[June 15, 2008]

AP Business NewsBrief at 6:32 p.m. EDT

(AP Online Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) AP IMPACT: CEO pay chugs up in '07 despite economyNEW YORK (AP) _ As the American economy slowed to a crawl and stockholders watched their money evaporate, CEO pay still chugged to yet more dizzying heights last year, an Associated Press analysis shows. The AP review of compensation for the heads of companies in the Standard & Poor's 500 index finds the median pay package added up to nearly $8.4 million. That's a comfortable gain of about $280,000 from 2006.

Fixer-up: New CEOs at troubled companies earn top pay in '07NEW YORK (AP) _ CEOs who take over a company in crisis are like plumbers who get an emergency call on a stormy Sunday night: They can charge whatever they want. And they usually do. Nearly one in 10 chief executives in the Standard & Poor's 500 was new to the job last year. Many were planned successions. For instance, Ian M. Cook, 55, replaced Reuben Mark, 69, at Colgate-Palmolive Co. when Mark retired on July 1, a date set months in advance.

UN chief: Saudi to boost oil productionRIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) _ Saudi Arabia plans to increase its oil production by 200,000 barrels a day next month, the kingdom's oil minister told U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon on Sunday, according to Ban's spokesman. The U.N. secretary-general met with Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi in the port city of Jiddah during a one-day trip to the world's largest oil producer.

Reports: AIG board names Willumstad as new CEONEW YORK (AP) _ American International Group Inc., which has lost billions on bad bets on the mortgage market, on Sunday named former Citigroup Inc. executive Robert Willumstad to replace the insurer's chief executive, according to published reports.

Willumstad, 62, will take over from Martin Sullivan, 53, effective immediately, according to The Wall Street Journal and Financial Times, which cited unnamed sources.%mlink( %)

NEW YORK (AP) _ The summer heat has hit Wall Street, and everyone's nervous about investment banks' financial results. Sound familiar? At this point last year, reports were surfacing about investors bailing out of a Bear Stearns Cos. fund that bet heavily on risky mortgages. A few days later, Bear Stearns committed more than $3 billion worth of loans to keep the fund from sinking _ a move that revealed to investors how much spiking mortgage defaults could cost the banks exposed to them.%mlink( %)

PHILADELPHIA (AP) _ Billionaire financier Carl Icahn said he no longer has to watch "Saturday Night Live" if he wants a good laugh _ he just has to go to a company board meeting. "Sooner or later, we're all going to be run by morons," he said to applause during his commencement address at Drexel University on Saturday.%mlink( %)

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) _ New York smokers have been sent outside in all kinds of weather, coughed at in disdain, and now they are burdened with the most expensive cigarette taxes in the nation. Now, to add cost to injury, the state is declaring its highest-in-the-nation cigarette tax a success. The number of calls to the state's Smoker's Quitline quadrupled to nearly 10,000 calls during the week of June 2, when the full $2.75-a-pack tax kicked in, New York Health Commissioner Dr. Richard Daines said. Fewer than 2,300 people called for help during the same week in 2007.%mlink( %)

SAN DIEGO (AP) _ It seems like an idea any environmentalist would embrace: Build one of the world's largest solar power operations in the Southern California desert and surround it with plants that run on wind and underground heat. Yet San Diego Gas & Electric Co. and its potential partners face fierce opposition because the plan also calls for a 150-mile, high-voltage transmission line that would cut through pristine parkland to reach the nation's eighth-largest city.%mlink( %)

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) _ Paul Feeney didn't commute with the Segway his parents gave him for Christmas in 2005 until he moved close to work this spring. The battery-powered, energy-efficient scooter makes the 1.4-mile commute fun, the 35-year-old Sun Microsystems sales representative said. It also made his commute a lot less expensive.%mlink( %)

OSHAWA, Ontario (AP) _ A Canadian Auto Workers official leading protests against General Motors Corp.'s closing of a truck plant says the union is ending a blockade of GM's Canadian headquarters in Oshawa, Ontario. CAW Local 222 President Chris Buckley says his union will obey an injunction ordering the lifting of the blockade by 7 a.m. Monday.

Copyright ? 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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