The! Biggest! News! of! the! Day! - Not McDonald's Dividend, Alcatel Warning, or Solar Power Startup

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

• A move by McDonald's (MCD) to "increase its dividend by 50% this year"...
• A warning from Alcatel-Lucent (ALU)...
• A reprieve for Qualcomm (QCOM) in its legal battle against Broadcom (BRCM)...
• A look into solar power startup Ausra...
• A look into "the crash of 2007" by Ben Stein...

While those are all stories worth watching, I think it is obviously clear that the biggest story is this - Second woman says Southwest made her cover up...according to the article, "A second young woman has come forward to claim that Southwest Airlines employees made her cover up on a recent flight"...

At this point I am sure everyone has heard about the first "incident" where Southwest (LUV) told a woman her outfit was too provocative. I resisted on commenting on that story but now we have a second incident. The irony of the entire situation is, of course, highlighted in the article as it notes that Southwest "dressed its stewardesses in hot pants and called itself 'the love airline' back in the 1970s".

With the company bringing this attention onto itself (needlessly some might argue) you have to wonder if they don't have bigger issues they could be confronting. For example, a look at the chart of LUV (LUV!!!) shows the shares are essentially unchanged over the last five years. The company might point out that that is better than how some of the other stocks in the industry have performed but they are handily underperforming the market. Also, I am not sure a "we-aren't-the-worst" strategy works in a market where people don't have to invest in airline stocks.

And one more thing - if we are moving to stricter dress codes, can't we start with the guy who is wearing the t-shirt that is too small, leaving his gut hanging out? If we are going to have guidelines of what is offense - I want a vote! [Mental note - stop on the way home from work and buy bigger t-shirts]...