Blackhawk Bancorp (OTCBB: BHWB) employs 150 people at seven banking locations in south central Wisconsin and north central Illinois.  The company was founded in 1881 and is the second largest bank in Beloit, Wisconsin and second in all of Boone County, Illinois.  A new banking location is set to open in July 2008 in Rockford, Illinois. 

Charter Financial Corporation (OTCBB: CHFN) is the parent company of CharterBank, a full-service community bank and a federal savings institution operating eight full-service branches and two loan production offices along the I-85 corridor from LaGrange, Georgia, to Auburn, Alabama. In October 2001, Charter Financial Corporation and subsidiary CharterBank were created from a mutual savings and loan association and reorganized under a mutual holding company structure, with a related initial public offering of the Company’s common stock. On a consolidated basis, Charter Financial Corporation owns 3.4 million shares of Freddie Mac (NYSE: FRE) stock.


CTS Corporation (NYSE: CTS) manufactures a broad line of electronic components and sensors, and is a provider of electronics manufacturing solutions, primarily serving the electronic needs of original equipment manufacturers.  CTS product lines serve major markets around the world, including the automotive, computer, communications, medical, defense & aerospace, and industrial markets, with a wide range of products, services, technologies and capabilities.  In 2007, the company reported $685.9 million in sales and $25.4 million, or $0.66 per dilluted share.

First California Financial Corp., Inc. (Nasdaq: FCAL) serves commercial and retail customers throughout Los Angeles, Orange and Ventura counties, with more than $1 billion in assets. The bank offers a full line of quality retail-banking products through 12 full-service branch offices and two loan production offices. First California was created through the merger and consolidation in 2007 of three financial institutions.


Mercantile Bancorp, Inc. (AMEX: MBR) is a multi-state bank holding company headquartered in Quincy, Illinois. Through its majority-owned subsidiaries, consisting of three banks in Illinois, two banks in Missouri and one bank in each of Kansas and Florida. Mercantile offers a full range of commercial and consumer banking products and services, and has a thriving business in trust services, asset management, and financial services such as brokerage capabilities. To provide opportunities for equity gains and also lending opportunities for the banks in its consolidated group, Mercantile has minority investments in eleven community banks in Missouri, Georgia, Florida, Colorado, California, North Carolina and Tennessee.


Nanophase Technologies Corporation (Nasdaq: NANX) is a leader in nanomaterials technologies and provides nanoengineered solutions for multiple industrial product applications. Its customer base includes a number of world leaders in their respective industries. Using a platform of patented and proprietary integrated nanomaterial technologies, Nanophase creates products with unique performance attributes from two ISO 9001:2000 and ISO 14001 facilities. Nanophase delivers commercial quantity and quality nanoparticles, coated nanoparticles, and nanoparticle dispersions in a variety of media. The company owns or licenses 19 United States and 47 foreign patents and patent applications.materials.


Questar Assessment, Inc. (OTCBB: QUSA), offers a comprehensive suite of educational assessment solutions to states, schools, school districts and to third parties. A 2006 acquisition enables the company, formerly touchstone Applied Science Associates, to target a significantly larger portion of the $2 billion educational assessment market. The company has announced new contracts. Revenues and EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) has risen dramatically.  The company's products range from test design, development, calibration, and psychometric services through print production, distribution, scanning, scoring, reporting, and data analysis services, as well as readability analysis of written materials.

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