissed a request from Pope John Paul II that President Bush spare Timothy McVeigh's life, saying that the Oklahoma City bomber should be put to death," AP reports.
• Cheney also said Sunday that President Bush's $1.6 trillion tax cut plan is the best way for the country to avoid a recession, Reuters reports.

• Time reports that former Sen. Bob Kerrey, D-Neb., may return the Bronze Star he received for a mission during Vietnam that killed unarmed civilians.
• Kerrey's political future may be "salvageable" now that four more members of his Navy SEAL team said over the weekend that "they opened fire that night only after they were fired upon," the Omaha World-Herald reports.
• Sens. John Kerry, D-Mass., John McCain, R-Ariz., and Max Cleland, D-Ga., all of whom are Vietnam veterans, said Sunday that they do not think the Pentagon should investigate the incident involving Kerrey, the Washington Post reports.

• Eight "anti-U.S. Navy protesters" were arrested Sunday on Vieques Island, Puerto Rico, AP reports.
• "The Navy suspended exercises yesterday to honor the beatification in Rome of a Puerto Rican man," the Boston Globe reports.

• "The International Monetary Fund, prodded by the Bush administration, endorsed a program Sunday to establish better procedures to prevent a repeat of the 1997-1998 Asian currency crisis that plunged two-fifths of the world into recession," AP reports.
• "The Bush administration has decided the U.S. will contribute to a global fund aimed at combating AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria in the developing world," the Wall Street Journal reports.
• Only 150 people showed up to protest the IMF-World Bank meetings Sunday, the Washington Post reports. Police had prepared for 1,400 protesters.

• After New Jersey acting Gov. Don DiFrancesco (R) dropped out of the 2001 gubernatorial race, "the electoral landscape in New Jersey has become abruptly unsettled. Suddenly nothing looks as clear for the Republican Party," the Newark Star-Ledger reports.
• The Virginia GOP "voted 51-13 to set a new May 10 filing deadline for candidates to file for statewide office," opening up the option for Lt. Gov. John Hager (R) to abandon his gubernatorial bid and run for re-election instead, the Richmond Times-Dispatch reports.
• Tennessee Democrats are citing former Nashville mayor Phil Bredesen's (D) candidacy for governor as "a sign of reinvigoration in their party," the Nashville Tennessean reports.
• After Attorney General Mark Pryor's (D) announcement last week that he will challenge Sen. Tim Hutchinson, R-Ark., "more announcements are expected in the next few weeks, possibly by potential Democratic challengers to" Gov. Mike Huckabee (R), the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reports.

• The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that "things look far from bleak" for Sen. Max Cleland, D-Ga., as he starts his campaign for re-election: "He has more than $1 million in the bank," and he "expects the number to reach $2 million within days."
• At "a raucous convention" that "erupted into catcalls and boos" on Saturday, Virginia Republicans nominated state Sen. J. Randy Forbes (R) to run for the 4th District seat vacated by the death of Rep. Norman Sisisky, D-Va., the Richmond Times-Dispatch reports.
• Roll Call reports that Indiana state "House GOP leaders have waded into" a "redistricting spat and urged" Rep. Steve Buyer, R-Ind., "to run in a new, more competitive district."
• Former Rep. James Rogan, R-Calif., has taken his name out of the "unofficial race to succeed" Rep. Christopher Cox, R-Calif., as Bush "is expected to nominate [him] to be undersecretary of the Commerce Department for patents and trademarks," Roll Call reports.

• Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor "apparently will not be retiring soon, according to close friends of the justice and to a court official," USA Today reports.
• "The shuttle Endeavour departed the international space station on Sunday, clearing the way for the arrival of a Russian spacecraft carrying American space tourist Dennis Tito," the Houston Chronicle reports.
• A new poll to be released today shows "that 50 percent of the public views" Al Gore "favorably, 42 percent unfavorably," the New York Times reports. "Allies are already mulling what role he might take during the midterm elections next year, mindful that his participation itself could become an issue."
• Jenna Bush will go to court in Texas on Wednesday to face charges of underage drinking "that carries a $200 fine or community service," the London Daily Telegraph reports.
• Karin Stanford, the mother of "the Rev. Jesse Jackson's out-of-wedlock child," has "filed a lawsuit seeking child-support payments and visitation arrangements," AP reports.

• At the White House Correspondents Association dinner on Saturday, Bush joked with journalists and showed pictures of "Bush family members in various states of undress," Reuters reports.
• The cast of "The West Wing" visited the White House on Sunday, AP reports. Bush and actor Martin Sheen did not show up for the tour.