Smithfield Foods to pay $2M to settle child labor claims
A subsidiary of Virginia-based Smithfield Foods has agreed to pay $2 million to settle allegations it hired children to work at a meat packaging plant in Minnesota. According to the Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry, Smithfield’s operation in Minnesota allegedly employed at least 11 children between the ages of 14[...]
Specialty coils manufacturer to expand in Chesterfield
Super Radiator Coils, an engineering and manufacturing company based in Minnesota, will invest $22 million to expand in Chesterfield County, creating an estimated 160 jobs, Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s office announced Friday. The company will upgrade machinery and add about 80,000 square feet to its existing approximately 160,000-sq[...]
Paragon Systems fined $52M for alleged fraud
Herndon-based federal contractor Paragon Systems agreed Tuesday to pay $52 million to resolve allegations by the U.S. Department of Justice that Paragon used its own subsidiaries to fraudulently win small business set-aside contracts, violating the federal False Claims and Anti-Kickback acts. The company is one of the federal go[...]
Appalachian Power plans small nuclear reactor in Campbell
Appalachian Power, an electric utility subsidiary of American Electric Power which serves more than one million customers in Virginia, West Virginia and Tennessee, announced plans Thursday to bring a small modular nuclear reactor (SMR) project to Campbell County. The company, which has its headquarters in Charleston, West Virgin[...]
Youngkin announces plan to grow workforce housing
At the Governor’s Housing Conference in Virginia Beach Thursday, Gov. Glenn Youngkin unveiled the Workforce Housing Investment Program, an initiative at Virginia Housing that will invest $75 million over five years to spur the creation of workforce-priced housing. The funding holds the potential, according to a news release fr[...]
Permanent Hard Rock Bristol casino opens
The bright lights of Bristol shine considerably brighter now following the opening of Virginia’s second full-fledged casino. Thursday heralded the grand opening of the $515 million-plus Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Bristol, Virginia’s first hotel/casino combo. Symphonies of sounds, from music to slot machines, indicated the [...]
Pittsylvania megasite wins $1.3B battery separator project
Tennessee-based Microporous will invest $1.3 billion to build its battery separator manufacturing facility at the Southern Virginia Megasite at Berry Hill in Pittsylvania County, Gov. Glenn Youngkin announced Wednesday. The company expects the project to create 2,015 jobs. The megasite’s first tenant, Microporous will develop [...]
American Diabetes Assoc. chair tackles disease’s workforce impact
More than 780,000 adults in Virginia have diabetes. The indirect cost from lost productivity due to the disease in 2017 in this state alone was a whopping $2.3 billion, according to the American Diabetes Association. That’s why Rhodes Ritenour, national chairman of the ADA’s board and vice president for external and [...]
After two years, VCU Health makes Levy permanent CEO
Two years after he first became interim CEO, Dr. Marlon F. Levy has been named VCU Health System’s permanent head. Virginia Commonwealth University announced Monday that Levy’s interim roles as the Richmond-based health system’s CEO and senior vice president for VCU Health Sciences were made permanent in appoin[...]
MicroStrategy holdings surge in value as bitcoin breaches $87,000
Bitcoin whale Michael Saylor, the executive chairman of Tysons-based tech company MicroStrategy, has reason to gloat today. Under Saylor’s laser-eyed guidance, MicroStrategy has pursued bitcoin as an investment strategy since 2020. The company announced its first bitcoin purchase in August 2020, making it one of the first pu[...]
Va. will hold 2 special elections to fill empty state Senate seats
Updated Nov. 10 Two Virginia State Senate seats are now open, with the election of state Sens. John McGuire, R-Goochland, and Suhas Subramanyam, D-Loudoun, to the U.S. House of Representatives this week, so the state will hold special elections to fill those seats in districts 10 and 32 ahead of the Virginia General AssemblyR[...]
If Trump cuts federal workforce, Warner predicts ‘disaster’ for Va.
U.S. Sen. Mark Warner said Thursday he hopes President-elect Donald Trump won’t pursue massive cuts and relocations in the federal workforce — because if he does, it would be a “disaster for Virginia’s economy,” particularly in Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads. “We would get hit worse than any [...]