Turns out Diageo isn't just stirring things up in Mecklenburg County, the London-based liquor company is stirring the pot in Washington D.C. and Puerto Rico, too.

A transfer of billions of dollars in federal aid from public projects in Puerto Rico to one of the world's largest liquor conglomerates over the next 30 years continues to move forward without any objection from Congress.

As a result, money that's now being used to build schools and restore tropical forests in a U.S. territory is being turned into what is essentially a $3 billion tax break for London-based Diageo, whose $20 billion in sales last year were powered by Dom Pérignon, Captain Morgan and other popular brands.

Diageo's windfall at Puerto Rico's expense wouldn't be possible were it not for pricey lobbyists, the complexity of the nation's tax laws and Congress's ability to approve politically embarrassing deals with a sleight of hand that leaves little trace.

On K Street, Diageo has an in-house team of lobbyists that was paid $2.25 million last year. Diageo also has the help of DLA Piper, one of the world's largest legal and lobbying firms, which has an office seven blocks from the U.S. Capitol. Last year, Diageo paid DLA Piper $770,000 to lobby on this and other issues.

Read the rest of this ProPublica article, by Marcus Stern, here.

What liquor products does Diageo sell? Too many to list here. Here's the brand list from their Web site.

Here's one of the company's recent commercials:

The Charlotte Business Journal has no fewer than three articles about hirings and firings today, expansions and retractions. Here they are:

Sun Chemical to lay off 75 in Charlotte

Kewaunee Scientific expands, adds 120 jobs

MedCath posts quarterly loss

Solaris to invest $3.2M in Kings Mountain

And, then — of course — there's more news about the fat cats at Bank of America getting fatter: BofA execs get boost in base salary. This seems like a good time to refresh my argument from yesterday: BofA is out of touch with reality.

Hopefully this news helps you job seekers decide which companies to send your resumes to — and which ones to avoid. And, sorry to tell you, the top jobs at BofA are already taken.

Joe Felice offers his unemployment forecast:

Yeah!! Traders and bankers at Charlotte-based Bank of America are getting $4 billion in bonuses. Woo hoo!

Wait.A.Minute. What?! Are they paying any attention to what's going on in the world? Hell no. Of course they aren't. They barely even seen the real world from their perches in their giant towers.

AND, get this: Not only are they bolstering the bank accounts of their top execs, they're back to the same 'ol games that nearly destroyed our country's economy.

Obama’s banking czar just delivered his reform proposal, and the big banks finally have something to snicker about—because he’s leaving untouched the risky trades that played a leading role in the financial crisis.

At first, at least, it sounded so promising: After months of being ignored by President Obama and his senior staff about how to prevent another financial meltdown, economic adviser Paul Volcker got his due. The former Fed chairman’s plan to prevent banks from having their risky trading activities subsidized by the taxpayer was being taken seriously, finally, by the man who matters most to Washington, the president, who has endorsed what is being called the Volcker Rule as the centerpiece of his bank regulatory agenda.

But looking deeper, one soon discovers that “The Volcker Plan” isn’t much of a reform plan at all. (Congressional staffers cannot even get details of the proposal and have been directed by the White House to press releases.) Instead, what we are left with is a series of statements made by a well-intentioned but ultimately misguided Volcker about how he wants new legislation that would prohibit banks that are considered “too big to fail”—i.e., Citigroup, Bank of America, Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, and JPMorgan Chase—from engaging in so-called proprietary trading activities. This means they would no longer be able to use firm capital to make wild bets in esoteric markets, the kind of stuff that allegedly caused the financial collapse of 2008.

Read more from The Daily Beast's Charlie Gasparino here.

Click here for more on Bank of America's outlandish bonuses from The Charlotte Business Journal.

In other out-of-touch news from Qcitymetro.com: Judge decides hiring at BofA is biased

Former New York Governor Elliot Spitzer was on The Colbert Report last night discussing the banking industry ... and he was right on.

There are a few things that don't rest well with me about the news that the state plans to force Duke Energy to conduct further groundwater testing around their coal ash ponds. Here they are, in no particular order:

The state has known about contaminated groundwater at these sites for quite some time. The moment they discovered the water was contaminated they should have demanded further testing, but they didn't.

You should know, Duke Energy took eight whole years to install the first groundwater testing wells at their Riverbend plant (map), the one that's sitting on the edge of Charlotte's main drinking water source -- Mountain Island Lake.

Here's the skinny on that: The E.P.A. was trying to decide whether or not to re-classify coal ash as hazardous waste -- what with its mix of toxic ingredients that reads like the dark side of the periodic table and all. The E.P.A. has, by the way, been trying to re-classify coal ash as a hazardous waste for the better part of 30 years. But, in an agreement with industry lobbyists, back in 2000, the E.P.A. agreed not to re-classify the slurry if the industry installed groundwater testing wells.

Riverbend's wells weren't installed until December 2008, eight years later and the same month nearly a billion gallons of slurry smothered several hundred acres in Tennessee. What took so long? Duke will tell you that they were working on it, that it takes a while to install wells, that it was a voluntary effort anyway. (The new regulation is tied to their federal discharge permit — aka license to pollute — that's being renewed this month.) I'll tell you my step-dad drills wells for his neighbors in rural Alablama; it sure as shit doesn't take eight years to drill a well — more like a couple days.

So, pardon me if I'm a little skeptical about this week's smooth-the-feathers-of-the-masses news from the North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural Resources' Division of Water Quality.

If both Duke Energy and the State of North Carolina were the concerned, good neighbors they'd like us to think they are, it wouldn't take additional regulations to clean up those ponds — they'd do it because it's the right thing to do.

Also, the photograph — of a dump truck dumping a black substance — that's currently accompanying  the Observer's article is misleading. Coal ash slurry is created when fly ash is watered down. It's then pumped through long pipes into the ponds. Now, if you zoom in super close on a map of the coal ash ponds you will see dump trucks hauling coal ash around. The company has to close the first pond, built in the mid-1950s, every few years because it is so full of coal ash they have to dig some out to make room for more. If you'll follow the truck's tracks, you can see that the excavated coal ash is dumped near the ponds, and only a few hundred yards from the Stonewater neighborhood. Just thought you'd like to know — coal ash slurry, like that in Riverbend's ponds that's contaminating the groundwater, is a thick, wet sludge not a big pile of dirt.

You can read the Charlotte Observer article, by Bruce Henderson, about the new regulations here.

If you haven't already, check out the article I wrote for this month's Charlotte Magazine about the Riverbend ponds and our Catawba Riverkeeper's quest to protect our river. Look for an update on this story later today.

Here's what happened when the Tennessee Valley Authority's coal ash pond breached its dam:

The words "task force" always sound a little daunting to me — a little too military, a little too rigid. But, that's how it goes when the government gets involved. Charlotte's new small business task force will require participants to adhere to a certain protocol if they want to play. However, it seems as though abundant rewards await those willing to jump through the city's hoops.

The first step, though, involves appointed city officials. Mayor Anthony Foxx has requested a review of the Small Business Opportunities Program. The goal? Streamline the process for adding small businesses to the city's vendor list to ensure those same businesses get a fair shake when up against the big boys for a city contract.

Here's a snippet from a Mecklenburg Times article on the issue, by Sam Boykin:

The program, which began in 2003, is designed to enhance competition in city contracting and promote economic growth and development.

It does this through a certification process, said SBOP Manager Nancy Rosado. The city certifies certain companies as Small Business Enterprises (SBE) based upon owners’ personal net worth and other criteria.

For example, in order to qualify, 51 percent of a company’s ownership can’t have a personal net worth in excess of $750,000. Companies must also be located in the eight-county Charlotte region, have all relevant licenses, and perform a commercial function that is useful to the city.

Eligible companies have their information added to a citywide vendor list, are notified of contracting opportunities, and receive guidance on how to do business with the city. There are currently 794 city-certified SBEs.

While the city will work with all companies, Rosado said that with many of the city’s procurement contracts, goals are established for the utilization of SBEs.

“When a project is locally funded, we require contractors to meet small business utilization goals or show they made a good faith effort to reach those goals,” she said.

Wesley Carter, a task force member and publisher of business magazine Working Charlotte, said she hopes the task force will be able to effect much-needed change.

“Small businesses and entrepreneurs have toiled in relative obscurity for far too long while providing much of the infrastructure that supports Charlotte,” she said. “I’d like for us to recognize small businesses as a powerful constituency and remove barriers to them being able to participate, especially in terms of contracts with the city.”

Click here to read the entire article.

In other news: The county is hosting an information session for non-profits looking for funding. Read about it here.

The big wigs in Washington are also finding ways to boost small business (fast forward to 1:00 to get past all of the introductions):

There's a new bank in town, thumbing its nose at their old-school competition while climbing the success ladder. And, I bet you already know who they are. Well, I bet you are familiar with their commercials at least. ("Would you like a pony?")

Uptown Charlotte’s newest bank is raising its profile with the same bravado that made the Queen City a financial hub.

Online bank Ally is turning heads — and drawing fire — with a new checking account that competes with national lenders, a growing center city presence and a memorable ad campaign.

The bank, a subsidiary of GMAC Financial Services, isn’t wheeling and dealing its way to the top like Bank of America Corp. under Hugh McColl Jr.. But Charlotte’s bold banking influence is evident as Ally bills itself as a consumer-friendly alternative to traditional banking.

Ally recently unveiled its first checking product with an interest-earning account that offers customers no fees, no minimum balances, free online bill-pay and free use of any ATM nationwide. The new account also puts a fresh spin on overdraft fees, with a $9 daily charge for insufficient funds instead of a per-transaction charge as high as $35 at competitors.

“We’ve really done our research and listened to customers to develop a product that puts the customer first,” says Ally Chief Marketing Officer Sanjay Gupta, a former marketing executive at Charlotte-based BofA. “Our interest checking account is another significant step as we evolve a new business model that we hope encourages customers to expect more from their bank,” he says. “We’re developing our products with the philosophy that we are a financial partner with our customers, and we’re making money with them — not off them.”

Read more about what the bank's up to from The Charlotte Business Journal in an article by Adam O'Daniel.

The City Council will decide whether or not to re-zone a west Charlotte property on Feb. 15. At issue: A 1960s VW Beetle on top of an empty restaurant. Apparently it's a cultural icon, which means it will likely get razed. (I apologize for the pessimism, but isn't that what we do with Charlotte's historic sites?)

Community leaders and the property's owners hope the restaurant will open soon ... as soon as they are able cut through all the red tape, anyway.

If you'd like to voice your opinion on the matter, you'll get your chance at the City Council meeting. Note: You need to sign up to speak.

A call to action from a west Charlotte neighborhood has brought city support for saving the 1966 Volkswagen Beetle that sits on the roof at the proposed Pinky's restaurant site.

The Freedom Drive Development Association and the city's Neighborhood and Business Services Department found a solution by working together.

On advice from the city, the association has filed a petition asking the city to rezone the former Triple G Automotive property owned by John Nichols of the Nichols Company, said Tom Warshauer, economic development manager for Neighborhood and Business Services.

With a zoning change from B1 (Ped) to B1 (Ped-0), Nichols could keep the Beetle on the roof of the vacant building at West Morehead Street and Freedom Drive.

The public can comment on the rezoning request at the Feb. 15 City Council meeting.

Read the rest of this Charlotte Observer article, by Karen Sullivan, here.

While you wait for the meeting date, you can become a fan of Pinky's Westside Grill on Facebook so you can keep up with the latest on this issue.

Hell no. The iPad will offer new ways to consume media, sure. But only the media can save the media, and so long as the old guard white-knuckles antiquated business models and people keep saying things like "I don't like to read" the media's future will continue to look grim.

Now, the hard part.

Before it existed, Apple’s iPad was infused with the wishful expectations of a thousand hopeful constituencies, none with more at stake than a host of media businesses still grappling to find a killer app in the digital domain. Now that we know what the iPad does, though, it’s still an open question how the much-heralded device will actually improve their fortunes.

The good news is that book publishers, magazine publishers, newspapers, the recorded-music industry, television studios, game developers and film studios — all of whom need some form of lifeline, some desperately — each have a place at the iPad table.

But in the advertiser-supported niches, print analogs still command higher advertising revenues than their digital equivalents. So, the question will turn on two issues: Will publishers get to control the customer relationship to a greater extent than has been possible with iTunes? And will publications be the kind of shiny eye candy that advertisers crave, but now delivered on a bright, crisp, LED-backlit touchscreen instead of heavy-stock glossy paper.

The answers are mixed, simply because this versatile device offers the same myriad distractions as the average computer does, or maybe even more. In order for anything to succeed on a platform like that, it will need to be perfectly designed and contain top-notch content with interactive features and automatic updates wherever they make sense (in magazines, perhaps, but perhaps not in books).

Read the rest of this Wired article, by Eliot Van Buskirk, here.

Now, let's talk about the new product's goofy name. Who but "MadTV" could cover this topic?

Listen up business owners: In times like ours, when everyone is pinching pennies until Abraham Lincoln uses his safe word, customer service counts — big time.

You can't go around tickin' people off so bad that they call the Better Business Bureau on your sorry ass if you expect your company to thrive in the Great Recession and beyond. Step up. Offer a little more. Be friendly. Do what you say you'll do.

And, while you're at it, treat your employees well. They are your company's face after all. If they're not happy, they're not going to go out of their way to make your clients and customers happy.

Here's one more tip: Don't be like the 12 businesses The Charlotte Business Journal called out for not responding to customer complaints:

The Better Business Bureau of the Southern Piedmont Inc. has identified the 12 Charlotte-area businesses with the most unanswered consumer complaints in 2009.

Last year, consumers filed 16,251 complaints with the bureau against businesses in the Charlotte region. That was up from 14,972 complaints in 2008.

The businesses of the bureau’s annual “Dirty Dozen” list are:

You'll have to click here to find out. Here's a hint: two gyms, two Internet businesses, four service providers, two door-to-door sales companies and two auto parts suppliers.

A few of you know this by now: Ever since the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency deemed the two unlined coal ash ponds behind Duke Energy's Riverbend Steam Station as having "high-hazard potential," I've been nose-deep in all things coal ash related.

Those ponds, by the way, are fewer than a dozen miles from the center of Uptown. And any day now the E.P.A.'s administrator, Lisa Jackson, is supposed to announce new coal ash regulations that will affect us all — that is, of course, if she can get past lobbyists' protests.

One of the first things I noticed once I dug into the piles and piles of research I collected was that the discharge from the ponds enters Mountain Island Lake just upstream from where Charlotte-Mecklenburg Utilities withdrawals 80 percent of our area's drinking water. One of the other initial things I noticed was that David Merryman's name kept popping up. He is our Catawba Riverkeeper.

I can't say that David and I have become friends, but I can tell you that I have gotten to know this man from an arm's reach and that he is genuine and a sincere advocate for our river who once said — and I love this, "I don't tag myself as an environmentalist, I tag myself as a water drinker."

With that, I hope you'll pick up a copy of the February issue of Charlotte Magazine, where I profile David and do my best to explain his battle to protect every being and business that relies on the river to survive. You can also read it online. Here's an exerpt:

Merryman is the Catawba Riverkeeper. His job is to be the voice of the river named after the area's original inhabitants, a river that begins twenty miles east of Asheville and winds its way through two states while collecting water from a 5,000-square-mile watershed. In North Carolina alone, the river has 182 discharge permits, or licenses to pollute, all of which are up for renewal in 2010. One of those permits gives Duke Energy permission to drain water from two unlined, high-hazard coal ash ponds into Mountain Island Lake, the source of 80 percent of Charlotte-Mecklenburg's drinking water.

"All day, every day these coal ash ponds are discharging directly into our primary drinking water reservoir," says Merryman. "I've not received any assurance that our river, its wildlife, or our drinking water is being protected by these permits."

As the river's advocate, he will analyze every word of every permit, investigate every tip, scrutinize every new regulation, and watchdog every polluter in his ongoing pursuit to protect the Catawba, and all of us, from harm. And he does all that while balancing water-quality concerns with demands from businesses that rely on the Catawba to function, create jobs, and be successful.

"The safety and prosperity of millions throughout the Carolinas depend on the Catawba," says Merryman. "We have no option but to make sure it is fully protected." With all of its discharge permits under review in 2010, this is the perfect year for him to prove his point.