March 16, 2012—It has been a very long time since we've had "Gold Star Friday" - a day when we shine a spotlight on a company that's doing something that deserves public recognition. Our team reads hundreds of filings every week (sometimes every ...

July 1, 2010—When a chief executive's contract is renewed, we tend to see pay rise, perks expand and change-in-control provisions become more generous. So we admit to being a little surprised when we saw the new agreement City National (CYN) inked with its chairman and ...

April 30, 2010—The filings are pouring in fast and furiously today, but the footnoted staff is taking time out to share some celebratory news that's definitely worth a gold star— maybe even two! We—ve come across several companies that are eliminating one of the grossest perks ...

April 16, 2010—When it's time to make executive compensation decisions, companies seek input from several sources. Those usually include the Compensation committee, the executives themselves, and outside consulting companies that specialize in researching what other executives at the ubiquitous —peer companies earn. But Comp committees ...

March 5, 2010—We've certainly picked on cruise line Carnival Corp. (CCL) and its Chairman and CEO, Micky Arison over the years for some unusual perks like Miami Heat tickets and corporate jet usage (see here and here among others). But as we were reading ...

January 28, 2010—Last week's celebrity telethon and other appeals raised a lot of money for relief efforts in Haiti, where current estimates are that the January 12 earthquake in Port-au-Prince affected 3 million people and killed more than 112,000. We wondered if any publicly-traded companies had filed ...

January 15, 2010—January is half over, the news from Haiti is heartbreaking, and right now it seems that the snow will never melt. In all, it's been a tough few weeks. Fortunately, the 8-K that Red Robin (RRGB) recently filed lets us focus for ...

September 18, 2009—As footnoted regulars know, occasionally Michelle bestows the coveted footnoted gold star to companies whose executives set the bar high for good corporate behavior. When we read the proxy that the Sara Lee Corporation (SLE) filed on Wednesday, it seemed worthy of an approving ...

August 29, 2008—Anyone who reads filings regularly knows that they're often painfully dry. That's mostly because they're written in a foreign language: accounting-speak combined with legal-speak and a bit of PR/marketing speak for good measure. Which is why it's so refreshing when you come across a filing ...

May 27, 2008—Normally, anything filed late on a Friday means that a company is trying to bury something pretty juicy. That's doubly true when that late Friday filing happens before a holiday weekend when the markets are closed. So you can imagine my surprise to see