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Articles by Tom Howell Jr.

"Airstrikes are effective, but neither they, nor really anything we do, can substitute for the Iraqi forces' will to fight. They're the ones who [need] that to beat ISIL and then keep them beaten," Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said. (Associated Press)

Ashton Carter: Iraqi forces showed ‘no will to fight’ in Ramadi

Defense Secretary Ashton Carter accused Iraqi forces Sunday of showing "no will to fight" Islamic State guerrillas who seized a crucial city west of Baghdad, a blunt assessment that drew an immediate rebuke from Iraqi officials who think the U.S. is scapegoating their besieged nation to obscure its own failures in the region.

May 24, 2015
FEC Commissioner Ann Ravel fought back against allegations that Democrats had proposed regulations for Internet politicking. (Associated Press)

FEC deadlocks on wealthy donor giving limits

The Federal Election Commission stalemated Thursday on writing new campaign finance rules to limit wealthy donors' spending in federal elections, virtually ensuring next year's elections will be fought under the current rules that the Supreme Court has written in several major decisions this decade.

May 21, 2015
The birth control pill remains the most common method of female contraception in the U.S. (Associated Press) **FILE**

Obamacare contraception decision imposed by court on priest group

A federal appeals court said Wednesday it will not reconsider a pro-life ministry's plea for relief from Obamacare's birth control mandate, dealing a second blow in as many days to religious nonprofits who say the administration is ignoring its strongly held beliefs and signals from the Supreme Court.

May 20, 2015
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Senate would put colleges on hook for student loan default

College and universities that churn out students who default on their federal loans should be forced to bear some of the brunt of those costs, senators said Wednesday in a bipartisan push to try to make schools with high student default rates have to put "skin in the game."

May 20, 2015
Republican presidential candidate Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida speaks at the Georgia Republican Convention in Athens on May 15, 2015. (Associated Press) **FILE**

Marco Rubio, House GOP back Rick Scott in Medicaid standoff with HHS

Presidential candidate Marco Rubio and other Florida Republicans urged President Obama on Wednesday to renew federal funding for health program at the center of a festering dispute between Gov. Rick Scott and the administration, which wants the state to expand Medicaid under Obamacare instead.

May 20, 2015
This image provided by the Department of Health and Human Services shows a portion of the HealthCare.gov Website. Republican or Democrat, the next president will have the chance to remake the nation’s health care overhaul without fighting Congress. The law signed by President Barack Obama includes a waiver that, starting in 2017, would let states take federal dollars now invested in the overhaul and use them to redesign their own health care systems. (AP Photo/HHS)

Only 150K penalty payers signed up for Obamacare during extra time

Only 150,000 customers signed up for Obamacare coverage on the HealthCare.gov website between March 15 and April 30, the administration said Tuesday, shedding light on how many people took advantage of extra time to sign up for coverage and avoid the tax penalty for being uninsured.

May 19, 2015
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