SLATE — Samuel Scott Jr. had a bad day on June 1, 2018. After he parked his Jeep Compass with the keys in the ignition, a thief hopped in the vehicle and drove away. This was just the beginning of Scott’s troubles. Things got worse when he called the Miami police.

TEXAS OBSERVER — Katherin Youniacutt is exactly the kind of person Texas should want as a social worker. Besides holding a graduate degree in counseling, she has experience as a recovering alcoholic with over a decade of sobriety. She is a role model. But the state has banned her for life from licensure because of a mistake she made long ago.

DALLAS MORNING NEWS — Postal workers and food delivery drivers double-check the address before leaving packages on someone’s doorstep. But a SWAT team from the Waxahachie Police Department ignored the risks of a mix-up on March 27, 2019. Karen Jimerson and James Parks paid the price.

MINNEAPOLIS STAR TRIBUNE — Accountants normally work in the background. But they are stepping forward in Minnesota to challenge national organizations with a grip on their industry. The contest, unfolding in a state Senate committee hearing in St. Paul, has implications for millions of professionals in dozens of occupations.

ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER — Gold coins can sink with a merchant ship or disappear with pirates. But Los Angeles retiree Don Mellein lost his treasure a different way: FBI agents cracked open his safe-deposit box and took everything without evidence he had done anything wrong.

NEW YORK POST — New York’s largest hospital sees growing demand for heart-transplant services in Manhattan, and regulators agree. The state Department of Health approved new facilities in June — but then tacked on conditions that have nothing to do with need.

WALL STREET JOURNAL — Destroying food hurts the environment and wastes money. Yet Montana grocer Greg Hertz routinely disposes of milk, even while inflation forces families to skimp at the register. State law makes the situation difficult to avoid.

USA TODAY — Soaring real estate prices have pushed many families out of the housing market, but Chasidy Decker found a simple solution: She bought a tiny home on wheels. She had no circular driveway, marble staircase or walk-in closets. But she also had no mortgage.

BLOOMBERG LAW — If neighbors surrounded your home with spy cameras and monitored all your comings and goings for 18 months, you might call it stalking or something worse. Yet that’s what the police did to Travis Tuggle without a warrant. Now he is seeking Supreme Court review.

NEW YORK DAILY NEWS — Customers had little to look at on the back patio at Cedar Beans Coffee Joint in Cedar Grove, N.J.. So owner Dave Fletcher decided to add some flair. After getting permission from his landlord and neighbors, Fletcher hired a local artist to paint a mural on the rear exterior wall. Local officials hated the playful design.

CHICAGO TRIBUNE — Nicole Virgil keeps her front lawn in Elmhurst neat and clean. Neighbors have no problem with the flowers, bushes and trees that line her stone-paved walkway. But somebody filed an anonymous complaint about her backyard vegetable garden in 2015, triggering a yearslong dispute that will reach the state Capitol on Monday.

WASHINGTON POST — Parents trust Ilumi Sanchez to watch their children. That should be enough. But in 2016, local officials decided that daycare providers like her must complete specialized schooling. Sanchez already earned a law degree in the Dominican Republic and a Child Development Associate credential in the United States, but regulators want more.

BALTIMORE SUN — Rather than rustling up some innovation to meet consumer demand, the best minds in the industry are opting for an assault on the dictionary. That's right. Dairy lobbyists at FDA headquarters in Silver Spring are pushing for enforcement of a new definition of “milk” that excludes anything from non-dairy sources.

EAST VALLEY TRIBUNE — Two-story stucco houses, green parks and shopping centers surround Desert Vista High School in Ahwatukee Foothills. But the children of Lone Butte live outside that world. Tumbleweeds line the narrow road in the Gila River Indian Community that leads to their neighborhood: 20 aging houses five miles south of the campus surrounded by open desert as far as the eye can see.

EAST VALLEY TRIBUNE — Ahwatukee Foothills teacher Andrew Creighton-Harank has a gift. When he says "Popsicle, please," an entire classroom of chattering kindergartners freezes and waits in silence for his next instruction. Yet male teachers such as Creighton-Harank are becoming increasingly rare.

EAST VALLEY TRIBUNE — Cosmetology students at the East Valley Institute of Technology in Mesa can chat while they fix each other's hair — as long as they don't use Spanish. A classroom rule backed by administrators forbids casual conversations among students in any language other than English. The rule has 16-year-old junior Patricia Otero of Mesa and three of her classmates fuming.