‘Socially responsible’ fund drops Starbucks

A mutual fund company that invests only in businesses it deems socially responsible has dropped Starbucks Corp., citing the coffee giant’s launch of a java liqueur with whiskey maker Jim Beam.

Pax World Funds, a Portsmouth, N.H.-based fund family, steers clear of companies involved in defense or weapons, tobacco, liquor or gambling. It sold 375,000 shares of Starbucks worth an estimated $23.4 million, about 1.6 percent of its Pax World Balanced Fund portfolio, the fund said.

Starbucks said it was disappointed but understood the fund family’s strict policy on not investing in companies that make money from the manufacture of liquor.

Starbucks Coffee Liqueur is sold in restaurants, bars and stores licensed to sell liquor. It is not sold in any of the coffee chain’s stores.

Utility

Judge tosses lawsuit against Aquila Inc.

A federal judge has dismissed a class-action lawsuit filed against Aquila Inc., allowing the utility to avoid potential damages in the millions at a time when it wants to sell some of its operations to pay its massive debt.

The lawsuit charged that shareholders were cheated when the company, then known as UtiliCorp United, reacquired part of its energy trading operation three years ago. U.S. District Judge Fernando Gaitan Jr. granted summary judgment to Aquila on Wednesday.

Kansas City, Mo.-based Aquila faced a number of suits seeking damages of at least $174 million.

Employment

State’s oil industry looking for workers

Higher gas and oil prices are triggering an economic resurgence across much of Kansas, but now drilling companies are facing another problem: a shortage of workers.

Drilling permits in 2004 rose 37 percent over the previous year, an industry spokesman said, and there are no signs that the push for new drilling activity is letting up, especially in light of $50 per barrel oil and natural gas that’s selling for $6 a unit.

“The only things really holding us back is a shortage of rigs and a shortage of skilled workers,” said Ed Cross, executive director of the Kansas Independent Oil and Gas Assn.