Here are some of the contenders for today's biggest...news...of...the...day...

• The large losses, noted this morning, from both Washington Mutual Inc (WM) and E-Trade Financial Corp (ETFC)...[note - as pointed out earlier, both stocks are heavily shorted so it is worth keeping an eye on how they act. Shares of WM popped 5% after the opening bell and those of ETFC have bounced from an initial gap lower...]
• Earnings from McDonald's Corp (MCD)...
• Earnings from Boeing Co (BA)...
• Earnings from Pfizer Inc (PFE)...
• Earnings from AT&T Inc (T)...[note - a longer-term view of AT&T can be found here...]
• Earnings from Yahoo! (YHOO)...
• Earnings from Wyeth (WYE)...
• Earnings from VMware Inc (VMW)...[note - last week I noted that VMW was a heavily short stock but that doesn't seem to be helping the stock as it hits a new annual low...]
• Word that EMC Corp (EMC) intends to hold its stake of VMW...
• A look into wind power...
• A warning from Costco Wholesale Corp (COST)...
• Word of a new CEO and increased dividend from Charles Schwab Corp (SCHW)...
• Concerns that expensive stadium naming deals could hurt companies such as Citigroup (C)...

While those are all stories worth watching, I think it is obviously clear that the biggest news is this pair of stories -

• Man finds second long python in Maine in a week - "...found a python snake about 9 feet long under the engine of his pickup truck...the second of its kind in less than a week in Maine..."
• NY man earning $100K lived in company paint shed - "a maintenance man who earned $100,000 last year working at a psychiatric center has been living for free in a paint shed on company grounds..."

While these two stories aren't necessarily related, both were too big to pass up. The first follows last week's snake found in washing machine story and adds another element to my animal uprising concerns. It would seem the snakes are invading from the North - beware!. (For those wondering what to expect from the invasion, my colleague Mark Fightmaster offers this link.)

The second story was "biggest news worthy" for the revelation that maintenance workers earn $100,000. I had no idea. Of course, it looks like he was severely punished...

"The worker is being charged $2,500 for the time he lived there. Now he's living with his wife at a home in Pearl River, about 3 miles away."