Thursday morning headlines

Market stew: Another day of mixed earnings and economic news that has stocks in zigzag mode. Dow is up in early trading.

CEO pay slashing: Far more a political decision than a reasonable or relevant one, the top 25 top earners at seven companies receiving government help will see their compensation cut by an average of about 50 percent, though there's considerable variance on the reductions. From the NYT:

The plan will hit executives at some companies harder than others. At the financial products division of A.I.G., the locus of problems that plagued the insurer and forced its rescue with more than $180 billion in taxpayer assistance, no top executive will receive more than $200,000 in total compensation, and officials in that unit will not receive any other compensation, like stocks or stock options. Some bonuses previously promised will be paid in the coming year, and it is not clear how much of those will be awarded.

Microsoft 7 arrives: The successor to the much maligned Vista operating system is getting mostly-glowing reviews, though upgrading from XP is supposedly a major hassle. Plus, there are the usual nits about this feature of that. From NYT columnist David Pogue:

Windows 7 represents a departure from Microsoft's usual "success is measured by the length of the feature list" philosophy. This time around, it was, "Polish, optimize and streamline what we've already got."

Trutanich vs. Leiweke: L.A.'s new City Attorney and the CEO of AEG (owners of the Staples Center, L.A. Live, etc.) are at each other's throats over who should pay for the Michael Jackson memorial service - plus other stuff. Leiweke claims he's being bullied. From the LAT:

Leiweke said he sees political motives. Leiweke is a major ally of Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, and both backed Trutanich's opponent in the bitter race for city attorney earlier this year. Since taking office, Trutanich has blocked sign permits for the company's new downtown movie theater and attempted to delay the city's plans to lease billboard space to AEG at the Convention Center. Leiweke alleges that Trutanich ordered investigations into AEG's old fire permits and even the cracks in the sidewalks at Staples Center and L.A. Live, both owned by Anschutz Entertainment Group.

One more step for the NFL: The governor will sign legislation today that sets the stage for construction of a football stadium in the City of Industry. As part of the measure, the planned 75,000-seat facility would be exempted from state environmental laws. Now all they need is a team. (LAT)

"Get Down to Business:" The mayor, the chamber and a bunch of other suits are at City Hall today to talk about ways of revitalizing Los Angeles. Wow - they're still doing these types of things?

Isn't everyone using Twitter?: Well, er, no. But new numbers from the Pew Internet Project show that a substantial 19 percent of US Internet users are on the service on a regular basis. (All Things Digital)