Health

New York children file suit against McDonald’s

Are Big Macs hazardous to children’s health?

Lawyers have filed a class-action lawsuit against McDonald’s on behalf of New York children who have suffered health problems, including diabetes, high blood pressure, and obesity.

Wednesday in federal court in Manhattan, a lawyer alleged that the fast-food chain has created a national epidemic of obese children. Samuel Hirsch argued that the high fat, sugar and cholesterol content of McDonald’s food is “a very insipid, toxic kind of thing” when ingested regularly by young children.

McDonald’s lawyer Brad Lerman insisted the lawsuit was a frivolous attempt to cash in on the Golden Arches, “the kind of lawsuit that shouldn’t be in court.”

Wall Street

GE lowers profit estimate

General Electric Co. lowered its earnings forecast for the year by 8.5 percent Thursday, saying it will boost reserves and take a charge in a struggling reinsurance unit.

But GE also announced a dividend increase and said profits for next year would grow between 3 percent and 13 percent despite weaknesses in industries such as airlines and power systems that are important businesses for GE.

Shares of GE rose 8.3 percent, or $2.05 a share, to close Thursday at $26.85 on the New York Stock Exchange.

Also on Wall Street, Tulsa, Okla-based ONEOK Inc. announced it has increased its quarterly dividend to 17 cents per share, up from 15.5 cents per share.

Aviation

United starts campaign to win loan approval

Cash-strapped United Airlines, running out of time to avoid taking its restructuring into bankruptcy court, stepped up its campaign Thursday for government help.

A day after a critical agreement with machinists in efforts to cut companywide labor costs by $1.1 billion annually, United and its unions issued a new appeal to the federal panel considering its application for a $1.8 billion loan guarantee.

The airline delivered more than 42,000 letters from United employees, suppliers and allies to the Air Transportation Stabilization Board’s offices in Washington, urging that the cash guarantee be granted.

It’s not known whether the three-man board can be swayed by lobbying. But the stakes are enormous for United, which is losing more than $7 million a day and is thought to be on a pace to run out of cash early next year.

Lawsuit

RadioShack sues Pitt

RadioShack Corp. is suing former Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Harvey Pitt and his former law firm, alleging that while doing legal work for RadioShack they ignored a conflict of interest in the leveraged buyout of a former subsidiary.

RadioShack wants Pitt and the New York law firm of Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver and Jacobson to pay punitive damages and return fees they earned in 1994 for advising the company on the spinoff of the subsidiary.

Lawyers for RadioShack, Pitt and Fried Frank declined to comment on the lawsuit.