The Earlybird: Today's headlines

Fox's plea, Domenici's surplus plan, Microsoft's good news, DNC's McGreevey ads, Riordan's prostate cancer, Condit's decision:

• President Bush and Mexican President Vicente Fox visited the "strong Hispanic community" of Toledo, Ohio, on Thursday to discuss immigration and economic ties with a crowd of 8,000 at the University of Toledo, the Toledo Blade reports. Fox asked "the hundreds of migrant workers who took a day off from northwest Ohio's fields to witness the historic trip" to "consider coming back to help Mexico build a middle class."
• Fox spoke to a joint session of Congress Thursday, and he asked legislators "to advance the North American Free Trade Agreement by allowing Mexican trucks to travel unrestricted into the United States, and to give illegal Mexican immigrants living and working in the United States the dignity of legal status," the Houston Chronicle reports.
• Fox's speech "was well-received by those who heard it," the Boston Globe reports. "But many members of the House were missing, and their seats were occupied by congressional pages."
• Bush "said he would ask Congress to legalize Mexican aliens if they would take jobs others pass up and called for the abolition of laws that bar American companies from employing border-jumpers," the Washington Times reports.
• Congressional Democrats "vowed to push for immigration reform," and the Senate Thursday "approved a temporary measure that would allow immigrants likely to receive resident status -- those with a job offer or a family relationship with a U.S. citizen -- to stay in the United States while they go through the process," Reuters reports.

• Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., broke with the position of leaders from both parties and suggested Thursday that Congress "dip into Social Security surpluses to meet the nation's education and defense needs and avoid a budget squeeze," Reuters reports.
• On Thursday House Republicans held a closed-door meeting and discussed a new "economic growth package, including capital gains tax cuts," the Washington Times reports.
• Republicans are likely to seek "across-the-board cuts" in spending programs for fiscal year 2002, the Wall Street Journal's "Washington Wire" reports.
• This morning the chairmen and ranking members of the congressional appropriations committees will meet with Office of Management and Budget Director Mitch Daniels to discuss spending bills, CongressDailyAM reports.

• The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee "is taking a second look at" Donald Schregardus, President Bush's nominee as assistant administrator for enforcement and compliance at the Environmental Protection Agency, "after a federal report said the Ohio agency he ran failed to enforce some clean air laws," AP reports.
• On Thursday the House "approved a long-awaited agreement normalizing U.S. trade relations with Vietnam," the Wall Street Journal reports.
• Vice President Dick Cheney on Thursday missed a General Accounting Office "deadline to release details of who his energy task force met with as it crafted President Bush's energy plan," MSNBC.com reports.

• The Justice Department on Thursday "signaled its desire to quickly resolve the antitrust lawsuit against Microsoft Corp. on Thursday by dropping threats to dismember the company and to retry other aspects of its case," the Dallas Morning News reports.
• A federal judge on Thursday "temporarily halted a Bush administration plan to promote private prescription drug discount cards under Medicare," AP reports.
• A federal judge in Philadelphia "tightened conditions of bail" Thursday for former Rep. Edward Mezvinsky, D-Iowa, "after the government complained that the former U.S. representative appeared to be continuing behavior that led to his indictment on fraud and related charges this year," the Philadelphia Inquirer reports.

• "Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres said yesterday that he intended to meet Palestinian leader Yasir Arafat next week in the Middle East to look for a way to end the violence that has cost more than 700 lives over the last 11 months," the Philadelphia Inquirer reports.
• Meanwhile, Arafat's "administration is discussing a power-sharing proposal with Hamas, the radical Islamic group behind a wave of suicide bombings against Israelis," the Boston Globe reports.
• "Israeli helicopters fired missiles yesterday at a vehicle carrying Palestinian militants, killing two but inflicting only minor wounds on a defiant militia leader who boasted afterward of his deadly attacks against Israelis," AP reports.

• Colombian President Andres Pastrana -- "one of Washington's closest allies in the global war on drugs" -- said Thursday that the drug war "has produced few victories," AP reports.
• "A Russian rocket that had orbited the Earth since 1975 re-entered the atmosphere Thursday, its fiery debris creating a spectacular early-morning light show along much of the East Coast," AP reports.

• "TV industry sources with no affiliation to either campaign said" Virginia gubernatorial nominee Mark Warner (D) "has reserved $4 million in air time from now through election night, a dominance that GOP strategists said could all but drown out" GOP opponent Mark Earley "in the campaign's final days," the Washington Post reports.
• Earley "announced his anti-drug policy, so far the centerpiece of his public-safety plan," in Richmond, Va., yesterday, the Washington Times reports.
• The Democratic National Committee "plans to spend $1.6 million on television ads" for Jim McGreevey (D), "the candidate for New Jersey governor who fought in court to keep Republicans from doing the same thing for his opponent," AP reports.
• New Jersey Republican gubernatorial candidate Bret Schundler "is expected to accompany" first lady Laura Bush to a New Jersey library "late this month," the AP reports. The visit "is drawing a mixed reaction."
• "After months of considering his chances," Rep. Jim Davis, D-Fla., "a favorite son of Florida's Democratic Party leadership, said late Thursday he will not run" for governor, the Miami Herald reports. Davis "declined to say" whether former Attorney General Janet Reno's "entrance affected his decision."
• Acting Massachusetts Gov. Jane Swift (R) "has quietly turned to a liberal Republican leader, Martin Linksy, to lead her search for a lieutenant governor candidate," the Boston Globe reports. "Swift's first choice as a running mate is Suffolk District Attorney Ralph C. Martin II," but Martin "remains undecided."
• Former Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan (R), who is considering a California gubernatorial bid in 2002, "revealed Thursday that he secretly underwent 44 days of radiation treatments for prostate cancer while serving out his second term in City Hall," and he "said he is now free of all signs of disease," the Los Angeles Times reports.

• "Some GOP consultants believe" Sen. Phil Gramm, R-Texas, "might be tempted to leave the Senate early if he were assured of a major presidential appointment or if he were offered the presidency of Texas A&M University, where he once taught economics," the Dallas Morning News reports.
• Sen. Fred Thompson, R-Tenn., "could announce" his re-election "intentions tomorrow at the annual state Republican fund-raiser in Nashville," AP reports.
• President Bush is recruiting Georgia Reps. Saxby Chambliss (R) and Nathan Deal (R) to challenge Sen. Max Cleland (D), and Bush "still hopes" former Montana Gov. Marc Racicot (R) "will be persuaded to oppose" Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., "a big Democratic ally on tax cuts," the Wall Street Journal's "Washington Wire" reports.

• A new Boston Globe/WBZ-TV poll of the Massachusetts 09 special election race shows state Sen. Stephen Lynch (D) "drew 40 percent of likely Democratic primary voters surveyed," followed by state Sen. Cheryl Jacques (D) with 21 percent and state Sen. Brian Joyce (D) with 18 percent, the Boston Globe reports.
• Arkansas 3rd District candidate state Rep. Mike Hathorn (D) "claimed before a crowd of 200 people last week that he was proud to have been a co-sponsor of hate-crime legislation in the last legislative session," but his name is not "listed among the House sponsors of the hate-crime bill," the Arkansas Democrat Gazette reports.

• Rep. Gary Condit, D-Calif., "privately informed colleagues that he is leaning toward retiring from Congress at the end of his current term," the Washington Post reports. He "emphasized that he would like to make the decision on his own timetable, rather than bowing to pressure from party leaders." He "has until Dec. 7 to decide."
• A California grand jury Thursday "reviewed allegations" that Condit "obstructed justice when he asked flight attendant Anne Marie Smith to sign an affidavit stating they didn't have an affair," AP reports.

• California Gov. Gray Davis (D) "signed a bill allowing prosecution of anyone with custody of a vicious dog -- not just the owner -- to be prosecuted if the canine seriously injures or kills someone," AP reports.
• South Carolina first lady Rachel Hodges "was admitted to Columbia's Providence Hospital Thursday morning for treatment of diverticulitis," the Columbia State reports. She had experienced "severe abominable pain."

• On Thursday the Secret Service arrested an unidentified 44-year-old man who "climbed a fence at the northwest corner of the White House grounds," the New York Times reports.
• "'Doonesbury' creator Garry Trudeau apologized on the strip's Web site for using an Internet hoax on presidential IQs as the basis for Sunday's strip," FoxNews.com reports.
• This weekend is the National Book Festival -- the "first major event of its kind" in Washington -- at the festival grounds at the Library of Congress. The Washington Post has a schedule of events.