Meetings

Two juveniles charged after alleged robberies

Pay freeze for bailout execs
Compensation for chief executives at AIG, Ally Financial and GM &mdash; all of which received exceptional TARP assistance during the financial meltdown &mdash; is being frozen at last year&rsquo;s levels, the Treasury Department said.
The ruling also notes that the government has recovered 75 percent of the funds it invested in American International Group Inc.
General Motors Co. has reduced its obligations by nearly half, while Ally Financial Inc., formerly GMAC, has returned nearly a third of its TARP funds. The companies are all still partly owned by the government; four others have since exited the program.
Bonuses will be subject to claw-backs. Cash salaries are largely limited to $500,000 or less.
Overall direct compensation, according to the ruling, will be down 10 percent.
Costly gas = hybrid sales
Just when it looked like electric cars were running out of juice, the return of $4 a gallon gasoline is generating new life for battery-powered vehicles.
 Electric-drive vehicles, including hybrids, plug-in models and pure battery-powered cars, were the fastest-growing segment in the U.S. auto market in the first quarter, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Sales of those models rose 49 percent to 117,182 vehicles in the first quarter, from 78,527 a year earlier before Japan&rsquo;s earthquake and tsunami pinched output.
 Electric cars and hybrids are surging in tandem with gasoline prices, which averaged $3.93 a gallon on April 3, approaching the July 2008 peak of $4.11, according to AAA. Toyota&rsquo;s Prius hybrid and General Motors&rsquo;s Chevrolet Volt plug-in hybrid electric car each had record sales in March. Nissan Chief Executive Officer Carlos Ghosn repeated he&rsquo;s "bullish" that pure electric cars will capture 10 percent of the market by 2020.
Ford expanding in China
Ford announced it will spend $600 million to expand in Chongqing, China, just weeks before the Beijing auto show, where Chrysler will announce the brand&rsquo;s return to the Chinese market.
Ford&rsquo;s investment, with joint-venture partner Changan Ford Mazda Automobile, will expand capacity in Chongqing by 350,000 vehicles to 950,000 annually and bring Ford&rsquo;s total investment in China to $4.1 billion.
Ford and Chrysler are playing catch-up in the world&rsquo;s biggest auto market, where General Motors and Volkswagen are the largest foreign automakers working with Chinese partners.
Credit card use down
Americans took out more loans to buy cars and attend school in February but used their credit cards less frequently for the second straight month. 
The Federal Reserve said Friday that consumers increased borrowing by $8.7 billion, the sixth straight monthly increase. 
The jump in borrowing was driven by $11 billion increase in the category that mostly measures demand for auto and student loans. Borrowing on credit cards fell by $2 billion after a $3 billion decline in January.
Facebook to list on Nasdaq
Facebook plans to list its shares on the Nasdaq Stock Market, further cementing the exchange operator&rsquo;s position as the favored venue for the biggest U.S. technology companies, according to a person with knowledge of the matter.
Facebook filed for a $5 billion initial public offering on Feb. 1. While the market capitalization of New York Stock Exchange shares is about triple the value of Nasdaq companies, the latter market operator has about twice as many technology corporations trading for more than $1 billion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Pay freeze for bailout execs Compensation for chief executives