Michelle Bennett says she’ll open CUPS Coffee & Tea, a coffee house beside Rockfish Food & Wine at 1402 Grandin Road in Roanoke, next Tuesday.

Bennett, of course, is well-known in the Roanoke Valley arts community through her work at Center in the Square and Mill Mountain Theatre.

Business writer Jenny Boone has more on Bennett’s coffee house venture in this post on her retail blog, The Storefront.

The governor’s office has issued this release about Gov. Bob McDonnell’s visit today to Martinsville, part of a three-day swing he’s making through Southside and Southwest Virginia. (See our previous post on the trip.)

Here’s the full release: Read more »

Adel Eltawansy, the owner of the Zorba Greek and Mediterranean food stall in the Roanoke City Market building, was telling customers today that he intends to move to Salem after the market building closes Saturday.

Zorba is often the busiest of the vendors in the market building, and customers have been asking Eltawansy for months what his plans were.

He said he intends to re-open in a building on Salem Lynchburg Turnpike near Virginia 419 on Sept. 15.

The cover story of the current issue of The Blue Ridge Business Journal deals with the Roanoke City Market building.

Justice Cynthia Kinser has been selected as the next chief justice of the Supreme Court of Virginia and will become the first woman to hold the position when the court convenes in February.

Reporter Michael Sluss of The Roanoke Times has more on this story.

Uniroyal Tire and South Main Auto Service are supporting the Christiansburg Soccer Club with funds and equipment. Here is a press release from Uniroyal:

With the 10^th anniversary under its belt, the Uniroyal^® Soccer Program is continuing to support local soccer across the nation. Starting August 21st, players of Christiansburg Soccer Club will receive certificates that can be redeemed for a free soccer ball at South Main Auto Service, while supplies last.  After the 30-day program period, Christiansburg Soccer Club will receive $2 for every Uniroyal^® tire sold to the general public on behalf of Uniroyal^® Tire and South Main Auto Service. Read more »

ITT Corporation has been awarded a contract from Lockheed Martin to build the imaging system for its next imaging satellite, GeoEye-2. Here is a press release from ITT:

ITT Corporation (NYSE:ITT) announced today that it has received a contract from Lockheed Martin Space Systems, a major operating unit of Lockheed Martin Corporation, to continue building the imaging system for GeoEye’s next-generation Earth-imaging satellite, GeoEye-2. The GeoEye-2 imaging system consists of the camera and sensor subsystem, optical telescope unit and outer barrel assembly. ITT has been working on long-lead items for GeoEye-2 since October 2007, under a separate contract directly with GeoEye. Read more »

Gov. Bob McDonnell is, as you know, pushing to privatize liquor sales in Virginia. Sell off the ABC stores, and use the money to fund transportation. There are some folks who think voters should decide this in a referendum, not the General Assembly. After all, they say, Virginians have historically decided liquor issues in a referendum.

Here’s some info on the politics behind that question — and the history of how Virginia first started holding referenda on liquor sales – both on our new politics blog, The Blue Ridge Caucus.

As for the impact on business, The Blue Ridge Business Journal had a cover story earlier this year on what privatizing liquor sales would mean.

A symposium held by the Virginia Tech College of Natural Resources and Environment celebrating the 75th Anniversary of the Blue Ridge Parkway will take place in Roanoke this October. Here are the details from the National Park Service:

In honor of the 75^th Anniversary of the Blue Ridge Parkway, Virginia Tech’s College of Natural Resources and Environment’s symposium about the future of the Parkway will feature keynote speaker Richard Louv, whose book Last Child in the Woods introduced America to the threat of a new generation with “nature-deficit disorder.”

Louv will speak about his work to build a movement connecting today’s children and future generations to the natural world and the restorative power of nature. His remarks are part of “Imagining the Blue Ridge Parkway for the 21^st Century: Sustaining Communities, Environments, and Economies,” a symposium October 14-16 at The Hotel Roanoke & Conference Center in Roanoke, VA. Louv’s address will take place the evening of October 15. Read more »

Virginia’s assistant secretary for commerce and trade essentially works two jobs.

That’s because in addition to his responsibilities promoting foreign trade and investment, Peter Su also is the director of the Virginia Department of Business Assistance.

Officials say this two-part role is a way of elevating the importance of the VDBA. You can read more about that in the Sept.6 issue of the Business Journal. For now, listen as Blue Ridge Business Journal Reporter Annie Johnson talks about Su on WVTF Public radio.

Johnson and WVTF host Fred Echols chat each week about Virginia business. You can search old editions here.

Board of Visitors

Virginia Tech’s Board of Visitors held a meeting yesterday. Here is a press release from Tech about what they discussed:

At their regularly scheduled meeting today, Virginia Tech’s Board of Visitors approved a resolution that would authorize the university to create a new Health Science Division that would support increased collaborative efforts between the university and Carilion Clinic. The expanded partnership will further support Virginia Tech’s growing research foundation focused on the life sciences. Virginia Tech President Charles W. Steger told the board that the university must accelerate its growth of life sciences research in order to meet or exceed the $540 million Fiscal Year 2012 research target in the strategic plan. Read more »