The Earlybird: Today's headlines

Budget numbers, angry Hispanic lobbyists, interest rate cut, Helms' retirement, McGreevey's college fib, Condit's letter:

• At Truman High School in Independence, Mo., on Tuesday, President Bush said "there's plenty of money in the federal budget to bolster military, Social Security, Medicare and education spending - even after his massive tax rebates," the Lawrence Journal-World reports.
• The high school "was packed with people sitting on the bleachers and on chairs set up on the gymnasium floor," the Jackson County Examiner reports. Outside the school protesters spoke out against Bush's foreign policy.
• Today the White House will release its midyear budget projections, which will confirm "that the surplus has plummeted by about $120 billion since earlier estimates," the Boston Globe reports. "Democrats are working to link the vanishing surplus to popular entitlements in the public's mind, accusing Bush of putting both Social Security and Medicare programs at risk."
• Bush will visit a steel plant in West Mifflin, Pa., on Sunday to "show... support for the nation's steel industry and its workers," the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reports.
• Bush said Tuesday he will donate his $600 tax rebate to charity, Reuters reports.

• Bush's working vacation at his Texas ranch will end Aug. 30 -- a day earlier than planned -- because first lady Laura Bush "is itching to leave," AP reports.
• During an interview with USA Today, Bush said spending time at his Texas ranch helps him to "keep perspective."

• Today White House officials will meet with "angry representatives of leading Hispanic lobby groups," UPI reports. The lobbyists are "concerned" that Bush "might be backing away from plans to grant legal status to some undocumented immigrants."
• James W. Ziglar, the new commissioner of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, said Tuesday "that he will soon begin a major restructuring of the troubled agency, promising to divide it into service and enforcement arms instead of two separate agencies," the Washington Post reports.

• The Federal Reserve Board slashed interest rates by a quarter percent on Wednesday, the Baltimore Sun reports. The Fed said there is risk of "further economic weakness."
• After the Fed's announcement, stocks "tumbled in a broad decline," the New York Times reports.
• AOL Time Warner announced Tuesday that it will cut 1,200 jobs at its AOL Internet unit, UPI reports.

• The National Institutes of Health will release a study this week saying that the "federal government should not attempt to recoup potentially lucrative royalties from the billions of dollars it spends on biomedical research every year, suggesting that such a move might discourage extensive research funded by both government and industry," the Boston Globe reports.
• The Bush administration is considering "encouraging airports to charge carriers a premium for scheduling flights at busy travel hours as a way to ease air-travel gridlock," the Wall Street Journal reports.
• The White House commission on Social Security reform will reconvene today to "hear testimony from experts including Roger Mehle, executive director of the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board, which oversees the Thrift Savings Plan, a 401(k)-style retirement plan for federal employees," Reuters reports.
• The welfare reform bill signed by former President Bill Clinton is five years old today, USA Today reports. "The welfare law expires Sept. 30, 2002, and requires new legislation to continue."

• Undersecretary of State for arms control and international security John R. Bolton said Tuesday that "the United States had given Russia an unofficial deadline of November to agree to changes in the Antiballistic Missile Treaty or face a unilateral American withdrawal from the arms control accord," the New York Times reports. Bolton's comments will be aired on Russian radio today.
• The Bush administration has determined that "the terrorists involved in a 1995 assassination plot against President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt no longer enjoy the protection of Sudan," and the United States is considering easing sanctions on Sudan, AP reports.
• "The Pentagon is resuming limited military exchanges with China, but has no schedule for resuming a high-level strategic dialogue with the Chinese military," the Washington Times reports.
• The United Nations said Tuesday that the United States' debt to the world body "has reached a record high of $2.33 billion as of July 31," Reuters reports.

• Today NATO "authorized the deployment of 3,500 allied troops to Macedonia," AP reports.
• On Monday gunmen in Kosovo "shot dead five members of an ethnic Albanian family traveling together in a car," Reuters reports.
• "Israeli soldiers shot dead four Palestinians on Wednesday, hours after Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat agreed to hold cease-fire talks," MSNBC.com reports.

• The FBI arrested eight people Tuesday "in what authorities say was a nationwide scheme that fixed promotional games sponsored by McDonald's restaurants and denied customers $13 million in cash, vacations and new cars over the past six years," USA Today reports.
• A federal jury in Texas began deciding Tuesday "who is responsible -- and how much they might pay -- for a March 2000 accident in which a Ford Explorer rolled over after a Firestone tire lost its tread," USA Today reports.

• Sen. Jesse Helms, R-N.C., "plans to announce tonight that he won't run for a sixth term in 2002, signaling the end of three decades in the U.S. Senate and an era in N.C. politics," the Charlotte Observer reports.
• Republican Elizabeth Dole said she will give "serious consideration" to the race, and "others considering the GOP primary include" former Sen. Lauch Faircloth, former Charlotte Mayor Richard Vinroot and Rep. Richard Burr of Winston-Salem, the Raleigh News & Observer reports.
• Although Helms "has remained sharp mentally, a variety of physical problems have frustrated him in recent years, including a nerve condition in his legs that limits his ability to walk," the Winston-Salem Journal reports.

• The Virginia "gubernatorial campaigns are debating the debates," the Richmond Times-Dispatch reports. Republican Mark Earley "wants nine joint appearances and alleges" that Democrat Mark Warner "will be hiding from the public in the last six weeks of the campaign."
• New Jersey gubernatorial candidate Jim McGreevey (D) "acknowledged yesterday that for years he left the impression that he spent his entire undergraduate career at Columbia University, even though he earned almost half his college credits elsewhere," the Newark Star-Ledger reports.
• Bill Schluter, a Republican-turned-independent candidate for governor of New Jersey, "has two problems with campaign contributions" -- that "they corrupt the system" and that "he can't get any," the Newark Star-Ledger reports. At a news conference yesterday, "Schluter admitted he is about $150,000 short of the $260,000 he needs to qualify for public matching funds."
• Chicago Mayor Richard Daley (D) said his brother, former Commerce Secretary and Gore 2000 Chairman Bill Daley (D), who is considering a run for Illinois governor, "is free to disagree with him on issues" and that "he has no intention of pressuring Democratic ward bosses to line up behind Bill Daley's campaign," the Chicago Sun-Times reports.
• A new Harris Interactive poll in Wisconsin showed Republican Gov. Scott McCallum "narrowly trailed" Democratic Attorney General James Doyle and "narrowly led" Democratic U.S. Rep. Tom Barrett. McCallum "had a wider margin over Democratic state Sen. Gary George," the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports.

• Ed Cunningham (D) "a sports lawyer and former University of Texas football star," on Tuesday declared his candidacy for Senate in Texas, the Houston Chronicle reports. Cunningham "may face a primary battle with former Texas Attorney General Dan Morales or Dallas Mayor Ron Kirk."
• Rep. Greg Ganske, R-Iowa, the "heavy favorite to win a Republican primary," on Tuesday picked up an endorsement from Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, the Des Moines Register reports. Ganske's potential race with Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin (D) "is considered one of the most competitive Senate contests in the country."

• Rep. Gary Condit, D-Calif., today "will send out letters to every household in his district -- 250,000 letters timed to arrive Thursday ahead of his interview with ABC's Connie Chung," CNN.com reports. Condit also "will give more interviews to the news media."
• "A top aide" to Montana Gov. Judy Martz (R) "was charged Tuesday with negligent homicide for a crash last week that killed the majority leader of the state House," Tribune News Services reports.
• "Sexgate squealer Linda Tripp is crying poverty in a fund-raising letter sent to Republican supporters," the New York Post reports. Tripp wants supporters "to sign a form letter to President Bush, asking him to find 'a meaningful position in your administration'" for her.
• Retired Gen. Wesley Clark, who oversaw U.S. military operations in Bosnia, "was set to make a bid for public office" in Arkansas but has "surprised" state "political bigs" by "signing on as a military and current affairs analyst with CNN," U.S. News & World Report's "Washington Whispers" reports.