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Articles by Tom Howell Jr.

Sen. Pat Toomey, Pennsylvania Republican. (Associated Press) ** FILE **

Planned Parenthood targets Pat Toomey with $1.3 million ad buy

Planned Parenthood's campaign arm targeted incumbent Republican Sen. Pat Toomey on Monday with a $1.3 million ad buy in Pennsylvania that says his anti-abortion stance is "dangerous for women" and doctors who provide the service.

August 15, 2016
President Obama speaks during a briefing on the ongoing response to the Zika virus with members of his public health team in the Oval Office of the White House on July 1, 2016. Joining Obama are Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell (left) and Dr. Tom Frieden (center), director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (Associated Press) **FILE**

Obama admin cuts AIDS, drug rehab funding for Zika fight

The Obama administration is siphoning millions from AIDS programs, home-heating aid for poor Americans and drug-abuse treatment to keep the fight against the Zika virus moving amid a Capitol Hill standoff over more money to fight the global health scare.

August 12, 2016
Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell (Associated Press) **FILE**

Zika vaccine to be funded by siphoning medical research funds

The Obama administration said Thursday it will begin siphoning money from critical medical research accounts to prop up the fight against Zika, as Republicans and Democrats continued to accuse each other of posturing in the face of a global health scare that's reached the U.S. mainland.

August 11, 2016
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Tom Frieden (center) with Florida Gov. Rick Scott (left) and Florida Surgeon General and Secretary Dr. Celeste Philip, said no one should be surprised if more infections are detected despite and urged pregnant women to stay away from the area. (Associated Press)

Zika mosquito spraying working in Florida, officials say

Federal and state officials said Thursday that aerial spraying "killed a lot of mosquitoes" that might be carrying the Zika virus across Miami, as President Obama and his Democratic allies prodded Republicans to return from a summer recess and cut a deal over federal funding to combat the disease.

August 4, 2016
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Tom Frieden, center, gestures as he speaks with members of the media after a news conference, Thursday, Aug. 4, 2016, in Doral, Fla. The CDC has warned expectant mothers to steer clear of the city's Wynwood neighborhood, where at least 15 people are believed to have been infected with the Zika virus through mosquito bites in the first such cases on record in the mainland U.S. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)

Zika fight: Senate Democrats, Speaker Paul Ryan trade barbs over virus

Federal and state officials said Thursday that aerial spraying "killed a lot of mosquitoes" that might be carrying the Zika virus across Miami, as President Obama and his Democratic allies prodded Republicans to return from a summer recess and cut a deal over federal funding to combat the disease.

August 4, 2016
Aedes aegypti mosquitoes are seen in a mosquito cage at a laboratory in Cucuta, Colombia, on Feb. 11, 2016. (Associated Press) **FILE**

NIH starts human trial for Zika vaccine

The Obama administration said Wednesday it is starting the first stage of human trials for a Zika vaccine but fears there will not be a second phase unless Congress breaks an impasse over federal funding to combat the mosquito-borne disease.

August 3, 2016
An inspector with the Miami-Dade County mosquito control department looks for pools of standing water, which often serve as a breeding ground for the Zika-carrying insects. (Associated Press)

Zika virus trackers say threat stirs much more buzz than bite

A small Zika outbreak in Miami is raising the stakes in an election year funding fight on Capitol Hill, though disease trackers say the virus still poses a limited threat to the continental U.S. compared with elsewhere in the Americas, with local cases likely to max out in the "hundreds" through the rest of mosquito season.

August 2, 2016
President Barack Obama, with Singapore's Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, speaks during a state arrival ceremony for the Singaporean prime minister on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, Tuesday, Aug. 2, 2016. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

Obamacare may lose Aetna in some states

One of the nation's largest insurers said Tuesday it might exit Obamacare's web-based exchanges in some states, delivering another blow to President Obama's signature law in the final months of his tenure.

August 2, 2016
Florida Gov. Rick Scott speaks at a news conference, Friday, July 29, 2016, in Orlando, Fla., where he announced that the state likely has the first cases of Zika transmitted by mosquitoes on the U.S. mainland. (Naseem Miller/Orlando Sentinel via AP)

Florida identifies 10 additional Zika cases by mosquito bite

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Monday took the unusual step of advising pregnant women to avoid a section of Miami where the Zika virus appears to be spreading by mosquito bite, after the tally of known infections from the square-mile zone jumped from four to 14 in just three days.

August 1, 2016
A female Aedes aegypti mosquito acquires a blood meal on the arm of a researcher at the Biomedical Sciences Institute in the Sao Paulo's University in Sao Paulo, Brazil, in this Jan. 18, 2016, file photo. (AP Photo/Andre Penner, File)

FDA tells Florida counties to stop collecting blood, citing Zika

The Food and Drug Administration said Wednesday two Florida counties should "cease collecting blood immediately" until they are able to screen each donation for Zika, a direct response to four infections in the region that do not appear to be linked to travel.

July 28, 2016