NORFOLK More than half of the crew aboard the Maersk Alabama during a Somali pirate attack in April 2009 have filed lawsuits in Norfolk against the owner and operator of the ship, even as a new movie about the hijacking is in the works.

"Bad news, everyone," a breathless White House aide tells the vice president and an array of handlers in Washington. "This hasn't hit the mainstream media yet, but a crane has collapsed onto a ship at Portsmouth, Va." The vice president on the receiving end of this news can only gasp, "God, how horrible."

VIRGINIA BEACH The Navy has awarded a contract worth $331.4 million to EHW Constructors, Virginia Beach, for the building of an explosives-handling wharf at Kitsap Naval Base in Bangor, Wash. It includes an exercised option for construction of two traveling overhead crane systems.

NEWPORT NEWS
Huntington Ingalls Industries Inc., the parent company of Newport News Shipbuilding, reported first-quarter 2012 profit of $33 million on Wednesday, down 26.7 percent from $45 million in the same quarter a year earlier.
Earnings-per-share were 67 cents for the quarter, down from 92 cents in the same quarter of 2011.
Quarterly earnings-per-share missed Wall Street estimates.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. A former civilian naval engineer from Virginia pleaded not guilty in Rhode Island today to charges stemming from what prosecutors say was a bribery and fraud scheme that cost the U.S. Navy about $10 million over 15 years.  

NEWPORT NEWS Ground was broken Thursday on the site of a new downtown campus for the 93-year-old Apprentice School at Newport News Shipbuilding. Gov. Bob McDonnell, U.S. Reps. Scott Rigell, Bobby Scott and Rob Wittman, and Newport News Mayor McKinley Price were among those on hand to mark the occasion.

NEWPORT NEWS The parent company of Newport News Shipbuilding held its first annual meeting Wednesday, at which shareholders got a steady-as-she-goes message from Mike Petters, president and CEO of year-old Huntington Ingalls Industries Inc. "It was a very good year," Petters said of 2011. "There were a few bumps along the way, yet we finished the year strong."

By Michael Melia GROTON, Conn. The chief of Naval operations accepted a new attack submarine on behalf of the U.S. military Wednesday and praised the builders for delivering it a year ahead of schedule and under budget.

VIRGINIA BEACH

AMSEC LLC is moving its headquarters from one Virginia Beach location to another, its parent company, Newport News-based Huntington Ingalls Industries Inc., announced today.

After a two-year search for a new home in Hampton Roads, AMSEC signed a 10-year lease agreement with the Olympia Development Corp. for the property located at 5701 Cleveland St.

RICHMOND A New Jersey-based company with a facility in Elizabeth City, N.C., is moving its headquarters to Arlington.