The Earlybird: Today's headlines

Labor likes energy plan, senators talk tax cuts, Fed to lower rates, Freeh to testify, Supremes nix medical pot, Pa.-09 votes today, Kerry plans Iowa trip, J. Bush denies The Rumor:

• On Monday "the leaders of about a dozen unions emerged from a meeting with Vice President Dick Cheney and other administration officials impressed with what they had heard about" President Bush's proposed energy policy, the Houston Chronicle reports.
• Bush's plan, which is scheduled to be released Thursday, "is widely expected to include recommendations to allow the federal government to seize private property, using eminent-domain authority to place new electric transmission lines," the New York Times reports. "Western Republicans and property-rights groups" oppose that idea.
• Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., said Monday that Bush's energy plan will "move swiftly to the Senate Energy Committee," Reuters reports.
• Democrats in the House will offer their own energy plan today "that urges the federal government rein in price increases for electric power and recommends a wide array of tax breaks to spur efficiency," AP reports.

• During a speech Monday at a police promotions ceremony in Philadelphia, Bush "proposed spending $558 million over two years to expand a program that imposes tough federal sentences on felons caught carrying guns," the Philadelphia Inquirer reports. "The program, dubbed Operation Cease-Fire, is already in place in several cities, including Philadelphia."
• Americans for Gun Safety ran an ad in Philadelphia yesterday thanking Bush for his support of stricter gun laws and asking for his help in closing the gun show loophole, NationalJournal.com's Ad Spotlight reports.
• "Attorney General John Ashcroft's practice of holding devotional meetings with employees each morning has drawn fire from advocates of church-state separation," AP reports.

• A bipartisan group of senators today will introduce a patients' rights bill supported by the White House that would give people "a restricted right to sue their health plans in federal court," the Washington Post reports.
• Lott "said Monday he would not send the Senate-passed campaign finance bill to the House until it concludes its own debate on the issue," Reuters reports.
• The Senate Finance Committee will begin considering a "compromise Senate tax cut proposal" today, AP reports. "The centerpiece of the plan, an across-the-board income tax cut and creation of a new 10 percent tax rate, will take until 2007 to phase in entirely."
• The New York Times reports that "under the version of the plan that was passed by the House earlier this spring with Mr. Bush's support, the biggest cuts would go more to the extraordinarily wealthy than to the merely wealthy and the affluent."

• The Federal Reserve Board will meet today, and "most analysts are betting the Fed will lower its 4.5 percent target for overnight interest rates today by half a percentage point for the fifth time this year," the Washington Post reports.
• The Fed's meeting "is expected to divide Wall Street's day into two parts: cautious trading before the decision is announced, and investors' reaction afterward," CNNfn.com reports.
• In April, "output at factories, utilities and mines fell for the seventh straight month and capacity utilization dropped to its lowest level since 1991," the Wall Street Journal reports.

• Assistant Secretary of State James A. Kelly "is meeting skeptical Chinese officials today in an effort to convince them that President Bush's plans to build a missile defense will not undermine China's power and security," the New York Times reports.
• The Washington Times reports that "China's government learned important U.S. intelligence-gathering capabilities from the downed U.S. Navy reconnaissance plane."

• "Silvio Berlusconi's conservative coalition won Italy's parliamentary election" on Monday, CBSNews.com reports.
• "The Israeli army shot and killed five Palestinian police officers at a West Bank checkpoint early yesterday morning," the Philadelphia Inquirer reports.
• The World Health Organization will release a report this week stating that "the global threat of tuberculosis could be brought under control within five years for no more than $400 million a year in addition to what is now spent," the Boston Globe reports.

• Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh "has written a letter to the Houston Chronicle stating unequivocally that there was never a 'John Doe No. 2'" involved in the bombing, which "could weaken any argument his attorneys might make to seek a new trial based on the possible existence of other conspirators."
• Meanwhile, "the American Civil Liberties Union has agreed to help a southwest Missouri protester" who was sent to a mental health facility by police earlier this month and who "believes the FBI has not taken seriously his claim that he knows the identity of 'John Doe No. 2,'" AP reports.
• Another "batch of undisclosed records in the Oklahoma City bombing" was "found in Baltimore... prompting the FBI to issue a worldwide directive ordering all bureau field offices and attaches to comb their files for any more documents that may not have been turned over to" McVeigh's lawyers, the Los Angeles Times reports.
• Outgoing FBI Director Louis Freeh will "testify before a House appropriations subcommittee on Wednesday and a Senate appropriations subcommittee on Thursday about the FBI's proposed budget," and will also face questions about the FBI's "bungled" cases such as McVeigh's, Reuters reports.

• The Coast Guard seized 13 tons of cocaine Monday in a "record-breaking" drug bust off the coast of San Diego, SkyNews.com reports.
• "The Drug Enforcement Administration's Caribbean office routinely falsified its claims of drug arrests and seizures for at least three years, according to five present or former agents who worked there," Knight Ridder Tribune News reports.

• On Monday the Supreme Court ruled "that federal law does not recognize any medical benefits from marijuana, so doctors and clinics are barred from prescribing the illegal drug to treat seriously ill patients," the Boston Globe reports.
• The Supreme Court also ruled "that appellate courts must give searching scrutiny to whether a jury's award of punitive damages was excessive," the New York Times reports.
• In Arkansas on Monday, a judge ruled "there wasn't enough evidence to convict a man of riding a horse while drunk, but also observed that state drunken driving laws are too vague to tell whether an equine falls under motor vehicle statutes," AP reports.

• Today is the special election in Pennsylvania's 9th District to fill retired GOP Rep. Bud Shuster's seat. Shuster's son, William Shuster (R), faces Centre County Commissioner Scott Conklin (D). NationalJournal.com provides a tip sheet for the race.
• The Richmond Times-Dispatch reports two more candidates are running in the 4th District special election -- Dr. D.C. Amarasinghe (Green), who "will seek health-care reform through universal health coverage," and Hopewell mayor Anthony Zevgolis "also is trying to qualify as an independent."

• Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., is scheduled to speak in Iowa June 24, "a trip that is sure to fan speculation about his 2004 presidential ambitions," the Boston Herald reports.

• University of South Carolina President John Palms (D) announced yesterday that he will not seek the 2002 South Carolina Senate bid. Palms also said he would retire from USC in 2002, the Columbia State reports. The Greenville News has a copy of the letter Palms wrote to the university's Board of Trustees regarding his decision.
• "Other Democrats mentioned as potential candidates" for the seat currently held by retiring Sen. Strom Thurmond, R-S.C., are former U.S. Ambassador to Britain Phil Lader, Rep. Jim Clyburn, businessman Hayne Hipp and state Sen. Tom Moore, AP reports.
• "Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., said Monday he is moving ahead with plans for a 2002 re-election campaign, even though he acknowledged not being '100 percent' certain he would run for a second term," CongressDailyAM reports.
• Massachusetts state Sen. Stephen Lynch (D), "a former ironworker who defied the South Boston political organization to win his current job," announced that he will challenge Max Kennedy, son of Robert Kennedy, for the 9th District seat in 2002, CongressDailyAM reports.

• Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R) "took the unusual step of publicly denying a rumor that he is having an extramarital affair with" Cynthia Henderson, secretary of the Florida Department of Management Services, the Florida Times Union reports. "Bush supporters said yesterday they don't expect the rumor to affect Bush's political hopes."
• A fund-raising birthday party for Maryland Lt. Gov. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend (D) -- "held at the Potomac estate of her uncle and aunt, Sargent and Eunice Kennedy Shriver" -- "showed why she is such an intimidating candidate for would-be challengers," the Baltimore Sun reports. A similar even is planned for July 8 at the Baltimore Zoo.
• The Albany Times Union reports that New York Gov. George Pataki (R) "will probably face criticism from environmentalists on his efforts to cut air pollution should he seek re-election in 2002 as expected."
• Virginia gubernatorial hopeful "Wild Bill" Lockard "basically doesn't have squat, except some grand ideas," the Newport News Daily Press reports. He does have "a bunch of kids helping him campaign."

• New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani (R) traveled to Milwaukee Monday to learn more about the city's school voucher program, AP reports. He said a similar program "will eventually become policy in the nation's largest city--it's just a matter of when."
• "New York City is putting the final touches on its formal bid to hold the 2012 Olympic Games" in Queens, the Financial Review reports.