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WASHINGTON Oct 16 (Reuters) - President Barack Obama said on Thursday he is considering appointing an Ebola "czar" as the lead U.S. coordinator in the effort to contain the virus and that he remains opposed to a ban on travel from West Africa.

CLEVELAND - Officials with the Centers for Disease Control say the nurse who contracted the Ebola virus may have shown symptoms earlier than first believed. During a press conference in Summit County on Thursday, the CDC says Amber Vinson may have experienced symptoms on Friday, the day she flew from Dallas, Texas to Cleveland. Dr. Chris Braden with the CDC says they can “not rule out” that Vinson had symptoms on Oct. 10 and that now the passengers on the flight from Dallas to Cleveland will be “included in the investigation."

Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas followed the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines when treating Thomas Eric Duncan, the Liberian man who became the nation’s first person diagnosed with the deadly virus, officials said in a press release early Thursday. Nurses at the North Dallas hospital criticized the hospital’s preparation for and treatment of Duncan, who died last Wednesday. They said they were not given proper protective equipment and were exposed to the virus. Since Duncan’s death, two nurses who cared for Duncan have been diagnosed with the virus. Other nurses at the hospital spoke out anonymously this week...

Former White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said there is “no question” that the environment caused by the Islamic State, Ukraine, and Ebola crises has put President Obama in a “bad light.” “You don’t get to choose the crisis you deal with as a president,” Carney said. “I think in the end this is not a political issue. It’s an issue that has to be handled…There is no question in this environment it all washes back on the White House and that puts him in a bad light.” Carney addressed the crisis of confidence leadership after CNN’s Chris Cuomo pointed...

Christmas lights and other seasonal decorations are the target of new federal regulations as the holidays approach. The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) proposed new requirements on Tuesday to prevent decorative lights from causing electrical fires and other dangers in homes around the country. The new rules would apply to everything from Christmas tree lights to the light sculptures and animated figures of Santa Claus and his reindeer that illuminate front yards across the country. Decorative lighting that does not meet new standards will be considered hazardous, the agency said. "Consumers can be seriously injured or killed by electrical shocks...

The nurses’ union National Nurses United spoke out today with some serious criticisms of the way the government has been handling the Ebola outbreak. This comes on the day it was revealed a second health care worker who was treating Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital patient Thomas Duncan has contracted Ebola. This nurse is being sent to Emory for treatment. Union president RoseAnne DeMoro called these past few weeks “a nightmare” for nurses across the country and said, “We’ve been told a lot of things that have been wrong. We’ve been lied to, in terms of the preparation and the hospitals,...

President Barack Obama is scheduled to meet with Ebola experts from Emory as part of his Sept. 16 visit to Atlanta. The president will visit the federal Centers for Disease Control & Prevention for an update on the Ebola virus outbreak in West Africa and the U.S. response to it. During Tuesday’s visit, Obama will meet with Emory University Hospital physicians as well as other healthcare workers involved with the treatment of Ebola patients here. “Just when we thought our time in the spotlight had reached a crescendo, we are now being acknowledged with a special visit by President Barack...

WASHINGTON, DC -- House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) today issued the following statement on the growing Ebola crisis: “Our hearts go out to the health care workers who have contracted the Ebola virus here in the United States, as well as those who have been impacted by it around the globe. We pray for their speedy recovery, and we pray for those who are helping to treat and care for these individuals, including our medical experts and military personnel who are in West Africa to help stem this deadly disease. Concerns about the possibility of an outbreak of this sort...

House Democrats are pushing back hard against proposals to institute a travel ban in the fight against the Ebola virus. A growing number of lawmakers — mostly Republicans — are urging the Obama administration to bar travel to the United States for the roughly 13,000 foreign visa holders living in the West African countries where the disease is most rampant. But Democrats are rejecting that strategy, arguing that it would both be ineffective and could worsen the epidemic in those African hot spots. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas) said Wednesday that U.S. officials should instead focus their efforts on enhanced...

CNBC's Meg Tirrell reports the White House has acknowledged shortcomings in the response to Ebola and is considering an Ebola czar.

Chelsea Clinton and Stella McCartney have admitted they wanted to grow up completely 'different' from their famous parents. In a discussion published in the latest issue of Harper's Bazaar, the duo open up about trying to rebel against everything that interested their parents. 'I worked in the private sector for years and tried very hard to care about things that were different from what my parents cared about,' admitted 35-year-old Chelsea. 'It's kind of sad to say that that my major act of rebellion... was to declare that I was a vegetarian,' she added, before Stella, 43, pointed out that...

The NIH budget included $2.4 million for a new condom design whose inventor is now being investigated for fraud Another $939,000 taught scientists that male fruit flies prefer younger females $257,000 went to create a companion website for first lady Michelle Obama's White House garden It cost $592,000 to determine that chimpanzees with the best poop-flinging skills are also the best communicators, and another $117,000 to learn that most chimps are right-handed NIH director Dr. Francis Collins complained Sunday that a lack of funding is behind his agency's failure to produce an Ebola vaccine in time to combat this year's...

"Well there's only so much you can say in 140 characters and I think a little was lost in translation, " said McCarthy's Digital Director Justin LoFranco. "The point Congressman McCarthy was trying to make is that taxpayer-funded stimulus dollars shouldn't be going to pay for advertisements demonizing American food and beverage establishments. $230 million of stimulus grant money being spent on attack ads against soft drink companies is the sort of egregious Washington waste that taxpayers are fed up with. After all, didn't the president and his economic team promise that the stimulus would keep unemployment under 8 percent?...

President Obama proposed to cut the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) funding in his fiscal year 2012 budget proposal. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is currently blasting out ads accusing Republicans of voting to cut CDC’s Ebola-fighting capabilities in February 2011 by voting for a bill to cut $60 billion from the federal budget, including from the CDC, in anticipation of the fiscal year 2012 budget battle. The House passed the bill on Feb. 19, 2011, but the bill never passed the Senate. But the Obama administration proposed to cut CDC funding, including for public health preparedness and...

Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus is pushing back against charges that Republicans are responsible for budget cut that have made it harder to contain the Ebola outbreak. “Obviously, this is just desperation on the part of this idiotic group,” Priebus said on Fox News’ “Fox and Friends on Tuesday, referring to the Agenda Project which released an ad that blames the GOP for slashing funding the Centers for Disease Control and the National Institutes of Health. (snip) Priebus fired back, saying, “They’re walking this dangerous path on trying to point out blame on Ebola when, in fact, if you...

The 56-year-old man arrived in the country five days ago from Liberia He was being treated in isolation unit at St Georg hospital in Leipzig The aid worker was one of three people being treated for Ebola in Germany Local health officials said last week the patient was a Sudanese doctor A United Nations worker infected with Ebola has died in hospital in Germany despite intensive medical treatment. The 56-year-old man was being treated at the St Georg hospital in the eastern German town of Leipzig after being admitted five days ago, according to local officials. Local health officials said...

PORTLAND (WGME) -- Maine Medical Center says a patient is currently being held at the request of the CDC for observation as a precautionary step, but says the hospital does not have a confirmed case of Ebola.

President Obama is meeting Monday afternoon with senior members of his administration for a briefing on U.S. efforts to combat Ebola after tests revealed a second case in Dallas. The president will be briefed on the nurse who contracted the deadly virus treating a Liberian man who had traveled to the U.S. and then began displaying symptoms of the disease. Obama will also receive an update at the 3 p.m. meeting on “broader efforts to ensure the preparedness of our national health infrastructure,” according to the White House. The White House did not release the names of the meeting’s participants,...

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) on Monday said it "would not be surprised" if other healthcare workers at a Dallas hospital are diagnosed with Ebola. CDC Director Tom Frieden said he did not know how many workers might have been exposed to the virus, but estimated it was a "relatively large number." "We’re concerned, and unfortunately would not be surprised if we did see additional cases in healthcare workers who also provided care to the index patient," Frieden said. A nurse at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital was found to have Ebola over the weekend. Her case is the first-ever...

Nina Pham, 26, caught the Ebola virus while treating Thomas Eric Duncan at Dallas Presbyterian Hospital before his death Miss Pham was raised in Vietnamese family in Fort Worth and graduated from Texas Christian University in 2010 with Bachelor of Science in Nursing Friends described her as compassionate and devoted to her vocation HazChem teams spent the weekend fumigating her Dallas apartment Dallas Mayor said her beloved King Charles Spaniel will not be destroyed Authorities have blamed a 'breach of protocol' - but nursing leaders have criticized the CDC for making her a scapegoat Holding her beloved dog, this is...