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Spanberger leads Earle-Sears in early state polling

It’s still early days, but in Virginia’s 2025 , Democratic candidate Abigail Spanberger leads in a pair of new statewide polls.

In the Virginia Commonwealth Wilder School of Government and Public Affairs released Friday, former U.S. Rep. Spanberger has the support of 44% of people polled, and Earle-Sears has 34%, while 17% say they are undecided. ‘s Wason Center for Civic Leadership reported last week that Spanberger has a five-point lead over the lieutenant , 44% to 39%, with 16% undecided.

The two polls show a wider gap between the candidates than previous surveys.

Mason-Dixon Polling & Strategy, in a poll conducted in December 2024 and released Jan. 10, reported that Spanberger was ahead by 3 points, while she had only a one-point advantage in a poll released Jan. 8 by Emerson College and The Hill.

Spanberger and Earle-Sears are their parties’ presumed gubernatorial nominees, although U.S. Rep. Bobby Scott has not yet ruled out a run for the Democratic nomination, as of last week. The Mason-Dixon poll asked respondents who they would vote for between Scott and Earle-Sears, and she had a two-point lead over Scott in that result, although Scott showed stronger results than Spanberger among Black voters, receiving 85% of their votes compared to 81% for Spanberger.

“The 10% lead of Spanberger to Earle-Sears (44% to 34%) should cause Earle-Sears to be concerned, especially given 25% of Republicans do not show support for her candidacy,” former Gov. Doug Wilder said in a statement released with the VCU poll Friday. “Spanberger’s lead, however, could be significantly impacted should Republicans close ranks around Earle-Sears’ candidacy. This is likewise true with independents since they prefer Earle-Sears to Spanberger (21% to 15%).” 

According to the Virginia Public Access Project, Spanberger has raised more than $9.59 million in campaign dollars and had $6.55 million cash on hand as of Dec. 31, 2024, while Earle-Sears raised $2.56 million and had $2.11 million cash on hand. Spanberger declared her candidacy in November 2023, 10 months before Earle-Sears threw her hat in the ring.

If either woman wins the gubernatorial race, as seems likely, the victor will make history as Virginia’s first woman governor. Earle-Sears is the first woman to serve as Virginia’s lieutenant governor and the first Black woman and immigrant to hold statewide office.

Spanberger, a former CIA officer and postal inspector, served three terms in Congress, first beating Republican incumbent U.S. Rep. Dave Brat in 2018 in a traditionally -leaning district, and maintaining her seat in 2022 after congressional redistricting. She represented Fredericksburg, Caroline County and part of Prince William County until Jan. 1, when U.S. Rep. Eugene Vindman succeeded Spanberger in Virginia’s 7th Congressional District.

Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin, who has endorsed Earle-Sears in the governor’s race, is rumored to be interested in running for U.S. Sen. Mark Warner’s seat, which is up for election in 2026. Warner, a former Democratic governor, would be seeking his fourth term in the Senate and has 45% support of voters polled by VCU, compared to Youngkin’s 38%.

As for other areas of focus, CNU poll respondents said that improving K-12 education, reducing health care costs and strengthening the state’s are their highest priorities for the governor and the General Assembly. In the VCU poll, nearly 60% of voters said the economy and cost of living were their top issue, and K-12 education was the second most-cited issue.

2024 Va. housing market outpaced 2023 — barely

There were 102,509 in Virginia in 2024. That’s 4,000 more than the previous year, according to .

A chart looking at home sales in December in Virginia over several years.
Photo courtesy Virginia Realtors

“While Virginia’s 2024 ended stronger than 2023, it was still relatively slow compared to average levels,” Ryan Price, chief economist for the trade organization, said in a statement. “Looking ahead to 2025, we predict pent-up demand will continue facilitating home , though that same demand may keep upward pressure on prices.”

For December 2024, Virginia had 7,907 home sales, up 14.1% from December 2023, according to Virginia Realtors released January 22. In November 2024, 7,853 homes sold across the state.

Rates for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 6.72% in December 2024, according to Freddie Mac data.

“Last year’s market was unusually slow due to interest rates staying in the upper- to mid-7% range for much of the fall market,” Lorraine Arora, president of Virginia Realtors, said in a statement. “The surge we observed at the end of 2024 indicates buyers are coming to terms with mortgage rate levels which, while still elevated, are lower than a year ago.”

The Virginia market had 16,588 at the end of December 2024, a 13% increase from December 2023. “Supply in the market has been expanding for more than a year, though overall supply levels remain tight,” a Virginia Realtors news release explained.

The statewide median sales price in December 2024 was $413,490, up $31,000 from December 2023.

A graph illustrating the increase in median home prices.
Image courtesy Virginia Realtors

New listings last month totaled 5,649, up 13% from December 2023. While the situation is improving, the number of new listings remains below average, according to Virginia Realtors.

December 2024’s supply of (MSI) — a measure of how many months there would be homes on the market if no new inventory were added — stood at 1.9, up from 1.8 in December 2023.

Homes took slightly longer to sell last month. Statewide, homes spent a median of 19 days on the market, up from the 16-day median reported in November 2024 and two days longer than the median reported in December 2023.

Based in , Virginia Realtors represents about 35,000 Realtors and is the state’s largest trade association.

Accenture Federal Services wins $3.5B DOE contract

The Department of awarded Federal Services, an federal contractor, a $3.5 billion, single-award, blanket purchase agreement to provide services to the agency on Friday, just prior to the ‘s return to the White House.

The CIO Business Operations Support Services (CBOSS) contract runs through 2032, according to a notice in the Federal Procurement Data System. The DOE received five bids, according to the award.

A spokesperson for directed a request for comment to the DOE Thursday.

In 2019, the Accenture subsidiary won a five-year CBOSS contract with a potential value of $2 billion. It covered general IT support, telecommunications, cybersecurity, systems architecture and engineering, and shared services, according to the federal contractor.

In November 2024, Accenture Federal Services announced the award of a task order of up to $1.6 billion to scale and enhance Cloud One, the cloud computing platforms available to the U.S. Department of Defense that are managed by the Air Force.

An Accenture subsidiary, Accenture Federal Services employs 15,500 workers. Its parent company reported $64.9 billion in revenue in fiscal 2024.

Va. to receive $107.4M in updated opioids settlement

Virginia stands to receive up to $107.4 million in a multistate proposed by OxyContin producer Purdue Pharma and its owners, the family, Virginia announced Thursday.

The defendants in the federal case have offered to pay $7.4 billion to 14 states to settle claims that under the leadership of the Sacklers, Purdue “invented, manufactured and aggressively marketed products for decades, fueling waves of addiction and overdose deaths across the country,” according to Miyares’ statement. In the agreement, members of the Sackler family would pay $6.5 billion, and Purdue would pay $900 million, and the Sacklers would no longer own the company, which filed for bankruptcy in 2019 after Purdue was sued thousands of times.

Much of the settlement money would go toward funding opioid addiction treatment and prevention programs over the next 15 years.

However, now the decision will go to the U.S. Supreme Court, which overturned an earlier settlement agreement in June 2024. The high court rejected that $4.3 billion settlement, in which Virginia expected to receive $80 million, in part because the agreement would have protected the Sackler family from future civil liability claims. The new settlement does not have that protection.

Although opioid addiction is a problem nationwide, Virginia has played a significant role in the lawsuits against Purdue and McKinsey & Co., which agreed in December 2024 to pay the federal government $650 million in a five-year deferred prosecution agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice. Global management firm McKinsey was under investigation for its role in advising Purdue on how to increase of OxyContin, a brand name of oxycodone.

In that case, the ‘s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit (MFCU) collaborated with U.S. ‘s offices in the Western District of Virginia and the District of Massachusetts, and a former McKinsey senior partner pleaded guilty after being charged with obstruction of justice in Abingdon’s federal court.

In 2018, under former Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring, the state sued Purdue and related entities in Tazewell County Circuit Court, claiming that the company violated the Virginia Consumer Protection Act in marketing with “misrepresentations and deception regarding the risks of addiction and benefits of prescription opioids,” Miyares said in the announcement. The following year, 2019, the state included members of the Sackler family in the . This settlement, if approved, will resolve those claims.

In addition to Virginia, the other states involved in the settlement are California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Illinois, Massachusetts, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont and West Virginia.

Va. Beach gives Something in the Water 5-day deadline over contract breach

After receiving a brief reprieve, the clock is ticking for organizers for ‘ . Organizers were given five days to make significant progress in meeting ‘s requirements for a lineup of performers and a start to ticket , city officials decided Tuesday.

If organizers do not meet the city’s expectations by end of business Monday, they’ll be in breach of contract, and the two-day concert in late April will likely be canceled.

“I’m calling it,” said City Councilor Amelia Ross-Hammond, who recommended giving the festival a grace period earlier in January, after organizers failed to meet a Dec. 31, 2024, deadline to provide the city with a full lineup of announced performers and begin ticket sales for the April 26-27 Oceanfront event.

A council liaison to the festival, Ross-Hammond moved to defer an agenda item Jan. 7 giving Something in the Water a five-day deadline, and the council voted 8-2 in agreement. Mayor Bobby Dyer, who had requested the resolution setting a deadline, noted that hoteliers and other city businesses had asked to give the festival organizers more time. However, Ross-Hammond asked City Manager Patrick Duhaney and his staff begin reporting weekly to the council on the festival’s progress.

At Tuesday’s informal council meeting, Deputy City Manager Amanda Jarratt had little news to report.

“They’ve maintained positive momentum towards bringing the festival to fruition,” Jarratt said. “They’ve also indicated that they are in active communication with event sponsors but remain impacted by the destruction associated with the L.A. fires. We have not received any information regarding ticket sales or the release of a lineup from festival organizers. In addition, there’s been no official communication related to a definitive timeline to receive this information. We have not received official confirmation related to their contractors and support teams necessary to support an event of this magnitude.”

Dyer and Ross-Hammond noted that the 90-day window for the festival was approaching, and that the city would need that time to work on public safety measures for the two-day concert.

“We don’t have any definitive answers, we don’t have any contracts right now to look at,” Ross-Hammond said Tuesday. “We’ve put out the welcome mats, we’ve done the grace, we’ve done the deference for a certain amount of weeks, and it’s coming back the same-old same-old. I’m looking at calling this now.”

Ross-Hammond thanked fellow councilors for supporting the earlier deference, and she handed the matter to the mayor’s judgment without a full council vote. Directing Duhaney and his staff to set a five-day deadline for organizers to cure the breach, Dyer said that he and other city officials “wanted to give their full effort” to the festival, which has been a moneymaker in 2019 and 2023 for the city coffers and nearby businesses.

The 2019 festival brought in $24 million in revenue for Hampton Roads, and a report prepared for the city found that the 2023 festival generated an economic impact of $26 million to $29 million for the City of Virginia Beach.

“Unfortunately, our backs are to the wall,” Dyer said Tuesday.

Council member Michael Berlucchi asked Duhaney what precisely the cure would need to be for SITW to avoid default. “The cure would have to be acceptable to the city,” Duhaney said. “I’m not sure what the cure would be.”

Berlucchi said he wanted to avoid confusion among the public, the city and concert organizers, but Duhaney noted that the acceptable cure would involve a “nuanced discussion.”

SITW’s team did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday.

After a successful debut in 2019, Something in the Water was canceled in 2020 and 2021, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2022, Williams decided to host SITW in Washington, D.C., instead of Virginia Beach, after his cousin was shot and killed by a Virginia Beach police officer.

The festival returned to Virginia Beach in April 2023, with some canceled performances due to tornado threats and lightning. Williams then scheduled the 2024 festival for October 2024, but just after tickets went on sale last September, he unexpectedly called off the festival, writing, “Virginia doesn’t deserve better, Virginia deserves the best. So, Something in the Water has to match that. It just isn’t ready yet.”

After that, the city required SITW organizers to sign a contract with specific deadlines in order to receive $500,000 in funding from the city.

Dominion says offshore wind farm moving forward, despite executive order

President Donald Trump started his second term Monday with a flurry of executive orders, including one that temporarily ceases all federal wind leases under consideration and calls for an “immediate review” of the policies before resuming.

So, what does that mean for Virginia and Dominion , which is midway through constructing its $9.8 billion Coastal Virginia Offshore farm off the coast of and has purchased two other wind farm leases in the Atlantic Ocean?

The -based said in a statement Tuesday that it is “confident CVOW will be completed on time, and that Virginia’s clean energy transition will continue with bipartisan support for many years to come.”

Dominion noted that the state’s transition — part of 2020’s Virginia Clean Act, which requires Dominion to deliver 100% of electricity by renewable power sources by 2045 — has been underway “for several years under multiple state and federal administrations and with bipartisan support from policymakers at every level.”

Dominion spokesperson Jeremy Slayton added that any plans for the utility’s other two ocean leases — the 40,000-acre CVOW-South plot off eastern and the 176,505-acre lease adjacent to CVOW purchased last year — are well in the future. “At this time, we do not have an estimated timeline or cost for development of either CVOW South or the new leasehold,” he said. “Based on our most recent long-term planning document, if we pursued these projects, they are planned for the 2030s.”

Dominion completed CVOW’s federal approval process during the Biden administration, which was much friendlier to renewable energy and particularly than Trump’s White House is expected to be. The 2.6-gigawatt project, which is expected to provide enough energy to power 660,000 homes, is scheduled to be completed in 2026. As of November 2024, half of the monopile foundations for the 174 turbines had been installed.

The utility also sold some assets, including the $2.6 billion sale of a 50% noncontrolling stake of CVOW to investor Stonepeak, in 2024, reducing Dominion’s debt by approximately $21 billion and lowering risks during the wind farm’s construction.

Va. Tech Innovation Campus opens first academic building

The first academic of ‘s in opened to students Tuesday as classes commenced.

Virginia Tech started construction on the first academic building of the $1 billion campus in September 2021 and had planned to open the $302 million building in August 2024, but supply chain issues delayed the opening of the 300,000-square-foot, 11-story building.

Academic Building One has instruction, research, office and support spaces for graduate and programs. The building includes research and testing labs and maker spaces.

“This is an incredible moment for this campus,” said Lance Collins, vice president and executive director of the Innovation Campus, “because for the first time, we’re inviting all of our students onto the campus, so now the faculty, the staff and the students are all here, classes are underway, and we are, for the first time, bringing the entire full force of the Innovation Campus together.”

Virginia Tech opened the Innovation Campus headquarters on the ground floor of 3000 Potomac Ave. in 2021, adjacent to the site of the 3.5-acre campus. It houses executive offices and a café-style area.

Plans for the Innovation Campus include two more buildings, each about 150,000 square feet.

From fall 2020 until December 2024, graduate students attended classes at Virginia Tech’s Northern Virginia Center in Falls Church, which closed in December 2024 and is set to become part of a mixed-use district including the ‘s Coalition for Smart Construction. The coalition will occupy 40,000 square feet on the ground floor of Hitt Contracting’s new headquarters under construction.

The Innovation Campus is part of Virginia’s Tech Talent Investment Program, which aims to produce 31,000 in-demand computer science and related graduates in the next two decades. At its full buildout, the Innovation Campus will produce about 500 master’s program graduates and 50 doctoral candidates annually.

The campus is “expanding the footprint of Virginia Tech in this region, and this is just such an important region,” Collins said, citing the proximity of the federal government and the presence of major tech companies and defense contractors.

“For so many reasons, it’s really important that the tech ecosystem here really be at the top, and so we believe we’re part of that, just in terms of growing the tech talent that will be feeding that tech ecosystem,” he added.

The Tech Talent Investment Program helped the region attract e-tailer Amazon.com’s multibillion-dollar HQ2, its East Coast headquarters. Located in , the first phase of HQ2, Metropolitan Park, opened in June 2023, although Amazon announced in March 2023 it was delaying construction on the second phase, PenPlace. Clark Construction plans to begin installing utilities for PenPlace, though, in March, according to Washington Business Journal.

Also nearby, the Potomac Yard-VT metro station opened in May 2023.

QinetiQ names new president and CEO

Tom Vecchiolla, a longtime defense executive, has succeeded Shawn N. Purvis as president and CEO of security and , the UK-based parent company QinetiQ Group announced Tuesday.

Purvis joined QinetiQ in February 2022, having previously worked at Northrop Grumman, Science Applications Corp. (SAIC) and Lockheed Martin. In November 2022, QinetiQ US acquired McLean-based Avantus Federal for $590 million.

“We are pleased to announce that Tom Vecchiolla has taken over the leadership of our U.S. business, succeeding Shawn Purvis, who helped build the business and brand in the U.S.,” QinetiQ said in a statement. “Tom is a highly experienced and seasoned leader, having been president of Raytheon International Inc. and most recently CEO of North America.”

Purvis said in an interview Tuesday that her intent was “to build a presence and establish a platform” for QinetiQ in the United States, and that she felt she had succeeded. “Now I’m going to do something different.”

Vecchiolla comes to QinetiQ with more than three decades of experience, including military, public sector and defense industry executive roles.

After graduating from the U.S. Naval Academy with a degree in physics, Vecchiolla spent 22 years as a Navy pilot and later as an acquisition professional at the U.S. Department of Defense. He then worked as a military legislative assistant for former U.S. Sen. Olympia J. Snowe, R-Maine, according to his LinkedIn page.

In 2002, Vecchiolla joined what was then , now known as RTX. Over 15 years, he worked as the company’s director of business development and vice president of business development and strategy. For three years he was president of Raytheon International and led business development teams worldwide.

In 2018, Vecchiolla became president and CEO of ST Engineering North America, an defense contractor.

QinetiQ US is a subsidiary of QinetiQ Group PLC, a British defense, aerospace, and technology company, that has more than 6,000 employees. QinetiQ US reported $1.3 billion in total contract awards during fiscal year 2024.

Va. Bar Association elects 2025 president

A Richmond who leads the family practice group at FloranceGordonBrown in Richmond will serve as the 2025 president of the , the announced earlier this month.

President of FloranceGordanBrown, Kimberlee Harris Ramsey joined VBA in 1989 and is a past chair of the association’s domestic relations section.

Additionally, the VBA named several other 2025 leadership positions for the year. The attorneys will be installed at the association’s annual meeting Jan. 23-25 in Williamsburg.

Ramsey succeeds W. Ryan Snow, a partner at Crenshaw, Ware & Martin in Norfolk, as president. During his tenure as VBA’s president, Snow formed two task forces, finalized a restructuring of the association’s finances and guided a revision of its bylaws, according to the VBA. As immediate past president, Snow will continue to sit on VBA’s executive committee, which conducts association business between its quarterly meetings.

Lonnie D. “Chip” Nunley III, a partner with in Richmond, will succeed Ramsey as president-elect. Nunley, who serves on the Virginia Supreme Court’s Access to Justice Commission, joined the VBA in 1985.

Nupur S. Bal, a partner with in Richmond, will be the VBA’s board chair. Joining VBA in 2007, she served as chair of the VBA’s young lawyers division in 2015. Bal practices family law.

Alicha Grubb, a partner at in Roanoke, will be the chair-elect of the VBA’s young lawyers division.

Four attorneys will be appointed to the VBA’s board at the annual meeting: Erin B. Ashwell, a partner in McGuireWoods’ government investigations and white-collar litigation department based in Roanoke; Matthew E. Cheek, chair of the financial services and real estate section for in Richmond; S. Henry “Hank” Creasy IV, a senior vice president and the chief officer for Centra Health; and John M. Scheib, a partner in Gentry Locke’s general commercial practice group in Norfolk.

Jack Robb, general counsel and senior vice president at Old Dominion Electric Cooperative, will be the VBA’s law practice management division chair and will join the board.

Iria Giuffrida, assistant dean for academic and faculty affairs and a professor of the practice of law at Law School, will be the VBA’s law school representative. Ryan G. Ferguson, director of administration and general counsel for the Virginia Attorney General’s Office, will be the VBA’s government representative.

Steven D. Brown, a partner in IslerDare’s Richmond office, will be VBA’s general counsel.

Founded in 1888, the Virginia Bar Association is the state’s largest voluntary bar association and has more than 4,000 members.

Press Glass shifts N.C. operations to Henry County

Press Glass, a fabricator of flat glass for the commercial construction industry, is shuttering its Stoneville, , operation and moving toward fabricating and delivering all products from its operation in , where the company has produced glass since 2020.

Of 178 workers at the North Carolina plant, 110 are transferring to ‘ Virginia facility at the Commonwealth Crossing Business Centre in , Karolina Styk, communications coordinator for Press Glass, said Friday. About seven miles and a state line sits between the two plants.

The remaining 68 workers will lose their jobs March 14, according to a letter from Press Glass to the North Carolina Department of Commerce sent under the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act. Employees working in maintenance, production and scheduling are among those affected, the letter notes.

“We are hoping that we will be able to find them a place in Ridgeway and eventually also be hiring them,” Styk said.

Styk did not provide a timeline for when workers might be rehired. Following the , Press Glass will have about 500 employees in Virginia, she said.

“This decision aligns with our vision of streamlining operations and positioning the company for sustained success in the coming years,” Maciej Migalski, president of Press Glass North America, stated in a news release.

Founded in Konopiska Poland in 1991, Press Glass acquired Glass Dynamics, a Stoneville, North Carolina, fabricator founded in the mid-1980s, in 2017. The following year, Press Glass said it would invest $43.55 million to establish a 280,000-square-foot operation in Henry County’s Commonwealth Crossing, becoming the first tenant in the industrial park.

In August 2023, Press Glass announced plans for a $155.2 million, 360,000-square-foot addition to its existing Ridgeway facility. Construction on the began last year and remains underway. Styk did not have a projected date of completion.

“We will be adding more machines and eventually we will create more job openings in our Ridgeway facility,” Styk said.

A cutting table, edge processing line, and tempering furnace were recently installed at Ridgeway’s Press Glass operation.

Employees transferring to Ridgeway “will be working in better conditions with more modern equipment in the new facility,” Styk said.

Buildings where Press Glass has been used include the covered pedestrian walkway at -Blacksburg Regional Airport, and Amaris, a 12-story waterfront condominium with an all-glass façade in Washington, D.C.

Press Glass has 13 factories in Europe and about 3,000 employees globally. The company’s production exceeds 93 million square feet of glass units each year.

Pennsylvania-based aluminum beverage can manufacturer Crown Holdings also is located at Commonwealth Crossing.