California’s electric utilities each write their own list of add-on charges, and not all bills carry the same list. None of it has anything to do with how much power you used. These are the charges on a California electric bill that have nothing to do with your electricity consumption. 1. PG&E’s Public Purpose Programs…
The average American household pays $2,969 a year in property tax, according to WalletHub’s analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data. In some states, that number barely covers a month’s bill. In others, it wouldn’t cover half of one. Here are the states charging homeowners the highest property tax bills, ranked with the priciest state first,…
An upscale kitchen gut remodel in the East North Central states, which is the Midwest region that includes Ohio, returns about 34 cents for every dollar spent. That’s not nearly as much as many homeowners picture. In some cases, they’re lucky to break even. These are the kitchen upgrades that often cost Ohio homeowners more…
In April of this year, federal court ordered the operator of a nationwide timeshare exit scheme to pay $140 million. That case alone had already drained more than $90 million from consumers who thought they’d found a way out. Florida owners aren’t the only Americans this industry has burned, and companies keep selling the same…
New York banned putting an old television or laptop in the regular trash back in 2015, and many residents still have no idea it happened. The state also has rules about who’s allowed to touch garbage once it’s out at the curb. These are the New York trash-picking laws that catch even longtime residents off…
Seattle firefighters have responded to 79 fires linked to lithium-ion batteries in just two years, many of them sparked inside a packed collection truck. Other Seattle recycling and composting mistakes come with a paper trail of their own: A warning first, sometimes a bill after. These are the common recycling and compositing mistakes in Seattle…
A guitarist who barely spent any time on Music Row wrote one of the biggest country hits ever credited to Nashville. Not one line came from the city. That kind of mix-up happens all over the music business, but a lot fall on Tennessee. These are the country songs everyone assumes came out of Nashville…
Every Tuesday night, a warehouse outside Cartersville fills with folding chairs, clipboards, and bidders who showed up for one reason. None of them wanted a used minivan. They wanted whatever the State of Georgia decided it didn’t need anymore. Much of what Georgia sells off never makes it onto a bargain hunter’s radar. These are…
Cannabis trackers estimate nearly 935,000 Floridians carry a state medical marijuana card. Not one of those cards means anything once a cannabis-bearing package hits a post office counter. These are the items post offices refuse to ship. Note: This is general information, not legal advice. Mailability rules and fine amounts are subject to change, so…
Die without a will in South Carolina, and the state has already written one for you. It’s called intestate succession, and it hands out your estate by a fixed formula. A surviving spouse doesn’t get everything. When children survive too, South Carolina splits the estate right down the middle: Half to the spouse, half to…
