Obama cuts prison sentences for 42 drug offenders
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama shortened the sentences Friday of 42 people serving time for drug-related offenses, continuing a push for clemency that has ramped up in the final year of his administration.
Roughly half of the 42 receiving commutations Friday were serving life sentences. Most are nonviolent offenders, although a few were also charged with firearms violations. The White House said many of them would have already finished their sentences if they had been sentenced under current, less onerous sentencing guidelines.
The latest group of commutations brings to 348 the total number of inmates whose sentences Obama has commuted — more than the past seven presidents combined, the White House said. The pace of commutations and the rarer use of pardons are expected to increase as the end of Obama’s presidency nears.
“He remains committed to using his clemency power throughout the remainder of the administration to give more deserving individuals that same second chance,” White House counsel Neil Eggleston wrote in a blog post.
Eggleston added that the offenders receiving commutations had “more than repaid their debt to society and earned this second chance.”
At least 117 bodies found off Libya as smuggling boat sinks
ATHENS, Greece (AP) — More than 110 bodies were found along a Libyan beach after a smuggling boat of mostly African migrants sank, while a separate search-and-rescue operation across the Mediterranean saved 340 people Friday and recovered nine bodies.
The developments were the latest deadly disasters for refugees and migrants seeking a better life in Europe, and they followed the drownings of more than 1,000 people since May 25 while attempting the long and perilous journey from North Africa to southern Europe.
As traffickers take advantage of improving weather, officials say it is impossible to know how many unseaworthy boats are being launched — and how many never reach their destination. Naval operations in the southern Mediterranean, coordinated by Italy, have been stretched just responding to the disasters they do hear about.
At least 117 bodies —75 women, six children and 36 men — washed up on a beach or were pulled from the water near the western Libyan city of Zwara Thursday and Friday, Mohammed al-Mosrati, a spokesman for Libya’s Red Crescent, told The Associated Press. All but a few were from African countries. The death toll was expected to rise.
The children were aged between 7 and 10, said Bahaa al-Kwash, a top media official in the Red Crescent.
Oregon train derailment spills oil, sparks fire
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — A train towing cars full of oil derailed Friday in Oregon’s scenic Columbia River Gorge, sparking a fire that sent a plume of black smoke high into the sky.
The accident happened around noon near the town of Mosier, about 70 miles east of Portland. It involved eight cars filled with oil, and one was burning, said Ken Armstrong, state Forestry Department spokesman.
Highway 84 was closed for a 23-mile stretch between The Dalles and Mosier and the radius for evacuations was a half-mile.
About 200 students were evacuated from an elementary and middle school near the scene.
The train was operated by Union Pacific. Railroad spokesman Justin Jacobs didn’t return calls.
Fort Hood officials were closing roads as truck overturned
FORT HOOD, Texas (AP) — Fort Hood commanders were in the process of closing roads on the sprawling Army post in Central Texas when a truck carrying 12 soldiers overturned in a fast-flowing flooded creek during a training exercise, killing five and leaving four missing, officials said Friday.
The portion of road on the northern fringe of the post where the Light Medium Tactical Vehicle overturned Thursday hadn’t been overrun by water during past floods, Fort Hood spokesman Chris Haug said. The vehicle resembles a flatbed truck with a walled bed and is used to carry troops.
He said during a news conference Friday that the soldiers were being trained on how to operate the 2½-ton truck when it overturned along Owl Creek, about 70 miles north of Austin.
“It was a situation where the rain had come, the water was rising quickly and we were in the process, at the moment of the event, of closing the roads,” Haug said.
Soldiers on training exercises regularly contend with high-water situations following heavy rains, he said.
