Free Republic

JOHNSTOWN — Joe Burkhart is busy working at his job as a maintenance manager at a processor here in Cambria County. Like many people who have spent their career working with their hands, he knows that unexpected layoffs and companies who have been around for decades suddenly shuttering their doors is part of today’s technological revolution.Like many people around here born in the 1960’s, Burkhart says he was born and raised a Democrat. “Everyone in my family was a Democrat, its just what you did,” he said, adding when he first started looking for work as an adult being a...

WEIRTON, West Virginia - Most people in this town will tell you they’d rather have taken a physical punch to the gut than get the news they received yesterday when Cleveland-Cliffs Steel announced it was idling its tinplate production plant, a move that directly cost 900 people their jobs.It isn’t just those workers who face catastrophic uncertainty; this closure also jeopardizes the jobs of thousands more people whose businesses supported the plant: the barber shops, gas stations, mom-and-pop grocery stores, the machine shops that make the widgets for the steel industry. And there’s also the demise of the tax base,...

Last week, the company announced that beginning Feb. 1, the centralized monopoly will no longer help support local charities, including youth athletic associations. Instead, it will donate to social justice and social responsibility initiatives that work on a larger scale, like affordable housing and other entities that align with its values.

If resident Joe Biden's disorderly and lethal Afghanistan withdrawal was the moment that fractured voters' regard for him, then his vicious Atlanta speech last week may be the moment that defines his presidency. Speaking Tuesday at Morehouse College and Clark Atlanta University, Biden uttered venomous, brutal accusations lacking factual basis. His shouting-in-the-wind delivery was inexplicable, and his decision to lash out at members of his own party -- Sens. Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema -- appears to have only strengthened their resolve not to give in to his demands. Biden called those who disagree with his political views on legislation...

Source: Photo/Shannon Venditti GETTYSBURG -- On an overcast day, the national park that has preserved the history of one of the bloodiest and most significant battles of the American Civil War is filled with people from all over the country. It is a testament to the desire everywhere not just to know our history, but also to honor the soldiers who fought and lost their lives to protect our country. They mattered, and we as a nation want them to know they are not forgotten. This week, President Joe Biden made a dark political bet that Americans would forget a...

NEW ALEXANDRIA, Pennsylvania -- The scent of funnel cakes, grilled hot dogs and an ever-so-faint whiff of diesel fuel fill the air. The odd combination somehow works, adding to the excitement and anticipation as thousands of families and gearheads fill the stands surrounding the track of the local Lions Club Demolition Derby here in Westmoreland County. From the clothing to the massive, oversized tires that serve as makeshift bumpers to protect the people in the stands from an errant jalopy, nearly everything and everyone is draped in red, white and blue. Before you form a misguided stereotype, there is a...

The roots of faith, family, patriotism, dialect and work ethic are a prominent feature here. One of the first modern American presidents to recognize those characteristics here and in the swath of Appalachia that extends to the southwest was John F. Kennedy, who when speaking to his Cabinet in April of 1963 said that despite automation passing it by and poverty now defining it, he did not doubt its ability to succeed. "The Appalachian region is an area rich in potential," Kennedy said. "Its people are hardworking, intelligent, resourceful, and capable of responding successfully to education and training. They are...

When coal mine employee John Morecraft heard last Monday that United Mine Workers of America President Cecil Roberts approved of President Joe Biden's plan to move the nation's energy industry away from fossil fuels, Morecraft said he anticipated the news would be misconstrued. "I knew the story would come across as though all coal miners approved of this deal, with no mention of how (un)representative the UMWA is of the coal miner population," said Morecraft, just before going down for his shift at the Bailey Mine here in Greene County. "The UMWA in actuality represents a small portion of the...

The 2.8-mile-long East Street Valley neighborhood, which once flourished here, sure died hard. Drive, walk or cycle past the remnants of it today, and traces of what used to be are everywhere along the hollow of the rolling Allegheny Mountain neighborhoods that lead out of the city proper from the banks of the Allegheny River to the suburbs of Pittsburgh. The remnants of homes, schools, offices, root cellars and even the stone walls of a rose garden stare back at you like ghosts, begging to be remembered as their ancient foundations advance in decay every year. Only St. Boniface Roman...

They're still there, planted in front of stately homes in wealthy suburban neighborhoods, on flag poles in middle-class communities, and along the front stoops of inner-city row houses. Whether they say "Trump 2020" or simply "Trump," there are plenty of people who have left their sentiments planted on their own personal hill. It is not just here in Pennsylvania. The signs are not hard to spot as you travel to the Great Lakes, the Midwest, and Appalachia. The reason is complex. People who come from a variety of socioeconomic, religious, and political experiences formed a conservative populist coalition long before...

CRANBERRY TOWNSHIP, Pennsylvania -- He has no idea which candidate he's going to vote for next month. The 36-year-old registered Republican and conservative found President Donald Trump's comportment so distasteful in 2016 that he voted for Hillary Clinton. Since then, he found himself reluctantly liking Trump's accomplishments and started leaning toward voting for Trump in 2020. But he puts the brakes on supporting Trump every time the president says something he thinks is outrageous. "I just want this chaos to end," he says in frustration. "That is what I am going to vote for: no chaos." This suburban voter, like...

JOHNSTOWN, Pennsylvania -- Ken Miller walked into one of the four storefronts on the right flank of the Richland Shopping Center, asked if this was where he could change his voter registration, sat down with a purpose and began to fill out the form. "It is time to go," he said flatly as he checked his Pennsylvania driver's license number to place on the form. Miller did not vote for Donald Trump in 2016; he didn't vote for Hillary Clinton either. He is a retired insurance manager and does not like what he sees coming from the party he has...

Miller did not vote for Donald Trump in 2016; he didn’t vote for Hillary Clinton, either. He said he is a retired insurance manager and does not like what he sees coming from the party he has been a part of his adult life. “I just get tired of the game-playing that the Democrats are doing. Everything's just so disgusting today. Something has to change. Well, something's going to change,” he said. Miller is not alone. For the first time that anyone could remember, Cambria County is no longer dominated by Democratic voter registrations. They lost that dominance quietly on...

BUTLER, Pennsylvania -- Last Monday was supposed to be a celebration, a coming together across the ages and across the country to mark the day "Ghostbusters" debuted in 1984, a film that made movie executives cringe but won the hearts of moviegoers. The film was going to be shown at drive-in theaters from coast to coast. John Mason, owner of Starlight Drive-in Theater, said he was thrilled to be part of the first simultaneous showing of the iconic film in drive-ins. To get into the spirit and add some kitsch to the local version of the nationwide event, he even...

“I chose my life because, not for the money obviously, but because I get to see my family every day. That's what it's about. I got to see my parents every day growing up. And my kids get to see that too,” said Klinkner, the father of three with another one on the way. On Trump, Klinkner is pragmatic, “I am very happy with his policies, I just wish he’d put that Twitter down,” he said of the president’s unorthodox style of communicating. This cuts against the national media’s narrative that farmers will dump the president because of the trade...

Ruth Moore, 60, was holding her 13-month-old granddaughter Addy to board the shuttle bus to attend the Trump rally. Moore said she happily voted for Trump in 2016; her sister Robin Beilman, 58, not so much. “I didn’t vote for Hillary either; I just didn’t vote,” said Beilman, who works in a nearby factory making Pop-Tarts. “At first I didn’t like how he conducted himself; I still always don’t, but what I have come to realize is that if you want to get tough things done, you don’t get them done by being nice,” she said. Now Trump has earned...

**SNIP** A few months ago, in a cascade of disgraces both Gov. Ralph Northam and Attorney General Mark Herring admitted to wearing blackface, then Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax was accused of sexual assault by two women. Now the story has seemingly disappeared from the front pages, or any pages, of the local news outlets. **SNIP** University of Virginia political analyst Kyle Kondik says Northam remains in office for a number of reasons. “For one thing, Fairfax is even more toxic than he is, and the accusations against the lieutenant governor help insulate the governor. But I also think the governor...

PITTSBURGH -- Joe Biden's decision to kick off his presidential campaign in Western Pennsylvania Monday shows that he is not just in a battle for the soul of the country; he is in a battle for the soul of his party.s That battle begins and ends with long primary contests that many Democratic experts and officials believe will be decided exactly one year from now, on Pennsylvania's April 29 primary voting day. "This nominating process certainly has all of the ingredients to go long, and the Democratic voters in this state hold the key to help defining our party as...

Pete Buttigieg is many things. At just 37, he is the mayor of South Bend, Indiana. He is a military veteran and a deeply religious gay man who is married but also enjoys sandwiches from (anti-same-sex marriage) Chick-fil-A. He is a Harvard-educated Rhodes scholar who speaks eight languages. He is the first ever millennial candidate for president and, so far, the only Democratic hopeful to appear on the "Fox News Sunday" show. "I'm all of those things," said Buttigieg -- pronounced "Boot-edge-edge" -- in an interview with the New York Post. "I try not to have any kind of attribute...

COLUMBUS, Miss. -- At the First Pentecostal Church on Tuscaloosa Road, the last Saturday of February was a day filled with supposed-to-be's. Little Jereson McCool was supposed to be at the church hall surrounded by 60 members of his family and community to celebrate his fifth birthday, but his grandma's train from South Carolina was running five hours late. His mom, Misty, made the call from the train station to the church's Pastor Steve Blaylock to see whether they could move it to the next day. Tom and Betty Lindsay, an elderly couple who live by the river, were supposed...