• Charlie Pierce, Boston Globe sports columnist and author of “Idiot America,” calls in at 7:30am Pacific to talk about the news of the day, including the Tiger Woods situation.

• Craig Crawford, co-author of “Listen Up, Mr. President,” calls in at 8:30am Pacific to talk about his new book, which he co-wrote with Helen Thomas.

• President Obama tonight will spell out a costly Afghanistan war expansion to a skeptical public, coupling an infusion of as many as 35,000 more troops with a vow that there will be no endless U.S. commitment. His first orders have already been made: at least one group of Marines who will be in place by Christmas.

• Riven by partisanship, the Senate plunged into a debate yesterday over sweeping health care reform legislation that President Obama and congressional Dems have vowed to approve and GOP-ers have sworn to block. Debate is expected to last for weeks.

• Retail web sites kept amping up the deals yesterday the first day after Thanksgiving weekend’s strong online sales, to try to maintain the momentum. Sales for the day that the industry knows as “Cyber Monday” were up 19.6 percent over a year ago.

• Comedian Michael Ian Black calls in at 6:30am Pacific to talk about his new Comedy Central show, “Michael & Michael Have Issues.”

• Veteran political reporter Richard Wolffe calls in at 7:05am Pacific to talk about his new book, “Renegade: The Making of a President,” and about the news of the day.

• Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) calls in at 7:30am Pacific to talk about health care reform.

• Sonia Sotomayor faced tough questioning yesterday on political issues and controversial statements from her past, with both Dems and GOPers saying she responded well and appeared certain to win confirmation as the nation’s first Hispanic Supreme Court justice.

• House Dems unveiled their revised version of health care reform yesterday, offering a proposal that includes a government-funded health insurance option, required both individuals and employers to participate, and taxes the wealthy to help cover costs.

• A passenger plane carrying 168 people crashed this morning in northwest Iran, and all on board were feared dead. 153 passengers and 15 crewmembers were on the Caspian Airlines jet.

• Veteran political reporter Richard Wolffe calls in at 7:30am Pacific to talk about his new book, “Renegade: The Making of a President.”

• President Obama will arrive in Saudi Arabia today, his first stop on a Middle East trip that will include a major speech intended to repair a damaged U.S. image. The president will deliver the widely-anticipated address in Cairo, Egypt, tomorrow in hopes of reaching out to Muslims and begin a dialogue.

• Debris located early yesterday in the Atlantic Ocean off the northeast coast of Brazil is wreckage from the Air France jet that disappeared Monday, Brazil’s defense minister said. No survivors have been found.

• Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor sought yesterday to hit back against Republican charges that she would let her background dictate her rulings, telling U.S. senators of both parties in private meetings that she would follow the law as a justice.

• President Obama is leaving the door open to taxing health care benefits, something he campaigned hard against while running for president. The federal government would reap about $250 billion a year if it treated health care benefits given to employees like wages and taxed them.