The GOP-controlled House on Thursday passed a $42.3 billion budget for the government's homeland security efforts after a debate that demonstrated resistance for some of the spending cuts required under austere budget times.

The measure passed 231-188 after lawmakers eased cuts to popular grant programs for local fire departments and after GOP conservatives tried but failed in several attempts to add millions of dollars to a variety of border security initiatives.

It's the first of the 12 annual spending bills funding the day-to-day operations of federal agencies for the budget year beginning Oct. 1. It's also the first concrete step to implement the budget blueprint approved by House Republicans in April.

The homeland security measure bears a $1.1 billion cut of almost 3 percent from the spending levels for the ongoing budget year that were enacted in April in a compromise between House Republicans and President Barack Obama.

But far more stringent spending bills — they contain cuts to health research, student aid, food aid for low-income pregnant women and energy efficiency programs — will follow this summer.

Republicans focused the homeland security cuts on port and transit security grants, awards for high-risk cities, and grants to local fire departments to help them with salaries and equipment purchases, proposing to slash them by $2.1 billion below Obama's requests — cuts of more than half.

On Wednesday a bipartisan coalition of lawmakers restored $320 million in cuts to grants for fire departments by a sweeping 333-87 vote, but only by imposing an unrealistic cut on the agency's bureaucratic operations.

A former Vermont property manager admitted on Thursday that he's guilty of fraud in the collapse of a Montpelier company.

Sixty-four-year-old James Pumpelly, of Lake Charles, La., pleaded guilty Thursday to two counts of fraud stemming from his work with Parkside Management and Rentals Co., which managed residential apartments in central Vermont on behalf of landlords.

Federal prosecutors say Pumpelly misappropriated tens of thousands of dollars in rent money - some of it federal rent subsidy money - that Parkside collected on behalf of the landlords, diverting it for his use and that of his ex-girlfriend, Julie Clemons.

Clemons, who owned Parkside Management, wasn't charged.

Sentencing was set for Oct. 11 in U.S. District Court in Brattleboro. He could get 10 years in prison and $250,000 in fines on each count.

The driver of a low-cost interstate bus service was charged with four counts of involuntary manslaughter Friday following a brief court appearance on another charge stemming from this week's crash in Virginia that killed four passengers and injured dozens more.

Kin Yiu Cheung, 37, of Flushing, N.Y., had been free on bond, but he was arrested on the new charges shortly after appearing in Caroline County court Friday morning. Cheung was in court to answer to a misdemeanor reckless driving charge stemming from the Tuesday crash on Interstate 95 about 30 miles north of Richmond.

The new charges are felonies, each carrying a sentence of up to 10 years in prison.

"It's never easy to make determinations to bring serious charges, but there was enough evidence to bring the charge," Caroline County Commonwealth Attorney Anthony Spencer said after Cheung's arrest.

Police say Cheung was fatigued when the Sky Express bus he was driving swerved off the highway shortly before 5 a.m., hit an embankment and overturned. It had departed Greensboro, N.C., Monday night bound for New York City with 58 people.

Cheung's lawyer, Murray Janus, called the wreck a "tragic accident," adding he had not had time to talk to Cheung after his latest arrest.

A former animal research technician faces sentencing for killing a Yale University graduate student days before her wedding.

Twenty-six-year-old Raymond Clark III is scheduled to be sentenced Friday in New Haven Superior Court.

Clark pleaded guilty to murder in March to attempted sexual assault of 24-year-old Annie Le of Placerville, Calif., under an agreement with prosecutors that calls for a 44-year sentence. The plea was entered under Connecticut's Alford doctrine, where the defendant doesn't agree to the facts, but agrees the state has enough evidence to get a conviction.

Le's body was found stuffed behind a lab wall on Sept. 13, 2009, five days after she was last seen inside the Yale medical building. It would have been her wedding day.

Le's mother and Clark's relatives are expected to speak.