The Earlybird: Today's headlines

G-8 summit, faith-based vote, Hutchinson hearings, segregated schools, Warner's WKRP ad, Cleland's challenger, Strickland's announcement, Graham's life:

• President Bush will travel to Europe today for a weekend G-8 summit in Genoa, Italy, where he "is expected to argue for a new round of trade negotiations and to again pitch his missile-defense proposal to Russian President Vladimir V. Putin and other skeptical leaders," the Baltimore Sun reports.
• Officials are "emptying jails to make room for the possible arrests of unruly demonstrators" at the summit, AP reports.
• Bush "is likely to get an earful from some global peers about their dislike of an array of U.S. policies" during his six-day trip, the Christian Science Monitor reports.
• The Bush administration "will work with the European Union to launch a new round of global trade talks in Qatar in November," the Wall Street Journal reports.
• Bush told the World Bank on Tuesday that it "should offer grants instead of loans to help developing countries in Latin America, Africa and Asia," the Houston Chronicle reports.
• During his speech Tuesday to the National Council of La Raza annual convention in Milwaukee, Mexican President Vicente Fox "hinted at a desire -- but did not directly ask -- for amnesty for the estimated 3 million undocumented Mexicans believed to be working in the United States," the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports.

• Russia and China agreed Tuesday to "formulate a plan for a $1.7 billion pipeline to carry oil from Siberia to northeastern China," AP reports.
• Gao Zhan, a U.S. resident whom China has accused of spying for Taiwan, "will probably stand trial this month in Beijing," the New York Times reports.
• The Pentagon "has developed contingency plans for military operations around" Taiwan, and "secret talks between U.S. military planners and the Republic of China's military are set to begin shortly in Monterey, Calif.," the Washington Times reports.

• A Pentagon official said Tuesday that the Bush administration "plans to test a space-based laser interceptor as early as 2005 as part of its ambitious new missile defense agenda," the Washington Post reports.
• "NASA extended Atlantis' mission by one day when an internal air leak slowed efforts Tuesday to equip the space station with a new $164 million air lock," the Houston Chronicle reports.

• The House is expected to approve Bush's faith-based initiative plan today, Reuters reports. "But both proponents and opponents admit there are now not enough votes in the Senate to pass the bill and send it to Bush for his signature."
• The House voted 298-125 on Tuesday in favor of "a constitutional amendment to protect the American flag from desecration," AP reports. The measure is likely to be defeated in the Senate.
• The House Appropriations Committee voted Tuesday to increase emergency disaster assistance by $1.3 billion next year, the Houston Chronicle reports.
• The House Resources Committee on Tuesday approved oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, AP reports. "Opponents said they were confident the Arctic drilling provision would be scuttled when energy legislation comes before the full House."
• Rep. Henry A. Waxman, D-Calif., on Tuesday asked "for a Justice Department review of White House senior advisor Karl Rove's repeated discussions with executives and representatives of companies in which he held stock," the Washington Post reports.

• The National Institutes of Health will release a study next week showing that "stem cells from adults and embryos both show enormous promise for treating an array of diseases but at this early stage, cells from days-old embryos appear to offer certain key advantages," the Washington Post reports.
• On Tuesday, "a news conference in support of stem-cell research included senators from both parties and featured 'seven faces,' people with seven ailments that scientists hoped to cure with more funding," the Washington Times reports.
• And opponents of stem-cell research used children adopted as embryos to show their point of view during a House committee hearing Tuesday, ABCNews.com reports.

• Drug Enforcement Administration nominee Asa Hutchinson said Tuesday during his confirmation hearing in the Senate Judiciary Committee that that he is "personally opposed the use of marijuana for medical purposes but wouldn't say going after medical marijuana dealers would be a priority for the DEA," AP reports.
• Hutchinson also said "he would not tolerate racial profiling instruction by DEA agents who teach local police drug enforcement tactics," the Washington Post reports.

• "Conservative watchdog group Judicial Watch on Tuesday said it has filed suit against Vice President Dick Cheney for allegedly denying the public information about the activities of a White House energy task force he led," Reuters reports.
• The House Appropriations Committee voted along party lines Tuesday "to support a White House plan that would have the Navy pay all the electricity bills for" Cheney's official residence, the New York Times reports.

• The Federal Bureau of Investigation said Tuesday that "hundreds of guns and computers" have been stolen or lost from its inventory during the past 12 years, the Dallas Morning News reports.
• "The IRS sent about 523,000 notices to taxpayers informing them they will get the maximum possible tax cut refund check -- when in fact they won't," AP reports.
• "The Rev. Al Sharpton is suing the Navy for $1 million for what he calls 'cruel and inhumane' treatment during his arrest for protesting the bombing on Vieques," the New York Post reports.

• Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon told President Bush over the phone Tuesday "that he remains firmly committed to the terms of an international report's recommendations on the region, but that attacks by Palestinians" have gone "unchecked," UPI reports.
• An Israeli helicopter fired missiles that killed four Palestinians Tuesday, "and a few hours later Palestinians fired mortars for the first time into a Jewish neighborhood on the edge of Jerusalem," the Washington Post reports.

• A Harvard University study found that "American schools became more racially segregated in the 1990s," the Washington Times reports.
• The 2000 Census shows that "blacks make up a disproportionate share of inmates in US prisons and jails, including 68 percent of the men in South Carolina and 44 percent of the women in West Virginia," AP reports.

• One month after Democrat Mark Warner "called for a campaign that refrains from negative attacks and instead debates," the Virginia gubernatorial nominee "issued a rebuke of Republican rival Mark L. Earley's record," the Washington Post reports.
• "Actor-producer Tim Reid, who played the smooth-talking DJ for" fictional Cincinnati radio station WKRP, "and his wife, Daphne Reid, a star of TV's 'Fresh Prince of Bel Air,' are plugging Warner's candidacy in a 1-minute radio commercial," the Richmond Times-Dispatch reports.
• Iowa gubernatorial candidate Steve Sukup (R) "has a lot of work to do if he wants to become a household name in Iowa. The first step: voters have to figure out how to say it," the Des Moines Register reports. "Since the legislative session, Sukup said he has been campaigning statewide."
• South Carolina "political experts and Republicans" are saying that Gov. Jim Hodges' (D) restoration of "the sales tax on groceries to five cents in hopes of tuition decreases may not bode well for" the governor's re-election bid, the Greenville News reports.
• South Carolina Attorney General Charlie Condon (R), who is seeking his party's nomination to challenge Hodges in 2002, "threatened to sue if Hodges did not reverse course" on his "strategy to offset budget cuts to the state's colleges and universities," the Columbia State reports.
• Kansas Insurance Commissioner Kathleen Sebelius (D) said Tuesday "that she would not make her decision about entering the 2002 race for governor public until after the first of the year," AP reports.
• Ten Republican "governors and two hopefuls discussed the 2001-02 elections and issues such as health care and education reform during a policy forum" on Mackinac Island, Mich., Tuesday, AP reports. Those in attendance said "Republicans have a good chance to pick up more governorships over the next two years by campaigning as pragmatic problem solvers."

• Georgia state Sen. Phil Gingrey (R), "best known for his advocacy of tougher teen driving laws," filed "the papers necessary to begin a fund-raising effort" to challenge Sen. Max Cleland, D-Ga., in 2002, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports.
• Former U.S. Attorney Tom Strickland (D) is expected to announce his bid to challenge Sen. Wayne Allard, R-Colo., "sometime during the week of Aug. 6," the Rocky Mountain News reports.
• Arkansas Attorney General Mark Pryor (D) "told students that politics had become too partisan and combative and that his desire to change the political tone was one reason he's running" for Senate, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reports.
• Tonight four candidates vying for the late Massachusetts Rep. Joe Moakley's (D) seat will square off in a debate, the Boston Globe reports. Democratic state Sens. Cheryl Jacques, Brian Joyce, Stephen Lynch and Marc Pacheco all plan to attend, while housing activist John Taylor (D) and former assistant U.S. attorney Bill Sinnott (D) were not invited.

• Katharine Graham, "former chairman and chief executive officer of The Post Co. and former publisher of The Washington Post, died at 11:56 a.m." Tuesday "of head injuries suffered when she fell on a sidewalk Saturday in Sun Valley, Idaho," the Washington Post reports. She was 84. "The funeral will be held at 11 a.m. Monday at Washington National Cathedral."
• "Graham, who won a Pulitzer Prize in 1998 for her autobiography, was best known for her leadership of The Washington Post Co. during the Watergate scandal of 1972-74," USA Today reports.
• "President Bush praised Graham as 'the beloved first lady of Washington journalism,'" CNN.com reports.
• The Post offers a timeline of Graham's life.

• Citing time and money concerns, Washington police "have abandoned plans to search four area landfills for former intern Chandra Levy," the Washington Post reports.
• City police also said they "have found no evidence that would link" Levy's "case to other recent missing-person cases involving young women in the capital," the New York Times reports.
• Rep. Gary Condit, D-Calif., "touched off a furor yesterday when his spokeswoman was quoted as claiming Chandra has 'a history of one-night stands,'" the New York Post reports.
• "Condit's stony silence has drawn fire at home, where about 40 demonstrators called for the lawmaker's resignation during a rally yesterday outside his Modesto office," the San Francisco Chronicle reports.