National Roundup

New York
Senator arrested in alleged mayor election scheme
NEW YORK (AP) — New York state Sen. Malcolm Smith and a New York City councilman have been arrested in an alleged plot to rig the New York City mayor’s race.
The FBI says Smith and City Councilman Dan Halloran were arrested early Tuesday at their homes.
U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara says in a statement that Smith “tried to bribe his way” into a shot at the New York City mayoral race.
Bharara says Smith “drew up the game plan” and Halloran found party chairmen who were open to receiving bribes.
Also charged are: Bronx County Republican Party Chairman Joseph Savino; Queens County Republican Party Vice Chairman Vincent Tabone; Spring Valley Mayor Noramie Jasmin; and Spring Valley Deputy Mayor Joseph Desmaret.
The prosecutor says charges in the case include bribery, extortion, and wire and mail fraud.

Minnesota
Researcher said to have stolen formula for China
MILWAUKEE (AP) — A researcher at the Medical College of Wisconsin is charged with espionage after prosecutors say he stole details of a cancer-fighting compound that he wanted to share with China.
Prosecutors say Huajun Zhao stole the compound, C-25, and data that led to its development.
A federal criminal complaint says investigators found several hundred items related to research into C-25 on Zhao’s computer. Authorities found a grant application from Zhao, written in Mandarin, claiming he discovered the compound and seeking Chinese funding to continue research.
The 42-year-old Zhao is facing one count of economic espionage. A conviction carries a maximum 15 years in prison and a $500,000 fine.
Zhao’s attorney, Juval Scott, tells the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that Zhao is a “talented professional accused of a serious crime.”

California
Defense worker is arrested on bribery charges
SAN DIEGO (AP) — A Department of Defense employee who oversaw construction contracts at Camp Pendleton used his position to extort bribes from businesses seeking to work on the California Marine Corps base, federal prosecutors said Monday.
Natividad Lara Cervantes was arrested Thursday after authorities say he accepted $10,000 of a $40,000 bribe offered by a witness working with federal agents, said Daphne Hearn, the special agent in charge of the FBI’s San Diego office.
Cervantes believed he was receiving the money in exchange for helping the witness secure a $4 million flooring contract, according to a federal complaint.
Prosecutors say Cervantes referred to himself as the “Godfather at Camp Pendleton,” and, dating back to September 2008, he accepted thousands of dollars in cash payments and remodeling work on his condominium in exchange for helping contractors get business on the Marine Corps base north of San Diego.
Cervantes is a Department of Defense employee and a supervisor for construction and service contracts at Camp Pendleton.
Neither Cervantes nor his lawyer could be reached for comment.
According to the complaint, the witness working with the FBI met with Cervantes on March 26 and agreed to pay the $40,000 bribe. The first payment of $20,000 was to be paid Thursday, and the remainder was to be paid when the contract was awarded, prosecutors say. The meeting was monitored by federal agents.
Cervantes was arrested at a business in San Diego after the witness met him there to discuss the bribe payments and handed him an envelope containing $10,000, according to the complaint.

South Dakota
Man given 30 years in baseball bat beating death
RAPID CITY, S.D. (AP) — A 22-year-old South Dakota man has been sentenced to 30 years in prison for beating a sleeping man to death with a baseball bat on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.
Kyle Yankton was sentenced in federal court Monday for killing 23-year-old Pablo Galindo while Galindo slept in his girlfriend’s home last June. The girlfriend is Yankton’s ex-girlfriend.
Galindo’s mother, Lorna Galindo, told the Rapid City Journal that she doesn’t think the sentence is long enough.
“I don’t think he deserves any leniency,” she said. “He didn’t show leniency to my son.”
Prosecutors agreed to reduce the charge from first-degree murder to second-degree murder as part of a November plea deal.
According to court documents, Yankton had stopped at the house earlier to pick up his son and asked for the woman and Galindo. Yankton later forced his way in through the back door, went downstairs with a baseball bat and repeatedly struck Galindo around the head, according to court documents.
“He destroyed our lives,” Lorna Galindo said. “He took our foundation, our rock and our glue that held our family together. He took everything from us.”
Galindo was an enrolled member of the Oglala Sioux Tribe who moved from Nebraska to Pine Ridge just two months before the incident to help out his grandparents.
His mother said he was the devoted father of two daughters. His two-year-old daughter, Esperanza, accompanied the family from Scottsbluff, Neb., to the sentencing.

New York
Huffington Post founder trashed NYC loft suit says
NEW YORK (AP) — A lawsuit accuses Huffington Post founder Arianna Huffington of trashing a New York City loft that she leased from a documentary filmmaker.
Huffington calls the allegations false.
Filmmaker Eric Steel filed the suit in Manhattan Supreme Court on Monday. It asks for $275,000 in damages.
The lawsuit says cabinets were broken and “the walls of the apartment were gouged, stained and otherwise damaged” during the two years Huffington rented the apartment.
Under terms of the lease agreement, Steel says Huffington was told she could not use the loft for business or parties.
The apartment was designed by Steel’s stepfather, modernist architect Charles Gwathmey.
In a statement, Huffington says Steel “happily” renewed the lease twice and visited the apartment in Manhattan’s Chelsea section. She says he has refused to return her $93,000 deposit.?