The Earlybird: Today's headlines

Jeffords watch, Dalai Lama meeting, tax bill delays, Israeli call for peace, California lawsuit, potential Forbes Senate bid, Florida drought, Denise Rich immunity:

• Sen. James Jeffords, R-Vt., "said he would announce his plans this afternoon in Washington" regarding a party switch, the Burlington Free Press reports. "Several news organizations, quoting anonymous sources, said Jeffords would switch. However, an aide to Jeffords said Tuesday night the senator was still mulling over his decision."
• President Bush on Tuesday "urged Jeffords to remain a Republican but the senator refused to commit either way," the Houston Chronicle reports. "White House officials met Tuesday night to discuss strategy for how to keep Jeffords in the GOP fold and for how to handle the political fallout if he does leave the party."
• If Jeffords switched parties, it would give "control of the Senate to Democrats" and would wreak "havoc with the conservative elements of President Bush's agenda," the Boston Globe reports.

• Bush will meet with the Dalai Lama today, the Reuters reports. The exiled Tibetan leader is expected to "ask Bush to help him initiate a dialogue with China."
• Yesterday the Dalai Lama met with Secretary of State Colin Powell, and China accused "the U.S. of 'rude interference' in its affairs," BBCNews.com reports.

• Vice President Dick Cheney spoke at the Nuclear Energy Institute's annual conference in Washington yesterday, where he "called for a cessation of the emotionalism that for decades has plagued the debate over nuclear power, which he vowed will supply a much greater share of America's electricity in the future," the Washington Times reports.
• Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham will testify at a Senate Energy Committee hearing today "to promote the Bush administration's national energy plan," Reuters reports. Abraham will talk about the ways "the White House plans to boost domestic energy supplies, improve natural gas pipelines and electricity transmission lines, and adopt conservation measures."
• Powell today begins a "four-country visit" to Africa, where he will "focus on health issues, especially AIDS," AP reports.
• Attorney General John Ashcroft has written a letter to the National Rifle Association in which he "reasserted his belief that the Constitution guarantees people the right to own guns," AP reports.
• Bush spoke at "a black tie gala Tuesday night" for the Republican National Committee at the National Guard Armory "that raised $23.9 million for the GOP," AP reports.

• Senate Democrats on Tuesday forced "vote after vote on amendments Tuesday to delay final passage of the 11-year, $1.35 trillion tax cut," FoxNews.com reports. "The votes were continuing into the evening Tuesday, with the timing of final passage up in the air."
• The House on Tuesday "turned back an attempt to strip" Bush's plan "for annual math and reading tests for millions of elementary and junior high schoolers" from the education bill, AP reports.
• Congress approved a bill Tuesday that "orders construction to begin" on the World War II memorial "without further review," USA Today reports. The legislation "is expected to be signed by President Bush by the end of the week."
• "The White House, ending months of delays, soon will send Congress a pact normalizing U.S. trade relations with its old enemy, Vietnam," the Wall Street Journal reports.
• "Senate Republicans delayed confirmation hearings Tuesday for three of President Bush's first federal appeals court nominees after Democrats complained that the process was moving too quickly," AP reports.
• Sen. Jon Corzine, D-N.J., and Rep. Gary Ackerman, D-N.Y., each introduced legislation Tuesday that would restrict the "use of hand-held cell phones while driving," CBSNews.com reports.

• Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon yesterday called for a cease-fire with Palestinians and "ordered Israeli troops not to fire except in life-threatening situations," the Baltimore Sun reports.
• But Palestinians "dismissed Israel's announcement of a unilateral truce as a public relations ploy, saying calm cannot be restored until Israel halts construction in Jewish settlements and lifts sweeping travel restrictions on Palestinians," AP reports.

• A "former CIA official" told UPI Tuesday that "new evidence indicates that the organization of Saudi exile terrorist, Osama bin Laden, used experts from the Lebanon-based terrorist organization Hezbollah, to build the huge bomb that badly damaged the U.S.S. Cole in Yemen last October, killing 12 Americans."
• "Almost 130 nations" -- including the United States -- "formally agreed yesterday to a UN treaty to ban or minimize use of a 'dirty dozen' toxic chemicals blamed for causing cancers and birth defects in people and animals," Reuters reports.

• "A U.S. appeals court gave the tobacco industry a pair of victories yesterday, dismissing separate lawsuits by foreign governments and by several union health funds alleging fraud and racketeering violations and seeking to recover smoking-related health-care costs," Reuters reports.
• California's Democratic legislative leaders on Tuesday filed a federal lawsuit "seeking to force the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to limit wholesale power prices on the grounds that failure to do so threatens health, safety and drinking water supplies in the nation's most populous state," the New York Times reports.
• Justice Department lawyers this week will file papers "offering a detailed description of FBI documents belatedly discovered in the Oklahoma City bombing case, part of an unusual strategy to preempt lawyers for convicted bomber Timothy McVeigh," the Washington Post reports.

• New Jersey GOP gubernatorial candidates Bret Schundler and Bob Franks "engaged in their first debate yesterday, a talk radio encounter that swiftly turned into dueling accusations about taxes and who raised them," the Newark Star-Ledger reports. "Behind the barbs was a clear desire by both candidates to emerge as the fiscal conservative."
• Schundler yesterday faulted Franks "for failing to disclose to state regulators his own involvement in" the Republican Leadership Council, a group that released an ad supporting the former representative, the Newark Star-Ledger reports.

• The Washington Post reports that with the speculation of former Attorney General Janet Reno (D) challenging Gov. Jeb Bush (R) in 2002, "everyone agrees on one thing: A Bush-Reno race would be exciting, intriguing, expensive and nasty."
• U.S. Ambassador to Vietnam Pete Peterson (D) "will return to Tallahassee in late July to begin the 'exploratory' phase" of a Florida gubernatorial campaign, the Tallahassee Democrat reports.
• Pennsylvania Auditor General Robert P. Casey Jr. (D) "has sewn up the support of much of organized labor" for his 2002 gubernatorial bid, the Philadelphia Inquirer reports. "This is unusually early for labor to choose sides in a contested Democratic primary, but union leaders say uniting behind one candidate is the party's best chance of ending a decade of Republican domination in statewide races."
• Iowa GOP state Sens. Jeff Lamberti and Steve King both "withdrew their names Tuesday from the 2002 race for governor," leaving state Rep. Steve Sukup and former educator Bob Vander Plaats "in the Republican field," the Des Moines Register reports.

• Two-time presidential candidate Steve Forbes (R) "said he hasn't 'closed the door on running for the Senate in New Jersey,'" AP reports.
• Former Arkansas state Rep. Jim Hendren (R) "jumped back into the race to replace his uncle," Rep. Asa Hutchinson, R-Ark., CongressDailyAM reports. "Hendren apologized to fellow candidates for his off-again, on-again campaign."

• "Laurance S. Rockefeller, the conservationist and scion of one of the nation's most famous industrial families, plans to donate his 1,106-acre ranch in Jackson, Wyo., to the Interior Department for inclusion in Grand Teton National Park," the New York Times reports.
• The Illinois state House and Senate have both approved a new congressional map in which "Chicago area Democrats are retaining six" seats while the districts of freshman Rep. Tim Johnson (R) and second-term Rep. David Phelps (D) will be condensed, the Chicago Sun-Times reports.
• The Richmond Times-Dispatch has a list of public hearings to be held before the "July 9 congressional redistricting session" is held in the Virginia General Assembly.
• In Florida, the "rain expected in coming weeks will do little to ease the drought now plaguing the state for a fourth straight year," the Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel reports.
• "The Missouri Supreme Court granted a late request to temporarily halt the execution of Samuel D. Smith, a twice-convicted murderer sentenced to die for killing a fellow prison inmate during a knife fight," AP reports.
• And an Oklahoma "man who strangled his partner in crime in the Muskogee County Jail" was executed last night, the Tulsa World reports.
• Vermont Republicans "this week are trying to repeal the law allowing" civil unions for gay couples, AP reports.

• The Justice Department has approved a congressional move to grant immunity to Denise Rich so she can "testify publicly about the campaign to win a presidential pardon for ex-husband Marc Rich," the New York Daily News reports.