Atlanta, GA, USA. A little-noticed new law in Georgia amounts to a homework assignment for the state’s 34,000 lawyers and judges: learn a new set of courtroom procedures by the end of next year.

Georgia lawmakers got plenty of attention this year arguing over the state budget and whether to crack down on illegal immigration. But another noteworthy event — an overhaul of the trial rules followed by lawyers and judges in every state courthouse — attracted surprisingly little notice.

Jefferson City, MO, USA. Animal welfare activists won a victory at the polls last November. They say some of that victory has already been taken away by the legislature.

In Missouri, until this year, it was legal to put a full-grown dog in a cage the size of a dishwasher, never let it out for exercise, and leave it there for life. It’s still legal in many states.

Olympia, WA, USA. A new study finds wide variation in how well states are keeping track of their transportation performance. Safety is the area in which they do the best job.

When Washington State transportation officials looked at highway crash data seven years ago, they were struck by how many accidents could be prevented with a relatively cheap improvement to their roads.

Washington, DC, USA. Phone companies think now is the time to end regulation of the dwindling number of traditional landline phones. Some states wonder if they should drop controls drawn up for a different technological era. They don’t regulate wireless; should they throw away the obsolete rule book?

Critics say doing that would lead to higher rates, especially for seniors and those who live in rural areas where cell phone service can be erratic.

Atlanta, GA, USA. The Census Bureau’s official count for 2010 is dramatically lower in many urban areas than the estimates the Bureau had been providing year-by-year. We may never know which version is closer to reality.

Atlanta thought its big story for the last decade had been one of urban renaissance. The U.S. Census Bureau had told the city as much. In 2000, according to the decennial census count, Atlanta had 416,000 people. In the Bureau’s estimate for July 1, 2009, it was up to 540,000.