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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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Mailbox App

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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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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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 $10,000, 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 $2 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 $75,000 tear," said Stephen Fishler, co-owner of ComicConnect. Bidding for the comic is at nearly $113,000 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 $10,000 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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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 $4 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 $69.99 to $129.99.

The average wedding dress costs around $1,200, 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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Global stock markets are in retreat, hammered by a one-two punch.

The first blow was struck when U.S. markets turned from gains to losses after the release of minutes from the Federal Reserve. The minutes showed that a number of officials were ready to taper off the aggressive policy of quantitative easing, with the monthly purchase of $85 billion in government bonds. The Fed’s recent moves had helped push up stock prices.

The second shoe to drop came from China. The HSBC Purchasing Managers Index fell this month, adding to signs of a fragile economic recovery for the world’s second-largest economy is losing steam.

HSBC economist Hongbin Qu in a statement said, “The cooling manufacturing activities in May reflected slower domestic demand and ongoing external headwinds.”

China’s economic growth slowed unexpectedly in the first quarter and forecasters have cut their growth outlook for the year.

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John O’Dell, senior green car editor for Edmunds.com, has leased a Nissan Leaf with his wife for the last two years. He said he is not sure he would lease an electric car if the federal tax credit of up to $7,500 were not available.

In O’Dell’s home state of California, he also received a state rebate of about $5,000.

“The state rebate made it even sweeter,” O’Dell said.

Plug-in cars comprised less than one percent of total vehicle sales in the U.S. in the first four months of the year, according to Hybridcars.com. But plug-in sales figures are double those of the first four months of last year, with help from discounts and incentives, as first reported by the Wall Street Journal. The drawbacks of an electric car include limited battery life or power per charge and lack of charging stations in some parts of the country.

But the financial incentives are appealing.

People who purchase an electric car in or after 2010 may be eligible for the federal tax credit of up to $7,500, depending on the capacity of the vehicle’s battery. (The federal tax credit amounts per vehicle are described on the website FuelEconomy.Gov.)

Electric car buyers who owe less than $7,500 in taxes won’t get a full $7,500 in tax credits even if their electric car purchase is eligible for that amount. But some dealers who lease these cars are giving drivers a discount of the full $7,500 from the lease price.

Various states have different tax incentives. Among Georgia’s offerings, for instance, is an income tax credit to people who buy or lease a new zero emissions vehicle. The tax credit is 20 percent of the vehicle cost, up to $5,000.

At the time O’Dell leased the Nissan Leaf, it had a MSRP (manufacturer’s suggested retail price) of about $36,000. Today, its MSRP is about $35,200 before federal tax savings.

While O’Dell’s commute is 110 miles round-trip, he can take advantage of a charging station by his office. He also happens to have a solar-powered home, so his electric bill is only about $45 a month. For longer trips, he uses one of his family’s other three cars.

“The car pretty much pays for itself every month,” O’Dell said of the Leaf. He said leasing an electric car worked “wonderfully” for him, but he knows not everyone in the country will have the same situation.
But as the price of electric cars falls and battery technology improves, O’Dell said it makes more sense to lease an electric car than to buy one.

“Batteries have a finite life and no one knows what that is yet,” he said.

These days, he said monthly lease deals for electric cars can be as low as $199 a month, such as for the Fiat 500 EV. Cars like the Fiat 500 EV are only available in California, marketed there to meet the state’s stringent emissions standards.

“A lot of these eclectic cars are not available nationally,” O’Dell said. “They’re expensive to build with a limited market.”

Cars like the Ford Focus and Tesla S are marketed nationally.

Eric Evarts, senior associate autos editor with Consumer Reports, agrees that it is better to lease an electric car than to buy one.

“I would say electric cars are the one thing where we would unequivocally recommend people lease,” Evarts said, “especially with some of these low subsidized rates, depending where you live.”

Evarts’ advice extends to hybrids like the Toyota Prius, though he said the Prius has been around since 2000 and has a longer track record and higher resale value.

Evarts cautions drivers considering a lease to consider what they plan to do after their lease ends, which is typically two years.

“You can extend the lease, but it tends to be that longer leases are less financially good deals,” Evarts said, adding that eventually repairs and updates like tire changes can lead to more expenses for a leased car.

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Appearing before a congressional Joint Economic Committee, Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke declared that the economy is in better shape than it was at this time in 2012.

The Fed has kept interest rates at record low levels since December 2008 and Bernanke warned that raising them now could lead to slowing or ending the economic recovery and causing inflation to fall further.

Deflation might stall the economic recovery by driving down prices so low that businesses are unable to make a profit, forcing them to start laying off workers.

Speaking of unemployment, which stands at around 7.5 percent, Bernanke said it was important to keep seeing improvements in this area, especially since as many as eight million Americans, who have jobs, are only working part-time.

He maintained the Fed has no plans to stop buying $85 billion a month in mortgage-backed securities and Treasury bonds, a process that lowers long-term interest rates, including mortgage rates, which has stimulated a revival in the housing market.

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