I CAN'T MAKE THIS STUFF UP.

Business license required for teens to cut grass.

Teenagers have been threatened by officials and other lawn services to show their city issued license before cutting a person's lawn for extra summer cash.

Cutting grass is often one of the first jobs many have in the summer. But a business license in Gardendale costs $110.

That's in Alabama, but I wouldn't put it past revenue-starved Illinois communities to try this (the legislature is currently attempting to tax anything that resembles initiative.)

But why would the revenooers be going after an entrepreneurial kid?  Because the lawn-care services (whether it's the owner of a pickup truck and two riding mowers, or the fleet operators with their chemicals and their agronomists) are already licensed.  So it always is with cartels.