And in Silicon Valley, the buzz is the latest hire by Yahoo. Marissa Mayer is the new CEO. Yahoo lured the 37-year-old away from Google, were she was one of that company's most prominent executives. She studied computer science at Stanford, was hired on as employee number 20 at Google, and as NPR's Steve Henn reports, she is something of a rock star in the tech world.
STEVE HENN, BYLINE: For years the rap on Yahoo has been: this company lacks focus.
Europe's largest bank allowed drug cartels to launder billions of dollars through its U.S. operations, and skirted bans against transactions with Iran. Those are among the findings of a Senate investigation of London-based HSBC. Executives from the bank are in Washington for a hearing on the probe.
Spirit Airlines is starting service to New Orleans, offering daily non-stop flights between Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport and Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport.
New Orleans International says the low-cost carrier plans to start the flights on Jan. 24 with either a 145-seat Airbus A319 or 178-seat Airbus A320.
The planned flight schedule calls for one round trip between New Orleans and Dallas daily.
Yahoo is turning to a longtime Google executive to try to turn around the ailing company. Effective tomorrow, Marissa Mayer will be Yahoo's new chief executive. She will be the fifth CEO in as many years.
According to Yahoo's press release, Mayer was one of Google's first employees and most recently she was responsible for the company's local, maps and location services.
Mayer's job, reports the AP, is to help the company "rebound from financial malaise and internal turmoil."
