In brief: Obama cuts sentences of 46 drug offenders

WASHINGTON – Calling America “a nation of second chances,” President Barack Obama cut the prison sentences of 46 non-violent drug offenders Monday in what the White House hopes will be just one prong of a broader push to make the criminal justice system fairer while saving the government money.

Fourteen of those whose sentences were commuted had been sentenced to life in prison and the vast majority to at least 20 years, the president said in a video released by the White House, adding that “their punishments didn’t fit the crime.”

Since Congress enacted mandatory minimum sentences for drug crimes in the 1980s, the federal prison population has grown from 24,000 to more than 214,000, according to Families Against Mandatory Minimums, a group seeking sentencing changes.

And the costs, Obama said, are over $80 billion a year to incarcerate people who often “have only been engaged in nonviolent drug offenses.”

NYC to pay $5.9 million to Garner’s relatives

NEW YORK – Almost a year after Eric Garner’s controversial death, New York City settled a case brought by Garner’s relatives, agreeing Monday to pay $5.9 million.

Garner’s July 17 death during a clash with police “forced us to examine the state of race relations, and the relationship between our police force and the people they serve,” city Comptroller Scott Stringer said.

Cellphone video captured the 43-year-old father of six arguing with police as an officer tried to arrest him on suspicion of selling untaxed cigarettes on the sidewalk in the Tompkinsville section of Staten Island, N.Y.

Officer Daniel Pantaleo can be seen wrestling with Garner in the video, and he places Garner in what some have called a chokehold. “I can’t breathe,” Garner can be heard saying as he gasps for air.

Garner’s death was ruled a homicide due to compression of the neck and chest. A grand jury ultimately declined to indict Pantaleo.

Police captain’s son accused of terror plot

BOSTON – The son of a Boston police captain has been arrested in an FBI sting and accused of plotting to commit terrorist acts in support of the Islamic State group, including setting off pressure-cooker bombs at an unidentified university and the slaughter of students live online.

Alexander Ciccolo’s father alerted authorities last fall that the younger man had a long history of mental illness and was talking about joining the Islamic State, according to two law enforcement officials.

Ciccolo, 23, of Adams, was charged in a criminal complaint unsealed Monday with illegal possession of a firearm for receiving four guns July 4 from a person cooperating with the Western Massachusetts Joint Terrorism Task Force.