by Jessica Sabbath

Two months ago today I married my college sweetheart. Life as a newlywed has been completely blissful, but the ordeal of changing my legal name and new address has been anything but. It’s daunting thinking about how many organizations I have to contact about the change, from the Social Security Administration to my credit card accounts, not to mention the magazines I subscribe to and the local running club.

Rock the Vote can help with at least one change. Last week, I received a notice in the mail reminding me I needed to update my voter registration records. Not only did the flier include a voter registration application already filled in with my name and address, but it included an envelope already addressed to the Virginia State Board of Elections. It even had a special section for changing your name. Perfect for recent brides.

Rock the Vote, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization encouraging youth participation in elections, is currently conducting a one-time field experiment to remind young people who have moved to reregister to vote. Chris Kennedy, a research analyst with Rock the Vote, is managing the project. Kennedy told me they are sending snail mail and e-mail to 18-to-29-year-old voters who have moved recently, using Post Office data to devise their lists.

Young voters move twice as often as the average population, Kennedy said, and the group is testing methods to help people reregister.

Perhaps Rock the Vote’s strategy will work. It certainly can help check off one entry on that long list of things to do after a move.

Need to register to vote? Follow this link, and Rock the Vote can help. http://www.rockthevote.com/rtv_register.php?ms=vabusiness

Fall ushers in the best fashion show of the season: burnt orange pumpkins, yellow mums, and the golden browns of falling leaves. In October, the reds belong to Virginia wines. This is the month the state celebrates its growing wine industry with many festivals and special events. You can stomp grapes, take in a winery from a hot air balloon or visit several wineries in one day on one of Virginia’s six wine trails.

With 130 wineries stretching from the Eastern Shore to Appalachia, Virginia is fifth largest wine-producing state in the country. And its wines are getting noticed. In July Travel+Leisure magazine named Virginia one of the five up-and-coming wine destinations in the world, along with wine-producing regions in Italy, Spain, Chile and New Zealand.

So, if you’re near a tasting room, why not raise a glass to the glories of fall.

by Jessica Sabbath

Could YouTube and Google become more important HR tools than resumes and references?

Responding to a question about whether Dr. Eman Omeish had been vetted before his appointment to a state immigration commission, Gov. Tim Kaine’s spokesman Kevin Hall told the Richmond Times-Dispatch that Omeish was thoroughly vetted, but nobody knew about his videos condemning Israel.

“Needless to say,” Hall added. “YouTube will become a part of the vetting process.”

Omeish, chief of general surgery at INOVA Alexandria Hospital, resigned Thursday from the Commission on Immigration after Kaine was made aware of the videos on a monthly radio show. After reviewing the videos, Kaine suggested Omeish resign and he agreed.

In this digital age, YouTube, Google and social networking sites seem to be becoming even more important research tools for candidates, government appointees and employee hires. They can often reveal much more about employee or appointment candidates than the standard resume.

The revamping of Virginia’s IT infrastructure continues to take shape under the commonwealth’s $2 billion, 10-year contract with Northrop Grumman Corp.

Northrop Grumman Program Director Joe Fay says the recently opened 192,000-square-foot data center at the Meadowville Technology in Chesterfield County now houses 550 workers. The $35 million facility eventually will be staffed by about 600 employees. Servers and mainframes are being transferred to the data center from downtown Richmond.

Meanwhile, Northrop Grumman expects to open a 100,000-square-foot, $23 million facility in Russell County in November. That center will provide help desk and disaster recovery services for the Chesterfield site. Fay said the company has made offers to 25 applicants who would start work in Russell County in mid-October.  When fully staffed, the center is expected to employ more than 400 workers. 

Northrop Grumman hopes to create a labor pipeline for the Russell County through its collaboration with the University of Virginia at Wise. The company provided $1 million for a new software engineering program at the four-year public college.

“Overall it’s been an exciting ride,” Fay said in reviewing the IT project’s progress.

September is shaping up as a sweet and sour month for Northern Virginia. First came the Sept. 6 announcement that Volkswagen of America would move its corporate headquarters from the Detroit area to Herndon. The old-line manufacturer will broaden the profile of Dulles’ high-tech corridor, and it comes with a high-gloss finish: 400 new jobs and a $100 million investment. Then on Sept. 17 AOL employees learned that the Internet company plans to move its corporate headquarters from Dulles to Manhattan — a move that supposedly will not affect most of the 4,000 employees at the Dulles campus.

Just when the score looked even, the Texas Transportation Institute weighed in Wednesday with the 2007 Urban Mobility Report. It ranked the Washington metropolitan area as second worst in the country — behind only Los Angeles — for traffic delays. Drivers sit in congestion for an average of 60 hours a year, the report said, and waste nearly 91 million gallons of fuel.

While some commuters can get to work in 30 to 45 minutes, congestion is definitely getting worse for others. In 2000, the Washington area ranked as the sixth-worst for traffic delays. While economic growth brings jobs, it also brings cars. That’s the dilemma for NOVA, how do you have one without the other?

The construction of four express “hot” lanes starting next year on the Capital Beltway in Virginia is expected to provide some relief. The lanes would be free to carpools of three people or more. Other drivers would pay a toll based on traffic volume. Rush hour tolls are expected to run between $5 and $6. A private-sector consortium, Texas-based Fluor Enterprises and Transurban of Australia, has agreed to finance more than three quarters of the project’s $1.7 billion provided they can build, operate and maintain the lanes for 75 years.

So there you have it. A market-based answer to congestion. Only time will tell if it can work.