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BusinessTalk with Aaron Vega, director of Planning and Economic Development in the city of Holyoke
BusinessWest Editor George O’Brien talks with Aaron Vega, the former state representative who is now director of Planning and Economic Development in the city of Holyoke. The two discuss the city’s efforts to recover momentum lost to the pandemic, and zero in on efforts to expand a budding cluster of cannabis-related businesses in this former mill…
Read MoreMassMutual Launches $50 Million Investment Fund
MassMutual is launching a new $50 million investment fund to support black-owned businesses across the state and tech startups outside of the metro Boston area, the Boston Globe reported. Read the source article at BusinessWest
Read MoreOn the Move Forum to Advance Women Slated for March 8 – BusinessWest
In honor of Women’s History Month in March and International Women’s Day on March 8, Bay Path University, Springfield Museums, and UnityFirst will present the fifth annual On the Move Forum to Advance Women on Monday, March 8 from 10 to 11:30 a.m. This year’s theme, “Women in Leadership: This Is What Change Looks Like…
Read MoreBaker-Polito Administration Announces Plans for Continued Reopening
Today at 1:00 PM, Governor Baker, Lt. Governor Polito, and I made several announcements pertaining to the state’s reopening process and sector specific guidance. These include: Phase 3, Step 2: Effective March 1st, the Commonwealth will move forward into Phase 3, Step 2. This will reopen: Indoor performance venues such as concert halls, theaters,…
Read MoreUMass Amherst Researcher Leads a Breakthrough in Diagnosing Software Failures
It is a dream of generations of computer practitioners that they don’t have to debug software failures. The debugging becomes even more daunting in multi-core era since concurrency issues highly depend on a specific task interleaving that is extremely difficult to reproduce. Due to such reasons, programmers generally spend 75% of their working time on…
Read MoreGirls Inc. of the Valley Receives Amelia Peabody Grant
Girls Inc. of the Valley received a $145,000 grant from the Amelia Peabody Foundation, which will enable the organization to further develop its virtual programming, help prepare for the time when in-person programs may resume, continue its Learning Pod collaboration with Holyoke Public Schools, and ultimately bring staff together in one building, fostering even greater…
Read MoreHolyoke evolves ‘globalized and knowledge-based economy’ (Guest viewpoint)
As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to impact our communities, the need for socioeconomic recovery strategies remains a top priority for us all. The public health measures necessary to mitigate a higher death toll have also led to a reduction in labor participation, employment, worker productivity and overall production. Like other municipalities, the city of Holyoke…
Read MoreDowntown Northampton Association shifts focus to community health and stability during COVID (Guest viewpoint)
Thinking back to January 2020, it is difficult to imagine just how trivial the concerns I had on my plate that month would seem once March, then April and then May rolled around. I’ve resisted thinking about 2020 as some sort of gift with silver linings of any sort because the devastation that the year…
Read MoreAgawam welcomes new development, plans major projects (Guest viewpoint)
At this time last year, I’m sure that no one could have predicted the year that lay ahead. However, before we thankfully turn the page on 2020, we want to express our sincere appreciation to those who have worked so hard to deal with the new landscape that COVID-19 has created. All health and medical…
Read MoreSpringfield court eyes move to Eastfield Mall theaters as social-distancing solution
The state could move proceedings from the Roderick Ireland Courthouse in the city’s downtown to the former Eastfield Mall movie theaters, which provide more space for social distancing and precautions against the spread of COVID-19 Chuck Breidenbach, managing director of mall owner MDC Retail Properties Group, said Monday the state has expressed a desire to…
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