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Articles by Tom Howell Jr.

President Donald Trump, right, and Kentucky Governor Matt Bevin, left, talk during a prison reform roundtable in the Roosevelt Room of the Washington, Thursday, Jan. 11, 2018. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

Trump administration OKs Medicaid overhaul in Kentucky

The Trump administration on Friday said Kentucky can require Medicaid recipients to work as a condition of coverage, barely pausing for a breath after it laid out a welcome mat Thursday for states that want to force able-bodied people off the rolls unless they find jobs, volunteer or meet other conditions.

January 12, 2018
Seema Verma, administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, speaks during a news conference in Newark, N.J. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez) ** FILE **

Trump admin. offers roadmap for Medicaid work requirements

The Trump administration on Thursday followed through on its promise to "turn the page" in doling out Medicaid benefits, releasing new guidance on how to require able-bodied recipients to seek work or new skills as a condition of their taxpayer-funded coverage.

January 11, 2018
In this Nov. 13, 2017, file photo, Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rossello speaks during a news conference, in Washington. In a news conference in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 10, 2018, Mr. Rossello called on Congress to grant statehood to the island commonwealth. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)

Puerto Rico launches vocal bid for statehood

Weary of their "colonial" status, a delegation of Puerto Ricans marched on Capitol Hill Wednesday to demand statehood, saying the island territory pays taxes and serves in the military but is being short-changed by federal programs and lacks the political clout to recover from crises like Hurricane Maria.

January 10, 2018
FILE - In this Oct. 16, 2014 file photo, Brenda Fitzgerald, Georgia Department of Public Health commissioner, left, and Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal respond to questions in Atlanta. Fitzgerald, the new director of the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, has kept a low profile during her five months in office, due to conflicts of interest regarding her financial holdings. In an interview with the Associated Press on Monday, Dec. 11, 2017, Fitzgerald said her conflicts of interest are settled and she’s moving forward with plans for the agency. (AP Photo/David Tulis, File)

CDC to Dems: We don’t ban words, though try to avoid some

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention didn't ban any words under President Trump but directed staff to avoid words like "vulnerable," "diversity," and "entitlement" in budget requests, the agency told Senate Democrats.

January 9, 2018
Alex Azar testifies during a Senate Finance Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Jan. 9, 2018, to consider his nomination to be Secretary of Health and Human Services. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

Alex Azar, HHS pick, cautious on drug price jawboning

Powerless to stop his nomination, Senate Democrats on Tuesday attacked President Trump's pick to lead the Health and Human Services Department for his tenure at a major pharmaceutical company, saying he oversaw dramatic price hikes without ever blessing a decrease.

January 9, 2018
Alex Azar, President Donald Trump's nominee to become Secretary of Health and Human Services, testifies during a Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee confirmation hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Nov. 29, 2017. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster) **FILE**

Donald Trump, GOP seek actions to undercut Obamacare

President Trump and his GOP allies are charting a new course in their push to undercut Obamacare, kicking off 2018 by eyeing actions the administration can take on its own, while avoiding a messy congressional fight ahead of the November elections.

January 8, 2018
Alex Azar, President Donald Trump's nominee for secretary of Health and Human Services, testifies during a Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee confirmation hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington on Nov. 29, 2017. (Associated Press) **FILE**

Pro-Obamacare group attacks HHS pick before hearing

A pro-Obamacare group told senators to reject President Trump's nominee to lead the Health and Human Services Department in an ad Monday that says Alex Azar will quarterback renewed efforts to gut the 2010 law.

January 8, 2018
People watch a TV news program showing the Twitter post of U.S. President Donald Trump while reporting North Korea's nuclear issue, at Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday, Jan. 3, 2018. Trump boasted that he has a bigger and more powerful "nuclear button" than North Korean leader Kim Jong Un does but the president doesn't actually have a physical button. The letters on the screen read: "More powerful nuclear button." (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

CDC to hold roundtable on health response to nuclear attack

Federal agencies this month will hold a roundtable on how to respond a nuclear attack as part of a regular series on public health, raising eyebrows as President Trump needles North Korea over his "bigger and more powerful" nuclear-launch button.

January 5, 2018
In this undated image provided on Saturday Aug. 29, 2015 by Mount Sinai Hospital in New York shows Dr Vivek Reddy as he checks the screen while doing a surgery to implant the new tiny wireless pacemaker at the Mount Sinai hospital in New York . Unlike traditional pacemakers — which need a generator and wires and are implanted via surgery — the new pacemaker is a wireless tiny tube that can be attached to the right side of the heart using a catheter inserted through the leg. (Mount Sinai Hospital via AP)

New ads pressure Congress to scrap medical-device tax

One of Obamacare's more hated taxes came roaring back in 2018 after Congress failed to delay the medical device tax in its year-end legislating, sparking a backlash from the industry which demanded lawmakers put it at the front of their 2018 to-do list.

January 5, 2018
In North Carolina, a new law will prevent doctors from prescribing more than five days' worth of pain pills for things like broken bones; patients will need approval for refills. It's meant to combat the opioid epidemic. (Associated Press)

Pain pill limits, live-stream attack penalties among new laws for 2018

Those who record or live-stream attacks will face tougher penalties in California, dry cleaners in Illinois will think twice before charging women more than men and New York will launch "the nation's strongest" paid family leave program as the calendar flips to 2018.

December 31, 2017
This image released by NBC shows contestant Rachel Frederickson during the first episode of "The Biggest Loser." Fredrickson lost nearly 60 percent of her body weight to win the latest season of “The Biggest Loser” and pocket $250,000. A day after her grand unveiling on NBC, she faced a firestorm of criticism in social media from people who said she went too far. (AP Photo/NBC, Trae Patton) ** FILE **

CDC paper: Few schools use proven programs to combat obesity

Hardly any U.S. public schools are implementing evidence-based programs to combat obesity despite the substantial amount of research that's gone into developing them, according to a paper published Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

December 28, 2017
In this Feb. 11, 2016, file photo, Dallas County Mosquito Lab microbiologist Spencer Lockwood sorts mosquitoes collected in a trap in Hutchins, Texas, that had been set up in Dallas County near the location of a confirmed Zika virus infection. (AP Photo/LM Otero, file)

Number of Zika virus cases dropped dramatically

Zika has largely "burnt out" in the Americas, health experts say, with the disease that just a year ago spawned dire travel warnings, changed vacation plans and almost forced a federal government shutdown now dissipating with a whimper.

December 27, 2017