The Earlybird: Today's headlines

Bush in Warsaw, controversy over Kyoto, education action, Indian sanctions, Vieques fallout, would-be governors and the Levys' missing daughter:

• President Bush met with Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski Friday morning, AP reports. During the meeting, Bush "announced that the United States had begun the process of transferring a second frigate to the Polish navy, and expressed support for Poland to gain membership in the European Union."
• Bush will give a major policy speech at the Warsaw University Library later today, where he will declare that both NATO and the European Union should expand, CNN.com reports.
• On Thursday Bush "stood firm on his rejection" of the Kyoto global warming treaty, and he asked European leaders during a summit with the European Union "why their own countries have not ratified the pact," the Washington Times reports.
• "Leaders of the European Union split deeply with President Bush over his opposition to the Kyoto global warming treaty Thursday, agreeing in their first meeting to do little more than open new channels of discussion," the Dallas Morning News reports.
• European leaders said "they would move to implement the Kyoto climate treaty without the United States," the Washington Post reports.
• EMediaMillWorks has a transcript of Bush's press conference Thursday with European Union President Romano Prodi and Swedish Prime Minister Gorean Persson.
• On Saturday Bush will meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin, the Wall Street Journal reports. "Russia says it wants to talk about cooperating against international terrorism, U.S. plans to deploy a missile-defense shield, and Russian proposals for deep cuts in the countries' nuclear weapons arsenals."
• The meeting between Bush and Putin "represents a break from the Soviet-American supersummits of the Cold War and from the highly charged meetings between the two presidents of the first post-Cold War decade: Bill Clinton and Boris Yeltsin," the Chicago Tribune reports.

• Bush said Thursday that "his decision to pull the Navy out of the island of Vieques was a simple matter of Puerto Ricans not wanting the military there," the Orlando Sentinel reports. "Angry" congressional Republicans "said the matter was a complicated political move to woo Hispanic voters."
• And "Democratic members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus are angry that the Bush administration never consulted them and that the decision does not call for an immediate end to U.S. training on the island," CNN.com reports.
• "Sen. John Warner, R-Va., the ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said Thursday he told the secretary of the Navy and the deputy defense secretary that if they intend to move ahead with the plan to abandon the practice range they need to ask Congress to overturn a law requiring the referendum scheduled for this November," UPI reports.
• The Navy is now looking for a new site where they can conduct the bombing exercises, AP reports.
• A federal appeals court in Boston on Thursday "upheld the convictions and sentences of the Rev. Al Sharpton and three New York politicians who were arrested during a demonstration against Navy bombing exercises" on Vieques Island, AP reports.

• Bush will announce plans to overhaul Medicare "soon," the Wall Street Journal reports. Bush "will push for sweeping changes that would vastly expand the private sector's role in providing health-insurance coverage for the elderly and disabled."
• The Bush administration has changed the name of the Health Care Financing Administration to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the New York Times reports.

• By a 91-8 vote, the Senate approved the S.1 education bill on Thursday, the Dallas Morning News reports. "The centerpiece of the legislation, as passed by both chambers, is a requirement that states annually test all students in reading and math in grades three through eight."
• The Senate also approved an amendment to the bill from Sen. Jesse Helms, R-N.C., "that could cut funding to schools that ban the Boy Scouts from their buildings because the organization excludes homosexuals," the Raleigh News and Observer reports.

• Congressional financial disclosure forms were released yesterday. AP reports that among the revelations are the news that Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., "still keeps much of his money in checking accounts" and that "several of the Senate's freshmen came to Washington with personal wealth ranking right up there with the Kennedys'."
• Sen. Patrick J. Leahy, D-Vt., said Thursday that "the FBI internal security safeguards will be a major focus of pending committee hearings" in the Judiciary Committee, the Washington Times reports.
• The Senate Judiciary Committee asked the Justice Department Thursday to investigate "the source of leaks to news organizations about the department's criminal investigation of" Sen. Robert G. Torricelli, D-N.J., the New York Times reports.
• "House Republicans rejected a Democratic effort Thursday to impose federal price caps on electricity prices in the Western United States amid an intensifying partisan divide over energy," AP reports.

• The Bush administration "has decided to lift sanctions imposed on India after its May 1998 nuclear tests," Knight Ridder News Service reports.
• Israeli and Palestinian security chiefs will hold talks today "to evaluate the first 24 hours of a cease-fire agreement," during which "at least three people were killed Thursday," CNN.com reports.
• "America's Catholic bishops, seeking to intensify their calls for peace in the Middle East, are expected to approve a statement today that blames both Israel and the Palestinians for the violence but is particularly critical of Israel," the Boston Globe reports.
• The company that the Navy has chosen to bring the spy plane home from China "is suspected of assisting arms sales to former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic," AP reports.
• Macedonia asked NATO on Thursday "to send troops to help it disarm ethnic Albanian rebels," the New York Times reports.
• The Leaning Tower of Pisa will reopen this weekend after being closed for 11 years "because of fears it might collapse," the Boston Globe reports.

• "An Idaho prosecutor said Thursday he won't pursue a manslaughter charge against the FBI sniper who shot and killed the wife of white separatist Randy Weaver at Ruby Ridge," AP reports.
• Justice Department sources said Thursday that the Justice Department will not "seek the death penalty for accused spy Robert P. Hanssen if Hanssen cooperates with prosecutors," the Washington Post reports.
• Ohio death row inmate Jay D. Scott, "who twice escaped execution when the courts intervened at the last minute," was executed Thursday night, the Columbus Dispatch reports.
• Juanita Yvette Lozano, a former employee of Bush's media adviser, "pleaded guilty Thursday to mail fraud and perjury, accepting responsibility for stealing and mailing debate preparation materials to the Al Gore presidential campaign, then lying about it to a grand jury," the Dallas Morning News reports. Lozano "faces up to 10 years in prison and $500,000 in fines when she is sentenced Aug. 17."
• Today, former Minnesota Sen. Rod Grams' (R) wife, "Christine Gunhus, will plead no-contest in Anoka County District Court to a misdemeanor charge that she helped distribute" e-mails "attacking Minneapolis attorney Mike Ciresi," who was running for the Democratic bid at the time, the St. Paul Pioneer Press reports.

• Former New Jersey Rep. Bob Franks' (R) "attacks were far more pointed than in last week's more subdued first debate" when he squared off with Jersey City Mayor Bret Schundler (R) Thursday night in their first televised debate, the Newark Star-Ledger reports.
• The Trenton Times reports that "internal polls" show "an increasingly close Republican gubernatorial primary race."
• The New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission said Thursday "that it needed more time to consider a dispute over television ads featuring" Schundler "that were paid for by a nonprofit educational association he controls," the New York Times reports. "A ruling against" Schundler "would be devastating, effectively shutting down his campaign spending during the final heated days" of the June 26 primary.

• The "Republican National Committee has hired veteran political consultant Randy Enwright to keep an eye on Florida" in what many expect to be a tougher-than-expected re-election bid for Gov. Jeb Bush (R), AP reports.
• Tennessee state Sen. Tommy Haun (R) said Thursday he is considering entering the GOP gubernatorial primary, the Nashville Tennessean reports.
• Former Nashville mayor Phil Bredesen (D) has named Dave Cooley, "his former campaign strategist and member of his mayoral office, to lead his campaign for governor," the Nashville Tennessean reports.
• South Carolina Lt. Gov. Bob Peeler (R) said Thursday his gubernatorial "campaign has chairmen in each of the state's 46 counties," the Greenville News reports.
• Tulsa, Okla., attorney Gary Richardson said Thursday he would run as an independent in the 2002 governor's race, the Oklahoman reports. "He will announce formally July 4."
• Wisconsin state Sen. Gary George (D), who is running for governor, "is spending about $35,000 to run 30-second spots in every TV market through today, when the state Democratic Party convention begins," AP reports.
• "Oregon Supreme Court Justice Ted Kulongoski said Thursday night that he will resign so he can run for governor" as a Democrat next year, AP reports.

• St. Paul, Minn., Mayor Norm Coleman (R) yesterday "filed a 'statement of candidacy' with the secretary of the U.S. Senate and announced he would tour the state" as he gears up to challenge Sen. Paul Wellstone, D-Minn., AP reports.
• "Montana Democrats say the television ads running statewide praising Sen. Max Baucus, [D-Mont.], for his role in the congressional tax cut debate are 'issue-advocacy' ads, not early campaign ads for candidate Baucus," AP reports.
• Boston Mayor Thomas Menino (D) "may turn his powerful Hub organization loose for South Boston state Sen. Stephen F. Lynch's [D] congressional run" in the 9th District, the Boston Herald reports.

• Robert and Susan Levy, parents of missing intern Chandra Levy, "claim" that Rep. Gary Condit, D-Calif., "was romantically involved with their daughter when she disappeared, despite his denial," USA Today reports.
• The New York Daily News reports that Levy's parents called on Condit "to publicly explain his relationship with their daughter and reveal any information he might have about her disappearance."