News in recent days reveals that 2010 Chief Executive Officer pay jumped more than 36% from the previous two years (determined by averaging CEO pay at the Standard & Poor 500 companies). While unemployment continues to scourge Main Street, Wall Street executives, with what can only be described as modest performance, found their pay increased by 36%. CNN reports: "Paul Hodgson, senior research associate at GMI, said the sharp rise in pay was out of line with the relatively modest improvement that companies typically achieved in profits or share price during 2010. The most lucrative sector for CEO pay was health care, which included three of the nine top-paid executives, including the two most lucrative packages . . . ."Next, in an under-reported story, a Republican campaign manager in Maryland was convicted of election fraud last week. As discussed by Professor Sherrilyn Ifill at The Root: "Those who are still confused about why Republicans spend so much energy making it harder for people to vote should pay some attention to a case that concluded this week in a courtroom in Baltimore. There, the campaign manager for 2010 Republican gubernatorial candidate, and former Maryland governor, Robert Ehrlich was tried and found guilty of election based on an attempt to suppress the African-American vote by authorizing the use of misleading robocalls."
