The! Biggest! News! of! the! Day! - Not Sallie Mae (SLM), Citigroup (C), or Eli Lilly (LLY)

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

• Word that Sallie Mae (SLM) will go private in a $25 billion private-equity deal...
• Better-than-expected earnings from Citigroup (C)...the banking behemoth reported 1.18 per share, compared to estimates from Reuters of 1.10...
• Data on March retail sales...
• An upbeat forecast from Eli Lilly (LLY)...
• Concerns (from rivals) about Google's (GOOG) acquisition of DoubleClick...
• Competing video software offerings from Adobe Systems (ADBE) and Microsoft (MSFT)...
• A new health care website from Steve Case...
• Radio ads from Google (GOOG)...

While those are all stories worth watching, I think it is obviously clear that the biggest story, courtesy of our newest colleague Elizabeth Harrow, is this - Cheney plane undamaged in collision with bird... according to the article, "A bird hit the right engine of the plane upon landing"...

On Friday was saw that elephant seals joined the growing list of those participating in the looming animal uprising and now we see the birds have launched another attack. (Any more of this and I am going to start believing it myself!)