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UPDATED: Golden Nugget, Wind Creek enter proposals to build Richmond casino

Updated 3 p.m., Feb. 24

Joining at least four other groups competing to be chosen as Richmond’s choice for a casino operator, bids from two other casino companies were made public Wednesday.

Houston-based Golden Nugget Hotels & Casinos has proposed a $400 million casino project about six miles from downtown, and Wind Creek Hospitality, affiliated with an Alabama Indian tribe, has submitted a proposal for a $541 million project in the city’s South Side.

Golden Nugget proposes a 950,000-square-foot facility, according to a news release. It would include a 177-room hotel with 37 suites, a 93,000-square-foot casino floor, a 16,000-square-foot event space, a 1,500-seat concert venue and at least six restaurants, including Morton’s The Steakhouse, and four retail outlets. A pool complex would include a lazy river and cabanas. The company estimates that 1,200 jobs would be created, and completion would take about three years after approval.

The precise location was not identified in the news release. In a statement, Lorenzo Creighton, who would serve as an executive at the casino if selected, said, “The RFP did not require a definitive site for submittal. We are highly confident and have a fantastic preferred location identified and are in negotiations with a couple of different groups that we prefer not to disclose specifics at this time. In addition, we are flexible and prepared to evaluate sites owned by the city of Richmond Redevelopment Authority in an effort to enhance and optimize economic development opportunities for the city of Richmond.”

Wind Creek’s bid would include 100,000 square feet of gaming space, 2,500 slot machines and 120 table games, as well as more than 500 hotel rooms in two towers. The project also would include a 67,000-square-foot entertainment center, a spa, indoor pool, fitness center and seven food and beverage locations. The casino would be on two parcels on Ingram Avenue near the Oak Grove and Manchester neighborhoods in the city’s South Side, plots of 27.8 acres and 18.8 acres owned by the Richmond-based City Central LLC entity with tobacco warehouses.

The company manages seven casino resorts and a gaming website for the Poarch Band of Creek Indians, as well as racetracks in Alabama and Florida. It’s the second Indian tribe-affiliated proposal for Richmond; Virginia’s Pamunkey Indian Tribe also has put forward a bid to build what would be its second casino in the state.

If selected and approved by city voters, Golden Nugget says it would would provide several one-time charitable donations, including $60 million to Richmond Public Schools, $10 million to the Richmond Affordable Housing Trust Fund, $1 million to Virginia Union University and $30,000 to the Metropolitan Business League, a Richmond-based organization that assists local minority-owned companies.

Wind Creek Hospitality rendering of proposed casino in Richmond

Golden Nugget, which owns five casinos across the country, would contribute 5% of equity ownership in the casino between two Minority Business Enterprise-certified entities in Richmond partly owned by Virginians Dennis Cotto and Richard Williams, the former Virginia Lottery director. Williams’ Virginia Sports & Technology Group was created to support inclusion of minority groups in jobs and profit-sharing, including an equity stake of at least $180,000 a year. Cotto’s Bet on Gaming Holdings LLC was created for minority communities in Virginia to be included in the process of real estate development and procurement, and the entity will receive a profit share of at least $120,000 a year once the casino opens.

Golden Nugget is owned by Tilman J. Fertitta, a Texas businessman who also owns the Houston Rockets NBA team and Landry’s Inc., a multibrand dining, hospitality, entertainment and gaming corporation based in Houston.

Richmond is considering at least six casino proposals, including projects from the Virginia-based Pamunkey Indian Tribe, Bally’s Corp., Baltimore-based Cordish Cos. and a partnership between Colonial Downs and Maryland-based media company Urban One Inc.

The city will announce all the competing casino proposals received by the Monday deadline once it has confirmed they meet submission criteria. A nine-member evaluation panel named by Mayor Levar Stoney will review the casino proposals over the following days, assisted by consulting firm Convergence Strategy Group. Ultimately, Richmond City Council, the Virginia Lottery and local voters, who will have the opportunity to weigh in during a November referendum, must approve the project for it to move forward.

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HRBT tunnel boring machine’s name will be ‘Mary’

Chosen from several entries submitted by Hampton Roads area middle school students, the massive underwater tunnel boring machine (TBM) that arrives later this year to dig new tunnels for the $3.8 billion Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel expansion project will be named Mary, in honor of Mary Winston Jackson, a NASA scientist depicted in “Hidden Figures.”

St. Gregory the Great Catholic School students entered the name in a contest held by the Virginia Department of Transportation to name the tunnel boring machine, which is set to arrive this fall. Project officials announced the name Wednesday morning. The winning group of students from the Virginia Beach school created a video explaining why the machine should bear Jackson’s name. “We wanted to pick a female scientist that had a relationship with our area,” said one student, while another said he was “just extremely surprised we won.”

Jackson, who was born in 1921 in Hampton, was a mathematician and engineer who was hired to work at NASA’s Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory in 1951 as a human “computer.” After two years, Jackson was hired to work for an engineer in Langley’s Supersonic Pressure Tunnel. In 1958, she became NASA’s first Black female engineer, and she retired in 1985. She died in 2005 at the age of 83. Jackson was played by actress/singer Janelle Monáe in the 2016 movie “Hidden Figures,” which also includes portrayals of her colleagues Katherine Johnson and Dorothy Vaughan.

The TBM is being built in Germany under specifications for the Bridge-Tunnel; it will be brought in pieces to the South Island this fall. When assembled, it will be about 46 feet in diameter and 350 feet long — roughly the height of a three-story building and the length of a football field. According to VDOT and the Hampton Roads Connection Partners (HRCP), the joint venture responsible for design and construction work on the HRBT expansion, digging will begin in early 2022 and conclude in 2024. The entire project, which is expected to be completed in 2025, will increase tunnel and interstate capacity along 9.9 miles of Interstate 64 between Hampton and Norfolk, digging two new two-lane tunnels and building four new lanes across the water, as well as adding lanes on connecting roads.

HRCP is a joint venture led by New York-based Dragados USA Inc. and includes Vinci Construction, Flatiron Construction Corp. and Vinci subsidiary Dodin Campenon Bernard.

The name Mary will be prominently displayed on the TBM during the project, said José Martin Alos, HRCP’s project executive, who noted it’s considered good luck to name the tunnel boring machine before work starts. The HRBT expansion is only the fourth project in the United States involving a TBM.

Here’s the name announcement video:

 

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Mary Baldwin names interim provost/chief academic officer

Tynisha Willingham, dean of Mary Baldwin University’s College of Education, has been named the Staunton school’s interim provost and chief academic officer. She replaces Ty Buckman, who joined the Foundation of the Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture as its executive vice president this month.

“I am delighted to lead and shape the academic enterprise at Mary Baldwin University,” Willingham said in a statement. “We are a family that values rich and hard dialogues about pressing issues while holding a space for one another’s common humanity. I am excited to share in the vision where our faculty and holistic programming efforts meet students where they are — whether on our residential campus, Murphy Deming College of Health Sciences, or through MBU Online.”

Willingham started her tenure at MBU last summer, coming from Wisconsin’s St. Norbert College, where she served as associate academic dean and associate professor of education. She holds degrees from Penn State and the University of Texas and has conducted research on literacy, community engaged learning and scholarly leadership.

MBU, a private liberal arts university founded in 1842, has an enrollment of 2,081. In August, its College of Health Sciences based in Fishersville will launch a new doctor of nursing program that will combine online studies with intensive, in-person clinical instruction up to three times a year.

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Arlington-based Leonardo DRS considering IPO

The Italian federal defense contractor Leonardo, the parent company of Arlington-based Leonardo DRS, is considering holding an initial public offering (IPO) of the U.S. subsidiary.

In a Feb. 19 statement the company said it “is evaluating the possibility of proceeding with the listing of Leonardo DRS,” but that a formal decision has not yet been made. The statement was released after a request of the Italian stock market regulator CONSOB.

According to Reuters, the $2.54 billion IPO could take place in March and would include a cash call and a sale of 40% of Leonardo’s stake in the Arlington subsidiary, which the company bought in 2008 for $5.2 billion, including $1.27 billion in debt. Leonardo’s board may meet this week to discuss the matter.

Leonardo DRS, the largest U.S. subsidiary of the Italian defense/aerospace conglomerate, is a prime military defense tech contractor with an annual revenue of $2 billion. Many of its projects are for the U.S. Army and Navy and the U.S. intelligence community, and in 2020, the company won several significant bids, including a $120 million U.S. Navy contract to provide engineering design and test software for aircraft protection systems.

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UPDATED: Richmond now has six major casino proposals

Updated Feb. 26

The city of Richmond is now considering six casino proposals, the mayor’s office announced Friday.

Monday afternoon was the city’s deadline for its request for proposals, and all six submitted were deemed eligible. Starting next month, Richmond will hold public meetings with opportunities for citizen input.

In addition to the Pamunkey Indian Tribe, which announced its plans to submit a project last year, the companies include Bally’s Corp., Baltimore-based Cordish Cos., Texas-based Golden Nugget Hotels & Casinos, Wind Creek Hospitality and a partnership between Colonial Downs and Maryland-based media company Urban One Inc.

The proposals varied in size, scope, cost and locations:

  • Rhode Island-based Bally’s proposal would bring a $650 million, 1.6 million casino with sportsbook, performance space, a hotel, pool and dining and retail outlets to a 61-acre parcel of land north of Powhite Parkway and east of Chippenham Parkway near the city’s western border. The proposal would include a one-time $100 million payment to the city of Richmond. The company estimates it would create 2,000 jobs and annually generate 3.7 million visitors and $415 million in total gross revenue. The corporation is working with Willie Lanier, the former pro football player from Richmond; Darrell Green, cornerback from the former Washington Redskins; and Warren Thompson, founder, president and chairman of Thompson Hospitality Corp.
  • The Pamunkey tribe’s proposal is on a different site than it previously proposed, but the casino would still be on the city’s South Side, off Interstate 95 and south of the Bells Road exit on 24.5 acres, according to spokesman Jay Smith. The current $350 million proposal includes a 300-room, four-diamond hotel tower with a spa, pool, fitness center and several restaurants. The tribe anticipates the project would create 1,910 permanent jobs, as well as 5.3 million annual visitors, up from an earlier estimate of 4 million. Smith notes that the Pamunkey project is the only submission from a Virginia-based entity and would be 100% minority-owned. The tribe is preparing to begin construction on a casino in Norfolk later this year.

    ONE casino rendering, backed by Maryland’s Urban One Inc.
  • Urban One, which owns and operates 55 radio stations and the TV One cable network, is proposing a $517 million project that would be the first casino under Black ownership in the country. According to the Richmond Times-Dispatch, the company will partner with Peninsula Pacific Entertainment, Colonial Downs Group’s owner, which also owns the Rosie’s Gaming Emporium franchise in Virginia. If approved, the casino would be built on 100 acres near Interstate 95 owned by Altria Group Inc., parent company of Philip Morris USA. In details released Tuesday, Urban One’s casino resort would be called ONE, and it would include a sportsbook, 150 hotel rooms, a 3,000-seat theater, 90,000 square feet of gaming space, 12 bars and restaurants, including many with local ties, as well as 20,000 square feet of event space. Urban One, which has a minority stake in MGM National Harbor on the outskirts of Washington, D.C., in Maryland, would also partner with Live Nation to put on 200 live entertainment events.
  • The Times-Dispatch also reports that The Cordish Cos., which owns casinos in Baltimore, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Florida, has submitted a plan for a $600 million project that would include a hotel with 300 rooms and 30 suites, a 4,000-seat entertainment venue and 250,000 square feet of gaming space. This project would be built on the current Movieland movie theater property near The Diamond across the Boulevard from Richmond’s Scott’s Addition neighborhood. Cordish, which developed Norfolk’s Waterfront district, last year threatened to sue the city of Norfolk over its 2013 development agreement with the city, which said that the company could expand a $40 million dining and retail project into a casino if the state legalized gambling. Cordish also backed casino opposition efforts in Norfolk.
  • Announced Wednesday is a $400 million proposal from Houston-based Golden Nugget Hotels & Casinos, which would bring a 950,000-square-foot facility about six miles from downtown, according to a news release, and would include a 177-room hotel with 37 suites, a 93,000-square-foot casino floor, a 16,000-square-foot event space, a 1,500-seat concert venue and at least six restaurants, including Morton’s The Steakhouse, and four retail outlets. A pool complex would include a lazy river and cabanas. The company estimates that 1,200 jobs would be created, and completion would take about three years after approval. The proposal also includes one-time donations of $60 million to Richmond Public Schools, $10 million to the Richmond Affordable Housing Trust Fund and $1 million to Virginia Union University. The proposed location would be on the same property as the Bally’s proposal, north of Powhite Parkway and east of Chippenham Parkway near the city’s western border, according to the mayor’s office. A Bally’s spokesperson released a statement saying that it has the “exclusive right to purchase” the Parkway Crossing site, although the company has other options and has an exclusive right to purchase a second site.
  • Also announced Wednesday is Alabama-based Wind Creek Hospitality’s $541 million project in the city’s South Side on two plots with 46 acres combined. Wind Creek’s bid would include 100,000 square feet of gaming space, 2,500 slot machines and 120 table games, as well as more than 500 hotel rooms in two towers. The project also would include a 67,000-square-foot entertainment center, a spa, indoor pool, fitness center and seven food and beverage locations. The company manages seven casino resorts and a gaming website for the federally recognized Poarch Band of Creek Indians, as well as racetracks in Alabama and Florida.
Rendering of the Pamunkey Indian Tribe’s proposed casino and hotel project in Richmond.

Of the five cities across Virginia where commercial casinos have been legalized, Richmond was the only one to delay its approval process until 2021. Casino projects in Danville, Bristol, Norfolk and Portsmouth were overwhelmingly approved by voters in last November’s referendums, and are on their way to construction over the next couple of years.

A nine-member evaluation panel named by Mayor Levar Stoney reviewed the casino proposals over the following days, assisted by consulting firm Convergence Strategy Group, and the panel will make a recommendation in May or June to the Richmond City Council, which will then choose the site and operator in June, according to the city.

The city’s first virtual community meeting to discuss the six proposals will take place March 9, and full details will be available on the city website.

At that point, the Virginia Lottery must approve the proposed casino operator, and local voters will have the opportunity to weigh in with a November referendum on the ballot.

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COVID roundup: 300K vaccine doses arrive in Va.

Virginia received an influx of more than 300,000 COVID-19 vaccine doses this week, in part due to the weather-delayed delivery of 106,000 Moderna doses that were expected last week. The state also is receiving a bump in doses directed to local health departments and districts, as well as twice as many doses arriving in retail pharmacies, developments announced Friday by the state’s vaccine coordinator.

Meanwhile, the United States surpassed the grim benchmark of 500,000 COVID-related deaths Monday, near the one-year anniversary of the nation’s first coronavirus fatality. Virginia has recorded 7,486 COVID deaths since last March, including 470 fatalities over the past week, according to the Virginia Department of Health. That’s an increase of 274 deaths from the previous week.

The state saw a 13,732 increase in cases last week — a significant decrease from the previous week, when more than 20,000 were recorded. The state has reported 565,270 total cases, and its current seven-day positivity rate is 8.3%.

VDH officials in the Richmond area raised an alarm Monday that the Chickahominy, Chesterfield and Richmond/Henrico health districts have seen five confirmed cases of COVID-related Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children (MIS-C) between October and Feb. 18. According to a New York Times story last week, the rare condition affects children and teens — in some cases leading to organ failure and death — and is becoming more common and more serious. Virginia has recorded 18 MIS-C cases statewide but no related deaths among patients under age 21, and State Health Commissioner Dr. Norman Oliver has urged all health care providers treating a patient with the condition to immediately report the case to their local health district.

As of Monday, 1.1 million people in Virginia, or 13.1% of the population, have received at least one vaccine dose, and 481,287 are fully vaccinated, VDH reports. Out of 2 million doses received by the state, 1.6 million have been administered.

The state slipped from ninth to 16th in the nation for its percentage of doses administered, according to data from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention analyzed by Becker’s Hospital Review. According to local heath districts, some vaccination appointments were postponed last week due to winter weather affecting much of the state.

Moving forward, Virginia expects to receive about 213,000 vaccine doses per week, vaccine coordinator Dr. Danny Avula said last week, and the vaccination program for Virginians age 65 and older will expand to more pharmacies beyond 36 CVS locations that started administering vaccines earlier this month. The state expects about 52,000 vaccine doses a week for pharmacies, and about 161,000 doses that will be distributed to local health departments, hospitals and pharmacies for other prioritized groups, including people with underlying health issues and essential workers.

Last week, VDH launched a statewide vaccine registration website for all Virginia residents who want a vaccine, as well as a phone hotline staffed by 750 employees from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Avula advised anyone who registered before this week with their local health district can call the hotline if their information does not show up on the website, vaccinate.virginia.gov. The number is (877) VAX-IN-VA, or (877) 829-4682.

With race and ethnicity information available for only 64% of people who have received shots in the state, the majority of shots were received by white, non-Hispanic people — 71.6% as of Monday, according to VDH. Black Virginians received 12% of shots, although they make up 19.9% of the state’s population, according to 2019 estimates by the U.S. Census; 5.6% of vaccines were given to Latino residents, who comprise about 9.8% of Virginians. State health officials have focused attention on equitable vaccination, especially as Latino and Black residents are heavily represented among people who have been infected, hospitalized and died from the coronavirus.

In Virginia, among 435,197 COVID cases in which race and ethnicity is identified, 21.7% are Black patients and 17.1% Latino.

As of Feb. 18, the following health districts have positivity rates of 10% or higher:

  • Portsmouth — 17.2%, down from 17.8% on Feb. 11
  • Hampton — 15.9%, down from 18.6%
  • Pittsylvania-Danville — 14.2%, up from 13.7%
  • Chesapeake — 13.7%, down from 19%
  • Peninsula (Newport News, Poquoson, Williamsburg, James City and York counties)  — 12.2%, down from 12.7%
  • Crater — 12.1%, up from 9.1%
  • Norfolk — 11.9%, down from 13.9%
  • Rappahannock (city of Fredericksburg and Caroline, King George, Spotsylvania and Stafford counties) — 11.5%, down from 13.5%
  • Virginia Beach — 11.2%, down from 13.1%
  • Southside — 11.1%, up from 8.2%
  • Chesterfield — 11.0%, down from 11.2%
  • Prince William — 11.0%, down from 11.4%
  • Three Rivers (Essex, Gloucester, King and Queen, King William, Lancaster, Mathews, Middlesex, Northumberland and Westmoreland counties) — 10.0%, down from 11.8%
  • Western Tidewater (cities of Franklin and Suffolk and Isle of Wight and Southampton counties) — 10.0%, down from 12.1%

Globally, there are 111.6 million reported COVID-19 cases and 2,471,494 confirmed deaths, as of Feb. 22. The United States, which has the most confirmed cases and deaths worldwide, has seen 28.1 million confirmed cases so far, with 500,201 deaths attributed to the coronavirus since February 2020.

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Virginia, other states sue Augusta County company Nexus Services

Updated 3:30 p.m. Feb. 22

Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring joined Massachusetts and New York in suing Virginia-based bonding company Nexus Services Inc., alleging in the suit that its Libre by Nexus subsidiary “preys on consumers held in federal detention centers by offering to pay for consumers’ immigration bonds to secure their release.”

In exchange for those services, the suit alleges, “Libre demands large upfront fees and hefty monthly payments while concealing or misrepresenting the true costs of its services.”

Joined by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the three states filed suit Monday against the company, the Libre subsidiary and its co-owners, CEO Micheal Donovan, Chief Financial Officer and Executive Vice President Richard Moore, and Nexus Services Director Evan Ajin, in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Virginia. The suit alleges they violated the federal Consumer Financial Protection Act of 2010 and “engaged in deceptive and abusive acts or practices in connection with Libre’s offer of credit to consumers for their immigration bonds,” and that Nexus and the three individual defendants “knowingly or recklessly provided substantial assistance to Libre in its deceptive and abusive acts or practices.”

In a statement issued Monday afternoon, Donovan said, “Libre by Nexus categorically denies all allegations in the complaint filed against the company today and looks forward to our day in court.” The company, he adds, “is committed to fighting for immigrants scarred by the torture of ‘civil’ immigration detention. While we have fought to release tens of thousands of immigrants from detention, especially during the last four years, the AGs have taken time and money to investigate our company. These same AGs have defended their police and prison guards in abuse cases, some of which have been funded by Libre. The result of their years-long investigations is a poorly drafted complaint that rehashes allegations the company has successfully defended in three different legal actions. They are still defending the corrupt prison guards.

“While the federal government continues to detain scores of immigrants, the AGs have ignored the fact that these detention centers operate within their own borders. From Buffalo, [New York], to Farmville to Suffolk, [Massachusetts], immigrants are tortured while Herring, [New York Attorney General Letitia] James and others conduct a shadowy investigation into the only company helping the immigrants they claim to be protecting,” Donovan’s statement says. He adds that the company funded lawsuits against Virginia on behalf of prisoners’ rights. “Libre is proud of its work and believes sunlight is the best disinfectant. We plan to vigorously defend this suit and prevail at trial.”

Nexus has been based in Atlanta since 2019, but its founders are residents of Fishersville and its principal place of business is in Verona, according to the complaint. Since its founding in Augusta County in 2013, the company has drawn considerable scrutiny from multiple states, which accused it of taking advantage of immigrants caught in the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement system and their family members. As of late last year, the U.S. Justice Department and several other federal and state agencies were investigating the company.

The company worked with bail bond agencies to pay bonds on immigrant clients so they could leave federal ICE custody, using GPS ankle monitors to insure their clients would appear in court. Clients of Libre by Nexus paid $420 per month for their monitors, although in June, the company announced it would switch from ankle monitors to a mobile app on clients’ phones, after a client in Florida died of COVID-19 in a hospital while still wearing a monitor.

According to the suit, “from at least 2014 until at least late 2017, Libre used a multi-part, written client agreement of over 20 pages, all written in English except for a single page written in Spanish,” although “the vast majority of Libre’s clients and their co-signers are Spanish speakers, most of whom do not read or write English and many of whom cannot read or write in any language.”

In December, Nexus settled a case with the state’s Bureau of Insurance, which claimed that Libre was acting as an unlicensed insurance agent, by agreeing to pay $425,000 and limiting its ability to collect monthly fees in Virginia. In November, the company reached a $5.5 million settlement with the California Department of Insurance.

The suit filed this week alleges that Nexus Services and Libre by Nexus are not licensed bail-bond agents in any state; according to news reports, founders Donovan and Moore, who are married, were convicted of writing bad checks and are not eligible to become bail bondsmen. They previously worked as lobbyists in Richmond representing the bail bond industry.

The suit also alleges that because immigration cases can languish in court for an average of three years, “Libre’s clients may have to make $420 monthly payments for that long, or longer,” incurring up to $17,000 in fees. Also, the company’s written agreement misleads clients to believe nonpayment will lead to re-arrest or other consequences, the suit says, even though “neither ICE nor any other agency is a party to Libre’s agreement.”

Further, since February 2018, “Libre has not provided any GPS monitoring service to thousands of consumers … because Libre’s GPS vendor cut off Libre’s remote access to the monitoring software at that time,” the suit says. The following month, the vendor decommissioned all of Libre’s monitors, due to delinquent payments, according to the complaint.

CFPB, Massachusetts, New York and Virginia have filed 17 counts against the company and asked the court to award Virginia up to $2,500 per violation, as well as $1,000 per violation in legal fees, along with other damages and restitution. The plaintiffs also seek to “enjoin defendants from making material misrepresentations … and engaging in other deceptive, abusive and unlawful conduct alleged in the complaint.”

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Greater Richmond Partnership taps new CEO

Greater Richmond Partnership’s board announced Monday that Jennifer Wakefield, the regional economic development organization’s interim leader, has been chosen as its permanent president and CEO, effective immediately.

Wakefield, who previously was chief operating officer and served twice as the partnership’s interim president, joined GRP in 2017 as its senior vice president of marketing. She replaces Lara Fritts, who resigned in October after only a little more than a year as the public-private partnership’s leader. Wakefield was vice president of marketing and communications for the Orlando Economic Development Commission for 11 years, before coming to Richmond, and last year, she was named one of the top 50 economic developers in the country by Consultant Connect.

Wakefield is a 2018 graduate of Lead Virginia and serves on several boards, including as chair of the Marketing Advisory Committee for the International Economic Development Council and a member of the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond’s Industry Roundtable. She has a master’s degree in communications from the University of Central Florida and a bachelor’s degree in public relations and advertising from the University of West Florida, as well as her Accreditation in Public Relations (APR).

“Jennifer has established a new strategic framework for GRP, which includes working closer with our partners than ever before,” GRP Board of Directors Chair Leslie Haley said in a statement. “The board looks forward to future success under her leadership.”

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Va. vaccine doses will get ‘big bump’ next week

Virginia’s vaccine coordinator, Dr. Danny Avula, said Friday he expects about 213,000 COVID-19 vaccine doses to come to the state weekly, beginning next week. That’s an increase of about 60,000 doses from the past week.

Last week, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said the federal government would up weekly national distribution from 11 million doses to about 13.5 million doses, and also double the number of weekly doses sent directly to pharmacies, from 1 million to 2 million. That works out to 161,000 weekly doses to health districts, hospitals and other facilities in Virginia, Avula said, and the number of doses going to pharmacies for Virginians age 65 and older will grow from 26,000 a week to 52,000 weekly.

Avula said he anticipates “an explosion of vaccine” available in Virginia toward the end of April and early May, after Johnson & Johnson’s one-shot vaccine is approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration around early March, and more vaccine doses are produced by Pfizer Inc. and Moderna.

In his weekly news update, Avula noted that “weather has been a big challenge,” particularly with Moderna’s vaccine, as key distribution points in the Midwest and Tennessee were affected by major ice storms. About 106,000 doses of Moderna vaccine that didn’t reach Virginia this week will arrive by next week, he said.

Currently 36 CVS pharmacies are administering shots, but starting next week, other pharmacies — among them Walgreens, grocery stores and local pharmacies — will receive doses. Avula said the Virginia Department of Health is working on logistics and will have more information about which locations will begin offering shots by next week. He also hopes that people who have preregistered with the health department’s statewide site or with their local health district will be added automatically to the other pharmacies’ lists and can be prioritized for vaccines.

CVS’s registration system could not import existing health department waiting lists before the pharmacies started administering shots last Friday, requiring people to register separately with CVS. Avula said the other pharmacies he’s been in contact with say they’re willing to work with VDH on prioritizing people who registered with the health department.

This week, VDH launched a statewide vaccine registration website for all Virginia residents who want a vaccine, as well as a phone hotline staffed by 750 employees from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Avula advised anyone who registered before this week with their local health district can call the hotline if their information does not show up on the website, vaccinate.virginia.gov. The number is (877) VAX-IN-VA, or (877) 829-4682.

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Court upholds state GOP’s May convention plan

The Republican Party of Virginia is clear to move forward with its plans for a May 1 convention, after a Richmond Circuit Court judge on Friday tossed out a lawsuit filed by state Sen. Amanda Chase to force the party to hold a primary election to choose its candidates for governor, attorney general and lieutenant governor.

Following the hearing, the party’s general counsel said a state-run primary to choose the party’s candidates for statewide office is “off the table. We can’t have one.” Chris Marston explained that the party’s State Central Committee can’t call a meeting — due to rules regarding advance notification of members — before the Tuesday deadline set by the State Board of Elections for parties to declare their plans to hold a state-run primary election.

He added that the committee, set to meet Feb. 27, is expected to decide logistics for its nominating methods in coming weeks.

Richmond Circuit Court substitute Judge Margaret Spencer ruled Friday afternoon that Chase, R-Chesterfield, who is leading the Republican field of gubernatorial candidates in recent polls, does not have standing to seek an injunction that would have prevented the state party from moving forward with plans for its May 1 convention to nominate GOP 2021 candidates for governor, attorney general and lieutenant governor.

Chase’s attorney, Tim Anderson of Virginia Beach, said after the ruling he would talk to his client about next steps, including the possibility of appealing. Chase was not in court Friday because she was participating in the state Senate session, which is convening at the Science Museum of Virginia.

In a text message from the Senate floor, Chase said, “We tried today to make sure Virginians could participate in the Republican nomination process for governor, but the judge said it should be the governor of Virginia who brings this case before them. Primaries are best for Virginians as they are more inclusive and don’t create extra hoops for the people who want to vote to jump through. I’ve at least raised awareness as to what they are doing and taken the smoke out of a smoke-filled room.

“The people are watching. They see what they’re doing and they’re not happy about it. It’s up to the [State Central Committee] to do the right thing.”

In an email Friday night, Chase said that she does not plan to appeal the decision because of the Tuesday deadline and asked her supporters “to lobby members of the State Central Committee and ask them to support a primary before Tuesday’s deadline.”

Chase’s suit requested that the Richmond Circuit Court declare that the party is allowed only to hold an in-person convention — leading to the inevitable decision that such a gathering would be illegal under Gov. Ralph Northam’s Executive Order 72 to prevent the spread of the pandemic.

Chase argued that because gatherings of more than 10 people have been outlawed by executive order to prevent the spread of coronavirus, the state GOP “has chosen a method that is illegal under the governor’s current executive orders and is secretly planning to choose the statewide nominees themselves, bypassing the people of Virginia. I will not stand for this.” She said also that the state party’s plans amount to “socialism,” by allowing only a few people in power to decide on candidates.

Because the party has not yet decided precisely its nominating method — including the possibility of holding a party-run primary known as a “canvass” that allows a primary in which the party sets its own rules, or unassembled conventions similar to the “drive-thru” events held by the party to pick congressional nominees — Chase’s injunction request is moot, Spencer said. To have standing, the plaintiff must allege an injury based on “current facts, not future facts,” she added.

The Republican Party’s attorney, Lee Goodman of Washington, D.C., argued, “This is a manufactured crisis. It is wholly speculative about the future.” He added that although Northam’s order currently limits gatherings to 10 people, restrictions could be loosened by late spring or summer and that the executive order in question is set to expire Feb. 28. Although the state’s deadline for parties to declare they would hold a state-run primary is next week, he said, the GOP has more time to decide its method of nomination and logistics before the state’s June 8 deadline for nominations.

Anderson, though, said that Chase “isn’t trying to tell the party what to do,” and contended that regardless of the governor’s executive orders, holding a gathering of more than 10,000 people in one place is “dangerous. You can’t do that, period.”

The Democratic Party has already decided to hold primary elections June 8 to choose its nominees for statewide office.

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