Hour 2: Seattle's LIttle Saigon fed up with crime, outrage at Microsoft, is Mitch McConnell alive?

Thanks for downloading the Jason Ranch Show podcast. I really do appreciate it. Be sure to check out our brand new website, Seattlered.com. News, opinion, analysis without any of the left-wing spin covering the entirety of the Pacific Northwest. Check it out throughout the day, read stories, share stories, and watch exclusive videos. That's Seattle Red.com. Now, back to the Jason Ranch Show. Ouch, Seattle left. I'm walking here. Good afternoon and welcome to the Jason Ranch Show broadcasting from New York City on Seattle Red 770 a.m. online at Seattle Red.com. We got a ton to get to this hour. Delta is getting sued over a ridiculous law that Washington State Democrats forced through allowing these kinds of frivolous suits. We'll explain what happened. But first, businesses in Seattle's Little Saigon have hit a breaking point. Crime, drugs. They can't do it anymore. And that's what's trending. Brought to you by Legacy Group Capital, common sense lending. What's trending? Crime. Enough is enough for a lot of business owners in the Little Saigon neighborhood of Seattle. Fox 13 says they've reached a breaking point that despite, we've been talking about this for a while, that despite the World Cup in Seattle and the expectations that they would see some kind of economic benefit, they've suffered at the hands of bad policy because what Seattle did when cleaning up downtown was push the bad guys into the Chinatown International District. That's all that they did. Now, I'm glad that they cleaned up downtown Seattle and Pioneer Square, and I've said multiple times, I think it looks gorgeous. But the reality is they ended up pushing people into different neighborhoods, and they ended up suffering. We have lots of homelessness and the crimes connected to it that's been happening. And there are people like Henry, who owns Henry's Taiwan Kitchen, who spoke with Fox 13, said, hey, could you maybe enforce the law in some way, shape, or form? Because you are putting us in an impossible position. For last three years, I've fighting so many times in here. You know, so many crime, the city needs to force the law. If the city don't change it, a lot of people move out, then your city shut down. Yeah, that's exactly what's going to happen. People are going to move out, and they're already doing that. There was a story in the Seattle Times today. about a restaurant, a dim sum place in the Chinatown International District, Joyal Seafood Restaurant. And it's, they say, one of the largest and most popular dim sum banquet halls in the entire city. And they said they're now no longer going to serve dinner or daytime lunch during the week. for the foreseeable future because of the crime. It's too much. They were about to close down completely when the landlord created some sort of deal with them that allows them to stay open on weekends so that they can still at least get some foot traffic to the area. But the time said...

The news shocked the Chinatown International District this week, but the community got a reprieve with the news of a continued weekend dim sum. Owner Vince Zhao said Thursday he told staff and community leaders earlier this week that the restaurant would close after 10 years, blaming flagging sales and persistent crime near the CID restaurant. But he struck this deal with the landlord. He'll still stay open 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on weekends starting this Saturday. He said he's shutting down dinner service because his dining room, quote, is entirely empty at night. There's no point to staff it. Now, by the way, this is me speaking. Part of the reason why it's empty is because no one wants to go into that neighborhood at night. It's dangerous. It's absolutely dangerous. And he says he believes customers don't feel safe walking around the Chinatown ID at night. particularly near the corner of 12th Avenue South and South Jackson Street, which is just a block east of where they are. He's quoted as saying, the crime and drugs are imprinted into customers' heads and that this is no longer a safe place to come and dine, he said of the hotbed for drugs and stolen goods where the city of Seattle recently said it would increase police presence. We tried to keep it as long as we could, even through FIFA. But the reality is, he called it Groundhog Day. They see a clearance go on and they feel good for a second because you just swept the homeless and then they come back the next day and trash the area again and the city would clean it again. That's a direct quote. How many times have we heard this exact same thing over and over and over again from business people to visitors to residents? You see a sweep. They're back the next day. Sometimes the same day. I've covered that on the show in Belltown, third and Blanchard. where there's homeless people there all the time. They get swept and sometimes, I saw it literally the same day they were back. Mariana was the co-owner of the African market and he told Fox 13 thieves keep impacting his bottom line. They steal my own merchandise on the door. They stole everything. They stole everything all the time as well. We keep losing stuff because of them. We keep losing stuff because of them. So what exactly is the city doing? Detective Brian Pritchard said they hear the concerns. There's been an outcry, you know, and we do understand that. We've been emphasizing on that particular area for at least two years right now, you know, trying to get a lot of the issues and things solved down there. Well, how's that working out for you, Detective? And I don't blame him and I don't blame the police. It's not a police issue. It's not a police issue. This is beyond that. sweeping doesn't do anything if you don't put people in handcuffs and then charge them and then put them in jail. There's no consequences for this kind of behavior. And frankly, we don't have enough police officers. to be able to staff around the clock and do proactive policing. If we had cops constantly wandering around the CID and making arrests, and then you had judges who were willing to throw people in jail or in this case, really, a Seattle City attorney's office willing to charge, the CID would be a great place to go. They have amazing restaurants. They have great food. Amazing food. My favorite place, barbecue place is cow cow barbecue, which is not too far away from this dim sum place.

But the reality is they're all suffering because as a city, they just don't really care about this particular neighborhood, about the Chinatown International District. They just don't care. They'll tell you they do. They pretend. But the reality is they don't, which is why you see this happening over and over and over again. Former Seattle Council Member Tanya Wu. What do we do with folks who are engaged in fentanyl drug use on 12th and Jackson? What do we do with those who are unhoused? How do we address the underlying issues that we see on a daily basis? She asked those questions, and again, she's doing it obviously in good faith. But she asked those questions as if we don't already have an answer, as if we don't already know. I mean, did you hear any question that she asked where you didn't immediately say probably the same exact thing I said, which is, what do we do with the people smoking fentanyl? We arrest them. Then we charge them. And then we tell them they either go into detox right now or we're sending you to prison right now. That's what we do. The people who are selling stolen goods on street corners. You know what we do? We confiscate the stolen goods. We put the people selling them in handcuffs, and then we charge them with theft and selling stolen goods. And then we throw them in jail. That's what you do. It truly is as simple as that. We do not have to be innovative. We just have to do the basics. Sometimes the basics actually work. That's all you have to do. We don't have to reinvent the wheel. We just have to apply the laws as they're written. That's it. Let's find out what else is trending. What's trending? Legal. My favorite airline, Delta Airlines, they are taking on what certainly seems like a completely frivolous lawsuit in Washington State over the pay transparency law. They're trying to get the case moved back into federal court. They filed a U.S. District Court notice just this week. The latest company kind of snared by this ridiculous disclosure rule that has become a reliable source of paydays for a small circle of repeat plaintiffs. The suit comes from Brian Davis. He's a Snohomish County resident. who says that Delta violated state law because they posted the Seattle area job, but they didn't put a wage scale in it or a salary range, which is what you have to do according to Washington state law. The complaint says he applied around April 24th of 2024 for an in-flight service field operation support coordinator position, and it was in King County. The job is based in King County. But the listing... It gave the benefits and the perks and everything, but it didn't actually say what the role paid, which Davis says left him unable to weigh the offer, compare it against other jobs, or even negotiate. Now, Delta, of course, is denying the allegations. It's not going to come out and say, yeah, we're guilty. But Davis's claim on itself is kind of modest, right? He's saying, we want $5,000 each because they're trying to make this into a class action lawsuit.

5,000 plus attorney fees and a court order requiring Delta to post the pay ranges. Now, of course, Davis is not worth $5,000. He should not get $5,000. No one should get $5,000 as a direct result of this. But when you stack it across a large class, it's not just $5,000. You know, you've got a potential, and this is the argument coming from the Delta Airlines, is that if you've got a... class of 1,100 applicants to this job is how many they say they got. Well, if you were to give them $5,000 each, that's $5.5 million in damages alone. And then on top of that, you've got several hundred thousand dollars in attorney fees or attorney fees. And so they're saying this is going to cost us close to $6 million if we are found guilty. This does not deserve to be in district court at that level. It deserves to be in federal court. Now, you'll remember the 2023 law. called it out at the time, still call it out. I think it's absolutely stupid and does the opposite of what they say it's going to do. It's the pay transparency law. And it says that employers with 15 or more workers have to include a wage scale or a salary range and a general description of benefits in every single job posting. So if you're up for a job, it has to tell you the range of salary is, you know, 60,000 to 70,000, whatever it is. And the Democrats sold this as some sort of way to close wage gaps. And of course, it didn't close anything. All it did was open a pipeline of complaints with a handful, it seems, of serial flyers or filers who were chasing this $5,000 per posting penalty because that's written into the law. So back in 2024, Davis files this lawsuit in King County. Delta gets it removed to federal court a month later, but then the federal court said, no, this ends up going back into state court. And that happened back in April of this year. So the second run at federal courts is their attempt to get out of a state system that I think is, again, designed. to help the plaintiffs win in each and every one of these cases. Tell me how this random dude somehow is worth five, or do five thousand, outside of what the law says is written. But how is that damages to him? Why are we pretending that he was damaged as a result of this? There was no damage whatsoever. These are frivolous lawsuits, and they're taking advantage of a law that was written to encourage frivolous lawsuits. It's disgusting. It's absolutely disgusting. And the Washington State Supreme Court ruled that someone can sue over non-compliant posting without even proving they wanted the job to begin with. All they have to do is say they applied. That's it. That's it. Does anyone not realize how screwed up that is? Does this sound like it's reasonable or fair or logical? What is the point here? It's to punish business. It's wrong. Now, I don't know if this is going to have a better result if it ends up getting to the federal level. No clue. Because it is the law. It's a stupid law, but it's a law. So we'll end up seeing.

What ends up happening? But I'm all, I'm usually Team Delta. I'm definitely Team Delta on this. Let's find out what else is trending. What's trending? The economy. There is growing anger with Microsoft, and it's not just in Washington State. So we told you earlier in the week that they laid off about 1,600 workers from the Xbox division this month. And this is... going to impact, I think about 600 or so specific to Redmond. And it's undoubtedly a bad day for this industry and for the region when you're losing so many of these jobs. But at the same time, they won federal approval to bring in 2,273 foreign workers on H1B visas. And, well, in fairness, we're comparing apples and oranges in... in part when talking about specific jobs to Xbox, but there are a lot of people asking why American jobs keep vanishing at these tech firms, and yet the visa pipeline continues to stay wide open. You had these cuts part of much larger cuts at Microsoft, 4,800 total so far announced worldwide, and again, 600 or so in Washington. But at the same time, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services data says that they got approval for the 2273 H-1 visas, H-1B visas earlier this year, and they still have more applications pending. Now, they're the six largest beneficiary of this program, which is overwhelmingly filled by workers who are coming here from India. Online, people took notice. Representative Riley Moore, the Republican from West Virginia, been on the show a couple times. He said that this is indefensible. He tweeted, quote, this is insane. Legal immigration is a major problem. These companies, especially big tech, are abusing these immigration programs to replace American workers with foreign workers. No more. It's long past time to end the H-1B scam. The advocacy account project for immigration reform, they said, Something even more dramatic, I think. Every single employer is exploiting the H-1B visa program. I don't believe that. And look, there's a place for H-1B visas when you legitimately cannot find workers who are qualified in the United States. I'm not someone who completely trashes H-1B visas. I don't believe that they're a scam. I think they can be abused for a variety of different reasons. And I think some of it is just it's easier to go down this route than to hire locally and do some of the extra legwork to find people who are qualified. There's an underlying issue that I do think we have to address. And again, let's just for the sake of argument, and let's take Microsoft completely out of this. Just for the sake of argument, let us assume it's just some random tech company that is leaning on the H-1B visas. So they're getting someone from India or Germany or wherever. The reason why that happens in theory, if they're doing it in good faith, is because they can't find anyone who is willing to work and is qualified for them for these positions.

And we certainly know that the STEM degrees, science, tech, engineering, and math, not really getting a ton of traction yet. Clearly more popular than it's ever been, but it's starting from behind. People weren't getting into STEM, particularly when it comes to women. We just weren't getting into the STEM courses. And that comes with implications because if you don't have enough people going into STEM, at least to fill the open jobs, you're going to have to look somewhere. And I'm okay with us bringing in... qualified people to take on these jobs. They're high-paying jobs. They contribute great to our community, and they build American businesses. But if you are going at this at a rate in which you are dismissing American workers because it's cheaper or easier, that's where I have a problem. Is Microsoft doing that? I don't know. But I do know that this has caught the attention of the federal government. I know JD Vance, what, a few months ago? It might have been last year. He did that big press conference about trying to take on the scams that have been going on. And I think that that is a worthy conversation to have. There are two separate conversations, both worthy. Making sure that American students, American workforce, are getting the training they need so they can fulfill these positions, which is going to be even more important given the fact that AI is taking over. And someone has to program the AI. Someone has to think about the jobs that AI can build. And we need people who are... qualified, who are trained. That's number one. But number two, if there are any American companies that are legitimately taking advantage of this and doing it at the expense of American workers, they have to be called out and they have to be punished in some way. I mean, this is part of the reason why the president wanted to make it a little bit more expensive for these businesses to go ahead and get the H-1B visas. Look, if you're going to import jobs from overseas, you're going to pay more because you are harming the American worker when you're doing that. Intentionally or not. Now, I've got a report up right now at SeattleRed.com if you want to read a little bit more about this and the outrage. 1-800-465-877 for your texts. Let's find out what else is trending. What's trending? Let's get political. Earlier today, CNN had published some photos or a photo, at least, of Mitch McConnell, Mitch McConnell. being loaded into an ambulance on a stretcher. And it's, you know, coming from a witness to what had happened on June 14th. It was early in the morning around 8.30 or so where two ambulances and a fire truck plus Capitol police officers were on scene at Mitch McConnell's home. in Kentucky, they had a report of someone who was unconscious, and the video showed emergency responders wheeling a person, we believe it was Mitch McConnell, on a stretcher toward the ambulance. And it's too far away, so you couldn't actually see the face of the person, but everything matches up timeline-wise with what we know happened. We still, however, don't have any details as to what is wrong or what was wrong.

with Mitch McConnell. The report was that he suffered some sort of heart attack, some sort of cardiovascular issue. We just don't know what it is. And the spokesperson would only say that he was admitted to the hospital and that he was receiving excellent care. But several weeks later... Because again, this happened June 14th, and it's what's today, July 10th. They still haven't prompted, it hasn't told us what prompted the senator to be taken to the hospital to begin with, nor have they disclosed specific details of what happened. And we're hearing from various members of Congress, Republicans and Democrats, basically saying the same thing. We don't know what happened. We'd like to know what happened. We should know what happened. I mean, Senator Mike Lee, he was responding to a tweet saying, saying, it's weird how Republicans aren't talking about this. And he said something along the lines of, we're not talking about it because we don't know what happened. We don't have any details. Congressman Marlon Stutzman, the Republican from Indiana, says he doesn't know what's going on or whether or not Mitch McConnell is even alive. No, I have not heard from him. And I think it's a question that Republicans... should be asking because he does represent the state of Kentucky. His constituents deserve answers where he is at. I think that the governor of Kentucky has every right to ask after three weeks that no one has said anything. As a Republican, I think we need to hold our own party accountable. And so the fact that we haven't heard anything really from Mitch McConnell is very discouraging and concerning. And I think that for... And by the way, I agree with that. I agree with that. It'd be one thing if the senator's office was putting out some more information, even if it doesn't answer all the questions specifically, but give us something a little bit fresher than the statement that they released a few weeks ago. But they're not even doing that. They're not doing the bare minimum here. For the representation of the Republican Party and to get some of the bills done that we want to get done in the Senate, it's critical that we have a senator from Kentucky voting in the Senate chamber. Do you know that he's alive? I don't. You know, just the things that I've heard and seen from some friends is that he's obviously not doing well, but don't know if he's alive where he's passed away. Now, look, if he were dead, unless it happened like within the last day, we should all be very surprised and be pretty upset with people who said they spoke to him. I don't understand why any senator like John Thune... I forget who the other one was who spoke with him or said he spoke with him. Scott Jennings said he spoke with him. I think all of those voices who said they had conversations with him kind of overstated how healthy the guy sounded, because I doubt Mitch McConnell sounded particularly healthy. But I don't think they lied about having those conversations. That would be just very weird for all of them to be in cahoots. So I doubt he's dead. If he's dead, we would have found out. It would have leaked by now. In fact, I'm actually surprised that

No one from the hospital has leaked any information. But I would find it very hard to believe he's dead. Now, that doesn't mean he's near death, right? And that's what they're trying to protect. And I'm sympathetic to someone of his age going through this kind of health crisis and coming to terms with mortality. Like, I get that. But I think the critics here are right. And let's just be clear. Republicans are the ones who are speaking loudly on this. So this is not just some sort of political game where we're protecting one of our own. It's the Republicans who are speaking the loudest as it relates to Mitch McConnell. He should come out. His office should come out and be more forthcoming with what's going on. I can't imagine it's good what they're not telling us. So maybe there's some sensitivities that they're working out with the family. I don't know. But we do have the right to know. 1-800-465-8-774, your texts. The Seattle Red App, a new experience for Seattle Conservatives. It's usually you don't get this kind of thing. Listen live or catch up if you missed your favorite show. Trump told reporters, yeah, we're thinking about a little rebate. Send us a message right from the app. And what is that message? The Seattle Red app is also your home for news and opinion, all from conservative voices you trust. Are you sensing the trend? A new experience for Seattle Conservatives. That crowd that is influential enough. Download the Seattle Red app today. You know, Tacoma, Bremerton, Boffel. This is the big local on the Jason Ranch Show. Redmond, Sumner, Kent. Stories about you, not about Seattle. Hey, look at the time 430 on a weekday afternoon. That means it's time for the big local. Brought to you by the Scott Jennings show. Heard nights 8 to 10 right here on Seattle Red 770 a.m. This is the part of the show where we completely ignore the stories coming out of Seattle, and instead we focus all of our attention on the communities you live in and you care about most. And we start with a story that is not going to come as even a little bit of a shock to anyone. who is familiar with Bellevue, especially when you compare Bellevue to cities like the one we don't talk about during this segment. There is a new report out of a poll. And it's, they call it like the vibes poll, something kind of, I can't stand that word. I'm done with that word, but that's what they're calling it. And they're saying, like, the vibes of Bellevue. are really strong. Not so much when you compare it to the city of Seattle. It found that 75% of voters believe Bellevue is headed in the right direction. 96% say they feel safe downtown during the day. And 86% hold a favorable view of the Bellevue Police Department. That is all those numbers, frankly. are effectively 100%. To get someone, so for example, to say 96% of anything, feel anything, is nearly impossible. Nearly impossible. And I know they only talk to like 400 people as part of this poll, but for something like this, that is generally around the number that you would expect for them to get 400. You're not getting thousands for, especially not for city the size of Bellevue. But 96% feel comfortable, safe.

Yeah, that's insane. That is unheard of. And it makes total sense. Like, and I'm making this number up. But if someone came even in a city like Seattle and said, 96% say they feel unsafe, even I'm going to be like, okay, it's not that bad. Let's relax. You're going to have to be very specific on what it is we're talking about, the area and the time of day, which you feel safe and maybe when the question was even asked. Was there just like a terrorist attack the other day? So to get 96% saying the opposite, which is they feel totally safe, You go to Bellevue and you know exactly why that number is so high. In fact, I like to meet the 4% who said that they didn't feel safe. I'm guessing the 4% who said they didn't feel safe either didn't understand the question or maybe had just been the victim of a crime. Ironically, they'll probably not in the city of Bellevue. Now, this is a verdict. I would look at this as a verdict of philosophies because Bellevue's approach to crime and homelessness and business much different than the city of Seattle. Como spoke with a pair of residents, Carlis and Josh. They both move from Seattle to the city of Bellevue. And one thing they notice is not just safe, but again, anyone who goes to Bellevue knows this. It's clean. I often come to this park at nighttime, sometimes 9 o'clock at night just to get a walk in, and I never feel uncomfortable. It seems to be really safe. The police presence is... very evident here and they're always on top of things. It's very clean here, which I like a lot, very family oriented. I moved over here with the young baby. How is it different than living in Seattle? It's very clean, very safe. It smells good. Seattle isn't that bad, but here I can really see the tax dollars put to use. And that's what you want to hear. That's what you want to hear. It's one thing to say, I don't know where the taxes are going. You're like, well, I guess they're going here, but not feel any of the results, but at least there's some receipts. The receipt in Bellevue is just looking around and you say, yeah, this looks like a city that cares. This looks like a city that's taking its responsibilities seriously. This is a city that wants us. to thrive, wants us to survive, wants us to be happy. Bellevue Chamber President Joe Fane. Vibe in Bellevue is strong. Three out of four of our resident voters believe the city is on the right track. Public safety is a huge brand for Bellevue. This isn't necessarily a Bellevue versus Seattle. You've seen satisfaction rise there. You've seen concerns around public safety, which is still obviously an issue, but you've seen some of those things being addressed. A strong Seattle is a strong Bellevue is a strong region. Okay, he's, I like how he's doing a little bit of press for Seattle. No, a strong Seattle is not a strong Bellevue. A weak Seattle is a stronger Bellevue. That's a better way to say it. Because Bellevue sees what's happening in Seattle and they want a course correct on their behalf and don't want the problems that happen in Seattle to happen in Bellevue. Now, it's certainly true that a strong Seattle is a strong region in general. And I get his point. But that's just not what's happening in the city of Seattle, minus the last month because of the World Cup. And it's not even, we shouldn't just compare the issue to Seattle because it's not Bellevue v. Seattle. It's Bellevue versus the region. And there are parts of this region that are just not handling the climate.

crisis or homelessness the way that they should in fact there was a king five story that came out i think it was either late last night or maybe early this morning out of Linwood. And they're talking about the rise of teen gun violence in this community. And they spoke to a mom who's got kids who said, you know, she's not going at night. She's not going to let her kids stray too far from the home because it's just not safe. We heard the ice cream truck outside yesterday. And unless we hear it right in front of our house, they don't get to walk around the block by themselves. They don't get to walk around the block. by themselves. And I think she has teenagers. King Five says over the past four years, the city has recorded 14 shootings involving 18 teenage victims, five of whom died. From 2023 to 2024, Linwood saw 355 violent incidents involving teens, much of it gang related, a 145% increase from 2019 when gang shootings were nearly non-existent. And they say the shootings are continuing this year. Seven so far have been reported. Now, you might say to yourself seven doesn't seem like that high of a number. It is a high number when we're talking about Linwood. When you go from zero to seven, when you go to hundreds of violent crimes that are being allegedly committed by gang members, yeah, that's going to catch your attention. And it should. And so the mayor, George Hurst, told King Five that he's starting a gang advisory committee. because he wants to make sure that they're doing whatever it is they can to ensure safety for everyone. So you've got parents working two jobs, not at home all the time. And, you know, if we can change that and give them a little more stable home, maybe that'd be a step. Yep. I mean, if you want to go after gang violence, you're going to have to get responsible adults. to take care of these kids and put them on the right track. Generally, you see young people joining gangs because they don't have families that care. They oftentimes come from broken homes. And sometimes it's not because of both parents or one parent not doing everything that they can, especially if you're a one parent household. Like, that's a lot of work to take care of a kid and still pay the bills, have a job. And there is an opening, especially when there's not a dad in the kid's life because we're mostly talking about boys, although not exclusive. but mostly when you don't have a father figure some other father figure is going to see the vulnerability and take advantage and convince that kid to go and do the wrong things because all that kid is looking for And this is hardwired into kids, especially boys. They're looking for an older male figure to give them some kind of approval. They're looking for approval, affirmation. And if the person willing to give that to you is a bad guy, is a gang member himself, you're obviously going to be working for the wrong sort of end goals.

And then you get a gang violence problem like they have in Linwood or in other part. Like Federal Way has been dealing with gangs. They're in Kent as well. They've tackled it, I think, relatively effectively. But it's not all gone. They say in this piece, the city's partnering with Access Project, a grassroots organization placing 170 student mediators in local middle and high school to help diffuse conflicts before they escalate. Another new program aims to connect at-risk kids with counselors before their problems turn criminal. And again, this is really the right move. And kudos at least to this King 5 story because they say some put part of the blame of crime. Some put part of the blame on George Floyd era law as handcuffing police when it comes to questioning juvenile witnesses and suspects of crimes. And the mayor, Hurst, you know, gets into a little bit of that and he's 100% correct. I mean, the Democrats in this state pass laws that prevent cops from even talking with witnesses who happen to be juveniles. And thus, they're not able to truly go after the criminals at all because they can't do their investigations by not being able to talk with the witnesses. So that's what happens. And then finally, we obviously have some wildfires burning in the east side of the state, including in Chelan and Orondo, where the wildfire in Douglas County has claimed at least one life. It damaged or destroyed at least 25 homes and buildings that we're aware of. And now we're learning that the popular themed Airbnb built to look like the Hobbit House has also been destroyed in the fire. This fire broke out on July 4th near Highway 97. The fire, we believe, was intentionally set. So before anyone claims, this is global warming, it has nothing to do with that. They believe that this was intentionally set. And it's obviously been... really destructive. And among the structures lost in this fire is what was called the Hobbit Inn, which is in the Chelan Springs neighborhood, according to Fox 13. They say the owner, Christy Wolf, built the Lord of the Rings-inspired rental about 10 years ago. And she said she tracked the wildfires rapid progress on a map until it overcame the area because the home was built directly into the mountain and was covered in dirt. She initially hoped that maybe it would survive. But she was able to go down and check it out. And apparently, no, it was completely destroyed. They have in the Fox 13 story online. the before and after photo. You could not even tell the after photo. You could not even tell there was a dwelling there. Completely turned to dust, turn to dirt. And, you know, this obviously hurts economically.

You know, I don't know what the, I haven't seen any specific data about what the Airbnb economy is like in Shalan Hills. I'm guessing it's non-existent with the exception of this very, very meticulously detailed Hobbit home. It's remote. This is for a very certain kind of person. You see a lot of these kinds of like, YouTube vloggers who do the weirdest and most unique Airbnb rentals in the country and you'll see this one pop up or these kinds of Hobbit hovels pop up. So I feel really bad for the woman involved who has to basically start from scratch at this point. Because it was, you know, I normally don't like these kinds of things. I was looking at some of the videos and posts or photos, excuse me. And it looked really cool. Like you have to be a dork to really appreciate it and really get excited about it. But it was really well done. And she's going to have to now start from scratch. And that's just awful. That's just awful. Thankfully, however, it's, you know, no loss of life for her. But someone did die in all of this. And, you know, the fires, unfortunately, still not completely, you know, contained. And at the same time, we're getting this now red flag warning in effect for parts of Central Washington. It goes into place tomorrow because it's going to be really, really, really hot. It's going to be low humidity and it's going to be really windy. The National Service in the Weather Service in Spokane said to our sister station, Carnage Radio, that the main concern stretches from the Okanagan Valley into the western Columbia basin. Here's meteorologist Steve Bodner. Be cautious out there. Even if you're not in red flags, then the winds are still going to be breezy with some periods of custody conditions. So just be safe, be smart. Just be safe and be smart. Level two evacuations are in place right now for people in Okanagan County, Okanagan County, which means level two basically means just be ready if you have to leave. So have everything packed of your essentials, medications, important documents, and if you get that notice to leave, you've got to leave. The fire so far has burned over 2,900 acres. 1-800-4-65-770 for your text messages. 1-800-6-5-8-770. You are listening to The Jason Rancho back with more from New York after this. The all-news Seattle Red.com. Finally, conservatives in Seattle and the Pacific Northwest have a home dedicated to local news. When I'm out and about in Seattle or anywhere just because I like to go into the field. Conservative analysis and opinion. And the left is saying this is anti-democracy. Seattlered.com is a new experience for Seattle's conservative movements where your comments are welcome and we encourage thoughtful conversation and debate. This is the key piece here. Visit the all-new Seattlered.com.

Welcome back to the Jason Ranch Show broadcasting from our New York studios. And by New York Studios, I mean, I'm just in my hotel room in New York, which is a building away from News Nation because at 7 p.m. Pacific Daylight Time, I will be guest hosting Katie Pavlach tonight. We're putting the show together. I've been getting some texts from producers. They've been working all day diligently to make sure that I am ready to go. This is the first time I'm hosting. a television show. So good luck to me. I'll take you behind the scenes of what happened on Monday once I, you know, sort of unravel from, I imagine I'm going to be on a high during the show. I just hope I don't screw up. I hope I don't have like some random nosebleed or something in the middle of the show. Oh, dear God. Did I just put, hold on, I got to knock on wood. Okay, and knocked on wood. Let's not put that into the universe. Normally, Jake Schorheim stops by, but... Because every time I'm on the road, I'm going to gripe for a moment, and Jackson will understand. Every time I'm on the road, something happens. Something happens. Something breaks. Sometimes it's on my end. Sometimes it's on Wi-Fi. Sometimes it's an act of God. Other times it's just sure bad luck, pure bad luck. And of course, our system that allows me to connect to the studio for my interview with Jake doesn't work. So... God bless him. I made him wait in the studio in silence for an hour as we tried to figure out the technical issues. And in the end, I called it. I said, nah, no, go ahead. He got very upset and we're not on speaking terms. I'm kidding. There's a story over at Fox News that caught my attention about how regional burger chains are outpacing fast food brands and sales growth. And you wouldn't think that that would make any sense on the surface, right? I mean... Last hour we talked about Culver City going after, Culver City, California going after In-N-Out, not wanting them to expand because they're just too popular and it causes all sorts of problems as far as traffic is concerned. But they say, actually In-N-Out, because it's one of the smaller, more regional brands, is doing better than McDonald's or Burger King, Wendy's. And it's not just In-N-Out, it's What a Burger, which I don't think we have any in Washington. We only have the one in and out. Culver's, which I've heard of, but I've never been to. I think that's in the Midwest. I don't think we have any of those in Washington State either. But they are, since 2019, they have been growing far faster. Now, some of that makes sense in the context of, well, McDonald's and Wendy's and Burger King. These are big brands. that you expect they're going to see some slowdown in growth because they're already massive brands. And if you're looking just at the rate of growth, if you put in funding into some of these smaller regional, they have more room for growth than a McDonald's does. But they were looking specifically, and Culvers, by the way, is in the Midwest. They were looking at the sales growth, so at least sales growth for McDonald's, Wendy's, and Burger King. And the technomic data, the technomic is the firm, says it grew 36% for McDonald's, 16 for Wendy's, and 8% for Burger King. But when you look at Culver's, they say sales surged 143% to $4.36 billion over the exact same time period, in and out, climb 91%.

at $2.58 billion, and Whataburger grew 68% to $4.3 billion. The findings, Fox News says, highlight how several regional chains are expanding their footprints and attracting loyal customers, even as the nation's largest burger brands continue to dominate overall sales. They say the national burger chains and regional operators. has widened considerably over the past six years. And they quote one of these, you know, senior partnership guys from technomic David Henkees, who says across sales growth, unit expansion, and average unit volume, regional burger chains have substantially outpaced the three largest national brands going forward. Our 2026 forecast data supports continued regional outperformance. And, you know, it's funny because. As much as they're regional, they're still, to me, like, big brands. I don't look at In-N-Out or Culvers or any of these other places as if there's some sort of mom-and-pop place that I would want to support over one of the big guys, one of the corporate retailers or the corporate brands. McDonald's, to me, is the same as in and out as far as the type of fast food joint it is. There used to be when I was in college. There was a drive-through burger joint, like three blocks from campus. And they did, you know, your traditional meals, burgers, they did hot dogs, chili fries, things like that. And it almost felt like they were catering specifically to the college campus. But there was also a jack-in-the-box that was like a block and a half closer. And I would look at... Either these options late at night after studying, kind of hungry, like, what do I want to go? I could have gone to the cheaper Jack in the Box, but for whatever reason, and I don't think I was making, I don't remember making these kinds of decisions as I want to support the locals. But I just instinctively went there. And, you know, the food wasn't great. Like it was, I think, better than Jack in the Box. But that to me is now as an adult. assuming I was still eating that kind of crap, that's the kind of business that I would want to support. And I view that as different than an in-and-out. Just because you're regional doesn't mean you're not as big as McDonald's as a brand in the region. So if you've got 10,000 culvers or in-and-outs or water burgers or whatever, how is there any real difference to McDonald's? It's the same... style of of food it's it's still doing the exact same thing and when we're talking about these kinds of brands do we really honestly still want to poison ourselves with this. I know, I don't want to get into this again. I didn't intend to, but it's just so unhealthy. It's so bad for you. And I, you know, I've cut this stuff almost entirely out of my diet. I've cut fast food entirely out, but like some of the garbage food every once in a while. Like right now, I'm on the road. I'm not eating perfectly. I ran out of my snacks that I packed. I thought I packed more than I did and I didn't. So last night,

I went and I got Chinese food locally. And I imagine it was pretty good. It wasn't great. It was pretty good. I'm sure it was filled with all sorts of crap. And I just, after I ate it, I didn't even finish it. I just didn't feel great. I just felt like, bleh. I just felt meh. And that's now how my body reacts when I eat this kind of food. And you just feel so much better when you cut all of this stuff out. So just do yourselves a favor. I don't care that it's like regional burgers. It's still bad for you. In and Out, while In and Out is healthier of an option than a McDonald's, it's not that much healthier. It's still garbage that you're putting in your system that you don't need that's going to cut years off of your life. And it is just not worth it. It is, especially if maybe God willing, some of you listening are like in your college years, stop eating this crap. It is not worth it. It is not worth it. The older you get, you're going to realize, yeah, it can taste good, but it ultimately makes you feel like garbage, and it contributes to not just obesity and all sorts of other medical issues, but it's going to cut years off your life. It's addictive and it's hard to kick. It's really hard to kick. It's really hard to kick. So don't try to get off of it when you're a kid and you've got a really fast metabolism so you can really get healthy quickly and recover much. That's the problem because you're healthier now as a kid, a kid, like a 22-year-old or something, your body isn't going to feel and you're not going to feel the same impact of eating that crap, but it does all add up. So just cut it out not to be, you know, the diet care in here. 1-800-4-65-87. You don't forget tonight at 7 p.m. I will be guest hosting Katie Pavlich tonight on News Nation. I hope you will watch it. It is my first time being a guest host on a cable television show. I'm really excited. A little tiny bit. Actually, if I'm being honest, I don't feel nervous yet. I'm sure I'll feel nervous once we get a little bit closer. I'm in the makeup chair. But I'm really pumped. I hope you'll watch it. If you can't watch it because you don't get it in your cable, maybe you don't have cable, I'll have videos posted up at our social media channels. So make sure you're following me. It's a Jason Rancho.