From this morning's Earlybird:

• "Farm-state lawmakers added their voices to those looking to protect the pork industry from bad press about the swine flu," The Hill reports. "And the first offensive they launched was against their own colleagues. On Wednesday morning the House Agriculture Committee majority staff sent an e-mail out to all Democratic press secretaries asking them to stop referring to the Mexican-born flu as the 'swine flu' and imploring them to stop using pig graphics on their webpages."

• "Although the Air Force chief and Lockheed are staying out of the public brawling," Defense Secretary Robert Gates' "decision to cap new purchases of F-22s at 187 sparked a wave of protest from retired generals, aerospace industry advocates, unions and interested members of Congress, who have rallied to defend the fifth-generation fighter jet -- on both economic and national security grounds," Politico reports.

• "A federal court in Florida is scheduled to begin a criminal trial next month featuring an intriguing cast of characters, with multiple links to the PMA Group and other entities in the orbit of Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.) that are under investigation by the FBI," Roll Call (subscription) reports. "Neither Murtha nor PMA is mentioned in the Florida case."