The Earlybird: Today's headlines

Bush budget defense, missile defense site, interest rate cut, Arafat-Peres meeting, Sharpton's barnstorm, Virginia gov debates, Condit interview:

• Today President Bush will give a speech in Independence, Mo., defending "his budget plans and commitment to Social Security," Reuters reports.
• During the speech, Bush "is expected to assert that the state of the federal budget is strong despite Democratic charges that Bush's $1.35 trillion tax cut would trigger new rounds of budget deficits and problems for Social Security and Medicare," the Kansas City Star reports.
• In Milwaukee on Monday, Bush told members of the Veterans of Foreign Wars "that his administration was aiming to spend more on the military, spend it more wisely, and improve service to veterans," the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports.
• "But a fight over future military spending looms this fall, as Bush spars with Democrats over a budget that they say will be tougher to balance because of the stagnant economy and a $1.35 trillion tax cut the president signed into law earlier this year," the Houston Chronicle reports.
• The federal surplus "fell to half its year-earlier level" in July, but it "exceeded estimates by the Congressional Budget Office," the Wall Street Journal reports. "The White House expects to show in its latest annual budget estimate Wednesday that spending in fiscal 2001 will barely avoid dipping into Social Security funds, thanks in part to a last-minute accounting change."

• A Pentagon spokeswoman said Monday that the military "has given the go-ahead for construction to begin in the next few weeks on a missile-defense test site in Alaska," the Washington Times reports.
• "A program conceived by the Clinton administration to rid the world of 100 tons of American and Russian weapons-grade plutonium is likely to be abandoned by the Bush administration," the New York Times reports.

• Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee "urged the federal government yesterday to set nationwide election standards before voters go to the polls next year," Reuters reports. The request was based on a review of the 2000 election that "found that eligible voters in at least 25 states were 'illegally purged' from the rolls and that 19 states failed to keep statewide records of uncounted ballots."
• Newly installed Drug Enforcement Administration Chief Asa Hutchinson said Monday "he would strive to enforce the federal ban on medical marijuana," AP reports.
• Today the government will begin negotiating with the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation "regarding an important patent held by the group covering embryonic stem cells," the Wall Street Journal reports. "Both sides said an agreement is expected that could help provide researchers at universities in the U.S. with unfettered access to the cells."
• FBI counterterrorism head John P. O'Neill is under investigation for allegedly "leaving his briefcase filled with classified information that was later stolen and found in another hotel," the Washington Post reports.

• Federal officials said Monday they "will not pay the full $30 million" that the city of Washington "expects to spend on security for World Bank and International Monetary Fund meetings" in September, the Washington Post reports.
• The National Wilderness Institute is suing the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers over what it calls the corps' "continued excessive dumping of sludge in the Potomac River," the Washington Times reports.

• The Federal Reserve Board is expected to cut interest rates "by at least a quarter point" today, the Boston Globe reports.
• Many analysts "believe Tuesday's expected rate cut will be the last in the current cycle," Financial Times reports.

• After a meeting with German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat said Monday that "he has agreed to meet with Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres in Berlin" to discuss the peace process, CNN.com reports.
• UPI reports that the meeting may take place next week.
• During a meeting of the United Nations Security Council Monday, the United States "backed Israel... in opposing a Palestinian proposal to send international observers to the Middle East," UPI reports.

• "New York civil rights activist Al Sharpton said yesterday he will form a committee to explore a possible bid for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2004," AP reports.
• At his announcement, Sharpton "mocked" former Vice President Al Gore, "who is considering another run for president -- for growing a beard and a paunch," the New York Post reports.
• Sharpton "plans to barnstorm 10 states, beginning with California next month, and take a 'freedom ride' by bus through New Hampshire in October," the New York Daily News reports.

• Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C., plans to set up a political action committee, "a possibly awkward move for a politician who refuses to accept contributions from similar groups," the New York Times reports. The PAC, which would raise money for other Democratic candidates, "could help the senator position himself for a White House run."
• In an effort to draft Elizabeth Dole (R) as a candidate for Senate in North Carolina, a group of Republicans announced "they will encourage citizens to send letters to Dole and probably will start a petition drive and use the Internet to round up other supporters of Dole," AP reports.

• Jersey City, N.J., Mayor Glenn Cunningham (D) today accused former Mayor and GOP gubernatorial candidate Bret Schundler "of manipulating the schedule of property tax collections so that tax bills dropped steeply in February and again in May of this year" to "further his campaign for governor," the New York Times reports.
• Schundler on Monday called "for a statewide referendum on plans for a privately owned arena in Newark that would replace the Continental Airlines Arena in the Meadowlands as the home of the New Jersey Devils and New Jersey Nets," the New York Times reports.
• Virginia gubernatorial candidates Mark Warner (D) and Mark Earley (R) agreed yesterday "to three more face-to-face debates, but" Earley "said he would like to do as many as eight, with several broadcast statewide on television," the Washington Post reports.
• Former Ambassador to Vietnam Pete Peterson (D) said Monday he is "in this race" for Florida governor after setting up an exploratory committee last month, the Tallahassee Democrat reports.
• Alabama Lt. Gov. Steve Windom (R) on Monday "hammered" Gov. Don Siegelman (D) "for awarding some contracts without competitive bids, saying a 'good ol' boy system' has 'wasted millions of dollars on Siegelman cronies,'" AP reports. Windom said he will announce whether he's running for governor on Oct. 2.

• Connie Chung of ABC News "has emerged the victor in the race to snag an exclusive TV interview with the press-dodging Rep. Gary Condit, D-Calif.," the Washington Post reports. The interview will air at 10 p.m. on Thursday's "PrimeTime Live."
• Condit "will first present his side of the story that has captivated America in a letter to constituents sometime in the next week or so," ABCNews.com reports.
• In letters to the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, FBI agents asked whether Condit, who is on the House panel, "had become a national security risk," the Washington Times reports.

• "Fearing violence at Saturday's Ku Klux Klan rally on the Capitol steps," St. Paul, Minn., Mayor Norm Coleman (R), who is considering a Senate bid, "urged anti-Klan protesters to stay away from the Capitol and gather instead at a city-sponsored 'Peace Celebration' three miles away," the Minneapolis Star Tribune reports.
• Lawyers for California Gov. Gray Davis (D) asked a court to stop the American Taxpayers Alliance "from running any more attack ads criticizing the governor's handling of California's energy crisis" because the group "broke California law by not registering as a political organization with the secretary of state and must disclose its donors," the San Francisco Chronicle reports.
• In Sacramento, Calif., "a 27-year-old man stabbed his pregnant wife to death Monday and then drove to a home in a nearby suburb and killed four more relatives before fleeing with his 3-year-old son, authorities said," AP reports.

• Vice President Dick Cheney will be in Columbia, S.C., to "lead a group of state and Washington dignitaries today in bidding a final farewell to Republican Rep. Floyd Spence," R-S.C., the Columbia State reports.