Recent Articles from Ralph Berrier Jr.
Bon Secours plans $370M expansion of Henrico hospital
Bon Secours Mercy Health plans to break ground this summer on a $370 million renovation and expansion of Bon Secours St. Mary’s Hospital in western Henrico County, the hospital’s president said Friday. “Since the hospital opened in 1966, this is the most transformative project that we’ve taken on,” Bryan Lee said in an interview with […]
Status of federal agency’s lawsuit against Capital One unclear
A lot has happened since Jan. 20, as the Trump White House employs “shock and awe” tactics at lightning speed. Among the consequences is the shutdown of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, a government watchdog over private industry. Specifically, the CFPB’s pause in work leaves in question a major federal lawsuit against McLean-headquartered Capital One […]
Tysons’ Alarm.com buys stake in remote video monitoring company
Alarm.com has acquired a majority stake in CHeKT, a Louisiana-based cloud platform for remote video monitoring services, according to a Tuesday announcement by the Tysons home security tech company. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. According to Alarm.com, the acquisition strengthens its “market opportunity in the emerging professional video monitoring space.” Moving forward, [&h[...]
Kaine, Warner want answers from FAA about possible Musk intervention
In the wake of the fatal Washington, D.C., collision between a U.S. Army helicopter and an airplane, U.S. Sens. Mark Warner and Tim Kaine, along with other Democratic lawmakers from Maryland and Virginia, want assurance that leaders at the Federal Aviation Administration will notify Congress if billionaire Elon Musk directs the agency to take any […]
Trump’s steel, aluminum tariffs could impact Va. economy
President Donald Trump imposed 25% tariffs on steel and aluminum imports Monday. Now, the world waits to see what impact they will have. “If you look at the behavior of investors, investors are signaling again that they don’t believe these tariffs will be long-lived,” said Bob McNab, chair of Old Dominion University’s Department of Economics […]
NoVa could feel pain if Trump cuts federal office space
Northern Virginia is sure to weather aftershocks if the Trump administration moves forward with plans to shutter half of the properties owned and leased by the federal government. “We’ll see some strong reverberations,” said David Tarter, executive director for the Center for Real Estate Entrepreneurship and the master’s in real estate development program at George […]
MicroStrategy unveils new name and logo, emphasizing Bitcoin
The Tysons tech company formerly known as MicroStrategy has a new moniker: Strategy. In addition to announcing a new name, the Bitcoin behemoth chaired by Michael Saylor unveiled Wednesday a new logo and a new brand color. “The new logo includes a stylized “B,” signifying the company’s Bitcoin strategy, and its unique position as a […]
Goodyear to cut 850 jobs in Danville
About 850 jobs will be cut by the end of the year at Goodyear’s tire manufacturing facility in Danville, according to a document the tiremaker posted Tuesday. The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., which is headquartered in Ohio, reached an agreement on Jan. 30 with the United Steelworkers union “to reduce the company’s production capacity […]
Virginia Beach hires economic development director
Virginia Beach has hired a new director of economic development. City Manager Patrick Duhaney appointed Christian Green to the post, and he will join the city Feb. 24, according to a Tuesday announcement. Green follows Charles E. “Chuck” Rigney, who resigned from the job in July 2024. In an August 2024 article in The Virginian-Pilot, […]
RTX board chair to step down in April
Gregory J. Hayes will step down as executive chairman of Arlington County-based RTX in April, when he will be replaced by Christopher T. Calio, president and CEO of the Fortune Global 500 aerospace and defense contractor. Hayes notified RTX of his plans to step down as executive chairman and from the board “prior to the […]
Va.’s first onshore wind farm sells power to Google
Even as political winds shift in Washington, D.C., a long-delayed onshore wind farm in Botetourt County might finally be sailing to completion. Charlottesville-based Apex Clean Energy announced in December 2024 that it has reached a deal for Google to purchase the full capacity of Rocky Forge Wind, a wind farm the Charlottesville company has been […]
Big tech company to buy power from Va.’s first onshore wind farm
Even as political winds shift in Washington, D.C., a long-delayed onshore wind farm in Botetourt County might finally be sailing to completion. Charlottesville-based Apex Clean Energy announced Wednesday that it has reached a deal for Google to purchase the full capacity of Rocky Forge Wind, a wind farm the Charlottesville company has been working to […]
Coming to town
People who attended the annual Virginia Fire Rescue Conference in February could buy the latest rescue equipment, tools, turnout gear, radios, oxygen tanks — even a 30,000-pound pumper fire truck. “If you’ve got your checkbook … you can drive that truck home,” says Christian Eudailey, executive director of the Virginia Fire Chiefs Association, which organizes […]
VCEDA seed grants sow small business growth
Adam Patterson knew if his fashion design company was going to thrive in his hometown of Big Stone Gap, he needed capital — and a new sewing machine. “Mine was so old, it sewed crooked stitches,” says Patterson, founder of Jones-Hurst Designs. Patterson received a $10,000 grant in September from a Virginia Coalfield Economic Development […]
In the pipeline
As Andre Marshall was speaking to a reporter about cybersecurity in late July, one of the biggest technology failures in recent memory was unfolding in real time. A worldwide Microsoft Windows outage on July 19 brought airports, banks, subways — and even the Marshall household — to a standstill. George Mason University’s vice president for […]
Broadband aid
A couple of Holstein cows poke their heads through the metal gates of the barn as Mark Sowers fiddles with one of his most important pieces of farm equipment — a smartphone. Sowers opens an app on his phone that gives him real-time information from the nearly 300 milking cows that roam Huckleberry Dairy, the […]