David Lidsky's Blog, page 124

Trump postpones European tariff hike, cites ‘rapid’ talks ahead

The White House says negotiations will continue with the EU after Trump relents on his June 1 deadline for a sweeping tariff escalation.

A potentially devastating new round of tariffs looming over the European Union’s trade relationship with the U.S. will be pushed back for at least a month as negotiations continue. 

Some homeowners are tired of overly manicured lawns—so they’re embracing No Mow May all year

The high-maintenance American lawn requires a lot of water, pesticides, and fertilizer—killing biodiversity along the way.

No Mow May encourages homeowners to stash the lawn mower each spring and let flowers and grass grow for pollinators and water retention. And if your neighbor’s lawn already looks like a wildflower field most of the time, it could be more intentional than passersby might assume.

The movement has expanded to “Let It Bloom June” and the fall version: “Leave the leaves.” Conservation and horticulture groups say year-round low-mowing while selectively leaving native plants to grow can save huge amounts of drinking water and lead to lasting and impactful ecological changes.

When Amanda Beltramini Healan moved into her Nashville ranch house in 2016, the yard had been manicured for sale: a walnut tree, roses from a home improvement store and short grass. So she experimented, first with a 10-by-10-foot patch where she dug up the grass and sowed native seeds. Then she planted goldenrods in the culvert near the street, and let more of her yard grow tall without mowing.

Local authorities apparently didn’t appreciate her natural look: “I got a letter from the city saying that I had to mow it,” she said.

But then, a friend told her about No Mow Month signs, provided by the Cumberland River Compact, a local water conservation nonprofit. Soon she was signaling to the city that she’s no derelict, but a participant in an international movement.

These days, every month is No Mow May in parts of her property. While she keeps the growth shorter near the culvert and street, her backyard is filled with native grasses and plants up to her knees or waist. There’s a decomposing tree trunk where scores of skinks and bugs live, birds nest under her carport and she regularly finds fawns sleeping in the safety of the high grasses.

“I have a lot of insects and bugs and that’s protein, so the birds and the bird’s nests are everywhere. Cardinals and wrens and cowbirds and robins,” she said. “I wake up to them, especially during spring migration right now. It’s just a cacophony in the morning and in the evening, especially when the mulberries come in.”

The movement is popularized by groups such as Plantlife, a conservation organization based in England.

American lawns, based on English and French traditions, are increasingly seen as a wasteful monoculture that encourages an overuse of pesticides, fertilizer and water. Outdoor spraying and irrigation account for over 30% of a U.S. household’s total water consumption, and can be twice that in drier climates, according to the EPA.

Some criticize No Mow campaigns as a fad that could invite invasive plants to spread unchecked without helping pollinators much, if only done for a month.

A guide outlining No Mow pros, cons and limitations, written by consumer horticulture extension specialist Aaron Steil at Iowa State University, says reducing mowing to every two weeks and replacing turf with plants that pollinate all year long can offer more benefits without risking a citation or complaints.

The No Mow effort does encourage people to think more about biodiversity in their yards, and many local nature organizations advise provide guidance on picking noninvasive plants that fit each region’s climate and precipitation levels.

Reducing mowing encourages longer-rooted native grasses and flowers to grow, which breaks up compacted soil and improves drainage, “meaning that when it rains, more water is going to be captured and stored in lawns versus being generated as a runoff and entering into our stormwater system,” said Jason Sprouls, urban waters program manager for the Cumberland River Compact.

Beltramini Healan isn’t just letting just anything grow — she learned which plants are invasive, non-native or not beneficial to the ecosystem and carefully prunes and weeds so the keepers have room to thrive.

Nashville homeowner Brandon Griffith said he was just tired of mowing when he decided years ago wait and see what comes up. Then he consciously added flowering plants to attract bees and bugs. Now he sees so many insects and pollinators all over his garden that the neighbors’ kids come over to look for butterflies.

It’s about giving them the time “to come out of their larva or their egg stage and be able to grow,” said Griffith. He said he’s never heard a complaint — in fact, some of his neighbors also stopped mowing for a month each spring. His four-year-old son catches lizards, digs for worms and hunts for bugs in the yard.

“I just enjoy coming out and walking around,” said Griffith. “And looking at it, it’s kind of peaceful. It’s kinda relaxing.”
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This story has been updated to correct the spelling of Amanda Beltramini Healan’s name and to correct that Aaron Steil works at Iowa State University, not the University of Iowa.

Books on the ultrarich dominate the Modern CEO summer reading list

I’m taking Warren Buffett, Katharine Graham, and Sam Altman to the beach.

Hello and welcome to Modern CEO! I’m Stephanie Mehta, CEO and chief content officer of Mansueto Ventures. Each week this newsletter explores inclusive approaches to leadership drawn from conversations with executives and entrepreneurs, and from the pages of Inc. and Fast Company. If you received this newsletter from a friend, you can sign up to get it yourself every Monday morning.

Interns designed Coca-Cola’s new Sprite + Tea flavor

The fizzy Arnold Palmer knockoff is latest in Coca-Cola’s series of flavor combinations designed to attract Gen Z.

The Coca-Cola Co. just announced its newest limited-time soda, and it’s a combination of Sprite and tea that was initially floated by a team of interns six years ago.

How to push back on an unethical request at work

The “Clarify, Question, Redirect” approach helps you stay true to your values—without risking your job.

A few years ago, a sales executive I worked with found himself in a difficult position. His company was under review for a potential buyout, and his director asked him to present a version of the company’s story that, while technically true, left out critical details. The omission would make the company look healthier than it was, protecting its valuation and the leadership team’s positions post-acquisition.

Americans are fueling a massive pope economy

A cottage industry has sprung up around Pope Leo XIV, the first American pope. Many of the revenue streams—even in Rome—are centered around Americans.

It was a fun moment to be online. When the news broke on May 8 that Pope Francis’s successor would be the first-ever American to hold the sacred position—and a Chicagoan, no less—social media erupted with celebration and Windy City-specific memes. Within days, some of those memes had morphed into t-shirts for sale.

Have social media platforms rolled back the promises they made after George Floyd’s death?

Floyd’s death in May 2020 incited action by social networks to tackle racism and discrimination—but did it stick?

Five years ago, George Floyd was murdered by a Minneapolis police officer after Floyd was suspected of using a counterfeit $20 bill. His death ignited a series of protests in the United States that gave new energy to the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement, and which seemed—at the time—to reshape society, online and offline.

This tiny piece of tech will change how you watch the Indy 500

A new helmet-embedded camera, the Driver’s Eye, is coming to IndyCar racing’s biggest day for the first time.

When you describe it in words, the Indianapolis 500 might seem like a boring watch: Cars go round and round an oval track 200 times, totaling 500 miles over the course of a few hours. But if you were a driver, you’d be having a hell of a different experience. Think screaming speeds of 230 miles per hour, pulling 4 Gs on corners, with one’s reflexes and split-second decisions drawing a thin line between victory and tragedy . . . over the course of a few hours.

This lesson I learned in the Marines will help you succeed at work

A former Marine Corps officer on the power of ’embracing the suck’

“Embrace the suck.”

A firefighter-invented hydrant for helicopters is boosting response times for urban fires

The Heli-Hydrant enables helicopters to fill up faster for urban fires rather than flying to sometimes distant lakes or ponds.

Mark Whaling and a crew raced up and down a hill in a tanker truck as they battled a wildfire in Los Angeles County, scrambling to get water from a street hydrant in time to stay ahead of flames moving up a ridge. A helicopter flew in to drop water, but it had to fly a long distance to refill—and a fire that might have been stopped went on to destroy homes.