Spotlight: Aspiring Country Singer Launches Cupcake Business

The cupcake business has been booming for years. Gigi’s Cupcakes is one of the bakeries that ushered in the cupcake craze.

CEO and founder Gigi Butler went from aspiring country music star to house cleaner to bakery owner in a matter of years. And now her business has about 100 locations worldwide. Read more about Butler’s journey and Gigi’s Cupcakes in this week’s Small Business Spotlight.

What the Business Does:

Sells cookies, muffins, cakes, cheesecakes, pies and other baked goods.

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from Blogger http://evangelinagius.blogspot.com/2015/02/spotlight-aspiring-country-singer.html

Toxic Waste Spill in North Carolina: Coal Ash (Part 1)

	Toxic Waste Spill in North Carolina: Coal Ash (Part 1) Coal ash, which contains many of the world’s worst carcinogens, is what’s left over when coal is burnt for electricity. An estimated 113 million tons of coal ash are produced annually in the US, and stored in almost every state — some of it literally in people’s backyards. With very little government oversight and few safeguards in place, toxic chemicals have been known to leak from these storage sites and into nearby communities, contaminating drinking water and making residents sick. On February 2, 2014, up to 39,000 tons of coal ash and 27 million gallons of contaminated water spilled out into the Dan River in North Carolina after a pipe broke underneath a coal ash pond at a Duke Energy power plant. The environmental disaster thrust Duke Energy, the country’s largest electricity company, into the spotlight, revealing a history of violations and inadequate oversight of ponds at all of its plants across the state. In part one, VICE News travels to North Carolina to visit a river that’s been poisoned with arsenic from a nearby Duke Energy site, speak with a resident who has found toxic heavy metals in her drinking water, and question a Duke Energy spokesperson about the power company’s policies. Watch “Showdown in Coal Country” – http://bit.ly/16LRifW Watch “Petcoke: Toxic Waste in the Windy City” – http://bit.ly/1E2YejO Read “Humans Are Destroying the Environment at a Rate Unprecedented in Over 10,000 Years” – http://bit.ly/1vgvC1R Read “The Economic Cost of Carbon Pollution Is Much Greater Than Estimated, Say Stanford University Researchers” – http://bit.ly/1ATb1b0 Read “The EPA Tightened Rules on Coal Waste, But Not Enough, Say Environmentalists” – http://bit.ly/1vXglsH Subscribe to VICE News here: http://bit.ly/Subscribe-to-VICE-News Check out VICE News for more: http://vicenews.com Follow VICE News here: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/vicenews Twitter: https://twitter.com/vicenews Tumblr: http://vicenews.tumblr.com/ Instagram: http://instagram.com/vicenews More videos from the VICE network: https://www.fb.com/vicevideos	From: VICE News Views: 301 29 ratings
	Time: 16:16	More in News & Politics

from Blogger http://evangelinagius.blogspot.com/2015/02/toxic-waste-spill-in-north-carolina.html

Microsoft Offers 100 GB of Free Storage for Using Bing

The cloud storage wars aren’t over yet.

Microsoft is the latest to offer up an almost too-good-to-be-true deal for space on its OneDrive cloud storage service.

The company is now offering 100 GB of free space to anyone. And there’s only one catch. To get the space, you’ll need to sign up for Bing Rewards.

Bing Rewards is a program run through the Microsoft search engine in an attempt to get more users to choose it over Google.

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from Blogger http://evangelinagius.blogspot.com/2015/02/microsoft-offers-100-gb-of-free-storage.html

Small Businesses Get Their Groove Back, Says Experian Index

The Experian/Moody’s Analytics Small Business Credit Index has positive news for small businesses. The Credit Index for the fourth quarter of 2014 was released this morning. And for the third consecutive quarter, the Index has gone up, reaching a post-recession high. The positive news is a reflection of the following:

More plans to invest – More small firms are planning to invest (i.e., buy things, hire, and give raises) in the next three to six months.

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from Blogger http://evangelinagius.blogspot.com/2015/02/small-businesses-get-their-groove-back.html

The Ruins of Donetsk Airport: Russian Roulette (Dispatch 95)

	The Ruins of Donetsk Airport: Russian Roulette (Dispatch 95) The battle between Ukrainian forces and pro-Russia separatists (DNR) for Donetsk Airport has raged for months, bringing significant losses on both sides. In late January, the airport fell to the DNR, ending Ukrainian forces’ hold on the site. The now unrecognizable airport lies in ruins. VICE News travelled to Donetsk Airport, a once modern facility now reduced to rubble after months of fighting, to discuss with DNR fighters the battle for, and the future of, the strategically important site. Watch “Inside Rebel-Held Uglegorsk: Russian Roulette (Dispatch 94)” – http://bit.ly/1JpKg2n Watch “Flying Drones with the Dnipro Battalion: Russian Roulette (Dispatch 93)” – http://bit.ly/1vG8Y39 Read “Escape from Debaltseve: How One Convoy Made It Out of Ukraine’s Besieged City” – http://bit.ly/1DCWcca Read “Ukraine Ceasefire Ignored as Fierce Battle for Debaltseve Continues to Rage” – http://bit.ly/1DVed5M Subscribe to VICE News here: http://bit.ly/Subscribe-to-VICE-News Check out VICE News for more: http://vicenews.com Follow VICE News here: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/vicenews Twitter: https://twitter.com/vicenews Tumblr: http://vicenews.tumblr.com/ Instagram: http://instagram.com/vicenews More videos from the VICE network: https://www.fb.com/vicevideos	From: VICE News Views: 120 5 ratings
	Time: 05:54	More in News & Politics

from Blogger http://evangelinagius.blogspot.com/2015/02/the-ruins-of-donetsk-airport-russian.html

Small Business Lending is Up Again, Depending Upon the Lender

Small business lending set another record in January 2015. But that record is being set mostly by big banks and certain other kinds of lenders.

In January, lending approval rates for small businesses at big banks hit a post-recession high. New data from the Biz2Credit Small Business Lending Index reveals that loans from big banks to small businesses in January were approved 21.3 percent of the time.

That’s up from 21.1 percent in December 2014.

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from Blogger http://evangelinagius.blogspot.com/2015/02/small-business-lending-is-up-again.html

5 Techniques That May Be Killing Your Website (and SEO)

What are the most misunderstood site design and layout techniques that could be killing your website?

from Blogger http://evangelinagius.blogspot.com/2015/02/5-techniques-that-may-be-killing-your.html

FARC Rebels Vow to Discharge Child Soldiers: VICE News Capsule, February 18

	FARC Rebels Vow to Discharge Child Soldiers: VICE News Capsule, February 18 The VICE News Capsule is a news roundup that looks beyond the headlines. Today: Malian government and rebel groups participate in fifth round of peace talks since last September, climate change is threatening villages in the Sundarbans, Colombian FARC rebels vow to stop recruiting minors, and the Associated Press uses computers to produce quarterly earnings reports in seconds. MALI Government and Rebel Groups Meet in Algeria to Discuss Peace Deal UN’s special envoy to Mali says he’s hopeful this is the last stage of negotiations, and that an agreement could come within weeks. ENVIRONMENT Climate Change Threatens Coastal Villages in India and Bangladesh Swollen rivers and stronger monsoon rains are washing away homes in the Sundarbans. COLOMBIA FARC Rebels Promise to Stop Recruiting Children Under 17 The guerrilla group says it will soon release the 13 minors fighting among their ranks. JOURNALISM Automated Financial Reporting in the 21st Century ​Computers are taking the tedious task of number-crunching from the news agency’s business journalists, and producing thousands of reports every quarter. Subscribe to VICE News here: http://bit.ly/Subscribe-to-VICE-News Check out VICE News for more: http://vicenews.com Follow VICE News here: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/vicenews Twitter: https://twitter.com/vicenews Tumblr: http://vicenews.tumblr.com/ Instagram: http://instagram.com/vicenews More videos from the VICE network: https://www.fb.com/vicevideos	From: VICE News Views: 301 50 ratings
	Time: 02:50	More in News & Politics

from Blogger http://evangelinagius.blogspot.com/2015/02/farc-rebels-vow-to-discharge-child.html

Beware of These 20 Top Tax Scams of All Time

During tax season, it’s important for people to be aware of potential tax scams that may target them. Each year, the Internal Revenue Service warns taxpayers about the various scams that they’re likely to encounter. Below, we’ve compiled the top worst tax scams to target U.S. taxpayers in recent years, according to the IRS. Be sure you don’t fall for one of them.

Top Tax Scams

Identity Theft

There are several different types of identity theft, but together they make up one of the most common types tax scams. Typically, scammers will use the IRS name and logo to appear legitimate.

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from Blogger http://evangelinagius.blogspot.com/2015/02/beware-of-these-20-top-tax-scams-of-all.html

Spy vs. Spy: 4 Tips to Use Auction Insights for Smarter PPC

Tracking and analyzing your PPC performance is critical, and you can’t truly know how you’re doing without an account analysis tool.

from Blogger http://evangelinagius.blogspot.com/2015/02/spy-vs-spy-4-tips-to-use-auction.html