Small Businesses Short-Changed on Contracts for 10 Years

Small-business Q&A: Boosting your credit score

Houston Chronicle

By Jacqueline Taylor

Published 11:19 p.m., Friday, March 30, 2012

Q. What goes into a credit score? My banker told me I could get a lower interest rate on a loan if my credit score was higher, so I’m wondering what I could do to improve.

A. Your credit score is based on how you’ve handled credit in the past, which is why it’s so important to a potential lender. A high score means you’ve managed your finances well and would be a good risk for a loan; a low score means you’ve had problems in the past and might not be able to handle more debt. Even though you might be able to get a loan if you have a relatively low credit score, the trade-off would most likely be a high interest rate, just as your banker indicated.

There are five factors that determine your score, weighted as follows:

• 35 percent – Your payment history. A record of on-time payments is the most important factor in your score. This shows lenders you pay your bills as agreed.

The Washington Post

More good news on unemployment front for President Obama

By Chris Cillizza, Published: March 30

The Bureau of Labor Statistics released detailed information about the unemployment rate in the states earlier today, and the news is quite good for President Obama.

NEW YORK, NY – MARCH 21: People stand in a line that stretched around the block to enter a job fair held at the Jewish Community Center (JCC), on March 21, 2012 in New York City.. (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images)

Of the 15 states expected to be seriously contested by the two parties this fall, nine have an unemployment rate below the 8.3 percent national rate for the month of February. (For a full list of the swing states and their unemployment rates, scroll to the bottom of this post.)And, the Midwest, the region widely regarded as the most electorally critical for both Obama and former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, the average unemployment rate in February was 7.5 percent, the lowest of any of the four regions of the country.

While the unveiling of the national unemployment rate on the first Friday of every month tends to draw the big national headlines, the state-by-state numbers may be of equal import.

Why? Because the presidential election is a national race in name only. In reality, it is a series of state contests. (If you live anywhere outside the 15 or so swing states, you aren’t likely to see television ads, get persuasion phone calls or get snowed under by direct mail appeals. Depending on how you view politics, that could be either a very good or a very bad thing.)

That means that for people living in those 15 swing states, how they feel the economy is doing is likely to be more influenced by the unemployment rate in their particular state than what the national rate might be.

If you live in New Hampshire (5.2 percent unemployment), Iowa (5.3 percent unemployment) or Virginia (5.7 percent), the likely Romney argument that the economy continues to struggle simply won’t resonate all that well.

On the other hand, if you live in places like Nevada (12.3 percent unemployment), North Carolina (9.9 percent) or Florida (9.4 percent), you may well be more open to the idea that Obama hasn’t done enough to make the economy better in his first four years in office.

Looking for the swingiest of the swing states when it comes to the economy and the unemployment rate? Check out Michigan (8.8 percent), Colorado (7.8 percent), Ohio (7.6 percent) and Pennsylvania (7.6 percent) — all of which are within a point of the national average.

The state-by-state unemployment numbers aren’t conclusive and won’t stop Republicans from arguing that the economy would have recovered faster — and more broadly — with a different occupant in the White House.

But remember that the ground on which the election will be fought varies by state. And right now, the state-by-state economic outlook looks better for Obama than the national one.

Swing States Unemployment Rates (as of February 2012)

Arizona: 8.7%

Colorado: 7.8%

Florida: 9.4%

Indiana: 8.4%

Iowa: 5.3%

Michigan: 8.8%

Missouri: 7.4%

Nevada: 12.3%

New Hampshire: 5.2%

New Mexico: 7.2%

North Carolina: 9.9%

Ohio: 7.6%

Pennsylvania: 7.6%

Virginia: 5.7%

Wisconsin: 6.9%

Explaining Newt Gingrich’s never-ending presidential campaign

By Chris Cillizza, Published: March 28

The news broke last night: Newt Gingrich had traded out campaign managers, slimmed his staff by a third and was now focusing on calling delegates to the Republican National Convention rather than campaigning across the country.

Republican presidential candidate, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich speaks in Annapolis, Md., Tuesday, March 27, 2012, after a  visit to Maryland State House. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

The former House Speaker and his (remaining) aides insisted that this was all part of a grand plan to make former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney “earn” the nomination. “Until Mitt Romney has 1,144 [delegates] locked down, solidly, I owe it to the people that have helped me over the past year to represent their views and their values,” explained Gingrich in a radio interview with WTOP in Washington, DC today.

“I’ve learned to never say never again and again about Newt,” said Rick Tyler, a former Gingrich aide who runs the Winning Our Future super PAC that is supportive of the former House Speaker. “He says he will march on to Tampa so we will march on.”

While Tyler’s loyalty is admirable, make no mistake: This is the end of the Gingrich campaign. He is out of money (or close to it) with few prospects to raise more. Polling suggests he will finish behind Texas Rep. Ron Paul in the April 3 Wisconsin primary; he already placed fourth in the Illinois primary last week. He lacks any obvious regional or ideological base in the party. This is what the end looks like.

“Newt’s capacity for self-delusion knows no bounds and so rather than suspending the campaign, he has developed this ‘big-choice convention’ strategy which is nothing more than a refusal to admit there are no dates on the calendar in which he can come in any better than third and there might be some primaries where he loses to Ron Paul — again,” said Rich Galen, a one-time aide to Gingrich. “No matter what he chooses to call it, the rest of us are calling it ‘over’.”

Why is Gingrich refusing to bow to what looks– to everyone not on his payroll — like the inevitable? A few reasons.

1. Gingrich genuinely believes that Romney is not conservative enough to be the Republican nominee and wants to spend the next few months trying to drag the former Massachusetts governor more in line with his own beliefs, which, he naturally thinks, are more representative of what the base wants.

2. Gingrich’s campaign has, from the start (or close to it), been something of a vanity effort. From the time Gingrich parted ways with his senior staff in the summer of 2011 until today, he has done and said whatever he (and his wife Callista) want. The zoo trips, the focus on space, the tour of the cherry blossoms — all of it speaks to a strategy, if you can call it that, revolving around what the candidate feels like doing or saying on any given day.

The people he keeps around him are less advisers in the traditional sense of that word than they friends and companions on his rollicking journey around the country. What Newt wants, Newt gets. And that seems to be true when it comes to his decision to kind of, sort of stay in the race.

3. Newt thinks of himself as not just another politician. (You would have picked up on this fact if you listened to him speak for more than five minutes.) Normal politicians drop out of races when they run out of money and widespread support. Not Newt.

He sees himself as a visionary who, whether or not voters realize it, has the big ideas needed to fix the big problems in the country. To simply walk away before he aired those views to as many people as possible is simply unfathomable to Gingrich.

Regardless of whether Gingrich thinks he is out of the race (he doesn’t), it doesn’t change the political reality (he is). When the delegates gather at the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Florida in August, they will nominate Romney — barring some sort of cataclysmic event.

And there’s nothing Gingrich can do about it.

March 18, 2012
Romney, Santorum and Obama trade campaign digs

By Thomas Beaumont
Associated Press

After two Deep South losses, Mitt Romney is intensifying his campaign efforts in the economically challenged Midwest — a friendly region for him — in hopes of regaining his front-runner’s momentum when Illinois holds its Republican presidential primary Tuesday.

But the race for Illinois and its cache of 54 delegates is tighter than might have been expected, thanks to Rick Santorum’s recent rise in opinion polls. And President Barack Obama, the Democrat they both hope to oust, is making his presence felt, too, in his adopted home state.

Romney is clearly mindful of the threat from Santorum. He and his allies are pouring money into the state, near Michigan where he grew up and his father was governor. Romney won the Michigan primary on Feb. 28.

Logistically, he’s also looking to take advantage of Santorum’s failure to get the signatures needed to ensure he’s on the ballot statewide in Illinois.

And Romney’s on the attack.

“We are not going to be successful in replacing an economic lightweight if we nominate an economic lightweight,” the former Massachusetts governor said Friday during an early morning stop in suburban Rosemont near Chicago. The criticism, focusing on the economy, which is the voters’ No. 1 concern, was a one-two punch against both President Barack Obama and Republican Santorum. “I am an economic heavy weight, and I know how to fix this economy,” Romney declared.

Romney also began airing a television advertisement in Illinois accusing Santorum, a former two-term senator, of having little understanding of the economy. And he began airing a radio ad pointing to Santorum’s crushing defeat for re-election in 2006. Santorum lost his seat in Pennsylvania to Democrat Bob Casey by 18 percentage points.

Appearing at a Hispanic grocery store in Prospect Heights, Ill., Santorum shot back at his rival.

“I believe in a light touch of government where Governor Romney believes in a very heavy touch,” Santorum said. “So he is an economic government heavyweight.”

Obama was fundraising and campaigning in Illinois, too, on Friday and taking his own shots at the Republicans — for negative campaigning.

Noting he was in “the land of Lincoln,” Obama said the Republicans weren’t exactly appealing to — in the Civil War president’s words — “the better angels of our nature.” He told his audience at a fundraiser in Chicago, “I’m thinking maybe some Lincoln will rub off on them while they’re here.”

In a wry reference to the heated Republican race, he said, “We’ve got some guests in Illinois this week. Apparently they have not wrapped up on the other side.”

Santorum faces the same obstacles in Illinois that he has in previous contests — a lack of money and campaign organization. But his message that he’s the true conservative in the race could resonate strongly in the rural areas of the state. He was spending Friday and Saturday campaigning in some of Illinois’ small towns, including Effingham.

Illinois is the highest profile contest of the coming week, and it kicks off a two-week series of five contests before an April lull in the GOP nomination fight that could well stretch into summer. As Obama focuses on the general election, Romney is struggling to clinch the GOP nomination, even though he’s well ahead in the fight for delegates to the August GOP national convention. He needs to win 1,144, and is on pace to secure that number by June.

Despite his delegate lead, Romney has recently won only peripheral contests in U.S. territories and he hasn’t won a primary since winning six of 10 states on Super Tuesday some 10 days ago. So he’s turning to Illinois to right his course in a state that’s being seriously contested only by Santorum and him. The resumption of voting in the upper Midwestern states, with Wisconsin following close behind Illinois on April 3, could be pivotal for the GOP front-runner. Maryland and the District of Columbia also hold primaries on April 3, as the voting enters its fourth month.

Illinois was in the spotlight Friday, with Romney, Santorum and the man they hope to get the chance to challenge all appearing in the state.

In the GOP race here, it’s all but down to two men, with recent polls in Illinois showing Romney leading Santorum by a small margin.

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, badly damaged after losses in Alabama and Mississippi on Tuesday, campaigned in the Chicago area this week. But the former Georgia congressman was in Louisiana on Friday. Longshot Texas Rep. Ron Paul has campaigned little in Illinois, though he headlined a rally at the University of Illinois on Wednesday. Neither contender was advertising in the state.

In contrast, Romney and his allies are dominating Illinois’ expensive TV airwaves. His campaign was airing about $1 million in TV ads this week, and a political action committee that supports him was spending $2.4 million on an ad aimed at undermining Santorum’s appeal as a conservative. The ad notes Santorum’s past support for earmark spending, raising the debt limit and allowing felons to obtain the right to vote.

Looking ahead in the upper Midwest, the pro-Romney group, Restore Our Future, also has begun airing ads criticizing Santorum in Wisconsin.

In Illinois, Santorum and a group that supports him — Winning Our Future — were spending only about one-fifth of the pro-Romney advertising. The pro-Santorum group was on the air in Louisiana, looking to counter an onslaught of negative ads by the pro-Romney group.

Romney’s message is focused squarely on the economy in Illinois, where unemployment was 9.3 percent in February, the eighth-highest in the country.

“Romney will do well in the Chicago suburbs. Santorum will do well deep downstate,” said Dan Curry, a Republican strategist and veteran of several statewide campaigns. “Illinois has its own unique nature that really matches the country.”

While Chicago dominates Illinois politics, the Republican primary electorate is divided evenly between the GOP-heavy suburbs and the rural and southern reaches outside the metro area.

Santorum, who won primaries in Alabama and Mississippi on Tuesday, is banking on his appeal to rural conservatives, including the evangelical base in central and southern Illinois. Santorum, who also won the Tennessee primary on March 6, will include on his statewide tour Saturday a stop in Herrin, Ill., a town 100-miles closer to Memphis than it is to Chicago.

The 54 delegates at stake Tuesday are directly elected by voters, while 15 more will be named at the state party convention in June.

Romney has been the most aggressive cultivating the state, although the last time he set foot in the state was November when he held a fundraiser.

He has lined up Republican establishment figures. Sen. Mark Kirk, state Treasurer Dan Rutherford, Rep. Aaron Schock and state GOP chairman Pat Brady have endorsed Romney. The familiar names, who are on the ballot as Romney delegates, give Romney an edge in an election where voters actually select delegates.

Romney, who has flexed his campaign organization to narrow victories in Michigan and Ohio, has fielded a full slate of delegates in all 18 of Illinois’ congressional districts.

Santorum has struggled to organize and was unable to field delegates in four Illinois districts, where a total of 10 delegates are at stake Tuesday.

Small Biz Jobs Act Is a Bipartisan Bridge Too Far: View

CENTER VALLEY, Pa., Feb. 24, 2012 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ — TechPrecision Corporation /quotes/zigman/486449 TPCS +10.39% (“TechPrecision”, or “the Company”), an industry leading manufacturer of precision, large-scale fabricated and machined metal components and systems with customers in the alternative energy, cleantech, medical, nuclear, defense, aerospace and other commercial industries, today announced that its Wuxi Critical Mechanical Components Co., Ltd. (WCMC), subsidiary has received certification that it operates a Quality Management System that complies with the requirements of ISO 9001:2008 for the fabrication, welding and machining of precision components and equipment, which indicates that it adheres to international standards of operation.

“Just over a year ago, we launched our WCMC subsidiary in China and in this short time have established a first-class global, and now certified, manufacturing operation,” stated James Molinaro, CEO of TechPrecision Corporation. “The Company has always had a reputation in the industry for excellence in large scale, precision manufacturing and fabrication and achieving ISO certification on our first audit demonstrates WCMC’s commitment to excellence and unsurpassed quality. Our China management and employees are to be commended for attaining this important certification in such a timely manner. We continually strive to exceed our customers’ expectation and the ISO certification reflects our ongoing focus on this continuous improvement process.”

ISO 9000 is a family of standards for quality management systems that is maintained by ISO, the International Organization for Standardization, and is administered by accreditation and certification bodies. A company or organization that has been independently audited and certified to be in conformance with ISO 9001 may publicly state that it is “ISO 9001 certified” or “ISO 9001 registered.” Certification to an ISO 9001 standard certifies that formalized business processes are being applied. Although the standards originated in manufacturing, they are now employed across several types of organizations.