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In the Nation

WASHINGTON

Obama commutes drug terms for 22

President Obama on Tuesday shortened the prison sentences of 22 drug convicts, including some serving life in prison, in an act the White House said continues Obama's push to make the justice system fairer by reducing harsh sentences that were handed down under outdated guidelines.

The effort could lead Obama to grant clemency more often as his second and final term in office winds down.

In December, Obama issued his first round of commutations under new guidelines that were put in place to cut costs by reducing the growing prison population and to grant leniency to nonviolent drug offenders sentenced to years-long terms of confinement away from society. A commutation leaves the conviction in place and ends the punishment.

Obama has approved 43 commutations.

- AP
CALIFORNIA

Two killed at office

A man and a woman were found dead after the man stormed a medical office building in downtown Fresno and shot the mother of his five children at close range and then killed himself, police in central California said Tuesday. In a chaotic scene, people hid in bathrooms at the Eye Medical Clinic and were seen climbing from the windows of the ground-level building as police arrived.

- AP

CALIFORNIA

Armed man at college

Police at the University of California, Irvine, detained a man who was seen carrying a gun on campus. Students were told to shelter in place shortly before 3 p.m. Tuesday after the report involving a tall, bald man near some flagpoles. University spokeswoman Cathy Lawhon said the man apparently dropped the concealed gun, then picked it up and concealed it again and kept walking toward a plaza that houses the School of the Arts.

- AP