A Lobbying Road Trip for Chambers of Commerce
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, January 26, 2006; Page VA07
Business leaders representing Fairfax County's various chambers of commerce headed south on Interstate 95 this week to lobby the Virginia General Assembly. It's likely that the region's traffic-choked roads gave them plenty of time to practice their spiels on the top agenda item this session: transportation.
On Jan. 18, the Fairfax County Chamber of Commerce endorsed the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority proposal to take over the Dulles Toll Road and the project to build a Metrorail line to Dulles International Airport. "This proposal from the Airports Authority brings this community much closer than any other plan towards guaranteeing rail to Dulles Airport in our immediate future," said William D. Lecos , Fairfax County chamber president and chief executive, in a written statement.
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On Tuesday night, the Dulles Metro line and other critical transportation funding matters were discussed as the chamber dined with members of the Northern Virginia delegation at the Bull & Bear Club in Richmond.
Also Tuesday, a delegation from the Herndon Dulles Chamber of Commerce roamed the halls of the state Capitol with an agenda that included not only transportation, but also education, immigration and land-use policy.
The chamber's lobbying memo includes funding for specific road projects, such as the Interstate 66 and Route 29 interchange in Gainesville, expanding Route 28 near Dulles Airport and adding a third lane on I-66 from the Glebe Road exits to the Dulles Connector Road.
Businesses Hire Most Day Laborers
The Northern Virginia economy is distinct from almost any other metropolitan area in the country, and that uniqueness applies to its day-laborer workforce as well.
"In contrast to other metropolitan areas in which day laborers are primarily employed by individuals, day laborers in the greater Washington, D.C., region primarily work for construction contractors subcontractors, or private companies," reported researchers with the Center for the Study of Urban Poverty, who released the first nationwide survey of day laborers this week.
Researchers interviewed 476 day laborers in the Washington area at 16 hiring sites, including four in Fairfax County: Culmore, Annandale, Springfield and Herndon.
The survey also reported that the majority of day laborers in this area are immigrants from Central America (67 percent); more than half (58 percent) have experienced at least one instance in which they weren't paid for work performed; and a third of workers (33 percent) had been abandoned at work sites without return transportation to their hiring site.
WineStyles Opens in Fair Lakes
A new retailer has opened in Fairfax with the goal of demystifying the wine-buying experience.
A WineStyles store, part of a chain, opened last weekend on Shoppes Lane in the Fair Lakes area. It evokes the feel of a wine cellar, but bottles are categorized by color and style rather than region.
