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Central Massachusetts businesses, against the backdrop of the growing Black Lives Matter movement, are placing renewed focus on diversity & inclusion in their organizations.

The licensing option is a track intended to make it easier for small businesses with less capital to start making sales and earn back their startup costs, but so far licensing has been plagued with the same types of challenges and delay-induced financing issues as much larger license endeavors.

If we are going to get to a full-throated reopening, we first must get the pandemic under control.

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.