McCain diagnosed with brain cancer
WASHINGTON — Sen. John McCain of Arizona, the 2008 Republican presidential nominee with an independent streak, has been diagnosed with a brain tumor, his office said in a statement Wednesday.
The 80-year-old lawmaker has glioblastoma, a particularly aggressive type of brain tumor, according to doctors at the Mayo Clinic in Phoenix, where McCain had a blood clot removed from above his left eye on Friday. The senator and his family are reviewing further treatment, including a combination of chemotherapy and radiation.
“Subsequent tissue pathology revealed that a primary brain tumor known as a glioblastoma was associated with the blood clot,” according to his office.
About 20,000 people in the U.S. each year are diagnosed with a glioblastoma. The American Cancer Society puts the five-year survival rate for patients over 55 at about 4 percent.
The tumor digs tentaclelike roots into normal brain tissue. Patients fare best when surgeons can cut out all the visible tumor, which happened with McCain’s tumor, according to his office. That isn’t a cure; cancerous cells that aren’t visible still tend to lurk, the reason McCain’s doctors are considering further treatment.
Cool down lockup,
judge tells Texas
HOUSTON — A federal judge Wednesday gave prison officials 15 days to come up with a plan to lower the temperature to 88 degrees inside a southeast Texas prison where attorneys for inmates say the sweltering summer heat is endangering their health.
U.S. District Judge Keith Ellison’s preliminary injunction applies to about 500 “heat-sensitive” inmates at the Pack Unit, about 65 miles northwest of Houston. Those prisoners, among about 1,450 held in the prison, already have a variety of health conditions or are at least 65 years old.
Attorneys for six inmates who filed suit seeking emergency relief argued the intense heat violated their constitutional right against cruel and unusual punishment. Evidence showed the heat index at the prison, the combination of temperature and humidity, topped 100 degrees during 13 days in 2016 and was between 90 and 99 degrees on 55 days. The heat index Wednesday was 104.
More on exit alert as sinkhole widens
LAND O’LAKES, Fla. — The Florida sinkhole that swallowed two homes last week isn’t getting any deeper, but it’s getting wider, officials said Wednesday.
Because of the growth, residents of two additional homes in the neighborhood north of Tampa have been warned they may need to evacuate. They were told to gather their possessions in preparation of leaving, said Kevin Guthrie, Pasco County’s assistant administrator for public safety.
Five homes near the sinkhole have been evacuated.
The edges of the sinkhole are caving in because there’s no support for the sandy soil as it dries out, officials said.
It’s now about 235 feet wide, about 10 feet wider than it was several days ago. It remains 50 feet deep.