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Obama pardons imprisoned drug offenders
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Monday - President Barack Obama granted eight
federal prison inmates pardons this year, all
serving lengthy sentences, half of them life
sentences, for drug offenses related to crack
cocaine and methamphetamine. Although this was
the same number of commutations granted in 2013,
many expected the number to be much greater given
the Justice Department's April announcement of a
new prison reform initiative aimed at making it
easier for the administration to pardon or reduce
sentences of non-violent offenders. The Obama
administration has consistently supported
measures aimed at reforming/changing mandatory
minimum prison sentencing for nonviolent drug
offenders. The forgiveness of a crime (pardon)
after a sentence is served is one of the few
presidential powers widely unchecked by Congress
or the courts. Commutations are traditionally
issued in the weeks leading up to the holidays.
This new policy dictates offenders must be
low-level, nonviolent and without a significant
criminal history. They also must have served at
least 10 years of their sentence and have
demonstrated good conduct in prison, with no
history of violence before or during their
incarceration. Obama has received 15,646
petitions for commutation since 2009 and, with
the addition of the eight granted this year, has
granted a total of 21. That's more than the
number granted by Presidents George W. Bush, Bill
Clinton and Ronald Reagan at the same stage in
their presidencies.
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In Other News

• The successor to Nintendo's troubled Wii U may be
  on the way. Shigeru Miyamoto, the man who created
  Nintendo classics such as "Mario Bros." and "The
  Legend of Zelda," says the Japanese gaming giant
  is at work on a new gaming console. "For the time
  being, our focus is on the Wii U hardware, but
  Nintendo as a whole has groups working on ideas
  for new hardware systems," he said. "While we're
  busy working on software for the Wii U, we have
  production lines that are working on ideas for
  what the next system might be. One of the most
  iconic names in video gaming, Nintendo dominated
  the market with its Wii console, which sold more
  than 100 million units after its release in 2006.
  But the follow-up, Wii U, with its handheld
  second-screen controller, failed to make a
  similar splash.
• Despite stricter requirements and tough new crash
  tests more vehicles earned top marks from the
  Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. This
  year, 71 vehicles earned the Insurance Institute
  for Highway Safety's Top Safety Pick awards
  compared to 39 last year. The Insurance
  Institute, a private group financed by auto
  insurers, puts vehicles through various crash
  tests to measure how well they protect occupants.
  These tests are different from those performed by
  the federal government's National Highway Traffic
  Safety Administration. The Insurance Institute
  reports its crash test results on a four-step
  scale Poor, Marginal, Acceptable and Good. To
  qualify for the Top Safety Pick Award a vehicle
  must get at least an Acceptable rating in the
  Institute's challenging Small Overlap Crash test
  and a Good rating in the Institute's other tests.
  The other tests measure performance in front
  impacts, side impacts, rollover crashes and, for
  whiplash protection, in rear-end collisions.