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This month, we're going to review fair housing rules as they apply to new media advertising and marketing. The Internet, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Flickr, Foursquare…the options for social networking are endless—and appear to be increasing every year.

This month's lesson surveys fair housing protections on the state and local level. Usually, our focus is on federal fair housing law, since it applies nationwide, but most states and numerous local governments have enacted their own fair housing laws that ban housing discrimination. Many have expanded the list of protected characteristics far beyond those covered under federal law.

This month's lesson takes a broad look at who is protected under fair housing law. Most of the time, we focus on the rules banning discrimination against prospects, applicants, and residents because of their race, religion, or other protected characteristic. But the law reaches far beyond those individuals to protect others, including a resident's family, friends, and guests—even your employees, in some cases.

This month, we are going to talk about how to beef up fair housing training—among the most important of the New Year's resolutions we recommended in the January 2011 issue. Though policies and procedures are essential to help ward off discrimination complaints, you must rely on your staff to apply the policies fairly and consistently to meet the challenges of complying with fair housing law.

This month, we're going to review the rules on how to avoid fair housing problems when showing units to prospects.

This month's issue addresses how you can get into fair housing trouble by relying on first impressions—that is, snap judgments about prospects, applicants, or residents—based on outward appearances.

New Year's is a time when many of us take a look back and resolve to make some changes in the upcoming year. The most popular resolutions involve personal goals such as losing weight, getting a better job, or reducing debt, according to the U.S. government. (Yes, the government has compiled a list of popular resolutions and resources on its Web site, www.USA.gov, to help people accomplish these goals).

This month's issue focuses on what to do if your community is ever accused of a fair housing violation.

In this month's issue, we'll discuss whether and to what extent fair housing laws affect your ability to regulate smoking at your community.