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Articles by Tom Howell Jr.

A remembrance day ceremony takes place at the near completed ceramic poppy art installation by artist Paul Cummins entitled 'Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red' in the dry moat of the Tower of London in London, Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2014. The finished installation will be made up of 888,246 ceramic poppies, with the final poppy being placed on Armistice Day today. Each poppy represents a British and Commonwealth military fatality from World War I. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)

WWI commission plans contest to design long-awaited memorial

Students, architects and even amateur designers who have a vision for what the national World War I memorial should look like will get their shot this summer, according to the body charged with honoring those who served in the Great War.

May 14, 2015
Republican Florida Gov. Rick Scott speaks during during the Valley Industry and Commerce Association (VICA) Leaders Forum in the Woodland Hills area of Los Angeles on April 13, 2015. (Associated Press) **FILE**

Rick Scott, Florida governor, pleads with Capitol Hill GOP to back him in Medicaid fight

Florida Gov. Rick Scott personally pleaded with Capitol Hill Republicans Tuesday to hold hearings, write letters or can do whatever they can to back his fight to renew federal funding that pays hospitals for treating the poor and illegal immigrants, even as the administration pushes him -- kicking and screaming -- to expand Medicaid instead.

May 12, 2015
President Obama and Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell have tried to distance themselves from economist's Jon Gruber's "stupid Americans" remark. (Associated Press)

HHS rewrites Obamacare rules: Orders free birth control for all

The Obama administration on Monday ordered all insurers to provide IUDs, the contraceptive patch and other birth control free of out-of-pocket charge to all women, thereby rewriting the rules after reports that some insurance carriers were refusing to cover all types of contraceptives.

May 11, 2015
New York State Attorney Eric Schneiderman speaks May 5, 2015, during a Law Day event at the Court of Appeals in Albany. (Associated Press) ** FILE **

Eric T. Schneiderman floats bill to make Obamacare birth-control mandates N.Y. law

New York's top lawman proposed legislation Monday to write Obamacare's birth-control requirements into state law, extending no-cost services even to men as watchdogs accused insurers of violating the spirit -- if not the letter -- of the health overhaul by forcing women to pay out of pocket for their preferred contraceptives.

May 11, 2015
L. Ray Roberts, left stands with his daughters Helena Roberts, 11, center, and her sister Cassie Boyle, 8, right, all from Pittsburgh, on the steps of the Supreme Court in Washington, Wednesday, March 4, 2015, as the court hears arguments in King v. Burwell, a major test of President Barack Obama's health overhaul which, if successful, could halt health care premium subsidies in all the states where the federal government runs the insurance marketplaces. The sisters are holding pictures of their grandmother Hannah Brown, who died when she was 58 years old. Their grandmother lost her job and healthcare and died a year and half later because of lack of access to treatment. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

Most want Supreme Court to uphold Obamacare subsidies: poll

More than half of Americans would like the Supreme Court to uphold Obamacare's subsidies in all 50 states, according to a poll released Monday that also finds only one in 10 people are quite confident the justices will decide a pivotal health case this June objectively.

May 11, 2015
Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Commissioner John Koskinen testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, April 15, 2015, before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee hearing to examine IRS challenges in implementing the Affordable Care Act. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik) ** FILE **

IRS unable to make sure people comply with Obamacare penalty: Treasury IG

The IRS cannot be sure that Americans who lacked health insurance last year have complied with Obamacare's "individual mandate" penalty this tax season, according to an inspector general report Friday that pointed to a decision to delay proof-of-coverage forms from insurers and employers until 2016.

May 8, 2015
FILE - In this Feb. 5, 2015 file photo, Florida Gov. Rick Scott gestures during a cabinet meeting at the Florida State Fair, in Tampa, Fla. Scott, who has repeatedly tangled with public record advocates, media organizations and others over whether he has followed the state’s transparency law, has insisted did not use private email accounts for state business. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara, file)

Rick Scott asks courts to quickly intervene in Obamacare spat with HHS

Florida Gov. Rick Scott asked a federal court Thursday to thwart the Obama administration from using "unconstitutional coercion" to, in his view, force him to expand Medicaid under Obamacare by refusing to renew a separate program that helps hospitals care for the poor and uninsured.

May 7, 2015
Republican Florida Gov. Rick Scott speaks during during the Valley Industry and Commerce Association (VICA) Leaders Forum in the Woodland Hills area of Los Angeles on April 13, 2015. (Associated Press) **FILE**

Rick Scott pleads with Obama admin for health funding

Florida Gov. Rick Scott pleaded face-to-face with the Obama administration Wednesday to preserve funding for an expiring health program, even though the federal government has told him to expand Medicaid instead -- a standoff that has produced a lawsuit, delayed state budget talks and roiled Obamacare politics at large.

May 6, 2015
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Kentucky Republican, answers a question during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington on April 21, 2015. (Associated Press) **FILE**

Congress passes first budget in 6 years

Congress' unified budget cleared a procedural hurdle in the Senate Tuesday, setting the stage for final passage of the GOP-authored blueprint later in the day.

May 5, 2015
A worker is seen behind the registration window of the emergency room at Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta on Jan. 24, 2014. (Associated Press) **FILE**

ER visits up under Obamacare, despite promises: Doctors’ poll

Doctors say emergency room visits have increased since the advent of Obamacare, undercutting one of the key selling points of President Obama's health care law, which was supposed to ensure a healthier population by pushing consumers to rely on their primary physicians rather than emergency trips to the hospital.

May 4, 2015