5.7% of Greater Johnstown Students are Homeless
December 10, 2025

5.7% of Greater Johnstown Students are Homeless

This holiday season (and every other season) it is important to remember those less fortunate. Accordingly, the Center for Rural Pennsylvania produced the map above. It shows all of the school districts in the state. The districts highlighted in green have rates of student homelessness that are higher than the state rate of 1.89% for […]

GJSD School Board Candidate Shannon Burch Errett
October 25, 2025

GJSD School Board Candidate Shannon Burch Errett

Today I interviewed Shannon Burch Errett. She is a GJSD school board candidate. Burch Errett is running as a write in candidate. GJSD stands for Greater Johnstown School District. We spoke for 17 minutes. In the most recent estimates from the Census Bureau, GJSD had the 5th highest poverty rate in Pennsylvania in 2023 at […]

Turning Point USA in the Alleghenies
September 28, 2025

Turning Point USA in the Alleghenies

With the recent assassination of Charlie Kirk in still in the news I thought I would take a look at his organization Turning Point USA in the Alleghenies. According to their map of chapters there are 27 chapters in the region. Of these, 18 are on college campuses, 5 are in high schools and 4 […]

Income and Some College Predict Trump Vote in PA Counties
May 7, 2025

Income and Some College Predict Trump Vote in PA Counties

With the 2024 election now appearing in our rear view window, it is time to look at what factors predicted Trump’s vote in Pennsylvania. County Health Rankings came out with their most recent (and possibly last) rankings for every county in the U.S. I am taking a look at which factors predict Trump’s % of […]

Liz Mikitarian of STOP Mom’s for Liberty
January 17, 2024

Liz Mikitarian of STOP Mom’s for Liberty

The 3rd most read post of 2023 was on the group Mom’s for Liberty working to ban books and bully school boards in the area. A group opposing them has sprung up that is simply called STOP Mom’s for Liberty. I spoke with the head of the group Liz Mikitarian. The group was also founded […]

16 of the Top 20 Poorest School Districts are in the Alleghenies
January 7, 2024

16 of the Top 20 Poorest School Districts are in the Alleghenies

The Small Area Income and Poverty Estimates (SAIPE) also include estimates for each school district in the U.S. The graph above shows poverty rates over the last 25 years for 5 local school districts: Altoona, Greater Johnstown, Indiana, and State College. We can see that there was a decrease in the rates for 4 out […]

A Discussion of Global and Local Poverty
October 7, 2023

A Discussion of Global and Local Poverty

Last Thursday I went to a discussion of global and local poverty at Classic Elements in Johnstown. It was led by Dr. Charles Kupchella. He is a retired professor of biology at the University of North Dakota. Dr. Kupchella has written several books including Morality: How it Evolved, How it was Hijacked and Confounded by […]

A Woke Puppeteer in Western PA Coalfields
August 3, 2023

A Woke Puppeteer in Western PA Coalfields

This is the second post by Nick Brisini. After doing research on the history of puppeteering, I realized that this noble art form seemed to be dying out in the modern world. Historically speaking, puppet shows were one of the main forms of entertainment for children and even adults. Puppeteers were esteemed, especially a woke […]

Mom’s for Liberty Working to Ban Woke Curricula in PA
February 14, 2023

Mom’s for Liberty Working to Ban Woke Curricula in PA

Watching a Cambria/Somerset Tea Party meeting broadcast live on Facebook by John DeBartola (I cannot embed the video here), I heard discussion of the group Mom’s for Liberty. They are working to stop the “woke” curricula in our schools. The image above shows where they have chapters located in Pennsylvania. As of this writing they […]