Mobster acquitted in ‘Goodfellas’ heist
NEW YORK – An aging mobster has been acquitted of charges he helped plan the 1978 Lufthansa heist that was retold in the hit Mafia movie “Goodfellas.”
A New York City jury reached the verdict Thursday at the federal racketeering trial of Vincent Asaro.
The 80-year-old Bonanno crime family member had remained in the shadows for decades after a $6 million armed robbery that was called the largest in U.S. history. But prosecutors charged him in 2014 after his cousin came forward to implicate him in the heist, a mob hit and other crimes.
The government’s evidence included secret recordings of Asaro complaining he didn’t get his fair share of the Lufthansa score.
Obama blasts Trump on immigration plan
WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama says Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s proposal to deport millions of undocumented immigrants is unrealistic and would cost the nation hundreds of billions of dollars.
In an interview Thursday with ABC News, Obama suggests imagining the images on screens flashed around the world as parents are dragged away from their children, put in detention centers and systematically sent out of the country.
He says that’s not “who we are as Americans.”
Trump has said the U.S. can successfully and humanely deport the estimated 11 million people living in the country illegally with a deportation force.
Fogle’s attorneys ask judge for leniency
INDIANAPOLIS – Jared Fogle’s attorneys asked a judge for leniency Thursday, saying in court documents that the former Subway pitchman “is profoundly sorry” as he awaits sentencing on child pornography and sex-crime charges.
Fogle’s lawyers are asking for a five-year prison term at next week’s sentencing, the minimum they said they would seek when he agreed in August to plead guilty to one count each of travelling to engage in illicit sexual conduct with a minor and distribution and receipt of child pornography.
Prosecutors submitted their own sentencing memorandum Thursday requesting a 12-year term, the most they’d agreed to seek under the plea deal, and a lifetime of supervision following his release.
Navy gets approval to test sonar system
SEATTLE –The National Marine Fisheries Service said Thursday it has authorized the Navy’s proposal to expand sonar testing and other warfare training off the Northwest coast, after determining the exercises would not have major impacts on endangered orcas and other marine mammals.
The Navy said the exercises are needed to ensure its forces are ready for conflicts and noted that it has trained for decades in the area without significant effects on the animals.
Associated Press
