The Earlybird: Today's headlines

Moakley's funeral, Senate committee struggles, job numbers, McVeigh's potential delay, AIDS anniversary, VNS revamp, Max Kennedy's surprise, Bush daughters' citations:

• President Bush and former President Bill Clinton will be among the dignitaries attending Massachusetts Rep. Joe Moakley's (D) funeral today in South Boston, the Boston Herald reports. "Thousands of mourners" are expected to hold signs along the route from the church to the cemetery.
• Yesterday thousands of people -- "mostly ordinary people whose lives he had touched" -- paid their respects to Moakley's body in the State House Hall of Flags, Boston Globe reports.
• After a meeting with Bush on Thursday, Israeli President Moshe Katzav said "he was 'very, very satisfied' with U.S. involvement in the Middle East," Reuters reports. But Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon told Secretary of State Colin Powell that the United States should "do more to stop eight months of violence."
• Bush welcomed the Nebraska women's volleyball team, which won the NCAA title, to the White House on Thursday, AP reports.

• Republicans on Thursday "rejected a Democratic proposal for reorganizing the Senate" that would have given Democrats a one-seat majority on every committee, CNN.com reports.
• "A little-noticed provision in the sweeping tax cut approved by Congress last week gives the wealthy an even bigger break than advertised," Knight Ridder News Service reports. It would "eliminate limits on how much wealthy taxpayers could deduct from their income before calculating their taxes."
• Party-switching Sen. James Jeffords, I-Vt., said Thursday that he "will return campaign donations to Vermonters who request it," AP reports.
• House Majority Leader Dick Armey, R-Texas, sent a letter to congressional Republicans Thursday urging them "not to 'wring our hands' over Democrats regaining control of the Senate and to stick together as a team," the Washington Times reports.
• "Congress is poised to vote overwhelmingly in favor of extending a law seeking to curb foreign investment in Iran's and Libya's oil and natural gas sectors," Reuters reports.

• The Bureau of Labor Statistics' employment report for May will be released today, and "the message about the state of the U.S. job market will be tougher than usual to decipher as the government unveils a major overhaul of the numbers," Reuters reports.
• The labor report, as well as one on May manufacturing from the National Association of Purchasing Management, "will be closely watched not only by investors, but by Federal Reserve officials who will be deciding whether to cut interest rates for the sixth time in 2001," CNNfn.com reports.
• A report released Thursday by the Department of Education shows that "in the past few decades, the number of high school graduates who went straight to college rose among black and white students, but there have been no significant enrollment increases for their Hispanic counterparts," the Washington Times reports.
• A General Accounting Office study found that the Department of Defense "has issued many top secret security clearances to people with histories of drug, alcohol and financial problems and to others who have accumulated 'unexplained' wealth,'" USA Today reports.
• The State Department is expected to release a report today showing that "there are now 2 million to 3 million women and girls who have been snared by traffickers, or sold to them, and forced into prostitution," USA Today reports. The number has "soared" in the last decade.
• "The Immigration and Naturalization Service will start charging foreign scientists, athletes, corporate executives and other special workers an extra $1,000 to speed the processing of their temporary work visas," the New York Times reports.

• Bridgestone/Firestone Inc. on Thursday asked the Department of Transportation "to investigate the safety of Ford Motor Co.'s top-selling Explorer sport-utility vehicle," the Detroit News reports.
• The Greenville News reports that Michelin North America "is expected today to sign a new deal with Ford Motor Co." that "would enable customers to switch out the Firestone tires free for Michelins anywhere."

• Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh on Thursday filed a request asking a judge "to call off his execution so he could renew his appeals," the Oklahoman reports. "U.S. District Judge Richard Matsch scheduled a hearing in Denver for Wednesday -- just five days before McVeigh's scheduled execution."
• McVeigh's lawyer said McVeigh changed his mind about his execution because he "thinks the most important thing in his life is to help bring integrity to the criminal justice system," the Rocky Mountain News reports.
• Former FBI agent Robert Hanssen pleaded not guilty to 21 counts of spying on Thursday, AP reports.
• Federal prosecutors are expected to recommend to Attorney General John Ashcroft that he should indict Iranian officials "who played a role" in "the 1995 bombing of the U.S. Air Force barracks Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia," Ronald G. Shafer reports in his last Wall Street Journal "Washington Wire."

• AIDS was discovered 20 years ago this week, and "young gay and bisexual men, especially in the black community, are becoming infected with HIV at rates like these groups had when the AIDS epidemic peaked in the mid-1980s," Reuters reports.
• Nkosi Johnson, 12, a South African boy who "had been praised by Nelson Mandela as an icon in the struggle against HIV/Aids," died Friday, BBCNews.com reports.

• The members of Voter News Service "have decided to sustain the organization and revamp its operations" after last year's debacle, AP reports. "Likely changes include updating computer systems, improving statistical models and accounting better for absentee ballots and early-in-the-day voting."
• A review of the 2000 presidential election by the Washington Post "shows that the trouble in Florida can be traced less to machines than to people."
• Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., was "raising money" Thursday "in Austin for a leadership committee that could evolve into a 2004 Democratic presidential campaign," the Houston Chronicle reports.

• If Virginia Attorney General Mark Earley wins the Republican gubernatorial nomination at the state GOP convention this weekend as expected, "many say his first order of business must be to unite" the supporters of his opponent, Lt. Gov. John Hager, the Norfolk Virginian-Pilot reports.
• Earley's campaign passed out a "Survivor Guide" to "the more than 13,000 delegates pledged to him," reminding delegates about "President Reagan's 11th Commandment -- please do not say anything negative about another Republican," the Richmond Times-Dispatch reports.
• The lone Democratic gubernatorial candidate in Virginia, Mark Warner, announced his education program yesterday at Richmond Technical Center, saying that "every Virginia public school student to be exposed to vocational, career and technical training before the ninth grade," the Richmond Times-Dispatch reports.
• Reports released Thursday in New Jersey show that Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jim McGreevey "has spent more on his campaign... so far than the two Republican primary contenders" -- Jersey City Mayor Bret Schundler and former Rep. Bob Franks -- combined, the Newark Star-Ledger reports.
• The "real attention" at this weekend's Massachusetts state Democratic convention will focus on the "half-dozen top Democrats angling for the governor's office [who] will share the spotlight tomorrow before thousands of party faithful," the Boston Herald reports.
• After announcing his bid for governor this week, American Indian activist Russell Means said "he would challenge a new state law that prevents felons from holding office unless they have been pardoned," and that "he has no plans to request" a certificate permitting him to run despite his 1975 felony conviction, AP reports.
• The Los Angeles Times reports that Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan's (R) "conflicting signals" about a possible gubernatorial bid "reflect not just his ambivalence about running for governor, but also Riordan's struggle to maintain power as his eight years as mayor come to an end."
• An "associate" of Max Kennedy (D) said "that the would-be candidate was surprised to read in yesterday's Globe about concerns expressed to Massachusetts Democrats by" family members Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., and former Rep. Joe Kennedy, D-Mass., about his 9th District bid, the Boston Globe reports. The associate said Max Kennedy "is firmly committed to running for Congress this year."

• After the arrest of their mother, six Idaho children remained "holed up Thursday" inside "their home, which lacks power and running water, with several firearms and a pack of as many as 30 vicious dogs," the Idaho Statesman reports. "Those who know the family say the children were told by their mother that the outside world was out to get them."
• Maryland Gov. Parris Glendening (D) "granted a posthumous pardon Thursday to a black man hanged in 1919, saying the execution 'may well have been a miscarriage of justice,'" AP reports.

• Barbara and Jenna Bush were cited with "misdemeanor alcohol-related violations" yesterday, the Austin American-Statesman reports. Jenna "was ticketed for using someone else's driver's license to try to purchase a margarita," and Barbara was issued a ticket "on charges of being" a minor "in possession of alcohol."
• "The Justice Department has cleared" Rep. James Moran, D-Va., "of any wrongdoing in connection with his receiving a low-interest loan from health care lobbyist and friend Terry Lierman," the Washington Times reports. "In June 1999, Mr. Moran accepted a $25,000 loan at 8 percent interest from his longtime friend."
• Sean Conley, a 13-year-old Minnesota boy, "won the National Spelling Bee in Washington on Thursday," the St. Paul Pioneer Planet reports. He correctly spelled "succedaneum" in the 16th round to take home the trophy.