Analysis

Right after completing the previous post on the HRSA data set I came across this article in the Guardian titled Trump 2.0 has deleted or altered nearly 400 US datasets, endangering public health, education and more. As someone who relies on these releases to find meaningful social, environmental, political and economic trends for the Alleghenies, […]

by Paul Ricci Annually the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) comes out with an Unmet Need Score (UNS) for every zip code in the U.S. The UNS is a composite of 33 health variables at the zip code level. This post will focus on the 100 zip codes with the highest UNSs in Pennsylvania. […]

Jackie Allison wrote this humorous piece, Working Class Majority, for the online magazine Funny Times in 2015. It is still relevant today and is reprinted with permission. I suggest a new government party, the Working Class Majority. Note that it would be called a majority, not a party. The working class isn’t a hedonistic picnic. […]

by Paul Ricci Watching Dr. Anthony Fauci get grilled by the U.S. Senate Homeland Security Committee brought back a lot of memories of the struggles of the pandemic. The committee is chaired by Senator Rand Paul (R-Kentucky). He is a trained ophthalmologist. Senator Paul is now pursuing contempt of Congress charges against Fauci after he […]

Nick Brisini has written the poem Appalachian Fire. Below is a video of him doing another poetry reading. Discarded snuff cans, empty beer bottles line back roads to a cold hell below. In the mines of Appalachia men and women worked and some died. Others spent their final days gasping for breath. Then the mines […]

Nick Brisini has written a review of the book Working Class Radicals: The Socialist Party in West Virginia, 1889-1920 by Frederick Barley. The capitalist brainwashing of works over time to convince us that socialism has no place in “our” country. It is, they proclaim, Un-American as if capitalism was synonymous with America. Reading Working Class […]

Recently, the Southern Poverty Law Center has published its new hate map for 2025. Last year they tracked 1,263 groups nationwide. The year before they tracked 1,371 groups and 1,430 in 2023. There was a 12% decrease between 2023 and 2025 in the raw number of groups. When adjusting for population there were 3.81 groups […]

The last day of the Netroots Nation Conference in Philadelphia was a whirlwind of activity. In the morning I filmed this panel with state legislators from Michigan, New York and Pennsylvania on pursuing Medicare for All healthcare systems in their states. Later, I interviewed U.S. reps Summer Lee (D-PA) and Jaime Raskin on their views […]

The Netroots Nation Conference was held in Philadelphia this year to coincide with America 250. I attended to network and interview some attendees. One of the things I noticed at Netroots Nation 2026 was the proliferation of Data and AI trainings and exhibitors. Data Storytelling The first training that I recorded was one titled Beyond […]

Darcy Trunzo has written this piece on the 1889 flood legacy in Johnstown on her Substack. It is reprinted with permission. Though I was raised in Indiana County – I was born here. As was my mother. Her side of the family lived up the road a bit in another mining town called Portage and […]