Ben Hider/Getty Images(NEW YORK) -- Don't mess with Ronald McDonald.

That was the message Thursday from the fast food chain's chief executive Don Thompson, who defended his company from attacks by the watchdog group, Corporate Accountability International, before a shareholders’ meeting.

Lately, CAI has been demanding that McDonald's assess whether its attempts to add more nutritious items to its menu is working. Two years ago, the group wanted the company to retire its mascot, Ronald McDonald, claiming it was a blatant marketing scheme targeting kids.

Whether it's true or not, the clown is still around and Thompson says he's here to stay, telling shareholders, "We are not the cause of obesity. Ronald is not a bad guy. He's about fun. He's a clown. I'd urge you all to let your kids have fun, too."

While Thompson insists McDonald's is offering more healthy choices to the menu, the real concern of shareholders is the company's declining sales.

As a result, Thompson says pricier items, such as the Angus burger, are getting axed, and more selections will be added to the Dollar Menu.

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Hemera/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) -- Stocks tumbled hard in early trading on Thursday, but recovered most of their losses by the closing bell.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed down 12.67 points at 15,294.50. The Nasdaq Composite gave up 3.88 points to close at 3,459.42. The S&P 500 finished the session down 4.84 points, closing at 1,650.51.

The markets appear to be on track for a losing week, but are still well ahead for the month of May.

Meanwhile, new home sales are going through the roof. The National Association of Homebuilders says they soared last month to the second-highest level since the summer of 2008, and the median price hit a record high. Low mortgage rates are encouraging more people to buy.

The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits fell by 23,000 last week. Experts say it's further evidence that the job market is slowly returning to health.

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Tim Boyle/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) -- A report from the U.S. Department of Labor on Thursday showed jobless claims dropping for the week. The number of people applying for unemployment benefits fell 23,000 to a level consistent with solid job growth.

The four-week average of those applying for unemployment benefits ticked down just 500 to 339,500. These claims figures are one indicator of a strengthening job market.

The jobs market still has a ways to go -- employers need to add thousands of more jobs to significantly bring the unemployment rate down.

The housing recovery, though, is playing its part in the job market; the demand for new construction means there will be more jobs created in this sector.

Housing is one part of the massive U.S. economy. To have a truly convincing recovery there needs to be similarly good news from other parts of the economy.

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Stockbyte/Thinkstock(WASHINGTON) -- Sales of new homes rose in April by nearly 30 percent compared with a year ago, according to a report by the U.S. Commerce Department.

This is the latest evidence of a recovering housing market, six years after the housing bubble burst, leading to a recession.

Home prices are also rising but have yet to get back to the highs seen during the bubble.

The median price of a new home sold in April was 1,600 – adjusted for inflation, this price is still below the price of a new home during the boom.

“We’re now about half-way back to what could be considered a full recovery,” National Association of Home Builders Senior Economist Robert Denk said in a note.

Thursday’s report also shows new home sales in the past four months were better than previously reported.

At the current sales rate, there is just over four months’ supply of new homes for sale. A six-month supply is considered healthy. This means that there is pent-up demand for new construction.

The housing recovery is being helped by the Federal Reserve’s efforts, and some economists fear that homes may not seem as cheap once those efforts wane.

Economists with IHS Global Insights do not expect the housing market to get truly back to normal until 2015.

New homes make up a small chunk of the housing market, but have an important ripple effect on the economy as new appliances and furnishings are needed.

Home are also often Americans’ biggest investment, and a rise in prices makes Americans more confident in their finances and ability to spend.

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MSN(SEATTLE) -- The new Microsoft TV commercial shows a Windows 8 Asus tablet pitted against an Apple iPad in what’s reminiscent of a classic Apple ad, complete with vintage white background.

Microsoft’s tablet is shown demonstrating its Start Screen Live Tiles feature, multi-windowed Snap multitasking, and even Microsoft Office compatibility. All the while, Apple’s voice assistant, Siri, is heard saying that she’s sorry, but she just can’t do any of those things:

“I’m sorry, I don’t update like that.”

“I’m sorry, I can only do one thing at a time…I guess PowerPoint isn’t one of those things.”

After Siri seemingly gives up and opens the GarageBand piano, the ad ends with a rather rough rendition of Chopsticks (a play on Apple’s iPad mini commercial) and a graphic showing the iPad priced at 9 and the Windows 8 Asus tablet at 9, both tablets in 64 GB versions.

Apple did not immediately respond when ABC News reached out for comment on the new ad.

Windows 8 only grabbed 7.5 percent of the tablet market in Q1 of 2013, according to Strategy Analytics. Apple’s iOS was number one (iPad and iPad mini) with 48.2 percent, and Android tablets accounted for 43.4 percent.

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VStock/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) -- New Jersey authorities are investigating 29 establishments for serving customers cheaper booze as a substitute for top-shelf liquor, including one that allegedly offered rubbing alcohol and food coloring as scotch.

“This alleged scheme is a dishonest ruse to increase profits, and it is a slap in the face to the consumer,” said state Attorney General Jeffrey Chiesa in a statement. “Consumers should have the peace of mind of knowing that they will get what they spent their hard-earned money on every single time -- no exceptions.”

A spokesman for the New Jersey Division of Alcoholic Beverage Control declined to name which establishment served rubbing alcohol, saying it is an ongoing investigation.

Among the 29 licensed bars and restaurants cited for phony booze in the crackdown, dubbed “Operation Swill,” are 13 TGI Fridays restaurants throughout New Jersey.

On Tuesday, investigators visited the establishments, inspected the bar areas and seized all opened bottles. About 1,000 bottles were seized and will undergo more testing by investigators and manufacturers. The investigators seized various brands of vodka, gin, rum, scotch, whiskey and tequila. Investigators also took statements from employees and served demands for sales records to the establishments, which have seven days to provide records of the brands of interest.

TGI Fridays issued a statement that said, “TGI Fridays was just made aware of this issue and is working closely with the franchisee and owner of the cited locations to review and investigate these serious allegations. We have one of the most extensive bar and beverage programs in the industry, which sets a very high standard in the quality and service of our beverages.”

A complete list of the 29 establishments and the alcohol being tested is listed on the State Attorney General’s website.

The investigation was sparked by information from confidential informants, consumer complaints and testing of samples.

In January and February, investigators took samples from 63 licensed establishments, some of which had complaints and others chosen at random, and “covertly” took 150 samples. Detectives ordered “neat” drinks with no ice or mixers

According to the New Jersey Division of Alcoholic Beverage Control, penalties for serving a drink other than the one ordered range from a five-day suspension for the first offense to a 15-day suspension for the third offense.

A mislabeled bottle of alcohol could have multiple violations based on the potential drinks that could have been poured.

Regulations from the Division of Alcoholic Beverage Control could also allow for a 30-day suspension for any illegal activity on the licensed premise. Locations could also face a 30-day suspension for not cooperating in the investigation.

Copyright 2013 ABC News Radio

Mailbox App(ATLANTA) -- Earlier this year an app came out for the iPhone and within weeks it had a line of one million users waiting to get access to it. It wasn't an app that let you spin a globe or another that let you play a range of instruments. It was a basic e-mail app called Mailbox.

Mailbox, which was bought by Dropbox for around 0 million in March, has a different take on dealing with e-mail overload, and now it's being released for the iPad.

"Whether you like it or hate it, you have to use email. You don't get a choice. It's the world's collaboration system," Mailbox CEO Gentry Underwood told ABC News. "We target those people who feel crushed by it. We built an experience that is more delightful. That's where we found our sweet spot."

The iPad app has all the core features of the iPhone app. You can do four things with each message by simply swiping the message to the right or left: delete it, archive it, set a reminder about it or add it to a to-do list.

The iPad app has some small differences, though. The menu on the left side can be kept open and it has also been adjusted to support external Bluetooth keyboards. The apps look a lot like Apple's native e-mail app, making it very easy for most to adjust to it.

When ABC News reviewed the app, reviewers found it tackled email issues in a new way, but noted that it took a lot of time to go through each message. ABC News also knocked it because it was only available for the iPhone and Gmail users.

However, Underwood says that users are sticking with the app at an extremely high rate and that the number one priority now is working to get other email services working with the app and to bring it to Android and more phones. There's also interest in making a desktop or web-based client.

"When we talk about living in a mobile era it doesn't mean we just use phones," he said. "We live in a multi-screen world. From a high level it is a no-brainer that we should have a desktop experience that is consistent and complimentary to the mobile."

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Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg via Getty Images(NEW YORK) -- A judge ruled on Wednesday that customers who hold 0.5 million in gift cards from the defunct Borders chain aren’t eligible for refunds.

About 17.7 million gift cards were outstanding when Borders began liquidating its stores in July 2011 after failing to attract offers for the company.

Judge Andrew Carter for the U.S. District Court in Manhattan upheld a decision from a U.S. Bankruptcy Court judge in August 2012, which said the card holders did not prove they met the requirements for an exception to Borders’ liquidation.

The District Court also decided the bankruptcy plan was too far along and that it would be unfair with respect to the remaining money and other general creditors.

“They are saying, ‘We didn’t give you notice and it’s too late now anyway even for the money that remains.’ We just disagree with that concept,” said Clinton Krislov, attorney for the gift card holders.

Borders, which at one time had 642 stores, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in Feb. 2011. In that year, it announced 6,000 layoffs on February 17 and 10,700 layoffs July 19.

Krislov said he and the three plaintiffs will likely appeal to the Federal Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in New York.

The three plaintiffs sought legal representation at the end of 2011, after they discovered Barnes and Noble would not honor Borders gift cards. Barnes and Noble acquired some of Borders’ assets, including its brand trademarks and their customer list.

“On the first day of the bankruptcy filing, it was recognized that gift card holders existed and they were entitled to a priority in the bankruptcy. What happened then was that no one bothered to give them any reasonable notice that they could file a claim and there was a deadline to file that claim,” Krislov said.

That deadline was June 1, 2011, which was described in a notice published by Borders in the New York Times at least 28 days prior to the deadline, as ordered by the bankruptcy court.

“The notice didn’t even mention gift cards. It really was more a way to cut them off than to give them effective notice,” Krislov said. No proofs of claim were filed by any of the millions of gift card holders, the court decision on Wednesday states.

Borders began its gift card program in 1998.

While the company did not have a database identifying gift card holders, Krislov said the company could have notified the millions of customers in its database of customer email addresses.

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Hulton Archive/Getty Images(ELBOW LAKE, Minn.) -- A home renovator in Minnesota was knocking down walls in the run down house he had just purchased when he found a copy of one of the rarest and most valuable comic books in the world.

The comic, Action Comics #1, is the first appearance of DC Comics' Superman. The comic, along with lots of old newspaper and other magazines, was stuffed in the walls of the house, originally built in 1938 to serve as insulation.

The renovator, David Gonzalez, bought the old house for ,000, and was curious when he saw Superman on the cover of the comic he had just unearthed from the walls. He did some research and took it to the comics auction house ComicConnection to sell.

“[It’s] probably the most unusual copy of this comic we've ever offered,” ComicConnection says in its online offering.

ComicConnection notes that it’s rare to find a “brand new” Action Comics #1, because most of the ones that still exist have been bouncing around auction houses for years.

Copies of Action Comics #1 that were in near-mint condition have sold for over http://abcnewsradioonline.com/business-news/rss.xml million dollars. Gonzalez’s copy showed obvious signs of damage from the 70 years it spent in the walls of the house, so it was worth significantly less, though it was still a valuable find.

The comic would have been worth more had an overeager in-law not gotten her hands on it. When Gonzalez showed it to his wife’s aunt she refused to give it back and the back cover ripped off.

"That was a ,000 tear," said Stephen Fishler, co-owner of ComicConnect. Bidding for the comic is at nearly 3,000 as of Thursday morning.

Still, Gonzalez is happy with his find. He will only be getting half of the money the comic sells for, the rest goes to ComicConnect, but it’s still a great return on the ,000 investment he made when he bought the old house.

According to ComicConnect’s website, Gonzalez plans to repair the home, but swears never to sell what they’re calling “the house that superman built.”

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Tim Boyle/Bloomberg via Getty Images(NEW YORK) -- Target executives over the past few years have really thought outside the bargain box, teaming up with high-end designers like Missoni, Neiman Marcus and Prabal Gurung. Now the popular discount chain’s latest venture may have more people than ever saying “I do.”

Target is now offering affordable wedding wear, exclusively online, in their latest launch that targets nuptial necessities.

“It’s a huge industry,” Jennie Ma, fashion and beauty editor at The Knot.com, told ABC News. “It generates about billion a year. We’ve seen a lot of online retailers enter this space.”

Target is offering four styles of wedding gowns, 10 bridesmaids dresses and two flower girl frocks in sizes 2 to 28 with prices ranging from .99 to 9.99.

The average wedding dress costs around ,200, and for that amount, brides-to-be could purchase six wedding dresses and eight bridesmaids dresses at Target.

Newly engaged Taylor McGrann is on the hunt for her perfect dress, but at a bargain.

“It’s hard because you want it to be special, you want it to be perfect, you want it to be beautiful, but how much can you really spend on a dress that you wear one day, one time?” McGrann asked.

McGrann added that she'd consider buying a wedding dress from Target because “They’re so classic. They’re timeless, they’re simple and it’s really evident that you can make this your own.”

The bridal dresses are only available online and Target has no plans to carry them in stores. But if you order a dress and it doesn’t fit, the dress can be returned per the return policy.

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