Follow-ups

Virginia Business
June 2006

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has finished a $37 million project to deepen the inbound lane of the Hampton Roads shipping channel to 50 feet. The Corps deepened the harbor’s outbound lane to 50 feet in the late 1980s. Ships use the channels to reach cargo terminals and Norfolk Naval Station. Efforts to improve the port were discussed in May’s cover story about the prospects for an emerging modeling and simulation industry in Hampton Roads.

Herndon Mayor Michael O’Reilly and two town councilors were voted out of office in May. All three had backed a taxpayer-funded day-labor hall in Herndon that became a flashpoint in the national debate on illegal immigration. In its April issue, Virginia Business looked at outreach efforts by the Herndon-Dulles Chamber of Commerce to the local Hispanic business community after the controversy.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia District has upheld a cease-and-desist order from the National Labor Relations Board against Smithfield Foods. Issued in 2004, the order addressed complaints by United Food and Commercial Workers after two failed union drives at Smithfield’s Tar Heel, N.C., pork- processing plant. The appeals court left unchallenged NLRB findings that Smithfield violated federal labor laws and denied petitions for review by Smithfield and the union. The labor dispute was explored in a cover story about Smithfield that ran in November 2004.