Leicester

Sean “Diddy” Combs – the rapper, businessman, and producer – is buying three cannabis businesses in Worcester and Leicester, as part of a $185-million deal to buy 12 marijuana locations in Massachusetts, New York, and Illinois.

Shortly after Massachusetts residents voted to legalize recreational marijuana for adult use, officials at BayCoast Bank realized there could be a problem.

Five years since its creation and now made up entirely of a second wave of commissioners, the Cannabis Control Commission and the legal marijuana sector that it oversees are at a critical crossroads and regulators are gearing up for a rulemaking round that one commissioner said could "make or break" the industry here.

Entrepreneurship for All, a Lowell-based nonprofit which provides entrepreneurs aid through mentorship and classes, will be offering its year-long business accelerator program in Spanish for the first time in Central Massachusetts, starting in January.

A 267,000-square-foot Class A warehouse will be constructed on a plot of land at 90 Huntoon Memorial Highway in Leicester.

Six years after cannabis legalization, the fledgling industry remains unequal. But two new bills aim to make good on that promise of bringing equity.

The property of the former Mac’s Diner on Worcester’s Shrewsbury Street has been sold to a Leicester restaurateur, according to the Worcester South District Registry of Deeds.

Overall, more than 20,000 PPP loans for a total of $1.8 billion were given out to businesses across Worcester County, with more than 4,800 and $450 million of those loans going to businesses within the city of Worcester, according to data from the SBA.

Finding stable housing has always been a challenge for low-income earners, but the problem has ballooned in places like Worcester where the average rent is growing about 10 percentage points faster than the average income.

A swath of vacant land in Leicester sold for $2 million on Wednesday and will likely be developed into an industrial warehouse, according to Will Kelleher, principal at Worcester-based Kelleher & Sadowsky Associates, Inc., which was the exclusive sales agent on the deal.