POSTPONED: Birds of Cuba!

I scheduled a Zoom program about my two visits to Cuba for this Thursday; I’m postponing it until Thursday, July 30, 2026 at 7:00 pm CDT. Here is the Zoom link.

I’m very sorry about this, but at the last minute, the Duluth City Council decided they don’t care how many thousand people signed the petition to allow Duluthians to vote on whether to develop our treasured park at the closed Lester River Golf Course—they do not want the issue on the ballot. (I wrote about the issue here.)

My dear friend Michael Bernstein, who organized the petition to call for a special election, happens to be an attorney; he sued the city when they decided not to call the legally required special election or to even bother to count the signatures on the petitions. The hearing was today, and Bernie just sent this to me:

Today, in court, the city told the judge that the number of signatures we gathered doesn't matter. Their position is that a state zoning law "preempts" our petitions — that Duluthians aren't allowed to vote on this, period. No court has ever ruled that way in a case like ours. The judge decided to wait and rule after the council acts or fails to act.

So it comes down to Thursday. Thursday, July 23. 6:00 pm. City Hall, 411 W. First St., third floor.

There are two resolutions on the agenda. One puts both measures on the November ballot — the city's own resolution says it would cost little or nothing. The other says your 8,000 signatures are legally meaningless.

Wouldn't people filling up that whole third floor in city hall say everything that needs to be said? Can you help me?

Bernie continues:

We're not asking anyone to agree with us about what should happen out there. People want different things. A park. Affordable housing for middle- and low-income people. Trails. But from everything I've heard, none of that is what's being cooked up. The mayor has insisted from the start that any plan for Lester include golf — his words, this past April: "year-round outdoor activities including, but not exclusive to, golf," alongside "business, retail and housing." A luxury golf resort developer has tried three times in fourteen years to buy that property. And honestly? Even if it's not him — even if it's any of the two or three luxury developers we've got in this town — tell me what gets built out there that's good for most of the people who live here. That's the whole point. We need a seat at the table when it comes to this land. The petitions are that seat. And the city is trying to pull the chair out from under us before we can sit down.

So I simply have to attend this meeting. I’m very sorry to delay the Zoom program—I know some people have been planning to attend since I announced it—but this is important.

During all 40 years I’ve produced “For the Birds,” my programs have combined fun and interesting stuff about birds with solid, thoroughly researched information about what we can do to help those birds we love. That means that I’ve taken controversial stands on issues that affect birds from the very start. When I’ve made errors in fact or judgment, I’ve done my level best to make the corrections as quickly as possible.

When the University of Minnesota owned the former KUMD, they never censored “For the Birds.” I’d hear about it when listeners complained, but I also knew that the station got a lot of donations specifically because of my work, and knew they aired every program I produced. When I went down to the Gulf to document how horrible the BP oil spill really was, KUMD did not fund my trip—money is tight for public broadcasting—but did give me a press pass, and in addition to the programs I produced about it, Lisa Johnson interviewed me several times and no one at the station ever intimated in any way that they wanted me to tone down my coverage.

But WDSE “The North 103.3,” the public media station that bought KUMD and now airs “For the Birds,” did NOT air the program I did about the Duluth petition. Someone high up in the station, without ever communicating to me any guidelines about topics they consider appropriate or inappropriate, not only pulled that one about this important local issue, but also at least two of the programs I did about a major national issue, lead in hunting ammo and fishing tackle (“Get the Lead Out”). I suspect they’ll not be airing at least one of the two programs I just produced about our extreme heat and dire air quality. [UPDATE: TODAY THEY AIRED BOTH OF THOSE CLIMATE SEGMENTS, THE MORE CONTROVERSIAL ONE FIRST! AIRING TWO PROGRAMS IS UNPRECEDENTED.]

That new station, “The North 103.3,” has been airing “For the Birds” every Tuesday through Friday. I knew all along that they play reruns when I don’t have a new program, but didn’t know until recently that they don’t play specific new programs if one of the powers-that-be disapproves of it. Again, no one at the station has ever been up front with me about what they want and don’t want me to talk about. Since they bought KUMD, they’ve used and received donations from listeners for my work; I get no compensation, but that has always been a perfectly satisfactory arrangement when I thought they understood that advocacy is at the very root of the term for the birds. Many long-time radio listeners count on me to speak up when birds are in trouble, and deserve to know when I’m being silenced.