John McCain receiving treatment at Walter Reed

John McCain receiving treatment at Walter Reed

Republican Sen. John McCain is at Walter Reed Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., receiving treatment for the “normal side effects of his ongoing cancer therapy.”

That was the word from his office Wednesday.

The six-term Arizona lawmaker has missed votes in the Senate this week and did not attend a White House ceremony in which President Donald Trump signed the defense bill into law. The sweeping policy bill has been a major achievement of McCain’s for years – especially now, as he is the chairman of the Armed Services Committee.

The statement says McCain looks forward to returning to work as soon as possible.

McCain was diagnosed this past summer with brain cancer.

PBS suspends distribution of Smiley show for misconduct

LOS ANGELES

PBS says it has indefinitely suspended distribution of Tavis Smiley’s talk show after an independent investigation uncovered “multiple, credible allegations” of misconduct by its host.

The broadcaster said in a statement Wednesday that it hired a law firm to investigate “troubling allegations” about Smiley and that its findings prompted the indefinite suspension.

A representative for PBS declined to specify the nature of the allegations against Smiley, but said the investigation included interviews with him and “witnesses.”

His nightly program has aired on PBS since 2004.

Representatives for Smiley did not immediately respond to a request for a comment.

Police: Estranged husband kills wife, self at college campus

MONACA, Pa.

A woman who worked at a Penn State satellite campus apparently was shot dead by her estranged husband in a university parking lot Wednesday, and the man then killed himself, police said.

Multiple shots were fired just before 4 p.m. near a Penn State Beaver dining hall, where the woman worked, state police Lt. Eric Hermick told WTAE-TV. An officer heard the shots and lots of screaming and responded to the scene, where he found the woman and her estranged husband dead beside her car, he said.

Hermick said the husband apparently had lured the woman to the parking lot.

Kentucky lawmaker facing assault allegations kills self

FRANKFORT, Ky.

Dan Johnson, a Republican state lawmaker in Kentucky known for inflammatory Facebook posts comparing Barack and Michelle Obama to monkeys and who defiantly denied allegations that he sexually assaulted a teenage girl in the basement of his home, killed himself Wednesday night. He was 57.

Bullitt County Sheriff Donnie Tinnell said Johnson shot himself on a bridge in Mount Washington, Ky. Tinnell confirmed the death to WDRB-TV in Louisville.

Johnson was elected to the state legislature in 2016, part of a wave of Republican victories that gave the GOP control of the Kentucky House of Representatives for the first time in nearly 100 years.

The pastor of Heart of Fire church in Louisville, Johnson sponsored a number of bills having to do with religious liberty and teaching the Bible in public schools. But he was mostly out of the spotlight until Monday, when the Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting published an account from a woman saying Johnson sexually assaulted her in the basement of his home in 2013.

Associated Press