about security surrounding this case and has talked openly in interviews about the racist threats she has faced in investigating the former president. so this security issue has been a big one in driving when she's able to actually make this announcement publicly. of course, we don't know who if anyone is going to face charges in this case, but we do know the prosecutor has been looking at potential racketeering and conspiracy charges which would allow her to bring charges against multiple defendants at once. back to you. >> all right. thank you so much. and thank you for joining me today. i'm fredricka whitfield. "smerconish" starts right now. it's about to get real. i'm michael smerconish in philadelphia. this coming week, florida governor ron desantis will file paperwork formally firing paperwork to challenge donald trump for the gop nomination. he follows south carolina senator tim scott who filed on

friday and chris christie is said to be on the verge. this is in addition to already declared challengers nikki haley, asa hutchinson, and viv ecoramaswami. he will decide before june. meanwhile, names being floated for a so-called unity ticket, the idea from the bipartisan group no labels, include democratic senator joe manchin, independent senator kyrsten sinema, and republican larry rolling hogan, the former maryland governor. trump's biggest obstacle still seems to be his own legal entanglements. among them his recent self-incriminating remarks on cnn regarding jack smith's case about the withheld mar-a-lago documents and the investigation into interference in the 2020 election by fulton county, georgia, d.a. fondy willis who signaled a decision from her could be coming in early august. so into this fray finally steps ron desantis. joining me to discuss is gary fineout. he writes for "florida playbook"

for "politico." previously worked in the "associated press." nice to see you again. desantis has dug in on this disney issue, and i find it interesting that your reporting suggests that issue started, the feud that started, was not initially a priority for him. please explain that. >> yeah. basically what happened was the legislation that sort of sparked this entire battle actually was -- came from flat house, there were republicans in the house who decided to pursue it. then basically what happened very early on, i would say that very earliy on, is he got questioned about it, and he defended it, and he suddenly then became the face of the legislation. and he defended it very vociferously and basically said, you know, he was in favor of the legislation and supported it, and so sort of then when everything began to -- the ramping up of the opposition including disney's sort of talking about it, he stuck up --

stood up and then it became sort of central to his identity, and he has bome the lead protagonist in this campaign slogan. and i'm asking this question first because i think it's a tell in terms of what we can expect from him when he's a formal candidate. >> well, yes. i mean, the point is is that he dedicated an entire chapter of his book about this fight with disney. he discussed how sort of like they, you know, kind of hatched a plan to go after them initially last year, that it was done quickly, done very rapidly without anybody knowing. and you know, then what happened is when the news came out that disney had tried to certificate of circumvent the state legislation and what the state was planning on doing, then he doubled down and said, well, you know, you're not going to win this fight. so we've seen this kind of go a few round now. disney sued. now they say they've pulled off -- out of this project in florida, although the financial conditions suggest that there

was a lot of questions about whether they were going to go forward with that anyway. here we are. you know, you just -- you look at this and think regardless of what happens in the presidential race disney and florida could be tangling for a while. >> i know how he's being received nationally. in fact, put up on the screen, i'll read this aloud to you, gary. here is some of the legislative accomplishment that we hear, the six-week abortion ban, ending the concealed weapons permit, banning gender-affirming care for trans youth, restricting drag shows, blocking the ap african american studies course, prohibiting vaccine mandates, and the so-called "don't say gay" or connectly described parental rights in education act. question for you is that's a very conservative record. is that the view from the ground, as well, or are there points of moderation that he'll be able to point to if he survives the nomination process and becomes a general election candidate? >> well, two things there. i mean, basically on a lot of these issues it's clear that

they are trying to get to the right of donald trump in terms of a gop primary. what they want to do is be able to say to republican conservative voters, look, this is the level of accomplishment and going beyond. you saw what happened this past week where basically desantis took a little bit of a dig at trump and said i signed a six-week ban, but you woipt say what you're willing to support. you see where that strategy is going. in regards to a general election, yes, these are things that they're going to have to deal with if they make -- he is going to be able to sell a few points. he's going to say, look, i boosted teacher pay $1 billion, i basically got money for everglades restoration. there are some things on his list of accomplishments in terms of florida that they could try to sell to people in terms of a moderating influence. but i mean, i think the thing is you know the biden campaign, if he in fact is the republican nominee, the biden campaign is going to focus on the culture war stuff. >> no doubt. i'm about to talk about that

campaign. gary, great to see you. i appreciate your insight. >> no, thank you for having me on. so let's talk about the other side of the aisle. now to president biden's campaign. does he have a new hampshire problem? for 50 years the nomination process has started in iowa and new hampshire. this year the dnc voted to adopt a schedule suggested by president biden making south carolina the first contest on february 3rd and moving new hampshire to february 6th, the same day as nevada. the idea being to better reflect the demographics of the national electorate and presumably to give president biden an advantage. so far new hampshire hasn't agreed and is insisting on going first. in fact, their state law requires that they go seven days before any other primary. remember now in 2020 biden lost both the iowa caucus and new hampshire primary. in new hampshire he finished a distant fifth. and his candidacy looked dead on arrival for a while. then house whip jim clyburn endorsed biden before the south carolina vote which he then won,

and several moderate candidates dropped out threw their support biden. that's how he won the nomination. when jim wallace asked clyburn if the move was stacking the deck for biden, he said this -- >> i don't think you're stacking the deck, i think you're avoiding embarrassment. that is what he is attempting to avoid here. and i would expect anybody to do the same. >> so if new hampshire still goes first, what's going to happen? joining me is jimgatory, contributing columnist for "the washington post" senior political correspondent for "the national review" where he writes the daily "morning jolt" and wrote the primaries haven't started and biden has a problem -- new hampshire. jim, thanks for being here. so what are the options that the biden campaign faces in new hampshire? what can they do? >> well, the current status seems to be that they're sticking with the proposal that the -- that biden basically i

don't want to say forced on the dnc, but strongly suggested and the dnc generally goes along with what a current president wants to do, say we're not going to recognize the new hampshire primary. in the past we've seen parties do things like count half a delegate for each delegate from any rogue state that is holding a primary before the date that the national committee had permitted. if he does that, if biden does say we're forfeiting it, we're not competing, we don't recognize it, then the odds of robert f. kennedy jr. or marianne williamson witnessing or finishing -- winning or finishing with a percentage -- >> is it an embarrassment only issue, or is there concern that if rfk jr., because he'd be the more likely given independently minded granite state voters, if he should win new hampshire, then all of a sudden there's a cloud of confusion over every other race, or is it just a

temporary, you know, egg on the face in the biden campaign? >> look, i think there's about a high 90%-some chance that joe biden is the democratic nominee in 2024, presuming he stays healthy, presuming he doesn't god forbid have something terrible happen. but if you do lose -- first of all, the odds of biden losing the iowa caucuses, which are currently scheduled to go forth, is greater than zero because the iowa folks are not democrats, they're not thrilled about it. this was a case because they couldn't count the votes in the 2020 democratic iowa caucus, i think there was a broad consensus that iowa should not go first. i think new hampshire democrats feel they're being unfairly punished. they ran without a hitch in 2020. they're being shoved to fourth place behind south carolina, and suspect with good reason that this is mostly about they're being punished for not having voted to joe biden. the fascinating jim clyburn

quote about avoiding embarrassment. with friends like this, who needs enemies? >> there's one other aspect of -- there's another interesting aspect about this. you correct me if i'm wrong, but you need the acquiescence of those new hampshire republicans in terms of redoing the date for the new hampshire primary, right, and governor sununu has thus far he doesn't want to play ball with this probably because he hopes for the embarrassment that we're raising thepp prospe of. >> yes. and chris sununu is making noises about running for president on the republican side. this is one of the rare areas where like new hampshire democrats and new hampshire republicans both believe that their state is terrific and it should always go first in the presidential nominating process. you can probably find 48 other states that would say no, we should go first. but it's one of those things where this works to -- new hampshire republicans' advantage. it creates this headache for

democrats. new hampshire democrats, like elected officials, they're not saying, well, this is going to cost biden new hampshire in the general election, but it's another headache. it's another complication. >> right. >> it doesn't make it any easier, it is a purple-y state that doesn't make it in the democratic pile. >> the reason i'm attached to this is it's a great example, the only thing we know is we don't know how it's going to unfold. there are so many intangibilities in the cycle. thank you for being here. i appreciate it. >> always appreciate it, michael. any time. what are your thoughts? hit me up on social media. i'll respond to some throughout the course of the program. what do we have? i think joe's loved ones should convince him not to run. he's given the country years of service. let him enjoy retirement. personally speaking i want to vote democratic but will not vote for biden again. i hear that from a lot of radio listeners. yeah, i, too, watch for longevity for all of these folks. but man, you look at the situation playing itself out now

with dianne feinstein, it's just damn sad. i know, i'm pivoting from biden to feinstein. i look at that and think is there no one, is there no one in her orbit who can say, come on, you've had a fabulous career, don't let it end this way? ahead, where is america's post-pandemic work ethic heading? this week elon musk criticized remote work, he called it bullshit and morally wrong. an nyu professor observed a shift in her gen-z students' values choosing who they call fun employment over work. one sense is that kim kardashian would not approve. >> they have the best advice for women in business. get your [ bleep ] up and work. it seems like nobody wants to work these days. >> so true. >> you have to surround yourself with people that want to work. this week's poll question -- go to smerconish.com and answer it now.

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roll it. >> starting next week return to the office. gee whiskers. hey, honey, i'm going to need you to start meal prepping my lunch asap. we're going into the office. like clothes dry cleaned on saturday, they'll be ready to go next week. ooh, can't wait to have a conversation with cheryl by the water cooler. return to office, seriously? i just got used to working from home in my normal clothes. not very happy right now, but i will try to make it in. no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. this can't be real. okay, i'm going to linkedin right now. resume's already updated. i knew this was going to happen. a record-breaking year. like why? it makes absolutely no sense. come along with me today to quit my job. they are forcing us back into the office for absolutely no reason.

>> though the covid crisis has finally officially passed, the impact on the workplace is still being felt. are these changes now with us forever? the popularity of working from home doesn't appear to be going away. about a third of u.s. workers with jobs that can be done remotely continue full time while 41% of workers have settled into a hybrid schedule. plus, the number of companies that require employees to be in the office full time, it dropped from 49% in february to just 42% in may. elon musk calls working from home bs, morally wrong, and accuses the, quote, laptop class of living in la la land. as bloomberg reported, perhaps an accidental side effect to working from home gives employees too much time to indulge with daytime drug and drinking habits now on the rise. according to a study by the atlanta fed, 27 million working age americans have a substance abuse disorder. that's a 23% jump since the start of the pandemic. maybe it's these frightening side effects that make joining the work force less appealing.

susie welch is my next guest. she's the former editor of "the harvard business review" and co-wrote two international bestselling books with her late great husband former chair and ceo jack welch. she terms at nyu stearns school of business. her recent op-ed in the "wall street journal" explores the newest work office trend in a post-pandemic world. it's called "fun employment." great to see you. what is fun employment? >> fun employment is a term that gen-z uses to describe the period between jobs. and the first time i heard it i was teach willing. a student said -- teaching, a student sudden i don't have anything i'll do fun employment. i said, what did you say? fun employment? i, like i think you, come from a generation when employment was never fun. times have changed. the contract between the worker and the company that they work for has changed. my students and many people from gen-z, not all of them, of

course, believe that unemployment doesn't have to be dismal and dreary and scary and bad. but when you're not working, you can actually be living, and you can be having fun, and you can be enjoying it. they've got great ideas for fun employment. it absolutely blew my mind. >> do they think that the deal is stacked against them, or, susie, are they looking at their parents and saying i don't want to end up like that? >> yeah. well, both, to tell you the truth. i mean, i think they say you give everything to a company, then you get laid off. it may have nothing to do with your performance. or, you know, the company puts you into a job that you don't want, or they make you work from the office -- from the office which is the last thing in the world they want to do. i informally poll my classes and say how many people want to go in five days a week -- zero hands. you only start seeing hands when it gets below the number of three days a week, three days a week, some two days a week. i had people say one day a week, that's enough for them. and so i think they also look at their parents and say what did

all that hard work get them? i don't want that liv. they want to opt out. now, the complicating factor is some of them still want to be corporate titans. they want to be on the cover of magazines, they want to -- and touchingly really honestly, they, a lot of them want to give money away. they want to make money nobly to give away some or most of it. but they also don't want to work the way previous generations w worked. they don't buy in. >> easy to criticize them as a group, easy to come to the conclusion that they're ma lingerers. in your own thoughtful piece, you say you don't know, maybe they have the right idea. i mean, my poll question today asks about their work/life balance, and whether it's bonkers or whether they have the right idea. >> you know, look, every day i'm in class, and i think to myself, wait a minute, are -- are they brilliant or bonkers? i ask that. and i don't come out thinking that they're bonkers. i think that life, our own generation, they came to their values honestly. they have had very limited

geopolitical stability, they see layoffs all around them, they say ai coming at them. remember, warren buffett called ai like the atom bomb. they see their futures like with this bomb coming toward them. and they have come to these values of saying i don't really trust the man, okay. and should we try talk them out of it? and i don't think that they're lazy. i hate that description of gen-z. a lot of them want to work, they just don't want to work for anyone but themselves. even at a company, technically they want to be working for their own growth. because they don't -- there's no more lifetime employment. and none of them seek it, and none of them want it. >> you're reminding me of someone saying to me, looking at me in a summer setting last year, you're not on vacation, you're just working in a bathing suit. i'm not sure if it was my iphone or my ipad or my laptop that they saw spread out in front of me. that's why your piece really made me think. here comes some social media, stay there, i'll read it aloud,

and you can answer with me. katherine, what do we have? they were catered to as kids and teens. i knew we were going to get this. they were catered to as kids and teens, protected from the consequences of life, wait until a deep recession hits and they have to pay a mortgage. all these work-from-home depends and balance stuff will go bye-bye. susie welch says what? >> i say that there's some truth in that, that a little bit of this is that they are still, some of them are still supported by their families, and there will be a moment where they want something like a house or they'll have a kid and want to send that kid to private school, and they're going to have to face into a different reality. right now they are a little protected. at the same time, they are -- they are aware that they're being accused of this, that they have attitudes because they're being taken care of by others. and i think that they understand that this doesn't last forever. i want to make it clear that when they talk about fun employment, they don't want to be unemployed forever. but they do feel like

unemployment doesn't have to be this terrible thing. they can do their work and can do their careers on their terms because it doesn't get you anything to do it on anyone else's terms. >> we shall see. susie, great to see you. thank you so much for being here. you inspired today's poll question. >> thanks. okay, gang. now you're prepped. go to smerconish.com and vote, is gen-z's work/life balance brilliant or bonkers? up ahead, should kids be graded for how they've mastered the material regardless of whether they've done all the homework? that's the question being wrestled with now in programs known as equitable grading which try to compensate for those students who have living situations that are less than stable. i'm going to talk to an expert, plus a bipartisan bill has been proposed to save a.m. radio after many car manufacturers have discontinued including it in their vehicles. if this century-old technology does fade away, might it be what finally squelches the impact of conservative talk radio?

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there's a campaign under way to save the static. quick history -- 1988 after being syndicated to radio stations across america, rush limbaugh saved the a.m. ban by creating a clubhouse for conservatives who were rightfully feeling shut out of the mainstream media. the political ramifications were huge, and the payoff for limbaugh enormous. as evidenced by the invitation he received to sleep in the white house lincoln bedroom by then-president george h.w. bush. f.m. radio was becoming all the rage when limbaugh's entertainment based on headlines provided a respite that may have run its course after his passing in february of 2021. now comes the news that several major automakers including bmw, volkswagen, mazda, and tesla are removing a.m. radios from new

electric vehicles because electric engines can interfere with the sound of a.m. stations. ford went even further, eliminating a.m. from all of its vehicles electric or gas powered, citing its data that a.m. accounts for less than 5% of in-car audio use. cars are where about half of a.m. listening takes place in this country. station owners and advertisers say removing access from car dashboards will kill off many of america's 4,000-plus a.m. stations, 700 of them spanish language. so this week republican senator ted cruz and democratic senator ed markey began pushing the a.m. for every vehicle act. the legislation would direct the national highway traffic safety administration to require automakers to keep a.m. broadcast radios in their vehicles at no additional cost. the two parties, though, seem to have differing interests as to why they want to preserve a.m.'s singular role. as "the washington post" puts it, some democrats are fighting to save stations that often are

the only live source of local information during extreme weather. as well as outlets that target immigrant audiences. some republicans, meanwhile, claim the elimination of a.m. radio is aimed at diminishing the reach of conservative talk radio. eight of the country's ten most popular radio talk shows are conservative. to which i would add how ironic that typically laissez faire republicans would want to prop up an industry on life support due to technological advance and competition. no doubt it's because they fear the loss of the clubhouse that limbaugh built them. at his peak, limbaugh aired on approximately 650 stations. "talkers" magazine estimated his weekly audience at 15.5 million listeners, the most listened-to show in the country. if a.m. is jettisoned from cars, it would hasten the end of an era that began in the early 19-00s, it's where americans heard fdr fireside chats, the hindenburg's crash, ronald reagan's baseball broadcasts.

the national association of broadcasters says 82 million americans still listen to a.m. stations each month, that audience has been aging for decades. look, i get the nostalgic feelings for a.m. radio. i have them, too. i grew up listening to philly 56, wfil, which played in my parents' 1966 chevy impala when i was a kid. it was the age of big markets being dominated by larger than life personalities. alan freed in cleveland. cousin brucey in new york city. wolf man jack and the american southwest. and jerry blavet, the geter with the heater, the boss with the hot sauce in philadelphia. the radio station where i was heard before coming to sirius x.m. was a 50,000-watt clear channel a.m. signal based in philadelphia that could be heard after dark as far away as florida. just as vinyl was overtaken by eight track which was replaced by cassettes and then out-moded by cds and rendered extinct by mp3s, time has marched on for

a.m. fear not, my conservative friends, the days of your having no place to gather, they're long over. as explained to me this week by dr. brian reasonwald from the university of pennsylvania, he's the author of "talk radio's america," he said what's going away here isn't the content. it's just the delivery mechanism. people will still get the exact same sort of extreme info.tainment that they've gotten on the a.m. dial, it will just come from f.m. shows and podcasts and internet outlets, streaming shows and a combination of fox news max and oan. he's right. and many of the radio companies have themselves hastened the demise of a.m. radio by moving popular programming including live sports to the f.m. ban. so even if a.m. disappears, the political programming won't just fade away. it will just be found on different platforms. still to come, because not all students have stable home lives, some school districts are experimenting with a concept called equitable grading,

downplaying homework in favor of mastery of the material. does that work? and are yards in your neighborhood looking a little unkempt this month? that might be because of a new movement called no mo may which aims to let grass grow early in the season to help pollinator populations, but not everybody likes it. i'm going to talk to one ohio mayor who issued an executive order on just this subject in his town. and i want to remind you to answer this week's poll question at smerconish.com. is gen-z's work/life balance brilliant or bonkers? register for the newsletter when you're there. icken cheddar broccoli recipe, you will want to delete all your delivery apps. because nothing beats a perfect combo of sweet tomatoes and smooth, silky zucchini. knorr taste combos. it's not fast food, but it's soooo good. ♪ ♪ - this is our premium platinum coverage map and this is consumer cellular's map. - i don't see the difference, do you? - well, that one's purple. - [announcer] get the exact same coverage as the nation's leading carrier. starting at $20.

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it minimizes the importance of finishing homework and emphasizes more weight on students proving they've mastered the material taught in class through essays and tests and projects. supporters of equitable grading argue that assigning homework after school favors only students with stable home lives, and parents that are more hands on in their kids' education. students required to work after school or take care of their loved ones like older relatives or younger siblings may give them a disadvantage to finishing their homework on time. my next guest, joe feldman, is the author of "grading for equity: what it is, why it matters, and how it can transform schools and classrooms." he's a former teacher, principal, and district administrator. joe, nice to see you. you know that some say this sounds like coddling if all of a sudden there's no homework, you're not going to look at classroom participation, like where's the accountability? you say what to that? >> good morning. you know, we're only used to one way of grading. we've had this grading system for the last -- unfortunately

the ways that we grade now are -- undermine effective teaching and learning and perpetuate achievement disparities. what this is actually about is common sense grading. this actually makes grading more rigorous and doesn't penalize students or reward them for circumstances outside their control. >> but what about effort? i'm a little selfish when i think of this because it doesn't come naturally to me. it came naturally to my brother, okay. he's a smart guy. i was always the one who had to turn in the extra credit. i was always the one who had to hustle to sort of make up for that which didn't come, you know, in my genetic code. what about that guy? >> yeah, it's extremely important and we want all students to do their best and work hard every day. equitable grading means what we perceive as effort in the grade. it's for this reason, right, if i go to the doctor and the doctor does a test and see that's i have high blood pressure, and then i go and work out every day for three months,

and i change my diet, and i work super hard to lower my blood pressure and go back in three months and the doctor does my test, and see that's i still have high blood pressure, i don't want the doctor to say, well, joe has worked so hard, i better say he's fine. that he has low blood pressure, right? i want the doctor to tell me the truth. and equitable grading means that we want our grading always to be accurate. we love when students work hard, and we want to praise them for that. but we don't want that to warp the accuracy of the grade. >> allow me to read aloud, put it on the screen, katherine, from "newsweek," i'd love you to respond to it. in the fame of equity, progressive education consultants and the progressive educators who pay them to advance their ideological goals, i think that might be a suggestion of you, drove this change, not parents. and the problem they're trying to fix is parenting itself or the lack thereof. you would say what, joe? >> well, there's a lot of months interpretation -- lot of misinterpretation its. when parents start to learn about this, they think this is a huge improvement to the way

their students are graded. right now students are graded on everything they do, when they raise their hand, when they bring in cans for the food drive, when they get their syllabus signed, when they do their home work, when hay don't do homework. this is making grading more rigorous. it tells us it doesn't matter if you raise your hand, if you come to class on time, get your syllabus signed, you don't get points for those things. what matters is have you learned the material. it makes the grade much more pure and accurate for parents nto know where their students are in learning. >> let's look at social media together. i'll tried aloud in case you're not able to see it. grading exists so we can measure success and failure. we should learn lessons from both. if we don't measure the failure, we can't fix it. you'd say what to that? >> i totally agree. i halloween, equitable grading means we're telling students where they are the every stage

of learning. it's not saying it doesn't matter if you do homework it doesn't matter if you turn in homework on time. we care deeply. it's making sure that when we tell students where they are in their learning we are telling them accurately and without regard to their circumstances outside the school. >> okay. it's a lab experiment of sorts playing itself out across the country. we'll see how it turns out. thank you so much, joe feldman, appreciate your time. >> thank you. still to come, this month to help the much-needed pollinator population, many communities are observing no mow may. letting lawns go wild. in cleveland heights, ohio, the mayor actually issued an executive order to encourage the practice, and he's here next. plus, i want to remind you, please go answer this week's poll question. it's at smerconish.com. cannot wait to see the result on this. is gen-z's work/life balance brilliant or bonkers? erizon's ni get exactly what i want. and only pay for what i need. (man) now i'm in charge... ...of my plan.

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question for you -- are you observing no mow may? that's a slogan that originated in the uk. it refers to refraining from mowing one autopsy lawn for the month of may. the theory by environmentalists and conversationalists -- conservationists is to allow weeds to grow and flower which helps feed pollinators during a period when little else is in bloom. detractors, they feel it makes a neighborhood look unkempt. on may 3rd, the mayor of cleveland heights, ohio, actually issued an executive order on the topic. it read in part, "throughout the month of may, except in the case of clear health or safety concern, enforcement activities

related to violations for tall grass will be suspended. joining me is the cleveland heights mayor kalil serin. what's the purpose? what are we trying to do here? >> the purpose is to provide an additional component to a comprehensive push for ecological sustainability here in cleveland heights. we want to provide an opportunity for people who are intentional abouw may. this space to grow their yards just a little longer this devastating impact on pollinators in this country and in this region, and this is something that we can do to introduce people into a new creative way of thinking about how we use our lawns. >> what if i want to mow my lawn? what happens to me in cleveland heights? >> absolutely nothing. you are very welcome to. and in fact, there are some

yards that are not well suited for no mow may at all. if you have a yard that is exclusively monoculture grass, we are not actually looking for tall grass. that's not the point. we're looking to provide a little bit of room for plants that flower that provide pollen for the pollinators, you know, to grow a little bit before we cut them down in the early season. and if you have a lawn that's all grass, you might not be a good candidate for no mow may in the first place. so please, >> if i were driving through cleveland heights, ohio, today on this saturday, what would i see and what's going on relative to public lands? >> sure. so on our public lands, we restricted our mowing a little bit. and so we have, for instance, on the medians, on divided roads,

thus far we have mowed a perimeter strip for visibility on the medians in order to provide a bit nor visibility to drivers as the grass and the other plants on the medians grow taller. but we are take a look at the medians and seng wre it's simply tall grass and where we've got natural flowers blooming when otherwise they wouldn't. so that we can sort of adjust course on the fly as we go. this is sort of a test case to see what comes up out of the ground if we don't just strictly mow. and if you drive through cleveland heights right now, you'll see a wide variety of pristinely manicured lawns, some other yards that are native planting, you know, gardening, you know, ex traf a ganz a and others just trying for the first

time. and in that case, it's probably a little less structured than the people know their native plants. you will see a wide variety of yards in the city. >> listen, i applaud what you are trying to do. i think i want to be in the repair business in cleveland heights, ohio, because i know with the water in the northeast, my grass would be so high right now i don't think my mower could handle it. let's take a look at social media and the mayor and i can respond together. what do we have? wastewater, fertilizer, mower costs, gas, pollution, all to watch to grow, mow it and put it in plastic bags to take it to the landfill. what a waste of resources, time and money. one of the many things people in the future will look back and say, what were they thinking? i think you buy into brian kenny? >> i think what we have created culturally this weird monoculture, you know, grass

lawn that provides very little with the exception of the aesthetics that we have. you know, biodiversity is something that is important for the survival of all species. we work in an interconnected way. even before you get to that sort of lofty principled thing, you know, there are things that we can do here that can be just as beautiful with native plantings. no mow may isn't ender intended to be a end all be automatic. it's a gateway into what we can do differently to work a little bit more cooperative with our environment. >> i like one of your councilmen quoted as saying, can we move on to no mow styrofoam? >> yes, absolutely. over time, you know, we're working through making more and more environmentally conscious decisions. economically conscious

decisions. our move towards, you know, reusable bottles for water, for council meetings and that kind of thing is already underway. we weren't purchasing any more disposable styrofoam cups for councilmembers to use during the meetings. >> good for you. thank you. thank you, mayor. appreciate your time. >> absolutely. thank you for taking an interest in cleveland heights. >> that would be make for a great poll question but we already have a great poll question. coming up, your best and worse social media comments and the results of this week's poll question at smerconish.com. vote now. gen-z's work/life balance. brilliant or bonkers? oh ms. flores, what would we do without you? leader of many, and pet wrangler too. you report to your boss, every afternoon. so beautiful. so becoming a student again might seem impossible. hello mi amor. but what if a school could be there for all of you?

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this week's poll question at smerconish.com. 58% say bonkers when asked is gen-z's work/life balance, brilliant or bonkers? 58% say bonkers. social media reaction to today's program includes the following. let's see it. the poll should be sorted -- right. sorted by age group. if you had to spend your career at the water cooler, you are, obviously, going to think it's bonkers partly out of jealousy. i suspect joe san tan low that we had heavy boomer voting among

the roughly 60% who say it's bonkers. i said to suzie, maybe they are looking at their parents. maybe it's not just being raised with covid and the rise of artificial intelligence but maybe they are looking at their parents saying, i don't want any of that. we'll see. we will see if they change their ways. more reaction. let's see. why are you campaigning against biden? i am not. i am putting -- you should be thanking me. i am putting on your radar screen something nobody else is talking about yet, which is he has a problem in new hampshire and has a decision as to whether to compete in that state. if he loses new mexichampshire will be the significance of the rest of the election? see you next week. ♪ you ar