promoearn: Here's the biggest news you missed this weekend

Sunday, August 26, 2018

Here's the biggest news you missed this weekend

In this file photo taken on September 5, 2008 Republican presidential candidate John McCain pauses while addressing a campaign event at the Freedom Hill Ampitheatre in Sterling Heights, Michigan.

Sen. John McCain, Vietnam war veteran and political giant, dies at 81

John McCain, who endured more than five years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam before becoming the 2008 Republican presidential nominee and serving Arizona for more than 30 years on Capitol Hill, died Saturday at age 81. His wife and other family members were with him. Destined to be remembered among the political giants of Arizona history, the six-term U.S. senator disclosed in July 2017 that he had been diagnosed with a deadly form of brain cancer called glioblastoma. McCain will soon lie in state at the U.S. Capitol, a rare honor bestowed on only 31 people in 166 years. Here's a look at some of our most-read stories about McCain and how he impacted others' lives:

•	McCain may have lost the presidency but still became larger-than-life.
•	John McCain died 9 years to the day after Ted Kennedy. And from the same kind of cancer.
•	Meghan McCain remembers John McCain as 'hero of the republic and to his little girl.'
•	'We are Americans first, Americans last, Americans always.' John McCain's most powerful quotes.
•	John McCain used his status as war hero to champion troops and take on the White House.

'Multiple fatalities' after shooting rampage at Madden tourney at Jacksonville Landing

Three people were reported dead and 11 others wounded Sunday after a shooting rampage during a Madden 19 video game tourney in downtown Jacksonville, Florida. The lone shooter, identified as David Katz, 24, of Baltimore, was among the dead and had taken his own life, Sheriff Mike Williams said. Williams did not identify the two victims and said nine of the injured were taken to hospitals, seven with gunshot wounds. Two others sought hospital care on their own. "I'm happy to report they're all in stable condition at this time,'' said Williams, who declined to discuss a motive for the shooting. The shooting occured at the GLHF Game Bar in Jacksonville Landing, an entertainment complex along the St. Johns River. The Florida shooting comes six months after the state's earlier tragedy in Parkland and has placed a spotlight on esports.

In Ireland, Pope Francis meets with Catholic Church sex abuse survivors

Pope Francis, on the first papal visit to Ireland in almost four decades, expressed "outrage" Saturday over the Catholic Church's cover-up of sex abuse and later met with eight survivors of what the Vatican called "clerical, religious and institutional abuse." Ireland is ground zero of the Catholic Church's sex abuse crisis. The institution is under fire across the globe for its systemic failures to protect children or to punish bishops who hid the crimes. "With regard to the most vulnerable, I cannot fail to acknowledge the grave scandal caused in Ireland by the abuse of young people by members of the Church charged with responsibility for their protection and education," Francis said, speaking in Italian.

'I did NOT know about the meeting': Trump blasts Sessions, media and FBI

President Donald Trump unloaded on the media, the FBI and his own attorney general in a Saturday morning Twitter rant – saying he "may have to get involved" in the investigations into the 2016 presidential campaign. Trump's latest tweets come after a week of stunning developments during which two top associates were found guilty of tax evasion and bank fraud charges – and one of campaign finance violations. In recent days, Trump has turned his ire to Attorney General Jeff Sessions, and Trump shot back Saturday that Sessions only said that because he "doesn't understand what is happening underneath his command position."

Serena Williams, ready for the US Open, takes French Open catsuit ban in stride

It took Serena Williams only to the first question of her pre-US Open press conference Saturday to defuse the controversy about the catsuit costume she wore at the French Open earlier in the year. In recent weeks, French Tennis Federation president Bernard Giudicelli announced Williams wouldn't be permitted to wear the all black bodysuit in the future. Williams has donned the specially designed compression outfit to help prevent blood clots. "I think that obviously the Grand Slams have a right to do what they want to do," said Williams, who will begin her quest for a seventh US Open trophy against Magda Linette of Poland on Monday.

America's playwright Neil Simon, who wrote 'The Odd Couple' and 'Sweet Charity,' has died

Neil Simon, the legendary comedic playwright whose beloved hits include "The Odd Couple," "Barefoot in the Park" and "Sweet Charity," has died at 91. The writer died early Sunday of complications from pneumonia at New York Presbyterian Hospital in Manhattan, where he was surrounded by his family, said his longtime friend Bill Evans, director of media relations for the Shubert Organization. Neil Simon's place in the dramatic canon never rivaled that of Arthur Miller, Eugene O'Neill or Tennessee Williams, to name a few 20th-century icons who died before him. But Simon proved more consistently popular with mass audiences by channeling the neuroses of everyday people into one clever, accessible comedy after the next. He was, for a long stretch, the American people's playwright.

Contributing: Associated Press