On Tuesday, North Carolina Governor Josh Stein announced that TSEA Energy, a manufacturer of energy equipment, will establish its first U.S. manufacturing plant in Rockingham County. The company says it will create 160 jobs and invest $25 million in Eden.
Chances are good you know someone who’s looking for a job. Chances are they’re also becoming increasingly frustrated with the search. Here’s ABC’s Cheri Preston
Tyson Foods in Ringgold, a community in neighboring Pittsylvania County, is being sued by 62-year-old Alvin Clark of Danville and Matthew Reeves of Ringgold. Clark is Black, Reeves is white, and both claim race and age discrimination, retaliation, and a hostile work environment. Tyson Foods opened the $300 million facility in the Cane Creek Centre Industrial Park in November 2023 with plans to hire about 400 people.
A new Lyme Disease vaccine is in the works. Pfizer announced this week that it plans to submit it to regulators, although it’s unclear when the vaccine could get approved by the FDA. Pfizer says the vaccine, which would be a four-dose series, has about a 70 percent effectiveness rate in preventing Lyme Disease. More from ABC News Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Tara Narula.
Rain chances remain favorable for later this week, as a cold front will continue to drive temperatures on a roller coaster and bring gusty winds toward the end of the week. Mostly sunny today with a high of 63. Partly cloudy tonight with a low of 46, and mostly sunny and breezy on Thursday with gusts up to 20 mph and a high of 77.
Due to the war in Iran and rising oil and gas prices, DoorDash is rolling out a temporary program offering extra compensation to U.S. and Canadian drivers to help cover some of the costs. ABC’s Michelle Franzen has more.
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Virginia Governor Abigail Spanberger delivers Democratic response to the 2026 State of the Union address by President Donald Trump, Feb. 24, 2026. (ABC News)
In her roughly 12-minute speech, delivered live in front of a crowd in colonial Williamsburg, Spanberger focused on affordability and made pointed remarks about Trump’s hardline immigration policies.
“Let me ask you, the American people watching at home, three questions,” Spanberger said. “Is the president working to make life more affordable for you and your family? Is the president working to keep Americans safe both at home and abroad? Is the president working for you?”
Spanberger, who was inaugurated in January after serving three terms in the House of Representatives, hit on key issues of affordability, including lowering the persistently high costs of housing, health care, energy and groceries despite the Trump administration’s insistence that some of these costs have come down.
“Democrats across the country are laser focused on affordability in our nation’s capital and in state capitols and communities across America,” Spanberger said.
The daughter of a law enforcement officer and a nurse, Spanberger focused relentlessly on affordability throughout her 2025 gubernatorial campaign. Despite the economy being the top issue Trump ran on in the 2024 election, it’s been one of the issues he’s struggled with the most during his second term, as Americans still haven’t felt the “Trump boom” they were promised.
In an ABC News/Washington Post/Ipsos poll, 57% of Americans disapprove of how Trump’s handling the economy, and 64% disapproved of how he’s handling tariffs on imported goods.
Spanberger, a former CIA officer, also criticized the Trump for his role on the world stage, saying he is contributing to greater worldwide uncertainty, saying, “Our president has endangered the long and storied history of the United States of America, being a force for good.”
A former federal law enforcement officer who worked on narcotics and money-laundering cases for the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, Spanberger also addressed what critics call the chaos caused by the Trump administration, which continues its immigration enforcement efforts that Americans are seeing in their communities.
“Our president has sent poorly trained federal agents into our cities where they have arrested and detained American citizens and people who aspire to be Americans,” Spanberger said in her speech. She referred to mothers being taken away from their babies and children — including “a little boy in a blue bunny hat” –being sent to “far-off detention centers.”
She added: “Our broken immigration system is something to be fixed not an excuse for unaccountable agents to terrorize our communities.”
The governor gave her speech live from Colonial Williamsburg, the restored 18th century capital where Virginian representatives voted for its delegation to Congress to propose independence for all 13 colonies from Great Britain, and later adopted the Virginia Declaration of Rights — which influenced the Declaration of Independence and Bill of Rights.
“In his speech tonight, the president did what he always does,” Spanberger said. He “lied, he scapegoated, and he distracted. And he offered no real solutions to our nation’s pressing challenges, so many of which he is actively making worse.”
There were at least two major counter events that several Democrats planned to attend, including MoveOn’s People’s State of the Union, which is promoting the participation of more than 20 members of Congress; and the “State of the Swamp” event by Defiance.org that features a handful of celebrities appearing by video or in person, such as Robert De Niro.
Spanberger prepared for her remarks by watching speeches other Democrats have delivered in response to Trump’s previous addresses to Congress.
