WASHINGTON — If you're considering Botox to erase frown lines or liposuction to get rid of love handles, you might want to move fast. The "botax" may be on the way.

The $848 billion health care bill that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., unveiled Wednesday includes a 5 percent tax on cosmetic procedures and surgeries. The tax, which would take effect in January, would raise an estimated $5 billion over the next decade to help pay for extending health care coverage to millions of Americans.

Plastic surgeons decried the proposal, saying the recession has battered their practices and they're just beginning to recover. » read more

WASHINGTON — A retired State Department employee and his wife are expected to plead guilty Friday in federal court to charges that they have been spying for Cuba for decades.

Walter Kendall Myers, 72, and his wife, Gwendolyn Steingraber Myers, 71, have been held without bond since pleading not guilty in June to charges of wire fraud, serving as illegal agents for Cuba and conspiring to deliver classified information.

Federal prosecutors filed documents in the case Friday charging Myers with conspiracy to commit espionage and wire fraud. Gwendolyn Myers, was charged with conspiracy to gather and transmit national defense information. » read more

WASHINGTON — Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska, one of three moderate Democratic senators wavering on whether to allow debate on health care legislation to proceed, said Friday that he'd vote to move the bill forward.

Nelson's decision inches the Democrats closer to the 60 votes they need to authorize the bill to proceed to full Senate floor debate. Democrats control 60 seats, and are thought now to have 58 committed votes.

The other wavering Democrats, Louisiana's Mary Landrieu and Arkansas' Blanche Lincoln, remained undecided as of midday Friday. » read more

WASHINGTON — Secretary of Defense Robert Gates announced Thursday that he's appointed two former heads of the Army and the Navy to review what happened at Fort Hood, amid questions about whether political correctness and a shortage of mental health professionals drove the military to keep Army psychiatrist Maj. Nidal Hasan in the Army longer than it should have.

Gates named former Army secretary Togo West and retired Adm. Vernon Clark, a former chief of naval operations, to lead a 45-day review of the circumstances surrounding the Fort Hood shootings. Hasan, 39, is suspected of shooting 55 people, killing 13 of them, at the Texas Army base on Nov. 5, days before he was supposed to deploy to Afghanistan.

West was Army secretary in the mid-1990s and later became secretary of veterans' affairs; Clark was the chief of naval operations from 2000 to 2005. » read more

WASHINGTON — The health care overhaul debate in Congress now centers on two bills: the measure that the House of Representatives passed earlier this month, and the new Senate Democrats' version unveiled Wednesday. They differ in important ways. Here are answers to questions you may have about the bills:

Q: Would the health care bills before Congress require that I obtain health insurance and punish me if I don't?

A: Starting in 2013 or 2014, most Americans would be required to have health insurance coverage or face a financial penalty. Individuals would have to show proof of coverage on their federal income tax returns. Exempt from this requirement would be those with low incomes — many of whom would be covered under an expanded Medicaid program — as well as Native Americans and individuals who claim religious exemptions. » read more