Financial planners reported mean gross earnings of $283,079 in 2006, an increase of more than $50,000 from a year ago, according to a recently released survey.

Financial and accounting services staffer AccountAbilities Inc. has agreed to acquire California-based ReStaff Services, a staffing company that operates under the name Staffing.com and generates annual revenues of roughly $20 million.

With many of its players accruing lengthy rap sheets, charged with felonies ranging from illegal firearms possession to sexual assault, it would be safe to say the National Football League has been battling something of an image problem of late.

Edward A. Weinstein of New York will receive the New York State Society of CPAs’ Distinguished Service Award.

Less than half of all Americans say they are satisfied with their jobs, down from 61 percent twenty years ago, according to the Conference Board, a private research firm.

The National Association of State Boards of Accountancy announced the appointment of new chief operating and financial officers, as well as a new president of its Professional Credential Services Inc.

After a large jump in January, worker confidence among accounting and finance workers cooled off in February, according to the Hudson Employment Index.

Taking a vacation this time of year may as well be considered illegal.

Chief financial officers expect increased hiring activity in the second quarter of 2007, according to the Robert Half Financial Hiring Index.

It’s hard to keep track of all the valuable resources out there on the Internet -- and harder still to find information on the Web when you don’t even know that it exists. Many of the below sites have popped up as “Web Stars” in WebCPA’s weekly e-newsletter over the past couple of years, but they’re worth mentioning again. All are maintained by the federal government -- or by an organization that’s at least as reputable as the federal government, anyways -- and offer free, frequently-updated regular content. I usually try to cover the more interesting decisions and summary opinions issued by The U.S. Tax Court, but practitioners should be aware that cases decided by the court, dating back to 1999, are easily accessible from the site. The site also includes forms, fee schedules and case timetables to visitors though a very easy-to-navigate interface. For the statistics-minded among us, two sites serve to provide just about every number a person could need. The Internal Revenue Service’s Web site (which itself deserves a look), includes a revamped "Tax Stats" page holding a wealth of statistical information on individuals, businesses, charities and IRS operations organized by category. The page also includes access to the most frequently requested statistical information and popular IRS publications and products. As if that wasn’t enough data, the agency’s Statistics of Income Division also added revised table formats and updated report formats in recent years. Secondly, FedStats, the self-proclaimed "gateway to statistics," provides users with a broader virtual reference shelf of statistics from over 100 federal agencies and categories, ranging from agriculture to transportation. Also worth making mention of is the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board’s site. It was only recently that I realized how sprawling and in-depth the content was on the site, which, I suppose, makes sense for an agency charged with a mission of transparency. All of the public inspection reports for audit firms are available for download here, as are complete versions of proposed changes to Sarbanes-Oxley’s internal control provisions and the corresponding comment letters. On another broader reference plane, I can’t say enough good things about Investopedia.com. The site defines thousands of finance and investment terms, from A Priori Probability (probability calculated by logically examining existing information) to Zombies (companies that continue to operate even though they are insolvent. Also known as Living Dead). But you probably knew those. Terms are explained in textbook style and in layman's terms and the dictionary is eminently searchable -- by keyword, alphabet or any of 15 categories. Finally, for a bit of fun and education, Quatloos.com is a site that covers a wide variety of financial scams and has special sections devoted to tax scams and investment fraud. The site, maintained by nonprofit group Financial and Tax Fraud Education Associates Inc., also offers a number of forums moderated with a light-hearted touch by Quatloos staffers. More valuable sites such as these can be found in WebCPA’s Marketplace, which is accessible from the top of any page on the site by clicking on the tab in the gray navigation box.

Independently-owned Los Angeles firm RBZ LLP has named three partners to share the firm’s managing partner position.

J.H. Cohn LLP has announced firm revenues of $175.2 million for its 2007 fiscal year, up 22 percent from the same period a year ago.

The Government Accountability Office recently released a report on detailing some of the conclusions gleaned from a recent forum on engaging and retaining older workers.

Shareholders and board members should brace themselves for record turnover among chief financial officers this year, according to a survey from executive services firm Tatum LLC.Based on a poll of more than 150 of Tatum’s Executive Practice partners (who now provide interim or permanent leadership to client organizations), the survey results suggest that Sarbanes-Oxley-related headaches unrealistic demands from board members and chief executives will drive more than 2,300 chief financial officers from their positions in 2007.

In a merger of companies that primarily provide accounting technology to schools, Dallas-based Tyler Technologies Inc. announced that it has acquired Bangor, Maine’s Advanced Data Systems Inc.Publicly-traded Tyler said that it had acquired all of ADS’s common stock, as well as an office building used in the business, for approximately $4.2 million in cash. ADS develops and sells fund accounting solutions, primarily in New England.

A flurry of e-mails and letters arrived just under the deadline for the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board’s 70-day comment period regarding proposed changes to the audit standard on internal controls over financial reporting.

Accountabilities Inc., a provider of staffing and marketing services to CPA firms, announced that it has entered into an asset purchase and reorganization agreement with Tilden Associates Inc. and TFP Acquisition Co. LLC.Tilden’s chief line of business is the sale of automotive franchises, and the administration and support of auto repair centers. TFB Acquisition is a newly formed company controlled by Tilden’s chairman and president, Robert Baskind.

The Deloitte Foundation, a not-for-profit arm of Deloitte & Touche, announced the 2007 recipients of fellowship grants through the organization’s doctoral fellowship program.

Fiducial, a provider of tax, payroll, financial and business services to small businesses, announced that it has strengthened its Midwest market by acquiring Matrix Accounting and Business Services.

Donald Korb, chief counsel of the Internal Revenue Service, is getting a ton of good press these days for his efforts to get the agency into the game of recruiting young tax attorney talent.It’s a rare week that goes by in my office that either I don’t have a direct conversation with a practitioner, or I don’t overhear talk from the editors and writers for our sister publications revolving around the ongoing quest of just about every accounting firm to attract and retain workers. So it’s probably by nature of the even smaller pool of candidates that the competition for tax attorneys isn’t the stuff of surveys and opinion polls.