Is use of string.IsNullOrEmpty(string) when checking a string considered as bad practice when there is string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(string) in .NET 4.
string.IsNullOrEmpty(str) - if you'd like to check string value has been provided
string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(str) - basically this is already a sort of business logic implementation (i.e. why " " is bad, but something like "~~" is good).
My advice - do not mix business logic with technical checks. So, for example, string.IsNullOrEmpty is the best to use at the beginning of methods to check their input parameters.