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Articles by Tom Howell Jr.

Rio de Janierio Olympic officials are pressing on with preps for the Summer Games, saying that the Southern Hemisphere's winter months will allow time for instituting measures to head off Zika virus concerns. (Associated Press)

Rory McIlroy to forgo Rio Olympics as Zika fears hang over Summer Games

Olympic officials are forging ahead with the Summer Games in the country where the ominous Zika outbreak began, betting the Brazilian winter and months of prep work will triumph over disease-carrying insects and critics who say the event could scatter the virus across the globe.

June 22, 2016
House Speaker Paul D. Ryan announces a Republican plan to repeal and replace President Obama's health care law. (Associated Press)

GOP formally unveils its long-awaited health care plan

House Republicans launched an uphill bid Wednesday to redo national health care reform amid withering criticism from the White House and Democrats, who said the GOP's long-awaited plan lacks details and that Obamacare already insures millions of people.

June 22, 2016
Spearheaded by House Speaker Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin, the proposal is an election-year blueprint rather than a bill. (Associated Press)

Republicans to unveil Obamacare alternative after six-year wait

House Republicans will unveil a health plan Wednesday that has been six years in the making, calling for an end to the heavy mandates and government-run exchanges of Obamacare in favor of incentives designed to entice customers into private-market plans.

June 21, 2016
Carlos Franco looks at mosquitoes through a microscope to identify their genus and species at the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station in New Haven, Conn., on June 7, 2016. (Arnold Gold/New Haven Register via AP)

First Zika vaccine trials to begin within weeks

The first human trials for a vaccine against the Zika virus will begin within weeks, a pair of pharmaceutical companies said Monday, though a fully approved shot against the mosquito-borne disease could still be over a year away.

June 20, 2016
House Speaker Paul Ryan, Wisconsin Republican, speaks at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington on June 9, 2016, to unveil the national security plank of the Republican agenda and discuss recommendations from their Congressional National Security Task Force. (Associated Press) **FILE**

House GOP: Congress must reclaim its powers

Congress has yielded too much power to a federal bureaucracy that is unaccountable to voters and enabled by deferential courts, House Republicans said Thursday in a plan that seeks to reclaim their power of the purse and force the executive branch to explain its actions.

June 16, 2016
"This short-term funding resolution will keep the lights on in government and maintain current operations for a few days so Congress can complete and pass an agreement," said Rep. Harold Rogers, Kentucky Republican and chairman of the House Appropriations Committee. (Associated Press)

Zika funds cannot be added to deficit, GOP says

Congressional negotiators are crafting a deal that offers roughly a third to half of President Obama's $1.9 billion request to fight the mosquito-borne Zika virus, but the parties haven't agreed on whether to borrow the money or pay for it now with cuts elsewhere in the massive federal budget.

June 15, 2016
In this photo taken Saturday, Nov. 22, 2014, Blue Bridge Benefits LLC agent Patricia Sarabia helps customers interested in Obama Care at a kiosk at Compare Foods in Winston-Salem, N.C. Such atypical approaches to selling health insurance policies are playing out across the country since the second round of open enrollment under the federal Affordable Care Act opened in mid-November. Insurance companies and some states are focusing heavily on signing up eligible Hispanics, a group that accounts for a large share of the nation's uninsured but largely avoided applying for coverage during the first full year the health care reform law was in effect. Hispanics accounted for just 11 percent of those who enrolled in the private policies sold during the initial sign-up period, which ended in March. (AP Photo/Gerry Broome)

Rates projected to rise 10 percent on key Obamacare plans: Study

Obamacare premiums are projected to rise an average of 10 percent next year, according to a study of benchmark plans in more than a dozen cities, suggesting that the health care law's troubles will stretch well beyond President Obama's tenure.

June 15, 2016
Dr. Tom Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, is calling for a $1.8 billion project to combat Aedes aegypti. (Associated Press) **FILE**

CDC chief begs Florida delegation for full Zika funding

The chief of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention begged Congress Wednesday to cough up funding to combat Zika virus, expressing clear frustration with a Florida Republican who accused the administration of failing to spend money it has wisely.

June 15, 2016
House Speaker Paul Ryan, Wisconsin Republican, speaks at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington on June 9, 2016, to unveil the national security plank of the Republican agenda and discuss recommendations from their Congressional National Security Task Force. (Associated Press) **FILE**

House GOP: Scrap bad regulations, fine-tune good ones

Government regulations are important but often go too far, picking winners and losers in the economy and stifling innovation, the House GOP said Tuesday in an economic plan that promotes energy independence, an open internet and the end of taxpayer bailouts for Wall Street.

June 14, 2016
An Aedes aegypti mosquito is photographed through a microscope at the Fiocruz institute in Recife, Pernambuco state, Brazil. (Associated Press)

CDC: Map Zika in states to prepare for outbreaks

The Obama administration says it doesn't expect the Zika virus to blanket whole states if and when mosquitoes begin to spread the virus on the U.S. mainland, though it wants state officials to map outbreaks so locals can protect themselves.

June 12, 2016
FILE - In this Jan. 27, 2016, file photo, an Aedes aegypti mosquito is photographed through a microscope at the Fiocruz institute in Recife, Pernambuco state, Brazil. The World Health Organization says women who live in areas where Zika is spreading should consider delaying pregnancy, since there's no other sure way to avoid the virus' devastating birth defects. The WHO stops short of advising couples to put pregnancy on hold, as some countries battling the outbreak have. Instead, WHO spokeswoman Nyka Alexander says on June 9, that men and women who live in outbreak areas should be given information about the risks of Zika and told that delaying pregnancy is an option. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana, File)

CDC outlines policy to track Zika transmission

The Obama administration on Friday said it doesn't expect the Zika virus to blanket whole states if and when mosquitoes begin to spread the virus on the U.S. mainland, though it wants state officials to map out flareups so that locals can protect themselves.

June 10, 2016
House Speaker Paul Ryan, Wisconsin Republican, speaks at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington on June 9, 2016, to unveil the national security plank of the Republican agenda and discuss recommendations from their Congressional National Security Task Force. (Associated Press) **FILE**

House passes Puerto Rico debt-rescue bill

The House on Thursday easily passed a bill to rescue Puerto Rico from its massive bond debt, overcoming carping from both the left and right and setting up a final showdown in the Senate.

June 9, 2016