Cardinal News: Then & Now takes a look back at the stories we brought you over the last 12 months. Through the end of the year, we’re sharing updates on some of the people and issues that made news in 2025. This installment: brief takes on several business and technology stories.
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Courts disarm state law to speed broadband crossing railroads, but federal lawmakers propose bill to address the issue
Then: Virginia, with unanimous legislative approval, passed a law in 2023 in hopes of speeding broadband deployment through railroad crossings. Internet service providers had complained that the railroads charged exorbitant fees and slowed the process.
An industry group representing Norfolk Southern and CSX disputed the law, and the Virginia Supreme Court ruled in May that providers could not use the law to impose eminent domain on railways’ property while trying to reach the commonwealth’s more remote areas. The decision ended multiple federal lawsuits as well.
Now: With the law rendered moot, at least one of its General Assembly sponsors pledged to continue the fight. Sen. Bill Stanley, R-Franklin County, said in May that readdressing the issue will be a top priority for him and other legislators. Since then, however, a bipartisan pair of U.S. senators has introduced the Broadband and Telecommunications RAIL Act.
Sens. Ben Ray Luján, D-N.M, and Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., said in a November news release that the bill would streamline broadband deployment, instituting strict federal timelines throughout the process.
The bill addresses fees, as well, setting compensation as costs that the railroad carrier “reasonably and directly” incurred.
The House of Representatives has its own version working its way through the legislative process as well.
— Tad Dickens
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Justices still paying down Carter Bank loans
Then: At the end of March, companies owned by U.S Sen. Jim Justice, R-W.Va., and his family owed about $245 million to Martinsville-based Carter Bank. That’s down from just over $300 million in mid-2023 when the bank placed the loans in non-accrual status, which meant the loans weren’t earning interest because the Justices weren’t making payments.
Now: Despite its finances being “significantly impacted” by a lack of interest income from its largest borrower, Carter Bank continues to report profitable quarters. As of the end of September, the Justices’ loan balance stood at nearly $229 million, which means the Justices have paid about $73 million total and have about three times that much left to go. The bank is expected to report its next quarterly results with an updated figure in late January.
— Matt Busse
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More than a year after flooding from Hurricane Helene, 3 totes of chemicals from the Radford arsenal are still missing
Then: Thirteen containers filled with toxic chemicals from the Radford Army Ammunition Plant were released into the New River during the flood caused by Hurricane Helene in fall 2024. Local residents said they were not made aware of the release until six weeks after it happened.
Floodwaters ripped the doors off a warehouse at the arsenal that held the totes, each filled with 275 gallons of dibutyl phthalate, an oily liquid that’s deemed hazardous by the Environmental Protection Agency.
Justine Barati, director of public and congressional affairs at the Joint Munitions Command, said that there has not been any identified negative impact to the environment as a result of the totes ending up in the river, or from other discharges from the facility.
Local and state first responder agencies were contracted to aid in the search for the totes, which included scouring 67 miles of river by boat and helicopter, as well as 13 square miles by foot and 60 square miles by drone, as of March.
Now: Since an update from the arsenal in late February, one additional tote has been identified; three are still missing. Barati said this fall, the arsenal was contacted about a potential tote that was found, but it did not belong to the arsenal.
“This flood impacted the entire community, and remediation efforts continue up and down the river,” Barati said.
Ongoing remediation efforts at the arsenal include relocating warehouses at the arsenal out of the floodplain, and equipment repairs as a result of flood damage.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Norfolk District, will be responsible for building one or more warehouses to replace eight existing storage buildings that were damaged in the flood and remain in the floodplain, Barati said. They expect to have an architect-engineer firm onboard by the end of January to begin the site investigations, environmental evaluations and design.
— Samantha Verrelli
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Southwest Virginia tech concerns enact programs from $5 million Project VITAL partnership
Then: In February, the Roanoke-Blacksburg Innovation Alliance (formerly Verge), Virginia Tech and Carilion Clinic announced that economic development initiative GO Virginia had granted the region $4.9 million for Project VITAL: Virginia Innovations and Technology Advancements in Life Sciences.
The goal for GO Virginia’s Region 2 is to create 1,315 jobs over five years and bring a $40.8 million economic impact while setting up the region as a biotech innovation hub — in short, to move its biomedical research and medical device innovation work from labs to markets. Other Region 2 partners include Virginia Western Community College and Blue Ridge Partnership for Health Science Careers.
In total, GO Virginia approved $14.3 million in state funding for this and two sister projects in Richmond and Charlottesville. Region 2 also plans to use $3.5 million in non-state funding — a mix of cash and in-kind contributions from cities, counties, higher education institutions, medical facilities, biotech companies and other businesses, including Virginia Bio.
Now: Region 2’s prong of the project has seen two programs established: the Human Factors Usability Works at Carilion Clinic and a commercialization program tied to the International Organization for Standardization. “These programs offer affordable, local pathways for startups to validate and grow while also positioning Region 2 as a destination for life science companies to build and scale,” according to an email from Rachel Stogner, the Roanoke-Blacksburg Innovation Alliance’s grants and operations coordinator.
[Disclosure: Carilion is one of our donors, but donors have no say in news decisions; see our policy.]
Virginia Tech’s Link, License + Launch program teamed with other universities in the commonwealth and the Virginia Innovation Partnership Corporation to begin an express license program for technology commercialization. The program funded two “proof of concept” grants to research teams, developing an obesity drug, and the other to deliver therapeutic biological compounds to the gut, Stogner wrote.
Other projects receiving Project VITAL funding included:
- The Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC’s Fralin Commercialization Fellowship graduated five fellows in October, and they have several spinout companies in the offing.
- Virginia Western administered 151 bioscience microcredential tests, awarding 108 credentials to 17 participants. The college’s biotechnology department worked directly with hundreds of elementary and middle school students at educational events, with activities such as a laboratory process called pipetting.
- Ten high school students attended a summer biotechnology career exploration camp for free, via funds from Project VITAL and other sources.
— Tad Dickens