HOLYOKE (AP) — Holyoke police are searching for suspects in mid-afternoon gun battle in which a school bus with a 4-year-old girl on board was struck by a bullet.
Mayor Alex Morse says the Head Start bus was hit once near the intersection of Suffolk and Oak Streets at about 4:30 p.m. Tuesday. Police say it doesn’t appear the bus was targeted. Neither the girl nor the driver was injured.
BOSTON (AP) — Gov. Charlie Baker says the repeal of a state law that automatically suspended the driver’s licenses of drug offenders for up to five years is a positive step forward.
Surrounded by Democratic leaders in the Legislature, the Republican governor on Wednesday signed a bill that ends the 27-year-old policy.
Critics said the automatic license suspensions — even for less serious crimes that had nothing to do with driving — were an obstacle to drug offenders trying to get jobs and turn their lives around.
BOSTON (AP) — A Springfield man is among 61 drug offenders whose sentences have been shortened by President Barack Obama.
A federal judge in Massachusetts sentenced Manuel Colon to 20 years in 2007 for conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute cocaine, crack cocaine and heroin, and a related charge.
Under the president’s order, Colon, now 43, will be released July 28. Defense attorney Stephen Jonas last year wrote to the judge who sentenced Colon, saying his client already had served 12 years in prison since his 2013 arrest.
He said current sentencing guidelines would call for only seven to nine years in prison.
Jonas called Colon’s commutation “just and fair.”
“His 2003 offense was a non-violent, low-level drug offense. … He has been a model prisoner, received his GED, participated in programs to improve himself, and has strong family and community ties.
“Mr. Colon is ready and eager to come home and rebuild his life. He is deeply appreciative of the chance he was given to do so.”