The Earlybird: Today's headlines

Bush signs tax cut, Senate still negotiating, McVeigh denied stay, Bush opens talks with North Korea, Brits vote today, Talent plans run, Levy-Condit story continues:

• Today President Bush will sign the $1.35 trillion tax cut bill into law during a formal signing ceremony on the South Lawn of the White House, Reuters reports. "Under a provision of the bill Bush said would give the U.S. economy 'an important boost,' the government will send some 95 million refund checks to taxpayers this year."
• Bush was in Bedford, Va., on Wednesday to dedicate the National D-Day Memorial, the Roanoke Times reports. "Bush, who is shortly to leave this country on a foreign mission to Europe, touched on strong American-European relations during his keynote address."
• The dedication "drew legions of international guests and dignitaries," the Lynchburg News and Advance reports.
• The National Academy of Sciences released a report Wednesday showing "that global warming was a real problem and was getting worse," the New York Times reports. "The report was requested by the White House last month in anticipation of an international meeting on global warming in Bonn in July," and its conclusions "may lead" Bush "to change his stand on the issue as he heads next week to Europe."

• Sen. Tom Daschle, D-S.D., the new Senate majority leader, told the Senate Wednesday that the switch of power to the Democrats "was 'a humbling moment' for him," and Senate Democrats "pledged to work in a bipartisan spirit as long as Republicans respond in kind," the Dallas Morning News reports.
• "Off the Senate floor, closed-door negotiations continued between Daschle and Republican senators over... how committees will be recreated under the new Democratic majority," USA Today reports. "Negotiators appeared to be moving instead toward a publicly stated promise from Daschle, read into the Congressional Record," that Bush's judicial nominees "would get a fair hearing."
• "Stung by the overwhelming press attention given to the GOP's loss of the Senate, House Republican leaders are planning a long-term public-relations offensive outside the Beltway to play up the passage of the $1.35 trillion tax-cut bill," Roll Call reports.
• House Republican leaders said Wednesday that "they will push legislation this year to make permanent the bulk of the $1.35 trillion tax cut," AP reports. "Most provisions of the bill are set to expire at the end of 2010."
• Texas Sen. Phil Gramm (R) "is trying to tamp down speculation that he's ready to leave Congress" after speculation yesterday that Gramm would take over as president of Texas A&M University, ABCNews.com reports.
• "The Senate Judiciary Committee yesterday opened its first hearings on the Bush administration's faith-based initiative, with partisan differences showing up the first day of Democratic control," the Washington Times reports.
• Rep. Charlie Norwood, R-Ga., could announce as early as today "that he is backing a bipartisan plan" for HMO reform "being launched by the newly Democratic Senate," AP reports.

• A federal judge in Denver ruled Wednesday that Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh's execution -- set for Monday -- should not be delayed because of new evidence that surfaced recently, the Denver Post reports. The judge said it was "clear that Timothy McVeigh committed murder and mayhem as charged."
• McVeigh's attorneys "said they will now seek a stay from an appeals court," the Oklahoman reports.
• The Justice Department released a study Wednesday showing "no evidence that the federal capital punishment system is marred by racial or ethnic bias," the Dallas Morning News reports.

• The Center for Reproductive Law and Policy, an abortion-rights group, sued the Bush administration Wednesday "to challenge its rule denying federal funds to foreign family planning or health organizations that perform or advocate abortions," the New York Times reports.
• A Los Angeles jury on Wednesday held tobacco company Philip Morris liable for $3 billion in a lawsuit brought by "a longtime smoker with lung cancer," USA Today reports.

• "After extensive deliberations, the Bush administration is ready to open security talks with North Korea, to focus on Pyongyang's missile program as well as its deployment of a 'huge army' near South Korea's border," AP reports.
• Chinese and U.S. negotiators on Wednesday "agreed on the details for dismantling and flying home a crippled U.S. spy plane," but it has not yet been decided when the plane will be brought back to the United States, AP reports. "Beijing expressed hope that ties with Washington... could now improve."
• "U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick said on Thursday he hoped China can join the World Trade Organization by the end of this year," Reuters reports.

• "A narrowing of the opinion-poll gap between Prime Minister Tony Blair's Labor Party and the struggling Conservatives on Wednesday sharpened the last hours of combat for the votes of Britain's electorate," AP reports.
• "Macedonia threatened to declare a state of war" on Wednesday "after five government soldiers were killed and six soldiers and police officers wounded in one of the deadliest attacks by ethnic Albanian rebels in weeks," the New York Times reports.
• Legislators in Russia voted Wednesday to allow the country "to import an estimated 22,000 tons of spent nuclear fuel from nations eager to get rid of their toxic waste," the Chicago Tribune reports. Environmentalists were opposed to the legislation.
• "The brother of Nepal's murdered queen broke the royal palace's code of silence yesterday, saying reports are true that his nephew, Crown Prince Dipendra, massacred nine members of the royal family in a drunken rage before turning a gun on himself Friday," the Boston Globe reports.
• "Israel has barred dozens of Palestinian-Americans from leaving the country" since Friday's bombing of a Tel Aviv nightclub, AP reports.

• St. Paul, Minn., Mayor Norm Coleman (R), "a likely" 2002 Senate candidate, held "a City Hall news conference brimming with campaign overtones" yesterday, "highlighted his role Wednesday in President Bush's decision to investigate steel trade," AP reports.
• Former Rep. Jim Talent, R-Mo., "has privately told Republicans that he will run for Senate in 2002" against Sen. Jean Carnahan, D-Mo., Roll Call reports.
• The Republican National Committee has made "an unprecedented commitment by a national party" to a special election by pledging $500,000 into the June 19 contest in Virginia's 4th District, Roll Call reports.
• Rep. Jim Leach, R-Iowa, "ruled out the possibility of a Republican primary between himself and" Rep. Jim Nussle, R-Iowa, "if the two men wind up in the same eastern Iowa congressional district," the Des Moines Register reports.

• Virginia gubernatorial candidate Mark Earley (R) has decided to return a $47,000 gift to "his second-largest contributor," who "had business ties to a pornographic Web site," the Richmond Times-Dispatch reports.
• Arkansas Democrats said Wednesday that state Sen. Jon Fitch (D) is running for governor, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reports. Fitch "said he wouldn't be making a formal announcement until mid-July."

• Arizona Gov. Jane Hull (R) released television and radio ads yesterday calling on Arizonans "to turn up thermostats and take other simple steps" toward conserving energy, the Arizona Republic reports.
• "More than 10,000 businesses and government bodies" in California are "asking state regulators to exempt them from rolling blackouts" this summer, the Sacramento Bee reports.
• San Francisco is putting in a bid to host the 2012 Summer Olympics, the Contra Costa Times reports.

• Law enforcement sources said that missing intern Chandra Levy has spent the night at California Rep. Gary Condit's (D) Washington apartment, the Washington Post reports. And Levy "told a close relative that she was romantically involved with the congressman."
• Sen. Robert Torricelli, D-N.J., "asked the Justice Department Wednesday to appoint a special counsel to take over the criminal investigation of his campaign activities," CNN.com reports. A letter sent by his office "referred to what it described as a pattern of leaks about the investigation, resulting in 'personal and political damage.'"
• The New York Post reports that Rep. Nydia Velazquez, D-N.Y., "grabbed free tickets to last month's Felix Trinidad title fight at Madison Square Garden from promoter Don King -- possibly violating congressional rules on receiving gifts."