Biz Waves

When Newt Gingrich calls President Obama the "food stamp president," that feeds on a Republican red meat issue. But how do food stamp recipients feel about their plight?
I talked to two such people for this week's Business Casual column.

Here's how I started the column:

Food stamps have been in the news lately after Republican presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich called Barack Obama the "food stamp president."

Gingrich was taking a swipe at the president by saying Obama's policies were causing people to depend on food stamps. The insult carried an added dig because of the negative connotation of food stamps as a vehicle for mooching off the public dime.

With that thought in mind, I spent part of Thursday morning with John and Rose Bossi, a San Pedro couple who recently became food stamp recipients.

Read more of Business Casual.

No surprise here considering the rising prices of commodities.

(Reuters) - Prices of Mattel Inc toys like Barbie dolls and Hot Wheels cars have gone up as the company tries to compensate for increasing costs for materials like resin and rising wages in China.

The world's largest toy company, which sees input, labor and transportation costs rising in 2012, said on Tuesday that it had raised prices at a mid-single-digit rate on January 1 with the goal of keeping gross margins at around 50 percent.

Read more on Mattel.

For a restaurant to get rid of a vendor is harder than it sounds.

Read about my adventures in owning a restaurant in this week's Business Casual.

Here's an excerpt of the column:

Dressed in a miniskirt, the sales lady was as friendly as could be. She left her cellphone number and told me to call any time for any reason.

She would help us with a problem even if she happened to leave the company for another job. Now that's what I call dedication.