Another week, another story about the big guys tossing money around in an effort to curb the growth of independent craft breweries. This one has an interesting wrinkle to it. Let me catch you up – we’ll go with the Cliff’s Notes version.

Celebrating Greater Bangor Beer Week

BANGOR Beer is big these days and it's only getting bigger.

Central Street Farmhouse to offer baby sign language class

BANGOR It all started at story time.

Speaking as a young professional who works and lives in the Bangor Region, an active community that engages with and provides substance for its young residents is important. More often than not there is a presumption that to find quality shopping, arts, restaurants, bars and everything else young people yearn for, you must travel away from Bangor to Portland, Boston or New York. That's fortunately not the case - downtown Bangor businesses are doing a fantastic job of keeping things lively.

I was one of many who came to downtown Bangor on May 16 for Fusion's first Downtown Proud Open House, an event that helped demonstrate the livelihood of our city by showcasing 22 downtown businesses and all they have to offer. Although one could take advantage of great discounts, prizes and free food and drinks, it was more about the downtown experience going to a downtown business for the first time and thinking, 'Wow, this is in Bangor?' I had that exact thought when visiting The Rock and Art Shop for the first time. Their merchandise was vast and unique, and I was having a fantastic time simply browsing it all. Eventually, I settled on some purchases and made a mental note to return soon (which I most definitely will).

Central Street Farmhouse hosts second cloth diaper change

BANGOR Central Street Farmhouse will again host the Great Cloth Diaper Change, joining like-minded cloth diapers to break the world record and simultaneously raise awareness of the impact disposable diapers have on the environment. The event is scheduled for April 21 at the stroke of 12 noon to coincide closely with Earth Day.

Co-owner of the Central Street Farmhouse Betsy Lundy noted in a press release that in the one minute it takes to change the diapers, 60,000 disposable diapers will enter landfills in the United States and Canada, which translates to around 86.4 million diapers per day.

'[The event] started as a way to help spread the word on how easy it is to change to cloth diapers,' said Lundy. 'Also to highlight the impact disposable diapers have on the environment it's an insane amount of waste.'