A few news items worth mentioning:

• Advocat, Inc. [[AVCA]] received a letter from activist shareholder Paul Kessler of Bristol Investment Fund pressuring it, among other things, to let shareholders vote on whether to de-stagger the board of directors and to hire an advisor to weigh strategic alternatives.  Similar demands from Kessler, who controls about 5% of shares, have been disregarded by the company.  I expect no action here even though Kessler’s demands would probably increase shareholder value.
• China OTC Player has an interesting post on three companies that could benefit from China’s devastating snowstorms [via Seeking Alpha].  He names China Solar (CSOL.OB) (formerly Deli Solar), China Pharma Holdings (CPHI.OB), and Sino Gas (SGAS.OB)
• Air Industries (AIRI.OB) announced that its Welding Metallurgy subsidiary has won $1.07 million of new contracts during the month of January 2008. The company says that this is the largest aggregate amount of new contract awards in a single month for Welding Metallurgy since its inception in 1979.
• Bagel-maker BAB Holdings (BABB.OB) announced $.10 earnings for 2007, virtually identical to 2006 results.  That’s fine with me as long as they keep paying $.08 or more in annual dividends.

DISCLOSURE:  Long AVCA, AIRI.OB, BABB.OB.  No position in other stocks mentioned.