First Rick Wagoner, now Fritz Henderson. The heads continue to roll over at General Motors, as a second chief executive is stepping down in less than a year. Wagoner was pressured to resign after the government bailed out the troubled automaker earlier this year. The decision was announced Tuesday following a board meeting. GM Chairman Ed Whitacre will serve as interim chief executive while the company searches for a new president and CEO. The move is intended as a way to fast track the company on the road to profitability and repaying taxpayers the $50 billion the government loaned it to recover. It is rumored that Whitacre, a former AT&T exec, and Henderson didn't get along.

Before an audience of West Point cadets and military and White House officials, President Barack Obama announced his plan for a 30,000-troop Afghan surge and strategy that includes civilian engagement, partnering with Pakistan, and deadlines. After acknowledging that "Afghanistan has deteriorated," the president told his military audience that he understood the human cost of war, and took seriously "ask[ing] even more of you." He emphasized the existential threat to America that the region poses—"In the last few months alone we have apprehended extremists within our borders who were sent here from the border region of Afghanistan and Pakistan to commit new acts of terror"—and pushed for diplomatic and multinational "partnerships.” The president rebutted three arguments against his plan: First, to "those that suggest Afghanistan is another Vietnam," he argued that the current mission has international support and began due to an attack on American soil. Second, to those who would argue to maintain the status quo, he cited "slow deterioration" as the inevitable outcome. Finally, to those who propose an even heavier troop increase—as Gen. Stanley McChrystal does, albeit by only a small margin—the president argues against "nation-building": "As president, I refuse to set goals that go beyond our responsibilities, our means, or our interests." He promised to be "candid" discussing the economic price of war and said his plan will cost $30 billion in the next year.

Much ado about nothing, here: After causing a stir by announcing it would press charges against Tiger Woods, the Florida Highway Patrol said that it will charge Tiger Woods with "careless driving" and fine him $164. There are no charges related to driving under the influence or domestic abuse. Woods, however, is not in the clear: Us Weekly claims to have a voicemail proving that he cheated on his wife. 

Tiger Woods may keep a low tally on the green, but his purported sexual escapades are rising quickly. RadarOnline.com reports that several women are currently speaking out to the media about their alleged relationships with one of the world's most famous athletes. The revelations come following one woman's claim to have had a three-year affair with Woods. Jaimee Grubbs, a cocktail waitress from San Diego, says she met Woods in Las Vegas in 2007, and has text messages and voicemails to prove their affair, which includes naughty text exchanges and requests for salacious photos. The National Enquirer also has an exclusive story that claims Woods cheated with New York party girl Rachel Uchitel. Uchitel has adamantly denied the affair, but the Enquirer says it has evidence that the two were in a hotel together in Australia and several other sources that confirm the relationship.

Appearing on Today after causing a stir in Washington, D.C. by appearing uninvited at last week's White House State Dinner, Tareq and Michaele Salahi said the incident was "the most devastating thing that ever happened to us," and implied, in the words of Matt Lauer, that "the story is about to take a dramatic and unexpected turn." Calling themselves "greatly saddened," the Salahis were adamant that they "did not party-crash the White House." The couple said they were cooperating fully with the Secret Service's internal investigation and that "the truth will soon come out." The interview came on the same day as revelations that the two had unsuccessfully attempted to finagle invitations from a Pentagon source, and two days before a congressional hearing into the incident, at which the Salahis have been asked to testify.

Rihanna may have just about zero privacy left. The singer went on air with Ryan Seacrest's radio show Tuesday morning to address nude photos of her that were leaked earlier this year. The singer explains that the racy pics were intended at the time for her then-boyfriend Chris Brown, now infamous for his February 7 assault on the singer. In defense of the photos, Rihanna said, "if you don’t send your boyfriend naked pictures, then I feel bad for him.” Rihanna calls her relationship with her fellow R&B singer a "learning experience," going on to say, "[t]here was a lot of insecurity and a lot of control issues. In relationships in the future I know how to watch out for certain things. A lot of those were signs. I learned that in the end.”

This story won't be boosting anyone's holiday spirits. In a blow to Baltimore's image, Mayor Sheila Dixon was convicted Tuesday of embezzlement for stealing approximately $1,500 worth of gift cards meant for the poor. The gift cards were donated by developers, one of whom was an ex-boyfriend of Dixon's. Prosecutors said the mayor used the gift cards to buy items such as a PlayStation 2, a digital camcorder, DVDs, and CDs. The defense argued that Dixon simply misunderstood the gift cards to be a personal gift. State law mandates that Dixon be suspended from her post after sentencing, but her lawyers may appeal the verdict. Dixon's supporters say the case is racially motivated, and object to the hundreds of thousands of dollars spent prosecuting a crime of $1,500.

In a move cheered around the world, South Africa marked World AIDS Day by announcing it will expand treatment for HIV-positive children under 1 year old and pregnant women. In a country where one in 10 citizens is infected by HIV, South Africa has long been criticized for its backward views on AIDS. Under the former administration, the health minister promoted garlic and beet treatments to combat the disease. President Jacob Zuma has also been known to make incendiary statements about AIDS, claiming that it could be prevented with a shower. A Harvard study found that ignoring valid medical care led to more than 300,000 premature deaths in South Africa. The new position, lauded by AIDS activists, follows the World Health Organization's new guidelines that call for HIV-infected pregnant women to be treated with drugs earlier and while breast-feeding.

Marilyn Monroe gives new meaning to “running wild:” A new video of her smoking pot at a friend’s house in the late ’50s surfaced Tuesday. And it’s already up for sale: A New York-based collector purchased the silent home video for $275,000—and plans to sell it on eBay (presumably for much more than that) later this week. In the grainy video, which takes place in New Jersey, Monroe takes the cigarette from a friend, takes a quick puff and—here’s the kicker—sniffs her armpit. Not convinced? The filmmaker confirms it was more than just a cigarette, telling The Daily News: “I got [the pot]. It was mine. It was just passed around… It was not a party. It was just a get-together. You know, come over and hang out.”

It may be time to ditch those lonely friends. A new study published in the December issue of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology reveals that loneliness is contagious, and can spread to up to three degrees of separation (so, avoid lonely neighbors, too). The study finds that lonely people tend to cluster with other lonelies, heightening their sense of isolation. Lonely people are described as those who feel a constant and pervasive state of loneliness, compared with the average person who feels lonely only 48 days of the year. It may also go without saying that lonely people have fewer friends, and tend to lose more friends over time. Women, the study found, are more susceptible than men to feelings of loneliness.

Tiger’s alleged “other woman” Rachel Uchitel is denying an affair, but now a new woman is proudly claiming the mantle. Jaimee Grubbs, a cocktail waitress in Las Vegas, has told Us Weekly that she had a 31-month affair with Woods and has the voicemails and texts to prove it. Grubbs, whose story will be on the new cover of Us, says she met him in April 2007 when she was 21 and had 20 sexual encounters with Tiger. Us Weekly says it has photos, texts, and a voicemail from November 24 that suggests Tiger’s wife, Elin, may have been on to the affair. Grubbs recently appeared on VH1’s Tool Academy.

Where is Sarah Palin looking, as she stares off into the horizon on the cover of her memoir, Going Rogue? Probably at stacks of money. The ex-governor's book has passed 1 million in sales just two weeks after its publication. HarperCollins expanded the book's print run again—it had already been moved to 2.5 million from 1 million—increasing the figure to 2.8 million. Palin's book, an account of her life and the 2008 presidential race, joins Bill Clinton's My Life, Hillary Clinton's Living History, and Barack Obama's The Audacity of Hope as a platinum-selling political memoir.

Washington, D.C.'s city council passed a bill Tuesday to legalize same-sex marriage by a vote of 11 to 2, speaking to what the bill's chief sponsor, David A. Catina, calls “the long and rich tradition of tolerance and acceptance that does make up the sense of place in the District of Columbia." However, before the District joins the five states allowing gay marriage—New Hampshire, Connecticut, Iowa, Vermont and Massachusetts—the council must pass another vote in two weeks, after which the measure will go to Mayor Adrian M. Fenty for signing.

President Obama hopes to bolster the 30,000 new troops he plans to send to Afghanistan with international reinforcements, but on Tuesday he came up empty. The Financial Times reports that French President Nicolas Sarkozy rebuffed President Obama’s direct appeal to send 1,500 new French troops, saying over the phone that there would be no immediate or significant reinforcement to the existing French contingent of 3,750 troops. The U.S. is hoping for 4,000 to 7,000 new foreign troops. So far, Britain has committed 500 new soldiers and Georgia up to 1,000.

The man suspected of killing four police officers in Washington state Sunday was fatally shot by police in Seattle Tuesday morning. Maurice Clemmons was sought in the shooting deaths of four police troopers at a coffee shop the Seattle suburb of Lakewood. Prior to his death, the Associated Press reported Clemmons had been receiving aid—in the form of shelter, medical aid, rides, and money—from friends and family in his efforts to elude police.

In what has become a routine turn of events, former Vice President Dick Cheney laid into the president on the eve of Obama's speech unveiling his new Afghanistan policy. Cheney says Obama projects "weakness," and that his "agonizing" could hurt the troops. The former VP extended his condemnation of Obama's foreign policy beyond Afghanistan: "Here's a guy without much experience, who campaigned against much of what we put in place... and who now travels around the world apologizing. I think our adversaries… especially when that's preceded by a deep bow... see that as a sign of weakness." Cheney, who is currently writing his memoirs, said he finds Obama to be more "radical" than expected, claiming that he increasingly thinks that Obama "doesn't believe in American exceptionalism," and isn't in line with most American presidents.

Could Lou Dobbs soon be getting back in touch with his business-journalism roots? Media Decoder is reporting that Lou Dobbs has been in talks with CNBC about a possible return to the airwaves. Dobbs previously worked with the network when he left CNN in 1999, and he was a regular guest at the time on the Today show. Before leaving CNN, Dobbs also met with Fox News chairman Roger Ailes.

Will Politico soon be joining Fox News on the White House’s blacklist? Marc Ambinder at The Atlantic has gotten his hands on an email circulating among White House staffers that mocks a recent article by Politico editor John Harris headlined, “Seven stories that Barack Obama doesn’t want told.” Entitled “7 narratives Politico is fighting in their efforts to get an interview with the President,” it includes entries like “they are more interested in readers than accuracy”; “its okay to be wrong everyonce in a while, if your are the first one to break the news [sic]”; and “a spouter of the worst sort of conventional wisdom.” Ambinder cautions: “don’t read too much into this.”

The guessing game is just about over: President Obama will announce on Tuesday that he plans to send 30,000 new combat troops to Afghanistan. According to CNN, Obama wants most U.S. troops withdrawn within three years, while Associated Press reports that the first new troops will arrive as early as Christmas. 4,000 additional troops will be sent in an advisory role. The president will reportedly present a "time frame" for a U.S. exit from Afghanistan in his speech tonight, and senior Administration officials have said that "he will talk about specific dates" for withdrawal.

Precious, starting on what its producers must hope will be eventual awards-season dominance, was nominated for five Independent Spirit Awards Tuesday: Best Feature, Best Director, Best First Screenplay, Best Female Lead and Best Supporting Female. The Last Station, the James McAvoy-starring drama about Leo Tolstoy, matched Precious' haul with five, including Best Feature and Best Supporting Male for Christopher Plummer's role as the Russian author; rounding out the best picture nominations are Sin Nombre, Amreeka and (500) Days of Summer. To be eligible for the awards, films must be at least 70 minutes in length and cost less than $20 million, and must have screened at a major film festival or spent at least a week in a commercial theater. This year, in celebration of the awards' 25th anniversary, the ceremony will move from its traditional home under a tent on the beach in Santa Monica to a tent on the event deck L.A. Live. The ceremony, scheduled for Friday, March 5, will be broadcast live on IFC.

Bill O’Reilly may have forgiven Mike Huckabee for granting clemency to the main suspect in the murder of four cops in Washington—“It’s not your fault,” he told the former Arkansas governor Monday night—but the rest of the conservative movement isn’t likely to be as kind. Conservative bloggers like Michelle Malkin and Erick Erickson are on the attack. Huckabee tried to calm the storm, saying, “"If I could have known nine years ago that this guy was capable of something of this magnitude, obviously I would never have granted the commutation.”

Hopefully Elin Nordegren reads the New York Post. In an exclusive interview with the paper, Rachel Uchitel—the "other woman" whose alleged affair with Tiger Woods was the subject of a National Enquirer story last week—unequivocally denies having an affair with the golfer, saying "not a word of it is true." She contends that the Enquirer's main source had a personal vendetta against her, saying the girl who claims that Woods and Uchitel had an affair is a "train wreck" who "embarrassed" Uchitel on a trip to Europe by offering to sleep with someone for 3,000 Euros and then passing out "from too many Quaaludes." "I've only met [Woods] twice," says Uchitel, who professes that she met the golfer briefly in her capacity as a night-club hostess and party promoter, and that the two are "not friends." The final word? "I work in clubs and I am a businesswoman. I do not have sex with celebrities, and I have not had an affair with Tiger Woods."

Maybe he's just broken up over the impending NBC sale? Alec Baldwin, who parodies General Electric corporate culture as an NBC executive on 30 Rock, told Men's Journal that he doesn't "have any interest in acting anymore," saying that he considers his "entire movie career a complete failure." Baldwin, ostensibly promoting his upcoming movie It's Complicated, called movies "a part of my past." The actor, who was nominated for an Oscar in 2003, will host the Oscars with It's Complicated co-star Steve Martin. Baldwin, the star of critical darlings like Glengarry Glen Ross and box-office smashes like The Hunt for Red October, told the magazine "the goal of moviemaking is to star in a film where your performance drives the film, and the film is either a soaring critical or commercial success, and I never had that." This is not the first time the actor has prognosticated about his future: In 2004 the actor threatened to move to Canada if Bush won the election. He still lives in the U.S.

General Electric's planned sale of 51 percent of NBC Universal to Comcast came closer to fruition as the industrial giant agreed to pay French conglomerate Vivendi $5.8 billion for its 20 percent stake in the media company. Though the price is below Vivendi's valuation, it's still at the upper reaches of expectations at about one-fifth of the Comcast deal's valuation of NBCU, and paves the way for Comcast to purchase the struggling media company. The two companies had been negotiating the deal since Nov. 15, the annual window for Vivendi to exercise a put option on its stake, reportedly attempting to overcome a difference in valuation of around $1 billion. Details of payment were not made immediately clear. Comcast, which had hoped to announce its purchase of NBCU last week, has long been attempting to purchase content companies—at least since its failed hostile bid for Disney in 2004—despite the prevailing wisdom that owning both production and distribution isn't generally profitable.

The Treasury Department announced Monday that it will begin deploying "SWAT teams" to monitor mortgage companies, in light of the administration's losing battle against home foreclosures. Seventy-one companies receiving $75 billion will be under the government's watchful eye. Mortgage companies have been too relaxed about recruiting eligible homeowners to have their mortgage rates reduced to as low as 2 percent for five years, administration officials say. Part of the problem is that some mortgage companies have come up against difficulty getting borrowers to complete the necessary paperwork for the administration's loan modification program. Also, because participation in the program is voluntary, the government has little recourse to get companies to comply, besides shaming the industry. The administration's new tough-love strategy will include a public list of mortgage companies that are behind on turning over eligible borrowers.

Twi-hards, brace yourself for details about a fifth Twilight movie: Following in the footsteps of the Harry Potter blockbuster franchise, the Twilight movies may double down on the final installment in the series. In its first two weeks, New Moon, the second Twilight film, grossed $481 million worldwide. Summit Entertainment has gone only so far as to book screenwriter Melissa Rosenberg for Breaking Dawn, but will still have to convince the director of New Moon, Chris Weitz, and the actors to return for back-to-back shooting. Splitting the finale will also mean having to renegotiate with the series' author, Stephenie Meyer, and rewriting contracts with the actors—particularly Robert Pattinson, Kristen Stewart, and Taylor Lautner—who would end up with even fatter paychecks than what they've already seen.

After much negotiation and speculation, the magic number appears to be 34,000 and focus may be the magic word. President Barack Obama is expected to announce in his Tuesday Afghanistan speech a plan to deploy 34,000 new troops, bringing the total number of troops in Afghanistan to 100,000, more than half of which will have been sent under Obama's watch. The president will also ask NATO to provide an additional 5,000 troops, bringing the total just shy of the 40,000 requested by General Stanley McChrystal. But the real change, ABC's Jake Tapper reports, will be a focus on local solutions and working directly in dangerous provinces. This method seeks not only to deter global terror, but also to allow the U.S. government to sidestep Afghan President Hamid Karzai if he fails to clean up his corrupt government. American deployments will begin in January and continue in stages. Obama will also address the transfer of security responsibility to Afghanistan in Tuesday's address.

Throughout all its troubles, AIG has insisted that its insurance operations are sound. A new report on Monday, however, casts doubt on that assertion: According to an independent analysis, AIG has an estimated $11.9 billion shortfall in its property and casualty business. Other researchers have been raising doubts over AIG’s total worth, and even the government has acknowledged that the company might have trouble repaying the $120 billion bailout it was given. AIG’s stock fell nearly 15 percent on Monday.

As the Senate prepares to debate health care, this should help the Democrats’ cause: The Congressional Budget Office said Monday that the Senate health-care bill would significantly reduce costs for many people buying health insurance on their own, while people who receive their coverage from employers, both large and small, would mostly see their premiums go unchanged. However, those who buy their premiums on their own and would not be eligible for subsidies—less than 20 percent of the market—would see their premiums rise 10 percent to 13 percent; those with subsidies would pay 56 percent to 59 percent less on premiums than they currently do.