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BEST BUY JUMPS ON

THE APPLE BANDWAGON: Best Buy Co. will start selling the iPhone on Sept. 7, becoming the first U.S. chain to do so outside of Apple Inc.'s and AT&T Inc.'s stores. Today's announcement by Best Buy expands the availability of Apple's vaunted phone to 970 full-sized stores and 16 smaller Best Buy Mobile stores. It's also a coup for the Minneapolis-based chain, which has been upgrading its cell-phone departments. Best Buy also resells Apple's Mac computers and iPod media players. Apple spokeswoman Natalie Kerris said the long-standing relationship between the companies was the reason Best Buy would be able to sell the iPhone. Last week, Best Buy announced that it had completed a two-year conversion of its stores to include upgraded cell-phone departments under the Best Buy Mobile brand. It has upgraded its computer systems to handle cell phone activation and spent 250,000 hours training its employees.

Score said Best Buy Mobile resells phone service under the carriers' brands.

TWEEN TO CONVERT ITS LIMITED TOO STORES: Tween Brands Inc. says it's converting nearly 600 Limited Too stores to its lower-priced Justice brand. The move was announced Tuesday afternoon. It'll nearly triple the size of the Justice chain when the conversion is completed in the first quarter. Once the transaction is completed, the New Albany-based teen clothing chain no longer will operate any Limited Too stores in the United States. But some of the brand's clothing will continue to be sold in Justice stores. The company says the deal will save as much as $25 million after taxes.

ED McMAHON STILL FACES MORTGAGE WOES: Mortgage troubles continue to bedevil Ed McMahon, the former sidekick to comic Johnny Carson on the "Tonight Show," who has been battling foreclosure of his Beverly Hills home. A Huntington Beach lender has sued McMahon to recover a $250,000 loan it said McMahon has failed to pay back, along with interest and legal costs. McMahon secured the loan with his house. In July, he was sued by his former lawyers for $275,167 over payment of a legal bill. McMahon already had failed to make payments on $4.8 million in mortgages with a unit of Countrywide Financial Corp., prompting the lender to issue a default notice -- the first step in foreclosure -- in March. In a June interview on CNN's "Larry King Live," McMahon was asked what happened. "If you spend more money than you make, you know what happens," he said. "A couple of divorces thrown in, a few things like that." Westmoore Lending LLC of Huntington Beach filed a lawsuit Monday claiming McMahon and his wife, Pamela, borrowed $250,000 in July 2006 and later defaulted.

BEE NEWS SERVICES

Figuratively Speaking

25 to 30: Percentage of the commercial aircraft assembly backlog at Boeing and Airbus that could be at risk as high fuel prices batter airlines, according to Aviation Week and Space Technology

12: Percentage of their backlogs that are accounted for by U.S. airlines, the hardest-hit segment of the industry

JOHN MacINTYRE,

UNIVERSAL PRESS SYNDICATE