The Earlybird: Today's headlines

Energy arguments, Mideast peace, patients' rights vote, Microsoft ruling, DiFrancesco's grudge, Reno's platform, Riordan's summer travels, Gingrich's legacy:

• President Bush sent Congress his plan for a national energy policy on Thursday, the Dallas Morning News reports. "House Republican leaders are preparing to consider energy legislation after the Fourth of July recess. But Democrats who have just gained control of the Senate are in no hurry."
• Bush is trying to change the focus of his plan "away from drilling in Alaska and toward the slaying of 'vampire' appliances that unnecessarily drain electricity," the Washington Times reports.
• Bush said he will "lead the nation by example and cut electricity use at the White House," the Washington Post reports.
• The House voted 265-157 Thursday to ban shoreline drilling around the Great Lakes as part of a $23.7 billion energy and water spending bill, the Minneapolis Star-Tribune reports.
• Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said during a speech Thursday that "while energy price fluctuations can have a noticeable impact on the nation's short-term economic prospects, the long-term effects must also be taken into account," UPI reports.
• Christian Coalition founder Pat Robertson said during a news conference Thursday with Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., that unnamed oil companies were "trying to block him from reopening a small refinery near Los Angeles, and said he is considering an antitrust lawsuit," AP reports.

• Tensions between the Bush administration and the Muslim community "escalated" Thursday after "a group of Muslim leaders walked out of a White House meeting... angered when a Secret Service officer ordered one of them out of the building," AP reports. "The Secret Service and a White House official later apologized."
• Bush also met with the leaders of three West African democracies at the White House Thursday, the Washington Post reports. They discussed "Bush's interest in and commitment to the spread of democracy in all of Africa."

• "Secretary of State Colin L. Powell yesterday announced that Israel and the Palestinians had agreed on a timetable for moving toward peace negotiations and that the United States supported sending outside observers to monitor their actions -- which Israel opposes," Knight Ridder News Service reports. Later Powell said that "any observer mission... would have to be approved by both sides."
• The plan will "begin with one week of calm and then move forward with a six-week cooling-off period," the Boston Globe reports.
• Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat said during a meeting with the foreign press yesterday that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon "was 'definitely' a potential peacemaking partner," the New York Times reports. Arafat also "refused to be drawn into any criticism of the Israeli leader or the new American administration."

• The Senate is expected to approve patients' rights legislation today, the Boston Globe reports. However, some legislators who are opposed to the bill may "offer more weakening amendments, although most have failed so far."
• The House Judiciary Committee approved Bush's faith-based initiatives plan Thursday in a 20-5 vote, the Washington Times reports.
• The House Administration Committee sent the Shays-Meehan campaign finance reform bill to the House floor on Thursday, but the committee gave the legislation an "unfavorable" report, AP reports. The committee "sent legislation that the House GOP leadership favors to the floor with a favorable report."
• Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld asked Congress Thursday "to begin the contentious process of closing excess military bases," the New York Times reports.
• The House approved legislation Thursday that would require "candy bars and other chocolate products [to] carry labels assuring that no slave labor was used to harvest the cocoa beans used to make them," the Philadelphia Inquirer reports.

• On Thursday a federal appeals court "threw out the Microsoft breakup... but affirmed the company's status as an antitrust outlaw, issuing a landmark ruling that left founder Bill Gates talking of a legal settlement," the Seattle Times reports.
• "The case will now return to the U.S. District Court, where the new proceedings could take months," the Washington Post reports.
• "Microsoft competitors seemed perplexed at initial television and Web reports indicating a sweeping victory for the software giant that threw out the breakup order and two of the three lower court findings of liability," the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reports.
• The appeals court said Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson had "committed 'serious judicial misconduct' in giving the appearance in public statements that he was biased against Microsoft," the Washington Times reports.
• Bush won't take any action on the case until the Justice Department analyzes the decision, AP reports.

• The court ruled that "the government could not indefinitely detain aliens who are awaiting deportation just because no other country is willing to accept them," the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reports. Nearly 3,000 people could be freed.
• The court "struck down Massachusetts' ban on tobacco advertising near schools, parks, and playgrounds, ruling that state regulations aimed at preventing youth smoking went beyond federal law and violated the free-speech rights of tobacco companies," the Boston Globe reports.
• The court also ruled on the side of a Rhode Island landowner, saying that "the state could not put 'an expiration date' on landowners' rights to be compensated when regulations block development," the Washington Times reports.
• Thursday's decisions wrapped up this term of the Supreme Court, USA Today reports.
• About 500 people "began a four-day fast and vigil in front of the U.S. Supreme Court midnight Thursday that is expected to continue through Sunday," the Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel reports. "The eighth annual 'Starvin' for Justice' commemorates two key anniversaries in America's uncomfortable relationship with capital punishment."

• Attorney General John Ashcroft said Thursday that the Justice Department will begin destroying the records of gun purchasers' instant criminal background checks after one day instead of the current 90 days, the Dallas Morning News reports.
• France is preparing to extradite James Charles Kopp, an American who is accused of killing an abortion doctor in 1998, to the United States, AP reports. The French government approved an extradition order on Thursday.

• A Food and Drug Administration panel said Thursday that blood donations from anyone who has spent considerable time anywhere in Europe should be limited because of the fear of mad cow disease, USA Today reports.
• Surgeon General David Satcher released a study Thursday that "highlights abstinence education as the key to promoting responsible sexual behavior," the Boston Globe reports.
• The United American Nurses, the bargaining arm of the American Nursing Association, voted Thursday to join with the AFL-CIO, AP reports. AFL-CIO President John Sweeney "said the vote paves the way for a strong alliance that can better cope with an array of problems."

• Former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic was handed over to the United Nations War Crimes Tribunal at The Hague in the Netherlands on Friday for his war crimes trial, the Baltimore Sun reports.
• On Thursday Macedonia "praised U.S. efforts to choke off funds to ethnic Albanian rebels" and appealed "to European nations to follow the same path," AP reports.
• "The United States warned Afghanistan's ruling Taliban movement on Friday they would bear responsibility for any attack on U.S. interests by Saudi militant Osama bin Laden," Reuters reports.
• Russian news agencies reported Friday that Russian Colonel-General Leonid Ivashov said his country "is open to changes to the 1972 ABM treaty," Reuters reports.
• Fidel Castro said Thursday that his brother, Raul, is likely to replace him as Cuba's leader one day, AP reports.

• National Republicans "say they have their work cut out for them to protect their 29-19 advantage among the nation's governors," starting with the 2001 races in New Jersey and Virginia, AP reports.
• On Thursday, New Jersey gubernatorial candidate Bret Schundler (R) went to Trenton "with a reassuring message for... [state] lawmakers: never mind all" his attacks on the state government during the primary. "Instead, he effused about the 'victories and successes of the last eight years,'" the New York Times reports. The Philadelphia Inquirer reports that Schundler "seemed to succeed" in his trip to "mend fences."
• Schundler "was brushed off" by acting Gov. Donald DiFrancesco (R), "who declined to return his phone calls for a second straight day," the Newark Star-Ledger reports.
• "Judy Peachee Ford, who during the 1970s and 1980s was among the most prominent Republican political operatives in" Virginia, will head up "Virginians for Warner, an umbrella group designed to draw Republican and independent money and votes to" Democrat Mark Warner's gubernatorial campaign, the Richmond Times-Dispatch reports.
• Former Attorney General and potential Florida gubernatorial candidate Janet Reno (D) spoke Thursday at the Miami-Dade Business Exposition and Luncheon, where she received a standing ovation inside and protestors outside the building, the Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel reports.
• The Los Angeles Times Wire Service reports that Reno "outlined what could become the foundation of her candidacy: funding for early childhood education, improved access to health care and environmental protection."
• Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan (R) "laid out plans to take a summer tour of California to learn about 'agriculture, water, fishing' and other issues," the Los Angeles Times reports. "By early fall, Riordan said, he would have 'some idea of whether I could do the job of governor well enough to try to undertake it.'"
• Iowa "wrestling legend" Dan Gable (R) "said he still needs more time to decide whether he'll run for Iowa governor next year," the Des Moines Register reports. "He said he may make his decision within the next few weeks."
• Former Massachusetts state Treasurer Joseph D. Malone (R) is holding a "fund-raising party next month for his one-time political foe, acting Gov. Jane Swift" (R), her first since her twins were born on May 15. "Hundreds of invitations are being sent out for the fund-raiser, which is expected to give a major boost to Swift's campaign coffers," the Boston Herald reports.

• A Boston Herald poll shows Massachusetts state Sen. Stephen Lynch (D) "is facing the fight of his political life against a pack of heel-nipping opponents" in the upcoming 9th District special election. He holds a slight lead over state Sen. Brian Joyce (D).
• Denver Mayor Wellington Webb (D) "ended weeks of speculation" on Thursday and announced that he would not challenge Sen. Wayne Allard, R-Colo., in 2002. The mayor said "he can't lead the city and campaign at the same time," the Rocky Mountain News reports.
• Three Democrats are now considering the Colorado 2002 Senate bid: former U.S. Attorney Tom Strickland, Denver District Attorney Bill Ritter and former Sen. Gary Hart (D) staffer Tom Hoog, the Rocky Mountain News reports.
• Sen. Tim Hutchinson, R-Ark., already has $1.5 million in his war chest for his 2002 re-election campaign, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reports.
• New Hampshire AFL-CIO president Mark MacKenzie (D) said Thursday that he is seriously considering a bid in the 1st District race, the Manchester Union Leader reports. Meanwhile, "state Democratic chairman Kathleen Sullivan stepped down as treasurer of candidate Martha Fuller Clark's campaign" for the same seat.

• Washington police officials said Thursday they are trying to set up an interview with Carolyn Condit, wife of Rep. Gary Condit, D-Calif., "to determine if she can provide information to help them in their search for missing intern Chandra Levy," the Washington Post reports.
• The New York Post reports that a "flight attendant who had a yearlong affair with" Condit told authorities "he refused to divorce his chronically ill wife because he didn't want to 'pull a Newt Gingrich,'" referring to a man who "served his now-ex-wife, Marianne, with divorce papers while she was hospitalized."
• New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani (R) "is poised to move out of his official residence," where his estranged wife and children still live, the New York Daily News reports.
• CNN News Group Chairman and chief executive Tom Johnson announced his retirement Thursday, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports. He will still work for the network as a consultant.
• "Mortimer J. Adler, the high school dropout who became a philosopher at 15 and revolutionized American thought by insisting that reading the Great Books was the key to understanding the human condition," died Thursday, the Chicago Tribune reports. He was 98.