North County

Citing pay that is below average for nurses at comparable hospitals and staffing procedures that make work hours unpredictable, members of the Massachusetts Nurses Association (MNA) at Nashoba Valley Medical Center in Ayer will hold an informational picket outside the hospital this afternoon.

The past two years haven't always been good for small community hospitals. Challenged to keep up with technological advances and squeezed by competition from larger health systems as they struggle for reimbursement, three have closed across the state.

A 2.3-percent tax doesn't sound like much, but taking it directly off the top of medical device companies' sales could have widespread impacts on businesses large and small, industry experts say.

A class-action lawsuit against Unitil Corp. over its handling of a crippling ice storm in 2008 has been allowed to proceed by a Worcester Superior Court judge.

Nurses at HealthAlliance Hospital in Leominster have ratified a new, two-year labor contract that improves staffing ratios and adds new positions, according to their union, the Massachusetts Nurses Association.

The YMCA of Central Massachusetts will install improvements at its five branches, using money from the state's finance and development agency.

Providence & Worcester Railroad has been awarded $455,691 from the Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT) for improvements...

Worcester-based Spectrum Health Systems has expanded into Northern Worcester County with an outpatient treatment clinic in downtown Leominster, and more locations in that region are possible, according to Chief Operating Officer Kurt Isaacson.

A new company, Allied Resin Technologies (Artech), has teamed up with Leominster's First Plastics Corp. to bring rotational manufacturing of large plastic goods and up to 50 new jobs to the city.

Richard S. Lapidus became the 11th president of Fitchburg State University Wednesday.