The Federal Reserve may be on the brink of losing its regulatory powers, but chairman Ben Bernanke is still the man for the job: The Senate Banking Committee approved a second term for Bernanke by a 16 to 7 vote. The full Senate will vote on the matter, but probably not until January. Bernanke’s current four-year term ends on January 31.

Just when the Democratic caucus pulled Lieberman back in, another dissenter has flown the coop: Nebraska Senator Ben Nelson has rejected an abortion compromise in the health-care bill and is threatening to filibuster, calling into question whether the Senate can pass the bill before the Dems' self-imposed Christmas deadline. Meanwhile, the AFL-CIO joined the SEIU in saying it won’t support the bill without “substantial changes”—namely, a public option, an employer mandate, and an elimination of a tax on so-called Cadillac plans. Bill Clinton, on the other hand, is urging passage of the bill: “Our only responsible choice is the path of action. Does this bill read exactly how I would write it? No. Does it contain everything everyone wants? Of course not. But America can't afford to let the perfect be the enemy of the good.”

House Minority Leader John Boehner expressed confidence Thursday that he and his party could block the administration's proposed transfer of prisoners—as part of a plan to shut down Guantanamo—from the unpopular Cuban detention center to a prison outside of Chicago. Explaining there were at least two pieces of legislation that would need to pass through Congress for the transfer to be approved, Boehner said "I wouldn't want to be on when those two pieces of legislation will pass, if ever." The Obama administration reiterated its support for the move, calling Guantanamo Bay a "deadly recruiting tool for al Qaeda" and saying it would close the detention center as promised.

Despite the supposed good news that Citigroup and Wells Fargo planned to leave the shelter of TARP this week, the two banking giants' stock sales led to infighting and finger-pointing between bank executives, regulators, and federal officials over the financial health of the institutions and where blame lies for Citigroup's anemic performance in its Wednesday sale. Citigroup Vice Chairman Ned Kelly made an angry call late Monday to the Treasury Department, expressing frustration with the government's willingness to let Wells Fargo sell their stocks Tuesday and saying that the sale would lower demand for Citigroup stocks. Treasury officials said Citigroup dug its own grave, and its ambitious plan for the Wednesday sale was their own doing.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton proposed in Copenhagen on Thursday that the U.S. and other major world economies come up with a $100 billion a year over the next decade to help developing nations fight climate change. Clinton said the plan is dependent on reaching a “strong accord” by the end of the summit. She did not say how much the U.S. would contribute to the $100 billion annual amount. Britain and developing African nations were cautiously optimistic about the proposal, but China—which the U.S. says must agree to transparent emissions cuts as a precondition to any agreement and which has signaled it does not believe an agreement can be reached in Copenhagen—said, “At first glance, we don’t see the U.S. has made much progress in its commitments.” Clinton, for her part, called on China to commit to the fund: “It would be hard to imagine, speaking for the United States, that there could be the level of financial commitment that I have just announced in the absence of transparency from the second-biggest emitter—and now I guess the first-biggest emitter—and now nearly, if not already, the second-biggest economy."

Hopefully they'll settle this before your boss sees your profile: Ten privacy and consumer groups have filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission against Facebook, claiming the site's recent privacy-setting changes are illegal. Last week, the popular online social network began offering its 350 million members more control over their privacy settings, but default settings would essentially allow anyone to see their profiles. According to a statement released by the Electronic Privacy Information Center, nine groups and EPIC itself are asking the FTC to investigate Facebook's privacy-policy modifications, which they say violate federal consumer-protection law, and require the company to restore its original privacy safeguards. EPIC says Facebook "should not be allowed to turn down the privacy dial on so many American consumers." In response to the claim, a Facebook spokesperson said the company discussed the new program with the FTC before it launched, adding "We're disappointed that EPIC has chosen to share their concerns with the FTC while refusing to talk to us about them."

Two weeks after the Thanksgiving car accident that started a domino effect of adultery allegations, a source close to Tiger Woods’ wife tells ABC News that a “divorce is 100 percent on.” Speculation has grown in recent days as Elin Nordegren was photographed without her wedding ring on. ABC’s source adds that Nordegren is “not rushing to divorce… She's going to take her sweet time. She wants all the dirty laundry to be out on the table before she signs anything."

Did you miss her? Monica Lewinsky speaks in The Death of American Virtue by Ken Gormley—what Politico calls “the first definitive history of the Clinton scandal.” Lewinsky tells Gormley that she now believes that Clinton lied about their relationship during his grand-jury testimony. Gormley also says that Clinton had an affair much earlier with Susan McDougal, the Whitewater figure who spent 18 months in jail for refusing to testify before Kenneth Starr and the grand jury. Clinton, for his part, is still miffed about the whole brouhaha. He tells Gormley that the head of the House impeachment team, Henry Hyde, was a “bitter right-winger” and a “hypocrite.”

John Edwards may never have admitted to father a child with Rielle Hunter, but now there are legal documents to tell us what we all knew already: John Edwards is (probably) the father of Frances Quinn Hunter. The documents stem from a legal battle between Edwards and Hunter and name “custody,” “parenting time,” and “child support” as issues in the dispute. Frances, the docs say, is a “child … from this relationship.” Hunter wants more than $17,000 a month from Edwards.

There’s an irony at the heart of Avatar, James Cameron’s first film since Titanic. “The movie is a song to the natural world that was largely produced with software,” critic Manohla Dargis writes in The New York Times. But what software! Dargis calls the film “glorious and goofy and blissfully deranged”—a compliment, we think. New York magazine’s David Edelstein is similarly pumped (“a mighty achievement”). There are holdouts: Armond White at the New York Press is not so tickled. “[Cameron’s] undeniably pretty Pandora—a phosphorescent Maxfield Parrish paradise with bird-like lizards, moving plant life and floating mountains—distracts from the inherent contradiction of a reported $300 million-$500 million Hollywood enterprise that casually berates America’s industrial complex.” The film, White says, is “basically a daft version of the Transformer movies’ sci-fi.”

Chris Henry, a wide receiver for the Cincinnati Bengals, died Thursday one day after falling off the back of a pickup truck in what authorities are saying is a domestic dispute with his wife. The 26-year-old was found on the side of a residential road on Wednesday. Police say Henry jumped into the bed of the pickup truck as his fiancée was driving way from their home and that, at some point, he fell off the back. Henry and his fiancée have been raising three children; he had not played for the Bengals this season since breaking his forearm on November 8.

The experts investigating the crash of Air France Flight 447 have recommended in a new report that the black boxes used by investigators to determine the cause of a crash should be changed to signal for a longer period of time. The investigators have still not been able to find the black boxes from the Paris-bound plane, which departed from Rio de Janeiro on June 1 and crashed shortly after in the Atlantic, killing all 228 on board. Currently, black boxes emit signals for 30 days, which the report's authors say is not enough time for search operations; instead, they recommend that the signal continue for 90 days. The authors also recommended that transoceanic aircraft be outfitted with another black box, transmitting at a different frequency to aid search operations. In June, The Daily Beast's Clive Irving recommended even further changes to the black-box system.

The Screen Actors Guild unveiled the nominees for its 16th annual Screen Actors Guild Awards Thursday morning, and to no surprise, Inglorious Basterds, Precious, and Up in the Air topped the list with three nominations each—each made the cut for outstanding performance by a motion picture cast (the equivalent of best picture). Other nominees in that category included An Education, The Hurt Locker, and the musical Nine. The list for motion picture lead actor nearly mirrored the Golden Globe Awards: George Clooney ( Up in the Air), Colin Firth ( A Single Man), Morgan Freeman ( Invictus), and newcomer Jeff Bridges ( Crazy Heart), who was left out of the Globes. Leading lady nominations also followed close to the Globes: Sandra Bullock ( The Blind Side), Helen Mirren ( The Last Station), Carey Mulligan ( An Education), Gabourey Sidibe ( Precious) and Meryl Streep ( Julie & Julia). The awards air January 23, 2010.

Beginning on Jan. 16, Laredo, Texas--home to nearly a quarter-million people as well as high rates of illiteracy—will become the largest U.S. city without a bookstore. After the local B. Dalton closes, the nearest bookseller will be 150 miles away in San Antonio. The grim situation on the streets of Laredo has led schoolchildren to beg parent company Barnes & Noble, which is closing 49 B. Daltons nationwide, for a temporary reprieve. As one fifth grader wrote, "Without that store, my life would be so sad and boring." Barnes & Noble believes that a bookstore is viable in the city, and has identified a future location for a large format store, but the space won't be available for 18 months. In the meantime, bibliophiles are stocking up on books before the last bookstore's planned closing.

After spending four nights under medical supervision following a facial injury, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi left San Raffaele hospital on Thursday morning. As he left, 73-year-old Berlusconi waved weakly at the crowd and pressed what appeared to be a white handkerchief or bandage to his face. The prime minister was hospitalized after being hit in the face with a souvenir replica of the Milan cathedral during a speech. He lost half a liter of blood, and sustained a broken nose and two chipped teeth. Berlusconi's physician said the prime minister still could not eat normally, and was in considerable pain. The physician added that Berlusconi's recent head injury had also inflamed a longstanding neck problem.

Users of Facebook, the popular online social network, are increasingly black and Latino, according to a study released Wednesday. Facebook researchers have found that 11 percent of the approximately 100 American users are African American, 9 percent are Latino, and 6 percent are Asian. "What we've seen over time is that as Facebook has grown in the U.S. population, we've come to represent a cross-section" of Americans who use the Internet, said a Facebook data scientist. Researchers hope that Facebook will provide a wealth of sociological data in the future.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid still is missing one Democratic vote to secure health-care reform, and all eyes are on the final holdout, Nebraska Senator Ben Nelson. Strengthening limits on insurance coverage for abortion appears to be the main obstacle preventing Nelson's support. Making Reid's job more difficult are crucial budget bills, including one for the Pentagon, that are up for approval in the next few days.

Peter W. Galbraith, the former No. 2 United Nations official in Afghanistan, proposed enlisting the White House's help to replace Hamid Karzai, the Afghan president, following widespread allegations of fraud, U.N. officials said. Galbraith was fired from his position this fall, saying that his forced exit came on account of disagreements with his boss at the U.N. Galbraith told The New York Times that he never actively promoted the scheme and had only discussed it. The story helps shed light on the possible reasons behind Galbraith's abrupt departure.

New Jersey dad David Goldman may get to spend the new year with his 9-year-old son, after a Brazilian federal appeals court ruled on Wednesday that the boy must be handed over to him at the U.S. Consulate in Rio de Janeiro within 48 hours. In 2004, Bruna Bianchi, Goldman's wife, took the 4-year-old boy to Brazil for what Goldman says was supposed to be a two-week vacation. Instead Bianchi stayed in Brazil, got a divorce, and remarried before dying last year while giving birth to a daughter. Goldman had already been seeking the return of his son under an international treaty covering cross-border child abductions. Since then, the boy's maternal grandmother and stepfather have been trying to keep him in Brazil in a widely publicized custody battle that has moved President Obama, Hillary Clinton, and the U.S. Congress to weigh in seeking the boy's return. The current court decision is likely to be appealed by the child's stepfather.

The Copenhagen climate talks are in danger of failing. Dozens of heads of state began arriving in Copenhagen, ostensibly to sign a pact to curb emissions, on Friday, but with only one day left in the conference, negotiators have failed to draft a coherent text, in part due to disagreements over how much the developing world ought to join the industrialized world in cutting emissions. Finger-pointing over the failure has already begun. German Chancellor Angela Merkel told the German parliament, "I must say very honestly, that the United States offer to cut by 4 percent compared to 1990 levels is not ambitious." India's environment minister accused rich countries of a "propaganda campaign" to blame developing countries for any breakdown in negotiations, noting that some developed countries were already blaming the G-77, a developing-nation group, while China has reportedly suggested that the conference simply issue a short political declaration instead of a treaty.

It'll take deep pockets to run for California governor this year, as two Republican candidates—the state insurance commissioner Steve Poizner and billionaire eBay CEO Meg Whitman—throw tens of millions of their own money into advertising. The San Francisco Chronicle is calling the contest the "Battle of the Super Rich." Voters will decide who will replace Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger next November. Right now Whitman holds a 4-to-1 lead over Poizner. Democrats see the big spending—Whitman could pony up $150 million by the end of the campaign—as a sign of the Republican's distance from average voters. "At some point, Ms. Whitman will have to declare herself and what she stands for," said a Democratic party official. "You take away her money, and would we be talking about her?"

Prince Charles has been badgering British lawmakers about the environment, farming, and architecture by writing letters to cabinet members and other leaders. The backstage politicking is a definite no-no for the heir to the throne who is expected to remain neutral over political affairs. The prince's aides have sent off letters as well. Said one former government minister of Charles, "He is entitled to press his views. I would treat it no differently to anybody else's. If he is making his views known to ministers, they should be in the public domain. He can't have it both ways."

Santa better slim down because it's bad for the kids, an Australian research scientist writes in the annual Christmas issue of a British medical journal. The public health expert Nathan Grills even connected countries that celebrate Santa Claus to those with expanding populations of fat children. "Santa promotes a message that obesity is synonymous with cheerfulness and joviality," Grills writes. What's worse? Old St. Nick also encourages the spread of swine flu by getting little ones to sit on his lap, and he teaches reckless behavior with his "extreme sports such as roof surfing and chimney jumping."

With Democrats hammering out a compromise and Republicans using every trick in the book to stall legislation, Christmas may come and go without a Senate vote on proposed health-care legislation, despite the self-imposed deadline by Majority Leader Harry Reid. Republican senators demonstrated a willingness to do whatever it takes to delay a vote today, demanding that the Senate clerk read a 767-page amendment in its entirety, while conservative Democrat Ben Nelson avoided making any firm pronouncements about his support of the bill. The Democrats hope to pass a bill by Christmas so that a final version can be delivered to President Obama by the State of the Union address—and so that they can move on to other legislative priorities. Republicans remained unapologetic: "We want to do what we can to defeat the bill," said Senator John Thune of South Dakota.

For all the feelgood Obama was supposed to bring about, a bipartisan study from George Washington University says 20 percent of Americans describe themselves as "angry" about "the way things are going in the country today," and Republican pollster Ed Goeas says the enraged underclass could change the game in 2010. "There is the potential for this being a 1994 year of the angry white male," Goeas said, citing Republicans' underdog capture of both the House and Senate in the middle of Bill Clinton's presidency. Though only 5 percent of Democrats describe themselves as "angry," 26 percent of independents and 33 percent of Republicans do. Of the 1,000 likely voters surveyed, 56 percent said America was heading in the wrong direction. Democratic pollster Celinda Lake said the down economy and messy health-care battle is to blame, and notes a 13-point "enthusiasm gap" rendering angry Republicans more likely to vote in the upcoming election than their contented Democratic peers.

Santa has come a little early to 4,000 people with mortgages this year. Citigroup has decided to suspend foreclosures and evictions for 30 days, beginning Friday and ending Jan. 17. As Sanjiv Das, the head of the company's mortgage division, put it, "We want our borrowers to have a much less stressful time, to spend their time with their families during the holidays as opposed to worrying about their homes." The temporary kibosh only applies to borrowers whose loans are owned by Citigroup and does not include homeowners who make payments to Citigroup even though their loans are owned by others. The company predicts that the move will help 2,000 scheduled foreclosure sales, and 2,000 homes due to receive foreclosure notices. In the meantime, Das says, Citigroup is working on "long-term fundamental alternatives" to foreclosure.

Well, at least one person in America was able to find a new job this month. Brian Moynihan, head of Bank of America's consumer and small-business banking operations, was named new CEO of the banking giant, succeeding Ken Lewis, who announced his retirement in September following the controversial acquisition of Merrill Lynch. BofA has experienced a turnaround in recent months with the resurgence of the stock market, and announced this month that it would pay back its $45 billion government loan.

A jobs bill, $626 billion for the Pentagon, and an expansion of the national debt ceiling were among the final bills of the year passed Wednesday by the House of Representatives. The debt ceiling allowed the Democrats to table questions about the deficit until next year, and the $150 billion jobs-creation bill was passed on party lines and won't get out of the Senate, according to The Washington Post. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi told reporters that her eyes were squarely on next year's midterm elections. "I don't know if you've noticed, but I'm in campaign mode," she said.

Ever wonder what Madonna does at home? If her new Dolce and Gabbana ad campaign is to be believed, she washes dishes, preps vegetables, and eats spaghetti with her fingers while garbed in cleavage-enhancing black outfits worth their weight in gold. Vanity Fair Italy previews the campaign, which was inspired by Italian neorealist cinema, for the label's spring/summer 2010 collection in this month's issue. It's not all fantasy either: Designer Stefano Gabbana told the magazine that at home, Madonna really does do the dishes.

Don't expect the Woods-Nordegren family Christmas to be as exciting as their Thanksgiving: According to People magazine, Elin is taking the kids to Sweden for the holidays, and possibly longer. Originally, the former model had planned on leaving in January, but apparently she will return to her home country sooner. Though no official announcements have been made, rumors are circulating that Nordegren will leave Woods, and she was photographed without her wedding ring recently.

Sarah Palin's fashion choices are still under scrutiny. While on vacation in Hawaii with her family, photographers spotted her wearing a McCain campaign visor, but with McCain's name blacked out with marker. On Wednesday, Palin pushed back against reports that by blacking out the name, she was disrespecting her former running mate. Palin told Politico she just wanted to "be incognito" while on vacation in order to shield her children and husband from the paparazzi. In a statement, she said, "I am so sorry if people took this silly incident the wrong way. I adore John McCain, support him 100 percent and will do everything I can to support his reelection."

After a chorus of opposition to the health-care bill from the left on Thursday morning, White House senior advisor David Axelrod reprimanded liberals—and called out Howard Dean—saying, "To defeat a bill that will bend the curve on this inexorable rise in health-care costs is insane." Axelrod repeated the talking point that it’s now or never: 'I don't think you want this moment to pass, it will not come back." Speaking on Morning Joe, Axelrod disputed claims made by Howard Dean on the MSNBC show and in a Washington Post op-ed titled “ This Isn’t Real Reform.” Axelrod said Dean’s argument—that the current reform plan isn’t “real reform”—was "predicated on a bunch of erroneous conclusions." Aside from Democratic infighting, an agreement isn’t certain. As former Reagan speechwriter Peggy Noonan told Axelrod: “On the issue of health care, you are losing the left, you are losing the right, you are losing the center. That looks to me like a political disaster.”

Iraqi insurgents have reportedly used $26 off-the-shelf software to hack into the U.S. military's unmanned Predator drones and obtain live video feeds. The information could potentially help insurgents evade or monitor U.S. military operations. The Wall Street Journal reports that senior defense and intelligence officials believe that Iranian-backed insurgents exploited an unencrypted communications link between the aircraft and ground control, using software programs such as SkyGrabber to regularly capture drone feeds. The U.S. government has known about this weakness since the 1990s, but assumed that local adversaries wouldn't know how to exploit it. So far, there's no evidence that militants were able to control the drones or interfere with their flights, but the breach is potentially serious, given the Obama administration's heavy reliance in unmanned drones to monitor and stalk insurgents in areas where troop deployment is risky or politically unpleasant. Military and intelligence officials said that the U.S. is working to correct the problem by encrypting video feeds from Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan.