Top lobbying stories from Earlybird, NationalJournal.com's daily news roundup:

• "A foreign national employed by a top Florida Republican fundraiser has been indicted in California, accused of steering illegal campaign contributions to Gov. Charlie Crist and three presidential candidates," the Miami Herald reports. "Federal prosecutors in Los Angeles charged Ala'a al-Ali of the Dominican Republic with using straw donors to give about $50,000 to presidential candidates John McCain, Rudy Giuliani and Hillary Clinton and $5,000 to Crist's 2006 campaign."

• A lobbyist "got scolded by name for trying to spy on an administration conference call with reporters Thursday," The Hill reports. "The call was set up for the press but, information being power, at least one lobbyist was dying to hear for herself what the OMB had to say."

• "The growing prospect that there may be federal action on climate change apparently has spawned a wave of lobbyists in Washington," the Baltimore Sun reports. "The Center for Public Integrity reports that in the past year, as climate legislation finally came to a vote on Capitol Hill, more than 770 companies and interest groups hired an estimated 2,340 lobbyists to influence federal policy."