Des Moines logged worse-than-average pollen days, landing 31st out of the 100 largest U.S. metro areas in the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America’s newest report. You don’t need the ranking to know it. Drive past any Iowa soybean field this time of year, and the sneezing starts before you’re back on the highway. These…
A Minnesota utility can’t just flip the switch on an unpaid heating bill this fall. State law ties its hands. Minnesota’s Cold Weather Rule took effect on October 1, spelling out what a regulated electric or natural-gas utility can and can’t do to keep a customer’s heat on. These are the things Minnesota’s Cold Weather…
A Virginia vehicle registration renewal only requires the title number and the last four digits of the VIN, both printed on the current registration card. No online account is required. Virginia’s Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) also checks the vehicle’s insurance automatically and knocks up to $4 off the bill for renewing online instead of…
Only 34 of Ohio’s 1,308 townships have ever voted to take on the extra “limited home rule” powers that let a local government write a noise ordinance. The other 1,274 can’t. Still, every one of the state’s townships answers to a three-member board of elected trustees, and the rules one road over can look different….
Florida spent the peak of this year’s hurricane season watching a storm that never showed up. By late September, the Atlantic had gone longer without a single hurricane than in any year since 1966, per the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) tracking data. A slow season doesn’t change the flood insurance rules, though. These…
Do you assume California’s wildlife rules stop at the edge of a national forest? They don’t. A state wildlife regulation bans feeding deer or elk anywhere in California, a fenced backyard included. These are the California wildlife rules that get homeowners fined every fall. Note: This is general information, not legal advice. Wildlife ordinances, fine…
A farmhouse outside Waycross has stayed in one Georgia family for four generations, and none of the cousins who inherited it agree on what happens next. Nobody wrote a will, nobody bought out anyone else’s share, and a dozen relatives now technically own a fraction of the same yard. That’s heirs property. Georgia’s rules for…
You can grow up in Michigan, move away, and discover that a word you’ve used your whole life needs an explanation. The first blank stare feels like the other person’s problem. By the third one, you start wondering what else you’ve been saying that only makes sense back home. These are the things Michiganders say…
Starting Jan. 1, a Georgia homeowners association that hasn’t registered with the Secretary of State can’t collect fines from owners. That’s a brand-new limit. But older limits on HOA power already reach into your yard, and HOAs can’t write covenants around them. These are the things a Georgia HOA can’t stop you from doing in…
More than 44% of California households rent their home rather than own it, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. State law offers new tenants over a dozen protections that start working immediately. But not everyone’s aware of them. These are the California tenant protection laws that kick in the moment you sign a lease. Note:…
