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Lego announces plans for massive distribution center in Prince George
As it pieces together a $1 billion factory in Chesterfield, Lego Group has another sizable build in the works in a neighboring county. The Danish toymaker announced plans this week to build a $366 million warehouse and distribution facility in the Crosspointe Business Centre in Prince George County. The 2 million-square-foot project would rise on a 200-plus-acre site at 8800 Wells Station Road, across from the former Rolls-Royce manufacturing facility.
D.C.-area economy starts to show deep impacts of federal spending cuts
The D.C. region’s economy is teetering on the edge of a painful slump, experts warn, as the Trump administration’s spending cuts, including the elimination of thousands of federal jobs, take their toll on an area that was already struggling to recover from the impacts of the pandemic. ... In Fairfax County, Virginia, unemployment jumped from 2.2 percent in December to 3.2 percent in March. “And we haven’t seen the worst of it yet,” said Jeff McKay, chairman of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, noting the lagging data. McKay said this economic crisis is probably the worst he has seen in 18 years on the board. “It’s neck and neck with covid,” he said. “I think it’s worse than covid because we’re not going to get any help.”
Carilion Clinic gets state approval for kidney transplant center in Roanoke
After years of preparation and lobbying, state regulators approved a kidney transplant program at Carilion Clinic’s hospital in Roanoke. It will be the first transplant program in Southwest Virginia. Doctor David Salzberg, the lead surgeon for the program, said it will help address the high rate of renal failure in that part of the state and make it easier for patients to get care close to home.
Virginia Beach GOP chair ousted in bitter party feud over control and transparency
In a dramatic late-night vote that capped more than a year of escalating infighting, the Republican Party’s 2nd Congressional District Committee voted Wednesday to remove Laura Hughes as chairwoman of the Virginia Beach GOP, accusing her of mismanagement and failing to perform her duties. But Hughes says the move was political payback — and an affront to the grassroots Republicans who elected her. “This was a ‘screw you’ to the Virginia Beach voters,” she said of her detractors’ actions in a phone interview Thursday, “because they wanted this small little group who likes to stay in charge, and they installed a chair that will do their bidding. And I am most likely going to file an appeal with the state Republican party.”
Amid DOGE cuts, families struggle with bills, consider leaving D.C. area
There’s the fired federal contractor scrambling for a new job in his 60s and the meteorologist tightening his budget by eating more rice and beans. The nonprofit administrator who lies awake at night worried she’ll lose her grant funding and the masters student wondering what job prospects, if any, will exist upon graduation. As the Trump administration and the U.S. DOGE Service, which stands for the Department of Government Efficiency, wield a chain saw to the federal government, they’ve also yanked away the tablecloth upon which many in the D.C. region laid their lives.
Carilion receives state approval for a kidney transplant program in Roanoke
Carilion Clinic has received state approval to launch its long-awaited kidney transplant program at Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital, following months of uncertainty. The hospital first announced the new service in January 2024 and hoped to begin accepting patients by that October, confident that approval would come quickly. The state’s Certificate of Public Need Division initially recommended a denial, leading Carilion to gather hundreds of testimonials and testify at a hearing.
Virginia teachers struggle to keep up as history guide rollout lags
Virginia teachers are still flying blind months into a new school year — trying to adapt to overhauled history standards without the full set of instructional guides the state promised to help them navigate the change. Since early April, the Virginia Department of Education has continued to publish its history instructional guides to help prepare teachers to instruct students in the state’s updated history and social studies standards.
Youngkin’s signature sets stage for Virginia health insurance to cover IVF treatment in the future
A bill that can help people start and grow their families through fertility treatments like in vitro fertilization will become law, after Gov. Glenn Youngkin signed it along with several other measures he initially tried to amend. House Bill 1609 by Del. Dan Helmer, D-Fairfax, will require the Health Insurance Reform Commission (HIRC) to consider coverage for diagnosis and treatment of infertility and procedures like IVF in its 2025 review of essential health benefits covered by health insurance.
Friday Read How One Woman Saved the Outer Banks From Impending Development 50 Years Ago
In August 1973, three children who regularly played atop the East Coast’s tallest active sand dune system spied a bulldozer that hadn’t been there before. The children ran to tell their babysitter, who took them to the family’s nearby store in Nags Head, North Carolina, where their mother, Carolista Baum, made and sold jewelry. Condominiums had been constructed near where the bulldozer was working, and Baum knew more development would irreparably harm these beloved dunes known as Jockey’s Ridge, an Outer Banks fixture for 3,000 to 4,000 years. Immediately, Baum closed shop and rushed to confront the driver. Developers had already flattened most of the dunes north to the Virginia border. “I’m not moving,” Baum said, positioning herself in front of the bulldozer’s blade.
James Madison University students protest DEI’s dissolution during new president meet and greet
Recently-selected JMU President James “Jim” Schmidt, alongside Vice President for Student Affairs Tim Miller, planned to speak to Dukes on Thursday so he could acclimate himself to campus and get to know the student body, but as he arrived to the Warner Commons in front of D-hall, he was met with a group of students protesting JMU’s dissolution of its diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) division last month. . . . Holding pamphlets with QR codes to a change.org petition, Puerto Rican flags, and signs that read “DEI IS NOT A CRIME” and “REJECT FASCISM,” students continuously chanted “knowledge is power, inclusion is strength” across from Schmidt, who was conversing with Dukes and other faculty. The students said the protest’s proximity to Schmidt was intentional.