Nation and World briefs for June 6

Judge sets hearing on Manafort witness tampering allegations

WASHINGTON — A federal judge will weigh whether to jail former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort while he awaits trial after prosecutors accused him of making several attempts to tamper with witnesses in his criminal case.

U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson on Tuesday set a hearing for next week and gave Manafort until Friday to respond to the allegations made by special counsel Robert Mueller’s team that Manafort and one of his associates “repeatedly” contacted two witnesses in an effort to influence their testimony.

Prosecutors say the contacts via phone and encrypted messaging applications occurred earlier this year, shortly after a grand jury returned a new indictment against Manafort and while he was confined to his home. The associate’s contacts occurred in February and April, they say.

The filing marks the second time that Mueller’s team has accused Manafort of violating a judge’s order in the case. Late last year, federal agents discovered that Manafort was attempting to ghostwrite an opinion piece in Ukraine even though he was under a gag order in the case.

In a statement, Manafort spokesman Jason Maloni said, “Mr. Manafort is innocent and nothing about this latest allegation changes our defense. We will do our talking in court.”

Swimmer sets off in attempt to be first to cross Pacific

TOKYO — Professional distance swimmer Ben Lecomte set off from Japan to San Francisco on Tuesday in an attempt to become the first person to swim across the Pacific Ocean.

Spokesman Alexandre Borreil said Lecomte left at 8 a.m. on Tuesday from Choshi, Japan, which is northeast of Tokyo in neighboring Chiba prefecture. He is expected to swim eight hours daily on a journey that could take six to eight months and will cover about 8,000 kilometers (5,000 miles).

“For the moment we know he left and everything went well,” Borreil said.

Organizers say Lecomte completed a similar swim across the Atlantic in 1998.

He’s doing this swim to raise awareness about the health of the world’s oceans and the threat of pollution.

Scientific teams accompanying Lecomte will collect more than 1,000 water samples and study plastic pollution, mammal migration and the effect of extreme endurance events on the human body.

Warriors, Cavaliers say they’re not going to White House

CLEVELAND — Stephen Curry and LeBron James spoke their minds last year. They have not changed their minds this year.

No matter whose team wins the NBA championship, neither superstar will be at the White House anytime soon.

On the day when the Philadelphia Eagles were supposed to be there to commemorate winning the Super Bowl — a visit that was canceled by President Donald Trump and had the White House accusing players who weren’t planning on attending of abandoning their fans — Curry and James were among those speaking out at the NBA Finals in support of the Eagles.

“I’m not surprised. It’s typical of him,” James, the Cleveland star, said of Trump’s decision to cancel. “I know no matter who wins this series, no one wants the invite anyway. So it won’t be Golden State or Cleveland going.”

On the eve of Game 3 of the Warriors-Cavaliers series, politics dominated the conversation.

Handbag designer Kate Spade found dead in apparent suicide

NEW YORK — Kate Spade, a fashion designer known for her sleek handbags, was found dead in her Park Avenue apartment Tuesday in an apparent suicide, police said. She was 55.

News of her death shocked the fashion world and led to an outpouring of tributes from her legions of fans.

A housekeeper discovered Spade’s body hanging in her bedroom, police said. While investigators were still in the early stages of their inquiry, the department’s chief of detectives, Dermot Shea, said evidence including a note pointed to “a tragic suicide.”

Shea wouldn’t discuss what was in the note, but law enforcement officials told The Associated Press that, among other things, it contained a message to Spade’s 13-year-old daughter, saying it was not her fault. The officials were not authorized to speak publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

“We are all devastated by today’s tragedy,” Spade’s family said in a statement through a spokesman. “We loved Kate dearly and will miss her terribly. We would ask that our privacy be respected as we grieve during this very difficult time.”

Trustees report warns Medicare finances worsening

WASHINGTON — Medicare will run out of money sooner than expected, and Social Security’s financial problems can’t be ignored either, the government said Tuesday in a sobering checkup on programs vital to the middle class.

The report from program trustees says Medicare will become insolvent in 2026 — three years earlier than previously forecast. Its giant trust fund for inpatient care won’t be able to fully cover projected medical bills starting at that point.

The report says Social Security will become insolvent in 2034 — no change from the projection last year.

The warning serves as a reminder of major issues left to languish while Washington plunges deeper into partisan strife. Because of the deterioration in Medicare’s finances, officials said the Trump administration will be required by law to send Congress a plan next year to address the problems, after the president’s budget is submitted.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in a statement that there’s time to fix the problems. “The programs remain secure,” Mnuchin said. Medicare “is on track to meet its obligations to beneficiaries well into the next decade.”

Suspect in 6 Arizona killings never got over his divorce

PHOENIX — Dwight Lamon Jones apparently never put his bitter divorce behind him.

Almost eight years after splitting from his wife, the Phoenix-area man began confronting people connected with the breakup and shooting them, killing six people in four days last week before ending his own life as police drew near, authorities said.

A day after Jones’ death, police said they did not know why he waited so long to seek vengeance. But experts said it’s not unusual for killers who feel wronged by catastrophic life events to wait years to settle old scores.

“Most mass killings in American history were planned over months and years,” said Jack Levin, a professor emeritus of sociology and criminology at Northeastern University in Boston and author of several books on serial killings and mass murderers. He said the planning brings pleasure to would-be killers.

Details of the 2010 divorce emerged in court documents, which showed Jones walked away from the marriage with a Mercedes, a $100,000 lump-sum payment and $6,000-a-month alimony payments provided by his ex-wife, a radiologist.

2 charged in death of Missouri man entombed in concrete

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — More than a year after a developmentally disabled Missouri man’s body was found encased in concrete, two people who are accused in a lawsuit of making him fight for their entertainment have been charged in his death, a prosecutor announced Tuesday.

Sherry Paulo, 53, and Anthony R. Flores, 58, both of Fulton, were arrested and charged Tuesday with involuntary manslaughter in 61-year-old Carl DeBrodie’s death. They were also charged with client neglect, felony abandonment of a corpse, and two misdemeanors of making a false report of a missing person.

Paulo and Flores were responsible for DeBrodie’s care at Second Chance Homes in Fulton. Investigators say DeBrodie went missing from the home in the fall of 2016, but that his disappearance wasn’t reported until April 17, 2017, a week before his body was found in a container encased in concrete inside a Fulton storage unit.

A lawsuit filed last week by DeBrodie’s mother alleged that he died after he and another resident at Second Chance were taken to the home of Paulo and Flores, where they were required to do manual labor and fight each other for the entertainment of others. The lawsuit alleges DeBrodie, who was already seriously ill, died after the couple left him bleeding and injured in a bathtub. It also alleges they disposed of his body.

Callaway County Prosecutor Christopher Wilson did not address the fighting allegations in a news release Tuesday and said he would not answer further questions. The indictments allege that the elder Flores and Paulo didn’t properly care for DeBrodie and recklessly caused his death by failing to get medical help when he was suffering a medical emergency. The indictments also allege the two disposed of DeBrodie’s corpse at the storage unit without notifying authorities.