California’s latest “victory” in progressive policymaking is now measurable in lost jobs.

The state’s $20 fast-food minimum wage law has reportedly cost nearly 18,000 jobs, according to a study published by the National Bureau of Economic Research earlier this month.

Researchers Jeffrey Clemens, Olivia Edwards, and Jonathan Meer found that fast food jobs in California dropped 3.2 percent after AB 1228 went into effect in April.

“Our median estimate translates into a loss of 18,000 jobs in California’s fast-food sector relative to the counterfactual,” they wrote.

So much for helping low-income workers.

The law, passed in September 2023 and signed by Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, created a so-called “Fast Food Council.”

That council was tasked with setting minimum wages and workplace standards for the fast-food sector, as Fox Business noted in its in-depth analysis of the study.

“The hourly minimum wage for fast food restaurant employees shall be twenty dollars ($20) per hour, effective April 1, 2024,” the bill read.

By contrast, fast-food employment grew slightly across the rest of the country.

The researchers noted that fast food jobs in other states rose by 0.10 percent.

Before the law, California’s fast-food employment was on par with the national trend.

But California is nothing if not consistent — as in consistently inefficient, consistently ideological, and consistently broke.

From a rail line to nowhere, to fire hydrants with no water in the middle of wildfire season, to endless handouts for illegal immigrants, California’s government finds ways to fail.

Now, Gavin Newsom has managed to make fast food even worse, while also making it more expensive.

In April, I ordered Wendy’s in Hollywood. The kid behind the counter looked annoyed that I was interrupting his phone time.

This is the result of a $20 wage hike?

The Wall Street Journal editorial board said Monday that the policy represents “magical thinking,” as Fox Business pointed out.

Rachel Greszler of The Heritage Foundation agreed.

“Wage controls never work,” she wrote for The Daily Signal. “Policymakers can set wage laws, but they can’t outlaw the consequences.”

She added a warning: “The consequences of that wage hike on the fast-food industry should be a warning sign” for the city of Los Angeles in particular, after it recently voted to increase the minimum wage for hotel and airport workers to $30 by 2028.

Newsom’s office fired back, claiming the study was flawed and biased.

But the numbers don’t lie, as thousands who were employed in California’s food industry last year are not employed in that same sector this year, thanks to state lawmakers whose stated goal was to make them more money.

This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.

The post CA Minimum Wage Law Succeeds for Libs: Obliterates Jobs, Lands Nearly 20k People Closer to Street Living appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

One of James Clapper’s cronies threatened to withhold a promotion of a senior intelligence analyst who refused to sign off on the fake ICA report related to the Russia collusion hoax.

BREAKING: Exclusive. Scandal re Obama-ordered fake Intelligence Community Assessment or ICA on Russia election meddling just keeps getting worse. Documents reveal Brennan’s buddy threatened to w/hold promotion to get him to go along with fake ICA. 1/

— Margot Cleveland (@ProfMJCleveland) July 30, 2025

According to notes obtained by The Federalist, a top intel analyst said one of Clapper’s henchmen told him to approve the fake ICA report because “There is reporting you are not allowed to see,” adding that “if you saw it, you would agree.”

“You need to TRUST ME on this,” Clapper’s unidentified supervisor would say to the intel analyst.

The intel analyst refused to sign off on the fake report even though he was being threatened.

Excerpt from The Federalist:

According to a person familiar with the notes, the analyst documented his recollection of the conversation on March 31, 2023 — more than six years after the conversation occurred. The delay, The Federalist’s source explained, occurred because the analyst’s efforts to share his concerns, first with the Inspector General of the Intelligence Community (IC), and then later with Special Counsel John Durham and Virginia Sen. Mark Warner, proved unsuccessful. Only later did the analyst receive an inquiry for more information about his claims, leading to the drafting of the summary of his recollections.

Those notes capture the analyst claiming in early January that his supervisor told him, “There is reporting you are not allowed to see,” adding that “if you saw it, you would agree” with the ICA. After noting he concurred “with varying confidence with most of the 2017 ICA’s Key Judgements,” the analyst explained that he “would need to review any reporting myself in order to consider it.”

“You need to TRUST ME on this,” Clapper’s crony countered, stating to the analyst he “would need to demonstrate [his] ability to ‘outgrow’” his refusal to sign off on assessments he did not share, in order to be recommended for a promotion. The analyst remained firm, according to the notes, which led his exasperated superior to reply, “I need you to say you agree with these judgements, so that DIA will go along with them!”

The notes obtained by The Federalist come after ODNI Tulsi Gabbard declassified a presidential briefing from December 2016 revealing Barack Obama knew the Trump-Russia collusion narrative was a hoax.

Barack Obama knew it was a hoax and he was personally involved in manufacturing and politicizing the intelligence to create the Trump-Russia collusion narrative.

The usual suspects also met in a secret meeting in the Oval Office shortly before Trump’s 2017 inauguration.

Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Sally Yates, James Comey, Susan Rice, John Brennan and James Clapper all were in the January 2017 Oval Office meeting discussing the phony Russia dossier and General Flynn’s phone calls with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak.

Read the full report from The Federalist here.

The post Clapper Crony Threatened to Withhold Promotion of Senior Intel Official Who Refused to Sign Off on Phony ICA Report appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

A manager of a Wendy’s in Memphis has been charged with first-degree murder after shooting a man outside the fast-food chain’s parking lot.

Wendy’s general manager, Darelle Bowers, 37, was seen on video getting into a physical altercation outside the Wendy’s parking lot where he worked.

The altercation quickly turned deadly after Bowers allegedly shot and killed the man with whom he was in a confrontation.

After shooting the man, Bowers then allegedly slapped the man as he lay dying.

WATCH:

SHOCK VIDEO: Wendy’s manager in Memphis fatally shoots man in parking lothttps://t.co/uKjs7FBxIa

— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) July 30, 2025

Per The Independent:

A general manager of a Wendy’s restaurant in Memphis, Tennessee, has been charged with murder following a deadly shooting outside the fast food joint Monday evening.

Darelle Bowers, 37, was taken into custody and arraigned on a first-degree murder charge, court records show.

The shooting unfolded after Bowers and a female employee allegedly got into an argument after she reportedly asked to leave work early, FOX13 Memphis reported, citing court documents.

Bowers then threatened to slap the employee, she told investigators, which led to her calling someone to pick her up. When her ride arrived, the man, who has not been named, and Bowers got into a physical fight.

“When he first got shot, he was screaming,” Ibian Parker, an eyewitness, told FOX13. “But after a minute, he just stopped moving.”

Action 5 News reported the victim was Stephen Shepard.

The post Shocking Video Shows Wendy’s Manager Fatally Shooting Man in Parking Lot appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

South Dakota Governor Larry Rhoden has announced the launch of Operation Prairie Thunder in the city of Sioux Falls. During the announcement, he was joined by representatives from nearly all local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies. This is a pilot public safety initiative that will take place over the next five months, although it could be extended to other cities if proven effective.

The operation includes two main components. The first focuses on collaboration with ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement). In this framework, the State Highway Patrol, the National

The post South Dakota Governor Announced “Operation Prairie Thunder” appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

A new investigation into the Epstein prison video released by the Department of Justice reveals several discrepancies.

Recall that it was Jason Sullivan at The Gateway Pundit who first reported on the missing minute in the video that was released to the public.

CBS News’ investigative report revealed that video forensic analysis revealed several major irregularities in the DOJ’s 10-hour and 52-minute Epstein prison video.

One irregularity that has debunked the DOJ claims was that a cursor was spotted moving around in the video around 11:24 p.m.

Previously, the DOJ stated they released “raw footage” of inside the cell block where Epstein was jailed, but video forensic experts claim the cursor’s appearance shows signs the video was a screen recording rather than a raw upload from a DVR system.

WATCH:

HOLEE SHIZZLES…

The Epstein video the DOJ released shows a Cursor in the bottom left Corner of the Video

This indicates the video was recorded with a camera or was a screen recording.

This is not the RAW video footage like the FBI said they’d release.

The video’s… https://t.co/11ZRr8hdBF pic.twitter.com/LgPaK84Ulm

— MJTruthUltra (@MJTruthUltra) July 30, 2025

Another irregularity pointed out by CBS revealed that around 10:40 p.m., a person wearing what appears to be an orange shirt was seen moving toward Epstein’s cell.

The DOJ previously claimed the person in the orange shirt was a corrections officer, but the person in the orange shirt is more likely an inmate, considering prisoners at the special housing unit at the Metropolitan Correctional Center are mandated to wear orange jumpsuits.

LOOK:

Strange orange figure was the last movement near Epstein’s cell the night he died

The organge figure remains unidentified https://t.co/gpoEAF94QP pic.twitter.com/wzRqfO38Wj

— Red Panda Koala (@RedPandaKoala) July 30, 2025

Per CBS:

In the weeks after Jeffrey Epstein died at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in lower Manhattan, in August 2019, then-Attorney General William Barr said his “personal review” of surveillance footage clearly showed that no one entered the area where Epstein was housed, leading him to agree with the conclusion of the medical examiner that Epstein had died by suicide.

It’s a claim that’s been repeated by other top federal officials, including FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino, who said on Fox News’ “Fox and Friends” in May, “There’s video clear as day — he’s the only person in there and the only person coming out.”

Just before 10:40 p.m., an orange shape is seen moving up the stairs leading to Epstein’s tier. The report says. “Through review and analysis of the SHU video footage, witness statements, and BOP records, the OIG determined that at approximately 10:40 p.m. a CO [corrections officer], believed to be Noel, carried linen or inmate clothing up to the L Tier, which was the last time any CO approached the only entrance to the SHU tier in which Epstein was housed.”

Video forensic experts who reviewed that footage at the request of CBS News were skeptical about that interpretation and suggested that the shape could be a person dressed in an orange prison jumpsuit climbing the stairs.

The Justice Department said the FBI seized the prison’s digital video recorder system, or DVR, containing the raw footage five days after Epstein’s death. When federal officials released the jail video, they attested that it was “raw footage,” but the presence of a cursor and onscreen menu raise questions about that. Experts told CBS News those images indicate the video was likely a screen recording rather than an export directly from a DVR system.

The Gateway Pundit reported that the FBI and the DOJ inspector general allegedly possess a copy of the Epstein jail video without the missing minute of footage.

READ:

FBI Allegedly in Possession of Epstein Jail Video With ‘Missing Minute’

The post New Epstein Prison Video Investigation Uncovers Irregularities: Cursor Activity and Orange Object Detected appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.