The Torpedo Factory Art Center is working to launch a new city-wide brand and promotional campaign called Handcrafted Alexandria which joins the resources of 13 art and retail businesses to pack a bigger promotional punch than any of these businesses could alone. With additional financial backing from the Alexandria Marketing Fund, the campaign will include advertisements, a website, email and direct mailings, social media presence, a reusable shopping bag, special shopping events, and more.

In honor of International Women’s Day (March 8), Ten Thousand Villages, located at 915 King Street in Old Town Alexandria, will donate 10% of the sales on Sunday, March 7 to the Alexandria Office on Women’s Domestic Violence Program. Ten Thousand Villages Alexandria has been raising money for the Office on Women since 2007.

For many Alexandria retailers, Saturday’s sixth annual Boutique District Warehouse Sale was an introduction to thousands of customers. The six-hour clearance sale was held at the George Washington Masonic Memorial. It was postponed a week because of the first Blizzard of 2010, but with prices slashed 90%, customers from far and wide ventured out to buy from local stores like Hysteria, Treat, The Shoe Hive, Periwinkle, Mystique Jewelers, Gossypia and others.

The George Washington Birthday Celebration Committee is proud to announce the winners of their second annual “Cherry Challenge”.

“Even though the snow forced us to cancel many of our other major events, this event was able to go on as scheduled, and provide a fun event for both the participating restaurants and their patrons”, said Sharon Sobel, committee vice-chair.

Alexandria’s shops and restaurants are open and welcoming customers after the blizzard of 2010 blanketed the region with more than 30 inches of snow.

“The President is gratified to see the Senate moving forward in a bipartisan manner on steps to help put Americans back to work. The draft bill released today by Senators Baucus and Grassley includes several of the President’s top priorities for job creation, including a tax incentive to encourage businesses to hire, a tax cut to make it easier for small businesses to invest and expand, further measures to keep people at work repairing our nation’s roads and bridges, and extended unemployment insurance and health care assistance for Americans who are out of work.

Today in Lanham, Maryland, President Obama proposed the expansion of two critical Small Business Administration (SBA) lending programs, aimed at allowing small businesses to refinance and increasing limits for working capital. These are both legislative proposals designed to help small businesses through what continues to be a difficult period in credit markets.

Virginia Commerce Bancorp, Inc., the parent holding company of Virginia Commerce Bank, announced the recent appointment of Todd A. Stottlemyer to the Board of Directors for both the holding company and the Bank. Stottlemyer is the Executive Vice President and Chief Corporate Services Officer for the Inova Health System.

Today, President Barack Obama outlined the new Small Business Lending Fund, which will transfer $30 billion from the Troubled Asset Relief Program to a new program that will support small business lending. The Small Business Lending Fund will be targeted at community and smaller banks that lend the most to small businesses, and offer incentives for banks to increase small business lending.

At the Chesapeake Machine Company in Baltimore, Maryland, President Obama announced details of the Small Business Jobs and Wages Tax Cut, one of his new proposals to create good jobs and bring relief to small businesses.

The Small Business Jobs and Wages Tax Cut will put more Americans back to work by giving businesses – particularly small business – a tax cut for new hiring.