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Recent Articles from Elizabeth Cooper
Virginia universities provide expansive maritime education
William & Mary launches Virginia’s first public bachelor’s in coastal and marine sciences, expanding maritime education and career options statewide.
100 People to Meet in 2025
In our sixth annual list of 100 Virginians you’ll want to meet in the new year, you’ll encounter interesting people of many ages and occupations — from a doctor in his 80s who built the Chesapeake Care Clinic to a 10-year-old CEO who started his own popcorn business and whose parents are his employees. In […]
Va. Ocean Plan taking shape for 2025
As coastal populations grow and traditional and novel maritime industries increase their use of the Atlantic Ocean, the state government is developing a comprehensive plan to support the coexistence of different uses of the ocean. A group of more than 100 stakeholders — including the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, the Army Corps of Engineers, […]
A steady breeze
Dominion Energy‘s long-anticipated $9.8 billion Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project is steadily taking shape as gigantic monopile foundations are installed in the ocean floor 27 miles off the Virginia Beach coast. This past spring, four years after two test turbines began generating power, Dominion installed the first monopile foundation for the 2.6-gigawatt offshore wind farm’s [&h[...]
Amazing race
Virginia is reaping thousands of jobs and huge tax revenues as Amazon.com revamps its U.S. delivery network. The e-commerce giant is opening major distribution centers and sorting facilities across the commonwealth as part of its nationwide strategy to get goods to consumers faster and stay one step ahead of competitors like Walmart and Target that […]
Catch a wave
Updated July 26: Chuck Rigney resigned as economic development director after six months on the job. After three decades recruiting businesses to Norfolk, Portsmouth and Hampton, Charles E. “Chuck” Rigney is tackling a new challenge: leading Virginia Beach‘s economic development. Rigney was named the Resort City’s permanent economic development director in February. It was one yea[...]
Rising alarm
Over the years, scientists have warned about sea-level rise, especially in Norfolk, which has the highest rate on the East Coast. “Norfolk is very flat. When you see a small increase in water levels, a wide part of land floods in response,” says Molly Mitchell, a researcher at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, which […]
Digital divide
In a relatively short time, Josh Thomas has seen the Prince William County district he represents in the Virginia House of Delegates transform from farmland and residential neighborhoods to massive buildings filled with the digital infrastructure that stores, processes and distributes huge amounts of information across the global internet, from cloud computing for businesses to […]
Seeing the sites
Despite boasting a world-class port, a highly skilled workforce and easily accessible transportation infrastructures, Hampton Roads perennially comes away empty-handed in attracting large-scale industrial developments. Chalk it up to the region’s lack of shovel-ready sites, a situation that state and local economic development and political leaders are fervently working to change. Last year,[...]
Hydrogen catches big air in Newport News
Already home to a nascent 176-turbine wind farm off the coast of Virginia Beach, Hampton Roads is expanding its foray into the clean energy industry with the creation of a green hydrogen production facility at Newport News‘ Tech Center Research Park. Last spring, the Blacksburg-based Virginia Tech Corporate Research Center, which operates the 40-acre park […]
