Also: In what is likely Virginia Tech President Tim Sands’ final end-of-semester note to university community, he notes technology and research wins.
Tad Dickens
Tad Dickens is technology reporter for Cardinal News. He previously worked for the Bristol Herald Courier and The Roanoke Times and likes to bang on his drums when he can. Reach at tad@cardinalnews.org or 540 293-6018.
Technology council inducts Virginia Tech President Tim Sands into its hall of fame
Other honorees at the Roanoke Blacksburg Technology Council’s annual awards included co-winners of the entrepreneur of the year award, Narro Trucks Inc. and biotech innovator Webster Santos.
The Cheesy Western, a longtime Roanoke food icon, guest stars on a Manhattan menu. (Chile is extra.)
Lower Manhattan’s Hamburger America diner will feature the Texas Tavern staple this month, paired with a Southern Living article that features the Church Avenue eatery.
Tech Briefs: Generative AI’s content thirst, entrepreneur center opens in Blacksburg, state to fund EV charging infrastructure
Catch up on the week’s technology news.
AI bills faced a logjam in the General Assembly due to a Trump executive order, but Congress is working to fill the gap
The chairman of the committee that hears most technology-related legislation in the House of Delegates said it was important to protect federal broadband funds, which Trump threatened if states make “onerous AI laws.”
Tech Briefs: Blacksburg micro-3D printing developer gets patent, Virginia Tech team hunts for microplastics on fish scales
Catch up on the week’s technology news.
Special prosecutor steps down from Martinsville mayor’s removal case
Lynchburg Commonwealth’s Attorney Bethany Harrison moved to withdraw due to a “material conflict” in the case. The court appointed Alfred Gray Collins III of Colonial Heights to both the civil removal petition and forensic audit of Martinsville expenses, both of which involve Mayor L.C. Jones.
Virginia State Bar suspends Rocky Mount mayor’s law license for 3 years
The case against Holland Perdue is unrelated to his political position.
Martinsville mayor reinstated to city council pending trial on recall petition
Mayor L.C. Jones had been suspended since February, when a judge ordered a recall trial after petitioners accused him of wrongdoing.
Martinsville’s suspended mayor fights petition to remove him in a recall trial by jury, a rarity in Virginia
A jury trial on a petition to remove a public official is unusual in Virginia, but two such cases are currently on commonwealth dockets. One of them, in Martinsville, involves Mayor L.C. Jones, whom a circuit judge suspended pending trial, despite the lack of criminal charges.

