STEVE INSKEEP, host: NPR's business news starts with more AIG bonuses.</s>STEVE INSKEEP, host: This time the insurance company wants the government's approval before paying out the money. AIG, which has received more than a $100 billion in government money, is hoping to avoid the public relations disaster that it had last March. You will recall that word leaked out that AIG planned to pay hundreds of million of dollars in bonuses to people in the very division that had brought the company down. Now the Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal both report today that AIG has gone to the government seeking its blessing for this latest round of bonuses.
Hoping to avoid a backlash over bonuses, American International Group is asking the federal government to weigh in on the insurer's plan to resume paying retention bonuses. Published reports say AIG has asked compensation czar Kenneth Feinberg to approve the payments.