The Earlybird: Today's headlines

Bush's working vacation, Whitman's gasoline standards, missile defense lobbyists, census numbers, Nader rally, Helms hints, Code Red II, Clinton book:

• President Bush began a month-long vacation at his Texas ranch on Sunday, UPI reports. During the "working vacation," Bush will travel "to New Mexico, Colorado, Wisconsin and other stops for public appearances about twice a week until September."
• Some of Bush's aides said Sunday that the president is "planning a shift in emphasis back to some of the core 'compassionate conservative' themes that helped put him in the White House," Reuters reports.
• Bush said over the weekend that he will make a decision on stem-cell research before Congress returns in September, Reuters reports.
• Bush on Saturday had his first physical exam since taking office, AP reports. Doctors "pronounced him in outstanding health," though they did remove "three sun-induced lesions removed from his face."

• Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Christie Whitman said during an interview with USA Today that the EPA "is considering the unprecedented step of reducing the number of gasoline blends used around the country to lower air pollution."
• The debate over whether to give amnesty to illegal immigrants living in the United States "could spur a new flow of illegal immigration from people who think they will be eligible for consideration if they are in the United States before any legislation is signed," the Dallas Morning News reports.
• The nation's governors met this weekend for their 93rd annual meeting in Providence, R.I., the New York Times reports. The issue that got the most attention was "relations with Washington, in this case relations with the Bush administration and the new Congress."
• U.S. News and World Report's "Washington Whispers" reports Bush's "$23 million payroll is $84,000 less annually than [former President] Clinton's in June 1998, although he's employing about the same number of staffers."

• Sen. Joe Lieberman, D-Conn., said Sunday on ABC's "This Week" that Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., "has ruled out a bid to repeal President Bush's $1.3 trillion tax cut," the Washington Times reports.
• Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., said revelations that the Justice Department "secretly rejected" recommendations to censure former FBI director Louis J. Freeh were evidence of a "good-old-boy" network at the bureau, the Washington Post reports.
• Republican leaders in Congress said they will "curb the unchecked spending that historically occurs with unfinished appropriations bills when Congress returns from its August recess," Roll Call reports.

• Americans for Missile Defense, a new conservative group, "has begun a national lobbying campaign to pressure Congress into supporting President Bush's plans for a missile shield," the New York Times reports.
• On Saturday North Korean leader Kim Jong Il and Russian President Vladimir Putin met in Moscow, where they "pledged to renew strategic ties and denounced the United States for its missile defense program," AP reports.
• A Beijing company "has sent a dozen shipments of missile components to Pakistan in violation of Beijing's recent pledge not to support nuclear missile programs," the Washington Times reports.

• Census reports show that the standard of living in America increased "markedly" during the 1990s, the New York Times reports.
• The census also shows that "nearly 1 in 5 Americans does not speak English at home, more than 2 million grandparents are raising their grandchildren, and the number of adults who work solely out of their homes has grown a third since 1990," the Washington Post reports.

• A Palestinian wounded 10 people with an automatic weapon yesterday outside the Israeli Defense Ministry, the New York Times reports.
• The latest fighting in the Middle East "is intensifying pressure on the Bush administration to play a more active role in the peace process because the conflict is threatening to undercut U.S. policy elsewhere in the Middle East," the Washington Post reports.

• "Macedonia's rival factions made a breakthrough in peace efforts yesterday, agreeing on a plan to restructure the country's police forces," AP reports.
• Afghanistan's Taliban regime has "closed the office of a US-based relief organization and arrested 24 of its workers," AP reports.
• Today is the 56th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima, UPI reports. During a gathering at Hiroshima's Peace Park, "U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan said in a message read aloud on his behalf that the international community must rid itself of mass-destruction weapons."

• 2000 Green Party presidential candidate Ralph Nader was in Portland, Ore., on Saturday to attend "the first major rally to kick off a new 'grass-roots movement' that he calls Democracy Rising," the New York Times reports. "Nader made virtually no mention of presidential campaigns past or future in his 57-minute speech."
• "Saying his Green Party campaign had created a 'rumble' felt by the political establishment, Nader railed against everything from gas prices to the local news at the $10-a-head 'People Have the Power' rally," AP reports.
• Former Sen. Bob Kerrey, D-Neb., "has closed down his leadership committee, the Building America's Conscience and Kids PAC," Roll Call reports. "At a tense news conference, Kerrey was asked if he was ruling out a presidential bid, prompting him to look at his pregnant wife, Sarah Paley, and ask, 'Sweetheart, are we?' He then answered, 'Yes.'"
• Lieberman "yesterday refused to commit himself on whether" 2000 candidate Al Gore should run again in 2002, the New York Post reports.
• Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., was in New Hampshire yesterday to throw his support behind Mary Tetreau (D), a candidate for state representative, the Manchester Union Leader reports.
• On Tuesday Kerry "will play host in his home state at a fund-raiser for" Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack (D), the Des Moines Register reports.

• Although New Jersey gubernatorial candidate Bret Schundler (R) "sent a clear message to lobbyists" during the GOP primary that "lobbyists and other special interest groups would no longer control Trenton's agenda with the drop of a check," a fundraiser he held last Monday "revealed a different relationship the former Jersey City mayor has with" them, the North Jersey Record reports.
• Three Alabama Republicans running for governor in 2002 -- businessmen Jim Cooper and Tim James and Rep. Bob Riley -- "squared off Saturday over tax and constitutional reform," the Birmingham News reports.
• AP reports that Maryland "Republicans know" that having two Kennedys -- Lt. Gov. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend (D) and state Delegate Mark Shriver (D) -- on the ballot in 2002 "will be an obstacle in their bid to reclaim the governor's chair after a lapse of more than 30 years."

• North Carolina Sen. Jesse Helms' (D) FEC reports show that he has raised "just $174,000 during the first six months of this year, and he had only $88,000 on hand," which "strongly" suggests that he will retire in 2002, USA Today reports.
• Former presidential candidate Elizabeth Dole (R) "said for the first time last week that she would 'seriously consider' a Senate race in North Carolina next year if Helms retires," Roll Call reports.
• Rhode Island Human Services Director Christine Ferguson (R) said she is contemplating a 2002 challenge to Rep. Patrick Kennedy, D-R.I., the Providence Journal-Bulletin reports.
• Rep. Bill Coyne, D-Pa., "announced Friday that he would retire," avoiding what would have been a likely primary between him and Rep. Mike Doyle, D-Pa., Roll Call reports.

• Florida officials "staffed emergency operations centers," and "residents packed their homes with sandbags" as Panhandle residents waited for "hurricane-wannabe" Tropical Storm Barry to hit Sunday night, the Tallahassee Democrat reports.
• The Miami Herald reports that squalls "swept the region all day, and street flooding was reported in Tallahassee and elsewhere."

• A new computer worm, "Code Red II," is now spreading, AP reports. The worm "attacks the same Internet-connected computers that were vulnerable to Code Red" and "leaves a 'back door' open on infected computers."
• Washington police will begin using new cameras to catch speeders today, the Washington Post reports.

• Authorities working on the case of missing intern Chandra Levy "are debating whether to intensify their focus on possible obstruction of justice and witness tampering on the part of" Rep. Gary Condit, D-Calif., and his aides, the Washington Post reports.
• "Levy's dad has hinted he thinks it's 'not likely' his daughter is still alive," the New York Post reports.

• The New York Times reports that Bill Clinton "is close to a deal to sell the rights to publish a memoir for an advance that will probably exceed his wife's near-record payment" of $8 million for her own book.