The Earlybird: Today's headlines

Bush's agenda, McVeigh's execution, Gephardt's positioning, Miller's committee bid and a rumored Cabinet resignation:

• President Bush will give a speech today in the Rose Garden on global warming policy, noting ways the United States can improve its ability to predict climate shifts, the New York Times reports. "Scientists and recent federal studies" have shown that in the past 10 years, "the United States has fallen significantly behind other countries in its ability to simulate and predict long-term shifts in climate."
• Bush plans today to "announce new programs to fund research on global warming and technologies to overcome it" but will also "reiterate his opposition to the Kyoto Protocol," USA Today reports.
• Tonight Bush leaves for a "whirlwind six-day, five-country trip" to Europe, the Houston Chronicle reports. He is expected to respond to European leaders' concerns over his positions on the environment and missile defense during the trip.
• Bush's trip "promises to be a major test of his powers of persuasion and the first glimpse of the strategy and style he will employ as he tries to calm European and Russian skepticism," CNN.com reports.
• "Thousands of Spaniards marched through central Madrid on Sunday" to protest Bush's visit, the Los Angeles Times reports. "A spokesman read a speech blasting Bush on globalization, embargoes against Iraq and Cuba, plans for a missile defense shield, the death penalty and a decision to reject the Kyoto global warming treaty."
• On Sunday, Bush attended "'An American Celebration' at Washington's historic Ford's Theater," where he "pledged his support for the arts," Reuters reports.

• Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh was executed this morning at a federal prison in Terre Haute, Ind., AP reports. McVeigh was pronounced dead at 8:14 a.m. EDT.
• On Sunday, the Supreme Court turned down a request to videotape the execution, AP reports. "The request, which had no bearing on McVeigh's case, had come from lawyers for a Pennsylvania man who could face the same method of execution."
• McVeigh's execution means "the U.S. government is back in the death business, the Chicago Tribune reports. The execution was the first for the federal government since 1963, but "the next federal execution is scheduled just eight days after McVeigh's."
• "Protesters on both sides of the death-penalty debate gathered in area parks after nightfall" on Sunday, "preparing to participate in a prison-grounds vigil in the hours leading up to the execution," the Houston Chronicle reports.
• McVeigh spent Sunday "writing goodbye letters in the holding cell of the execution facility," the Oklahoman reports.
• And while McVeigh may now be gone, "suspicions that there was at least one other accomplice to the Oklahoma City bombing still won't die," Salon reports.

• "His aides deny it, but tipsters say that Education Secretary Rod Paige, miffed at the White House for limiting his involvement in crafting the education bill, plans to resign after the bill gets OK'd by Congress," U.S. News and World Report's "Washington Whispers" reports.
• Bush "plans to nominate Patrick Francis Kennedy to be the U.S. representative to the United Nations for U.N. management and reform" and "Josefina Carbonell to be assistant secretary of health and human services for aging," the Washington Post reports.

• "The Bush administration will not exempt California from a rule requiring that gasoline contain clean-burning additives such as corn-based ethanol," AP reports.
• Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., said Sunday that "he favored a bill requiring the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to regulate and possibly cut electricity prices in California," Reuters reports.
• CNN.com reports that "major U.S. utility companies... will launch a multimillion-dollar advertising campaign this week to fight federal caps on electricity prices in California."

• House Minority Leader Dick Gephardt, D-Mo., was in New Hampshire over the weekend, where he called himself "a Jim Jeffords kind of Democrat," the Manchester Union Leader reports.
• On Sunday, the Washington Post reported Gephardt is "seeking to position himself as the Democratic Party's chief critic of Bush administration policies" as he explores a 2004 White House bid.
• Associates of former Vice President Al Gore say his wife, Tipper, "is dead set against a 2004 run," U.S. News and World Report's "Washington Whispers" reports.

• CIA Director George Tenet met separately yesterday "with key Israeli and Palestinian officials to get their response to his blueprint for halting nine months of bloodshed," the Baltimore Sun reports. "While Israelis generally accepted the plan, Palestinians objected to the part that held the most appeal for Israel: a call for the arrests of up to 30 terror suspects."
• "Minutes before a Monday deadline by Muslim extremists to behead an American captive, the Philippine government dropped its objection to bringing in a Malaysian negotiator in an effort to end a 2-week-old hostage crisis," AP reports.
• The United States and China have "reached agreement on a variety of sensitive trade-liberalization issues, removing one of the last stubborn obstacles to China's membership in the World Trade Organization," the Wall Street Journal reports.
• The Macedonian army "resumed shelling rebel-held villages in the north of the country" on Monday, BBCNews.com reports.

• "In a move that could foil any potential Democratic attempts to block President Bush's judicial nominations, Sen. Zell Miller, D-Ga., is jockeying for the extra seat that is likely to open on the Judiciary Committee in the wake of the chamber's power shift," Roll Call reports.
• Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., is lobbying members of the Congressional Black Caucus and the Hispanic Caucus to support his campaign finance reform bill, Roll Call reports. "The House is expected to take up campaign reform when Members return from their July 4 break."
• White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card said on "Fox News Sunday" that Bush "will veto a bipartisan patients' bill of rights backed by the Democratic leadership," the Washington Times reports.
• "House Democrats do not plan any disciplinary action against Democratic Rep. Pete Stark of California, who has accused Republican Conference Chairman J.C. Watts Jr. of Oklahoma of fathering all his children out of wedlock," the Washington Times reports.

• The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports that there are five Wisconsin "elected officials [who] are running for governor or thinking of doing so": Attorney General Jim Doyle, Reps. Tom Barrett and Ron Kind, state Sen. Gary George and Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk. All were at this weekend's Democratic convention in Madison.
• Tuesday marks Virginia's Democratic primary, in which "the turnout is expected to be so low that some precincts might go all day without a voter," the Richmond Times-Dispatch reports. Gubernatorial candidate Mark Warner (D) is running unopposed for his party's nod in the 2001 race.
• The Newark Star-Ledger reports on a new issue in the GOP gubernatorial primary: urban sprawl. Former Rep. Bob Franks and Jersey City Mayor Bret Schundler "both agree that haphazard development is eroding the quality of life. But they disagree sharply on the best way to rein it in."
• Although Massachusetts acting Gov. Jane Swift (R) "has not officially announced plans to run in next year's election," she "has purchased a Web site name to use for her campaign," AP reports.

• A Boston Globe poll released over the weekend shows Max Kennedy "locked in a dead heat with" Democratic state Sens. Stephen Lynch and Brian Joyce in the special election to fill Massachusetts' 9th District congressional seat.
• And a Boston Sunday Herald poll shows Lynch leading Kennedy by seven points.
• House Republicans have reserved "a key position" vacancy on the Armed Services Committee for state Sen. Randy Forbes (R), who is running in Virginia's 4th District special election this month, Roll Call reports.
• "The presumptive frontrunner" in a special election to replace Rep. Steve Largent, R-Okla., is state first lady Cathy Keating (R). Keating "was traveling in Washington last week to raise money and meet with party leaders and reporters about her campaign," Roll Call reports. Largent has said he will resign to run for governor, but "it's unclear when the special election will be held."
• A spokesman for Rep. Bobby Etheridge, R-N.C., said that the three-term congressman is "more likely than not" to challenge Sen. Jesse Helms, R-N.C., in 2002, Roll Call reports.
• The Providence Journal-Bulletin reports that Republican Michael J. Battles last week announced his candidacy to challenge Rep. Patrick Kennedy, D-R.I.
• The first President Bush showed up Sunday night at a fundraiser for Rep. John Sununu, R-N.H., who is considering a Senate bid. Bush told guests "he wasn't worried too much about which post Sununu runs for," the Manchester Union Leader reports.

• At least 17 people have died in the flooding that hit Houston over the weekend, the Houston Chronicle reports. "Mayor Lee Brown called for a 'day of recovery' today, urging public and private employers to give their workers the day off to clean up from the storm."
• "An early morning earthquake" hit Seattle Sunday morning, which caused "little damage, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reports. No aftershocks were expected.
• California and Montana "share some bonds and blunders when it comes to electricity," the Sacramento Bee reports. Montana residential "customers now face rate increases of 50 percent or more" and more than 1,000 workers have been laid off.