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The chief executive of General Electric raked in a $37.3 million pay package last year, a large sum by any standard. But how much larger was it than the average pay of the 305,000 employees who helped General Electric earn billions in profits that year? The industrial giant did not disclose that comparison, and corporate America rarely reveals how the compensation of the chief executive stacks up against that of the workers in the ranks below. That will soon change. After a long delay and plenty of pushback from corporations, the Securities and Exchange Commission approved in 3-2 vote on...

As long as the earth is still orbiting around the sun, Donald Trump will be criticizing the media. The GOP presidential candidate took the New York Times to task on Monday for what he deemed a “con job” story about Jeb Bush seeing Trump’s surge in the polls as a positive for his candidacy. “Bush is pretending that the “Trump surge” is great for him and the @nytimesworld is reporting Bush “delight” – con job, a Bush nightmare!” he tweeted. The piece that peeved Trump referenced Bush’s “barely concealed delight” that Trump’s rise has minimized other candidates vying to challenge...

LOOMIS, Calif. — China is demanding that the Obama administration return a wealthy and politically connected businessman who fled to the United States, according to several American officials familiar with the case. Should he seek political asylum, he could become one of the most damaging defectors in the history of the People’s Republic. The case of the businessman, Ling Wancheng, has strained relations between two nations already at odds over numerous issues before President Xi Jinping’s first state visit to the United States in September, including an extensive cybertheft of American government data and China’s aggressive territorial claims. Mr. Ling...

"... advice that Sharpton thinks Donald Trump could use now." James Brown said to me, “Reverend, let me tell you something…. There’s a difference between the lounge act and the acts that play the main room.” We’re at Caesar’s Palace. I’m about 19 - 20 years old. And I said, “What do you mean?” You’ve got to be ready. You gotta have choreography. You gotta be rehearsed. You gotta have polish, Sharpton said Brown told him. “[But] when you get on the main stage, Reverend, whatever you did to get out [of] the lounge, don’t do that on the main...

Chuck Schumer is getting an earful from opponents of the Iran nuclear deal. More than 10,000 phone calls have flooded his office line the past two weeks, organized by a group looking to kill the deal. Another group has dropped seven figures on TV in New York City to pressure Schumer and other lawmakers to vote against the plan. The powerful American Israel Public Affairs Committee has put its muscle behind an effort to lobby the New Yorker against it. And Dov Hikind, a state assemblyman from Brooklyn, was arrested for disorderly conduct while protesting the deal outside Schumer’s office....

Stand-up comedian and actress Amy Schumer is teaming up with New York Sen. Chuck Schumer to call for tighter gun control. She will join the senator on Monday as he unveils a three-part plan that would make it harder for violent criminals and mentally ill to obtain guns. They cited the recent shooting in a Louisiana movie theater that killed two women and injured nine others during a screening of the movie "Trainwreck" starring Amy Schumer. Amy Schumer is the senator's cousin.

...The dentist, Walter Palmer, has been in hiding since word of the kill was reported in the media last week. Nugent, appearing Sunday on "The Rita Cosby Show" on WABC in New York, said he is dubious of media reports that the lion was lured out of a sanctuary because of the number of untrue statements the media has made about him in the past. If he could talk to Palmer, Nugent said, "I would say I'm sorry that our society has become so dumbed down and so soul-less, as to threaten you and your family's lives, because you killed...

Former SC Democratic party chair Dick Harpootlian told MSNBC’s Steve Kornacki Sunday Vice President Joe Biden’s consideration of a presidential run actually gives Democrats the best chance of retaining the White House in 2016. Harpootlian said Hillary Clinton’s track record will cause her and the Democrats to “die a death of a thousand cuts,” yet Biden is “an inspirational figure” that voters can rally around. HARPOOTLIAN: I think Hillary comes into the race, as she did in ’08 with all kinds of baggage… There’s going to be distractions, we saw just this week with the Wall Street Journal about payments...

Show availability of Iran for al Qaeda training, plotting. This week, prosecutors in New York introduced eight documents recovered in Osama bin Laden’s compound in Pakistan as evidence in the trial of a terrorism suspect. The U.S. government accuses Abid Naseer of taking part in al Qaeda’s scheme to attack targets in Europe and New York City. The files do not support the view, promoted by some in the Obama administration, that bin Laden was in “comfortable retirement,” “sidelined,” or “a lion in winter” in the months leading up to his death. Some of the key revelations in the newly-released...

Under a dark photograph showing hypodermic needles and drug paraphernalia, the newspaper advertisement warned in dire terms that violent criminals were coming to town. “Are these the new neighbors we want?” the paid message asked. “The St. Regis Mohawk Indian record of criminal activity is well documented.” The ad, part of an advocacy campaign meant to stop a casino from being built in New York’s Catskill region, drew an indignant response from the tribe, which called it a naked appeal to racism. The incendiary ads, which ran in upstate newspapers in February 2000, were the work of the New York...

Pinstriped sage Yogi Berra has been credited with the observation that “you can learn a lot by watching.” Alas, such wisdom is wasted on Mayor Putz. Asked why he wasn’t at the unveiling of the glitzy plan for LaGuardia Airport with Gov. Andrew Cuomo, Vice President Joe Biden and other officials, the mayor offered a revealing response: He only goes to events where he’s invited to speak. OK, we get it. De Blasio’s war with Cuomo continues, and because the gov wouldn’t let him near the microphone, the mayor boycotted the event rather than fume in silence. I think we...

Cecil, a 13-year-old lion, wandered out of his sanctuary in a national park in Zimbabwe this month, following the scent of a potential snack. At the other end of Cecil’s search was a lure, placed there by hunters who, conservationists say, wanted their prey to cross into unprotected territory so they could kill him. Cecil, well known to those who visited the Hwange National Park in western Zimbabwe for his jet black mane, was beheaded, according to conservation officials. His corpse was left to rot in the sun. Zimbabwean officials said that Dr. Walter J. Palmer, an American hunter known...

The brouhahas over billionaire Donald Trump show how broadcasters favor easy, juicy stories about powerful people’s bad words over harder, less sexy ones about their bad deeds. This is a teachable moment for the mass media. Failing to take Trump seriously could set a dangerous precedent for future candidates with fresh ideas, looking to shake up the controlling status quo. The Huffington Post, which carries my column, announced that it is excluding Trump from its political coverage and instead filing all stories about the man leading the Republican field, according to the most recent polls, under entertainment. If they existed...

Mayor de Blasio is a big fan of presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders — because the Vermont senator is a proud “Democratic socialist.” [Snip] De Blasio was quick to correct CNN’s Carol Costello after she called Sanders a “socialist,” telling her the senator is a “Democratic socialist.” “I think there’s a lot to like in that title,” he gushed.

Governor’s races in South and Midwest could be lost if party brand becomes too liberal. Centrist Democrats were wiped out in the 2014 elections and in their absence emerged a resurgent liberal movement, embodied most recently by the surprisingly competitive presidential campaign of Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders. But the suddenly ascendant left — its populist overtones becoming part of the mainstream Democratic pitch — is worrying Democrats who want to compete on Republican-leaning turf. The party lost every competitive gubernatorial and Senate race in the South last year. And Democrats didn’t fare much better in the heartland. Now, as Bernie...

Secretary of State John Kerry had an “intense exchange” when he tried to sell the Iran nuclear deal to skeptical Jewish leaders in New York on Friday.A day after GOP senators blasted him for getting “fleeced” by Iran, Kerry faced another tough crowd in a closed-door meeting with about 120 Jewish leaders at the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations.“It was very intense exchange, serious exchange,” the group’s vice chairman, Malcolm Hoenlein, told The Post.Kerry spoke from a podium and fielded pointed questions from a crowd of Israel supporters concerned that the deal could allow Iran to get...

US secretary of state said over the weekend that Israel would be more isolated globally if Congress killed Iran nuclear deal. An Israeli official hit back at US Secretary of State John Kerry over the weekend following remarks that were perceived by the government in Jerusalem as "thinly veiled efforts to muzzle criticism" of the Iran nuclear agreement. Responding to Kerry's contention that Israel would face even more international isolation if Congress strikes down the Iran nuclear deal, the official told The New York Times on Saturday that the government would continue its public lobbying. “We reject the threats directed...

The latest New York Times bestseller list has Ted Cruz's A Time for Truth at number 8. Just above him is former President Jimmy Carter's A Full Life, coming in at 7. The strange thing, however, is that Cruz sold almost 60 percent more copies of his book last week than Carter. According to Bookscan, which tracks the number of books sold, Cruz sold 8,814 last week. Carter sold only 5,147. The New York Times list does not indicate either author's books were purchased in bulk orders. Cruz was left off the list the first week his book came out...

The principal of an innovative West Harlem public school killed herself the day after her students took the state Common Core exams — which were later tossed out because she cheated ... Jeanene Worrell-Breeden, 49, of Teachers College Community School, jumped in front of a B train in the 135th Street station ... She was pulled out from under the train and taken to Harlem Hospital, where she died eight days later. The city Medical Examiner’s Office ruled it a suicide. The leap came at 9:20 a.m., less than 24 hours after her 47 third-graders wrapped up three days sweating...

Dear Jim..OK, the GOP now has its candidate. McCain isn't the first choice of the majority of us on FR, and even now, there are spirited, yet for the most part, civil exchanges on the threads as to whether or not some will support the GOP nominee. One of the more unfortunate, and unpleasant events on FR was the mass banishment and/or leaving of a great many Freepers who were supporters of Rudy Guliani for the nomination. I'm posting this to see if you'd be open to the idea of inviting them to return, and see how others might feel...