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Despite bankruptcy, Plenty to finish Chesterfield vertical indoor farms

SUMMARY:

  • court approves ‘s restructuring plan
  • vertical strawberry farm opened September 2024
  • Facility set to have four indoor farms
  • Construction on facility’s buildout to resume with creditor and contractor support

Despite filing for bankruptcy in March, Plenty Unlimited will be able to finish construction of its vertical indoor farm facility in .

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Christopher M. Lopez approved on Wednesday a restructuring plan for Plenty and its subsidiaries that will let it complete its facility on 120 acres in Chesterfield’s Meadowville Technology Park. San Francisco-based agricultural tech company Plenty Unlimited in March filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas.

Plenty opened the first farm on its Chesterfield campus at 13500 North Enon Church Road in September 2024. It’s designed to produce more than 4 million pounds of strawberries annually in less than 40,000 square feet by growing the fruit vertically on 30-foot towers. Chesterfield Economic Development Director Garrett Hart confirmed Friday that Plenty is in position to complete the remaining four farms in its existing building. Construction will begin in August.

Anthony R. Grossi, an attorney with Sidley Austin representing Plenty, said Wednesday during a bankruptcy court proceeding: “We stand here ready to confirm a Chapter 11 plan with nearly 100% creditor support, a global settlement from our creditors’ committee, complete consensus from our construction counterparties to complete the buildout of our Richmond facility and committed capital to fund our operations for the foreseeable future.”

Fifty-two days earlier, “when we filed these cases, we had asserted liens against our Richmond facility. … In addition to the asserted liens, work had completely stopped on the buildout of that facility because of unpaid invoices,” Grossi said.

Baltimore-based general contractor The Whiting-Turner Contracting Co. had filed a mechanic’s lien against Plenty, its Virginia subsidiary and landowner Realty Income Properties 9 in Chesterfield County Circuit Court in March. Contractor Electrical Controls & Maintenance, based in Mechanicsville, filed a mechanic’s lien against Whiting-Turner, Realty Income Properties 9 and Plenty’s Virginia limited liability company in January. Richmond-based contractor Century Construction Co. also filed a lien against Realty Income Properties 9, Plenty Unlimited and Plenty’s Virginia subsidiary in March.

As part of the plan, “we have our Virginia Mechanic’s Lien class who negotiated for a higher recovery than was originally proposed, and who have also committed, as we’ve said, to complete the buildout of our Richmond facility. Our plan also includes a global settlement and release with respect to our general contractor, Whiting-Turner, and the debtors’ landlord,” Grossi said.

In December 2024, Plenty announced plans to close its Compton, California, leafy greens farm, citing challenges stemming from the high cost of doing business in California, including expensive energy prices. The Chesterfield facility is Plenty’s only operating facility, Grossi said during the proceeding Wednesday.

The Virginia farm exclusively grows strawberries for California-based Driscoll’s, the world’s largest berry distributor. The Chesterfield indoor farm has had berries in market since January, a Plenty spokesperson said in March.

When Gov. Glenn Youngkin announced the project in 2022, Plenty planned to invest $300 million to create the vertical farm campus in Chesterfield, creating 300 jobs. The company said in a news release then that it planned “to deploy several large-scale vertical farms on the campus in the coming years, with a potential annual production capacity exceeding 20 million pounds across multiple crops including strawberries, leafy greens and tomatoes.”

A Plenty spokesperson was out of office on Friday when Virginia Business sought additional information.

Chesapeake Planning Commission recommends against data center

SUMMARY:

  • The Planning Commission voted 6-1 to recommend denying a rezoning request for a 350,000-square-foot in the Great Bridge area after strong opposition from local residents
  • Concerns raised by residents included increased traffic, noise, light pollution, environmental impacts, proximity to homes and schools and opening the door to more large in the area
  • Developer Doug Fuller proposed the 35-foot data center on a 22.6-acre site, requiring a zoning change from agricultural to light industrial, with plans to employ 30-50 people and operate 24/7
  • The commission cited a need for further study on the long-term impacts of the project and a desire to review a legislative report on the growing data center industry in Virginia

The Chesapeake Planning Commission voted 6-1 Wednesday night to recommend denial of a rezoning permit for a 350,000-square-foot data center in the Great Bridge area of Chesapeake. Hundreds of residents have passionately opposed the project.

The matter is expected to go before Chesapeake City Council in June.

Developer Doug Fuller, president of Emerald Lakes Estates, hopes to build the center on a 22.6-acre property on the west side of Centerville Turnpike, south of Etheridge Manor Boulevard. To do so, he needs the land rezoned from agricultural to light industrial.

If the project goes forward, the proposed 35-foot data center will have 30 to 50 employees and be manned 24 hours daily.

Before the meeting, Chair Joshua C. Gerloff said that the commission received a petition signed by almost 450 citizens opposing the data center. Commissioners also received 620 emails against the project and only seven in support and one person undecided.

Complaints included concerns about increased traffic, noise, light pollution, the site being too close to residential homes and schools, disruptions caused by construction, lack of sufficient public input, loss of agricultural land and green space, environmental concerns and fears that the center might cause blackouts, Gerloff said. Many voiced concern that the city’s first data center would open the doors to more data centers and other industrial development.

During a public hearing that lasted more than two hours, about 50 residents shared similar worries.

Chesapeake resident Catherine Gorman, who lives near the proposed site, said her family moved to the area for peace and that she would be “directly” affected by the data center if built.

“This is not just about a zoning decision,” Gorman said. “This is about the health, safety and quality of life of the families who live here. Do you have any independent studies on the environmental and health impacts of these large-scale data centers?”

Her husband, Ben Gorman, shared a similar sentiment, saying that neighboring residents would lose property values and deal with “the eyesore” that is the center. Resident Betty Ainspac urged the commission to delay the vote.

“There is no harm in waiting a little bit of time, gathering more information, because there is no putting this genie back in the bottle,” she said. “Once that data center is built, there is nothing you can do if it exceeds the noise levels. And no one in this area of Chesapeake, when they were shopping for a house, said, ‘Hey, honey, let’s buy the house that’s next to the building that’s the size of two Walmart supercenters.’”

Other residents feared the city’s power wouldn’t be able to sustain the center, although Fuller told the commission that has enough power to run the data center and said the utility had agreed to provide up to 200 megawatts to support the facility.

Several commission members said they wanted more time to study the long-term impact of the data center on the city and also wondered if more compromises could be made with the project to make it more palatable to the community.

Some members said they also wanted to review a Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission report on data centers from last year. The report shows that the unconstrained demand for power in Virginia would double within the next 10 years, with the data center industry being the main driver. The report also said one-third of data centers are located near residential areas, and industry trends make future residential impacts more likely.

“As the industry’s footprint in Northern Virginia grows, the amount of land ideal for data center development is decreasing, and developers are more likely to consider locations closer to residential and other sensitive areas,” the report said. “Additionally, the typical data center building is becoming taller, larger, and more power-intensive, which has the potential to make their industrial characteristics more pronounced and, depending on the design, could generate more noise.”

Ultimately, the commission voted 6-1 to recommend that the council deny rezoning approval, with Commissioner Michael L. Malone being the dissenting vote. Malone had put up a motion to delay the vote for 120 days so that the commission could have more time to get questions about the project answered, but his motion failed to pass.

Commissioners Nathaniel Williams and Jennifer Gilman were not present during the meeting.

Fuller did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

UPDATE: $35B Capital One-Discover merger closes


SUMMARY:

  • ‘s $35.3B purchase of closed May 18
  • was announced February 2024 and received approval despite scrutiny
  • Democratic U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren urged the Department of Justice to halt the deal

-based Capital One Financial completed its $35.3 billion acquisition of Discover Financial Services on Sunday, finalizing the merger of the credit card giants announced last year.

On April 18, Capital One received approval from the and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to purchase Illinois-based Discover. The deal was announced in February 2024, and in December, shareholders at both companies approved it.

“This deal brings together two innovative, mission-driven companies that together are poised to deliver breakthrough products and experiences to consumers, businesses and merchants,” Capital One Founder and CEO Richard D. Fairbank said in a statement.

The all-stock acquisition, Capital One’s largest ever purchase, was under regulatory scrutiny. Two Capital One cardholders filed a federal class action lawsuit against Discover and Capital One in July 2024, claiming the megadeal would violate antitrust law, but the case was paused in October 2024, pending further action by the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia.

In July 2024, Capital One committed to spend $265 billion over five years to lending, philanthropy and investment if the deal went through.

Earlier this week, U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Massachusetts, wrote to the Department of Justice, calling on its antitrust division to block the transaction.

“Visa and Mastercard, which have enjoyed a duopoly, have a long history of alleged coordination, resulting in higher fees for customers and merchants,” Warren wrote. “Capital One has stated that it will move some, but not all, of its credit card volume to the Discover network, meaning it will be negotiating its interchange fees as a credit card issuer with Visa and Mastercard, while separately setting interchange fees on its own network. That is a recipe for coordination among the three networks.”

Gail Slater, the DOJ’s antitrust czar, determined that she didn’t have enough evidence to challenge the deal in court, according to media reports in April.

According to Capital One, three former Discover board members will now serve on Capital One’s board of directors as it expands from 12 members to 15. The new board members are Thomas G. Maheras, Michael Shepherd and Jennifer L. Wong. Capital One also intends to continue offering Discover-branded , in addition to Capital One cards.

On Monday, Capital One’s stock opened at $195.79 per share and rose 0.58% to $198.11 by 10:30 a.m. Eastern.

A Fortune Global 500 company, Capital One had $353.6 billion in deposits and $486.4 billion in total assets as of Sept. 30, 2024.

Conservatives block Trump’s big tax breaks bill in a stunning setback


SUMMARY:

  • Five hard-right Republicans vote no on House GOP budget bill in
  • Committee vote stalls Speaker Mike Johnson’s attempt to hold full vote next week
  • Republicans voting against bill seek higher spending cuts to , tax breaks

WASHINGTON (AP) — In a massive setback, failed Friday to push their big package of tax breaks and spending cuts through the Budget Committee, as a handful of conservatives joined all Democrats in a stunning vote against it.

The hard-right lawmakers are insisting on steeper spending cuts to Medicaid and the Biden-era green energy tax breaks, among other changes, before they will give their support to President ‘s “beautiful” bill. They warn the tax cuts alone would pile onto the nation’s $36 trillion debt.

The failed vote, 16-21, stalls, for now, House Speaker Mike Johnson’s push to have the package approved next week. But the holdout lawmakers vowed to stay all weekend to negotiate changes as the Republican president is returning to Washington from the Middle East.

“Something needs to change or you’re not going to get my support,” said Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas.

Tallying a whopping 1,116 pages, the Act, named with a nod to Trump, is teetering at a critical moment.

The conservatives are holding out for steeper cuts while GOP lawmakers from high-tax states including New York are demanding a deeper tax deduction, known as SALT, for their constituents. Johnson, with few votes to spare from his slim majority, has insisted Republicans will are on track with the sprawling package that he believes will inject a dose of stability into a wavering economy.

Ahead of Friday’s vote, Trump had implored his party to fall in line.

“Republicans MUST UNITE behind, ‘THE ONE, BIG BEAUTIFUL BILL!’” the president posted on social media. “We don’t need ‘GRANDSTANDERS’ in the Republican Party. STOP TALKING, AND GET IT DONE!”

Democrats slammed the package as a “big, bad bill,” or as Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., called it, “one big, beautiful betrayal.”

They emphasized that millions of people would lose their health coverage and food stamps assistance if the bill passes while the wealthiest Americans would reap enormous tax cuts. They also said it would increase future deficits.

“That is bad economics. It is unconscionable,” said Rep. Brendan Boyle, the top Democratic lawmaker on the panel.

The Budget panel is one of the final stops before the package is sent to the full House floor for a vote, which is expected as soon as next week. Typically, the job of the Budget Committee is more administrative as it compiles the work of 11 committees that drew up various parts of the big bill.

But Friday’s meeting proved momentous even before the votes were tallied. The conservatives, many from the Freedom Caucus, had been warning they would block the bill, using their leverage to demand further changes. Republicans hold a slim majority in the House and have just a few votes to spare to advance the measure.

Four Republican conservatives initially voted against the package — Roy and Reps. Ralph Norman of South Carolina, Josh Brecheen of Oklahoma, Rep. Andrew Clyde of Georgia. Then one, Rep. of Pennsylvania, switched his vote to no.

“Sadly,” Norman said, “I’m a hard no until we get this ironed out.”

In their push for deeper spending reductions, the conservatives are particularly eyeing Medicaid, the health care program for some 70 million Americans. They want new work requirements for aid recipients to start immediately, rather than on Jan. 1, 2029, as the package proposes.

Smucker said afterward he was confident “we’re going to get this done.”

At the same time, the New Yorkers have been unrelenting in their demand for a much larger than what is proposed in the bill, which could send the overall cost of the package skyrocketing. Those talks are also underway.

As it stands, the bill proposes tripling what’s currently a $10,000 cap on the state and local tax deduction, increasing it to $30,000 for joint filers with incomes up to $400,000 a year.

Rep. Nick LaLota, one of the New York lawmakers leading the SALT effort, said they have proposed a deduction of $62,000 for single filers and $124,000 for joint filers.

The conservatives and the New Yorkers are at odds, each jockeying for their priorities as Johnson labors to keep the package on track to pass the House by Memorial Day and then onto the Senate.

At its core, the sprawling package extends the existing income tax cuts that were approved during Trump’s first term, in 2017, and adds new ones that the president campaigned on in 2024, including no taxes on tips, overtime pay and some auto loans.

It increases some tax breaks for middle-income earners, including a bolstered standard deduction of $32,000 for joint filers and a temporary $500 boost to the child tax credit, bringing it to $2,500.

It also provides an infusion of $350 billion for Trump’s deportation agenda and to bolster the Pentagon.

To offset more than $5 million in lost revenue, the package proposes rolling back other tax breaks, namely the green energy tax credits approved as part of President Joe Biden’s Reduction Act. Some conservatives want those to end immediately.

The package also seeks to cover the costs by slashing more than $1 trillion from health care and food assistance programs over the course of a decade, in part by imposing work requirements on able-bodied adults.

Certain Medicaid recipients would need to engage in 80 hours a month of work or other community options to receive health care. Older Americans receiving food aid through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, known as SNAP, would also see the program’s current work requirement for able-bodied participants without dependents extended to include those ages 55-64. States would also be required to shoulder a greater share of the program’s cost.

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates at least 7.6 million fewer people with health insurance and about 3 million a month fewer SNAP recipients with the changes.

Virginia casinos report nearly $79M in April revenue

SUMMARY:

  • April in Virginia totaled $78.76 million, down $6.43 million from March; Caesars Virginia in led with $32.43 million in adjusted revenue (AGR), followed by Rivers ($25.29M) and Hard Rock ($21.04M)
  • Localities received 6% of each casino’s AGR, amounting to $1.95 million for Danville, $1.52 million for Portsmouth, and $1.26 million for Southwest Virginia via Bristol’s Regional Improvement Commission
  • State taxes from casino revenues totaled nearly $14.18 million
  • Casino development continues in Virginia, with construction underway on a $750M Norfolk casino and a $1.4B Petersburg casino; also plans to begin building a $65 million hotel this summer

April gaming revenues from Virginia’s three totaled $78.76 million, according to a May 15 report from the . April’s statewide casino gaming revenues were down $6.43 million from March’s $85.19 million.

Last month, Hard Rock Bristol casino reported about $21.04 million in adjusted gaming revenues (wagers minus winnings), of which about $17.44 million came from its 1,437 slots and about $3.6 million came from its 73 table games. (The Virginia Lottery Board approved HR Bristol’s casino license in April 2022, and the Bristol casino’s temporary facility opened in July 2022, making it the first operating casino in Virginia. The permanent Hard Rock Bristol opened in November 2024.)

Rivers Casino Portsmouth, which opened as Virginia’s first permanent casino in January 2023, generated about $18.39 million in April from its 1419 slots and nearly $6.9 million from its 84 table games, for a total AGR of about $25.29 million.

The state’s newest permanent casino, the Caesars Virginia resort in Danville, reported almost $32.43 million in AGR, with about $23.74 million coming from its 1,483 slots and roughly $8.68 million coming from the casino’s 100 table games. The $800 million Caesars Virginia opened in December 2024, replacing a temporary casino that opened in May 2023.

Virginia law assesses a graduated tax on a casino’s adjusted gaming revenue. For the month of April, taxes from casino AGRs totaled nearly $14.18 million.

Under Virginia law, 6% of a casino operator’s AGR goes to its host locality until the operator passes $200 million in AGR for the year, at which point the host locality’s tax rate rises to 7%. If an operator passes $400 million in AGR in the calendar year, that rises to 8%.

For April, Portsmouth received 6% of the Rivers Casino Portsmouth’s AGR, getting about $1.52 million. Danville received 6% of the Caesars Virginia casino’s adjusted gaming revenue, amounting to roughly $1.95 million. For the Bristol casino, 6% of its adjusted gaming revenue — about $1.26 million last month — goes to the Regional Improvement Commission, which the General Assembly established to distribute Bristol casino tax funds throughout Southwest Virginia.

The Problem Treatment and Support Fund receives 0.8% of total taxes — about $113,414 last month. The Family and Children’s Trust Fund, which funds family violence prevention and treatment programs, receives 0.2% of the monthly total, which was approximately $28,354 in April.

Two more casinos are on the horizon in Virginia.

Construction began on the long-awaited $750 million Norfolk casino in February. The Pamunkey Indian Tribe remains a partner, but Boyd Gaming replaced Tennessee investor Jon Yarbrough in 2024. A temporary casino is expected to be completed by the end of the year. Developers named Ron Bailey as vice president and general manager for the forthcoming casino earlier this month.

In November 2024, more than 80% of Petersburg voters said yes to the city’s casino referendum. Baltimore-based The Cordish Cos. and Virginia Beach developer Bruce Smith Enterprise broke ground on the much-anticipated $1.4 billion casino in March.

Earlier this month, Rivers Casino and Chicago-based Rush Street Gaming announced they are planning to break ground on a $65 million hotel in Portsmouth this summer, more than two years after the casino first opened.

Housing supply, affordability gap remain top of mind for potential homebuyers

Households earning $75,000 a year can only afford 21.2% of all home listings, according to the  and Realtor.com.

In the 2025 Affordability & Supply report released Thursday, NAR officials said that America’s  persists with less than one-fourth of all For Sale home listings economically feasible for potential buyers making $75,000 annually. The report analyzes the shortage of affordable homes across different income levels in the current U.S. and provides a real-time, income-specific snapshot of housing affordability, examining what home buyers at various income levels can afford based on standard lending criteria, officials said.

While noticeably decreased from pre-pandemic levels, For Sale  increased almost 20% nationwide in March. The gain is good news, said NAR representatives.

“The housing market is at a turning point,” said Nadia Evangelou, NAR senior economist and director of research. “More homes are hitting the market, and it’s encouraging to see the greatest housing-supply gains among middle-income home buyers.”

The NAR report states that while households earning $75,000 a year experienced a slight improvement in accessibility to home listings between March 2025 (21.2%) and March 2024 (20.8%), the largest gain of any income group, they have less than half of the access to affordable homes than they had before the pandemic, when nearly 49% of listings were accessible.

NAR officials state that in a balanced housing market — where listings are aligned with what households at various income levels can afford — these home buyers would need access to 48.1% of listings. To reach that threshold, the market needs nearly 416,000 more listings priced at or below $255,000.

“Shoppers see more homes for sale today than one year ago, and encouragingly, many of these homes have been added at moderate income price points,” said Danielle Hale, Realtor.com chief economist. “But as this report shows, we still don’t have an abundance of homes that are affordable to low- and moderate-income households, and the progress that we’ve seen is not happening everywhere. It’s been concentrated in the Midwest and the South.”

“For many first-time home buyers, navigating the current housing market still feels like window shopping,” added Evangelou. “Listing prices don’t match first-time home buyers’ budgets. If the promising trend of building smaller homes continues, that could be a meaningful step toward easing the housing affordability gap for more buyers.”

US stocks drift as Wall Street heads for the finish of a big winning week

SUMMARY:

  • posts fifth straight gain, up 0.1% Friday
  • rises 0.2%, Dow dips slightly by 52 points
  • U.S.–China 90-day tariff pause boosts investor sentiment
  • Lower data raises hope for Fed rate cuts

 

NEW YORK (AP) — is heading toward the finish of a strong, potentially perfect week as U.S. stocks on Friday drift close to the all-time high they set just a few months earlier, though it may feel like an economic era ago.

The S&P 500 was up 0.1% in early trading and potentially on track for a fifth straight gain. It’s heading for a 4.6% rise for the week, which would be its third big winning week in the last four, as hopes build that President  will lower his tariffs against other countries after reaching trade deals with them. Such hopes have driven the S&P 500 back within 3.6% of its record set in February, after the index at the heart of many 401(k) accounts briefly dropped roughly 20% below the mark last month.

The Industrial Average was down 52 points, or 0.1%, as of 9:35 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.2% higher.

Trump’s trade war had sent financial markets reeling worldwide because of twin dangers. On one hand, tariffs could slow the economy and drive it into a recession. On the other, it could push inflation higher. A couple better-than-expected reports on inflation this past week helped soothe some those second worries.

But all the Trump’s on-and-off rollout of tariffs could by itself damage the economy by creating so much uncertainty that it causes U.S. households and businesses to freeze their spending and long-term plans. A report coming later in the morning will offer the latest snapshot of sentiment among U.S. consumers, which has been souring sharply because of tariffs.

In the meantime, eased in the bond market following this week’s better-than-expected signals on inflation, which could give the  more leeway to cut later this year if high tariffs drag down the U.S. economy.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 4.39% from 4.45% late Thursday and from more than 4.50% the day before that. Lower bond yields can encourage investors to pay higher prices for stocks and other investments.

On Wall Street, Charter Communications rose 1.3% after it said it agreed to merge with Cox Communications in a deal that would combine two of the country’s largest cable companies. The resulting company will change its name to Cox Communications and keep Charter’s headquarters in Stamford, Connecticut.

Novo Nordisk’s stock that trades in the United States fell 1.8% after the Danish company behind the Wegovy drug for weight loss said that Lars Fruergaard Jørgensen will step down as CEO and that the board is looking for his successor. The company cited “recent market challenges” and how the stock has been performing recently.

In stock markets abroad, indexes were mixed amid mostly modest movements across Europe and Asia.

Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 inched down by less than 0.1% after the government reported that Japan’s economy contracted at a faster rate than expected in the first quarter of the year.

Virginia unemployment spike ‘an economic shock,’ economist says

SUMMARY:

  • For the week ending May 10, 3,992 people filed initial insurance claims — which is 46.8% higher than the previous week’s 2,720 claims and a 67.3% increase over a comparable week last year (2,386).
  • reported 18,144 continued claims — 1.4% higher than the previous week’s 17,896 and 14.5% higher than the comparable week of last year (15,847).
  • ODU economist Bob McNab says federal layoffs, termination of contracts, tariffs and uncertainty are all factors likely contributing to the rise in unemployment numbers.

Virginia’s initial rose 46.8% last week as federal contractors and agencies continue to lay off workers, the state reported Thursday.

For the week ending May 10, 3,992 people filed initial unemployment insurance claims, an increase from the previous week’s 2,720 claims and a 67.3% increase over a comparable week last year (2,386), according to data released Thursday by the Virginia Department of Workforce Development and Advancement, also known as Virginia Works.

Economist Bob McNab, director of ‘s Dragas Center for Economic Analysis and Policy, said data on initial claims can often fluctuate week-to-week. However, he said if you continue to see initial claims rise year-over-year, it is a sign that the state is seeing more unemployed people flow into the unemployment claims system.

“One week does not make a trend, but several weeks lead you to suspect that the job market in Virginia is weakening,” McNab said.

Earlier this week, the University of Virginia’s Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service estimated that the state could lose 32,000 jobs this year, raising the monthly unemployment rate for the state to an average of 3.9% in 2025 and up to 4.7% in early 2026.

In Thursday’s unemployment report, Virginia Works said that the top five job-losing industries last week were manufacturing (1,186); professional, scientific and technical services (465); administrative and support and waste management (274); health care and social assistance (198) and retail trade (189).

Virginia also has seen major layoff announcements outside of the federal government and in recent weeks. Earlier this month, Georgia-Pacific told 554 employees they would lose their jobs at the Emporia plywood mill, which the company is closing in response to a 30-year low in existing home sales.

More importantly for McNab, however, were the 18,144 continued claims — which were 1.4% higher than the previous week’s 17,896 and were 14.5% higher than the comparable week of last year (15,847).

McNab believes at least some of the unemployment numbers can be attributable to President ‘s administration cutting contracts and tens of thousands of federal jobs in an effort to slash federal spending. More than 321,500 federal workers live in Virginia, according to data from the 2023 Census Bureau’s American Community Survey, although about 190,000 federal jobs are actually based in the commonwealth.

McNab said the Virginia economy is an ecosystem “significantly influenced by federal spending and employment,” including businesses that perform contract work for the federal government.

This week, Leesburg government contractor Pantheon Data laid off 155 workers, including 33 in Virginia, after the U.S. Navy canceled its $170 million contract under pressure from the federal Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE.

Last week, 3,800 Virginia residents who were employed in professional, scientific and technical services filed continuing unemployment claims.

“We don’t have direct data that suggests that these are a result of the changes to federal civilian employment and the termination of grants and contracts, but we would suspect that disruptions in federal funding and employment would bleed into professional technical, scientific and technical services,” McNab said.

Rounding out the top four sectors in continued claims were administrative and support and waste management (2,249); health care and social assistance (1,612); retail trade (1,420) and manufacturing (1,159).

Data from comparing continued claims in 2025 to 2024 and 2023. Image courtesy Virginia Works
Data comparing continued claims in 2025 to those in 2024 and 2023. Image courtesy Virginia Works

McNab speculated that the reduction in health care costs might be in anticipation of cuts to , a joint federal and state program that helps cover medical costs for low-income Americans. House Republican leaders hope to cut $1.5 trillion in spending to offset the cost of Trump’s tax cuts, although Democrats in the House and Senate oppose the move. In March, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office released an analysis that indicated those budget goals can’t be met without cutting Medicaid spending.

McNab said it is hard to predict whether the unemployment data will continue to get worse in the coming months due to challenges predicting federal trade and spending, as Trump continues to pause and change tariff policies.

But the economist said uncertainty is a problem and that employers who are unable to make future plans are much more reluctant to hire and more likely to shed jobs at the margin to insulate themselves.

“I think we are starting to see the beginnings of an economic shock being baked into the Virginia economy,” McNab said. “That is the changes to tariffs, the potential impacts on employers with regards to uncertainty, the reductions in federal employment and the termination of grants and contracts as a whole appear to have not only undermined consumer confidence and business confidence, but are leading to a weakening of labor markets across the state.”

DHS says it is canceling $2.4B Leidos contract

According to a court filing last week, the U.S. has terminated a $2.4 billion IT and cybersecurity contract awarded last year to -based .

The Agile Cybersecurity Technical Security (ACTS) contract was under protest by Intelligence Solutions, a -based cybersecurity and intelligence spinoff of RTX, the -based Fortune Global 500 aerospace and previously known as Raytheon Technologies.

In a federal court filing by the government on May 9, DHS says it had “undertaken a review” of ACTS and decided to terminate the indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity contract with Leidos that called for the company to support DHS’ (CISA).

The contract was originally awarded to Leidos in February 2024. Nightwing then protested the award, and the General Accounting Office dismissed the protest in September 2024, leading to Nightwing’s appeal to the U.S. Court of Federal Claims.

In that case, filed in January, the court ordered the United States government to provide a status report by May 9. According to the report, DHS canceled the contract on May 8 and informed Leidos of the decision that day. Nightwing was informed the next day, the document says, adding, “The agency does not intend to make another contract award under the ACTS solicitation but is conducting acquisition planning to determine the best means of fulfilling its future requirements.”

In closing, the government letter says that the protest “is now moot, and we intend to file a motion to dismiss to that effect if the protest is not voluntarily dismissed.” Nightwing filed notice of voluntary dismissal without prejudice on May 12, and the complaint was dismissed the same day.

Leidos said Thursday it did not have a comment.

Leidos provides technology, engineering and science services to , intelligence, civil and health market customers. It has about 48,000 employees and reported approximately $15.4 billion in 2023 revenue. On Dec. 31, 2024, Leidos won a Transportation Security Administration contract worth up to $2.6 billion.

Boeing, trying to emerge from one of company’s most difficult eras, is having a pretty good week

SUMMARY:

  • -based announces $96B jet order from , its largest ever
  • 20 737-8 jets also ordered by Saudi company, with 10 options
  • Orders coincide with President Trump’s Middle East trip
  • Trump also under scrutiny for accepting Qatari Boeing 747 gift
  • Boeing shares surge despite past safety, labor and legal issues

WASHINGTON (AP) — Boeing has secured a pair of major orders in the Middle East during a visit to the region by President .

The aerospace manufacturer based in Arlington County confirmed a $96 billion order from Qatar, one day after announcing an order from a company in for 20 737-8 jets and options for 10 additional aircraft.

The Qatar deal, which includes Boeing’s 787 and jets, is the biggest order for 787s and wide body jets in Boeing’s history, the company confirmed.

“That’s pretty good,” Trump said in announcing the order. “Get those planes out there.”

It has been a particularly good week for Boeing. According to several media reports, China lifted a ban on its airlines taking deliveries of Boeing planes earlier this week as part of Monday’s trade truce with the U.S.

Boeing had already been in the news for its planes in the Middle East, but for different reasons.

Donald Trump said he would accept a luxury Boeing 747-8 jumbo jet as a gift from the ruling family of Qatar, setting off intense criticism from Democrats, ethicists and even some unease among Republicans.

There are concerns from security and ethics experts that the plane could be less secure, costly to retrofit and a violation of the U.S. Constitution’s prohibition on foreign gifts. Trump offered no national security imperative for a swift upgrade rather than waiting for Boeing to finish new jets that have been in the works for years.

Boeing has lost more than $35 billion since 2019 following the crashes of two then-new Max jets that killed 346 people.

In January 2024, a panel blew off a 737 Max shortly after takeoff from Portland, Oregon, and last year, a strike by union machinists halted production at Boeing plants and hampered the company’s delivery capability.

Shares of Boeing, which has been mired in legal and regulatory problems since the crashes six years ago, bounced to their highest level in more than a year Wednesday. It was the fifth straight day of gains for the  company.