The Earlybird: Today's headlines

Judicial nominees, terrorism task force, space military, budget votes, Swift's twins, Shuster's Bush ad, rolling blackouts, new parliamentarian:

• Today President Bush "will unveil his first set of judicial nominations," the Dallas Morning News reports. The 11 nominees "will be introduced at a White House ceremony" in "what may become Mr. Bush's toughest fight yet with a Senate that is split evenly between the two parties."
• "Bush is delaying three controversial nominations to the federal bench, and he has included among his first federal court nominees two judges who were nominated by" former President Bill Clinton, USA Today reports.
• The Washington Post lists all 11 of the nominees and their current jobs.

• On Tuesday Bush "appointed Vice President Dick Cheney to head a terrorism task force and created the Office of Natural Preparedness within the Federal Emergency Management Agency," the Houston Chronicle reports.
• Bush's energy task force, which will announce its energy plan next week, "will recommend regulatory changes to encourage the construction of new power plants and tax credits for the purchase of cars that run on a combination of gas and electricity," the Washington Post reports.
• During an interview Tuesday, Cheney said that "nuclear power can both solve America's energy woes and help protect the environment," CNN.com reports. He said nuclear power should be given "a fresh look."

• During a press conference Tuesday, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld "announced a reorganization of the Pentagon's space command" and said the "United States must extend its defense of vital national interests to outer space," the Houston Chronicle reports. FoxNews.com offers a transcript of the press conference.
• "There was sharply mixed reaction on Capitol Hill today to Mr. Rumsfeld's announcement, with several senior Democrats saying they would oppose any efforts by the Pentagon to militarize space," the New York Times reports.
• Rumsfeld also said "that the U.S. government is still negotiating with China to get back the damaged EP-3E surveillance plane now held on Hainan island," the Washington Times reports.
• "The two U.S. military commanders overseeing the 'no-fly' zones in Iraq have recommended that the Bush administration sharply reduce the number of patrols conducted by American and British pilots, mainly because of the mounting danger that an allied plane could be shot down," the Washington Post reports.

• The leaders of the House International Relations Committee, Reps. Henry Hyde, R-Ill., and Tom Lantos, D-Calif., "proposed yesterday that the United States freeze the final payment" of $244 million in dues "owed the United Nations until Washington regains its seat on the UN Human Rights Commission," Reuters reports.
• During an interview Tuesday night, Secretary of State Colin Powell said that "American officials had been taken by surprise by members of the United Nations Economic and Social Council who voted the United States off the panel in a secret ballot last week," the New York Times reports.

• On Tuesday "congressional Republicans approved a $1.97 trillion budget compromise they say they will pass despite objections from moderate Democrats who want more education spending," CNN.com reports. "The House is scheduled to take up the measure Wednesday afternoon."
• "Even without agreement on final budget details, members of the Senate Finance Committee were meeting privately to work out a bipartisan bill to cut taxes by $1.25 trillion over 10 years, the maximum allowed under the budget proposal," the Boston Globe reports.

• "The Senate voted Tuesday to improve training of teachers in the nation's poorest schools, while rejecting a Republican plan to link increased funding to school performance," the Houston Chronicle reports. The vote was a "victory for Democrats."
• House Majority Leader Dick Armey, R-Texas, sent a letter to Interior Secretary Gale Norton, asking "the Bush administration yesterday to drop plans to use cameras to ticket speeders on busy parkways around the nation's capital, calling the action a step toward a 'surveillance state,'" Reuters reports.
• "A House Government Reform subcommittee voted Tuesday to require public disclosure of donations to presidential libraries if they amount to $5,000 or more in a year," National Journal News Service reports.
• Alan S. Frumin has been tapped to fill the role of Senate parliamentarian after Robert Dove was dismissed last week, the Washington Post reports. "Frumin served as chief parliamentarian when Democrats controlled the Senate from 1987 to 1994 and was replaced by Dove when the GOP returned to power in 1995."

• Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said during a meeting with foreign reporters Tuesday that he wants to build new housing rather than follow "the recommendations of a US-led commission to halt construction of Jewish settlements in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza," the Boston Globe reports.
• "Israeli officials have launched an investigation after two Israeli teenagers, believed to have been stoned to death, were found in a West Bank cave," CNN.com reports.
• British Prime Minister Tony Blair on Tuesday announced a June 7 election "that surveys say will almost certainly give him a coveted second term," the New York Times reports.
• Bill Clinton and Chinese President Jiang Zemin "held 'friendly talks' on Wednesday in a reminder of better times before a spate of recent diplomatic rows soured U.S.-Sino relations," Reuters reports.

• Arkansas death row inmate Clay King Smith, who killed five people, was executed Tuesday, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reports.
• "A slim majority in an Associated Press poll say they support allowing survivors and victims' relatives to witness" Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh's execution "in a special closed circuit telecast," AP reports.
• "Federal prosecutors and lawyers for Robert Hanssen, the FBI agent charged with spying for Russia, have opened plea-bargain negotiations," Tribune News Services reports.
• "The American Civil Liberties Union sued a southwest Georgia school district Tuesday on behalf of nine students who wore T-shirts bearing the Confederate flag" and were "disciplined," the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports.

• Massachusetts acting Gov. Jane Swift (R) was admitted yesterday to Brigham and Women's Hospital with contractions and "will remain there on bed rest until her" twins are born, the Boston Globe reports.
• Swift, who is nearly eight months pregnant, is expected to give birth within the next 10 days, the Boston Herald reports.

• Former Arkansas state Rep. Jim Hendren (R) "is a leading Republican prospect to replace his uncle, Rep. Asa Hutchinson, R-Ark., who is expected to be named head of the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reports.
• "With a week to go before the special election in Pennsylvania's 9th District," Bill Shuster (R) released a radio ad featuring President Bush, which began airing yesterday, CongressDailyAM reports.
• Former White House Chief of Staff Erskine Bowles (D) ended speculation on a 2002 North Carolina Senate bid Tuesday, saying he would not run. "Bowles' decision comes just a few days after state Senate leader" Marc Basnight (D) "announced that he would not enter the U.S. Senate race and would support Bowles," the Raleigh News & Observer reports.
• Former Sen. Rod Grams, R-Minn., said Tuesday "he's still considering a" 2002 Senate bid, despite "the White House's preference for St. Paul Mayor" Norm Coleman (R), AP reports.
• Oakland County, Mich., Sheriff Michael Bouchard (R) announced yesterday he would not challenge Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., in 2002, the Detroit News reports.

• A New Jersey state appeals court yesterday "dismissed a Democratic lawsuit that could have knocked former Rep. Bob Franks out of the GOP gubernatorial primary race," the Newark Star-Ledger reports. A ruling is expected today or tomorrow on "a similar challenge from his Republican primary opponent, Jersey City Mayor Bret Schundler."
• A poll released yesterday shows Franks with a "more than a 2-1 lead over" Schundler, the Newark Star-Ledger reports.
• Both New York Democratic gubernatorial candidates -- former Housing Secretary Andrew Cuomo and Comptroller Carl McCall -- "have begun formally looking into whether contracts were properly awarded to an architectural firm owned by" Gov. George Pataki's (R) neighbor, the Albany Times Union reports.
• Rep. Steve Largent, R-Okla., released a statement yesterday saying "that no final decision has been made about his possible resignation," following news reports "Tuesday morning indicating that he had decided not to resign from Congress," the Tulsa World reports.
• Rep. Bob Riley, R-Ala., held a fundraiser that "would have broken Alabama's campaign finance law" if Riley decided to run for governor. "Such legal loopholes will give Riley a distinct advantage" if he runs--"and from the statements of family members to the impressions of Republican leaders, there's little to indicate he won't," the Anniston Star reports.

• Rolling blackouts continued in California Tuesday. "If 90-plus temperatures continue over much of the state, grid operators predict more blackouts today -- and as many as one every four days this summer," the Los Angeles Daily News reports.
• "The Illinois House on Tuesday sent Gov. George Ryan [R] a bill that defines the crime of 'cyberstalking,' making it a felony to harass or threaten over the Internet," the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports.
• Nathaniel Brazill, 13, took the stand in the Palm Beach County Courthouse and "told jurors Tuesday that he pointed a loaded gun at his seventh-grade teacher because he wanted to be taken seriously," the Miami Herald reports.
• Harvard University will form "a committee comprising 10 professors, four students, three union employees, and two senior administrators" to look into raising the wage of campus employees. As a result, students ended "a three-week sit-in to demand a 'living wage,'" the Boston Globe reports.

• A "psychiatrist at Columbia University... will report today that some 'highly motivated' gays can become heterosexual," the New York Times reports.
• A second study by two New York City psychologists found that of "202 gay men and lesbians who had been through counseling... 178 failed to change their orientation," the Washington Post reports. "Many reported being misled by the counseling into thinking that homosexuality was caused by child abuse, bad parenting or a disorder."