The meat of the fiscal 2022 budget discussion is still about a month out, but with an estimated $230 million due to come the city's way from the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan Act, it's going to be a budget season like no other.

WORCESTER, Mass. - Many students in Worcester returned to their classrooms this week for the first time in more than a year, but not all families are choosing the hybrid learning model.

WORCESTER – A new report by the Worcester Regional Research Bureau shows younger, white students were more likely to return to schools for in-person learning this month.

The first federal coronavirus relief plan – the $2.2-trillion CARES Act from March 2020 – provided much-needed calm in the early phases of the coronavirus pandemic.

Far fewer nonwhite students in the Worcester Public Schools have opted in for a return to in-person classrooms with hybrid learning than their white counterparts, according to a new briefing from the Worcester Regional Research Bureau.

In today’s daily 5 Things You Need to Know feature, ThisWeekinWorcester.com explores five important items and stories that Worcester and Central Massachusetts residents should keep a close eye on.

Free buses may be the bold idea Massachusetts needs to rebuild a culture of public transportation as we emerge from the pandemic in 2021.

After COVID-19 forced the nation’s schools online, thousands of districts scrambled to partner with internet service providers to cover the cost of broadband for low-income students. The result was a patchwork of temporary agreements that connected millions of families, often via innovative public-private partnerships.

The city of Northampton launched two online surveys Wednesday with the goal of both identifying residents’ internet needs and determining the community’s next steps in terms of whether it should implement a municipal broadband system.

The broadband company Charter/Spectrum announced it is hiring for thousands of positions and has raised its company’s minimum wage to $18, part of the business’s efforts to get to a $20 starting wage for all employees in the next year.