The Earlybird: Today's Headlines

Bush's Colorado trip, Israeli invasion, governors' energy plea, Macedonia peace accord, McGreevey's bank, Harris' Midwest swing, Condit's 2002 plans:

• President Bush today will visit Colorado, where he will "join a YMCA group working on a trail restoration project in" Estes Park and Rocky Mountain National Park, the Rocky Mountain News reports.
• Bush also will speak at a fund-raising dinner for Colorado Republicans Sen. Wayne Allard and Gov. Bill Owens at the Adam's Mark Hotel, ABCNews.com reports. The hotel chain is under boycott from the NAACP "amid allegations of racial discrimination," and the downtown Denver hotel was "targeted by noisy NAACP demonstrations over the weekend."
• On Wednesday Bush will visit New Mexico, where he will speak to students on the first day of school in Albuquerque, Reuters reports. Both the Colorado and the New Mexico trips "are in keeping with the 'heartland' theme of emphasizing social values that Bush has cast for his August break from Washington."
• Bush signed a $5.5 billion bill on Monday that will give disaster relief "for farmers battling a long-lasting drought and low prices in the agricultural industry," the Dallas Morning News reports.

• Bush said Monday "that he would veto any attempt by Congress to expand federally funded embryonic stem cell research beyond the plan he unveiled last week," Reuters reports.
• Dr. Brigitte Boisselier, a controversial cloning advocate, had worked to clone the dead baby of former West Virginia Delegate Mark Hunt, the Charleston Gazette reports. Hunt said last week that she had ended the research after it failed.

• On Tuesday the Israeli army "briefly reoccupied parts of the northern West Bank town of Jenin," UPI reports. The raid was "the largest invasion of Palestinian areas since the 1967 Arab-Israeli war," and an Israeli spokesman said it "was 'a reaction to a chain of terrorist attacks' on Israeli targets."
• The attack came "just hours after President Bush said he appreciated the restraint Israel showed in reaction to recent bombings," the Houston Chronicle reports. White House officials "declined Monday night to discuss the attack, and instead reiterated statements Bush had made earlier in the day."
• Palestinian information minister Yasser Abed Rabbo described the Israelis' actions Tuesday as "a declaration of war," Reuters reports.

• Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, is taking diplomats -- including U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick -- on a tour of his state this week, the Des Moines Register reports. "While in Iowa, Grassley and the U.S. trade officials are talking up a proposal to give Bush trade-promotion authority, which Congress could consider by the end of the year."
• During a news conference Monday, Texas Democratic Reps. Ken Bentsen and Gene Green "chided their colleagues... for passing a 'watered down' version of the patients' bill of rights that trumps Texas law and provides greater protection to insurance companies," the Houston Chronicle reports.

• During the Western Governors' Association meeting in Idaho on Monday, governors "pleaded with Bush administration officials attending the meeting for a cohesive energy policy that will make it easier to build needed new transmission lines quickly," AP reports.
• Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman on Monday told the group that "a 10-year strategy for reducing wildfires won't conflict with the U.S. Forest Service's roadless protection policy," Idaho Statesman reports.

• The Justice Department on Monday "made public two chapters of a classified internal inquiry that harshly criticized the investigation of the Los Alamos nuclear scientist Wen Ho Lee," the New York Times reports. "The report faulted the Energy Department as producing a deeply flawed preliminary report and the F.B.I. as conducting an inadequate investigation into accusations that Dr. Lee had mishandled nuclear weapons data."
• A committee of the federal judiciary on Monday issued guidelines prohibiting federal employees from using their computers for "Internet surfing of pornographic sites and downloading of music and movie files," the Houston Chronicle reports.
• The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Monday the "declines in the number of Americans contracting AIDS and those dying of the disease are leveling off, signaling a disturbing turning point in the 20-year epidemic," AP reports.

• The Supreme Court on Monday refused "to halt the execution of a Texas death row inmate who was a teenager when he killed the father of a federal appeals court judge," AP reports.
• "The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America decided Monday to undertake its first major study on whether to endorse the morality of homosexual relationships," AP reports.

• Macedonians and ethnic Albanians signed a "landmark peace deal Monday that clears the way for U.S. and other NATO troops to launch the daunting mission of disarming ethnic Albanian rebels," AP reports.
• "The Irish Republican Army announced today it had withdrawn its agreement on a method for disarming," AP reports.

• New Jersey gubernatorial candidate Jim McGreevey (D) "submitted documentation of nearly $3 million in campaign contributions to state election officials" Monday, the New York Times reports. Republican Bret Schundler's "financial operation appears to be moving more slowly than Mr. McGreevey's."
• Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura (I) later this month will campaign for New Jersey Sen. Bill Schluter, "the 73-year-old, buttoned-down former Republican running an independent campaign for governor," the Newark Star-Ledger reports.
• Virginia Delegate S. Chris Jones (R) "accused Democratic gubernatorial candidate Mark R. Warner yesterday of establishing several committees to 'mask' his campaign's financial activities," the Richmond Times-Dispatch reports.
• In a recent tour of California, former Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan (R) "said he will decide in the next two to three months whether to run" for governor, AP reports.
• Montgomery County, Md., Executive Douglas Duncan (D) said Monday he will decide "within the next few months" whether to run for governor or for re-election, but he ruled out a lieutenant governor bid on Kathleen Kennedy Townsend's (D) ticket, the Washington Post reports.
• Massachusetts Senate President Thomas Birmingham (D) "will launch a 'Tour De Mass.'" today, during which he will bicycle an average of 30 to 35 miles a day around the state as he rides "around the gubernatorial campaign trail," the Boston Globe reports.
• Massachusetts acting Gov. Jane Swift (R) "officially pronounced an end to her historic working maternity leave yesterday, a week after returning to her state duties full-time," the Boston Globe reports.
• Rep. Rod Blagojevich, D-Ill., opened his downstate Illinois "campaign for governor Monday by declaring that if elected, no elderly Illinoisan would have to choose between buying medicine and buying food," the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports.
• Maricopa County, Ariz., Sheriff Joe Arpaio (R) "wants to meet with the heads of key state agencies to learn more about Indian gaming, education, transportation and tourism" as he explores a gubernatorial bid, the Arizona Republic reports.
• Colorado Senate President Stan Matsunaka (D) "said Monday he plans to create an exploratory committee early next week to consider a run against" Gov. Bill Owens (R), the Daily Camera reports.

• As "part of a Midwestern swing with stops in Iowa and Michigan," Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris (R) "will spend a day in Minnesota next month talking about" the 2000 presidential race "and raising money for Republican causes," AP reports.
• Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., traveled to Colorado Monday to campaign for Senate candidate Tom Strickland (D) "and to raise money for what could be one of the costliest races in Colorado history," the Denver Post reports.
• The Denver Post also reports that Denver District Attorney Bill Ritter (D) "hopes to decide by the end of the month" whether to challenge Strickland for the Democratic Party's nomination.
• "In the war for organized labor endorsements" in Massachusetts' 9th District, state Sen. Marc R. Pacheco (D) "won a major battle yesterday" when he picked up the endorsement of the Massachusetts Teachers Association, the Boston Globe reports.
• Sen. Tim Hutchinson, R-Ark., "said Monday he's staying out of the 3rd District congressional race even though his nephew" -- Jim Hendren (R) -- "is one of the candidates," the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reports.

• Washington Mayor Anthony Williams (D) "said he would ask federal officials today to declare the District a disaster area and apply for federal aid" following the weekend's downpours, the Washington Post reports.
• Fires burned across parts of California, Oregon, Nevada, Idaho and Wyoming Monday, "and worried officials predicted things would get worse before they get better," the Sacramento Bee reports.

• A spokesman for California Rep. Gary Condit (D) said Monday the congressman plans to run for re-election in 2002, despite "his hometown's major newspaper call on him to resign over his conduct following the disappearance of an intern with whom he had an affair," Reuters reports.
• "Condit is moving forward with plans to hold his annual fund-raiser this fall" -- another "sign he intends to run for re-election next year," the New York Post reports. Invitations to the annual "Condit Country" event are expected to go out this week.