Having an activist on your side is not a bad way to go, so we'll take a look at a few companies that boast this advantage.

We’ve all heard urban legends of successful people who became inspired and traded their careers for a life dedicated to helping others. There’s the faceless dot-com whiz who banked in the boom and now directs a savvy nonprofit. Or more recently maybe you’ve heard of a mortgage broker or contractor who exited the housing market when things got unethical and now that person works with Habitat for Humanity. Then there’s the President of Jim Cramer’s hedge fund who lost his grandfather around 9/11 and redirected his efforts toward financial education: Todd Harrison. Todd’s reputation preceded him as one of ...

These promising plays would be a great addition to any investor's portfolio.

Among the companies whose shares are expected to see active trade in Wednesdayâ??s session are Abbott Laboratories, AMR Corp., Cintas Corp., Crown Holdings Inc., Gannett Co., Texas Industries Inc., W.W. Grainger Inc., Wolverine World Wide Inc., Worthington Industries Inc. and Xilinx Inc.

Roughly 2 weeks after Hicks announced an interest in selling off a majority stake in the team the organization announced that several staff members in the front office were being let go. According to Rangers Spokesperson John Blake the layoffs amounted to less than 10% of the staff -- which totals 275 people."Like any business we're trying to focus our energies on finding cost-effective solutions and finding efficiencies for the team without sacrificing our on-field product or our customer service " Blake told the Dallas Morning News.While Hicks is responsible for some extremely poor financial planning he's very lucky ...