Taking Care Of Wisconsin’s Birds with Lisa Gaumnitz (Hour 1)

Live from the Civic Media World headquarters in Madison, Wisconsin, it's the Todd Alba show.

And now, pursuing truth wherever it may lead, here's your host, Todd Alba.

Across Wisconsin on the Civic Media radio network and streaming worldwide on the Civic Media app.

Good afternoon, everybody.

I'm Tom Lobba, along with our outstanding producer, Mr. Aaron Zommers on the board.

It is Thursday, May 1st, 2025.

It is a great day to be Wisconsinite.

Glad to have you along.

Six minutes past the hour of two o'clock to the world headquarters of Civic Media.

In downtown Madison, Wisconsin, on State Street, Mr. Zommers, a little drizzly out today, some heavy rains overnight into the morning and cloudy and sprinkles and rain here in Madison.

We've had a lot of these very, how shall I say, damp days.

Yeah, damp days.

But I'm very excited because look, I mean, we're still parts of the state under some like dry conditions, drought.

And so the rain is going to help that.

And then after basically midday tomorrow, look out, it's like a week's worth of sunny skies and 70 degree temperatures.

I am excited.

cannot wait for the weekend, cannot wait for the week ahead in terms of whether it is going to be beautiful out there.

So enjoy the last of the not quite April showers because they're going to bring May flowers, right?

We're already May 1st, Mr. Zomers.

Can you believe that already in the May time moves fast when you're having fun?

Yeah, absolutely.

Absolutely.

Big show today later on this half hour.

Lisa Gominance, who is the coordinator of Save Our Songbirds, is going to be here.

Now, this is a tag team event.

You understand here at Civic Media because our friend and colleague, Jane McNair of McNair On Air and Greg Bach, they had someone on from the Natural Resources Foundation of Wisconsin yesterday talking about this because Jane loves all things birds and they were kind enough to set us up with

Lisa who's gonna come on and talk.

Well, we'll touch on fat bird week and what that is But also the the seriousness of the conservation side of it So it's great.

We're into spring and of course later on this hour We'll have our what's worse addition speaking of it.

We're into May lots of people there's controversy controversy everywhere and We like to stir the pot.

So today's what's worse lawn with weeds or lawns with no weeds as we venture into

No Mo May.

The dreaded No Mo May.

We'll talk about that a little bit later as well.

Big news happening.

Breaking news as we come on the air in Washington, D.C.

regarding the National Security Advisor, Secretary of State, and the U.N.

Ambassador.

We're going to sort all that out as we go along here this hour.

Take your calls as well.

855-752-4842.

855-752-4842.

But I want to begin with this.

breaking news from Washington DC and not maybe was getting the biggest headlines right now if you look across national media.

But I think interesting, important, particularly for those of us here in Wisconsin.

The House Judiciary Committee meeting this morning considering a number of things and what's going to go into the budget and whatnot.

And there was an amendment offered.

Now.

Why this is was important to Wisconsin, that three members of the Wisconsin House Republican delegation sit on the House Judiciary Committee, Tom Tiffany representing the northern part of Wisconsin, Glenn Grossman, kind of the central, south, eastern part of Wisconsin, kind of, you know, right below, right around Lake Winnebago area, Wisconsin.

And then at Scott Fitzgerald, right in that same neck of the woods as well.

So Tiffany growthman and fist Gerald sit on this on this committee house judiciary And an amendment was just brought up and it lost by one vote 11 to 12 And what it is regarding is something that's been in the news a lot We've talked about it somewhat on this show and another is here at civic media And I I was really important That we don't confuse the issue

This is not an argument or or a discussion around people who are documented undocumented quote-unquote legal or illegal It has to do with adherence to the Constitution of the United States And what we're talking about is has been in the news.

I guess we didn't touch on this one story here a couple days ago But I believe we're up to now three Three United States citizens who were children.

I think all under the age of six or seven

One might have been just a few months old, whose mothers were found to be undocumented and were immediately deported.

And then their children who had been born here, thus legally, United States citizens, were deported with them.

And the Trump administration is trying to spin this and make the argument saying, well, you know, we gave them a choice and the mothers chose to take the kids with them.

It was their choice.

What the Trump administration doesn't explain is that it appears, keyword appears, that these individuals were not given due process.

They weren't given time to contact American citizen family members here in the US to say, hey, can you take my kid?

You know, it's kind of a big deal when you're asking someone to take the care of your child.

Takes a little coordination.

And so, and this is a bit of an assumption, reading between the lines of my part, want to make that clear.

But as someone who has handled immigration matters for a United States congressman, and at one time was very well versed in the immigration law, that what appears to have happened is ICE basically said to these mothers, look, you got whatever, 30 minutes, one hour, you make the choice.

The kid goes with you, or will you, we'll just keep him here and put him in an orphanage or whatever.

Well, what kind of a choice of that is that it's not one and again I want it.

I want to check myself here.

All right, check Todd Let's get it.

Let's take the emotion of it out and I do get emotional about this.

I'll confess that It's not about being fair to the mom or not fair to the mom.

It's about following the law and the Constitution and it appears by all accounts that

these three American citizens and sure find their minors, their kids, but they are American citizens.

And they were not given due process before being deported.

So moments ago, today in the House Judiciary Committee, an amendment was offered to a bill.

This is raw.

I want to thank our owner CEO Sage Wilde for bringing this to my attention, just as we're going on the air.

This is what I'm literally reading now from the House transcript.

Says my amendment is simple and I hope it has bipartisan support It simply states that none of the funds of this bill may be used by Immigrations and custom enforcement ie ice to detain or deport us citizens And that goes on to say whether you're a Democrat or a Republican I hope we can all agree that us citizens should

Never be detained by ICE or any agency conducting civil immigration enforcement.

They certainly should not be deported.

This should not be a partisan issue.

I'm about protecting the most basic constitutional rights of US citizens.

My Republican colleagues have loved to profess their commitment to the rule of law and yet they remain silent as this administration tramples on the civil rights of US citizens under the guise of immigration enforcement.

ICE has zero authority to even detain US citizens.

as ICE's own policy states, quote, as a matter of law, ICE cannot assert its civil immigration enforcement authority to arrest or detain a US citizen, unquote.

That's directly in ICE's own policy, all right?

As I step away from the transcript for a second.

So in ICE's own policy, they say they cannot arrest or detain a US citizen.

Back to the transcript.

So I ask unanimous consent, Mr. Chairman, the ICE's policy memo related to detaining US citizens be placed into the record.

Then it goes on there without, without, without objection.

Then it says later on, back to the transcript to late January, only days after President Trump was sworn in, three US citizens were out shopping in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

A toddler.

His mother and grandmother were detained and sent to an immigration detention center by immigration agents who questioned their immigration status just because they were speaking Spanish.

Goes on from there.

So again, this is really important, folks, because this isn't happening in Los Angeles or Miami or New York City, which would be bad enough.

This has come right here to the state of Wisconsin Three folks who happen to be speaking Spanish in public are detained by ICE And at the end of the vote The roll call was called Tom Tiffany and Glenn growthman voted no on this amendment Scott Fitzgerald absent

Did not vote and the amendment failed 11 to 12 I Just simply ask the question if you can't be for the US Constitution if you can't stand up and speak out and protect United States citizens Then where are we at folks?

And people say well, you know

They were they were brown kids of a woman who came from ex-country egg.

What what was Guatemala?

I believe You're missing the point if that's your attitude of all due respect Because the point is that the kids of these moms are American citizens They were born in the United States of America under the US Constitution They are American citizens with all the full bird privileges and rights entitled under the United States Constitution

And so if you want to classify American citizens now, now we get into a real dangerous slippery slope.

Because if the United States government under doubt, take Trump out of it for a second.

All right.

If the United States government is allowed to detain and deport United States citizens, period, full stop, then that means they could deport you and they could deport me.

So I find it interesting that I hope helpful bringing is bringing you the news.

I bet I don't take any joy in it Why into Tom Tiffany and Glenn growthmen feel it's okay for the United States government to deport us citizens Why did Scott Fitzgerald feel it was not important enough To go from his office or his lunch or wherever he's at and show up and take a vote

These are real things as we saw this testimony here in the house judiciary committee this morning that are affecting Wisconsin folks our friends and neighbors It's a sad day in America a sad day in Wisconsin when somebody in Milwaukee can get detained by ice Because they're speaking Spanish It's a sad day in Wisconsin when at least two

of our republican house representatives vote against the constitution and say, yeah, we're good.

If you're walking down the street in Hayward or Amory or Manitowoc and you're speaking Spanish, we're good with ICE agents who are without identification outwardly, without badges and black cars.

If they hear you speaking, we're good.

with pulling you over and detaining you and possibly deporting you.

855-752-4842.

855-752-4842.

Your calls on the other side is a Thursday edition.

May 1st of the All Ball Show.

You're listening to Cross Wisconsin Pacific Media.

It may lead and having fun doing it.

Welcome back to the town of all show on the civic media.

We're going to get to some fun in a minute here right now.

Twenty two past the hour of two o'clock after the bottom of the hour news break.

We're going to talk about some fun stuff with Lisa Gumnitz, who is the coordinator of Save Our Songbirds here in Wisconsin.

Going to talk conservation and pick up on something our colleague and friend Jane McNair talked about yesterday on her show.

Fat.

Bird week Yes, it's actually a thing.

So we'll we'll talk about that after the bottom of the hour right now breaking news We'll get to this a little bit later in the show Donald Trump now nominating walls to be you an ambassador and Moving Rubio apparently from a secretary of state to national security adviser.

It's a miracle round out in DC right now, you know, sometimes you fail upwards sometimes but

What we're what a zero in here at the top of the show is breaking news that that I'm not even seen on the national Media outlets right now It's going under the radar And it's particularly interesting to me because It involves members of the Wisconsin congressional delegation house judiciary committee moments ago voted down an amendment to a bill

that would have prevented ICE from detaining and deporting US citizens, which, by the way, important to note, is a policy contained in ICE's own handbook or policy regulations.

It specifically says they can't do that.

And so this amendment would have just codified, to use a big word, made sure

That it was on the books to hey look it's in your it's an ISIS handbook.

Let's us as the Congress just Double down on that and say yeah, we agree It ain't legal and ain't right to arrest US citizens like that By like it was this was by the way at yesterday's markup hearing I apologize It was a markup yesterday and so in the came up for a vote

Tom Tiffany, Republican of Wisconsin, Glenn Grossman, Republican of Wisconsin, voted no.

The amendment failed 11 to 2.

Scott Fitzgerald, Republican of Wisconsin, was also on the committee, was not there.

Took a powder, didn't want to take a stand.

855-752-4842, 855-752-4842.

Let's go to Charles, listening on WAUK in Milwaukee.

Charles, thanks for calling.

Let's see.

Hey, Todd.

This is all about being cruel.

It's about being cruel.

It's about scaring other black and brown people from China come to the United States because they're... He thinks he's...

Going to be able to stop the United States from browning and that's what they're afraid of.

That's why they put their their Floating this ideal of paying women $5,000 to have a baby and what they really want to come out and say is we'll pay white women $5,000 if they have babies because they're scared that the white population is shrinking and it's not growing I

don't disagree with you Charles and I want to state that I agree with what you just said

But I would ask folks all across Wisconsin who might not be black or brown, might not be a person of color, who say, well, it doesn't really affect me.

I think that's a wrong attitude, Charles, because I mean, I'm going to the Brewer game tomorrow night at AMFam Field.

I speak it poorly, I'm not fluent, but I might speak a couple of sentences to Spanish with my friends who are, happen to be Hispanic, Latinos.

If white people like like me think this ain't gonna affect you in the future or couldn't affect you I just think that's short-sighted

Well, and you're right because we saw during slavery times The the white people that helped the black people well, they were hung right along with the black people So no, you're right.

It can happen and I believe that he's definitely gonna continue to try to Overstep his powers

Like I said, the courts can't really do anything to him.

They can't kick him out of office.

It's going to take the Republican Party and the Republican constituents to say, hey, enough is enough.

This is not the road that we really want to go down.

Right.

And just make sure I'm clear, Charles.

I totally agree with what you said.

I'm not trying to take the focus away from

people of color, but I'm just saying to relate it across the state to think that only affects people of color.

I just, that's inaccurate because once you set the bar that U.S.

citizens can be deported without due process, that opens it up to everybody.

So great call.

Great call, Charles.

Thank you so much.

I appreciate it.

855-752-4842.

Matt on W-A- pardon me, W-M-D-X in Madison.

Matt in Middleton.

You can make it brief, please.

Up against the clock.

What do you got, Matt?

Hey

Todd, I was just wondering what you think about America having some grand agreement or something to avoid civil war where we figure out how to have democracy, liberal values, personal freedoms, and then also this Christian nationalism that wants to go back to the 1800s.

Can we give them their own state?

Can we give them Idaho and Texas and say just move there and leave us the hell alone?

Novel idea.

I just don't think it's practical.

I think Lincoln set the bar that were the United States of America We are a union and we have to find ways to to find commonality to preserve the union Let's go to mark quickly imper to sack gonna be MDX mark got about 45 seconds, please go ahead

Yes to the Christian nationalist most of them should recognize the fact that if they're if they're particular beliefs were they suppose their particular beliefs

back in the times of the pyrrhodians, they'd either get flogged out of the community, or they'd get hung because the pyrrhodians considered anything that didn't agree with their Calvinistic brand of Christianity as heresy.

They'd likely face the fate of the death sentence, and Mariel, good old New England, was the first area of the country that actually, or the colonies, actually banned Christmas.

I got a little annoyed one time, I was in St.

Vincent de Paul here in Prairie to Sack there,

And some people were speaking Spanish, some people were speaking Spanish each other, and there was some person rather loudly complaining about them speaking Spanish.

Well, too bad.

I mean,

they've

got great to speak the language that their mothers, they've learned at their mother's breast.

Appreciate the call, Mark.

My response would have been, Lo siento.

Adios, amigos.

Regreso más en momento.

Los nuevos show on the Civic Media Ready

Network.

and welcome back to the town hall ball show the Civic Media Network 35 minutes now past the hour of two o'clock on this Thursday May 1st 2025 we are here in a beautiful meadow the sun is shining

A light wind right now is several red-winged blackbirds and songbirds are going overhead.

Wouldn't that be lovely if that were the case?

But through the magic of radio, Zomers has created that audio landscape for us.

I appreciate that, Mr. Zomers.

No, it is drizzly and overcast here in downtown Madison, like I know it is amongst much of the state.

But things are about to get brighter because we're going to talk about songbirds and Fat Bird Week.

And here to help us understand it all is the coordinate.

of Save Our Songbirds here in Wisconsin.

Lisa Gobnitz and Lisa, we appreciate you joining us via StreamYard.

Those sounds just brought like music to my ears.

Yes, well Todd, thank you so much.

And you know, today's a great day for birds.

I checked last night on Birdcast and 10 million birds flew over Wisconsin last night and it kind of peaked migration.

There were 15 million birds in the air over Wisconsin.

So just...

Just kind of an amazing time of the year and just an amazing animal to appreciate.

I love this.

I want to get into what you just said in a second by you remiss if I didn't say.

We're kind of doing a tag team show on this subject.

Our friend and colleague Jane McNair, who's on every morning from nine until 11, she loves birds.

She loves all things related to birds.

So she had one of the great folks, Emma Shatz was on her show yesterday from the Natural Resources Foundation of Wisconsin talking about this.

And they were kind enough and said, well, let's kind of do a tag team show.

So we're kind of picking up the ball with you.

and to save our song Bird.

So I know you guys partner with the Natural Resources Foundation of Wisconsin.

But it's why I appreciate doing this kind of two-show arc here.

But tell folks again, because I've heard of this before, people can go online and like follow the migration this time of year of birds.

This is fantastic to me.

Yes, there's just amazing tools now, Todd.

one called birdcast.info and it uses weather radar and other information to actually forecast what bird traffic is going to be like that night.

And then you can go to the next day and again using weather forecasts they're able to give you an estimate of the number of birds that flew over that were up in the air at one time and also the likely bird species that were represented in that fly.

That's just it's just a

really brings kind of home Yeah, it is I encourage everybody to look at that tool and then also it may be Emma and Jane talked about the Merlin Bird app which allows you to take your smartphone out and you can either take a photo or you can record a Little bit of a bird and it will tell you what species are actually singing at the time and it's just a kind of a fascinating

thing because you end up seeing a lot more birds than you probably would think or learning that they're around and

about.

That's amazing.

I got to download that because I was fortunate enough to know all four of my grandparents at one point in my life and my maternal grandmother who grew up on a farm and she could recognize

just gas, scads, we'd go for a walk in the woods by the river and she'd say, well, you know, that was, that's this.

And that, you know, knew all that she was a huge Cardinal fan or, you know, Baltimore Oriole or she could, she would know all of these, these songs by heart and just, and, and I know some of them, but not like she does.

So it'd be cool to have an app and be able to know that.

Yeah, that's a great thing.

Yeah, it

really is.

So talk to us a little bit, Lisa, about Fat Bird Week.

I love the name.

Tell us how this derived and what it is.

Sure.

Well, you've probably heard of Fat Bear Week, which is held in the fall, Katami National Park, and they pit brown bears that are bulking up to make it through hibernation.

They've got kind of cameras.

on different areas where the birds come down to feed along the river, et cetera.

So this has become super popular, a big thing.

And myself and then Shelley Torkelson, who's the communications director at Natural Resources Foundation of Wisconsin, we have coffee often to talk about kind of shared communications.

And we just came up with the idea of having a fat bird week because

There's a lot of attention, but think about the bears.

I mean, they bulk up and then they waddle off to a den, right?

And then they sleep it off for months.

But here are birds.

So similarly, they can double their weight, at least the long distance migrants, but they double their weight.

They actually shrink some of their internal organs so they have more room for fat.

And then they embark on what for shorter distance migrants might be a couple hundred miles to long distance.

some of them over 6,000 miles to fly back.

And it's just an incredible feat.

Think of, you know, they're often, they're not sleeping.

And some of the birds, like a hummingbird, you know, every second it's wingspeed 60 to 80 beats a second.

And for them to fly, they would need the human equivalent of about 150,000 calories per day.

just to get them all the way back.

So just like these numbers that are, you're laughing and it is, it's amazing or like they talk about the Black Pole Warbler, which is a beautiful little warbler that is often cited in Wisconsin as it goes up to Canada and to Alaska for tenets.

But that has a 72 hour minimum nonstop flight.

If you can imagine that.

Yeah.

And so for a human, it's like running a four minute mile.

I don't know if you're a runner, Todd, but I am.

And I know I've never seen a four minute mile, but doing a four minute mile for 80 consecutive hours.

So it's just, again, it's just an incredible feat.

And so Fat Bird Week recognizes just these amazing feats that these birds are doing.

And then kind of the second part of it is

it's we're using a fun way to talk about a serious subject which is these birds get here and they're pretty depleted you know and so we want to make sure that when they get here we're giving them food to eat and that we're also reducing the hazards particularly around our homes birds flying into windows kills up to 3.5 billion birds a year in the United States and almost half of those occur at home windows so

If you've got a window, and let me ask you, have you ever heard a bird hit your window?

Oh, yes, absolutely.

Unfortunately.

Oh, yeah.

Sometimes

it scared

the crap out of me.

I'm just sitting up, you know, and it's like, what was that, you know?

Yes.

And most people, whenever we give presentations, we always ask that question.

And just about 90% of the hands go up.

So very common occurrence.

So we ask people, and most people usually know it's one window, maybe, or two windows.

That's a problem.

Birds can't see the glass and they see reflections in the glass of like a tree or plants that might look like great habitat So they think they're gonna fly to it and then boom instead they hit this window But there's lots of solutions that we can do at home

to help prevent that.

We're talking with Lisa Gomnitz.

She is the coordinator at Save Our Songbirds here in Wisconsin.

Talking about conservation is a part of Fat Bird Week.

And I like the fact you have something fun to bring interest to a serious topic.

So all across this show goes all across Wisconsin from one end to the other.

What could we as Wisconsinites do to help in conservation efforts and be supportive?

Sure.

Well, thank you for that question.

Well,

Number one would be to provide some trees, shrubs, and wildflowers that birds can eat and then also provide some shelter.

And those are going to be native plants.

So plants that have evolved in a particular area, along with the soils and the climates and the insects, so that those plants are well suited to that area.

And it also means that the insects are able to eat the leaves.

You know, there's a real tight relationship between the insects that have evolved to be able to eat certain plants.

And so those plants will support particularly lots of caterpillars.

And then the caterpillars are what the birds need to feed their young.

So 96% of birds that spend most of their life on land need to feed their young.

Caterpillars so trees are particularly great oaks willows cherries things like that Shrubs like dogwoods service berries.

Those are all great things and then in terms of More wildflowers if you add something that produces seeds, you know, so lots of goldenrod and comb flowers Just you know, there's a variety of native

perennials that are beautiful for your yard, but also will provide insects.

You know, they attract insects so the birds can eat the insects.

And then in the fall, they'll provide seeds that are high in fat.

So that high fat content either helps the birds that are going to migrate.

So it gives them energy, lightweight energy, or for the birds that will try to make, you know, that will make it through the winter, like our black cat chickadees and some things like that, it'll give them a nutritious

you know, high fat fuel to get through the winter.

So a couple things I hear from people just out and about, A, on feeding birds, especially during this migratory time of the year.

Once it's old the adage I've heard is well once you start you got to keep going You can't you can't stop because they get used to it No, so I mean a is if we're gonna feed birds What should we do it and we have to keep going and then specifically with hummingbirds?

There's all kinds of things what you should or shouldn't put out they either help or harm hummingbirds talk to that please

Yeah, sure.

Well, for feeding birds, I mean, important to recognize that the vast majority of birds don't necessarily go to feeders, you know, so it's a smaller percentage.

And then even the ones that might come to feeders quite a bit in the winter, like a black cap chickadee or some of the sparrows, you know, there are still only getting a certain small proportion of their diet from our feeders.

The research would show that black oil sunflower seeds are the best.

in terms of if you're gonna, you know, because I know bird seed can get expensive, right?

It adds up.

That is one that is, again, high fat and also provides food for lots of different species.

So that would be a good bet.

And then as far as hummingbirds, one, we'd encourage people to plant some native plants that will provide a nectar.

for hummingbirds.

And hummingbirds actually also eat a lot of insects, which is not always that well-recognized.

I did not know that.

Yeah, so anything that some of the wildflowers that you would put in your yards, that there's seeds later in the year, will be attracting insects that hummingbirds can eat.

But with the oil, not excuse me, probably one of the keys is to make sure that you are changing.

the nectar, you know, if you're using sugar and water and use regular sugar, don't use organic and don't need to go out and don't cook.

Yeah.

And don't put in the red, red food dye.

So just go ahead and then make sure that you change it every few days.

So it doesn't get moldy because certainly as it gets warmer, you don't want to contribute to any kind of disease among birds.

So those would be hummingbird tips.

That's great.

I think that's really important because I've heard, you know, I'll go with the stuff from the store that hasn't looked red or not do that or, and so it's just simple.

Just is there a, is there a certain ratio with the sugar to water in a, in a mix from, I mean, bird?

Um, you know what?

I believe it's a four to one.

Okay.

Yeah.

With four, four portions of, uh, water to one cup.

I

should

check.

That's fine.

We're coming up against a break.

Can you stick around for another five or six minutes here?

Sure time.

All right.

So I want to talk a little bit of one of these things are talking about light pollution, particularly during migratory times for birds.

And we we hear this thing about turning lights out at night or whatever on on the porch.

And I want to take a talk a little bit about that, how that can help.

And also just other basic conservation things that we can do around our homes or apartments to help songbirds this time of year.

We're talking with Alisa Govnich from the Save Our Bird Songbirds of Wisconsin.

It's

Fat bird week, if only I could make my organ smaller during certain times of the year.

Just lose weight, that'd be great.

Come on back, it's the Tot All Ball show right here on the Civic Media Ready

Network.

truth wherever it may lead and having fun doing it.

Welcome back to the title of all show on the Civic Media Brain Network.

Glad to have you along here on a Thursday, the 1st of May, 2025 here.

We're going to talk more in the second hour about some of the headlines going on.

Also, what's worse today?

Regarding No Mo May, we'll have a little fun with that.

And much more, but right now we're talking to Lisa Gomnitz.

She is the coordinator of Save Our Songbirds here in Wisconsin.

Talking a little bit about Fat Bird Week, picking up on a topic that was started by our friend and colleague, Jane Mattener, on Mattener on Air every morning from nine until 11.

Jane, of course, a big fan of birds, and so are we.

Now, Jane is ecstatic about it.

I traveled with her last week.

last week, last summer around Wisconsin, we were up there walking and she was, oh, look at that one.

Look at this.

She, she loves, she genuinely loves them.

And I think it's great.

Uh, Lisa, before we get back into some of the stuff, want to pick lots of texts you've brought in all kinds of texts to the show, which is fantastic.

Want to read a couple of them here.

Uh, Kurt listening on WMDX at Madison says we bought a bird feeder that holds.

Thistle and it's in our backyard.

I have yet to see a single bird at the theater and it's been one week Can you provide any insight as to why Lisa?

Yeah, I

think it takes a while to find it and you know It was interesting just a couple of days ago We had maybe two million birds that

were

flying over the state now.

We were at 10 million last night so

you know, depending on what the weather and wind conditions are, they like the southern wind so they can get a tailwind.

So, you know, I wouldn't give up hope yet.

Okay.

And it could be too, you know, there's there are a lot more food sources, natural food sources, like I was looking out actually at my feeder, but I also saw some insects.

So,

you

know, now there's insects and, you know, it's starting to leaf out.

And so

you know, birds are able to find lots of natural foods.

All right.

Mark Peresak says he has a lot of finches, gold finches right now, house finches, chickadees and whatnot.

The Blue Jays breeze through as well.

Tom in New Berlin, listening to WAU case is the Merlin app is fantastic.

And Zomers is to our producer.

He's putting all the links to these apps that Lisa mentioned in our show notes today.

You can find out more about it there.

Let's see what else we have here.

Tom in listening in Jackson.

on AUK says, hey, Thomas, on Oriole this morning, also a pair of gross beaks is showing up, a few chipping sparrows, also rosy finches.

Lastly, I hope you're, oh, just congratulating and having a bird expert on, so that's fantastic.

What else here?

I guess that's, oh, also the question from Tom, is suet good for birds?

Is it good for

birds?

Yeah, there's some bird species that like that.

Again, kind of our focus at SOI Save Our Songbirds is trying to put some natural food out there for them.

You know,

trying to add some plants so we can be good for birds.

Because as I mentioned, not all birds certainly go to feeders and they're not going to get that much of their food from feeders.

So if we can put, you know, some native shrubs, trees and wildflowers will, you know, give them a variety of foods across the season and

You know, as well, there's many different benefits from adding native plants.

They help prevent erosion.

They help store carbon.

They help clean the air.

So that's a little bit what kind of our focus is more so than in bird feeding.

Although certainly, you know, it's awesome that people love birds so much.

And it's a great way to connect with birds.

My husband's really gotten into one of the groups I presented to gave us a little bird feeder that attaches to the window.

And he was a big fan.

And in fact,

his birthdays in two weeks and he asked me to get him some new binoculars.

Now, here's a personal text.

Mom was listening to the show.

We showed up at her house in Richland Center for Easter and there was a dead bird on her front porch.

I'm like, what happened?

She goes, oh, it ran into the window yesterday.

I forgot to get rid of it.

So now mom is texting in and saying, what do I do?

You mentioned earlier, there's some major problems.

What can she do?

what can others do to prevent birds from running into windows?

Sure.

And there's lots of different solutions.

So one, I'd encourage going to our website, sosavarsongwords.org.

And we've got a variety of solutions because it's important that people find something they like.

So they keep it up on the window.

And generally, the solution should go on the outside of the window because you're trying to break up the reflection.

And it can be everything from if you get an older house, double hung windows like I've got, and you have insect screens that go on the outside, that's perfect.

And there's a group called the American Bird Conservancy, they test solutions, and that's one of the best, by far one of the best.

There's other things that, like one of the things that we make available at our events, and I bring to presentations is kind of what you call dot decals.

So it's

something that goes on like a tape.

and you press it into the outside of the glass and then you peel back the tape and it leaves behind a grid of dots that the birds can see.

That's also very effective.

There's something called an Ecopian bird saver, which is essentially a curtain of parachute cord that goes on the outside of your window.

The lengths are tied about every four inches across and they kind of sway in the wind.

So there's a gentleman who invented that.

He sells those and in fact we have a

kind of an arrangement with him.

People could purchase them and get 15% off for the next month.

We have kind of our migratory may discounts.

And he also has do-it-yourself instructions on his website.

So that would be something that they could take a look at.

And we also have a link to the American Bird Conservancy where they do have a database showing all the different products and their test results.

So

you get something

that's effective.

And again, something that you like aesthetically.

Got one minute left.

I'll make sure I give you opportunity.

Save or SOS, saveoursongbirds.org is the website.

Zomers has it on the screen there.

We'll have it in the show notes.

What am I not asking you, Lisa, or that you want to make sure that people hear?

Yeah.

So I want to put a plug in.

Tomorrow is the first day of voting in the Wisconsin Fat Bird Week Contest.

It's going to be the dark-eyed junko in the Trumpo against the necklace Northern Cardinal.

So starting at nine o'clock, vote online.

And, you know, we'll see which one of these birds rises to the

top.

I think this is great.

Fat Bird Week.

Learn more about it at SOSaveOurSongBirds.org.

And more Zomers has got more information at Fat Bird Week as well.

Lisa, thank you very much for being here.

We appreciate it.

Have a wonderful spring and come back soon.

Thanks so much, Todd.

Have a great

afternoon.

Thank you.

Our pleasure.

Come on back.

Our two is next.

Live from the Civic Media World headquarters in Madison, Wisconsin, it's the Todd Alba show.

And now, pursuing truth wherever it may lead, here's your host, Todd Alba.

You might been hurt, babe.

What is it?

It's gonna be

fun.

Yeah, well it is made now

That was fantastic.

I forgot we did that last year many thanks to Terry Barr

For always, I mean, nobody better in the business than our very own Terry Barr.

She's so kind as to do our announcing here on the show, but she's a woman of many, many talents, an Emmy award-winning journalist amongst others, and co-host of Max Inc Radio on Saturday nights here at Civic Media.

And she is doing the news today here on the Madison station, just a great anchor, great news person.

And then she does that goofy thing for us just out of pity.

Why?

Oh,

did you?

But she did the announcing for her voice.

Yeah.

And you put it together and it was fantastic.

It's Justin Timberlake for those that don't know.

And because he doesn't really say it's May, right?

It's it's going to be me.

It's going to be me.

But it sounds like May.

Yeah, it's very every time we says it.

It's not just it's gonna be me.

It's also somebody told me.

That's great.

That made me very, very happy.

Welcome back to our number two of the show.

It is May 1st, 2025, a great day to be Wisconsinite here at the World Headquarters of Civic Media in downtown Madison, overcast, drizzly.

And it will continue to be so tonight.

Some heavy rains in parts of Wisconsin here in Madison.

A couple of places were flash flooding in some of the low light areas and streets.

So be aware of that.

Don't go through water that you can't see down to the bottom of, you don't want to fall into a deep dark pit or something.

What do they say?

Turn around.

Don't drown.

So just be aware of that.

But then that after tomorrow, sunny skies, it's going to be a beautiful weekend.

And then next week, seventies and sunny skies across most of Wisconsin.

I cannot wait.

Many thanks to Lisa Gomnitz from the Save Our Songbirds of Wisconsin.

That was a fun segment, informative as well.

Very much so.

Yeah.

If you go to SOS, saveoursongbirds.org, the website for her organization, there are a lot of interesting resources there, such as a list of what we talked about at the end of last hour, ways to prevent birds from flying into your window.

a lot of really easy things to do and things that you can do in an apartment.

They don't modify your home

in any

way.

Sure.

It's fantastic.

So I appreciate that.

Always great talking about conservation here in Wisconsin.

It is May Day, not just here, but everywhere, of course.

There's an interesting little factoid for you.

May Day, an ancient spring festival in the northern hemisphere.

I did not know this.

It's an astronomy holiday.

It's one of the year's four cross-quarter days.

That is, it's midway between an equinox and a solstice.

Did you know that, Somers?

I did not.

I'm more familiar with the International Labor Day or Workers' Day.

Well, that's the other part of it as well.

It's a lot of holidays.

In some places of the world, it is a national holiday.

For a lot of places, actually, a national holiday.

So...

for labor.

This is a big deal.

I know here in Madison, our very own Catherine Lake is covering some of the high school kids here.

We're doing a kind of a protest type of demonstration and marching up to the Capitol here.

So in honor of organized labor and just democracy in the United States writ large, as they say.

So lots of

Cool things happening to think about labor, think about working people in America, working people in the state of Wisconsin.

So however you are celebrating today.

Now I've said this before on May day, when I was a kid, back when I was a kid, we had oil lamps.

Back when I was a kid, we made made baskets and use like construction paper and then you would put.

Sometimes it was a little bit like a mini Easter basket and you put candy or a baked good Maybe a couple of cookies that you baked or or flowers and then you go leave it on the neighbor's Stoop on there on the doorstep And then you'd ring the bell and you'd run and hide in the bushes and see the reaction as you know I did that up until last year

Is that so?

Can you imagine a grown man going around ringing doorbells and putting baskets on people?

I'd be in a sanitarium, for goodness sake.

As long as you hide very poorly and they can clearly see you and you're just giggling behind.

Well, even then, even then in today's world.

No, I'm just saying that

would be funny.

Well, it'd be funny, but I might get shot.

So, but back when you were kids, I'm talking, you know, kindergarten through grade school, you would do this.

But I don't know, do people still make May baskets anymore?

I don't know.

I'll have to ask, I'll ask my sister, or I guess I'll ask my niece, she's old enough, she can tell me.

I'll

ask her if she did it.

Yeah, I think it's, we should bring back the tradition of May baskets here.

Also, I'm very, very excited to talk about this today.

Our friends over at Culver's, this is real, by the way.

This ain't, this is, if you want to know where Todd's headed out at 401 and you'll find me at the fish hatchery culverts in Madison.

This is really great though.

This is the 11th annual scoops of thanks benefits and it's benefiting local Future Farmers America chapters across the state of Wisconsin.

Says today Culver's is inviting guests to make a difference one scoop at a time the 11th annual scoops of thanks day in exchange for get this for a buck a dollar one dollar What can you get for a dollar anymore?

Well, I'll tell you in exchange for a one dollar donation guests can enjoy one scoop of fresh frozen custard at a hundred percent

of the proceeds benefiting local FFA chapters.

As part of Culver's Thank You Farmers Project, this event helps fund programs that inspire and support the next generation of agricultural leaders.

Since 2013, the Thank You Farmers Project has raised more than get this.

As if we needed another reason to love Culver's, the project has raised more than $6.5 million.

for agricultural education, including over a million bucks from previous scoops of Thanks Day events.

Not bad.

When we did our show out there last year at one of the corporate Culver's and Michelin Center, they were so very kind.

Our friend, Rich Majewski and others took benevolence on us and let us do our show out there.

And yes, it's a great place to get food and custard, but little gets talked about of the philanthropy

of Craig and Lee Culver and the entire Culver's organization, whether it's giving millions of dollars to public schools in the state, and in this case, six and a half million dollars so far to agricultural education in the state of Wisconsin.

Allison Demmer, who I believe was on the, wasn't it Allison?

Yeah, we had her on the show.

She was on the show, yeah.

Culver's senior marketing and public relations manager and a former

Wisconsin FFA president, Allison says, quote, we're proud to support the hardworking students and educators shaping the future of agriculture through scoops of thanks day.

We're grateful to give guests a simple way to join in this cause while enjoying our delicious frozen custard.

And how about this?

Back by popular demand, the how now brown cow flavor.

Yeah, another reason to go

today.

A chocolate fresh frozen custard infused with Culver's signature root beer, chopped dove chocolate and chocolate cake pieces will be available for today only.

Guests can choose between Hauna Brown Cow, chocolate or vanilla for their $1 scoop, making it a win-win for both frozen custard fanatics and the agricultural community.

Last year,

Over 169,400 scoops were served nationwide.

And Culver's is eager to suppress that milestone in 2025.

Guests could order their single scoop of fresh frozen custard through the Culver's website or the app.

See, this is how cool they are.

I don't even think about that.

But you could actually order Culver's now on the app as well.

I didn't think about that either.

I mean, I'd just go to Culver's.

You can visit culvers.com to learn more about thank you farmers project or to find participating culvers locations and join in on scoops of thanks for a day.

I think we talked about this before, but it's like what most Wisconsinites are within 11 to 12 miles of a culvers.

Yeah, I don't

remember.

I'd have to find that.

Well, we had

a big

map of all the culvers and other very Wisconsin things to see, you know, how far is the average Wisconsinite from a quick trip from a culvers?

That's fantastic.

National FFA organization is a school-based national youth leadership development organization of more than one million students, members as part of 9,235 local FFA chapters in all 50 states, of course, including right here in the state of Wisconsin.

I know the fabulous farm babe, as she likes to call herself, Pam Yankee from the Midwest Farm Report, has, I mean, you can't find a bigger proponent, a bigger supporter of FFA.

future farmers of America, Wisconsin, then Pam Yankee.

No, you

cannot.

She's had those kids and chaperones and advisors on Midwest Farm Report.

She travels all over the state.

She helps raise funds for them.

So I will take a chance and say, I bet you Pam would say, get your ear into Culver's and enjoy some custard today too, because every dollar you put in the kitty for your Culver's custard is a dollar, a full dollar, 100% going right to FFA.

And this is something we hear, well, where's all the farmers?

What's happening?

And someone who, my grandparents were dairy farmers.

The other side of the family came from farming backgrounds as well.

Look, there's still a lot of great people that are going into farming, going into agriculture.

Hey, have we still got the 40?

heard dairy cows where mom and dad are there 365 days a year.

Uh, maybe you're here and there, but it's rare.

What's happening now, of course, in the dairy industry as most agriculture, it is a, it's always been a business.

And this is where I hate, I hate it when people say, Oh, corporate farming is terrible.

No, again, well, guess what?

Most agriculture and farming in Wisconsin are corporations because it's a brother and a sister or a neighbor and a neighbor or whoever and they're coming together two, three, four families now run these corporations because guess what?

Then people can actually take a two week vacation or they can pool their resources and make healthcare more affordable.

So agriculture is changing.

But so much of it is still family-based.

They are farms in Wisconsin.

They are conservators of the land.

And, you know, we're still the number one cheese producing state in the country.

We can be very proud of that.

Our soybean growers, our corn growers, they filter us down to our ethanol producers.

I mean, agriculture is everywhere and we need young people to keep that going.

And FFA is a great organization.

And you don't have to be a farm kid, by the way, to be at FFA.

There are a lot of kids that live in town who are still a part of FFA, who are still a part of 4-H.

And they're great organizations, not just to learn the industry of agriculture, but also to learn skills like organization, how to run a meeting, how to work together, how to plan.

They're just great.

building blocks for young people in our high schools all across the state of Wisconsin.

Get to Culver's.

That's why I'm going after the show today.

We're going to take a break when we come back.

We're going to talk.

No, Mo May.

It's I know it's controversial for some, not particularly for me, but we'll come back.

I think we're on the same page on this one, right?

Yeah, I used to be on the opposite page of you, but then there was a certain development.

that happened a year or two ago that we'll talk about on the other side.

That made

me angrily

change my mind.

I brought him over to the other side.

We'll have some fun with it.

After this, it's the Tout All Balls show for a May 1st on the Civic Media Radio

Network.

show on the Civic Media Radio Network.

It's 23 minutes down past the hour of three o'clock.

Great song, Joyce Somers.

Well done.

Yes, it's May.

It's, it's not gonna be May.

It's May.

Here we are on May Day 2025.

Glad to have you along.

Let's get right into it.

Here we go.

Time wants to get in for what's worse.

Let's do

it.

Time once again for what's worse, no prize money involved, nothing to give away, but it is your chance to be heard across all 11 new sports talk radio stations in the Civic Media Radio Network across the state of Wisconsin.

No better way to have your merchandise, your business heard than across Civic Media.

Contact us at civicmedia.us, civicmedia.us to find out how you can have your business advertised with us here on Civic Media.

We'd be glad to have you as a partner here on the old station.

Brewers are off tonight.

No, pardon me.

Pardon me.

They're actually going on probably right now.

The Brewers broadcast the last game.

They beat the White Sox last night.

And so finishing up here on May 1st, they're on stations in Richland Center, Oshkosh, Racing, Kenosha, Park Falls, and Hayward.

And then tomorrow, tomorrow, they are home, pardon me, home against the Cubs.

Chicago Cubs, the Cubs, the Cubs come to town.

Speaking of, there's that great, see if you can find it, Will Ferrell as Harry Carey on SNL talking about cheese.

Cheese, the moon's like cheese.

It's one of my all-time favorite Will Ferrell impersonations.

Anyway, the Cubs are coming to town on Friday.

I'm gonna be there Friday, and then the Cubs stay in town all week.

A big series, as I last checked, the Brewers were three games behind the Cubs in the NL Central.

So Mike Clemens, a great sports reporter, will be all over that.

Anyway, time now for what's worse, timely, timely indeed, lots of people.

No Mo May should you leave your lawn go all month of May to quote-unquote help insects and birds or should you mow it our rendition is what's worse lawn with weeds or lawn with no weeds lawn with weeds or lawn with no weeds 8 5 5 7 5 2 4 8 4 2 8 5 5 7 5 2 4 8 4 2 one of our great engineers Casper

from the knock reports bad news brewers down eight nothing in the eighth well all right hopefully they get back on track tomorrow night against the Cubs but thank you for the update there Casper what's worse lawn with weeds or lawn with no weeds eight five five seven five two four eight four two eight five five seven five two

4842 or you can text us on the civic media app on your Apple or Android device You know where I'm at on the summers That's the whole note because I have not been a proponent of no momay You were when we first started working together and then we did some research And I think we did we have somebody on the show one year that talked about this.

I think so.

I don't

remember for

sure and what we found out scientifically

it is not particularly helpful to all these insects and whatever to have a normal May because they make their houses, they get used to it, and then come June 1st, the John Deere, the steel, whatever, the lawn mower comes through, and it's all over.

Yeah, if you can have native plants in a garden by your house, excellent.

That's amazing.

That's great for bees.

That's great for the local ecology, conservation for birds, for everything.

If you let your lawn get out of hand and then just destroy it, yeah, like you said, you're destroying any homes made there.

I went to Lawrence University in Appleton, amazing school.

My one thing I really don't like is that they did a citizen science study in Appleton about Nomo May, saying that it was good and helped anything.

Then they had to retract it because they screwed it up horrifically.

They retracted the whole thing.

They retracted

the whole thing.

I might give them credit.

At least they said, hey, we messed up on this.

Yes,

that's true.

You know, better than just leaving it out there.

And this is exactly the point you made his spot on, Somers.

I'm all for because we just had Lisa on right from Save Our Songbirds.

I love conservation.

And speaking of great partner, how about Copkey's greenhouse down there in Oregon?

I know Mathers has already been down there.

I hope we get to do another show down there later this month.

That would be great.

And you go down there and see Gordy Kopke, one of the fine sponsors here at Civic Media, because they have native plants, you understand?

And so if you want to help bees, pollinators, birds and whatnot, go to Kopke's or a local greenhouse near you and pick yourself out some native plants, some cone flowers, some, you know, flowers, grasses, native grasses.

So if you want, people think, oh, if I just let the lawn go,

Basically, the weeds grow.

Oh, I'm being native.

I'm I'm I'm being naturalistic.

No, you're being lazy.

All right.

Planting.

Here's what you do and talk to farmer.

My former boss Dale Schultz has done this on his farm.

It's a lot of work because the first step basically is digging up or destroying all the weeds and the grasses that are not native.

And then you have to go in and plant either by seed, or if you're in a lawn, you can get pots of native grasses, and you plant that.

And then, like, go down to Minona Terrace down here, on top of the Minona Terrace.

They have all kinds of great local native grasses.

And then you let that grow.

That's what it is, having a natural lawn.

If you just don't mow it, you're just saying, oh, I don't want to mow.

And then you get thistles, and you get golden rods, you get all this crap.

A, it's terrible for people with allergies.

B, it really isn't particularly helpful for plants or what not, or for pollinators.

And then if you're gonna mow it in June anyway, it's just a bad idea.

So good intent, no mow may, unless it's executed properly, ain't gonna work.

One of our callers at MDX, lawn with weed is worse.

It's easier to care for it if you just take care of it, yeah.

And it looks nicer, too, by the way.

All right, come back for this.

Well, as Somerset's take, don't go anywhere.

It's the title ball show in the civic media.

Hey, now, Ken, we all know that the moon is not made of green cheese.

Yes, that's true,

Harry.

But what if it were made of barbecue spare ribs?

Would you eat it then?

What?

I know I would.

Heck, I'd have seconds.

And then polish it off with a tall, cool Budweiser.

That's the incomparable Will Ferrell on Saturday Night Live from years and years ago, doing his impersonation of the late, great, Harry Carey, the longtime voice of the Chicago Cubs.

I mean, it's just, and to see he has the big black oversized glasses.

The frizzy hair standing straight up.

Yeah, he was, and they met a couple of times and Harry Carey was still alive and Ferrell did it in front of.

carry and he thought it was hilarious.

It was it was just really, really good.

Brewers take on the Chicago Cubs, the aforementioned Cubs and a three game series starting tomorrow night.

Six thirty five broadcast time from am fan field in Richland center, Oshkosh, Kenosha Racine Park Falls and now Hayward.

Hopefully the Brewers can recover.

They're down eight nothing.

Right now on those same stations on the other side of of a Chicago.

They're at the White Sox right now Anyway, let's finish up here doing what's worse in this no Mo May start of May What's worse lawn with weeds or lawn with no weeds 8 5 5 7 5 2 4 8 4 2 8 5 5 7 5 2 4 8

for two.

Brian, listening on WAUK in Milwaukee on the text line, said weeds are bad.

find memories of picking weeds as a kid, at least the lawn looked fabulous.

I remember that having to take my, I think she still has it.

Mom still had like one of those lawn tools that look like a little fork almost at the end of it.

And you always get the root, get the root.

Don't pull it out.

Don't pull the dandelion out.

You're gonna get the root.

So that was always a lot of fun.

And then reseeding with those like sheets of grass seeds.

Oh, right.

Yeah.

We weren't that fancy.

We just had a bag of grass seed and you had to just, you had to fight the birds away because they were going to eat the grass seed.

Now this is Tyler in Wisconsin Rapids.

Tyler, if you're listening, clarify this because Tyler said, along without weed is no fun at all.

Power to the B. Now we're confused, Tyler.

Did you mean to say along without weeds?

plural is no fun at all or just a lawn without weed because that's an entirely different lawn if you have a lawn and weed which you know it's a whole other 420 day i guess you'd say a new listener on wmdx we appreciate you calling in or texting in here in madison saying a lawn with weeds

I guess is worse, says it's easier to care for the long.

Thank you very much for a calling and played along with that.

What else do we have here?

855-752-4842.

Let's go to John in Leeds.

John, what's worse?

Let's move right along there.

Keep it clean, as they say.

Let's take another call, which is fantastic.

Now we mentioned him earlier in the show.

We were down there last year in Oregon at Kofke's greenhouse.

Gordy, Kofke is on the line.

Gordy, did you hear us talking about you?

Because we just got done saying what a great place it is to buy native plants.

Yes, I did but I and I appreciate the mention I was calling you about the weed story and I've always been a fan of the the natural and I can remember my dad who when he was alive who lived a mile up the road on the farm right grew up on yeah, and he'd come down and look at his lawn and he'd just shake his head He was always the no weed kind of more

and he just, and I just said, hey, that's curry restoration.

Right?

Right?

Yeah, I don't have sprinklers on my lawn like a lot of these folks in town do.

And so you get one of those hot dry August and the only thing that's green in my lawn are the darn

weeds.

Well, that happens, right?

But we're doing business on the, I'll give you a call off the air, but last year we were down there, we did a show at your greenhouse in Oregon to promote the big veteran or the Memorial Day event.

A, are you gonna have that again?

And B, if so, can we come down and promote it?

Yes, we are having it again.

It's the last Sunday in May and you're welcome to come out and promote it.

All

right.

We'll get a time

set up,

head to come

out.

Well, that's great.

And for those listening, particularly on MDX in Madison, we always appreciate your sponsorship, Gordy.

But if people need, now, I got a beautiful rose bush for you guys last year.

I planted it like you told me at mom's house in Richland Center.

And it's coming up.

It looks beautiful.

We got rhubarb that we got from you guys last year.

It's a couple of inches or three inches high already.

And some native, some native flowers as well.

And that's what you want if you want to create a great garden for pollinators, right, Gordy?

Absolutely.

Our gals are well versed into helping customers in here.

Not only were we rated number one greenhouse, but we were rated number one customer service and that includes all businesses in Dane County.

Incredible.

Because we have such a great knowledgeable staff that can answer all of your questions and they love what they're doing and they do a

Great job in making me look good.

You're looking awful good as well, Gordy.

But A, congratulations.

B, from spending time there, it doesn't surprise me one bit.

Because what I love about your staff, like you say, they're very knowledgeable, but they're very chill.

And they'll just say, are you doing OK?

Have any questions?

If you want to look around, they don't bug you.

But someone is a mere a few feet away with knowledge if you need it.

Yes, absolutely.

It's fantastic.

Well, Gordy, thanks for your listenership.

Thanks for your sponsorship, as always.

And we'll work it out off the air, but we'll be down later this month.

And because you guys have this great fundraiser you do for the honor flights for America and Wisconsin veterans, you raise money for them.

You have these great pots people can bid on, great food and entertainment as well.

So we'll be down later on, Gordy.

Sounds good.

Thank you so much.

Really appreciate it.

Gordy Kopke, ladies and gentlemen, check it in from Kopke's greenhouse.

Great place here.

Part of what makes Wisconsin great.

We appreciate their sponsorship.

Let's check in with Kurt in Madison and WMDX here in Madison.

Kurt, what's worse, lawn with weeds or lawn with no weeds?

In the infamous words of Earl, come on, man.

That's fantastic.

That was well done.

Well done.

So what's worse?

Longer weeds or no weeds?

These people with letting their lawns turn in a weed test, it just propagates more disastrous weeds for everybody else.

Thank you.

It really gets all nonsense.

Thank you.

I could not agree more with you.

And again, I'm all for

doing it the right way like our friend Gordy just told us how to do plant native species of grasses or flowering plants or whatever and that will help the pollinators.

But just letting your lawn go, that ain't the way to do it, right Kurt?

All right, Kurt's gone already.

He's having enough.

He's having a beverage probably.

I'm not sure.

That was a great Earl, by the way.

It was solid,

yeah.

It was solid.

Sean, listening in Richland Center on the old home station, WRCE says lawn with weeds seems to have dog do hiding in them.

That is like kryptonite for a delivery person.

Oh, right?

Exactly right, Sean.

Exactly.

Because then it tracks, you know, the bottom of your foot might get in the car or the vehicle or the truck or what have you.

You don't want that.

You don't want that.

All right.

I know the answer is omers, but what's worse?

Yeah.

Lawns with weeds are worse.

Again, if you have native plants and you are maintaining it in a healthy manner, I obviously don't mean that, but if it's just a lawn that you're letting grow and it has random garbage in it, yeah, that's worse.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Absolutely.

So I, yeah, for the various reasons we already stated, lawn with weeds 10 times worse for all the reasons we stated.

So just, you know, either A, keep your grass mowed or B,

Endor, I should say, 100% help our pollinators, help our birds and insects out there, but do it the right way.

And as we heard earlier, get down to one of our fine sponsors, Kopke Greenhouse, in Oregon, Wisconsin, you will not find people better, ready to prepare.

How about that?

How about that?

Kopke is winning an award for their service as well.

Like you said, I'm unsurprised.

I do have one other caveat, though, on the lawns.

If by lawns with no weeds,

You mean somebody who obsessively manicures and wastes tons of water on it?

Well, that's

a whole other kettle of fish.

I knew a guy who used to work with Don Armitage.

Great guy.

He would aerate the lawn.

You get the thing where it takes out plugs, basically, of soil every so often, and that helps aerate the lawn, and that helps it kind of naturally grow well.

I didn't know that was like what I particularly when I drive through Wisconsin and you'll see a farmer or you know someone in rural area and they have a huge yard and they have it just mown to precision and they have beautiful flowers gardens and maybe native species in there as well and it just it's stunning to see people that have the time and the pride to do that and and do

it well so

Good on you.

Tyler in Wisconsin Rapids, we had the question earlier, did he mean a lawn without weeds or a lawn without weed?

The text back in says, as our fearless leader is fond of saying, I plead the fifth.

It's all native.

It's all native plants.

Oh, by the way, you can you can check if you can't get down to Oregon if you're in that check out I think cockies are still part of the Dane County farmers market I believe so you can check them on the on the square on Saturdays, which tomorrow or this Saturday Why do I think it's Friday on Saturday?

It's gonna be a beautiful day and no I have not had any weed prior to the show

Although some people may think I have all right.

That was a great addition.

That was a great addition of what's worse

It was

and glad to hear from people with a variety of opinions.

Yes.

Yeah.

All opinions welcome.

No subject off limit, as our friend Matt Flynn likes to say.

All right.

A couple of news headlines for you.

We said it was a big day out in Washington, D.C.

Indeed, it is following several stories for you.

President Trump announced today that he is nominating Mike Walls to serve as the U.N.

ambassador.

This is after he was announced that Mike walls have been fired as national security advisor Markle Rubio as if this guy doesn't have enough to do he's already He's already Secretary of State.

He is now going to serve as the interim National Security Advisor while also serving as Secretary of State

walls, pardon me.

Yes, walls have been on shaky ground since he added a journalist to a group chat, a signal chat on military strikes.

So they, they had to, they had to pin this on somebody.

And so they decided that walls was going to be the guy.

So they, they got rid of him from, from the defense and security area.

And they said, Oh, here's a guy who doesn't know his rear end from a hole in the ground.

Let's make him UN ambassador because we all know this will go very, very well.

So he's been Mike walls, as they say,

Repurposed being repurposed in the Trump administration 8 5 5 7 5 2 4 8 4 2 8 5 5 7 5 2 4 8 4 2 if you want to chime in on the news of the day also a Trump appointed federal judge in Texas has ruled that the president unlawfully Invoked the alien enemies act and block the administration from quickly deporting some alleged members of a valid Venezuelan gang

So we're we're seeing these multiple rulings come down this one a Texas judge ruled this today apparently on the Venezuelan gangs US judge Fernando Rodriguez of the southern district of Texas said Trump had unlawfully invoked the sweeping 18th century wartime authority to speed up some deportations his decision means Trump cannot