Podcast

The French elect a socialist president, and the Greek parliament gets a shake-up. It's all in a weekend for voters in Europe who took to the polls in what turned out to be a referendum on harsh austerity measures aimed at solving Europe's financial crisis. Also on the show, Disney avenges at the box office with a superhero blockbuster, college degrees as an employment perk, and Hollywood fights for California's State Parks.

The number of new homes starts last month fell, but a rise in future home-construction plans gave economists hope that the housing market has stabilized. Meanwhile, the number of new students taking the law-school entrance exam dropped to the lowest level in 12 years. Also on the show, China announced a major increase in gas prices, a reported delay in cleaner fuels could harm the new engines designed to burn it, and an oil spill off the coast of Brazil last November is the subject of a lawsuit this week. Plus, our interview with the author of a story that makes comparisons between Mitt Romney's GOP campaign and that of French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

Apple CEO Tim Cook said in a conference call today that the company would start spending down its nearly $100-billion pile of cash with a $10 billion share buyback and a quarterly stock dividend of $2.65 a share. We talk to Henry Blodget, CEO of Business Insider, for more on this story. Shipping giant United Parcels Service said it would pay $6.8 billion for Dutch shipping rival TNT Express in effort to expand its global reach. Plus, Ireland struggles with 14 percent unemployment, Greece's prime minister said the company is on its way to a recovery, and Yahoo! fends off an aggressive investor.