Plus: The Broadband Advisory Council meets next week.
Economy
Covering the economic issues facing Southwest and Southside Virginia.
Cardinal Commerce Notes: U.S. 58 project in Patrick County reaches milestone
Plus: A Virginia community college gets $200,000 for power line worker training, and we have some restaurant and real estate news.
Judge declines to delay THC rule change for hemp products
Virginia hemp businesses said the new rule, set to take effect Saturday, will render much of their inventory illegal to sell.
Tech Briefs: Radford University grads to hold EV truck company launch event Aug. 20
Plus: Order says data centers to pay for new energy transmission; AI Decoded event to feature Blacksburg-based marketing studio founder.
Cardinal Commerce Notes: Lynchburg-based BWXT to sell medical business
Plus: Virtual hiring fair upcoming, new nuclear simulator report, Lynchburg’s airport gets a $5.3 million grant and USDA designates Virginia localities as drought disaster areas.
Regulators OK Appalachian Power’s $340 million plan for old Glen Lyn coal plant
The utility plans to haul the byproducts of coal-fired electricity generation to a future landfill across the West Virginia border. Utility customers could be paying for it for more than a decade.
Big Stone Gap takes over old federal courthouse building nearly 3 years after it closed
The town manager, who hopes to transform the building into a boutique hotel, said the real work begins now.
Virginia Steel and Fabrication to invest $3.6 million, create 52 jobs in Bland County
The expansion will more than triple the company’s existing workforce while adding new advanced manufacturing equipment.
Virginia hemp businesses sue over THC rule change
The seven plaintiffs — including a Henry County retail store — claim that after Aug. 15, much of their inventory will become illegal to sell, which will significantly harm or possibly destroy their businesses.
Internet provider ZiTel approved to finish broadband deployment work in Patrick, Franklin, Henry counties
RiverStreet Networks was removed from the project with thousands of locations unfinished.


