"A California beach town is banning residents from smoking inside their own homes, saying the health benefits outweigh concerns over government overreach."

"Carlsbad, a surfing hot spot near San Diego, has decided to prohibit people from lighting up inside apartments, condos and other shared buildings where multiple families live.... At least 84 of California’s 483 municipalities — including Beverly Hills, Cupertino and Pasadena — have enacted similar bans in multi-family private residences, according to the American Nonsmokers’ Rights Foundation."

The London Times reports.

Yes, sometimes I get my news of what's happening in the U.S. from a U.K. paper.

Here's another one: "California’s TikTok generation must learn joined-up handwriting/US state is the latest to adopt rules that require cursive writing to be taught in schools." I'd never seen the expression "joined-up handwriting." By the way, I didn't see the term "cursive" back when I was learning it. It was just called "writing" — as opposed to "printing." Somewhat later, before "cursive," I saw "script." But "joined-up handwriting" is completely new to me, and it really makes it seem silly: Whatever was so important about not lifting the pen up when going from letter to letter? It was once believed to be faster, and there was so much time to be saved.

One Californian proponent of the new requirement (a Democrat) asserted that "there’s a lot of research that shows that cursive handwriting enhances a child’s brain development, including memorisation, and improves fine motor skills."