Page 7 - 4-3-15 Friday's Edition

Presidential News
Letter President Obama Sent To Inmate Who’s Sentence Was Commuted Revealed
President Obama commuted the sentence of 22 federal prisoners who were serving time for drug-re- lated crimes.
President Obama has done this in the past; saying that under current laws those inmates would have already been released.
His senior advisor, Valerie Jarrett, tweeted a picture of the letter the President sent Terry Andre Barnes, who was sentenced to more than 20 years in prison in 2005, for "conspiracy to distribute cocaine base." Barnes is now expected to be released July 28.
"The White House said Pres. Obama made the move in order to grant to older prisoners the same le- niency that would be given to people convicted of the same crimes today.
'Had they been sentenced under current laws and policies, many of these individuals would have already served their time and paid their debt to society,' White House Counsel Neil Eggleston said in a statement. 'Because many were convicted under an outdated sentencing regime, they served years—in some cases more than a decade—longer than individuals convicted today of the same crime.'
President Attends Pizza Party Fundraiser
Everyone loves a good pizza party—even the President and the Democratic National Com- mittee, apparently. While in Boston for the dedication of the Edward M. Kennedy Institute of the U. S. Senate on Monday, President Obama stopped by for a bite at the Cambridge Restaurant known for its pizza, Area Four.
“We had a very special visitor for lunch today...@barackobama #presidentialpizzaparty,” the eatery captioned a photo of Pres. Obama’s motorcade.
The lunch was part of a DNC “roundtable” fundraiser, which raised $33,400, according to The Boston Globe.
“The lunch was an intimate
Pres. Obama attended a pizza party fundraiser in Boston.
affair, with about 30 guests, many of whom were business leaders in the Boston area,” a spokesperson for the restaurant said. “During the lunch, the group touched upon topics in- cluding health care, environ- mental and foreign affairs.”
President Obama Reveals Strategy On Combating Climate Change Crisis
WASHINGTON — The White House on Tuesday intro- duced President Obama’s blueprint for cutting green- house gas emissions in the United States by nearly a third over the next decade.
Mr. Obama’s plan, part of a formal written submission to the United Nations ahead of ef- forts to forge a global climate change accord in Paris in De- cember, detailed the United States’ part of an ambitious joint pledge made by Mr. Obama and President Xi Jinping of China in November.
The United States and China are the world’s two largest greenhouse gas polluters. Mr. Obama said the United States would cut its emissions by 26 to 28 percent by 2025, while Mr. Xi said that China’s emissions would drop after 2030.
Mr. Obama’s
new blueprint
brings together
several domestic
initiatives that
were already in
the works, in-
cluding freezing
construction of
new coal-fired
power plants, in-
creasing the fuel the crisis. economy of vehicles and plug- ging methane leaks from oil and gas production. It is meant to describe how the United States will lead by example and meet its pledge for cutting emissions.
But the plan’s reliance on ex- ecutive authority is an acknowl- edgment that any proposal to pass climate change legislation would be blocked by the Re- publican-controlled Congress.
President Obama Urges Congress To Follow
Ted Kennedy's Example
President Barack Obama lamented the increas- ingly partisan nature of Con- gressional politics and called on leaders in Washington to follow the example set by the late Sen. Ted Kennedy dur- ing the dedication of an insti- tute named for the "liberal lion" on Monday.
The speakers reflected on Kennedy's life while also fondly recalling the ways Con- gress used to operate.
The $79 million institute, which was built next to John F. Kennedy's presidential library, features a full-size replica of the Senate chamber. Kennedy spent 47 years in the Senate and thought up the institute before his death in 2009. The goal is to help restore public faith in an institution that the
President Obama speaks at the dedication of the Sen. Ted Kennedy Institute.
public has little confidence in. "This is not the time for me to suggest a slew of ideas for re- form, although I do have some,” Pres. Obama said. "Maybe I'll just mention one. What if we carried ourselves more like Ted Kennedy? What if we worked to follow his
example a little bit harder?"
Climate envoy official Todd Stern talks about
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