Leominster

Keystone Educational Collaborative has purchased Apple Hill Farm and Country Club in Leominster for a new educational facility.

As hospitals shutter services in the wake of staffing shortages, community members and health care workers will argue Thursday that the state should become responsible for hospitals that are "essential" but threatening to close.

Following a May announcement that UMass Memorial Health will shutter its maternity ward at the HealthAlliance-Clinton Hospital, Leominster Campus, community advocates continue to push for services to remain in place.

Leominster-based public relations firm empHowered PR is opening its second location at the Worcester Idea Lab on Franklin Street, its first move beyond its North Central Massachusetts headquarters.

The first half of 2023 was a difficult one for home buyers and for real estate agents as single-family home sales cratered and home prices plateaued high above pre-COVID levels.

After the first half of 2023 rocked the banking world and as uncertainty clouds the economic future, Central Mass. bankers are staying the course.

Lawmakers appear increasingly likely to make hospital expansions and closures an area of scrutiny this session, fueled in part by the planned shutdown of a Leominster maternity ward that has drawn vociferous criticism.

The local unemployment rate in Central Massachusetts communities remained low in May, including falling further from April figures in the North Worcester County region.

About half a dozen legislators from the greater Leominster area did not mince words during a committee hearing Tuesday, alleging that UMass Memorial Health is putting undue strain on Bay Staters with the closure plans its leaders announced last month.

Waltham-based utility National Grid will donate $800,000 to eight chambers of commerce in Massachusetts, including $100,000 to the North Central Massachusetts Chamber of Commerce in Fitchburg.