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Civilian life
Paul Valentine is on a winding career path. After leaving the Army more than a decade ago, he got his commercial driver’s license at Blue Ridge Community College in Weyers Cave. He was taking classes to try to get an engineering degree as well but quit to take full-time work at trucking companies after his […]
Chambers of commerce
STATEWIDE Asian American Chamber of Commerce | Tysons | (571) 633-9754 asian-americanchamber.org Virginia Asian Chamber of Commerce | Ashland | (804) 344-1540 aabac.org Virginia Chamber of Commerce | Richmond | (804) 644-1607 vachamber.com Virginia Hispanic Chamber | North Chesterfield | (804) 378-4099 vahcc.com CENTRAL VIRGINIA Altavista Area Chamber of Commerce | Altavista | (434) 369-6665 […][...]
Crying wolf?
It’s “the most predicted potential recession in memory,” Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond President and CEO Tom Barkin quipped in January, but it hasn’t happened yet. Maybe. During the first half of 2022, surveys of consumers and CEOs showed they were worried about a recession coming on the heels of a 40-year pea[...]
Virginia hold ’em
The slot machines are already ringing out in Bristol and Portsmouth, where Virginia’s first commercial casinos opened during the past year. The state’s first permanent casino, Rivers Casino Portsmouth, opened its doors on Jan. 23. Operated by Chicago-based Rush Street Gaming, the resort has 1,148 slot machines, 57 ta[...]
Compound growth
As U.S. stocks hit bear market territory last year, Virginia’s largest publicly traded companies weathered rising interest rates, inflation and continued supply chain and labor challenges. Rising home mortgage rates drove a slowdown in new business at McLean-based Freddie Mac. Plunging prices for used cars caused Goochland[...]
The big freeze
Given pandemic-caused interruptions, college students have been through a lot so far this decade, but one silver lining at many Virginia schools has been frozen tuition. Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin made it a priority to keep costs flat this academic year, and he succeeded in getting all 15 of the state’s public colleges a[...]
Surgical precision
Like many other businesses, health care systems are constantly consolidating and forging partnerships to create synergy. In 2022, one of Virginia’s longest awaited agreements finally crystallized: a merger between Eastern Virginia Medical School and Old Dominion University. The creation of Eastern Virginia Health Sciences [...]
Paying it forward
In the last year, Virginia philanthropists continued making generous donations toward health care research, while others maintained their longstanding support of art museums. Leading the pack were two nine-figure donations for medical research. In February 2022, Dr. Todd Stravitz, who built his expertise researching and treating[...]
A sampling of Virginia’s major road projects
HAMPTON ROADS Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel Expansion Project Work continues on Virginia’s largest highway construction project, the $3.9 billion Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel (HRBT) expansion. The contract ends in November 2025, but the contractor — Hampton Roads Connector Partners, a joint venture led by Dragados USA Inc. [...]
Ready for launch
Virginia’s version of the business accelerator doesn’t always rely on the traditional model of sponsorship by angel investors who provide capital for startups, usually in exchange for convertible debt or ownership equity. Here in the commonwealth, “it’s more founder-focused,” and accelerators are often run [...]
Ups and downs
Compared with the previous two years, 2022 was less of a roller coaster for the housing market in Virginia, but it still presented challenges for many would-be first-time homebuyers. As inflation rates grew, peaking at a 40-year high of 9.1% in June 2022, the Federal Reserve increased interest rates rapidly. Inflation fell to 6.[...]
Resetting the bar
Two venerable Virginia law firms — Roanoke’s Woods Rogers PLC and Norfolk’s Vandeventer Black LLP — combined forces in July 2022, creating the state’s fifth largest firm, Woods Rogers Vandeventer Black PLC, based in Roanoke. It’s a true statewide firm, with branch offices in Norfolk, Richmond, Lynchbu[...]
