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An investment fund associated with Amalgamated Bank, which bills itself as "America's Labor Bank," made the proposal because of Lexmark's performance during the past year, attorney Con Hitchcock said.

The company has seen its stock price fall to lows near $26 in recent months from highs in the $70s in late 2006. Its performance ranked it near the bottom of an index monitored by Amalgamated Bank, said Hitchcock, who presented the shareholder proposal.

The proposal is only a recommendation, so Lexmark is not required to adopt it.

Chairman and chief executive Paul Curlander told Hitchcock at the conclusion of the meeting that the board will "consider this input very seriously" and "right now, that's really all we have to say."

After finally getting a welcome break from the wet weather, Hagan and other corn growers were rushing this week to make up for lost time - knowing more delays could result in lower yields in the fall.

"They're in the 'go' mode right now," Kenny Perry, agricultural extension agent in Graves County in western Kentucky, said Thursday. "They're excited to finally be getting into the fields."

Persistent rains turned spring planting into a series of starts and stops, unlike a year ago when Hagan was wrapping up corn planting by now. By Thursday, about a third of his 2,500 acres of corn was in the ground.

"If the weather will straighten up, we can get a lot done and still be all right," said Hagan, who farms with his son Jonathan in Union, Henderson and Webster counties in western Kentucky.

"We're also interested in your intellectual facilities, in your research and development and all of the things that accompany the automotive industry and its success," Beshear said at the Marriott Griffin Gate Resort.

But studies have shown that a common complaint among businesses about states such as Kentucky is a poorly educated work force. And Beshear's request comes as the state budget whacks funding for higher education.

The state ranks 47th in percentage of adults with a college degree, one of a number of statistics noted in a recent study by the Center for Business and Economic Research at the University of Kentucky.

"Obviously, in order to attract businesses that are going to do research and development, they need to have a work force that can do that type of work," said Ken Troske, director of the UK center. "And that's generally a more educated work force."

Honda Motor Co.'s quarterly net profit plunged 86 percent compared with the same period a year ago because of a corporate tax levied on its Chinese joint venture, at 25.4 billion yen ($244.2 million). Quarterly sales edged down 1 percent to 3.056 trillion yen ($29.4 billion).

Meanwhile, Mitsubishi Motors Corp.'s profit during the same period dropped 37 percent 13 billion yen ($125 million), despite a 12 percent rise in quarterly sales, to 734.8 billion yen ($7.07 billion).

Mitsubishi cited the closing of an Australian factory in the southern city of Adelaide earlier this year. It had operated the plant for 28 years.

Mazda Motor Corp. was an exception, reporting a 48 percent jump in profit on strong overseas sales on way to a record annual profit. The Japanese affiliate of Ford Motor Co. reported a 46.8 billion yen ($450 million) profit for the quarter through March, and a rise in quarterly sales of 1.2 percent to 969.5 billion yen ($9.3 billion), partly on strong demand for the Mazda 6 in Europe.

Workers in favor of unionizing took their fight public again a little more than a year ago but have been quiet since the end of last year.

"There's only so much you need to bring out to the public's attention," said John Williams, one of the leaders. "Everything else is in-house. What we're doing right now is the in-house stuff."

Williams also said there has not been any discussion on waiting to see whether a Democratic president would push through the Employee Free Choice Act. That proposal would allow unionization after employees sign cards authorizing such representation, eliminating the need for signed cards and a vote.

"It's not like we're waiting for that to happen because we still have to reach out to the people who are employed by Toyota," Williams said.

Instead of hanging on to the pieces as souvenirs, many are turning them over to pawnbrokers, coin shops and specialized firms that buy "dental gold," hoping to cash in on the metal's historic run to $1,000 an ounce.

"People are really cashing in. If a dentist passes away, their kids come in with a big pile of good teeth," said Scott Taber, owner of Taber Coins, a Shrewsbury, Mass., coin dealer that buys dental gold and sells it to a gold smelter. He said he used to see only a few customers a month selling gold teeth but now gets that many each week.

A gold crown typically uses about 1/10 of an ounce of 16-karat gold, which would fetch around $40 to $50 at today's prices, Taber said. Heavier pieces can bring several hundred dollars, he said.

That sounds good to Ann Davis, 63, a retiree in Rock Island, Ill., who had gold caps and a bridge removed nearly 40 years ago and has held on to them ever since.

The administration on Friday placed the nine countries on a "priority watch list" that will subject them to extra scrutiny and could eventually lead to economic sanctions - if the administration decides to pursue complaints before the World Trade Organization.

In addition to China and Russia, the other seven countries targeted were Argentina, Chile, India, Israel, Pakistan, Thailand and Venezuela.

The administration named another 31 countries to a lower-level watch list, indicating it has concerns about copyright violations in those nations but they don't warrant the highest level of scrutiny.

Because of improvements in their efforts to protect U.S. intellectual property rights, four countries - Egypt, Lebanon, Turkey and Ukraine - were taken off the "priority" list where they were last year and placed on the lower-level watch list.

After slumping early in the session in response to weak consumer confidence and a spike in oil prices, investors seemed to turn their attention to broader signs, including the week's generally satisfactory earnings reports, that suggested that government efforts to steady the economy appear to be working. That shift in focus sent stocks up late in the day.

Although the Reuters/University of Michigan consumer sentiment index came in with its lowest reading since the early 1980s, Tom Lydon, president of Global Trends Investments in Newport Beach, Calif., said companies' first-quarter reports convinced investors that "overall, things aren't all that bad."

"I think a lot of people went into the weekend feeling they didn't want to be on the short side," Lydon said.

The consumer sentiment index fell to 62.6 for April from 69.5 a month earlier, reflecting Americans' concern about rising energy and food prices.

The situation looks even worse for the fiscal year that begins July 1 in most states.

"Whether or not the national economy is in recession - a subject of ongoing debate - is almost beside the point for some states," said the report to be released Friday by the National Conference of State Legislatures.

The weakening economy is hitting tax revenue in a number of ways: People's discretionary income is being gobbled up by higher food and fuel costs, while the tanking housing market means people are spending less on furniture and appliances associated with buying a house.

The situation is grim in Delaware, with a $69 million gap this year, and bleak in California, with a projected $16 billion budget shortfall over the next two years, the report said. Florida does not expect a rapid turnaround in revenue because of the prolonged real estate slump there.

Democrats said they were glad the rebate checks were about to go out, but suggested that multinational oil companies were not among the businesses the stimulus package was originally designed to help.

"Starting Monday, the effects of the stimulus will begin to reach millions of households across our country," Bush said Friday in remarks on the South Lawn of the White House.

Those first rebates will be directly deposited into people's bank accounts. The Internal Revenue Service had been saying direct deposits wouldn't start until next Friday. Bush said paper checks would begin going out on May 9, a week earlier than previously announced.

"The money is going to help Americans offset the high prices we're seeing at the gas pump, the grocery store, and also give our economy a boost to help us pull out of this economic slowdown," Bush said.

Wheat for May delivery rose 8.75 cents to $8.18 a bushel; May corn added 10.75 cents to $5.87 a bushel; May oats fell 4 cents to $3.725 a bushel; May soybeans added 5.25 cents to $13.54 a bushel.

Beef and pork futures traded higher on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange.

June live cattle rose 0.35 cent to 93.02 cents a pound; May feeder cattle added 0.18 cent to $1.072 a pound; May lean hogs gained 0.65 cent to 75.3 cents a pound; May pork bellies rose 0.45 cent to 78.05 cents a pound.

A decision is likely to emerge in the next few days, with Yahoo facing a weekend deadline to accept the offer. Although the deadline expires Saturday, Microsoft has indicated it probably won't reveal its next move until early next week.

The tense mating dance is at a standstill because Yahoo's board has repeatedly said it won't sell to Microsoft for less than $45 billion, even though the bid hoisted its stock shortly after it hit a four-year low in late January. The impasse has left most analysts predicting Microsoft will either sweeten its offer or attempt to replace Yahoo's board with a slate of directors who will embrace a takeover.

But the architects of Microsoft's bid -- Chief Executive Steve Ballmer and Chief Financial Officer Chris Liddell -- have been signaling that the company might abandon the bid.

The public remarks of Ballmer and Liddell could be just part of a negotiating ploy aimed at pressuring Yahoo to the negotiating table.

The latest price surge -- pushing crude to record heights in recent weeks, and to nearly double its level a year ago -- has some key components of a classic bubble, when market prices climb far above their intrinsic value. The burst comes when investors realize the assets are overvalued.

Oil came close to $120 a barrel Friday on news that a ship under contract to the U.S. Defense Department fired warning shots at two Iranian boats in the Persian Gulf. The markets were also weighing the effects of a pipeline attack in Nigeria and a looming refinery strike in Scotland.

Retail gas prices, which at times rise in tandem with crude oil, are near $3.60 a gallon.

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries -- which supplies about 40 percent of the world's crude -- insists it's supplying more than enough oil.

Massey is positioning itself to take advantage of soaring demand and prices for Appalachian coal. The expansion is centered on underground coal mines, giving Massey alternatives if a court decision that would make it more difficult and time consuming to get federal permits for surface mines is upheld.

"We have all the permits," Chief Executive Don Blankenship told Wall Street analysts during a conference call Friday. "We have a line of equipment that's set up that takes us beyond these currently announced expansion plans."

Labor is another matter.

Massey needs 300 to 400 additional miners and Blankenship said that will be a challenge. The market for coal miners is already tight in Appalachia and expansion plans by Massey and others are making it tighter. Massey, for instance, recently started giving miners multiyear contracts to reduce poaching by rivals. That has helped cut voluntary turnover to 14.8 percent in the first quarter from 21.4 percent last year, Blankenship said.

But you can avoid paying those extra fees. Kiplinger magazine's Joan Goldwasser explains how:

• Look on the back of your ATM card for a logo indicating the network your bank is in. If you use an in-network ATM, you may still pay to use that machine, but avoid an out-of-network fee.

• Look for a bank or credit union that participates in a network that doesn't levy surcharges and does not charge you if you withdraw cash from another bank's ATM. Among such surcharge-free networks are Allpoint, Co-op Financial, CU HERE Premium network and STAR.

• Open an account at an Internet bank, such as Bank of Internet, First Internet Bank of Indiana or Everbank, that will reimburse you for fees up to a specified dollar amount, usually $6 or $7 a month. Or sign up with Metropolitan National Bank or Schwab Bank, both of which reimburse all ATM fees worldwide. Reluctant to switch? See if your bank offers an account with free ATM transactions if you maintain a minimum balance.

Just about halfway through the first-quarter reporting season, most of the blue chips that make up the Standard & Poor's 500 index have not pulled any surprises. In fact, stripping out the gloom coming from financial companies like Merrill Lynch & Co. or Citigroup Inc., profits are up 11 percent year-over-year.

With this generally good performance, the market hasn't had the kind of turbulence that some feared before the start of earnings season, and the S&P 500 index has risen about 4 percent in the past two weeks.

But the coming week might change the market's dynamics, as a string of consumer-oriented companies including electronics stores and food companies are scheduled to release their results. Wall Street is worried about slowing consumer spending, and these companies might give investors their best indication yet about how much Americans are willing to spend these days.

"We've pieced together a decent earnings season so far, and everybody handicapped the financials out of the market," said Chris Johnson, president of Johnson Research Group. "Now the companies that represent the activities of the consumer are going to fall in the crosshairs, and that can tell us more about where this economy is heading."

With only 21,000 miles on it, he's advertising the six-cylinder vehicle with the online network Craigslist for $13,991 - about $200 less than Kelley Blue Book's suggested retail value. Hoyos' mom purchased a Mazda 5, a smaller crossover vehicle with plenty of interior room but better gas economy - up to 28 miles per gallon as opposed to about 20 for the Mitsubishi.

"Nobody is buying used SUVs," said Hoyos, 35, who stopped accepting them six months ago. "The truth is more and more dealers are staying away from used SUVs and large trucks ... It doesn't pay. You can't have a unit sitting on the lot forever."

As gas prices pass $3.50 a gallon nationally and the economy teeters on recession, independent used car dealers like Hoyos and massive chains like AutoNation Inc. are having trouble selling used SUVs as buyers prefer smaller, more fuel-efficient vehicles likes hybrids and crossovers (CUVs). Crossovers such as the Ford Edge, Honda CR-V, and Toyota RAV4 have more interior room and more rugged styling that the average car, but with a lighter chassis and generally better gas economy than an SUV.

Used SUV sales in March were down 14 percent nationally compared to last year, according to data compiled by CNW Marketing Research. That follows drops in used SUV sales of more than 8 percent for the first two months of the year, compared to the same months in 2007.

With no background in medicine, pharmacology or biology, she was determined to find treatments for the disease that literally took the breath away from her young daughter Jenesis. Her success at biotech came on the heels of recognition as one of the inventors of satellite radio.

And she accomplished much of this during a time of personal transformation, undergoing a sex change in the early '90s.

These days, while still running United Therapeutics, Rothblatt devotes much of her spare time and energy to perhaps the ultimate challenge: defeating death itself. She has established a foundation dedicated to preparing humanity for the upheaval that will come when immortality becomes a reality.

She is unfazed when people scoff at the notion.

It's the country's cheapest rate for compressed gas, according to the Natural Gas Vehicle Coalition, and far less than the $3.56 national average price for a gallon of gasoline.

"I'm totally celebrating," crowed Anderson, a 44-year-old social worker, who picked up a used Honda Civic GX two months ago. "This is the greatest thing. I can't believe more people aren't talking about it. This is practically free."

Personal ownership of natural gas-fueled vehicles in Utah soared from practically nothing a few years ago to an estimated 5,000 vehicles today, overwhelming a growing refueling network, where compressors sometimes can't maintain enough pressure to fill tanks completely for every customer.

"Nobody expected this kind of growth. We got caught by the demand," said Gordon Larsen, a supervisor at Utah utility Questar Gas.

Since then, however, soaring oil prices and food riots across the globe have raised fears that the world is entering an era of rising inflation, and people are adjusting their expectations and behavior as a result.

In light of that, the Fed now might not cut rates this week. If its rate-setting Federal Open Market Committee does cut its benchmark federal funds rate -- the rate that banks charge one another for overnight lending -- it's likely to be only a quarter-point, to 2 percent, not the aggressive cut that most analysts were projecting weeks ago.

Even if the Fed cuts the rate, it's likely to signal that it intends to pause a while before cutting rates again because inflation remains stubbornly high -- even though the U.S. economy appears to be stalled.

Inflation, the rise of prices across the economy, remains a threat at home and abroad. The biggest part rises from the seemingly unstoppable climb in oil prices. But the prices of everything from grains and dairy products to base metals and raw materials also are surging. That drives up the price of nearly everything we eat, heat, cool, drive or manufacture.

About 30,000 people are expected to fill the Qwest Center Omaha arena Saturday for the Omaha-based holding company's annual meeting. The question-and-answer period, when Berkshire's chairman and vice chairman spend more than five hours responding to nearly anything, is usually the highlight of the meeting.

Buffett and Munger will likely face questions about the credit crunch that has created turmoil in this economy, the new bond insurance business Berkshire launched, and who will run Berkshire after the 77-year-old Buffett is gone.

And a group representing American Indian tribes and commercial fishermen from California and Oregon will again try to pressure Buffett at the meeting to order the removal of four dams on the Klamath River owned by one of Berkshire's utilities so salmon can spawn again.

But for many people in the crowd, especially the ones who attend every year, the Berkshire meeting simply offers a chance to hear two master investors discuss their craft.

BP said it had completed the closure of the Forties Pipeline System by 6 a.m., when 1,200 workers at the Grangemouth refinery in central Scotland walked off the job. The pipeline brings in 700,000 barrels of oil a day from the North Sea to BP's Kinneil plant, which is powered from the Grangemouth site.

Energy industry group Oil & Gas U.K. said the strike, over pension issues, could cost $100 million a day in lost production.

The main effect of the walkout was likely to be felt by the British Treasury - which relies heavily on taxes from oil production - and at gas stations in Scotland, some of which limited purchases in anticipation of the strike.

The government urged motorists not to hoard fuel, saying there would be enough to go around. It wants to avoid a repeat of scenes in 2000 when motorists were forced to line up at gas stations as truckers angry at heavily taxed fuel brought Britain to a standstill by blockading refineries.

But the market wants to hear this week that the Fed is confident, too.

The central bank's policy makers meet Tuesday and Wednesday to decide whether to lower interest rates again, and to issue an updated assessment of the U.S. economy and financial system. Most investors believe the Fed will lower rates by another quarter percentage point but will also suggest they are gearing up for a pause.

"There's enough mixed signals out there that now's the time to put that forward," said Kurt Karl, chief U.S. economist at Swiss Re, referring to mediocre-but-not-horrific readings on the economy and corporate profits that have helped bring some stability to the stock market.

Already, the central bank has incrementally reduced the key federal funds rate by 3 percentage points since last summer, to 2.25 percent from 5.25 percent. On top of rate cuts, the Fed has been lending more money to banks, while the government is preparing to send out tax rebates.

The airline reconfigured Boeing 757s meant for 220 passengers with 48 seats that could extend into a fully flat bed. Flights served wine, champagne, cocktails and gourmet foods. There were individual DVD players, and helicopter rides to the airport were offered to some travelers.

The price for the New York to London flights, which it offered twice a day, ranged from $3,500 to $9,000 roundtrip.

The high-flying luxuries came to an end Sunday as Purchase, N.Y.-based Eos ceased operations after filing for bankruptcy protection, the latest casualty of a credit crunch and a money-losing airline industry that has been hit hard by high fuel prices.

There have been a handful of small carriers to file for Chapter 11 or go out of business in recent months. One of Eos' main rivals in the all-business-class niche, MAXjet Airways, stopped flying in December. At the time, analysts questioned the viability of all-business-class airlines.