Good Day, Readers! We hope you all had a wonderful 4th of July celebration and long weekend.

This week's podcast with Newell, myself and WBFO's Mark Scott goes over a number of stories we've posted here recently. Newell shows us his green side as we discuss the Hands Across the Sand event which was held on Emerald Beach, and his recent acquirement of an environmentally-friendly scooter (photo: Mark Scott takes it for a spin). We continue that line of thinking with a quick chat about our sustainable city farmers markets, urban farms and local CSAs.

Discussion of the upcoming Taste of Buffalo and the Culinary Theatre schedule whets our palate for this weekend's upcoming food fest. Merge's ability to thrive, to overcome obstacles and to serve the needs of its community are arguably unparalleled by any other new restaurant in town, so we spend a little time chatting about that as well.

Last, but certainly not least (in the eyes of many of our readers and the overall online community), we discuss the changes The Buffalo News is planning with their comment policy. Here Newell and I share a few of our own thoughts, as does Mark, who is very passionate about the subject.

Thank you for joining us!