In New York, agents undercover as passengers will make sure taxi drivers are obeying new rules -- accepting credit cards and staying off cellphones, for example. The yellow cab pulled over to pick up a passenger across from the Empire State Building as its driver, Mahbub Hossain, chatted on his cellphone headset.

Its stock price falls 17% after news that research took a huge bite out of the bottom line. Broadcom Corp. executives have a vision of the Irvine chip maker eventually supplying all the brains and power in cellphones, but Wall Street wasn't waiting Wednesday for that to happen.