July 6, 2020Edition

When officials from the City of Worcester and the Pawtucket Red Sox gleefully announced in August 2018 the minor league baseball team would move to the Canal District, the planned inaugural season of 2021 seemed like a long way off. Now, it is just around the corner.

After two of his opinion columns were not allowed to be published, Bill Shaner quit GateHouse and started his own Worcester news opinion website.

For businesses out there still closed under Gov. Charlie Baker’s March 24 shutdown order, we feel your pain.

Scrolling through social media is always a great way to get a pulse on the times, from official statements, profile filters, and hashtags. You would have to be an ostrich to not see the Black Lives Matter movement is one of the hottest topics right now.

Companies with new hires and promotions include UniBank, Vision Advertising, Westfield State University and Bay State Savings Bank, among others.

Companies may see these as treacherous times to conduct employee surveys, with challenges due to COVID-19 precautions, reduced workforce numbers and supply-chain disruptions.

If you stay up to date on business news, you might have heard of a new job in town: the chief growth officer. Companies like Hershey’s and Kellog’s are integrating this role into their corporate teams, and Coca-Cola even replaced its chief marketing officer with a CGO. 

If the existence of systemic racism was not evident to you before 2020, the killing of George Floyd by the police and the staggering disproportionate number of people of color dying from COVID-19 should leave no question. Acknowledge it. 

Growing up, my favorite basketball player was Allen Iverson. He was a rough and tough point guard whose skills and grit I idolized.

It’s been a worrying few months financially since the coronavirus pandemic hit in March – and that’s for those who’ve kept their job or their business in operation.

In the month following the police killing of Minneapolis resident George Floyd, national civil rights, social justice and Black advocacy organizations like Black Lives Matter and protestor bail funds saw surges in donations, reaching a cumulative nine figures.

For the average Central Massachusetts consumer, it may not be immediately obvious the artisanally decorated cannabis retailer in their quiet mill town is owned by a multi-million dollar, multi-state company whose CEO lives on the other side of the country.

The DCU Center, the Hanover Theatre, Worcester Fitness, and the Compass Tavern and nightclub in Worcester all have one commonality: adapting to difficult restrictions during the coronavirus pandemic.

Before construction even began, a timetable for completing Polar Park was called ambitious. Despite a month pause in construction, planners are still holding out hope: the Worcester Red Sox will begin playing at the ballpark in April 2021.