ABC’s Neal Karlinsky, who has owned the Armstrong beat, broke the news Tuesday that Armstrong was facing criminal charges, and that “agents are actively investigating Armstrong for obstruction, witness tampering and intimidation.”

Armstrong had refused to cooperate with the USADA investigation to this point, but USA Today says that he is now reconsidering, thanks to Karlinsky’s report.

Since his January televised interview with Oprah Winfrey, Armstrong had said he could not meet USADA’s deadline but would cooperate with a hypothetical “truth and reconciliation” commission set up by the World Anti-Doping Agency and the international cycling federation. However, he appears to have changed his mind and been swayed to come clean to USADA after hearing reports, first broken by ABC News, that he might be facing criminal prosecution, the person said.

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There is also personal element to it.

“I used to race competitively, I feel very passionately about the sport of cycling, I just love it,” Karlinsky tells TVNewser. “There was never any intersection between this — lets face it, obscure sport in the United States — and my career as a journalist. I never expected that intersection to be the one story that is pulling the sport down.”

Since the Landis interview, Karlinsky has been on the Armstrong beat for ABC, and along the way has spoken to dozens of sources close to Armstrong and his teammates. He says that he was not surprised the U.S. Anti Doping agency took action against the cyclist, but rather that it took so long.

“This story — in talking to sources on background since 2010 — has felt like it might explode with a huge development at any moment almost the entire time,” he said.

Karlinsky says that Armstrong genuinely wants to be able to compete competitively again, and that is one of the driving forces behind his decision to come clean.

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ABC News correspondent Neal Karlinsky experienced that first hand last week during his Thanksgiving trek. A short drive from the airport with his daughter and mother turned into a six-hour ordeal.

Luckily, he recorded the experience for future generations:

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When you mess with one Rooney, you mess with them all.

Ergo, when veteran correspondent Brian Rooney becomes a victim of ABC News’ slash-and-burn cuts, the whole family fumes.

“Maybe ABC is in bigger trouble than we know,” says his father, “60 Minutes” commentator Andy Rooney, 91. “It seems unfair. They should have more concern for their own employees, and find a way to keep the ones who have been there a long while.”

Brian Rooney, 58, an L.A.-based staffer for 22 years, was told last month that his contract, which expires April 30, would not be renewed.

Sister Emily Rooney, dumped by ABC in 1994 after a hiccup as executive producer of Peter Jennings‘ “World News Tonight”, says her kid brother was shafted.

“He’s been a loyal foot soldier, not one of the stars,” opines Rooney, 60, a producer at Boston’s WGBH. “He’s gone into war zones, covered wildfires, flown around the country in rickety airplanes. He’s put himself in harm’s way.

“For him to be given the brush-off like that is stunning.”

For his part, Brian Rooney is trying to choose his words carefully. The Rooneys “are kind of a hard bunch” when it comes to overt displays of emotion, he says, but this time is an exception to the rule.

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And later on Nightline, ABC’s Neal Karlinsky takes viewers inside Vegas’ biggest gamble yet: the 4,004-room Aria Hotel-Casino which is part of the $8.5 billion MGM-Mirage CityCenter complex. The 18-million-square-foot behemoth is considered the crown jewel of the Strip and is opening as the U.S. emerges from a crushing recession. Which may be best evidenced by current room rates in Las Vegas. You could book a room at Ceasers Palace tonight for $81.

The complex opens to the public tomorrow.

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World News with Charles Gibson won for the David Kaplan Award for best TV spot news reporting from abroad. The winning series of segments, “China’s Earthquake,” featured correspondents Stephanie Sy and Neal Karlinsky.

Ted Koppel won an Edward R. Murrow Award for his Discovery Network series, “The People’s Republic of Capitalism.” Here are all the winners.

• Related: NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams will be presented an FDNY Humanitarian Award tonight. Click continued to see Williams’ segment with Meredith Vieira about his life as a volunteer firefighter…

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