Sen. Joe Lieberman said Tuesday afternoon that he’s prepared to vote for health-care reform. “I am getting to that position to where I can say what I wanted to say all along, that I'm ready to vote for health-care reform,” Lieberman told reporters. The senator’s opposition to extending Medicare coverage appeared to be the final obstacle for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Democrat of Nevada, and his quest to sign on 60 senators to bring health-care reform to a vote. Democrats have now pulled away from a plan that would offer a Medicare-buy-in.

The federal government decided to give up billions of dollars this week when the IRS issued an exception to its tax rules allowing Citigroup (and a handful of other companies partially owned by the federal government) to hold on to billions of dollars in tax breaks that would otherwise lose value when the government sells its shares to private investors. Friday’s decision is part of a deal the government made with Citigroup this week. The IRS has changed several rules to reduce tax burdens on financial companies during the economic crisis. Officials said the ruling will benefit taxpayers because the public’s shares in Citigroup will be more valuable and the company will be able to pay the government back on time. "The government is consciously forfeiting future tax revenue. It's another form of assistance, maybe not as obvious as direct assistance but certainly another form," an expert on tax accounting said.

Is John McCain recovering his maverick edge? The Republican senator plans to team up with Senator Marcia Cantwell (D-WA) on Wednesday to introduce legislation that would reinstate the Glass-Steagall Banking Act of 1933. That New Deal-era law prevented commercial banks from engaging in risky investment banking. Many say that its repeal in 1999 paved the way for the financial crisis of 2008 by permitting banks to merge with insurance and investment companies. Its repeal allowed Citicorp to merge with Travelers to form Citigroup. 

Galleon hedge-fund founder and billionaire Raj Rajaratnam and co-defendant Danielle Chiesi were indicted for conspiracy and fraud Tuesday by a federal grand jury in what prosecutors call "the largest hedge-fund insider-trading case in history." The 17-count indictment says that an alleged insider-trading ring operated "from at least in or about 2003 up to and including in or about March 2009,” during which time, prosecutors say, the defendants made millions of dollars in illegal profits. With the help of wiretaps, 14 more people were arrested in November. Rajaratnam is free on $100 million bail and must soon make a formal plea.

The Washington D.C. City Council voted to legalize gay marriage Tuesday by a vote of 11-2—a victory for gay-rights activists after defeats in Maine, New York, and New Jersey. Mayor Adrian Fenty has promised to sign the bill, and though Congress has final say over D.C.’s laws, Democratic leaders have indicated they won’t intervene. The law will likely take effect around St. Patrick’s Day.

After Tareq and Michaele Salahi's State Dinner gatecrash drew attention to deficits in White House security, a pair of tourists from Georgia has come forward explaining that they, too, crashed an Obama event—by accident. Over Veterans Day weekend, Harvey and Paula Darden mistakenly arrived at the White House a day early for a scheduled tour. There were no tours that day, so White House and Secret Security officials confirm that, after a routine security check, they were allowed to attend an East Room breakfast event at which the president was the guest of honor. "My wife looked at me and I looked at her, and I said, 'You know, I don't know if we're in the right place.'" Mr. Darden says he was told to "just go with the flow," despite being the only man in the room without a coat and tie. He adds that, though he posed for a photo with the president, he has yet to receive a copy.

Televangelist Oral Roberts passed away Tuesday from complications of pneumonia at the age of 91. Roberts rose from humble beginnings to spread Pentecostalism to hundreds of thousands of Americans through televised Sunday services. As a teenager, he said he was healed of tuberculosis and stuttering at an Oklahoma revival and several years later founded his own ministry. In the '40s, he began conducting crusades across America, personally laying hands on more than 2 million people, but he truly found his power when he brought TV cameras into his services in 1954. Roberts was a key figure in the rise of the religious right in the '70s and '80s. He founded Oral Roberts University and Oral Roberts Evangelistic Association.

The Philippines' Mayon mountain has reached a level 3 volcanic alert, suggesting that "a full-blown eruption is expected to take place within weeks to days," according to the nation's Institute of Volcanology and Seismology. People in the Albay province—which is about 300 miles south of capital Manila—watched as orange lava oozed down the sides of Mayon, and plumes of ash shot into the sky. Authorities have mandated evacuations for towns and cities within 6 kilometers of Mayon, which means roughly 50,000 people will be displaced, likely through Christmas. Mayon has erupted 49 times since its first documented eruption, in 1616.

Up in the Air confirmed its place as a heavy awards-season favorite during Tuesday morning's Golden Globe nominations announcement, garnering six honors, including a slot in the Best Picture - Drama category, but the big winners may have been Sandra Bullock and Meryl Streep, who were both nominated twice. Streep's performances in Julie & Julia and It's Complicated got her named twice in Best Actress - Comedy or Musical, while Bullock was nominated once each in both Best Actress categories, for The Proposal (Comedy or Musical) and The Blind Side (Drama). The other Best Picture - Drama nominees included Inglourious Basterds, The Hurt Locker, Precious and Avatar. Musical Nine received five nominations—three of them for acting—while Precious and The Hurt Locker, two other Oscar frontrunners, only gathered three and two nominations, respectively. The television nominees included Alec Baldwin for 30 Rock, Neil Patrick Harris for How I Met Your Mother, and Mad Men for Best Television Series - Drama. The Golden Globes are presented annually by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association.

Government health officials have recalled about 800,000 swine-flu shots for children after discovering that the vaccine has lost some of its potency. The shots, which were meant for children from ages six months to 3 years, were discovered to be less effective than they were at their initial testing but do not pose any danger to those who have already been vaccinated with them, according to officials. "No action is necessary by a parent of a child who received this vaccine," said a spokesman for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The doses were distributed last month by Sanofi Pasteur, a French company that touts itself as the world's top manufacturer of flu vaccines. There is no official explanation for the change in the medication.

We bet he’s wishing for a refund: According to MSNBC, Tiger Woods paid several of his mistresses $5,000 to $10,000 a month to keep quiet about their affairs. “The money comes via a wire transfer,” said one woman. “There’s no contract about it, there’s no discussion about what it’s for, but it’s implied that it’s in exchange for keeping quiet about his affair.”

Hope Lil Wayne has a CD player in his jail cell: The rap star is headed to prison  February 9, just days after his next album, Rebirth, comes out. Lil Wayne pleaded guilty in October to criminal possession of a weapon on a charge that stemmed from a 2007 traffic stop of his tour bus. His plea deal calls for one year in jail.

After five deaths and 16 close calls since 2006, the government and window covering industry are recalling more than 50 million Roman-style shades and roll-up blinds. At risk are children who can get tangled in the cords or between the cord and the blind's fabric, leading to strangulation. The Consumer Product Safety Commission encouraged parents to assess their households and make sure the cords weren't accessible to children. Wal-Mart, JCPenney, Pottery Barn, and other large retailers are participating in the recall, and free retrofit kits are being offered for free by the Window Covering Safety Council.

Hoping to save Democratic health-care legislation from the whims of Joe Lieberman and increasing impatience from his own party, President Obama will argue to Senate Democrats Tuesday that the bill currently under debate marks the "last chance" for reform, Politico reports. Joe Biden, meanwhile, told Morning Joe that "if health care does not pass in this Congress... it's going to be kicked back for a generation." Democrats appear poised to drop the Medicare expansion they had secured as part of a compromise with moderates after Lieberman removed his support, despite having spoken out in favor of the idea just a few months ago. But in doing so they may lose members of the liberal wing of the caucus, including Russ Feingold and Bernie Sanders, who have expressed disappointment in the negotiations—necessary votes for the Democrats, who want to pass a bill before Christmas.

The bank execs who missed Monday’s meeting with the White House--claiming "inclement weather" would delay their flights—would do well to remember the old Wall Street adage "you can't fax a handshake," writes Andrew Ross Sorkin in his DealBook column. "The balance of power between Wall Street and Washington has shifted again, back in Wall Street's favor," says the New York Times columnist, thanks to paid-back loans and surging profits, which means that the White House "is getting stood up" in both "the figurative and literal sense." But, Sorkin writes, "public perception will issue its harsh ruling," and Goldman Sachs' Lloyd Blankfein, Morgan Stanley's John Mack and Citigroup's Richard Parsons—the three executives who missed the meeting—will come out looking bad, despite their apparent commitment to the president's reform goals.

At least 20 were killed and 50 injured in a possible car bomb explosion at a market in the central Pakistan city of Dera Gazi Khan. According to authorities, the blast may have been aimed at a provincial official, Zulfiqar Khosa, who was left unharmed, though his house was damaged. Rescuers were attempting to search through the wreckage with heavy machinery for trapped victims, and an emergency was declared at all local hospitals. The blast is the latest in a string of attacks in Pakistan.

Israel said on Tuesday that Britain had issued an arrest warrant for former Israeli foreign minister Tzipi Livni, who recently canceled a trip to London. Apparently, the charges stemmed from a British law allowing Palestinians to pursue charges against non-citizens for alleged crimes committed in other countries. The warrant was canceled after it became clear that Livni was not on U.K. soil. The British Foreign Ministry said it was urgently looking into the case and that Britain wanted to be a strategic partner of Israel: "To do this, Israel's leaders need to be able to come to the U.K. for talks with the British Government."

President Obama found a new home for terror detainees in his own backyard: The White House plans to announce on Tuesday a limited transfer of terrorism suspects from Guantanamo Bay to a rural prison in Illinois. Led by Senator Dick Durbin, Illinois officials embraced the opportunity to hand the Thomson Correctional Facility over to the federal government. State-budget problems have prevented the prison from ever fully opening, and currently it houses about 200 minimum-security inmates. No more than 100 Gitmo detainees will be transferred there, meaning over 100 will still remain at Guantanamo Bay.

Maybe she left it in her million-dollar mansion: Elin Nordegren’s wedding ring was conspicuously absent from her hand in photographs taken by paparazzi while the mother of two was filling up her car at the gas station. Unconfirmed reports have claimed she has moved out of the Woods family home and bought a mansion in Sweden. Some have also speculated that she is seeking a divorce—despite reported renegotiations in her prenup that might bring in more money if she stayed with the golfer.

Copenhagen got a little colder Monday as China and the U.S. reached an impasse in climate negotiations, with China refusing to allow international monitoring of its emissions levels despite having announced a target for reducing its emissions growth rate—a sticking point for the U.S., which says it cannot accept any deal without verification of China’s actions. The U.S.-China stalemate is yet another contributor to the glacial pace of climate negotiations, which many worry could bog down the ability of heads of government—who begin arriving later this week—to reach a final accord. Still, some were confident that a deal could be reached: “They’re going to wait until the last hour of the last day and just as the other side is walking out they’ll say, ‘Hey, come back.’ Just as they do every day in every market in China,” said Barbara Finamore of the NRDC. “That’s why they’re the best negotiators in the world.”

Humanity's tenuous position atop the evolutionary ladder has been threatened once again as the existence of a tool-using octopus has been confirmed by Australian scientists. Amphioctopus marginatus, the veined octopus, was filmed by Julian Finn and Mark Norman of Museum Victoria in Melbourne, as it picked out two halved coconut shells from the sea floor, emptied them, and assembled them into a spherical home. Though it's not the first time octopodes have used foreign objects as places of residence, the veined octopus's homebuilding is remarkable due to the extensive preparation, transportation, and fabrication involved. For Finn and Norman, this counts as tool use, and would make it first documented case of such behavior in invertebrates.

The Tiger Woods’ mistress count has exceeded a baker’s dozen: RadarOnline.com is reporting on Tiger Woods’ alleged 14th mistress, a forty-something woman from Florida named Theresa Rogers. Rogers has hired lawyer Gloria Allred. Radar says her affair with Tiger began before his marriage to Elin and continued after it, making Rogers the longest-serving of Tiger’s ladies. Radar says she and Tiger “traveled extensively” together over the past five years.

Tiger Woods is in the dog house for cheating—is A-Rod the next sports star to lose love over his free-loving ways? Reports that Yankee star Alex Rodriguez is splitting with girlfriend Kate Hudson are all over the Internet, and witnesses say Rodriguez was seen getting a little too friendly with a female friend at an Armani Exchange party in Miami. Rumors about A-Rod’s relations with his Miami friend range from he "flirted with a blonde" to he was "just being friendly," sources tell People magazine. Neither of the stars’ reps have commented.

The two Chicago men arrested in October and accused of plotting to attack the Danish newspaper that published offensive cartoons depicting the prophet Muhammad also had prior knowledge of last year's terror attacks in Mumbai, according to federal investigators. U.S. authorities said they had taped a conversation held between the two men in which both suspects, Tahawwur Rana and David Headley, state they had known beforehand when the attacks would occur, and in which Rana asks Headley to pass congratulations along to the mastermind behind the Mumbai strike. Rana is said to have possibly funded Headley's scouting trips to Mumbai, and Pakistani authorities believe both men attended the same military high school in Pakistan as Sajid Mir, suspected to be Headley's handler in Lashkar-e-Taiba, the militant group that carried out the Mumbai attacks.

Following the trend of Citigroup and Bank of America, Wells Fargo received the Treasury Department's authorization to leave TARP after agreeing to repay the entire $25 billion the bank was given in bailout funds last year. The bank’s president and chief executive, John Stumpf, said TARP "stabilized our country’s financial system when confidence in financial markets around the world was being tested unlike any other period in our history," but that the bank is now ready "to fully repay TARP in a way that serves the interests of the U.S. taxpayer, as well as our customers, team members, and investors.” A portion of the money will come from $10.4 billion in stock sales, and they will aim to raise $1.35 billion through the issuance of common stock to Wells Fargo benefit plans. Additionally, the bank plans to increase equity by $1.5 billion through asset sales, if approved by the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve.

Bank of America may have scrambled to pay back its TARP money to free itself from compensation limits, but that doesn’t mean the company is handing over blank checks: BofA failed to reach an agreement with its top outside candidate in its CEO search and will hire one of two internal candidates instead, The Wall Street Journal reports. Bank of New York Mellon Corp. CEO Robert Kelly’s asking price was too high—he reportedly wanted more than $20 million in annual compensation, plus he raised the possibility of moving Bank of America’s headquarters to New York and becoming chairman. BofA is expected now to promote its Chief Risk Officer Gregory Curl or president of consumer and small-business banking Brian Moynihan when current CEO Ken Lewis retires at the end of the year.

The never-ending story of Senate Democrats' health-care wrangling took another step to the right on Monday, when Sen. Max Baucus came out of a 90-minute closed-door meeting and told reporters that scrapping the controversial Medicare buy-in proposal is looking likely. The provision would allow people between the ages of 55 and 64 to purchase Medicare coverage; Majority Leader Harry Reid suggested the idea as a compromise to the public option. Though many support the plan, the lone Democratic caucus sticker—Sen. Joe Lieberman, the Connecticut independent—remains stalwart, even as critics point to his support, during his 2000 VP run alongside Al Gore, of a similar plan. "Put me down tonight as encouraged about the direction these talks are going," Lieberman said after the meeting.

Anthony Galea, the Canadian doctor whose controversial "blood spinning" therapy has attracted a number of patients in the sports world, is under investigation in both the U.S. and Canada, and will likely be charged in Canada on Friday for drugs and customs violations, according to Canadian officials. Galea was reportedly in possession of human-growth hormone and other illegal drugs. Galea has treated Tiger Woods and others with platelet-rich plasma injection, or "blood spinning," in which a doctor spins blood in a centrifuge and reinjects it into a patient, theoretically to accelerate healing; the procedure is legal under current doping guidelines provided that the blood isn't injected directly into the muscle. "Unequivocally, Dr. Galea denies any wrongdoing," his lawyer said.

Where better to talk about what's "sexy" than a suburban Home Depot? That's where President Obama was this afternoon, talking about his proposed tax cuts for homeowners who make their houses more energy-efficient, when he described retrofitting houses with green technology "sexy." "Here's what's sexy," he explained: "saving money." Obama says his plan would provide jobs for contractors and others who can do the work, but he needs Congress's approval before the tax breaks can go forward.