SCCF to host national entrepreneurship conference
Shenandoah Community Capital Fund is hosting a national entrepreneurship organization’s summit in Harrisonburg, marking the first time the bi-annual event has convened in a rural area like the Shenandoah Valley, says Anika Horn, who directs SCCF’s entrepreneurial ecosystem-building efforts. The Startup Champions Network (SCN[...]
Little fish, big pond
Sometimes all it takes is seeing a child watch a crab crawl across a water table for the first time, Nate Sandel has learned. The director of education and community engagement at Nauticus, Norfolk’s science and maritime museum, Sandel saw the look of awe in a fourth-grade boy’s face as he watched crabs walk right […]
Truth, justice, and the Liberty Way
The past four years have been rough on Liberty University’s reputation, judging by the sheer tonnage of negative press that the Lynchburg-based evangelical education powerhouse has received. But with a $2 billion-plus endowment and one of the nation’s largest private, nonprofit college enrollments, Liberty appears to be not [...]
Which way the Venn blows
It feels like one of those logic puzzles high school students grapple with on the SAT: If Delegate Sally passes a law to require utilities in her state to generate all their electricity from renewable, carbon-free energy sources like wind and solar by 2045, what is the latest year CEO Tom’s power plant can stop […]
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 globa[...]
Henrico gets federal funding jolt for EV charging stations
People shopping for a new car or truck often hesitate to buy an electric vehicle because there aren’t many public charging stations. However, that situation will improve in Henrico County, which was awarded about $1.45 million in January through the U.S. Transportation Department’s Charging and Fueling Infrastructure Discret[...]
Henry County airport expansion underway
Blue Ridge Regional Airport in Henry County has completed a larger apron for airplane parking and will soon extend its 5,002-foot runway to 6,000 feet — long enough to accommodate executive jets. A new terminal is also planned as part of a package of about $30 million in upgrades for the airport, according to Jason […]
Slow and steady
The Lynchburg region has seen the slowest job growth of any metro area in Virginia over the past three years, according to economic analyses, and it typically has a higher unemployment rate than the state average. But there’s more to the story, some officials say. For instance, the Lynchburg region saw 23 inquiries from econom[...]
Out of balance
Kate Austin had a job waiting for her when she graduated last year from Christopher Newport University with a bachelor’s degree in business administration. “I love it,” she says about her work as a tax associate at Keiter, a certified public accounting firm in Henrico County. Unlike two of her friends, who are still lookin[...]
Capital One-Discover deal faces federal scrutiny
McLean-based Capital One Financial announced plans in February to buy Discover Financial Services for $35.3 billion in an all-stock deal that would mark Capital One’s largest ever acquisition and make it the nation’s biggest credit card lender. The transaction is expected to close in late 2024 or early 2025, according to the[...]
April 2024 FOR THE RECORD
CENTRAL Charlottesville-based geospatial analytics firm Astraea was acquired by Nuview, a Florida-based company developing a satellite imaging constellation, the companies announced Feb. 27. Financial terms of the deal were not available. Founded as a for-profit benefit corporation in 2016, Astraea applies data science and artificial intelligence to analyze imaging and sensor data gathered from Earth-observing […][...]
Buchanan County expands industrial park
Economic development is booming inside the Southern Gap Industrial Park in Buchanan County, where the county industrial development authority is spending $4 million to develop a new shell building and a 20-acre industrial site. With support from the Virginia Coalfield Economic Development Authority, the park has become a hub for[...]