"Investors Reject Motorola's Pay Practices," exclaims the headline on the blog posted by RiskMetrics.

The proxy advisory firm said Motorola received just 46 percent support during an advisory vote on its executive pay practices, citing as its source investors who attended the company's May 3 annual meeting.

One of the most influential shareholder activists has publicly identified its 2010 targets.

The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, AFL-CIO (AFSCME) Employees Pension Plan said it has trained its cross-hairs on 33 companies with proposals that include old, familiar issues--creating independent board chairmen and holding a so-called Say on Pay vote. Other measures seek to end practices that surprisingly exist in the first place, especially in this new age of populism and anti wealthy people.

Just in case you thought there was any significant relationship between executive pay and performance at banks receiving Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) money, a new study should put the nail in that particular delusion.

 It shows that, while absolute levels of compensation for CFOs (and CEOs) fell at some banks from 2006 to 2008, there was no measurable link between pay and changes in performance for the group as a whole.