Bonuses

Four of Google Inc.'s top executives each received 2008 bonuses of more than $1.2 million. The bonuses disclosed in a regulatory filing were less than the awards doled out in 2007 when Google's profit rose 37%.

Comcast Corp.'s highest-paid executives — Chief Executive Brian Roberts and NBCUniversal chief Steve Burke — experienced compensation deflation last year. Roberts' pay package shrank 13.3% in 2011 to $26.9 million. That included a performance-based cash bonus of $5.5 million for the 52-year-old executive. Meanwhile, Burke's compensation dropped a whopping 32% to $23.7 million, which included a performance bonus of $6.7 million. The 53-year-old executive's amount fell dramatically last year, as it was the first time in three years that he did not collect a signing bonus.

The Rochester Lancers of the Major Indoor Soccer League announced they have offered a contract to former NBA star Allen Iverson. The Lancers have offered Iverson $20,000 per game,  with a bonus of $5,000 per goal scored, win bonuses and merchandise bonuses.  More than 12 goals are scored, on average, per game. One caveat: The Lancers have only two games left this season. "Allen Iverson is one of the premier athletes of our time," said Rich Randall, Lancers vice president.  "With his athleticism and competitive hunger, I think he can be a great fit with our team and fans as we make an important playoff push, while also driving interest to an exciting, growing sport.

You must remember this: That as time has gone by, the Oscar-winning 1942 romantic melodrama "Casablanca" has become one of the most treasured movies of the 20th century. To celebrate its 70th birthday, Warner Home Video is releasing the classic on Blu-ray Tuesday in a handsome collector's set that features a new high-resolution digital restoration, 14 hours of bonus material and even a set of coasters. Winner of three Academy Awards — best film, director (Michael Curtiz) and screenplay (Julius J and Philip G. Epstein, Howard Koch)

General Electric Co. Chairman and Chief Executive Jeffrey Immelt declined a 2008 bonus and millions of dollars in performance awards, saying Wednesday that the company's falling profit and share price prompted him to forgo the payments. The Fairfield, Conn.-based conglomerate, which makes locomotives, appliances and many other goods, said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that Immelt would not receive his $11.7-million long-term performance award.

Remember Solyndra, the solar panel maker that got $535-million government loan guarantees, only to file for bankruptcy less than two years later?    Well, some of its remaining employees could get bonuses of up to $30,000 apiece, even though the company is being liquidated. The judge overseeing the bankruptcy proceedings has OK'd paying a total of nearly $370,000 in bonuses if certain landmarks are reached, including the timely auction of some Solyndra assets, according to a Bloomberg News report.

In a rare move, a federal judge threw out a deal in which Bank of America Corp. would have paid $33 million to settle charges that it misled shareholders about $3.6 billion in bonuses being paid to Merrill Lynch & Co. executives, contending that the punishment was too light. U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff in New York also lashed out at federal regulators, saying they didn't dig deeply enough to determine whether Bank of America executives intentionally set out to deceive shareholders about plans to pay bonuses to employees of Merrill Lynch last year, when the bank was acquiring the Wall Street firm.

New York's attorney general issued subpoenas Tuesday to former Merrill Lynch & Co. Chief Executive John Thain and Bank of America Corp.'s chief administrative officer, J. Steele Alphin, amid an investigation into bonuses that Merrill paid executives just before it was sold to Bank of America. Thain, 53, was serving as head of the newly combined company's wealth management division before he resigned last week.

In frantically rushing to the rescue of American International Group Inc. last fall, Treasury Department officials negotiated a $40-billion deal that explicitly allowed the company to set aside tens of millions of dollars for executive bonuses and richly reward individual senior executives without restrictions or any concern that the government might interfere.

The furor over American International Group Inc.'s million-dollar payouts to employees who nearly toppled the insurance giant is turning a spotlight on what critics say is frequently an abuse in the way corporate executives are paid. AIG is shelling out $450 million in so-called retention bonuses. Such payouts have been used for years to keep coveted employees from jumping ship during periods of corporate upheaval, typically caused by a merger or bankruptcy.

At the beginning of her fourth marathon Sunday, 20-year-old Fatuma Sado liked the weather, which was nicer than expected, and her pace, which wouldn't be matched. The Ethiopia native dominated the 27th annual L.A. Marathon, posting a winning time of 2 hours 25 minutes 39 seconds, the fourth-fastest finish in race history and more than two minutes ahead of her personal record. "I am successful running marathons because I train with elite Ethiopian marathoners," she said through an interpreter after earning her second marathon win, following her debut win in Hamburg, Germany, last May. Sado crossed the finish line ahead of Simon Njoroge, the 31-year-old Kenyan who won the men's race in 2:12:12, his seventh marathon win and sixth in his last nine.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. has weathered a lot of criticism over the years, but nothing like the broadside that hit it from inside. A departing executive in the firm's London office accused Goldman in a newspaper column Wednesday of losing its moral compass and being overtaken by a greed-infested corporate culture. "I can honestly say that the environment now is as toxic and destructive as I have ever seen it," Greg Smith, who quit as head of the firm's U.S. equity derivatives business in Europe, wrote in an opinion piece in the New York Times.

Pay for the top 15 executives at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will be cut 24% this year, led by plans to slash the total annual compensation for new chief executives of the housing finance giants to $500,000 from $6 million. Federal regulators issued the pay cuts in the wake of congressional outrage over salaries and bonuses at Fannie and Freddie, which were seized by the government in 2008 and have received about $183 billion in taxpayer money to cover huge losses in their mortgage portfolios.

The chairman of a community college foundation embroiled in a fiscal scandal stepped aside Friday at a meeting during which the foundation's board discussed bringing in a forensic accountant to comb through its books. The Los Angeles Trade-Technical College Foundation, which raises funds intended to help students at the working-class school, has come under scrutiny over lavish bonuses and expenses paid to the foundation's executive director, Rhea Chung, who is now on administrative leave.

Remember Solyndra, the solar panel maker that got $535-million government loan guarantees, only to file for bankruptcy less than two years later?    Well, some of its remaining employees could get bonuses of up to $30,000 apiece, even though the company is being liquidated. The judge overseeing the bankruptcy proceedings has OK'd paying a total of nearly $370,000 in bonuses if certain landmarks are reached, including the timely auction of some Solyndra assets, according to a Bloomberg News report.

The Rochester Lancers of the Major Indoor Soccer League announced they have offered a contract to former NBA star Allen Iverson. The Lancers have offered Iverson $20,000 per game,  with a bonus of $5,000 per goal scored, win bonuses and merchandise bonuses.  More than 12 goals are scored, on average, per game. One caveat: The Lancers have only two games left this season. "Allen Iverson is one of the premier athletes of our time," said Rich Randall, Lancers vice president.  "With his athleticism and competitive hunger, I think he can be a great fit with our team and fans as we make an important playoff push, while also driving interest to an exciting, growing sport.

President Obama blasted Wall Street executives on Thursday, calling it the "height of irresponsibility" that they gave employees massive bonuses last year even as the government was forking over billions to bail out ailing financial firms. Obama's stern lecture was inspired by a new report finding that the executives approved $18.4 billion in bonuses in 2008 -- still a big drop from the previous year. But seated in the Oval Office after a meeting with Treasury Secretary Timothy F.

Armed with an unexpected surplus, a divided Irvine City Council has agreed to pay bonuses to all full-time and part-time city employees. In all, the city will hand out $450,000 in bonuses - $500 to each full-time worker, $250 to each part-time employee who works more than 10 hours a week and $100 to each part-timer who works fewer than 10 hours a week. The money comes from a nearly $14.4-million surplus in the general fund, the result of a 15% increase in sales tax income and a 14% increase in hotel tax revenue, according to city officials.

Walt Disney Co. Chief Executive Bob Iger received nearly $31.4 million in total compensation last year, a 13.6% increase from 2010, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The board's compensation committee laid out the case for Iger's package, noting that 90% is tied to Disney's performance. It said the Burbank entertainment giant achieved record net income, revenue and earnings per share in fiscal 2011, and initiated a number of projects that would contribute to the company's' future growth — including expanding attractions at Disney theme parks in California, Florida and Hong Kong, and the joint venture to create a new park in Shanghai.