Category Archives: Uncategorized

WATSONVILLE — Construction of a new levee will begin on the Pajaro River next summer. This was made official with the signing of a Project Partnership Agreement between local elected officials and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Tuesday. Local, state and federal representatives gathered in the Community Room at the Watsonville Civic Plaza to […]

The push to bring manufacturing back to the United States is unlike anything Didi Caldwell has seen in her career. Private companies have spent more than half a trillion dollars since 2021 to onshore facilities back to the U.S., according to the White House. As long as labor shortages don’t derail that momentum, that record amount of manufacturing […]

A business is part of a complex ecosystem of dependencies. It depends on its suppliers for good quality inputs, delivered on time at a reasonable price. It depends on its customers to purchase its products at a profitable price. These are just some of the more obvious examples among dozens that involve employees, regulatory bodies, […]

Gov. Gavin Newsom put a long-debated water storage project north of Sacramento on the fast track for approval Monday, using his power under new infrastructure laws to accelerate development and reduce regulatory hurdles. The proposed $4.5 billion Sites Reservoir on ranch lands in Glenn and Colusa counties would be California’s first major reservoir in nearly […]

There are a slew of changes that contractors need to be aware of, or risk paying back wages and penalties. The Biden administration’s recent changes to the Davis-Bacon Act are the most dramatic in a generation. They restore the Labor Department’s definition of prevailing wage that was used until 1983, thereby increasing construction workers’ pay on federally […]

Government contractors maintaining or seeking HUBZone certification should make themselves aware of the Small Business Administration’s (SBA) recent efforts to tighten and enforce new and existing rules surrounding the HUBZone program. On September 20, 2023, the SBA issued a press release announcing its plan to strengthen enforcement of HUBZone regulations. The press release, titled “U.S. […]

SACRAMENTO, Calif. – In the strongest show of a continued partnership, the California High-Speed Rail Authority (Authority) announced today receiving nearly $202 million from the U.S. Department of Transportation to expand construction of high-speed rail by completing six grade separations. The grant was made through the federal 2022 Consolidated Rail Infrastructure and Safety Improvements (CRISI) […]

Once again, the specter of a government shutdown looms over the federal contracting community. The federal government is set to run out of funding on September 30 and tensions in the House are making it ever more likely that a shutdown will occur. Below are key steps your business should take to mitigate the possible […]

Ransomware attacks are one of the biggest cybersecurity threats to U.S. businesses, and the construction industry is not immune. In fact, it was the most commonly attacked industry in 2022, according to research by NordLocker. Government agencies and insurance carriers are no longer waiting for improvements and instead mandating them as table stakes to do business.  […]

On July 19, 2023, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee issued an important decision where it declared that the Small Business Administration’s (SBA) rebuttable presumption of social disadvantage, which is used in admitting many small-disadvantaged businesses to the SBA’s 8(a) program, violated the equal protection rights of a government contractor and […]