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Virginia Secretary of Commerce and Trade Caren Merrick said in March 2025 she is leaving Gov. Glenn Youngkin's administration. Photo courtesy Commonwealth of Virginia

Merrick leaving as state commerce secretary

Caren Merrick, Virginia’s commerce and trade secretary, said in a LinkedIn post that she is leaving Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s administration. According to a Washington Post story Thursday, Merrick turned down the job of state secretary of natural resources. The Post reported that Youngkin offered Merrick the natural resources job in order to name her chief […]

Dollar Tree retail store

Dollar Tree plans to sell Family Dollar to private equity firms for $1B

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Henrico County will reacquire the Best Products property from the Green City developers. The county says the parties have mutually agreed to go in a different direction. Rendering courtesy GreenCity Partners LLC

Henrico to rebid arena project at former Best Products campus

Henrico County announced Thursday it is rebidding the development rights for the former Best Products headquarters campus, the site where the failed $2.3 billion GreenCity development had been planned. GreenCity officially met its demise after developers failed to make more than $5 million in overdue payments by a March 13 deadline, and the county said […]

Industries

Energy Department extends contract for operator of Jefferson Lab

The Department of Energy announced Thursday that Secretary of Energy Chris Wright has approved a 12-month extension of the contract for Jefferson Science Associates to continue managing and operating the Jefferson Lab in Newport News. Jefferson Science Associates is a limited liability company created by the Southeastern Universities Research Association. Its contract was initially set […]

Real Estate

VCU receives approval to purchase Altria Richmond research facility

Virginia Commonwealth University received state approval this week to buy Altria Group’s 450,000-square-foot research building in downtown Richmond. The Altria Center for Research and Technology, which opened in 2007, sits on more than four acres at 600 E. Leigh St. and is assessed for $275 million. Discussions between officials with VCU and Henrico County-based Fortune […]

Money

Trump policies are creating feelings of instability, Barkin says

Changes in federal government policy have created a sense of instability, Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond President and CEO Tom Barkin said Thursday when discussing the year’s economic outlook. During a lecture at Washington and Lee University in Lexington, he said that at the end of 2024, businesses were “overwhelmingly optimistic” and conditions looked “rosy.” […]

Government

Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., left, and Sen. Mark R. Warner, D-Va., confer as the Senate Budget Committee works on the markup of the Fiscal Year 2025 Budget Resolution, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Feb. 12, 2025. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Canada is not our enemy, Kaine says

U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine, Virginia’s junior Democratic senator, feels strongly that Canada doesn’t pose a national security threat to the United States — a contrast to President Donald Trump, who has threatened the Great White North with tariffs as retaliation for what he says are insufficient efforts at keeping drugs from coming across its border. […]

People

Emory & Henry names new president

Washington County-based private college Emory & Henry University announced Monday that it was promoting Louise Fincher from interim president to the university’s permanent 23rd president. The university’s board of trustees unanimously selected Fincher as president during its spring board meeting. Fincher has more than 30 years of experience in higher education and health care. “From […]

Healthcare

BTM Business Connect

Unanet Acquires Beltway Software Firm Contraqer to Help GovCons

Unanet today announced it has acquired Contraqer, a leading provider of market intelligence and procurement software for government contractors. With Contraqer, Unanet adds to its robust growth suite of solutions that help GovCons identify, solicit, manage, and win more business. According to Unanet’s most recent GAUGE Report, 45% of GovCons cite lack of business development […]

Movers & Shakers

EVENTS

C-Suite Awards

June 5th, 2025 - 11:30 AM

The C-Suite Awards celebrate top corporate executives who consistently demonstrate remarkable leadership skills, integrity, values, vision, [...]

Forty Under 40

May 12th, 2025 - 4:30 PM

Virginia Business is pleased to launch its inaugural Forty Under 40 Awards program in 2025!

Best Places to Work in Virginia

March 31st, 2025 - 4:30 PM

Best Places to Work in Virginia is a research-driven program from Best Companies Group that examines your company’s practices, programs an[...]

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Around The Nation

Federal judge struggles with scope of relief for fired workers

Copper prices have soared as the US threatens tariffs on the metal and China boosts its economy

Trump places 25% tariffs on auto imports

Canadian Prime Minister Carney says trade war is hurting Americans, noting consumer confidence

US could run short of money to pay its bills by August without debt limit deal, CBO says

Founders of Black-owned brands adapt their hopes and business plans for a post-DEI era

Kroger blames Albertsons for merger’s demise in new court filings

Trump’s crypto empire set to expand with new stablecoin and investment fund offerings

Former exec of Mars candy subsidiary charged with stealing $28M from company

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — Before his arrest Wednesday, Paul Steed was a respected sugar market expert for a subsidiary of famed candymaker Mars Inc. He served on a U.S. trade advisory committee for sweeteners as well as on industry group boards, while giving presentations at conferences. Now Steed, of Stamford, Connecticut, is accused in a […]

New German cars are stored at a logistic center in Duisburg, Germany, Thursday, March 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Martin Meissner)

Global automakers say Trump’s tariffs will be painful for them and US consumers

FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — Whatever domestic economic gain comes from U.S. President Donald Trump’s new 25% tax on imported cars – and experts are skeptical – automakers around the world are bracing for a lot of pain. In Japan, South Korea, Mexico, Canada and across Europe, the world’s largest automakers employ millions of people whose livelihoods depend […]

U.S. economy grew 2.4% in the 4th quarter after upgrade in final growth estimate

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. economy expanded at a healthy annual 2.4% pace the final three months of 2024, supported by a year-end surge in consumer spending, the government said Thursday in a slight upgrade of its previous estimate of fourth-quarter growth. But it’s unclear whether the United States can sustain that growth as President Donald Trump wages […]

US cities located in states won by Trump would be most hurt by Canadian tariffs, an analysis finds

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. cities most vulnerable to a trade war with Canada turn out to largely be in the states that helped return Donald Trump to the White House — a sign of the possible political risk he’s taking with his tariff plans. A new analysis released Thursday by the Canadian Chamber of Commerce detailed […]

Stock market today: Wall Street slips following Trump’s latest tariffs, despite solid economic data

NEW YORK (AP) — Wall Street edged lower Thursday after getting pulled in opposite directions as President Donald Trump’s latest tariff escalation creates winners and losers among auto stocks. The S&P 500 slipped 0.3% after drifting between small gains and losses several times through the day. Better-than-expected data on the economy also helped support the market. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dipped 155 points, […]

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Opinion

Return to uncertainty

What a difference a debate makes

In defense of UVA Health’s leaders

A BridgeTower to the future

Commentary: Va. ecosystem supports growth

Virginia’s fundamentals remain strong after unsuccessful arena competition

To support a more inclusive workforce, Va. lawmakers must unite around this bill

2024 Big Book intro: Invasion of the bots!

Brian K. Revere, president, Breeden Construction

Constructing change

The construction industry has long been perceived as a male-dominated field, but diversity is not just a moral imperative — it’s a strategic advantage. While the National Association of Home Builders reports that women currently make up approximately 10.8% of the U.S. construction workforce — an increase from 9.3% in 2002 — there is still […]

Why let Big Tech destroy our climate?

As the globe struggles to meet current climate goals, a new threat is emerging. The threat is coming from Big Tech companies like Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Alphabet (Google) and Meta (Facebook). Together, these companies represent a sector that dominates the market. At $3.6 trillion, Apple is now seven times the size of ExxonMobil, the nation’s […]

Elon Musk holds a chainsaw handed to him by Argentine President Javier Milei, behind, at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Oxon Hill, Maryland, Feb. 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

Our View: Making Virginia grate again

For the state where the United States was born and the roots of the American Revolution were planted (see editor’s note below), it’s an ironic fact that Virginia is heavily dependent on the largesse of the federal government. The state’s so-called “Golden Crescent” — the prosperous corridor running roughly along interstates 95 and 64 from […]

Best at Work Insights: Employees’ happiness is overrated

Do we worry too much about how happy employees are? I lead Best Companies Group, a research and advisory firm focused on helping organizations create high-engagement and high-performance cultures, and I certainly believe so. If anything, I think caring about employees’ happiness is overrated. Let me explain. Employee engagement levels have been dropping for years. […]

During a Jan. 30, 2025 White House news conference, U.S. President Donald Trump blamed federal diversity and inclusion promotion efforts for the mid-air crash between American Airlines and a military helicopter over the Potomac River. (Photo by Chen Mengtong/China News Service/VCG via AP )

Trump-led DEI crackdown may leave glass ceilings intact

In the “Mad Men” era of the 1960s and 1970s, when my mother was climbing the corporate ladder at C&P Telephone, she was frequently the only woman at out-of-state national technical trainings for managers. And from her recollection, if the men in the classes weren’t hitting on her, many were resentful or threatened by her […]

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