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George Mason Life Sciences and Engineering Building grand opening, March 2025. Photo by Evan Cantwell/George Mason University Office of University Branding

Take a look inside George Mason’s high-tech science and engineering labs

In a third-floor lab at George Mason University’s new, $107 million Life Sciences and Engineering Building in Manassas, students will dissect and study the effects of decomposition on human remains. A few floors away, their peers may dangle from harnesses while wearing sensors to research gaits while others test fly an autonomous blimp in a […]

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

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Virginia-class submarine. Photo by AdobeStock

General Dynamics subsidiary wins $1B Navy contract

A Connecticut-based subsidiary of Reston-headquartered Fortune 500 contractor General Dynamics was recently awarded a $1 billion contract modification from the U.S. Navy to purchase long lead time materials for Virginia-class Block VI submarines. The subsidiary, General Dynamics Electric Boat, announced the award on Tuesday. The company designs, builds, repairs and modernizes nuclear submarines for the […]

Industries

Closeup of a young man in a furniture factory who puts together one part of the sofa with a stapler. AdobeStock photo

Hooker exits Georgia warehouse as part of consolidation effort

Martinsville-based Hooker Furnishings announced this week that it will end operations at its Savannah, Georgia, warehouse as part of a consolidation effort. “Our decision to exit our Savannah distribution facility was not taken lightly,” Hooker Furnishings CEO Jeremy Hoff said in a statement. “We deeply appreciate the hospitality and support received from the state of […]

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

People work on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange in New York, Wednesday, March 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

Wall Street tumbles, and S&P 500 drops 2% on worries about slower economy, higher inflation

NEW YORK (AP) — Another wipeout is swamping Wall Street Friday on worries about a potentially toxic mix of worsening inflation and a U.S. economy slowing because of households afraid to spend due to the global trade war. The S&P 500 was down 2% in afternoon trading and on track for one of its worst days of the last two years. It’s […]

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

Spire Global taps new CFO

Vienna-based space-focused data and analytics company Spire Global has appointed Alison “Ali” Engel as its new chief financial officer, effective April 1. Engel brings nearly two decades of CFO experience, most recently serving in that capacity for LeaseAccelerator from 2023 to 2024. Before that, she was CFO and treasurer of media company Gannett from 2015 […]

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

Two law firms targeted by Trump sue over executive orders that sought to punish them

Health and Human Services will lay off 10,000 workers and close agencies in a major restructuring

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

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

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

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

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

Federal judge struggles with scope of relief for fired workers

FILE - Liam Sawyer, of Indianapolis, charges his 2023 Ford Mustang Mach-E, March 8, 2024, at an electric vehicle charging station in London, Ohio. (AP Photo/Joshua A. Bickel, File)

Trump administration cancels clean energy grants as it prioritizes fossil fuels

President Donald Trump’s administration is terminating grants for two clean energy projects and roughly 300 others funded by the Department of Energy are in jeopardy as the president prioritizes fossil fuels. The DOE is canceling two awards to a nonprofit climate think tank, RMI in Colorado, according to a document from the agency confirming the […]

FILE - Trevor Milton, left, leaves the Thurgood Marshall United States Courthouse on Monday, Sept. 12, 2022, in New York. (AP Photo/Brittainy Newman, File)

Convicted of bilking investors, Nikola founder and Trump donor gets a presidential pardon

Trevor Milton, the founder of electric vehicle startup Nikola who was sentenced to prison last year for fraud, was pardoned by President Donald Trump, the White House confirmed Friday. The pardon of Milton, who was sentenced to four years in prison for exaggerating the potential of his technology, could wipe out hundreds of millions of […]

Unsold 2025 Countryman utility vehicles sit on display at a Mini dealership Sunday, March 23, 2025, in Highlands Ranch, Colo. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

US consumers remained cautious about spending last month as inflation ticked higher

WASHINGTON (AP) — Inflation picked up last month and consumers barely raised their spending, signs that the economy was already cooling even before most tariffs were imposed. Friday’s report from the Commerce Department showed that consumer prices increased 2.5% in February from a year earlier, matching January’s annual pace. Excluding the volatile food and energy categories, core prices rose […]

FILE - President Donald Trump speaks to reporters as he signs executive orders in the White House, Feb. 4, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)

A federal judge temporarily blocks parts of Trump’s anti-DEI executive orders

CHICAGO (AP) — A federal judge has temporarily blocked the U.S. Department of Labor from implementing parts of President Donald Trump’s executive orders aimed at curbing diversity, equity and inclusion efforts among federal contractors and grant recipients. Judge Matthew Kennelly of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois halted the Labor Department […]

FILE - A sign for the Internal Revenue Service building in Washington, on May 4, 2021. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, File)

IRS crime fighting arm announces modernization program as financial crimes use more tech

WASHINGTON (AP) — As the nature of financial crime changes, with technology and AI increasingly used to perpetrate illegal acts, the IRS’ crime fighting arm —IRS Criminal Investigation— is announcing a new program intended to improve how it interacts with financial institutions. Called Feedback in Response to Strategic Threat —or CI-FIRST— the program unveiled Friday is intended […]

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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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