Speaking at his first shareholder meeting as CEO, McDonald's (MCD) chief Don Thompson rejected calls to retire Ronald McDonald as the chain's mascot. Activists have long worried that the red-haired clown encourages children to consume unhealthy food.

At the meeting, speakers from the Corporate Accountability Project accused the chain of contributing to the nation's soaring rates of childhood obesity by targeting children, particularly minorities. That notion may have struck a nerve with Thompson, who is African-American.
 
"Ronald is not a bad guy," he said, according to The Wall Street Journal. "He's about fun. He's a clown. I'd urge you all to let your kids have fun, too." 

Mike's Hard Lemonade has grown exponentially over the last few years and has dipped into a demographic beer brewers can only dream of. 

Economists at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York are very optimistic about next year, forecasting that the unemployment rate could fall to about 6.5% by the fourth quarter of 2014.

And how exactly might the unemployment rate get that low? New jobs. Lots of 'em. The bank thinks the country will add a very robust 302,000 a month next year. That's a steep gain from what we've been seeing so far this year, with 165,000 added in April and 138,000 in March.

The overall economy will see a nice rebound, the bank says, with real gross domestic product growth of about 3.25%.

That will be a welcome change after watching 2013 sputter a bit lately. And the rest of this year doesn't look that rosy either. Real GDP growth this year is expected at only 2.5%, below the 3% that the New York Fed predicted a year ago. 

Jerseyans have to put up with a lot: TV shows that portray them as orange, loudmouthed simpletons. New Yorkers just across the Hudson River disdaining them as "bridge and tunnel" people, storms like Hurricane Irene and Superstorm Sandy flooding out their marshes and ravaging their beloved shore.

But restaurant chains like TGI Friday's and Applebee's (DIN) charging them premium prices for plastic-bottle liquor? Not for nothin', but that's a step too far.

New Jersey Division of Alcoholic Beverage Control and the Division of Criminal Justice, in a joint investigation given the Jersey-blunt moniker "Operation Swill," spent a year looking into whether bars were substituting premium liquor brands with more generic spirits for their drinks to hike profits. According to New Jersey's News 12, 29 restaurants and bars -- including 13 TGI Friday's locations -- had their liquor inventory seized as a result.

 

The Cleveland man who became a media sensation after rescuing three women from a decade in captivity will receive free burgers for life, courtesy of more than a dozen Ohio restaurants that have pledged to feed him whenever he wishes, the Cleveland Plain-Dealer reports. 

But missing from the gesture is the ultimate burger purveyor, McDonald's (MCD), which became part of the story when the women's rescuer, Charles Ramsey, mentioned the fast-food giant in his 911 call to police. As he told it, he had been enjoying a Big Mac when he heard calls for help. 

In the initial frenzy surrounding the rescue, Ramsey was hailed as a savior and McDonald's reached out to him via Twitter. "Way to go Charles Ramsey -- we'll be in touch," the company wrote. Since then, the message has been retweeted more than 12,000 times. 

 

Picture this: Saks (SKS) which sells a $3,400 convertible hobo backpack, and Neiman Marcus, where customers can buy a $595 designer iPad case, may be pushed into a shotgun wedding by private-equity firm KKR (KKR).

According to Bloomberg News, KKR, whose retail holdings include Dollar Tree (DLTR) and Toys R Us, is "weighing an investment in Saks," parent of Saks Fifth Avenue, with an eye toward pushing the company to merge with Neiman Marcus, which owns Bergdorf Goodman. It isn't clear how much of a stake KKR may buy in Saks or whether it has even approached the company, which is based in New York.

Nonetheless, shares of Saks closed sharply higher on Wednesday, up 13%, on the Bloomberg report. Neiman Marcus was taken private in 2005 by TPG Capital and Warburg Pincas at a cost of $5.1 billion.  

New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg earned his billions by realizing Wall Street would pay up for high-quality data, as long as he delivered it faster than anyone else. 

The question now is whether he'll take those talents and apply them to a new industry: New York's huge fleet of yellow taxis. 

Bloomberg, known for his outspoken opinions and eagerness to take on entrenched businesses (such as his battle against the soda industry), reportedly threatened to challenge New York taxi magnate Gene Freidman when the mayor's term expires in January, CBS New York reports.

Freidman says Bloomberg told him, "Come Jan. 1, when I am out of office, I am going to destroy your (expletive) industry. I am going to destroy all you (expletive) guys." 

 

Yum Brands (YUM) has a mighty appetite for growth. It plans to more than double annual domestic sales for its Taco Bell chain to $14 billion by 2021, according to Nation's Restaurant News.

The trade publication says it got that target from two analysts who attended the company's recent meeting for investors. Yum executives projected that average sales at Taco Bell locations would increase to $1.8 million by the end of the decade from $1.3 million in the past fiscal year. In addition, the number of Taco Bell stores would surge to 8,000 from 5,700 during the same time.

Doubling the chain's current $7 billion in sales by 2021 could be a tonic for Yum's stock price, which has been lagging over concerns about the company's business problems in China.