The Earlybird: Today's headlines

Bush set for G-8, House has faith, Justice frees immigrants, refunds in the mail, RNC femme drive, Carnahan's cash, Condit's support, Bill Clinton's price tag:

• During President Bush's visit in London with British Prime Minister Tony Blair Thursday, Blair "declined to endorse Mr. Bush's views on missile defense or the environment but said the president is putting important issues on the table," the Dallas Morning News reports. Bush said he will "support missile defense and oppose an international environmental treaty" at this weekend's G-8 summit in Italy.
• "Bush seized on his cordial talks with the prime minister as an indication that he has the ability to work with world leaders," the Houston Chronicle reports.
• When the summit begins today, leaders hope to "create a $1 billion global fund to fight AIDS and other infectious diseases in poor nations," AP reports.
• Bush "said Friday that protesters threatening to disrupt the talks were hurting the cause of impoverished people around the world," CBSNews.com reports.
• Leaders of some of the other G-8 nations said Thursday they would try to "bring the Kyoto accord into force even without the Americans," AP reports.
• Bush "believes he is close to winning Russia's backing to move beyond the ABM treaty so the U.S. can build a national missile defense" system, the Wall Street Journal's "Washington Wire" reports. Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin will meet on Sunday.
• The White House accused Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., on Thursday of trying to upstage the president by criticizing his foreign policy in comments to USA Today, the Baltimore Sun reports.

• Bush said Thursday he would not rush to make a decision on stem-cell research and that "he would not be swayed by political pressure because 'this is way beyond politics,'" the Washington Times reports.
• "The White House Web site dodged an Internet bullet Thursday, using some technical sleight of hand to sidestep a computer virus dubbed 'Code Red,'" AP reports.
• Michael Pollock was "arraigned Thursday on charges he sent letters threatening President Bush," AP reports.

• On Thursday the House approved Bush's plan for faith-based initiatives by a 233-198 party line vote, the Dallas Morning News reports. The bill's fate in the Senate is "uncertain."
• The House debate over the bill "exposed deep discomfort in both parties about the program's potential for rolling back antidiscrimination terms in state and local civil rights laws," the Philadelphia Inquirer reports.

• Today the House will take up a $6.5 billion spending bill "that promises increased funding for the military this summer and a $100 million down payment on an international fund to help poor countries buy AIDS drugs," the Wall Street Journal reports. The Senate expects to send the bill, which House and Senate negotiators agreed to on Thursday, to the president next week.
• "Sponsors of a far-reaching patients' bill of rights added Republican-backed tax breaks for small businesses to their bill Thursday and said they had the votes for passage next week in the House," Reuters reports.
• The Senate Judiciary Committee "approved the first of President Bush's judicial picks, sending three nominations to the Senate floor" on Thursday, AP reports.
• Sen. Zell Miller, D-Ga., sent a letter to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld this week asking Rumsfeld to explain news reports that said "Rumsfeld or his aides had used the term 'hillbilly' to refer to members of Congress and staff," AP reports.

• Next week the Justice Department will "begin freeing some of the 3,400 deportable immigrants who have been held behind bars for months," the Dallas Morning News reports.
• But Attorney General John Ashcroft said he would "take emergency action to ensure that dangerous immigrant criminals are deported or kept in prison if their home countries will not take them back after they have served their time," the Philadelphia Inquirer reports. The State Department could "stop issuing visas for admission to the United States from uncooperative nations."

• A presidential commission on Social Security released a preliminary report Thursday that said "Social Security cannot meet the promise to future retirees without reducing benefits, increasing taxes or borrowing extensively," AP reports.
• Today the National Institutes of Health is expected to release a report showing "that there is 'insufficient evidence' that condoms prevent the spread of most sexually transmitted diseases," the Washington Post reports. The report will provide "fresh ammunition for advocates of 'abstinence-only' sex education programs."

• The Internal Revenue Service will put the first batch of tax refund checks in the mail today, AP reports.
• On Thursday Vice President Dick Cheney "refused a General Accounting Office demand for records of the task force that laid the groundwork for President Bush's national energy policy," CNN.com reports.
• "Seven weeks after the death of a young woman in an asthma study," the federal government announced Thursday that it would stop "human medical experiments at the Johns Hopkins University... because of what regulators characterized as widespread lapses in safety procedures," the Baltimore Sun reports.
• Bridgestone/Firestone officials said Thursday that they "will not issue a broader recall of Firestone tires" because "the federal government has failed to show that other tires made by the company pose a danger to motorists," CBSNews.com reports. The refusal "pushes Firestone and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration closer to a nasty confrontation -- a forced recall."
• "Convicted murderer Ira Einhorn was extradited today from France to the United States, where he faces a new trial in the 1977 bludgeoning death of his girlfriend," the Los Angeles Times reports.

• Three Palestinians were killed in a car attack on the West Bank on Thursday, and a Jewish extremist group claimed responsibility, AP reports.
• Foreign ministers of the G-8 nations "told the Israelis and Palestinians today that they should agree to 'third party' monitors as the most assured way of halting the deteriorating situation," the New York Times reports.

• On Friday China "lashed out at measures being taken by the U.S. Congress to block payments to Beijing over the spy plane incident on Hainan Island," UPI reports.
• "Talks aimed at reversing Macedonia's drift toward civil war appeared close to deadlock Thursday over several core issues, including the structure of police forces and whether Albanian should be made an official language," the Los Angeles Times reports.

• The Republican National Committee announced "a drive to recruit female candidates and conduct political leadership training schools" in an effort "to attract more female voters," the Washington Post reports.
• The New York Times reports that RNC Chairman Jim Gilmore's "tenure has been touched by tensions with Mr. Bush's advisers."
• "Documents that the Democratic Party and unions have sued to keep secret reveal" that "labor leaders had veto power over Democratic Party plans in 1996 by virtue of their large donations and seats on the steering committees in each state," AP reports.

• Virginia gubernatorial candidate Mark Warner (D) is showcasing "the sharpest break yet from his party's strategic orthodoxy over the past decade" as he "aggressively" seeks the endorsement of the National Rifle Association, the Washington Post reports.
• "In three fund-raising events over three days," New Jersey gubernatorial hopefuls Jim McGreevey (D) and Bret Schundler (R) "expect to raise more than $6 million," the Newark Star-Ledger reports.
• Sen. Jean Carnahan, D-Mo., "has built a campaign war chest of nearly $1.8 million," AP reports. Although Carnahan has not announced her 2002 plans, "Democrats called the news a strong signal of her prowess as a candidate."
• Massachusetts state Sen. Marc R. Pacheco (D) "took a deep breath, raised his fist in the air and declared he was ready for battle" as he officially announced his 9th District candidacy, the Taunton Gazette reports.

• Florida Democrats are asking Gov. Jeb Bush (R) "to launch a criminal investigation into whether" Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris (R) erased files pertaining to the 2000 presidential election on "the hard drives of government-owned computers," the Miami Herald reports.
• In Baltimore, "temperatures in the century-old Howard Street Tunnel" where a train derailed Wednesday "rose as high as 1,500 degrees Fahrenheit," the Baltimore Sun reports. Firefighters "could not predict when they would extinguish the fire and remove all the cars -- 31 of them loaded with a variety of chemicals and goods."
• Maryland officials said yesterday the state will vote on a "law that bans discrimination against gay men and lesbians" in 2002, the Washington Post reports.

• Washington police Chief Charles Ramsey told USA Today that there "is a 'fairly significant' chance" that missing intern Chandra Levy "will never be found."
• "Prosecutors in the next few days will meet with the case's original police detectives, computer specialists, forensics technicians and major-crimes detectives from headquarters," the Washington Times reports.
• Rep. Gary Condit, D-Calif., "was seen dumping something in a street trash bin just before cops searched his apartment" last week, the New York Post reports. The "small package" was "possibly a watch case."
• A CBS News poll shows that 53 percent of Condit's constituents want him to finish out his term despite his alleged involvement with Levy.

• The New York Post reports that "Bill Clinton is set to become the first ex-president in history to cost taxpayers more than $1 million a year."
• Michael Katz, "a University of California at Berkeley professor and a chief witness in the federal government's case against Visa and MasterCard for alleged anticompetitive behavior, has been named the chief economist" at the Justice Department, the San Francisco Chronicle reports.
• Jeffrey Archer -- "politician, failed businessman and millionaire novelist" -- "was jailed for four years for lies he told in his notorious libel action 14 years ago," the Daily Telegraph reports.
• "A hotel housekeeper discovered" on Wednesday the body of James Howard Hatfield, who penned the controversial 1999 book, "Fortunate Son: George W. Bush and the Making of an American President," the Dallas Morning News reports. Hatfield, 43, had killed himself.