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Washington’s Business Exodus

Washington state’s business climate continues to deteriorate under the weight of record tax increases and burdensome regulations. A spring 2026 survey by the Association of Washington Business (AWB) reveals alarming trends, nearly 1 in 4 employers (24%) are now actively considering relocating their businesses out of state, up sharply from 17% in the previous quarter and nearly triple the level from winter 2025.

Another 55% of business leaders are considering moving their personal residences elsewhere, citing the state’s escalating tax burden as the top challenge. This flight is no surprise. Washington’s business tax climate has plummeted from 6th best in the nation in 2014 to near the bottom today, with the state now ranking among the worst for small business survival.

Major tax hikes enacted in 2025 are now hitting businesses hard. Starting in late 2025 and accelerating into 2026, the state increased Business & Occupation (B&O) tax rates for service businesses and introduced new surcharges. Large companies face a 0.5% surcharge on taxable income over $250 million, while advanced computing firms saw their surcharge jump dramatically. These changes, part of the largest tax increase in state history, are projected to reduce state GDP growth by up to 0.5% in 2026 (nearly $4.5 billion) and cut wages by billions more.

Office vacancy rates reflect the pain. While Seattle’s downtown vacancy remains among the nation’s highest (hovering between 28% and 35%+ in Q1 2026 reports), the broader Puget Sound region and state face similar pressures from remote work shifts and corporate relocations. Companies like Starbucks are shifting hundreds of jobs to lower-tax states such as Tennessee. Other firms have issued WARN notices and moved operations to Idaho, Utah, and beyond.

High-profile exits and stalled expansions are mounting. Entrepreneurs report that Washington’s combination of high taxes, regulatory red tape, and hostile policies makes growth nearly impossible.

Bottom line is as the high earners and companies leave the state, the revenue from increased taxes, including the new income tax, will dry up and politicians in Olympia will be left scrambling for new sources of tax revenue. The $1,000,000 threshold on the income tax will fall in the blink of an eye.

Politicians have to restore small business owners’ confidence in the regulatory environment and keep the promises they are making. Just 3 months after signing the income tax into law, lauding it as the way forward for the state, Governor Ferguson is now claiming he will veto any change to the exemption threshold in order to garner support to keep the legislation in place. History indicates that Ferguson’s claim might be a little “flexible,” and that’s the problem. There is no predictability for business owners.

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California Was a Paradise, Then Newsom Happened

People talk about the California disaster, but I don’t think we fully appreciate the severity and the manifestations of it. And the best barometer to discover that is how many people are leaving. It’s estimated that somewhere between 400,000 and 500,000 Californians left in ’25, ’26. 

Now, the problem with that is they’re not leaving a barren state. They’re not leaving a cold Alaska. They’re leaving the most beautiful state in the country that for years under a bipartisan system of Pat Brown, Ronald Reagan, George Deukmejian, Pete Wilson, and to some extent Arnold Schwarzenegger, it had wonderful governance. 

So, why are they leaving? Why have 11 to 12 million people, a quarter of the present population, left California?  

Well, the Reason Foundation just did a comprehensive study of all the roads in all the states and ranked them according to congestion, quality of roads, bridges, everything. California was 49th, 49th in the country. 

In terms of school scores, it’s down to about 40 to 41 in the nation, even though it’s 13th in the amount of money it spends. It’s got one-third of all the homeless people, maybe up to nearly a half in some studies.  

It’s got a third of all the welfare recipients. Twenty-two percent of the people live below the poverty line. 

Think of this. It has the highest gasoline taxes in the nation and the highest gas prices, and that’s a combination. It refuses to tap its considerable fifth-in-the-nation oil and natural gas reserves to the full extent that it could. 

It shut down the timber industry. It shut down the mining industry. 

So, we’re paying because of our green fanaticism on oil blends, and we’ve been driving out oil refineries, and we have these high taxes. 

We’re paying $7 to $8 a gallon right now for gas. We have the highest electricity rates in the continental United States. Only Hawaii has it higher. Think of that.  

We have some of the highest property crime rates in the country. San Francisco, until recently, was the highest property crime rate city per capita in the nation. 

Our sales tax is among the top 10. We have the highest income taxes. Now, we know why this is the problem.  

We know why, why this all happened. We haven’t had a Republican governor in nearly 20 years since Arnold Schwarzenegger left. We have no statewide offices that are Republican, no attorney general, no lieutenant governor, no state controller, nothing. 

We have 52 seats in the Congress. We only have seven, you know, it’s like 12% … We only have seven Republican congressmen, and yet Donald Trump almost got 30%, 40% of the vote. So, we have less than a third of what we should be proportionally represented in Congress.  

All of the state and local judges, after 20 years of governance by left-wing [officials], are left-wing themselves. 

So, the judicial, the executive, and the legislative branches are all one party, supermajorities in both legislatures. No statewide officer that’s a Republican.  

What do you do about it? Well, who is the iconic victim? Who has been at the center of this maelstrom for the last 30 years? One man, Gavin Newsom. 

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Dept. of War removes Wicca, about 180 other belief systems as recognized religions

The Department of War recently dropped approximately 180 belief systems from its list of recognized religions for U.S. military personnel, including Wicca and other neo-pagan faiths.

A May 20 memo issued by the Undersecretary of War Elbridge A. Colby and signed by Anthony Tata, undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness, trimmed the list from 211 faiths to 31, according to Military.com.

The move intends to “streamline the DoW collection of religious preferences for service members to enhance the delivery of targeted religious support from the Chaplaincy,” said the memo, which ordered the revision of the “religious affiliation codes” to go into effect within 60 days.

“The new list will provide chaplains with clear, readily available information that will better enable them to anticipate the religious support needs of service members and to provide religious support activities that align with service members’ personal faith and practices,” the memo added.

Some of the belief systems that have been removed from the list include atheism, which was replaced by a general “no religion” or “agnostic” designation; pagan or Earth-based faiths such as Wicca, Druidism, Heathenism and members of The Troth; New Age beliefs such as Eckankar, Rosicrucianism, shamanism and spiritualism; as well as other alternative belief systems, including Deism, Unitarian Universalism and practitioners of “magick.”

The religions that remain are various denominations of Christianity, Buddhism, Mormonism, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, Sikhism and the Baha’i faith.

The directive ultimately came from Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, who pledged last year to overhaul the military’s Chaplain Corps by refocusing it on religious ministry and eliminating what he called secular influences.

Hegseth announced the initiative in a video message on Dec. 16, 2025, that promised to “make the Chaplain Corps great again” and condemned New Age notions in the “Army Spiritual Fitness Guide” that he ordered eliminated.

Hegseth, an Evangelical whose church is affiliated with the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches (CREC), has repeatedly promised to root out diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives and other “woke garbage” from the Pentagon. He has drawn scrutiny during his tenure as Secretary of War for his use of Christian rhetoric, such as invoking imprecatory psalms against the enemies of the United States, weeks after the U.S.-Israeli attack against Iran.

An anonymous U.S. Army veteran who is ordained as a priest in Wicca and the neo-pagan faiths of Ásatrú and Druidism expressed anger to Military.com about the new list. The individual, who served three tours in Iraq, claimed it “rekindled that anger” they felt upon allegedly being discriminated against by military chaplains 20 years ago for being a self-described pagan.

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Advanced Alzheimer’s successfully treated with psilocybin, a recent case study says

A newly published case report in Frontiers in Neuroscience describes a remarkable and unexpected clinical response in an 80-year-old woman with advanced Alzheimer’s disease following a single high-dose psilocybin intervention.

The patient had lived with Alzheimer’s disease for approximately 10 years and experienced severe functional decline over the preceding five years. According to the report, she had become largely monosyllabic, demonstrated profound cognitive impairment, chronic urinary incontinence, impaired mobility, dysphagia, executive dysfunction and severe reduction in spontaneous communication and emotional engagement.

After receiving a single 5g oral dose of psilocybin-containing mushrooms (Enigma strain), the patient reportedly experienced rapid and sustained functional improvement across multiple domains.

During the acute phase, the patient entered a prolonged deep sleep-like state accompanied by profuse sweating and clinically suspected hyperthermia.

Then, approximately 19 hours later, something unexpected occurred.

The patient spontaneously awakened and began speaking for hours, engaging in autobiographical conversation and recalling memories that had not been expressed in years.

Over the following days, her family reported meaningful improvements in:

  • Speech and communication.
  • Memory and contextual recognition.
  • Walking and mobility.
  • Emotional connection and social engagement.
  • Bladder control, after years of chronic urinary incontinence.

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The Real Reason the FAA Authorized the COVID Shots Revealed in Court Documents

An experienced airline pilot claims he faced retaliation for opposing the COVID-19 shot, which he believes undermined personal liberties and aviation safety across the industry. He contends that these matters should be investigated as facts about the so-called vaccine and surrounding policies continue to emerge.

The Gateway Pundit spoke to Captain Bahig Saliba, a pilot who dedicated over 27 years to American Airlines. He opposed the airline’s policies and practices that were implemented during the declared pandemic. That led him to initiate pro se legal action against the airline and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) beginning in 2022, alleging retaliation and federal aviation law violations.

Saliba expressed concern regarding the infringement of personal liberties and aviation safety, noting that retaliation manifested in various forms, including a demand by American Airlines for a fitness for duty examination without any reason given, even when Saliba had an impeccable record.

Saliba emphasized that federal agencies must adhere to the Administrative Procedures Act (APA), which outlines the processes for rulemaking. “However, under the sovereign immunity umbrella,” he said, “agencies possess a wide range of discretion in rule and decision making.” With this discretion, he remarked, “agencies may not violate the law, but they often do.”

He argued that the FAA’s Federal Air Surgeon, Dr. Susan Northrup, wields the most discretion of all within the agency. She has the authority to medically certify pilots and air traffic controllers as well as to issue FAA medical certificates, he explained, adding, “that authority includes the prohibition or authorization of medication for use by holders of such certificates.”

“While the FAA medical certification is a civilian branch of government,” Saliba pointed out that “the U.S. military also benefits from the FAA expertise and authority in the field of aviation medicine.”

“The medical certification is not a simple visit to an FAA Aeromedical Examiner (AME) for a physical checkup,” the former airline pilot disclosed. Rather, it is a legal process detailed by Northrup herself in the video below.

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FBI Records Reveal Witness Account that SWAT Officer Recovered ‘Remote Device’ from Butler Shooter’s Pocket

Judicial Watch announced today that it forced the release of 48 heavily redacted pages from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit that indicate that a Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) officer at the July 2024 presidential rally for Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania, recovered a “gray remote device” with an antenna from would-be assassin Thomas Crooks’ pocket after he was killed.*

The records also show that a medic with the Beaver County Emergency Services Unit told the FBI that she was on the roof of the American Glass Research (AGR) building examining Crooks’s body when she was informed that a police canine had “hit” on the building and she was told to evacuate the roof where Crooks’s body remained. 

Judicial Watch filed the July 2025 lawsuit after the FBI failed to respond to a July 2024 FOIA request for all records related to Crooks and the assassination attempt on then-presidential candidate Donald Trump. The request included investigative files, interview summaries, reports, communications, media, and database records, as well as any FBI communications—across all formats—between FBI personnel, sources, contractors, or assets and Crooks himself (Judicial Watch Inc. v. U.S. Department of Justice (No. 1:25-cv-02216)).

In a July 17, 2024, FD-302 interview summary a Beaver County Emergency Services Unit (ESU) first responder told the FBI that she observed a SWAT officer recover a remote device and a cell phone from Crooks’ pocket. The first responder also states that she was called to the roof of the American Glass Research (AGR) building where she examined Crooks and pronounced him deceased:

[Redacted] confirmed she was present at the Butler County fairgrounds for the Trump rally. Her responsibilities included providing medical backup for the ESU [Emergency Services Unit] team or any police response. She arrived at the fairgrounds at 9:00am and was positioned at the spectator screening area.

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Bill Introduced in Congress To Codify the First Amendment Right To Film the Feds and Sue for Violations

Two Democratic lawmakers introduced a bill in Congress today that would create a right to sue federal law enforcement officers who stop someone from filming or observing police activity.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D–Conn.) and Rep. Maxwell Frost (D–Fla.) introduced the “Right to Record Act of 2026,” which they say would create new consequences for individual federal officers who violate a person’s First Amendment right to document and record police.

The legislation would create a right to sue a federal law enforcement or immigration officers who engage in wide range of retaliatory behavior, including threatening and harassing videographers, surveilling them, and seizing and destroying their equipment.

The lawmakers cited recent allegations of federal officers targeting videographers in New Jersey, Memphis, and elsewhere across the country, as well as the importance of video evidence in refuting the false government narratives of several shootings of U.S. citizens by immigration agents.

“Over the last year, I’ve investigated dozens of cases of Americans brutalized by agents of their own government, and across the board, video footage corroborated their testimony – showing the world what they experienced and making sure that justice was served,” Blumenthal said in a press release. “Without recordings, we wouldn’t know the truth of what happened to Renee Nicole Good, Alex Pretti, Marimar Martinez, George Retes, and so, so many others.”

The bill highlights a growing free speech battle: Civil liberties groups say filming the police is a well-established First Amendment right. Although the Supreme Court hasn’t directly addressed the issue, seven federal circuit courts have upheld the right to record and monitor the police, so long as one doesn’t physically interfere with them. However, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officials have repeatedly suggested that such activity is doxing and obstruction of justice. Over the past two years, videos from around the country—from Oregon to Maine to the Florida Keys—have shown federal immigration agents arresting or threatening to arrest people for filming them.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), which endorsed the Right to Record Act, filed a lawsuit in May alleging that a federal police task force in Memphis is systematically retaliating against residents who try to document its activity.

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Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov Says the Fate of War in Ukraine Will Be Decided by Soldiers, Not Peace Talks

Moscow will rely on its ‘missile diplomacy’.

We reported here on TGP about how Kiev regime leader Volodymyr Zelensky sent a public letter to Russian President Vladimir Putin, ostensibly to ask for direct peace talks.

But upon closer examination, the letter was a puerile provocation, offending and trying to ridicule Putin, and was destined to try to claim the higher moral ground in terms of peace efforts.

Putin chose to respond not to Zelensky, but to the Russian soldiers: ‘rabotayte, brat’ya!’ (Work, brothers!)

Today (8), Russia’s Foreign Minister also criticized Zelensky’s PR move, labeling it rude.

Lavrov rejected the possibility of direct talks with Kiev, saying ‘guns will do the talking’.

Euronews reported:

“Sergey Lavrov specifically pointed out on Monday that Moscow is unhappy that the letter was ‘circulated around the world’, claiming that ‘polite people do not behave this way’.

Lavrov also claimed that for the Kremlin it ‘indicates that Ukraine has no interest in negotiation’.

[…] Russia’s foreign minister echoed Putin’s earlier statement that ‘it is not negotiations but the actions of those involved’ on the front lines of Russia’s war ‘that are crucial to the outcome’ of [the war].”

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Politico Folds Its Climate News Website After Trump EPA Axed Nearly $500K Annual Subscription

Politico is shutting down its E&E News brand just over a year after the Trump administration ended a taxpayer-funded subscription worth nearly half a million dollars per year.

The outlet announced Monday that E&E News will cease operating as a standalone brand and will instead be folded into Politico’s broader energy and environmental coverage.

The move follows a decision by Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin in February 2025 to cancel the agency’s subscription to Politico and E&E News, saving taxpayers $458,919 annually.

“Best $458,919 we ever saved on behalf of taxpayers,” an EPA spokesperson told The Daily Caller.

“The government shouldn’t subsidize poor journalism, and it’s a stinging indictment of the previous administration that they wasted so many hard-earned American tax dollars keeping this outlet afloat.”

At the time, Zeldin announced on social media that the EPA would not renew its membership with Politico and Politico E&E, citing the nearly half-million-dollar annual cost.

Politico says the closure is part of a broader restructuring of its energy and environmental coverage.

According to an announcement from CEO Goli Sheikholeslami and Global Editor-in-Chief Jonathan Greenberger, the company plans to launch two new energy-focused newsletters later this year.

“Beginning in September, we are modernizing how we deliver our energy and environmental policy journalism and launching a more focused, high-impact portfolio of daily news and intelligence products,” the executives told Semafor.

“As part of this shift, E&E News will no longer operate as a separate brand.”

“Its journalism and expertise will be fully integrated into POLITICO’s energy and environment portfolio of stories, briefs, analysis and newsletters.”

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Assiociated Press Calls Mayor’s Race for Nithya Raman After Another Fraudulent Ballot Drop Buries Spencer Pratt – Raman Gains 33,000 Votes

The latest ballot dump in Los Angeles put the nail in the coffin for Spencer Pratt and gave Democratic City Councilwoman Nithya Raman a roughly 22,000-vote lead. 

Raman gained more than 33,000 votes in this batch. Pratt gained less than 15,000.

The Associated Press has called the race for Raman —six days after Election Day. Raman will face incumbent Mayor Karen Bass in a November runoff election.

The AP claims, “Large numbers of Democrats held onto their mail ballots and returned them in the race’s final days, which helps explain why Bass and Raman have been doing better than Pratt in the votes counted since primary day.”

Raman was trailing Pratt by about 40,000 votes on election night, but thanks to mail-in ballots that were inserted after election day, she closed the gap.

It can be recalled that Raman broke down in tears on election night with an emotional, would-be retirement speech at her election night watch party.

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