One of the quietest offices in the state, Weights and Measures, which helps protect every consumer in Virginia from getting cheated, is hoping to get saved from state budget cuts.

As public-health officials try to get a handle on this strain of swine flu, they have a message: You cannot get swine flu from eating pork, and the virus has not been found in pigs in Virginia or anywhere in the United States. “There’s no evidence at all that the U.S. swine industry has been infected with this virus,“ said Todd P. Haymore, commissioner of the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. “It’s not in the pork industry.“

Many Virginia businesses would welcome the U.S. dropping the embargo on trade with Cuba. “There would be some tremendous opportunities,“ one trade official says.

David Fitzgerald raises chickens for meat and eggs, produces honey from dozens of beehives and grows a variety of vegetables—all without antibiotics, hormones or chemical fertilizers.