Virginia State Fair to Be a Family Friendly & Agriculturally Centered

The new operators of the State Fair of Virginia are promising a family-friendly, agriculture-centered exposition. Leaders of the Virginia Farm Bureau Federation and Universal Fairs LLC appeared publicly Thursday for the first time since they announced their partnership to run the Caroline County fair.

Farm Bureau President Wayne Pryor says he couldn't think of a better place to put the state's agriculture industry on display, while Universal President Mark Lovell promised to deliver what he called a clean, safe and family-friendly fair. The fair is scheduled to run from Sept. 28 through Oct. 7.
 

Midwestern Drought to Affect Grocery Prices

Get ready to feel the effects of the drought at your grocery store. Heather Bosch has more:
 

“Twenty eight states are going through their hottest year on record. With crops drying out the cost of feed is going up and at the same time heat and stress are causing Dairy cows to produce less. That means the price of dairy will likely increase.”
 

While the Midwest continues to bake under unseasonably warm temperatures and little to no rainfall, for a change, the Carolinas are in pretty good shape according to NC State Climatologist Dr. Ryan Boyles:
 

“In general across North Carolina with the rain fall in South Carolina last week, both states are looking ok. In particular in North Carolina and Virginia they have had a little more frequent, more regular rainfall, its kept the water supply and most of the crops fairly happy. We have had some stress from the heat, but compared to some of our neighbors to the west we are in pretty good condition.”
 

The old saying goes; we’re just one week away from a drought. Boyles says it’s not time to get complacent about water usage:
 

“The issue we have in some areas is ground water. It recovers much slower, and with a dry winter we are seeing some of those levels that are unusually low for this time of the year. If we hit a stretch of very dry weather those will drop very quickly”
 

White House Puts Renovations of Charleston Harbor on Fast Track

The Obama Administration says that the $300 million deepening of the Charleston Harbor shipping channel is a nationally significant project and work to complete it will be expedited.

The White House released a statement late Wednesday that Charleston is among five ports where work will be expedited under the federal "We Can't Wait" program.
 

The Corps of Engineers announced last week that studies for the Charleston Harbor deepening project are ahead of schedule and the project, if all goes according to plan, could be completed by 2020 – four years earlier than projected.
 

Oil Prices Breach $90

Oil prices top $92 a barrel for the first time since late May. The cost of crude has risen about $15 a barrel since oil hit a low for the year three weeks ago. Oil analyst Tom Kloza says a couple of factors are in play:
 

“Its partially the notion that the second half of the year always has a little higher demand than the first half as well as there could be some trouble in the middle east.”