Tom Howell Jr.

Obamacare premiums to rise sharply as choices dwindle, administration confirms

Obamacare premiums will soar in 2017, the administration acknowledged Monday, with the price of the most popular benchmark plans jumping an average of 22 percent as the law continues to rely on older, sicker customers than its backers had envisioned.

October 24, 2016

Donald Trump’s voter fraud concerns overblown, election officials say

Voter fraud has occurred in recent presidential elections, officials in key swing states say, yet its magnitude falls short of the type of systematic cheating that Donald Trump is prophesying.

October 23, 2016

House GOP eyes contempt proceedings over Clinton emails

A Republican House chairman on Thursday said he will move to hold in contempt the Colorado-based firm that Hillary Clinton hired to help run the private email server she used as secretary of state during President Obama's first term.

October 20, 2016

Obama says Obamacare is working, yet needs fixes

President Obama fiercely defended his signature health care law Thursday, saying it has slashed the uninsured rate to historic lows, though he implored his successor and Congress to cure the "growing pains" that have battered the program politically and left millions of uninsured on the sidelines.

October 20, 2016

Nancy Pelosi: Claims of a rigged election ‘beyond the pale’

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi on Wednesday said Donald Trump is "not going to the president of the United States" and that claims of a rigged election are highly irresponsible.

October 19, 2016

HHS expects 13.8M signups under Obamacare, amid challenges

Obamacare's exchanges will attract roughly 1 million more customers than they did last year, administration officials predicted Wednesday, saying they're confident the program will grow in 2017 despite widespread concerns about rising premiums and dwindling consumer choice.

October 19, 2016

Donald Trump, Richard Burr, Pat McCrory in peril as Republicans fight to keep North Carolina

Spread out like a Burma-Shave ad, the message on a trio of roadside signs was jarring but familiar: Lock. Her. Up.

October 17, 2016

Donald Trump gets assist from conservative women as groping accusations threaten campaign

As the presidential race sank into R-rated territory, the wives of three sitting congressmen urged a dozen women sipping iced tea at Darryl's Wood-Fired Grill last week to rise above the fray and get out the vote -- for Donald Trump.

October 16, 2016

Donald Trump within striking distance of Hillary Clinton despite groping allegations

Donald Trump's allies tried their best Sunday to tamp down an eruption of stories accusing the Republican presidential nominee of untoward sexual advances against women, as national polls showed the billionaire businessman still within striking distance of Hillary Clinton after a horrendous week.

October 16, 2016

Mike Pence, GOP vice-presidential nominee: We will ‘absolutely’ accept election results

Mike Pence said his ticket will "absolutely" accept the results of the election, saying any sense of a "rigged" election stems from an avalanche of negative media coverage about Donald Trump.

October 16, 2016

Joe Biden: Donald Trump’s own remarks offer ‘textbook definition of sexual assault’

Joe Biden said Donald Trump suffers from an "instinctive abuse of power" and that his own words give credence to women who have accused him of groping them.

October 16, 2016

Mike Pence: ‘Couldn’t be more proud’ to stand by Donald Trump, despite groping claims

Mike Pence said the media are piling on with "unsubstantiated claims" about Donald Trump's behavior around women and that he "couldn't be more proud" to stand with him.

October 16, 2016

Richard Burr distances Donald Trump in Senate race

Fighting for his political life, Sen. Richard Burr, North Carolina Republican, said he cannot defend Donald Trump's lewd remarks about women but feels the Democratic alternative, Hillary Clinton, is an unacceptable choice for president.

October 13, 2016

Donald Trump throws GOP senators off balance

Vulnerable Senate Republicans are deploying an array of tactics to stanch the down-ballot bleeding from Donald Trump's caught-on-tape remarks about women, from vocal condemnation to pleas to forgive the real estate mogul and focus on Hillary Clinton's weaknesses.

October 12, 2016

Donald Trump, campaign confound foreign press

American voters aren't the only ones scratching their heads over a topsy-turvy presidential race featuring two unpopular candidates. The foreign press appears to be stumped, too, critiquing Republican nominee Donald Trump's latest debate performance as "belligerent" and bemoaning the past few days as a "low point" in U.S. politics.

October 11, 2016

HPV vaccine skepticism persists among parents as lawmakers push for mandates

A decade after the Food and Drug Administration approved a vaccine for sexually transmitted HPV, many parents remain doubtful about the worthiness of the shot and the message it sends to children about sex.

October 10, 2016

Opioid field tests pose grave threat to police officers amid deadly epidemic of overdoses

Three months ago, the chief of police in Huntington, West Virginia, told officers to stop field-testing suspected heroin on drug calls -- just bag it and let the state police lab handle it if the case goes to trial.

October 9, 2016

Sen. Kelly Ayotte, New Hampshire Republican, says she can no longer vote for Donald Trump

Republican Sen. Kelly Ayotte said Saturday she will no longer vote for Donald Trump, beating a retreat less than a week after she called the GOP presidential pick a role model from a New Hampshire debate stage.

October 8, 2016

Mylan agrees to pay $465M in EpiPen settlement

Mylan Pharmaceuticals on Friday said it has agreed to pay $465 million to settle claims it short-changed taxpayers by classifying its popular EpiPen as a generic instead of a brand-name product -- a move that allowed it to pay smaller rebates to states under Medicaid.

October 7, 2016

Donald Trump is no role mode, say 72 percent of voters in a poll

More than seven in 10 voters say Donald Trump is not a role model for children, according to a poll conducted in the days after Republican Sen. Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire said she "absolutely" thought the mogul deserved the label, only to walk it back.

October 7, 2016