Greater Worcester

When Babson College came in first in Money Magazine's 2014 college rankings for educational value, beating out mainstays such as Harvard, it served notice to academia that the trade- and career-focused schools that had been perceived as ankle-biters to the established big dogs had drawn blood.

Central Massachusetts, especially Worcester, is home to a number of nonprofits and other tax-exempt organizations. Last year, more than 30 percent of all land in the city was tax exempt.

Anyone who has not driven or walked around downtown Worcester within the last decade may well be left stunned by the changes that have taken place. After years of talk, but not a lot of action, efforts to make the downtown a more walkable center are well underway.

It's no mistake that, throughout Massachusetts, there's more hospital signage showing up either on commercial sites, or on empty land that will give rise to satellite facilities under the umbrella of larger health care systems. That, in turn, is creating new business for architects and construction companies.

Quinsigamond Community College (QCC) will be a partner in a $600 million national effort to boost training in photonics, a discipline that studies and uses light for electronics and other applications.

Urban Kitchen and Bar on Worcester's Shrewsbury Street will close Friday, and the location will be leased to British Beer Co., a Massachusetts-based pub chain.

A University of Massachusetts Medical School study measuring the usefulness of Google Glass in emergency room toxicology consults is adding to speculation that the wearable device may be a good fit for the health care industry.

About 70 employers will participate in the UnCommon Job Fair on the Worcester Common Friday, Sept. 4.

The parent company of Wyman-Gordon is being sold to Berkshire Hathaway, the multinational holding company of several business lines owned by billionaire Warren Buffett, the companies announced Monday.

UMass Memorial Health Care has renewed and expanded its contract with an Atlanta-based services provider to help manage its supply chain and procurement operations, the firm announced Thursday.