NATION/WORLD BRIEFING 8 people, 6 of them children, killed in Chicago apartment fire
CHICAGO – Eight people, including six children, were killed when a fire broke out before dawn Sunday at a Chicago apartment in one of the deadliest fires in the nation’s third-largest city in years, officials say.
Two other people were hospitalized in very critical condition, Chicago Fire Department spokesman Larry Merritt said. One of the children who died was an infant, according to Fire Commissioner Jose Santiago.
A woman who saw the blaze as she was returning home from work alerted people and gave them a chance to escape, Santiago said. She called 911 about 4 a.m., then began knocking on doors in the largely Hispanic Little Village neighborhood on the city’s southwest side.
Arizona candidate groused about McCain family before he died
PHOENIX – Hours before Sen. John McCain died Saturday, a Republican seeking Arizona’s other U.S. Senate seat suggested that his family’s earlier announcement that he was ending cancer treatment had been timed to hurt her campaign.
Former state Sen. Kelli Ward, who lost a primary to McCain running from the right in 2016 and is now trying to win the GOP nomination for retiring Sen. Jeff Flake’s seat, made the suggestion in response to a Facebook post by a campaign aide.
The aide, Jonathan Williams, wondered if it was “just a coincidence” that the announcement of McCain ending medical treatment came the day Ward was launching a statewide bus tour before Tuesday’s primary. Ward replied: “I think they wanted to have a particular narrative that is negative to me.”
After her response drew attention, Ward deleted the post and replaced it with one claiming the media was concocting a story.
A year after Harvey, Houston-area voters back flood-control bond
HOUSTON – Voters in Houston and its surrounding county marked the anniversary of Hurricane Harvey coming ashore by approving the issuance of $2.5 billion in bonds to fund flood-control projects that might mitigate the damage caused by future storms.
With nearly all precincts reporting Saturday night, about 85 percent of voters approved the referendum. The bonds will fund projects that may include buyouts of homes in flood-prone areas, the expansion of local bayous and the construction of additional stormwater detention basins.
For McCain, a cross-country funeral procession in the works
WASHINGTON – Two former presidents are expected to speak at Sen. John McCain’s service, and he will lie in state in both the nation’s capital and Arizona as part of a cross-country funeral procession ending with his burial at the U.S. Naval Academy, according to plans taking shape Sunday.
McCain had long feuded with President Donald Trump, and two White House officials said McCain’s family had asked, before the senator’s death, that Trump not attend the funeral services. Vice President Mike Pence is likely to attend, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Maine governor hospitalized after experiencing ‘discomfort’
PORTLAND, Maine – Maine Gov. Paul LePage was in stable condition and under observation at a Bangor hospital Sunday after experiencing discomfort while visiting family in Canada.
The 69-year-old LePage suffered discomfort Saturday while visiting family in New Brunswick, Peter Steele, a spokesman for the governor, said in a statement. Steele said LePage was taken by ambulance to Presque Isle in northern Maine, then transported to Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor, where he arrived at 11:30 p.m. Saturday.
Steele said that LePage was doing well Sunday but that the hospital was keeping the governor hospitalized overnight for more observation.