A guide to single-use plastic bans across the US

More than 130 nations have enacted bans or restrictions on plastic items

Several US states have enacted similar restrictions on plastic bags, straws, food containers, and other single-use plastics, while others have prohibited plastic bans. Despite this, California’s plastic bag ban cut usage by more than 70%, showing the potential of these policies.

A guide to avoiding single-use plastics

Here’s everything you need to know about the most ubiquitous (and avoidable) kind of plastic waste: single-use plastics, the kind made to be tossed in mere minutes

Where the US’s plastic recycling is discarded

The US ships over a million tons of plastic waste overseas each year. A short video explainer from USA Today shows a breakdown of what really happens to America's recyclables.

The amount of plastic chemicals in 300 everyday Bay Area foods

Food production is more complicated than it appears, and manufacturing, packaging, and shipping processes can add significant substances to your food. This massive project compiled data on 300 samples of foods delivered to the San Francisco area, testing for the presence of 18 different kind of plastic. Learn how to read the data here with its helpful guides and then explore the table yourself.

The illegal happy hour map

Despite its origins as a US phenomenon, happy hours aren't welcome everywhere in the country. This resource includes a map that visualizes every American state's happy hour legislation, from the states with complete bans (like Massachusetts) to states that don't have any happy hour legislation at all.

Why some US cities pay thousands of dollars for a single public trash can

The rationale supposes high-end, heavy-duty trash cans reduce litter and maintenance costs, justifying per-unit costs of close to $3,000 in some municipalities. But results are mixed, and some experiments using cheap 55-gallon drums were similarly effective.

States are increasingly using preemption laws to override local decisions

Preemption laws enable state legislatures to prevent cities and counties from enacting their own rules on issues like minimum wage, gun control, and housing. Their use has increased significantly in recent years.

See this overview of the firework rules across all 50 states, ranging from a complete ban on non-professional fireworks in Massachusetts to states with more lax rules like Indiana.

The best sushi restaurants in the US

Not every sushi spot is the same: They have different fish distributors, different menus, and different vibes. This list ranks US restaurants that have excelled across the board, highlighting well-regarded omakase counters (like New York’s Sushi Nakazawa) and old-school bars (like Los Angeles’ Sushi Gen).

15 out of 25 major US cities have a lower cost of living than their nearby suburbs

These cities are Los Angeles, Chicago, Dallas, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Boston, San Francisco, Detroit, Minneapolis, Denver, Baltimore, St. Louis, Orlando, Charlotte, and San Antonio. This article details the cost of living in major US cities versus their nearby suburbs, according to data from 2023.

See where and how many microplastics are in the average human body

This diagram maps the extent to which microplastics have been found across human organ systems, tissues, and fluids. Beyond the locations shown, microplastics have also been found in the stomach, brain, and sex organs.

The most haunted locations in the US

This TimeOut guide presents some of the most notorious places in the United States, profiling the creepy histories of Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia, the Waverly Hills Sanitorium in Louisville, Kentucky, and the lingering effects of the witch trials in Salem, Massachusetts.

Before modern sanitation, New York City let pigs roam the streets to eat its garbage

In the early 1820s, an estimated 20,000 hogs roamed Manhattan's streets, feeding on trash that the city lacked a system to collect. Pigs were eventually banned at the urging of wealthy residents, who feared they would deter tourists and drive down property values.

Massachusetts is the only state that bans all non-professional fireworks

See this overview of the firework rules across all 50 states and Washington, D.C. It states that Indiana's rules are relatively loose as compared with other states. Beyond state and local rules on firework purchases and use, there are also regulations about the fuses on fireworks—they must burn between three and nine seconds to help reduce the risk of injury if the user doesn't get away quickly enough.

See the most oddly gerrymandered districts in the US

Based on input from redistricting experts and political scientists, this resource identifies and ranks the most extreme congressional gerrymanders of the 2020s, examining how map design, cracking, and packing reduce competition and distort representation across states.

A guide to US pay transparency laws

Pay transparency laws in the US are evolving quickly, as some states introduce them for the first time and others update existing legislation. This resource has an updated list of key pay transparency legislation in states across the country, as well as general explainers about what each of those laws dictate. Check it out here.

As of 2026, the majority of US states have unsafe radon exposure levels

Alaska, South Dakota, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Washington top the list of states with exposure levels above 4 picocuries per liter for this naturally occurring radioactive gas. While these state-level averages vary from one county, municipality, and home to another, the EPA encourages those in the highest-risk states to test their homes.

How to safely dispose of every kind of battery

As lithium-ion batteries have proliferated in phones, e-bikes, power tools, and dozens of other devices, improper disposal has become a leading cause of fires in recycling facilities and garbage trucks. Battery Safety Now partnered with the US Forest Service's Woodsy Owl campaign to provide guidance on how to recycle batteries by type, including locator tools for drop-off sites.

Cities and parks often work to prevent graffiti

Although some call it art, many see it as an eyesore and try to prevent it through prohibitive designs, lighting, and vandal-proofed coatings that make spray paint easier to remove. This guide from the Project for Public Spaces outlines some of those strategies and more.

Carmel, California, is looking into banning pickleball

Pickleball is the fastest-rising sport in the US, but it's not without its controversies. Chief among them is noise, which Carmel, California, a wealthy enclave on the state's central coast, seeks to remedy with a ban on the sport. It would be the first in the state.

Snowfall records from every county in the US

Discover the one-day snowfall records of every county in the US in this comprehensive map. Data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration captures inches of snowfall and the year it fell the most in each county. See the contrasts between the inches of snowfall in warm southern American states and the cooler East Coast.

17 cities have hosted a Super Bowl, with Miami and New Orleans tied for the most

The resource details where each Super Bowl has been played, listing every host city alongside its stadium, and shows how a small group of warm-weather and domed locations came to dominate hosting duties over time.

44 states in the US have implemented ride safety laws

Rides are developed and tested for years before they host passengers. Maintenance teams perform various tests every day before opening coasters to the public. The chances of risk are rare, as exemplified in 2019 when amusement parks saw .8 injuries per million rides.

An investigation suggests a Scottish island became awash in forever chemicals via seafoam and seaspray—raising questions about what that means for the safety of other coastal areas.

Explore fun facts from the USPS, including unique post office buildings, a stamp that traveled past Pluto, and more.

Special districts are a form of local government focused on a single purpose

Unlike cities or counties, which provide a wide range of services, special districts are created to perform a single function, such as water, transit, or mosquito control. They are governed by appointed boards, have independent taxing authority, and now number nearly 40,000 across the US.

A dashboard showing real-time electricity usage in the US

The United States demands for electricity are enormous, with hundreds of thousands of megawatt hours required to run households and businesses every hour. You can track the fluctuations of US electric use with this dashboard.

IVF is legal across America, but some worry that state bans could curtail this reproductive technology

This reproductive technology is available across the US, but if states take action to prohibit the discarding of unused embryos or pass related legislation, it could affect access to IVF. Laws prohibiting IVF or effectively outlawing the procedure by defining personhood as being conferred at the moment of conception have been under discussion in several states in recent years, including Ohio, Virginia, and Texas.

The United States is one of only around two dozen countries with a fully federal system of government, in which power is divided between national and state governments.

70 years ago today, city officials in Santa Cruz, California, banned rock 'n' roll to protect its youth from corruption after witnessing a 'provocative' concert the night before.

Artificial coral reefs have been 3D printed from nontoxic, biodegradable terracotta clay, which coral polyps have used as a foundation for rebuilding marine ecosystems.

'Shogun,' a 1980s TV series, helped popularize sushi in the US by stimulating an American interest in Japanese culture.

The story of Dollree Mapp, whose legal challenge over her 1957 conviction for possessing "obscene material" led to a major strengthening of the Fourth Amendment

US consumers collectively owe more than $1T to credit card companies—almost as much as they owe in auto loans.

The American Society of Civil Engineers' infrastructure report card gave the US a C in 2025, its highest grade since the project launched in 1998.

The United States has had a tumultuous relationship with Cuba since its 1959 revolution, highlighted by a nuclear crisis and a decades-long trade embargo.

While the first exchange-traded fund (a 'basket' of different assets that can be bought and sold on a stock exchange) in the US only launched in 1993, the global ETF market has grown to more than $10T in the short time since.

Explore an interactive map built from more than 100,000 survey responses on where people find joy in their lives

Gerrymandering works through two techniques: cracking opposing voters across districts to dilute their power, and packing them into a few to waste their votes in lopsided majorities.

About 2,000 US babies are born annually without some portion of their limbs, potentially leading to a lifetime of pricey prosthetics.

Jimmy Carter signed a 1978 bill that legalized home brewing, a move credited with kick-starting the craft beer industry.

A 2019 Facebook event called on attendees to "Storm Area 51, They Can't Stop All of Us," resulting in countless memes, the creation of a music festival, and eventually the arrests of those who did try to approach the area.

Explore what it's like inside a patient isolation unit, used in situations such as treating a patient or suspected patient with Ebola.

Lesser-known phobias include turophobia, or the fear of cheese, and nomophobia, the fear of being without your cell phone.

Power lines are dotted with large, brightly colored balls to improve the visibility of these thin wires to helicopters and small planes and help prevent potential crashes.

Hotels in Cannes, the glamorous city on the French Riviera, hire hawks to ward off seagulls during the city's famous film festival.

Legendary architect Frank Lloyd Wright designed the SC Johnson headquarters in Wisconsin, aiming to make a cathedral-like workplace

Up to a million Girl Scouts sell about 200 million cookie boxes every spring, generating $800 million, largely because refusing a child is frowned upon

In 2025, four executives from large tech companies were given positions in the US Army Reserves—including Palantir Chief Technology Officer Shyam Sankar, which reinforced Palantir's ties with the US military and its role as a leading defense partner.

Sony set the standard for cylinder-shaped batteries when it repurposed manufacturing equipment used to make rolls of magnetic recording tape.