Virginia Farm Bureau Insurance Co. will be named to the 2009 Ward’s 50 this afternoon, the first time the Goochland County-based company has made the list of top-performing insurance companies. “This is something we are very excited about,“ said Richard Rivers, Farm Bureau’s executive vice president and general manager. The official announcement and the other names on the 2009 list will be announced later this afternoon.

s   Headquarters: West Creek office park, Goochland County
  Employees: 787
  Headquarter employees: 315
  Agencies: 22
  2008 sales: $235 million
  Members: 148,000

Canada’s House of Commons last week unanimously passed a bill that U.S. tobacco observers say could eliminate the Canadian market for U.S.-grown burley tobacco.

A former Virginia Farm Bureau lawyer will spend 15 years in prison for stealing at least $2 million from the organization from 1996 through last summer. Judge Timothy K. Sanner yesterday sentenced Lawrence H. Bidwell in Goochland County Circuit Court to 30 years in prison but suspended half of that term, said Goochland Commonwealth’s Attorney Claiborne Stokes.

A former Virginia Farm Bureau lawyer will spend 15 years in prison for stealing at least $2 million from the organization from 1996 through last summer. Judge Timothy K. Sanner yesterday sentenced Lawrence H. Bidwell in Goochland County Circuit Court to 30 years in prison but suspended half of that term, said Goochland Commonwealth’s Attorney Claiborne Stokes.