Electric avenue
Electric trucks still have some shortcomings — including difficulties covering long distances, and the fact that it’s taken manufacturers as long as five years to deliver on some vehicle orders — but Virginia trucking companies are nonetheless forging ahead. For instance, in addition to its 22 diesel trucks, Camrett Logist[...]
The ‘wrong inventory’
During the pandemic, consumers wanted things to make them feel comfortable at home — whether it was sweatpants, home décor or the latest fuzzy blanket. But as many workplaces have transitioned to hybrid or in-office work models and people are back to socializing outside the home, products that were over-ordered by companies d[...]
OBITUARY: Remembering P. Wesley Foster Jr.
P. Wesley Foster Jr., who co-founded Chantilly-based Long & Foster Real Estate Cos., building it into one of the nation’s largest real estate brokerages, died March 17 at his Alexandria home. Foster and partner Henry Long started Long & Foster in 1968 in Fairfax. The pair met when Long toured a home Foster was showing [...]
May 2023 For the Record
Central Virginia More than 340 union workers went on strike at the AdvanSix Inc. chemical plant in Hopewell on April 6 over contract wage negotiations. The International Chemical Workers Union Council and the United Food and Commercial Workers Union accused the New Jersey-based chemical company of trying to divide union membership by offering pay raises […]
Choppy waters for ocean shipping
What a difference a year makes. In March 2022, ocean freight rates were at record highs, with capacity straining under the weight of historic U.S. import demand. High inventories and economic uncertainty prompted importers to pull back over the summer months, and volumes slowed. A spectacular rate collapse in the ocean freight m[...]
Our new AI overlords
A worker who never tires — who never needs to take a coffee break, who doesn’t get sick, who doesn’t disagree and who doesn’t have a messy home life or those pesky families that get in the way of productivity. And most importantly, a worker who doesn’t require a paycheck. For some CEOs, that’s the […]
A gust of new jobs
Twenty-seven miles as the seagull flies off the coast of Virginia Beach, two wind turbines, each about 600 feet tall — taller than the Washington Monument — have the ability to generate 12 megawatts of electricity, enough to power 3,000 homes. In three years, 174 more wind turbines will join them with more than 200 […[...]
Betting on biotech
Virginians have often sought experimental medical treatments outside the state — traveling to North Carolina, Boston or one of the Mayo Clinic’s locations. However, the Paul and Diane Manning Institute of Biotechnology at the University of Virginia aims to change that. “We intend to tackle the biggest challenges in health [...]
On cloud nine
In 2007 — the same year that Apple unveiled the iPhone and Netflix introduced the idea of “streaming” movies — Buddy Rizer started aggressively targeting an industry that many of the people he worked for in Loudoun County didn’t yet fully comprehend. “It was not an easy story to tell at first,” Rizer recalls of [&h[...]
Going greener
The Port of Virginia is preparing for a greener future that includes less reliance on fossil fuels. It’s doing this by expanding its access to cleaner energy such as solar power; replacing older, diesel-fueled equipment with hybrid and all-electric alternatives; and supporting the region’s burgeoning offshore wind industry. [...]
Farmer Focus hatches $17.8 million expansion
Harrisonburg-based Farmer Focus is undertaking a $17.8 million expansion to boost capacity at its 78,000-square foot processing facility on Acorn Drive. The organic poultry producer, which marked its ninth anniversary in March, announced in February that it was the recipient of a $3.6 million grant from the United States Departm[...]