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

• A warning from Tiffany & Co (TIF)...
• A warning from Deutsche Bank (DB)...
• The bankruptcy filing by Nortel Networks Corp (NT)...
• New leadership at Yahoo Inc (YHOO) as the company taps Carol Bartz as its new CEO...
• New leadership at Huntington Bancshares Inc (HBAN) as the company taps Stephen Steinour as its new CEO...
• The potential for a TARP ETF...
• More job cuts at Barclays (BCS)...
• The push by Google Inc (GOOG) to "take on" Microsoft Corp (MSFT)...
• A look into what American International Group Inc's (AIG) asset manager division may bring in a sale...
• Data on retail sales which "fell more than twice as much as forecast in December..."
• Details on the brokerage deal between Citigroup Inc (C) and Morgan Stanley (MS)...
• Concerns about Citigroup's outlook...
• A drop in container freight rates...
• The move by GoldenTree Asset Management to offer securities instead of cash to investors trying to make withdraws...

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

• Pilot bails out of plane to fake death - "A pilot wanted on financial fraud charges parachuted out of his plane over Alabama and allowed the aircraft to crash in neighboring Florida in an apparent attempt to fake his death..."
• Police: Pa. couple spent windfall from bank error - "...they failed to call the bank when a glitch put an extra $175,000 in their account...instead withdrew the money, quit their jobs and moved to Florida..."
• Anti-Love Drug May Be Ticket to Bliss - "...we might reverse-engineer an anti-love potion..."

So...we have two "less-than-successful" criminal plots and a discussion about a potential love vaccine. Even though I frequently note stories about people making questionable decisions, the first two above seem particularly bad. At first glance it seems like the parachuting pilot had a plan (not that I endorse it) but then we have this -

"A man believed to be the pilot approached police near the Alabama city of Harpersville on Sunday night, wet up to the knees and seeking help. He told them he had been in a canoe accident, showed them a drivers license identifying him as Schrenke..."

He walks up to police and shows his real ID? Come on, if you are going to go underground you can't start showing your ID! Meanwhile, did the couple in the second story think the bank wasn't going to track them down? Uhg...