Nation briefs 3/29/04

Hoover's hometown winces at Democrat jabs

WEST BRANCH, Iowa -- The Democrats say it over and over: George W. Bush is the first president since Herbert Hoover to lose jobs on his watch. When they hear it, the folks in West Branch wince. "They've dug up poor Mr. Hoover again and tried to turn him into the boogeyman of the campaign," said Tim Walch, director of the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum. Both are in sight of Hoover's birthplace and the hill on which the 31st president is buried. Admirers defend the Hoover administration and point out that the former president became one of the great humanitarians of the 20th century with his efforts to stop world hunger.

Ohio sniper investigation tops $3 million in costs

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- The investigation into a deadly string of highway sniper attacks cost more than $3 million in overtime pay, aircraft surveillance and equipment such as security cameras, a newspaper reported. City, state and federal agencies spent a total of about $750,000 each month of a four-month investigation that led to the arrest of Charles McCoy Jr., according to a story in Sunday's edition of The Columbus Dispatch. The newspaper surveyed 10 agencies that participated in the investigation. McCoy is in jail, charged with felonious assault for a Dec. 15 shooting of a house while two people were inside. He is a suspect in two dozen shootings at cars, schools and homes, many of them along a 50-mile stretch of Interstate 270 around Columbus. One person was killed.

-- From wire reports