Va. agricultural damage from Helene totals $159.3M
Hurricane Helene’s agricultural damage in Virginia totals more than $159.3 million, according to Virginia Cooperative Extension agents’ research. Hurricane Helene made landfall on the Gulf Coast in Florida as a Category 4 storm late on Sept. 26 and tore through the Southeast into Sept. 27, causing catastrophic flooding in parts of Georgia, North and South […]
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 […]
Sentara boosts Halifax hospital investment to $107M
Last year, Sentara Health unveiled plans to invest $70 million to replace the aging Sentara Halifax Regional Hospital in South Boston with a new acute care hospital. On Tuesday, the health care system announced the investment will be closer to $107 million. “It’s just part of the evolution of the process,” Brian Zwoyer, president of […]
Innovation, capital key to rural growth, Barkin and Warner say
There’s hope for economic growth in rural areas despite their challenges, Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond President and CEO Tom Barkin and U.S. Sen. Mark Warner said Wednesday during the Fed’s 2023 Investing in Rural America conference in Roanoke. Rural areas could overcome economic development challenges, particularly housing shortages and lack of broadband access, with innovation, [...]
Kaine introduces legislation to establish HBCU business centers
U.S. Sens. Tim Kaine (D-Virginia) and Roger Wicker (R-Mississippi) announced Tuesday they have introduced the Reaching America’s Rural Minority Businesses Act, which would establish up to 10 minority business centers at historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) to serve rural and underserved communities. The legislation would authorize the Minority Business Development Agency (MBD[...]