WASHINGTON (AP) — At the center of a political storm, an Internal Revenue Service supervisor whose agents targeted conservative groups swore Wednesday she did nothing wrong, broke no laws and never lied to Congress. In one of the most electric moments since the IRS controversy erupted nearly two weeks ago, Lois Lerner unwaveringly — but briefly — defended herself before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. Members of Congress have angrily complained that Lerner and other high-ranking IRS officials did not inform them that conservative groups were singled out, even though lawmakers repeatedly asked the IRS about it after hearing complaints from local tea party groups. The Justice Department has launched a criminal probe of the murky events over the 2010 and 2012 election campaigns, saying it is looking into potential civil rights violations. Top IRS officials say Lerner didn't tell them for nearly a year after she learned that agents working under her had improperly singled out conservative groups for additional scrutiny when they applied for tax-exempt status. Under unrelenting criticism — most forcefully from Republicans but also from Democrats and people outside politics — administration officials from President Barack Obama on down have denounced the targeting as inappropriate and inexcusable. Lerner, who heads the IRS division that handles applications for tax-exempt status and first disclosed the targeting at a legal conference, has said the same. [...] Obama's top spokesman said Wednesday the White House is facing "legitimate criticisms" for its shifting accounts about who knew what, and when they knew it. The report said IRS agents in a Cincinnati office started targeting tea party and other conservative groups for additional scrutiny in March or April of 2010. Lerner learned in June 2011 that agents in her division were singling out groups with "Tea Party" and "Patriots" in their applications for tax-exempt status, the report said. J. Russell George, the Treasury Department inspector general for tax administration, has blamed ineffective management for allowing agents to improperly target conservative groups for more than 18 months.

The $7 billion pipeline, proposed by Calgary-based TransCanada, would carry oil extracted from tar sands in western Canada to refineries along the Texas Gulf Coast. Supporters say the pipeline would create thousands of jobs, help lower fuel prices and bolster North American energy resources. The State Department, which has completed more than 15,000 pages of environmental review on the proposed pipeline over the years, said in a draft report this spring that the project was unlikely to cause significant environmental impact to most resources along the planned route. The report also said other options to move the oil from Canada to Gulf Coast refineries, such as trucks or rail cars, would be far worse for climate change. "There may be a few of my colleagues who are tired of Keystone bills, but the American people are also tired — tired of $3.70 a gallon gasoline, tired of unemployment above 7 percent, and tired of four years of delays that continue to block this critical jobs and energy project," Upton said.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Hewlett-Packard is still scrambling to meet the growing demand for more versatile and less expensive mobile devices as a slump in its personal computer sales deepens, but the company's cost-cutting measures and focus on more profitable areas of technology appear to be easing the pain. Even as HP's revenue declined at the fastest rate yet in a nearly two-year slump, the company delivered fiscal second-quarter earnings that topped the estimates of both its own management and the analysts who influence investor perceptions. The Palo Alto, Calif., company also raised its earnings forecast for the full year, another sign that management is confident that HP's profits won't fall as dramatically as many investors feared while the PC market crumbles. [...] HP's stock would remain nearly 50 percent below where it stood just three years ago. [...] consumers and corporate customers have been gravitating toward smartphones and tablet computers equipped with touch screens and voice recognition technology. Like many other PC manufacturers, HP was slow to respond to the shift and then stumbled trying to catch up with Apple and other manufacturers, such as Samsung Electronics, that make devices running Google Inc.'s Android operating system. By Dell's own admission, the company aggressively slashed its PC prices to prod reluctant consumers and corporate customers into buying laptop and desktop machines.

The $34 billion loan portfolio has seen several high-profile defaults, including solar panel maker Solyndra, plus a potential default by electric car maker Fisker Automotive. The department said it has helped to start 19 new clean-energy power plants that have added enough solar, wind and geothermal generating capacity to power a million homes. Industry analysts say the success of the debt and stock offerings give the company working capital for the future and are a strong indicator of the market's confidence in the company, led by PayPal billionaire and SpaceX founder Elon Musk. Tesla Motors Inc. is among five auto companies that got loans from the Energy Department to develop clean vehicles, including Fisker, Ford Motor Co., Nissan Motor Co. and The Vehicle Production Group LLC.

The strategy, modeled after anti-apartheid campaigns of the 1980s, aims to limit the flow of capital to fossil fuel companies by making their stocks morally and financially unattractive. In theory, that could lead to a slowdown in how much fossil fuel is burned and indirectly speed investments in renewable energy. The students say it's hard for colleges and universities to ignore the arguments when scientists are teaching about the threats of climate change, and when the core mission of such institutions is to prepare young people for the future. It is far from certain that the campaign will help change the behavior of fossil fuel companies or public attitudes about climate change. Financial giants such as HSBC, Citibank and the credit rating agency Standard & Poor's have raised concerns about the financial stability of fossil fuel companies — if the world decides to drastically reduce carbon emissions. Endowments don't have enough financial clout to affect the flow or cost of capital for fossil fuel companies, he said, and fossil fuels are too integral to the world economy. Reid Porter, a spokesman for the American Petroleum Institute, argued that oil and natural gas fuel the economy "in the most efficient and reliable way possible." Major foundations — including the Rockefeller Family Fund — have donated more than $8 million to 350.org, Fossil Free's parent group, and a network of influential advisers and volunteers are building a global network to support the campaign. During the 1980s, more than 225 U.S. companies stopped doing business in South Africa as public and stockholder sentiment turned against maintaining ties because of the country's institutionalized racism, or apartheid. Longstreth is a graduate of Princeton and Harvard Law School, a former commissioner with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, and a former member of the American Stock Exchange Board of Governors.

The head of a typical large public company made $9.7 million in 2012, a 6.5 percent increase from a year earlier that was aided by a rising stock market, according to an analysis by The Associated Press using data from Equilar, an executive pay research firm. [...] shareholder activists and some corporate governance experts say many CEOs are being paid far above what is reasonable or what their performance merits. Shareholders tend to favor stock compensation because it can be tied to metrics like revenue and earnings, whereas the value of stock options depends only on the stock price. With the economy on steadier footing and the stock market surging, the debate over CEO pay is settling into more of a simmer than a boil. Companies cut CEO pay in 2008 and 2009 amid investors' white-hot anger over the losses they suffered during the financial crisis. Since 2011 they have been required by law to hold "say on pay" votes, which give shareholders the right to express whether they approve of the CEO's pay. [...] they're more often linking stock awards to revenue, earnings and share price targets, rather than just handing them out automatically. [...] they're anxious for the Securities and Exchange Commission to implement a rule required under the Dodd-Frank financial reform law that would force big public companies to disclose the ratio of their CEOs' pay compared with the median pay for their entire workforce. Charles Elson, a well-known shareholder rights expert who is director at the Weinberg Center for Corporate Governance at the University of Delaware, has been crusading for companies to stop compensating their CEOs based on what their peers at similar companies are making. To calculate pay, Equilar looked at salary, bonus, perks, the potential future value of stock awards and option awards, and other pay that companies have to report for their top executives in regulatory filings each year. — THE SHAREHOLDER REVOLUTION?: So far this year, only 14 U.S. companies have had shareholders vote down their executive pay packages, according to proxy adviser Glass Lewis.

Prices surged on congressional testimony by Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke early in the day that suggested the central bank would not slow its massive economic stimulus program any time soon. [...] minutes of a Fed meeting were released suggesting the stimulus could be scaled back as early as next month if the economy picks up, and stocks began dropping fast. "If you had any doubts about the influence of the Fed, you only have to look at the roller coaster that followed Bernanke's testimony this morning and the release of Fed minutes this afternoon," said David Kelly, chief global strategist at J.P. Morgan Funds. Aside from the Fed's stimulus, other factors have been pushing the stock market higher, including a rebounding housing market, a pickup in hiring and strong earnings at big U.S. companies. Investors don't like when the Fed pulls back from stimulus policies and raises interest rates because it typically has slowed the economy, and even led to recessions. [...] JPMorgan's Kelly notes that when interest rates are very low, as they are now, history suggests interest rate hikes won't hurt the stock market that much because it means the economy is getting stronger.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal panel of medical experts said that an experimental insomnia drug from Merck & Co. Inc. appears safe and effective, despite evidence from company trials that the pill can cause daytime sleepiness and difficulty driving. FDA staff pointed out that suvorexant was associated with daytime drowsiness, driving difficulties and suicidal thinking in trials conducted by Merck. In January, the FDA required drugmakers of Ambien and similar sleeping pills to lower the doses of their medications, based on studies showing that the drugs remain in the bloodstream at levels high enough to interfere with driving. If the FDA ultimately approves suvorexant, it will be the first in a new group of drugs that aid sleep by blocking chemical messengers that keep people awake.

CHICAGO (AP) — The attorney for an 87-year-old woman who accuses Donald Trump of cheating her in a skyscraper condo deal told jurors in Chicago on Wednesday that he was personally repulsed by the "Apprentice" star whom he said lied on the witness stand. The comments came during a sarcasm-filled closing argument at the civil trial in federal court that pits Jacqueline Goldberg against the billionaire real estate mogul-turned TV showman. Addressing jurors later Wednesday, defense attorney Stephen Novack accused Kulwin of resorting to personal attacks on Trump out of desperation and a lack of evidence. Goldberg alleges Trump persuaded her to buy two condos at around $1 million apiece in Chicago's glitzy Trump International Hotel & Tower by promising she would share in building profits. [...] Trump's attorney described Goldberg as a detail-oriented investor who knew the contract that she signed stipulated Trump could cancel the profit-sharing offer as he saw fit. Since the contract gave Trump rights to change the profit-sharing offer, Novack said the onus was on Goldberg's attorneys to prove Trump secretly plotted to defraud her before she even signed up to buy. [...] Trump's attorney told jurors their obligation was to the evidence, not to their sense of sympathy or to any urge to send a message.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama's nominee for transportation secretary — Charlotte Mayor Anthony Foxx — received a friendly reception from senators of both parties Wednesday laced with warnings that the nation needs to make a host of transportation improvements with no clear way to pay for them. Foxx told a jammed Senate confirmation hearing that he will look for "partners" in local and state government to help find creative ways to finance air, rail and highway improvements. While senators pressed him for commitments on a host of issues from passenger rail improvements in the Northeast to funding air traffic control towers as small airports, the mayor from North Carolina nimbly steered away from controversy. The Transportation Department, like other federal agencies, is grappling government-wide, across-the-board spending cuts imposed by Congress that are scheduled to ratchet up next year absent a budget deal between Republican and Democratic leaders and the president. "The Number 6 connected me to the larger world of opportunity, and I truly believe, whether it is a bus route, a road, a train, a plane or a ship, our transportation system at its best connects people to jobs and a better quality of life," Foxx he told senators.

PAGO PAGO, American Samoa (AP) — American Samoa plans to take away frequent flier miles from government workers who travel on behalf of the U.S. territory and use the loyalty points to help medical patients and students travel off the islands when necessary. Airlines typically tie frequent flier miles to individual travelers, while frequent travel takes employees away from home without really compensating them for time away from family and the normal frustrations of air travel, he said. "None of that is in any way compensated through one's normal salary, and frequent flier miles have historically been seen as a way of compensating business travelers for that," Winship said. The program has gone without funding since 2008. [...] patients who need medical care outside American Samoa have had to pay their own airfare and hospital care through private insurance or Medicaid.

Stock prices gyrated through the day as investors struggled to determine whether the Fed might soon pull back — even gradually — on its extraordinary efforts. At one point, the Dow Jones industrial average had jumped more than 150 points after Bernanke's testimony signaled his belief that it was too soon for the Fed to pull back on its support for the economy, including its $85 billion a month in Treasury and mortgage bond purchases. For one thing, Bernanke told lawmakers Wednesday that the Fed might reduce the purchases within the next few meetings if the job market showed "real and sustainable progress." Most of Bernanke's testimony Wednesday to the Joint Economic Committee focused on the many risks the U.S. economy still faces and the help the Fed's support programs have provided. A resurgent housing market has helped lift consumer confidence. Bernanke also said higher taxes and deep federal spending cuts will likely slow growth this year.

The Energy Department said U.S. crude oil supplies declined by 300,000 barrels last week to 394.6 million barrels. The supply report offset a jump in the price of oil after U.S. stock markets opened strongly. Stocks rose when Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said it was too soon for the central bank to pull back on its massive economic stimulus programs. Brent crude, a benchmark for many international oil varieties, dropped $1.31 to $102.60 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange in London.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Several Federal Reserve policymakers this month favored slowing the Fed's efforts to maintain record-low long-term interest rates as early as June — if the economy showed strong and sustained growth. Minutes of the Fed's April 30-May 1 meeting released Wednesday show "a number" of members expressed a willingness to scale back the $85 billion a month in Treasury and mortgage bonds the Fed has been purchasing, perhaps as soon as next month, if the economy accelerates. [...] unemployment remains well above levels consistent with healthy economies. [...] Bernanke said higher taxes and deep federal spending cuts are expected to slow economic growth this year. Bernanke warned that reducing the Fed's efforts to keep borrowing rates low would "carry a substantial risk of slowing or ending the economic recovery."

On the list of 10-best paid CEOs of 2012 — the exclusive club inside an already-exclusive club — half are in the entertainment and media industry, according to executive pay research firm Equilar. The median pay for all CEOs in 2012 was $9.7 million. 2.David Zaslav, Discovery Communications, $49.9 million, down 5 percent