• The New York Times Co.'s bank balance is running a bit low, but that hasn't detered the company from handing out lavish pay packages. The company's CEO, Janet Robinson, received a total compensation package valued at $5.58 million in 2008, up from $4.14 million in 2007. [NYP, HP]
• Is Rachel Maddow losing her glow? March was the lowest-rated month so far for Maddow's MSNBC show since its debut last fall. [LAT]
• The Chicago Tribune plans to cut another 20 percent of its newsroom staff as it looks to reduce expenses amid continuing declines in advertising. [CB]
• Yahoo posted a 78 percent decline in quarterly profits and said it would eliminate about 675 more jobs, or 5% of its work force. [WSJ]
• Tonight is Len Berman's last night at WNBC. [NYDN]

Oh, good, Arianna Huffington is using her "Huffingtontowne Evening Post-Gazette" to promote the idiotic vaccine conspiracy nonsense of Earth Girls Are Easy star Jim Carrey.

New York Observer owner and boy wonder Jared Kushner just bought a ("sexy") new $3.2 million apartment. In other news, we hear he'd like out of that paper. If only.

Harry Macklowe's crumbling real estate empire is getting even smaller. The ex-billionaire purchased the Financial Times building at 1330 Avenue of the Americas in 2006 for $498 million. He's since failed to keep up with his mortgage payments, though, and now it's gone into foreclosure. Unfortunately for Harry and son Billy Macklowe, it's a process they're intimately familiar with: It's the eighth office building in town to slip from their fingers. [Reuters]

The reported efforts by a "suspected Israeli operative" to get Rep. Jane Harman (D-Calif.) to quash an espionage prosecution into AIPAC hinge on Haim Saban, an Israeli-American billionaire. Who is he?

Class rage at the New York Times! While the paper is on a ride straight to no-money hell, the execs are still getting paid big bucks. The NYT's not living up to its editorial page!

More depressing news from the art world: "In the first quarter of this year, only three pieces of contemporary art sold for over $1 million, a fall of 92 percent from the same period last year." [WB]

There is so much to admire about Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz, who is giving the Web company a needed kick in the pants. But more than anything, it's her garbage tongue that we love. Listen.

The gang of webheads sent by the State Department to Iraq is doing what webheads do: blogging, Twittering, and posting photos in real time. This must be giving their government minders fits.

Levi Johnston, a 19-year-old Alaskan who, unlike Meghan McCain, has held a real job, is going to write a book. Maybe. Or maybe not!

A former Apollo astronaut says that aliens have visited Earth! He's just a well-known lone nut, you say? Well what about this NEW PLANET they found right next door, hmmm?

Citigroup did its best to insure its annual meeting yesterday—the one at which angry shareholders harangued senior management—reflected a "sober" mindset. No glossy annual reports were handed out, Citi's CEO Vikram Pandit said the company had saved money by skimping on free coffee and doughnuts, and, according to the Times, there weren't any "red-frosted arc cookies in the shape of the corporate logo" either. Now we know why shareholders went without treats!

Sucking up to the CEO's wife is usually a wise move. But did it doom MySpace chief Chris DeWolfe?

A world famous evolutionary biologist writing for America's most prestigious magazine can get away with calling New Guinea tribe members murderers and rapist. But do not accuse them of stealing pigs. Now it's on:

There is little good news anymore. Today Angelina Jolie signs a pact with the devil, as does Walgreens. Tom Cruise can't pick good scripts, and Dimension keeps puttering along.

A gentle word of advice: If you happen to lose your job, whatever you do don't throw a big tantrum, or you might wind up being placed under round-the-clock surveillance to make sure you don't go on a murderous rampage. That's what happened to an employee of one financial services firm who got "upset" when he was fired, even though he presumably didn't have a history of settling scores with a 9-millimeter Glock.

Good morning! Bill Kristol will receive $250,000 for being an asshole who is always wrong this June.

Robert De Niro is Robert De Niro. But Bobby's brother uncle, The Real Deal informs us, goes by Jack DeNiro. Did you catch that? Yes, Jack intentionally spells his last name without a space between the "De" and "Niro." As for the actor's son, rising real estate broker Raphael, well, it appears to be a toss up. [Real Deal]

[Vampyrtwinkle Robert Pattinson in Vancouver yesterday; image via Bauer-Griffin]

Somali teen pirate sensation Abduwali Abdukhadir Muse (today's spelling!) went to court yesterday, and guess what, he cried. Will this give the NY Post the chance to use the term "Priva-Tears?" Let's find out!