Laurelle Stelle

3 days ago | thecooldown.com | Laurelle Stelle

One Illinois homeowner was outraged when security video revealed that her neighbor had illegally damaged four of her old-growth trees. The homeowner made a YouTube video about her experience, complete with footage of her neighbor's vandalism, later posted on r/treelaw for discussion. "Neighbors cut four old-growth trees without permission," she wrote in the October 2024 post.

4 days ago | thecooldown.com | Laurelle Stelle

One homeowner got a happy ending after an unfortunate run-in with their homeowners association over native plants. They went to a lot of trouble to replace the struggling grass in their parking strip with mulch beds full of native flowers and saplings, which looked beautiful in the photo they shared on the r/NativePlantGardening subreddit. This was a smart choice on their part — and not just because of the added curb appeal.

4 days ago | thecooldown.com | Laurelle Stelle

More and more schools across America are offering students low-cost electronics to do their schoolwork. Because these low-powered machines are so inexpensive, and because they become outdated so quickly, schools aren't always invested in getting them back — but students may not be able to use them once school ends, either. That leads to situations like the one from this Reddit post, where the original poster didn't know what to do with their school Chromebook besides simply throwing it away.

4 days ago | thecooldown.com | Laurelle Stelle

After several dry years, Lake Bridgeport in Wise and Jack counties of Texas is at its highest level since 2022, The Messenger reported. Lake Bridgeport's conservation level — the maximum amount of water it's authorized to hold in normal circumstances — is 836 feet. As of April 23, the lake's level had risen to 832.48 feet, just 3.52 feet shy of that maximum, according to Tarrant Regional Water District reports cited by the Messenger.

5 days ago | thecooldown.com | Laurelle Stelle

Major Icelandic whaling company Hvalur has just announced that it will not hunt fin whales this summer, Mongabay reported. This announcement comes after a controversial decision by the government of Iceland to allow the company to operate, despite a total moratorium on whaling since 1986 by the International Whaling Commission. Iceland is one of three countries that still allow commercial whaling, along with Norway and Japan, which recently expanded operations.