• Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN) calls in at 8:30am Pacific to talk about the importance of passing meaningful health care reform.

• President Obama is expected to nominate Ben Bernanke to a second term as head of the Federal Reserve today. Bernanke, a Republican who has played a central role in the government’s extraordinary response to the recession and 2008 banking panic, will have to be confirmed by the Senate.

• The Obama administration launched a criminal investigation yesterday into harsh questioning of detainees during President Bush’s war on terrorism, revealing CIA interrogators’ threats to kill one suspect’s children and to force another to watch his mother sexually assaulted.

• The Los Angeles County coroner’s finding that the death of Michael Jackson was a homicide could mean criminal charges for his doctor, who told investigators that he administered a mix of powerful drugs to treat the pop star’s insomnia hours before his death.

• President Obama played tennis with his wife and golf with his buddies yesterday, starting his first vacation in office on Martha’s Vineyard of the coast of Massachusetts.

• CNN’s Paul Begala calls in at 7:05am Pacific to talk about health care reform, Libya, and the President’s vacation.

• The Justice Department’s ethics office has recommended reversing the Bush administration and reopening nearly a dozen prisoner-abuse cases, potentially exposing CIA employees and contractors to prosecution for brutal treatment of terrorism suspects.

• Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT), the independent senator counted on by Dems in the health care debate, showed signs of wavering yesterday when he urged President Obama to postpone many of his initiatives because of the economic downturn.

• The First Family settled in yesterday for their vacation on Martha’s Vineyard not long after Hurricane Bill scampered away, leaving behind big waves and heavy rip currents for the Obamas.

• The Obama administration expects the federal deficit over the next decade to be $2 trillion bigger than previously estimated, White House officials said Friday, a setback for a president already facing a Congress and public wary over spending.