Mark Memmott

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner told Bloomberg Television today that he's "pretty confident" he won't be asked to stay in his job if President Obama is re-elected for a second term.

"He's not going to ask me to stay on, I'm pretty confident," Geithner said. "I'm confident he'll be president. But I'm also confident he's going to have the privilege of having another secretary of the treasury."

"After more than 30 years of handing prayer cards to customers aboard its planes, Alaska Airlines has decided the practice is outdated and will stop doing it on Feb. 1," The Seattle Times reports.

A few things struck us about this news.

The "Blue Marble" image of Earth snapped by the crew of Apollo 17 in 1972 is one of the most famous photos ever taken. When it appeared, we all suddenly saw the world in a much different way.

In the years since, NASA has added other "Blue Marble" photos to its collection, and has used technology to enhance and sharpen the images.

The economy "has been expanding moderately, notwithstanding some slowing in global growth" in recent weeks, the Federal Reserve just reported.

In a statement timed for release at the end of their most recent meetings, Fed policymakers also said they expect economic growth in coming quarters "to be modest," that the jobless rate will "decline only gradually" and that inflation will run "at ... or below" levels the central bank wants to see.

Europe does not now have the "political structures" to make the euro work properly, German Chancellor Angela Merkel told world leaders today.

At the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, The Associated Press reports, "she said the weaknesses 'arose over years — so they can't be overcome at one fell swoop.' "

But, Merkel added, "we are determined to do this."

Apple's just-released financial results for the quarter ended Dec. 31 have some eye-popping numbers:

-- "Record quarterly net profit of $13.1 billion," double the $6 billion of the same quarter a year earlier.

Citing the Golden Rule and saying that "all men and women in our state [should] enjoy the same privileges that are so important in my life," the last legislator needed to pass same-sex marriage legislation in Washington State announced this afternoon that she will support the measure.

Sen. Mary Margaret Haugen, a Democrat, posted a statement about her decision here.

Republican presidential contender Newt Gingrich today made the case that those who have been collecting jobless benefits for extended periods of time should be required to enroll in job-training programs, saying that "we shouldn't give people 99 weeks to do nothing," our colleagues at WUSF in Tampa report.