Consumer Stories

Local baker makes Greek desserts layered with love

Making baklava is a time-consuming process that involves buttering 60 layers of filo dough, but Thalia O’Gorman loves baking the Greek dessert. O’Gorman owns Thalia’s Baklava, which recently began leasing space in OPP Kitchen located at 359 Furys Ferry Road in Martinez. She sells seven flavors of the dessert, including traditional, chocolate, blueberry, and espresso. “It’s like apple pie; everybody who makes it has their own version of it,” said O’Gorman, a native of Connecticut. “And we all swear ours is the best.” She grew up in a Greek family

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B2B Stories

Unemployment in CSRA counties slightly above state rates

Citizens of both Georgia and South Carolina are having more success at finding work than in some other states. As of October, the unemployment rate for the United States was 3.7 percent, but both Georgia and South Carolina are doing better; Georgia is at 2.9 percent, and South Carolina is at 3.3 percent. In general, the local economy performs at about the state average. Stacker, an internet news gathering site, recently listed the 50 counties with the highest unemployment rates in each state. The good news for the CSRA is

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Consumer Stories

Local race to fund cancer research looking for business sponsors

While many kids spend much of their free time playing video games, a local 9-year-old is raising funds for cancer research, thanks to help from local businesses. Last year, Asher Fairey, a third grader at Lewiston Elementary School in Evans, organized the Little Hearts for Cures 5K & Fun Run, which raised about $5,000 for Curing Kids Cancer, an Atlanta-based non-profit organization, according to his mom and local real estate agent, Ehrin. This year’s race will be held on Saturday, Dec. 10, 9-noon at Savannah Rapids Pavilion. The 5K will

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B2B Stories

Simon Says: Investing in ‘human capital’ is important

Universities and K-12 schools are in the business of human capital development. Human capital is education, training, and other forms of learning. Human capital is seen as an investment, just like physical capital, where the costs are paid upfront and the returns are received later. A recent paper by David Deming in the Journal of Economic Perspectives reviews our knowledge of human capital. An extra year of schooling increases earnings by about 10 percent. Given that the share of the world’s population that has at least some secondary school education

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B2B Stories

Gratitude through societal impact and community engagement

We, at Augusta University’s Hull College of Business, are extremely proud to hold the most prestigious accreditation for higher education schools of business (held by only 5 percent of all such schools worldwide!). We are accredited by the Association to Advance College Schools of Business, known familiarly as AACSB International. Every five years, AACSB-accredited schools, such as AU/Hull, go through a Continuous Improvement Review (CIR), based on AACSB’s Accreditation Standards, which were most recently updated in 2020. Since we just went through our latest CIR in October, these standards are

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B2B Stories

Downtown marina hosts weekly holiday market

If you’re looking for unique handmade items to give family and friends as Christmas gifts, you can probably find exactly what you’re looking for in downtown Augusta. The sixth annual 5th Street Marina Holiday Market is being held every Sunday from noon to 4 p.m. until Dec. 18. It opened Oct. 30. The market’s vendors sell a variety of items, including soaps, candles, clothing, and crafts, as well as health and beauty products, according to marina’s owner, Beth Christian. There’s also a food truck that sells a variety of menu

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Consumer Stories

Local charity supports U.S. troops stationed overseas

Burt Sappenfield has never served in the military, but every year, he helps to warm the hands and hearts of U.S. servicemembers all over the world. In 2009, Sappenfield, owner of Majestic Floor Care, established the Operation Handwarmer initiative, which has collected more than 150,000 items, including not only hand warmers but also toothpaste, nuts, protein bars, candy, and gloves, to ship to U.S. Army troops stationed overseas. “We work with chaplains, and they take them to the troops,” he said. Unlike other charities, Operation Handwarmer doesn’t accept monetary donations

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Digital Marketing

Free Access: A starter course in AI chatbots

We are continuing with our trends in digital marketing 2023 version. This week: Artificial Intelligence Chatbots. What is an AI Chatbot? One definition might be: An AI chatbot is like a digital puppet that you can talk to and it will respond in a way that simulates human conversation. A more formal definition is more like this: An AI chatbot is a software program that can carry out human-like conversations by responding to text chats. This type of AI bot will help a company reduce customer tickets or trouble reports

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Consumer Stories

Meybohm celebrates grand opening of new development division location

A major division of a local real estate company now has a new home. Meybohm Real Estate’s development division, known as CSRA Development, has relocated to a new building at 247 Camilla Ave. in Martinez. The company celebrated its grand opening, Thursday, with a ribbon-cutting ceremony hosted by the Columbia County Chamber of Commerce. For the last 30 years, CSRA Development has been responsible for overseeing the planning and development of neighborhoods throughout the CSRA, including Riverwood in Evans, Canterbury Farms in Grovetown, and Cornerstone Creek in Harlem. The division

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