Hardened Criminal in a Tie:Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort is a “hardened” criminal who “repeatedly and brazenly violated the law,” the Special Counsel’s office told a federal judge in a filing made public yesterday.

 Prosecutors made no specific suggestion for a sentence but could ask for 22 years to be piled on top of the 10 Manafort has already been given in a separate case. 

  The filing says, “Manafort chose repeatedly and knowingly to violate the law garden-variety crimes such as tax fraud, money laundering, obstruction of justice, and bank fraud” to “more esoteric laws” involving foreign lobbying.

  The prosecutors say Manafort lied “to tax preparers, bookkeepers, banks, the Treasury Department, the Department of Justice National Security Division, the FBI, the Special Counsel’s Office, the grand jury, his own legal counsel, Members of Congress, and members of the executive branch of the United States government.”

From on High:  Closing an historic Vatican meeting on sexual abuse by priests, Pope Francis called “for an all-out battle against the abuse of minors,” but he didn’t say how he plans to do that.

 Francis called sexual abuse “the work of the devil” and said,  “even a single case of abuse” in the Roman Catholic Church should be met “with the utmost seriousness.”

 The crisis in the Catholic Church has been growing in recent years as hundreds more priests have been named as abusers. Francis said, “To combat this evil that strikes at the very heart of our mission,” the pope said, the church needed to protect children “from ravenous wolves.”

Venezuela:Trucks loaded with international aid burned on a bridge between Colombia and Venezuela yesterday during a bloody confrontation between Venezuelan troops and people desperate for food and supplies.

  Soldiers fired teargas and shotguns, killing at two people and setting the cargo trucks on fire. About 300 people were injured. At least 23 members of the National Guard defected, fleeing over the border into Columbia.

  Amidst it all President Nicolas Maduro broke off diplomatic relations with Columbia, accusing his neighbor of being the staging ground for American efforts to topple his government. “My patience has run out,” Maduro told a rally of supporters in Caracas and giving Colombian diplomats 24 hours to leave the country.

Tech War:Workers at Microsoft are calling on the company to cancel a military contract for a new technology they say will be used for killing. If that’s how the technology would be used, it would be the first time Microsoft got into the weapons business.

  The device in question is called is called “HoloLens,” which is augmented reality eye wear that can be used in conjunction with weapons.

  Workers wrote to the company in an open letter that, “We are alarmed that Microsoft is working to provide weapons technology to the U.S. Military, helping one country’s government ‘increase lethality’ using tools we built.” They said, “We did not sign up to develop weapons, and we demand a say in how our work is used.”

Double Life:The death of a popular Los Angeles news anchor in a hotel room has been attributed to an overdose of methamphetamine during a sexual encounter with another man in a Burbank hotel room. The death of Chris Burrous of KTLA in January came as a shock, and a mystery. 

 Investigators say Burrous had inserted a “rock” of meth in his own rectum sometime during his hotel fling. Burrous was married with a 9-year-old daughter.

The Trade:New England patriot owner Robert Kraft, who’s been accused of paying for sex in Jupiter, Fla., was caught in a sweeping investigation of human trafficking and the sex trade with connections to China. Police say Kraft’s actions were captured on video.

  The investigation involves five so-called “spas” that offered massages for one price and sex for more, most of it in cash payments that went unreported. The flow of money has been traced back to China. Martin County sheriff’s Lt. Mike Dougherty  said the spas report only $20,000 to $30,000 a year in income when they are raking in millions.

The Obit Page:  Stanley Donen, who directed Gene Kelly in “Singing in the Rain” and had Fred Astaire dancing on the ceiling, died this past week in Manhattan at age  94. Donen was responsible for some of the greatest moments in Hollywood musicals. “For a time, Donen epitomized Hollywood style,” Tad Friend wrote in The New Yorker in 2003. Donen, he wrote, “made the world of champagne fountains and pillbox hats look enchanting, which is much harder than it sounds.”

Dressed for Success:The annual red-carpet parade of  Hollywood fashion known as the Academy Awards is tonight. Let’s see whether Lady Gaga gets her meat dress out of the closet.

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