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Trump extends control over Washington by taking management of Union Station away from Amtrak

WASHINGTON (AP) — ‘s administration is taking management of Union Station away from Amtrak in the latest example of the federal government exerting its power over the nation’s capital.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced the takeover Wednesday alongside Amtrak President Roger Harris at Washington’s main transportation hub during the launch of an updated version of the rail service’s Acela train. The federal government owns Union Station, which is near the Capitol.

Duffy said the station has “fallen into disrepair” when it should be a “point of pride” for the District of Columbia. He said the Republican administration’s move would help beautify the landmark in an economical way and was in line with Trump’s vision.

“He wants Union Station to be beautiful again. He wants transit to be safe again. And he wants our nation’s capital to be great again. And today is part of that,” Duffy said.

It’s Trump’s latest attempt to put the city under his control. In recent weeks, Trump has increased the number of federal law enforcement and immigration agents on city streets while also taking over the Metropolitan Police Department and activating thousands of National Guard members. Last week, Trump said he wants $2 billion from Congress to beautify Washington.

Duffy said the federal government can do a better job managing the train station and attract more shops and restaurants and generate more revenue that will be used to pay for upgrades to the station, which opened in 1907. Since then, the cavernous Roman-columned building has been through multiple management changes and numerous ups and downs regarding its cleanliness, safety and state of repair.

Mayor Muriel Bowser said upgrading the transit hub that serves various rail lines and buses would be an “amazing initiative” for the federal government to take on because the city cannot afford the cost.

“It has suffered from not being able to get the money that it needs for the renovation,” the Democrat said at a separate news conference.

National Guard troops have patrolled in and around Union Station ever since Trump announced the anti-crime effort this month. Vice President JD Vance and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth were shouted down by opponents of the federal intervention when they visited with troops there last week.

Duffy had pressed Amtrak about crime at the station in a March letter to its chief operating officer and requested an updated plan on how it intended to improve public safety there.

The deputy transportation secretary, Steve Bradbury, cited a new roof and new public restrooms among $170 million in upgrades that he said are needed at the station.

Amtrak’s new high-speed train, the NextGen Acela, will start serving the Northeast Corridor on Thursday, said Harris, Amtrak’s president. The trains can travel at speeds of up to 160 mph, about 10 mph faster than the Acela train it is replacing. Duffy and the officials from the Union Station event boarded one of the new trains afterward for an inaugural ride to New York’s Penn Station.

Union Station has had a history of ups and downs during its nearly 120-year history.

In 1981, after rain started pouring through the ceiling, the National Park Service, which has jurisdiction over some of the area surrounding the station, declared the building unsafe. The station was closed for five years for renovation and President Ronald Reagan signed the Union Station Redevelopment Act to help fund and organize its comeback.

More recently, the building fell on relatively hard times during the COVID pandemic. Foot traffic plummeted after passengers shunned mass transit while multiple shops closed at the station. But the past three years have witnessed a bit of a comeback.

The station has occasionally been a magnet for homeless individuals seeking shelter inside or camping in tents on Columbus Circle in front of the building. The proliferation of tents prompted the Park Service to clear the encampment in front of the station in June 2022.

Control and management of the physical building also have shifted over the years.

Cracker Barrel had good reasons to rebrand.

Like its namesake barrels that transported soda crackers until boxes replaced them, Cracker Barrel needed to change.

The restaurant chain’s new CEO, Julie Felss Masino, laid out the argument to investors last year: Cracker Barrel’s customer traffic was down 16% compared to 2019. Research showed consumers thought the brand fell short of competitors in essential ways, from the quality of the food to value and convenience.

“We are not leading in any area. We will change that,” Masino said.

But over the past week, Cracker Barrel’s attempted revamp hit a wall. The company saw severe backlash over its plans to modernize and simplify its nostalgic logo – including from .

“I don’t like the changes. I mean it’s always been Cracker Barrel like it is, so I’d like for it to stay like it is,” customer Sid Leist said during a visit to a Cracker Barrel in Vicksburg, Mississippi, on Tuesday.

By that evening, Cracker Barrel had reversed course and said its old logo would remain. It features an overall-clad man – said to represent Uncle Herschel, a relative of Cracker Barrel’s founder – leaning on a barrel, with the words “Old Country Store” underneath.

Investors cheered the move. Cracker Barrel’s stock price rose 8% Wednesday to close at $62.33 per share. That was even higher than its closing price on Aug. 15, before it announced the new logo.

Here’s how Lebanon, Tennessee-based Cracker Barrel got to this point and where it might go from here:

Transformation plan

Cracker Barrel hired Masino, a longtime Taco Bell and Starbucks executive, in July 2023. She was chosen for her record as an innovator, with the hope that she would attract new customers to Cracker Barrel, which operates 660 restaurants in 43 states.

Masino introduced updated menu items, like Hashbrown Casserole Shepherd’s Pie, to increase Cracker Barrel’s dinnertime traffic. She also started remodeling the company’s dark, antique-filled restaurants, lightening the walls and installing more comfortable seating.

The changes appeared to be helping. Cracker Barrel’s fiscal third quarter, which ended May 2, was the fourth consecutive quarter of same-store sales growth for the company. Same-store sales, a key metric for restaurants, measures sales at locations open at least one year.

Logo misstep

Richard Wilke, a former executive at the brand consultancy Lippincott who helped lead rebrands for companies like Delta Air Lines and Walmart, said Cracker Barrel’s existing logo is too detailed and fussy for the digital age, when companies have to think about how their brand appears in a smartphone app.

But Wilke said Cracker Barrel’s new logo, featuring just the company’s name in brown letters on a gold background, lacked character. The logo’s rollout also seemed like an afterthought. In a press release about new fall menu items released Aug. 18, the company mentioned the new logo in the fourth paragraph.

The approach Walmart took in 2008 provides a better model for a successful rebrand, according to Wilke. Walmart wanted to broaden its appeal, especially to shoppers in urban areas. It redesigned stores, slowly adding a new blue-and-yellow color scheme and yellow asterisk symbol. It trained employees on the meaning behind its new slogan, “Save money. Live better.”

After a year or more, the company finally introduced its new logo, which added the yellow asterisk and dropped the hyphen from Wal-Mart in order to de-emphasize the discount term “Mart.”

“The logo change was almost a natural conclusion to this multi-year transformation,” Wilke said. “I suspect that if we did it in the same sequence as Cracker Barrel, we would have gotten the same noise.”

Nostalgia factor

Cracker Barrel acknowledged Monday that it should have done a better job with the new logo’s rollout.

The company said it should have emphasized all the things that would remain the same about Cracker Barrel restaurants: the rocking chairs on the front porches, fireplaces in the dining rooms and vintage Americana and antiques scattered throughout.

The company said it would also continue to honor Uncle Herschel on its menu and on items sold in the country-style stores attached to its restaurants. But it was too late, and Cracker Barrel pulled its new logo the next day.

Next steps

Thomas Murphy, a professor of practice at Clark University School of Business, said returning to the original logo was a “positive course correction” given the intensity of fans’ response. Now, Murphy said, Cracker Barrel should reinforce the message that it’s not moving away from its values or heritage.

Murphy said Cracker Barrel can continue to “refresh” its stores, making them brighter and more welcoming to younger customers. But it doesn’t really need to “rebrand,” he said, which would indicate a bigger change in direction or purpose.

Wilke agrees that Cracker Barrel should stick with the old logo but continue to revamp its restaurants in the short term. Eventually, the company will have to adopt a simpler logo, he said, but it should design one that retains more of the brand’s heritage.

Political fallout

One difference with past corporate transformations — including a 2014 rebrand by Southwest Airlines to attract more business customers or Dunkin’ Donuts 2019 renaming to Dunkin’ — is the more divisive political climate.

Cracker Barrel caught heat not only from Donald Trump Jr. but from the president himself. On Tuesday morning, Trump said via Truth Social that Cracker Barrel “should go back to the old logo, admit a mistake based on customer response (the ultimate Poll), and manage the company better than ever before.”

Later, Trump celebrated Cracker Barrel’s decision to drop its new logo.

Wilke said he wishes both Republicans and Democrats would stay out of brand decisions like Cracker Barrel’s. Rebrands are almost always about trying to attract new customers without alienating old ones, he said.

“This isn’t a political story,” he said. “If politicians now turn every company logo design update into a debate about being ‘woke’ or ‘anti-woke,’ we are headed into a damaging new era for corporate .”

Wall Street edges higher and pushes S&P 500 to another record

Modest gains on Wall Street lifted the stock market to an all-time high Wednesday ahead of a highly anticipated earnings update from computer chip giant Nvidia.

The S&P 500 rose 0.2%, good enough to nudge the benchmark index past the record high it set two weeks ago. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.3% and the Nasdaq composite closed 0.2% higher.

Technology companies led the way higher, outweighing declines in communication services and other sectors.

After the market closed, Nvidia reported quarterly earnings and revenue that topped Wall Street analysts’ forecasts, though the company noted that sales of its chipsets rose at a slower pace than analysts anticipated. The stock fell 3.2% in after-hours trading after having slipped 0.1% during the regular session.

Investors consider Nvidia a barometer for the strength of the boom in artificial intelligence because the company makes most of the chips that power the technology. Its heavy weighting also gives Nvidia outsized influence as a bellwether for the broader market.

“Saying this is the most important stock in the world is an understatement,” said Jay Woods, chief global strategist at Freedom Capital Markets. “The stock’s average move after an earnings release is plus or minus 7.4%, so just an average move will make an impact on the entire market.”

Several big software companies — CrowdStrike Holdings, ServiceNow, Palo Alto Networks, Intuit and Salesforce — rose ahead of the Nvidia results.

The stocks have been mostly in the red so far this quarter amid worries that AI is going to make software creation much easier at the expense of big software companies’ competitive edge.

Cracker Barrel shares climbed 8% after the restaurant company scrapped plans to change its logo following an uproar on social media that even drew a comment from .

Shares in several companies rose after they reported quarterly results that topped analysts’ forecasts. Department store chain Kohl’s vaulted 24% and database platform company MongoDB surged 38%. Both companies also raised their full-year guidance.

J.M. Smucker slid 4.4% after the jelly and jam maker’s latest quarterly snapshot fell short of analysts’ estimates.

Among other stocks that lost ground: doughnut shop chain Krispy Kreme, which fell 3.5%, and Paramount Skydance, which dropped 6.5% for the biggest decline among S&P 500 companies.

Treasury yields mostly fell in the bond market. The yield on the 10-year Treasury slipped to 4.24% from 4.26% late Tuesday.

Crude oil prices rose. European markets finished mostly lower and Asian markets closed mixed overnight.

Trading on Wall Street is off to an uneven start this week following big gains last week on hopes for interest rate cuts from the Fed.

Markets have been subdued after Trump escalated his fight with the central bank by trying to fire Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook. Cook’s lawyer said she’ll sue Trump’s administration to try to stop him.

Trump has been feuding with the central bank over its cautious interest rate policy. The Fed has held rates steady since late 2024 over worries that Trump’s unpredictable tariff policies will reignite inflation. Trump has also threatened to fire Fed Chair Jerome Powell, often taunting him with name-calling. Still, he is only one of 12 votes that decides interest rate policy.

For now, the situation isn’t expected to have a major impact on the Fed’s near-term policy.

The two-year Treasury yield, which closely tracks expectations for Federal Reserve action, dropped to 3.62% from 3.68%.

Traders are still betting the Fed will trim its benchmark interest rate at its next meeting in September. Traders see an 90.3% chance that the central bank will cut the rate by a quarter of a percentage point, according to data from CME Group.

“It’s kind of a foregone conclusion from the market that we’re going to get the September interest rate cut,” said Jed Ellerbroek, portfolio manager at Argent Capital Management. “The bigger question is probably ‘What’s after that?’ ”

The Federal Reserve cut its benchmark interest rate in late 2024 after spending the last several years fighting rising inflation by raising rates. It managed to mostly tame inflation and avoided having those higher rates stall economic growth, thanks largely to strong consumer spending and a resilient job market.

The Fed hit the pause button heading into 2025 over concerns that higher tariffs imposed by Trump could reignite inflation. Lower interest rates make borrowing easier, helping to spur more investment and spending, but that could also potentially fuel inflation. However, concerns are deepening over the jobs market.

Economic data is relatively light this week until Friday, which will bring another update on inflation: the U.S. personal consumption expenditures index. Economists expect it to show that inflation remained at about 2.9% in July, compared with a year ago. Businesses have been warning investors and consumers about higher costs and prices because of tariffs.

Steep tariffs placed by the Trump administration on India over Russian oil purchases took effect Wednesday, bringing the combined tariffs imposed on the U.S. ally to 50%.

All told, the S&P 500 rose 15.46 points to 6,481.40. The Dow added 147.16 points to 45,565.23, and the Nasdaq climbed 45.87 points to 21,590.14.

Nvidia’s latest quarter shows signs of slowing AI chip sales amid concerns of tech bubble

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Nvidia’s sales of its chipsets rose at a slower pace than analysts anticipated during the company’s latest quarter, a letdown likely to stoke worries that the AI craze has been fool’s gold.

The results announced Wednesday were hotly anticipated because Nvidia has emerged as a bellwether of a two-year-old AI boom that has been propelling the stock market to new heights while making the Silicon Valley chipmaker the first publicly traded company with a $4 trillion market value.

In recent weeks, though, recent research reports and comments by prominent tech executives have raised investor fears that the AI mania has been mostly overblown.

And now Nvidia’s latest numbers covering the May-July period may feed those perceptions because the sales of the company’s processors, which are indispensable components that power the technology in scattered around the world, appear to be decelerating slightly faster than investors thought they would.

The AI chips are part of Nvidia’s data center division, which posted revenue of $41.1 billion, a 56% increase from the same time last year, but below the analyst forecast of $41.3 billion, according to FactSet Research.

Even so, Nvidia’s profit of $26.4 billion, or $1.08 per share, was higher than analysts predicted, as was its total revenue of $46.7 billion.

But Nvidia’s stock still slipped nearly 3% in extended trading after the fiscal second quarter report came out, indicating the performance wasn’t enough to allay investors’ fears.

BigBear.ai grabs naming rights to Commanders training facility

McLean-based government tech contractor last week announced that it partnered with the football team and secured the rights to name the team’s training facility in .

Now named the BigBear.ai Performance Center, the 162-acre training complex houses three grass fields, an indoor turf field, draft room, team meeting rooms, full strength training and recovery facilities and an in-house content studio.

But the partnership doesn’t end there, as BigBear.ai will be featured across the fifth-floor suite level of Northwest Stadium, at suites entrances to the stadium, on the team’s practice jerseys and on other team assets.

“BigBear.ai is going on offense, and this partnership exemplifies our strategy” said BigBear.ai CEO Kevin McAleenan in a statement. “We’re stepping onto the national stage with one of the ‘s most recognized franchises — an organization that shares our deep dedication to innovation and excellence. Our partnership marks the first in a series of decisive moves we are taking to strengthen our position and unlock the next chapter of growth.”

The terms of the deal were not disclosed. BigBear.ai says it is looking for ways to use the company’s technology to enhance the fan experience.

Commanders President Mark Clouse says he was “excited” about the partnership.

“BigBear.ai has been a proud part of this region, delivering innovation and impact from right here in our own backyard,” Clouse said. “We have been focused on building momentum across every facet of the organization, and our partnership represents the next step in advancing performance, progress, and meaningful engagement with our fans and community.”

Headquartered in , BigBear.ai is a that provides technology and services for defense, national security and critical infrastructure. The company earned $158.2 million in revenue in 2024, up from $155.2 million in revenue in 2023.

The Ashburn-based Commanders were founded in 1932 and are one of the original members of the NFL’s Eastern Division. Last month, threatened to hold up a new stadium deal for the team if it did not restore its old name of the Washington , which is considered offensive to Native Americans.

Google announces Chesterfield data center as part of $9B investment


SUMMARY:

  • is investing an additional $9 billion in Virginia by 2026 for cloud and AI infrastructure
  • Investment includes a new data center in , currently under construction
  • Other expansions planned in Loudoun and Prince William Counties

Google plans to invest an additional $9 billion in Virginia through the end of 2026, with much of the funding going toward the development of a new data center in Chesterfield County, announced Wednesday.

The investments will be focused on cloud and infrastructure, the governor said. Google will also expand existing facilities in Loudoun and Prince William Counties and expand education and workforce development programs for Virginians.

Construction has already begun on the new data center. A Google spokesperson said the data center will be located at a 300-plus acre site at 2700 Bermuda Hundred Road near . While Google did not provide a specific timeline for how long the project would take, the spokesperson said data center projects typically take 18 to 24 months to complete.

The governor’s office says once the new Chesterfield County data center is complete, the facility will join the and campuses as part of Google’s global network of . Google is eligible for data center sales and use tax exemptions on qualifying computer equipment and enabling software.

“Google’s $9 billion investment in Virginia is a powerful endorsement of our commonwealth’s leadership in the AI economy,” Youngkin said in a statement. “As AI is increasingly part of every aspect of work, this project reinforces our commitment to preparing Virginians for the future. Investments like this not only expand Virginia’s cloud and AI infrastructure but also expand our efforts to build a future-ready workforce through initiatives like our AI Career Launch Pad. Virginia is the largest data center market in the world and remains a top-ranked hub for AI talent and innovation, where opportunity meets preparation.”

The governor announced that all Virginia-based college students now have free access to the Google AI Pro plan for 12 months and AI training and job search support. Additionally, the University of Virginia, Brightpoint Community College and Community College are among the first cohort of universities that are part of the Google AI for Education Accelerator.

“With today’s announcement, Google is deepening our roots in Virginia [and] extending our investments across the state to help position Virginia — and America — for the opportunities technology can deliver,” Alphabet and Google President and Chief Investment Officer Ruth Porat said in a statement. “Google’s investments in technical infrastructure and AI skills development help to ensure that people across Virginia and across the United States have access to opportunity in this exciting era of American innovation.”

Google did not share details about the size and scope of the data center project, cost estimates for the data center, estimates on how many jobs the project would bring or details on what the expansions in Loudoun and Prince William Counties will entail.

 

CoStar completes $1.9B acquisition of Domain

Arlington County-based data and analytics company announced Wednesday that it has completed its $1.9 billion of Australian property listings platform .

Domain reaches an average of 7 million Australians each month, said.

“Today marks an important milestone as CoStar Group and Domain officially come together to redefine the Australian property market,” Andy Florance, founder and CEO of CoStar Group, said in a statement. “For too long, agents, buyers and vendors have faced an unbalanced marketplace dominated by an intention to extract value rather than deliver it. Our vision is different. We are building a more compelling user experience at a lower cost — driving greater value for agents, vendors, and buyers alike. We are the agent’s ally, and we will never operate at their expense.”

In May, CoStar announced the acquisition would be 3 billion in Australian dollars, roughly $1.9 billion in U.S. dollars. Now that the acquisition is complete, CoStar is working to integrate Domain into the company and accelerate the rollout of technology and customer solutions in Australia.

Earlier this year, it was announced that CoStar agreed to pay Domain shareholders AU $4.43 per share, equivalent to approximately $2.85 in U.S. dollars.

CoStar could not be immediately reached for comment regarding questions about the role Domain President Jason Pellegrino will play in the combined company, the number of Domain employees who will be integrated into the combined company and whether there will be layoffs.

Based in Sydney, Domain owns several property brands, including Domain, Allhomes, Commercial Real Estate, Domain Insight and Pricefinder.

Costar’s Homes.com brand retained second place in the nation for residential real estate listings based on monthly unique visitors, Florance said in May.

“We dismantled market dominance in the U.S. by transforming Homes.com into a true agent-friendly platform, and we are ready to apply that same proven playbook in Australia,” he said Wednesday.

The acquisition comes as CoStar is suing Zillow for alleged copyright infringement, claiming that the competitor is illegally using tens of thousands of CoStar’s copyrighted images illegally on its real estate listings sites and partnership network sites.

Before the acquisition, CoStar had more than 6,800 employees across 72 offices in 13 countries. The company established a global operations center in Richmond in 2016 and has since grown that office to over 2,350 employees, becoming one of the area’s larger employers. This year, the company moved its headquarters from Washington, D.C., to Arlington.

Developer pulls out of massive Charles City County data center

SUMMARY:

  • withdrew plans for a 515-acre data center in
  • Residents opposed noise and future industrial land use
  • Company cited concerns about site readiness

Kansas-based development company Diode Ventures has backed out of a massive data center campus in Charles City County, following significant opposition to the project.

The center would have been located about 20 miles outside of Richmond. The company had sought to rezone five properties totaling about 515 acres from agricultural to light industrial for the development of the Roxbury Technology Park campus. The site, which is about three-fifths the size of New York’s Central Park, is bordered by Charles City, CC and Roxbury roads. Diode Ventures submitted an application with the county in March.

Charles City County Director of Community Development Gary Mitchell said the application was unanimously approved by the but faced opposition from neighboring residents. Criticisms included fears about noise and objections to the land transforming into an industrial use. However, Mitchell noted that while the land wasn’t zoned for industrial, a land use plan called for it to be changed to industrial use at some point.

The county board of supervisors in June tabled voting on the application to Aug. 26. But Mitchell said that Diode withdrew the application last week without providing much explanation.

A Diode Ventures spokesperson on Tuesday provided a statement saying the company has spent the better part of two years working in the county to analyze the site for data center development while adjusting its application based on community feedback.

“During that time, we also identified ways the community would benefit — such as improved local infrastructure, significant new tax revenue streams and job training initiatives,” the spokesperson said.

However, after careful consideration, Diode said it notified the supervisors on Aug. 18 that it would withdraw its applications for the site.

“Despite the county planning commission’s support of the project earlier this year, we made the decision to shift our focus elsewhere based on the results of conversations with our local collaborators and analysis of the site’s availability to be shovel-ready with power and municipal support,’ the spokesperson said. “Moving forward, Diode is committed to seeking opportunities to align future projects and their associated substantial financial and infrastructure benefits with the needs and values of the communities where we operate — much like we have in places like Kansas City, where we have helped bring millions of dollars to schools and job training efforts. We thank those who engaged with us during this process, and we wish Charles City County success. ”

County supervisors could not be immediately reached for comment.

The county’s staff report for the project described digital commerce as “the next industrial revolution,” saying it was “vitally important” that the county be included in the new digital economy.

The project was expected to generate between 800 to 1,200 construction jobs during peak construction, according to Diode’s website. The website also says that the project would have created between 50 to 100 full-time permanent jobs once operational.

, despite being an attractive tax revenue opportunity for localities’ coffers, have become increasingly subject to opposition by residents throughout the state. In June, Chesapeake City Council unanimously voted to deny a rezoning request that would have allowed Hampton Roads’ first major data center, and in April, a Herndon data center developer withdrew its $8.85 billion proposal for a data center campus and natural gas power plant in Pittsylvania County.

, aka Data Center Alley, in March approved a new regulation policy for data centers, eliminating them as a by-right use, although 24 applications were grandfathered in. As of February, the county had approximately 46 million square feet of data centers constructed or with a building permit issued, and about 61.5 million square feet of potential data center development.

Amentum wins $4B Space Force contract

Chantilly-based government contractor , through its subsidiary Jacobs Technology, has been awarded a contract of up to $4 billion from the United States to provide and services.

The 10-year Force Range Contract seeks Amentum’s help to modernize space launch operations.

“Amentum will execute this contract to ensure the Space Force maintains assured access to space in support of national security, exploration and commercial missions,” said Mark Walter, president of Amentum’s engineering and technology group, in a statement.

Under this contract, the company will provide systems engineering, cybersecurity, integration, logistics, sustainment, operations and program management services to support Assured Access to Space, the largest organization within Space Systems Command. It will also update the Launch and Test Range System — a complex network supporting launch and test activity.

The company says modernizing the LTRS will enable a high-cadence, multiuser spaceport model for national security, space exploration and commercial launch operations.

Amentum’s initiatives will include recruiting and retaining low-density or high-demand technical talent such as machinists, radar specialists, data scientists and engineers.

The indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity contract started on June 1, according to an announcement from last week. Work will take place across both the Eastern and Western Ranges, including Patrick Space Force Base, Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Vandenberg Space Force Base and several geographically separated units.

Virginia’s chance to legalize marijuana right

SUMMARY:

  • Executive director of Virginia-based nonprofit discusses goals in regulated adult-use market in Virginia
  • State lawmakers are set to take up matter in upcoming session after legalizing medical marijuana
  • Learn from other states’ experiences, keep taxes below 15% and invest locally, writes Chelsea Higgs Wise

As Virginia lawmakers craft the licensing framework for a regulated adult-use cannabis market, there are many lessons to be learned from other jurisdictions. Virginia has a unique opportunity to legalize it right — demonstrating that reparative justice and local economic prosperity can go hand-in-hand — while not overlooking the pitfalls of others.

Don’t allow monopolies. Canada’s legalization system allows an individual license holder to both grow the product and run the consumer stores that sell it. Nevada and Florida have similarly allowed vertical integration, as has Virginia with medical marijuana. In all cases, a few large “seed-to-sale” corporations have captured the market, squeezing out both small growers and small local sellers. Washington state, by comparison, prohibited vertical integration and limited the number of sites any single company could operate, leading to a healthy community of independent businesses. New York went even further by capping licenses per entity, and banning predatory management agreements that let large firms use equity licensees as fronts.

Lesson learned: Build a competitive, two-tiered market. By separating producers and retailers, we prevent any one business from controlling the supply chain. Prioritize licenses for small businesses — including legacy and farmers. Absent strong legislation, Virginia’s adult cannabis market is likely to emulate its medical marijuana market, which has been dominated by a handful of out-of-state, multimillion dollar corporations. Virginia’s legislators have the opportunity to ensure our small Virginia businesses are included in all phases and stages of this industry.

Make sure the regulated market can compete with the illicit market. In Michigan, the eagerness for immediate tax revenue led to a process that flooded the market. With so many licenses, prices collapsed and eventually drove many licensees out of business, which also led to a reduction in revenue. Virginia’s medical marijuana monopoly has driven prices so high that many of our most vulnerable medical patients choose to either stick with the illicit market or drive to Maryland. 

Lesson learned: Build a smart, strategic rollout. We’re all eager to launch legal access, but it’s critical that we legalize a competitive and sustainable market. Yes, we need to be able to quickly ramp up to at least one licensed store per 25,000 residents. At the same time, we need to be sure we’ve heard from all localities, researched market demand and created a network of resources that support our local entrepreneurs. Focusing on the short-term or immediate revenue gains will not allow Virginia to fully realize the potential of this industry on our economy.

Lesson learned: Keep combined state and local taxes at or below 15%. Excessive taxes will increase prices that simply fuel the illicit market. We must tax cannabis at a rate that keeps the prices competitive. 

Keep the focus on our goals. Virginia legislators made clear when they voted to legalize cannabis in 2021 that one key goal was repairing Black, rural, and other communities hurt by unfair drug policies of the past. Investing in repair is not just a moral imperative, it’s sound economic strategy. A 2022 study by Supernova Women / Cannabis Impact Fund found that for every dollar invested in a social equity program, there is a projected $1.20 return in the form of new tax revenue, increased economic activity, and reduced social costs. Washington state regulators, for all their success encouraging small businesses, failed to prioritize their equity goals. Minority-owned businesses in Washington continue to struggle in getting a foothold in the industry that once targeted their community.

Lesson learned: Invest in impacted people, communities and local farmers. New York law, for example, calls for half of the licenses issued to go to people from impacted communities and those with past cannabis convictions. Focusing on harms based on evidence while avoiding litigation will be a delicate balance, but is both absolutely necessary and achievable for Virginia.

The choice is clear: Design a market rooted in fairness, competition and repair that will benefit the commonwealth for generations to come rather than ignoring the lessons learned from other states for big money now. By embedding safeguards against consolidation, investing in the repair of impacted people and communities, and ensuring fair competition, Virginia can legalize cannabis right, with a strong, local industry that creates wealth broadly, boosts revenue and keeps consumers safe.

Chelsea Higgs Wise, MSW, is the co-founder and executive director of Virginia-based nonprofit Marijuana Justice. Wise serves on the national United for Marijuana Decriminalization Coalition steering committee, as well as the Global Justice in Emerging Cannabis Cohort.