Reston's vibrant economy, pt. 3

As expected, Sprint Nextel CEO Gary D. Forsee has been shown the door. But don't feel too bad for the guy -- he stands to fill his golden parachute with as much as $57 million. Not bad for a guy that lost more than 700,000 customers this year.

Not as well-known is the fact that Forsee had been agitating for Sprint to move its headquarters from Reston to Kansas, where most of its employees work. Now that's just ridiculous -- does Kansas have a Macaroni Grill? And if Sprint moves to nowheresville, it'll lose its close symbiotic ties to other tech juggernauts like... well, AOL.

Oh, right. Never mind.

Meanwhile, Sallie Mae is suing its one-time suitor for refusing to buy it, to the tune of $900 million. But there's a silver lining -- if the investment group decides to go through with the merger after all, all is forgiven!

Then they just have to run Sallie Mae.