Bonuses

The Baltimore principals union is calling for schools CEO Andrés Alonso to pay back thousands of dollars in bonuses he received in years that schools were later found to have cheated on state tests. The request comes as a contract, released through a Public Information Act request, names three schools that have not previously been publicly linked to cheating suspicions: Sinclair Lane Elementary, Rayner Browne Elementary/Middle and William Pinderhughes Elementary. The schools join Abbottston Elementary, alleged to have cheated in 2009, in an independent investigation.

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama sharply crticized Wall Street executives yesterday, calling it the "height of irresponsibility" that they gave themselves and employees huge bonuses last year even as the government was paying out billions to bail out ailing financial firms. Obama's stern lecture was inspired by a new report finding the executives gave out $18.4 billion in bonuses in 2008 - a big drop from the previous year but outrageous to the president just the same. Seated in the Oval Office after a meeting with Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, Obama said this is not the right time for executives to be raking in huge bonuses.

WASHINGTON - Insurance giant American International Group Inc. will award hundreds of millions of dollars in employee bonuses and retention pay despite a confrontation Wednesday between the firm's chief executive and Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner. But the company agreed to revise some executive payments after what chief executive Edward M. Liddy called a "difficult" conversation. The bonuses and other payments have been exasperating government officials, who have committed $170 billion to keep the company afloat - far more than has been offered to any other financial firm.

DALLAS - Southwest Airlines Co., the only major U.S. carrier to remain profitable since 2001, has paid $1.24 million in bonuses to its four highest paid officials and a former chief executive. The 2004 bonuses, paid Monday, are 28 percent bigger than the same executives' bonuses for 2003. Southwest chief executive Gary C. Kelly, who was chief financial officer before being promoted July 15, had the largest increase. His bonus rose 49 percent, to $275,000 from $184,450, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Anne Arundel County Executive Janet S. Owens handed out $295,000 in "pay-for-performance" bonuses to employees yesterday -- a smaller sum than her predecessor doled out last year to fewer people before leaving office.Owens awarded the annual bonuses to 235 employees after revamping the system. The revision resulted in the exclusion of her Cabinet members from receiving the extra money.Owens, elected November 1998, has emphasized that she wanted the pay for performance to be distributed fairly.

The Baltimore Ravens agreed this summer to pay Steve McNair an $11 million bonus to become the team's new starting quarterback. Legg Mason Inc. Chief Executive Officer Raymond A. "Chip" Mason picked up a $14 million bonus last year as a reward for his work. Bonuses - albeit much smaller - have been common for years in various fields, including law firms trying to snap up Harvard graduates and hospitals seeking to fill nursing vacancies. Now, Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley is attracting national attention with his proposal to bring big bonuses into education, with $200,000 incentives for top-notch principals to work in struggling urban schools.

NEW YORK -- Drexel Burnham Lambert Inc. sued hundreds of its former employees yesterday in an attempt to recover more than $250 million in bonuses paid shortly before the company filed for bankruptcy in early 1990.The bonuses have been at the heart of some of the biggest controversies resulting from the collapse of the Wall Street powerhouse.The size of Drexel's bonuses was long a legend on Wall Street, but yesterday's lawsuit for the first time provides details of how rich those payments were, showing that many executives got between $100,000 and $1 million each month.

Two proxy advisory firms are recommending Legg Mason shareholders withhold votes for three directors who sit on the compensation committee because it awarded bonuses to top executives even though the Baltimore money managers reported a net loss for the fiscal year ended March 31. RiskMetrics Group and Glass Lewis & Co., which provide guidance on proxy proposals and corporate governance issues, said shareholders should hold back votes for John...

When the airline industry went into a tailspin after the 2001 terrorist attacks, pilots, flight attendants and mechanics at American Airlines agreed to billions of dollars in cuts in wages and benefits to keep the carrier afloat. Now AMR Corp., American's parent, is back in the black, so much so that 874 top executives will receive more than $150 million in stock bonuses this week. That has the 57,000 rank-and-file employees seeing red. "We made huge sacrifices," said Dana Davis, an 18-year American employee and spokeswoman for the Association of Professional Flight Attendants.

With the ability to offer teachers higher salaries, more signing bonuses and an improved pension plan, Anne Arundel County school officials said this summer's recruiting season went more smoothly than usual. More than 600 new teachers will be in county classrooms when school starts Aug. 28. Some came from as far away as the Philippines, while others came from neighboring jurisdictions. Meanwhile, fewer teachers have retired, and only a small number of vacancies remain, according to school system officials.