NATION
The House on Crime
Brushing aside threats of a presidential veto, House Republicans passed the most controversial portion of their rewrite of last year's Crime Bill (not including, that is, a possible repeal of the assault-weapons ban). By a vote of 238 to 192, the House scrapped a $13 billion outlay for new police officers and crime-prevention programs in favor of doling out $10 billion worth of block grants that communities could spend as they saw fit. Some Senate Republicans-worried that voting down money earmarked for police might not play too well to the public-indicated the measure might be reworked...