I was shocked when I found this out and couldn’t believe it. Sure enough, it’s true. Chapter 12 of the City of Richland’s municipal code spells out “impact fees”, which are fees that the local government assesses on any building project that might have an impact on city infrastructure.

The municipal code goes on to explain that the city can essentially charge whatever they want. And they do.

In order to add a second bedroom and bathroom to her home, Linda was told she had to pay a  $60,000 impact fee.

Click here to read the full story.

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Microsoft says if even ONE person is offended, that’s “one too many”

We want to wish the best of luck to the second largest company on Earth as they embark on their mission to ensure they don’t offend a single person.

In mid-December, Microsoft developers added a tiny icon of a Santa hat in the bottom left corner of one of their programs (Visual Studio Code, also known as vscode).