Frail McCain gets visits from closest friends
WASHINGTON — A frail Sen. John McCain has been receiving a stream of visitors and good wishes at his Arizona ranch as he confronts the aftermath of brain cancer treatment and surgery.
Former Vice President Joe Biden sat with Mr. McCain for 90 minutes last Sunday, according to people close to both men. Mr. Biden followed Mr. McCain’s closest friends, Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and retired Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman, who visited Mr. McCain at the Mayo Clinic in Phoenix two weeks ago. Mr. McCain’s daughter, Meghan, tweeted Friday that she was heading to her father’s side.
“Going home to Arizona to be with my family,” she tweeted. “Thank you all again for your prayers, patience, understanding and compassion during this time. It means the world to me and my entire family.”
Mr. McCain, 81, had hoped to return to the Senate, where he’s served since 1987.
He has been unable to do so after cancer treatment and surgery for an intestinal infection last month. Despite that, he’s finished work on a new book being released May 22, “The Restless Wave.”
And he continued to advocate for a return to the days when partisans could disagree without demonizing each other.
Mr. McCain has amplified his call for more civil politics since his diagnosis in July with glioblastoma. It is the same rare and aggressive brain cancer that felled his friend, Democratic Sen. Edward Kennedy, at age 77 in 2009, and Mr. Biden’s son, Beau, at 46 in 2015.
Pelosi calls for probe
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi Saturday called for an ethics investigation into Rep. Tony Cardenas, D-Calif., who this week acknowledged that he is the unnamed defendant in a Jane Doe lawsuit alleging he molested a 16-year-old girl.
Mr. Cardenas has denied the allegations, and contacted fellow members of Congress in recent days to assert his innocence in connection with the lawsuit.
In a statement Saturday, Ms. Pelosi said Mr. Cardenas “appropriately asked us to withhold judgment until there is a full investigation of the facts.”
She called on the House Ethics Committee to investigate and said the congressman “will fully cooperate.”
No return to normalcy
CLEVELAND — Residents on the Cleveland street where three women were secretly held captive in Ariel Castro’s house of horrors for about a decade say they’re tired of being eyed by spectators who still visit the site five years after the home was demolished.
Cars and sometimes even buses continue to pass by the lot where Castro’s house once stood, with passengers pressing their faces against the windows and staring at the neighbors.
“It’s like being a monkey in a cage,” resident Anthony Westry told Cleveland.com .
Castro kidnapped Michelle Knight, Amanda Berry and Gina DeJesus between 2002 and 2004. Ms. Berry gave birth to Castro’s daughter in 2006.
The women escaped from the home on May 6, 2013.
Castro was sentenced to life in prison after pleading guilty to a series of charges. He later hanged himself in his prison cell.
Justin Rose, who owns a small car lot nearby, said he would like to see a playground or a basketball hoop installed at the site.
Some things haven’t changed in the neighborhood, such as their weekend barbecues that Castro famously attended. However, residents keep a close eye on their daughters.