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Articles by Tom Howell Jr.

House Speaker John A. Boehner of Ohio, left, performs a mock swearing in for Rep. Donna Edwards, Maryland Democrat, Thursday, Jan. 3, 2013, on Capitol Hill in Washington as the 113th Congress began. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen)

Religious diversity in Congress expands list of holy texts

The Bible and Torah, for years the standard religious texts used to swear in members of Congress, have been joined by the Constitution, the Koran — and, Thursday, for the first time ever, the Hindu Bhagavad-Gita.

January 3, 2013
** FILE ** New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie walks to a meeting on Capitol Hill in Washington on Thursday, Dec. 6, 2012, to talk about aid to help his state recover from superstorm Sandy. President Obama is expected to ask Congress for about $50 billion in additional emergency assistance. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Boehner sets votes on Sandy relief after taking bipartisan criticism

After withering criticism from New Jersey and New York lawmakers, House Speaker John A. Boehner said Wednesday that his chamber will rush immediate Superstorm Sandy relief money through Congress on Friday, and take up a bigger bill by the middle of the month.

January 2, 2013
Pedestrians, veterans and members of the media walk around the grounds of the newly renovated District of Columbia WWI Memorial after a rededication ceremony in Washington, D.C. on Nov. 10, 2011. (T.J. Kirkpatrick/ The Washington Times)

Bill leaves out national memorial to WWI veterans

Congress approved a bill on Monday that makes sure the 100-year anniversary of World War I is recognized in the coming years, but a long-sought memorial to Americans who fought and died in the Great War is not part of the deal.

December 31, 2012
One California law that takes effect Tuesday has drawn opposition. In September, parents and their children rallied outside the Capitol to protest legislation requiring parents to get waivers saying they have received information about the benefits and risk of immunization. (Associated Press)

New year rings in new laws for gays, Web privacy, bears

Employers and college officials in several states no longer can ask people to pony up their Facebook passwords. Drivers in Florida earn the right to warn fellow motorists of cops lurking around the bend. And folks in California cannot let their dogs chase bears or bobcats "at any time," even for hunting.

December 31, 2012
** FILE ** Medical marijuana is packaged for sale in 1-gram packages at the Northwest Patient Resource Center medical marijuana dispensary in Seattle on Nov. 7, 2012. (Associated Press)

First marijuana growers in D.C. clear regulatory hurdles

Fifteen years after voters gave the green-light to a medical marijuana program in the nation’s capital, a pair of locations approved to grow or sell the drug have cleared regulatory hurdles and will set up shop a few months into the new year, according to city officials.

December 25, 2012
D.C. Mayor Vincent C. Gray says the city should 'double down' on its gun laws in the wake of the school shooting in Newton, Conn. (Barbara L. Salisbury/The Washington Times)

Mayor Gray says D.C. should ‘double down’ on gun restrictions

D.C. Mayor Vincent C. Gray said his city should "double down" on gun laws that are among the most stringent in the country, as leaders in the nation's capital and other cities view the sudden debate over guns as a pressing issue that afflicts youth both inside and outside of school walls.

December 21, 2012

Census: D.C. growing faster than most states

New census data show the nation's capital is one of the fastest-growing areas in the country, adding more than 30,000 residents since early 2010 and recently eclipsing Vermont in overall population.

December 20, 2012
D.C. Police Chief Cathy L. Lanier wrote a letter to council Chairman Phil Mendelson urging him not to rush council member David A. Catania’s proposal to increase the privacy of personal email accounts. (Rod Lamkey Jr./The Washington Times)

D.C. lawmakers consider bill to protect emails

The sudden resignation of former CIA Director Gen. David H. Petraeus over an extramarital affair turned heads for many reasons — not least of which was the way a few Gmail messages brought down a man who handled sensitive information for a living.

December 19, 2012
D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson, a Democrat, showed resistance to a proposal to cap money-order contributions to campaigns at $25, saying the cap seemed too low and that money orders do leave some record of the purchase. (Andrew Harnik/The Washington Times)

D.C. Council pushes campaign finance to ’13

Despite months of rhetoric and proposals, D.C. lawmakers failed to pass sweeping campaign finance reforms by the end of a legislative period that was historic for all the wrong reasons.

December 18, 2012
**FILE** The Capitol's coal-burning power plant.

Use of coal in Capitol plant draws protesters

A power plant that provided electricity to the U.S. Capitol for decades and still heats and cools the iconic building and its surrounding offices is raising questions about whether coal's days are numbered as an American fuel of choice, particularly in the symbolic heart of the nation's capital.

December 17, 2012
** FILE ** In this March 7, 2012 photo, gun owners and supporters participate in an Illinois Gun Owners Lobby Day rally at the Illinois State Capitol in Springfield. In a big victory for gun rights advocates, a federal appeals court on Tuesday, Dec. 11, 2012, struck down a ban on carrying concealed weapons in Illinois — the only remaining state where carrying concealed weapons is entirely illegal. (AP Photo/Seth Perlman)

Backers of gun rights hit some big targets

Florida is preparing to issue its 1 millionth concealed-carry permit while a federal court ruling this week left the nation's capital as the only place in the United States with a total ban on carrying concealed weapons — developments that have gun advocates feeling that momentum is on their side in the national debate over whether Americans can remain armed once they leave home.

December 13, 2012

D.C. students’ test scores better on health than reading and math

Standardized test scores released Wednesday show select students in the nation's capital answered questions about disease prevention and nutrition correctly last spring at better rates than they did on the reading and math sections of their tests.

December 13, 2012
Members of the media crowd around a model of the White House as the Joint Task Force - National Capital Region and the D.C. National Guard hold a final inauguration day planning symposium using a 40- by 60-foot map of downtown D.C. and the National Mall, Washington, D.C., Wednesday, December 12, 2012. The inauguration day events are planned out for months with a number of different military and civilian organizations. (Andrew Harnik/The Washington Times)

Military maps out Obama inauguration security

This year's presidential inauguration parade route runs about 30 feet and looks to take about 20 seconds to traverse — or at least it does on the scale model laid across the floor of the D.C. Armory.

December 12, 2012
Jarrod McKenna of Perth, Australia, jumps down from a wall after taking a photograph of the Martin Luther King Jr. National Memorial on Tuesday, the day the Department of the Interior announced it will remove the controversial truncated “drum major” quote on the side of the memorial rather than replace it with the full quote. (Andrew Harnik/The Washington Times)

King’s words will be struck, not replaced

The Department of the Interior announced Tuesday it will remove a controversial "drum major" quote on the Martin Luther King Jr. National Memorial that paraphrased the late civil rights leader's words, scrapping its initial plan to replace it with the full quote.

December 11, 2012

Bonds wins interim D.C. Council seat

The D.C. Democratic State Committee selected its chairwoman, Anita Bonds, to fill a vacant seat on the city's legislative body until a special election this spring.

December 10, 2012
Four of the proposed ten uniform color designs for the Districtís taxicab fleet can be seen on display at the Verizon Center in Chinatown, Washington, D.C., Monday, December 10, 2012. The District is asking citizens to weigh in on which design people favor before they decide which color scheme will become the uniform design for all cabs in Washington, D.C. (Andrew Harnik/The Washington Times)

Choosing a color for all D.C. cabs

Visitors to New York City see a golden horde hurtling down Broadway, passengers in Boston wheel around the harbor in snowy white cars and London's black cabs are as iconic as Big Ben.

December 10, 2012
Barbara B. Lang, President and CEO, D.C. Chamber of Commerce talks about the future of the D.C. Council in the halls of the John A. Wilson Building in Washington, D.C., Thursday, June 7, 2012, a day after D.C. Council Chairman Kwame R. Brown resigned after federal prosecutors accused him of lying on a loan application. (Rod Lamkey Jr/The Washington Times)

CFO: D.C. ‘ballpark fee’ not going to increase

The District's top budget minder says the city does not need to raise the "ballpark fee" it imposes on businesses to pay down the massive debt it took to build a home for the Washington Nationals, a long-term endeavor in the nation's capital as other sports-crazed cities grapple with the role of public funds in high-stakes stadium deals.

December 9, 2012
Work is under way for a viewing platform for the Inauguration Day parade in front of the John A. Wilson Building on Pennsylvania Avenue. This entrance to the District’s city hall will be closed through February. (Barbara L. Salisbury/The Washington Times)

Security plans developing for smaller inauguration

President Obama's second inauguration is expected to draw less than half the number of visitors who descended on the Mall for his historic oath-taking in 2009, the top D.C. security official said Thursday.

December 6, 2012