The Earlybird: Today's headlines

Gulf drilling, Cheney's working, stem-cell positions, O'Connor's death penalty questions, Milosevic's no plea, Jersey campaigning, Western power plays:

• The Bush administration announced Monday that it will back off "plans to allow oil and gas drilling off the coast of Florida, bowing to pressure from the president's brother, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, and other state leaders," the Houston Chronicle reports. The announcement "was a disappointment for the offshore oil and gas industry."
• The administration will, however, "propose to offer new oil leases for offshore drilling in an area covering about 1.5 million acres in the Gulf of Mexico," FoxNews.com reports.
• Jeb Bush called the announcement "a win for the people of Florida," while Democratic leaders said that "even the smaller package" proposal for drilling by the Interior Department "represents a dangerous intrusion into the eastern Gulf of Mexico," the Tallahassee Democrat reports.
• "In October, energy companies will begin bidding on the leases" in the Gulf of Mexico, "which are expected to bring more than $136 million into the federal treasury," the Orlando Sentinel reports.
• "The average price of a gallon of unleaded regular gasoline in the USA is $1.47," USA Today reports. "That compares with $1.63 last year at this time."

• Vice President Dick Cheney gave three interviews on energy Monday, his first day back at work after having a pacemaker implanted in his chest, AP reports.
• Cheney said during a West Virginia radio interview that the device was "'working pretty good' and joked that it 'hasn't gone off yet,'" CNN.com reports.

• President Bush "has backed off plans to ask Congress to overhaul the federal civil service system this year," USA Today reports.
• Bush sent a letter to congressional leaders Monday saying that he "has extended sanctions against Afghanistan's Taliban rulers imposed two years ago for harboring suspected terrorist Osama bin Laden," UPI reports.
• House Majority Leader Richard K. Armey, Majority Whip Tom DeLay and Republican Conference Chairman J.C. Watts sent a "strongly worded admonition" to Bush Monday against stem-cell research, the Washington Post reports. The announcement came "just days after 38 House Republicans wrote a letter urging President Bush to support embryonic stem cell research."
• A new CNN/Gallup/USA Today poll finds the majority of Americans still think Bush is doing a good job as president.

• "The White House has said for the first time that a slowing economy will result in lower than expected federal revenue this year," the Washington Times reports.
• Consumer spending increased 0.5 percent in May, the Wall Street Journal reports.
• Today the Dow Jones industrial average "gets another chance to confound logic... when investors respond to an earnings warning from component DuPont," CNNfn.com reports.

• Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor said during a speech to the Minnesota Women Lawyers group on Monday "that there are 'serious questions' about whether the death penalty is being fairly administered in the United States," AP reports.
• O'Connor "also decried the gap in legal defense available to those with money and those without," the Minneapolis Star Tribune reports.
• "Missouri joined Kansas and 14 other states Monday when Gov. Bob Holden [D] signed a bill to bar the execution of people judged to be mentally retarded," the Kansas City Star reports.

• The Navy spy plane that made an emergency landing on China's Hainan island three months ago has begun its return to the United States in pieces this week, AP reports.
• A Japanese court "issued an arrest warrant yesterday against a US Air Force sergeant suspected of raping an Okinawan woman," AP reports.

• Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon held a meeting of his Security Cabinet Tuesday "to consider a response to recent violence," CNN.com reports.
• "The United States faulted both sides in the Middle East conflict on Monday -- Israel for assassinating Palestinians and the Palestinians for doing too little to stop violence against Israelis," Reuters reports.
• "U.S. envoy to Macedonia James Pardew kept the turbulent Balkan country waiting on Tuesday for his first verdict on prospects for resuming stalled peace talks," Reuters reports.

• During his arraignment Tuesday for international war crimes, former Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic would not enter a plea, "telling the U.N. tribunal that his trial was aimed at covering up Western crimes in Yugoslavia," AP reports.
• Muslim extremists in the Philippines who kidnapped more than 20 people from a beach resort released two of the hostages Tuesday, CNN.com reports. The hostages read a letter from their captors that said the extremists would "continue to 'attack and seize U.S. and European citizens' until the Philippines government withdraws its forces from Muslim-majority islands."
• The released hostages, who were from the Philippines, "said a U.S. national who disappeared after being kidnapped by the same rebels was still untraceable," UPI reports.
• "Confronted by a veto threat from Russia, UN Security Council members agreed yesterday to drop for now a US-British plan to revamp sanctions against Iraq and instead extend a UN humanitarian program without changes," Reuters reports.
• A newly declassified document shows that "the West may have been informed about Nazi Germany's plans for the Holocaust months earlier than previously thought," AP reports.
• Mexican President Vicente Fox married his spokeswoman, Martha Sahagun, on Monday, the Los Angeles Times reports.

• New Jersey GOP gubernatorial nominee "Bret Schundler yesterday received a warm welcome at the White House by President Bush," AP reports.
• Democratic nominee Jim McGreevey continued "his 21-day walking, biking and canoeing trip of the state," the Newark Star-Ledger reports.

• The New York Times reports on the "barrage" of issue ads that have already aired this year, showing that "the permanent campaign that was the hallmark of the Clinton years is here to stay."
• There is "a growing movement in which politicians across the country are declaring war on their hometown newspapers," the Washington Post reports. "From denouncing the editors to stiffing their reporters to conducting negative polls, mayors, governors and senators are fighting back against what they view as unfair or demeaning coverage."
• Recent cutbacks "have led many inside and outside Knight Ridder to complain that increasing profits have become more important... than journalistic excellence and community service" to the media company's management, the Los Angeles Times reports.
• "Miami Herald executive editor Martin Baron was named yesterday to succeed Matthew V. Storin" as editor of the Boston Globe, the Globe reports.

• Recently approved power price caps were triggered for the first time yesterday in 11 western states, Tribune News Services report.
• Rolling blackouts have hit Nevada for the first time this year, AP reports.
• The outage in Las Vegas lasted for about 45 minutes, the Los Angeles Times reports, "until casinos voluntarily reduced their own consumption to make up for the energy shortfall."
• Arkansas' "largest electric utility is giving customers a 2.6% rate cut," USA Today reports.

• Eastern Alabama residents are uneasy with the U.S. Army's plans to incinerate "thousands of tons of the deadliest chemicals ever devised," the New York Times reports. Incineration of the chemical weapons is scheduled to begin "within a year."
• Michigan is launching a campaign to promote the hiring of military veterans, the Chicago Tribune reports. "During the campaign, which runs from July 4 to Veteran's Day on Nov. 11, the state will run radio and television ads highlighting veterans' skills."
• Hawaii's programs "that give preference to Native Hawaiians, including one that allows them to lease home sites for 99 years for $1," are being challenged in federal court, AP reports.
• Kentucky Gov. Paul Patton (D) "yesterday suspended special merit raises for state workers and directed that overtime be approved only to alleviate life-threatening situations," the Louisville Courier-Journal reports.
• Census data show that "more than 11,000 Maryland households were headed by same-sex couples last year," the Baltimore Sun reports.
• North Carolina has turned to Ebay and other online auction sites to dispose of "surplus property and items seized from drug dealers," the Charlotte Observer reports.
• "The California Department of Parks and Recreation is poised to purchase 1,659 acres" for parkland, the Los Angeles Times reports, "in a $43-million deal designed to restore coastal wetlands and provide the first uninterrupted hiking trail from the San Fernando Valley to the ocean."
• Senate Minority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., spoke out in support of Mississippi's Columbus Air Force Base, AP reports, making it "unlikely" that base will be targeted for closure.

• The late Rep. Joe Moakley, D-Mass., left thousands of dollars to his congressional aides, the Boston Globe reports.
• Virginia Gov. Jim Gilmore (R) "says he is the nation's first governor to offer a Spanish language version of his Web site," the Richmond Times-Dispatch reports.
• Michigan state Rep. Keith Stallworth (D) has been charged with "laundering drug money in a violent conspiracy with 13 other people to sell heroin, cocaine and marijuana," the Detroit Free Press reports.
• Washington-area police "have expanded their search for missing intern Chandra Levy to include landfills where a body could have been dumped," ABCNews.com reports, but officers "stressed the case is still primarily considered a missing person's investigation."