Sources: Ford faces Focus shortage

Sources: Ford faces Focus shortage

DETROIT

Ford can’t make enough Focus cars to keep up with rising demand because of equipment problems that have caused a shortage of dashboards, two people familiar with the situation told The Associated Press.

Machinery that makes the skin that covers dashboards at a Ford parts factory outside Detroit works intermittently. That is forcing the company to take the unusual and costly step of flying in parts from Europe to keep its assembly lines moving, the people said. Despite those efforts, the Focus plant near Detroit can’t run at full speed, they said.

The problem comes at a time when high gas prices and shortages of Japanese small cars have driven up demand for the Focus. Dealers say they’re having trouble getting the newly redesigned compacts, and they’ve been forced to put customers on waiting lists.

Marvel wins suit over copyrights

NEW YORK

A New York judge has ruled that Marvel Worldwide Inc. owns the copyrights to more than a dozen super- heroes, including Spider-Man, X-Men and Iron Man, rejecting the claims of a legendary artist’s estate.

Judge Colleen McMahon ruled for the company Thursday. Marvel had sought to invalidate 45 notices sent by the heirs of artist Jack Kirby to try to terminate Marvel’s copyrights, effective on dates ranging from 2014 through 2019.

The famed artist died in 1994. The comics were published between 1958 and 1963.

Marvel had said the work was done “for hire,” a legal term that would render the heirs’ claims invalid. A lawyer for the Kirby family did not immediately return a telephone call to comment.

Starbucks gains in third quarter

SEATTLE

Starbucks Corp. says stronger sales helped drive its third-quarter net income up 34 percent to beat expectations.

The coffee giant said Thursday after the markets closed that it drew more customers around the globe and those customers spent more, despite the continued difficult economy.

Starbucks, based in Seattle, said it earned $279.1 million, or 36 cents per share, for the quarter that ended July 3. That’s up from $207.9 million, or 27 cents per share, earned in the same quarter last year.

Revenue rose 12 percent to $2.93 billion.

Almost half of scam losses recovered

NEW YORK

Nearly half the money invested by thousands of people in Wall Street swindler Bernard Madoff’s multi- decade fraud has been recovered, a court-appointed trustee announced Thursday as he revealed a settlement that adds more than a billion dollars to the total.

Trustee Irving Picard said the settlement will boost recoveries of money available to jilted investors to more than $8.6 billion, nearly half the approximately $17.3 billion in principal lost by Madoff, who pleaded guilty to federal fraud charges and is serving a 150-year prison sentence in Butner, N.C.

Associated Press