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300+ Alexandria small businesses receive COVID-19 funding
More than 300 small businesses in Alexandria were funded by the Alexandria Back to Business (ALX B2B) grants program in the wake of the COVID-19 crisis, the Alexandria Economic Development Partnership (AEDP) announced Thursday. In May, Alexandria City Council committed $2.4 million from its federal CARES Act appropriations, and allocated an additional $2 million from […]
366K+ Virginians remain jobless
More than 366,000 Virginians are still unemployed following the economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic, and initial jobless claims rose by more than 6,000 last week. The Virginia Employment Commission (VEC) announced Thursday that 906,734 people have filed initial unemployment claims since March 15. Nearly 32,000 Virginians filed initial claims last week, an increase of […]
COVID-19 death toll underreported, study finds
A joint Virginia Commonwealth University and Yale University study published Wednesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association suggests that the COVID-19 death counts reported to the U.S. public underestimate the true death toll of the pandemic in the country. “There are several potential reasons for this under-count,” lead author Dr. Steven Woolf, director […]
Virginia 30 Day Fund makes 500th grant
The Virginia 30 Day Fund, a Charlottesville-based nonprofit, announced Wednesday it has disbursed 500 “lifelines” — or $3,000 forgivable loans — to small businesses in Virginia that have financially struggled during the COVID-19 pandemic. Seeded with $100,000 from tech entrepreneur Pete Snyder and his wife, Burson, the[...]
The front line
Before the pandemic, disaster meant something different to most people — even hospital workers. “It’s preparing for worst-case scenarios,” says Dr. Sandy Simons, an emergency room physician at Bon Secours Richmond Community Hospital. “When you talk about disaster medicine, you train for a bomb going off.” A single [...]
Gifts of healing
When tech entrepreneur Pete Snyder and his wife, Burson, returned home to Charlottesville from taking their 5-year-old daughter to Walt Disney World this spring, they came home to a business community struggling after COVID-19 pandemic shutdowns. “Our view is we’re at war right now,” Snyder says. “It has two fronts: One [...]
Colonial Williamsburg begins gradually reopening
After a rough spring, Colonial Williamsburg reopened June 14 on a limited basis, although visitors may notice modern reality intruding in the form of face masks and Plexiglas barriers. With nearly 2,000 workers, Colonial Williamsburg is one of the Peninsula region’s largest employers, but it was especially hard hit by the cor[...]
A session to remember
In the six weeks between the Virginia General Assembly’s March 12 adjournment and its April 22 veto session, the world changed. The dramatic societal shifts brought on by the coronavirus pandemic were on display during the historic, surreal April meeting, in which the lawmakers gathered at unusual locations — the Senate at t[...]
Bristol’s State Street closes reopening gap
As Blackbird Bakery owner Randall Perkins watched businesses on the Tennessee side of Bristol’s State Street reopen after mandatory coronavirus shutdowns in April, he wondered why Virginia’s state government didn’t allow Bristol, Virginia, businesses to reopen then too – especially given the fact that the city only logge[...]
With late start, Loudoun United shifts its goals
This was supposed to be a big year for soccer in Loudoun County, but like other businesses, Loudoun United FC has needed to adjust its expectations. In late May, the minor league team’s parent company asked the county’s board for deferrals on rent payments for its $25.6 million Segra Field stadium and training center, which [...]
Firing up Fairfax
By the numbers, Fairfax County should be the envy of every locality. As the headquarters for 11 Fortune 500 companies, the county is home to a large concentration of educated, high-income earners and boasts one of the biggest suburban office markets in the country, second only to Los Angeles. Two years ago, data from the [&helli[...]
Valley poultry plants see less virus testing
After a fast-growing COVID-19 outbreak started in Eastern Shore poultry processing plants in April, state and federal health officials mobilized quickly, conducting plantwide and community testing within days. More than 980 cases and 13 deaths were recorded in Accomack County by early June. The story’s been very different in R[...]
