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Macomb County GOP and the 2020 election (4/22/22)On Monday evening, each of Michigan's 83 county parties held Republican conventions. Conservatives met with the purpose of electing delegates to the state endorsement convention to begin the process of nominating candidates for attorney general and secretary of state, as well as to the Supreme Court and state education boards...
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Chris Frye is helping stage New Castle's comeback (4/2/21)NEW CASTLE, Pennsylvania For over 100 years, the sprawling Shenango China plant warmly greeted just about every person who entered this Lawrence County city. Its 30 acres of multipane windows reflected off the Shenango River when they entered the city...
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As an industry faces destruction, it grows a voting coalition (3/8/21)FRIEDENS, Pa. — Imagine if you had a job. A good job, one that required skill and critical thinking and had a broad impact in the community where you lived. A job you didn’t just show up to do. It was a job you were good at, and because of it, you were able to provide a roof over your family’s head, put your children through college or help pay for their wedding, and once a year, it gave you the ability to carve out a week or two to take the family on vacation. ...
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These girls are hurt by transgender competition (3/1/21)Alanna Smith’s dedication to her sport is profound. Just listening to the elite high school track star explain her training schedule is exhausting. Yet no matter how hard she trains, if she has to compete against biological males, she stands no chance of winning...
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The kids aren't all right (2/17/21)PITTSBURGH One year ago, Lena Carson was pulling straight A's at the city's Creative and Performing Arts Magnet school, located across the river from her parents' home. She also swam at the local YMCA every day in preparation for the annual state competition and enjoyed the everyday social life of a teenager...
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The red wave no one saw coming (11/16/20)PINE TOWNSHIP, Penn. -- Had you spent any time in this northern suburb of Pittsburgh listening to voters, finding out what matters to them when it comes to schools, community growth, economic prosperity and the emotional impact of the COVID-19 lockdowns, you would have at least been skeptical of the media narrative and the polls that claimed suburban voters here are no longer center-right...
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What's old can be made new again (11/7/20)HILLSDALE, Michigan Sometimes, lessons we are trying desperately to unravel about where we are as a country and as a culture are right in front of us. But we've been so distracted by all of the convenience and chaos technology has provided our lives that we've missed what we've always known, not just about where we are going but who we are in that journey...
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The economy is struggling, but gun sales are soaring (8/12/20)OAKMONT, Pa. Long before you find yourself standing in front of the Smoke N' Guns shop, the delicate aroma of coffee beans and hand-rolled cigars beckons your senses as you walk along Allegheny River Boulevard. Outside the shop, four black leather chairs spread a respectable 6 feet apart are waiting for either the overflow of customers or locals such as Marcello Frollo to hold court. ...
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Minor League Baseball survives and waits its turn (8/5/20)ALTOONA, Pa. As the scent of fresh-cut grass delicately fills the air, so do the aromas of hot dogs and hamburgers coming from the grill on the lower deck. Just past right field, there is an amusement park where you can hear the slow clink, clink, clink of the roller coaster as the carriage climbs its ancient wood scaffoldings. The kitschy music found at any ballpark in America echoes throughout...
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America recovered from Spanish flu for one reason: unity (7/29/20)PITTSBURGH -- Six months after a private staggered into the Fort Riley Army base infirmary in Kansas with a raging fever, chills and a sore throat, this city braced for the impact as the first wave of the 1918 flu pandemic made its way here. It had already traveled from Kansas to Europe as troops shipped off to war and then headed back to the United States, first in Boston, then Philadelphia and finally landing here in Pittsburgh the last week of September...
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The way to prosperity has many paths (7/22/20)PROSPERITY, Pennsylvania How this little village earned its name is rooted in an old tale featuring a common last name, one-in-a-million odds and a likely exaggeration about how many settlers were attracted to the middle of the frontier. "It was founded in 1848 by a gentleman named Robert Wallace," explains Clay Kilgore, executive director of the Washington County Historical Society. ...
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May religious liberty stand the test of time and culture (7/15/20)ENON, Pennsylvania Somewhere along the line, the little village of Enon was reclaimed by the land. For years, this was where the hopes and dreams of immigrants were realized, the dreams of many Welsh Baptists and Quakers who fled their homeland when the British government persecuted them for their dissent from the Church of England. That same government also wanted to force them to adhere to English culture...
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Senior citizens will be the ‘deciding factor’ iin 2020 election (7/13/20)WESTMORELAND COUNTY, Pennsylvania — The ad shows a drive-by of a rural, post-industrial unnamed town in this western Pennsylvania county. The woman in the ad says her name is Janie. She is a fisher who caught two legal Northern pike the day her daughter was born, voted for Donald Trump in 2016 and now believes the choice was wrong because of his attempt to try to cut Medicaid...
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Madonna of the trail defies statue-toppling culture (7/1/20)BEALLSVILLE, Pa. If you are driving too fast, you'll miss her. It often happens at the pitch of the rolling Appalachian Mountain, where she has stood for nearly 100 years: the statue of a sturdy frontier woman holding a rifle in one arm and an infant in another, with another child clinging to her long skirt...
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For now, an unknown monument safe from historical purges (6/24/20)JUMONVILLE, Pennsylvania What happened here 266 years ago had repercussions so profound they changed the course of world history abruptly and irreversibly. A disputed moment occurred that led to the French and Indian War, the first true world war that would drag on for seven years, draw blood on five continents and have costs that would directly lead to a colonial uprising...
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'Ghostbusters,' drive-ins and marching forward together (6/17/20)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...
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Revisiting William McKinley's victory through the lens of 2020 (6/10/20)NILES, Ohio -- Truth be told, neither the home William McKinley was born in nor the front porch 55 miles west of his birthplace from which he conducted his presidential campaign exist anymore. The small, wood-plank-sided home here on state Route 46 is a replica of where the 25th president of the United States was born. ...
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Masks made in America by an all-American company (6/3/20)BRISTOL, Tenn. There is not one thing in the jeans, flannel-lined jackets, denim jackets, overalls, shirts, carpenter pants, custom uniforms or masks produced by L.C. King Manufacturing that is not made in America. Nothing -- not even the threads or the rivets...
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'Joe has absolutely no idea what's happening' (5/20/20)ALLENTOWN, Pa. President Donald Trump, speaking to the Washington Examiner ahead of an event at a medical supply facility in this key swing state, took aim at Joe Biden's mental faculties, at one point claiming his Democratic challenger "has absolutely no idea what's happening."...
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The Natural: MLB legend recalls his 27-strikeout game (5/13/20)BELLE VERNON, Pennsylvania -- As Ron Necciai recalls, the first two batters both went down in strikes. The third guy got lucky -- sort of. The ball got away from the catcher, who quickly got the batter out at first. It was May 13, 1952, a cold, damp Tuesday night for 1,100 people at Shaw Stadium in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. Necciai was pitching for the Bristol Twins, a Pittsburgh Pirate-affiliated Appalachian League farm team, against the Welch Miners...
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On Virginia-Tennessee border, one side is open for business while the other is still on lockdown (5/6/20)BRISTOL, Tenn./Virginia State Line Joe Deel is behind the chrome-trimmed turquoise counter of his legendary diner, the Burger Bar in Virginia, working with his wife, Kayla; daughter Emily; and sous chef, Corey Young. They can see people going to lunch at the State Line Bar and Grill in Tennessee, just across the street and less than 50 yards away. But their round, black-topped stools remain as empty as they were nearly two months ago when the coronavirus first shut down the country...
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Small-town America: 'One bad season away from bankrupt' (4/29/20)OHIOPYLE, Pa. -- Like most places in the United States, this tiny patch of a town is struggling to stay afloat. Like most places, people here are trying to help others out. And like most places, those who live and work here wonder whether their community will ever be the same...
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While the economy goes bust, farm-to-table booms (4/21/20)MIDDLETOWN, Md. -- There is an argument to be made that the coronavirus pandemic could change the food supply chain for the long term. It may disrupt across the board our reliance on distant producers, processing plants and large chain grocery stores...
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American truckers: our new first responders (4/15/20)SHIPPENSBURG, Pa. -- Chet Eby is making sure you will get all of the bacon you need for breakfast, or that thinly sliced prosciutto and provolone sandwich you've been craving. It is a Wednesday afternoon, and the 31-year-old has his young sons, Austin and Evan, with him hauling a load of 20-pound piglets from Cumberland County to Iowa. ...
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Coronavirus claims new victims: places and pasts (4/8/20)BROTHERSVALLEY TOWNSHIP, Pennsylvania -- Anyone who drives along the narrow, winding township road just off of U.S. Route 219 immediately finds themselves whisked back in time, if only for a moment, as their car enters the Burkholder Bridge. The 150-year-old structure has cherry-red shingles; a charming sign bearing its name across the arc of the roof; and alabaster white sidewalls, which are distinctive because their openness allows much of the structure to be exposed. ...
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Coronavirus even closed the Waffle House (4/1/20)CHAMBERSBURG, Pennsylvania It is early Sunday morning along one of the few congested stretches of the Lincoln Highway when an empty parking lot below the familiar cheery yellow sign for the local Waffle House catches the eye. The 24-hour diner chain, born in the Atlanta suburbs 65 years ago and now spreading across 25 states with nearly 2,000 locations, is primarily known for its ability to serve as a touchstone in every community it serves. ...
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Veterans running for office put pandemic before politics (3/25/20)ALIQUIPPA, Pa. -- Retired Army Capt. Sean Parnell, a decorated war veteran who served in combat in Afghanistan, found himself doing what he always does when he feels the need to serve. "My community is struggling right now," he said. "It is sort of not in my nature to stand by and do nothing. One of the things I learned in the Army is that when you are a leader, you need to go where the contact is heaviest."...
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Portrait of an American city at the dawn of a pandemic (3/18/20)PITTSBURGH -- On Friday, James Coen is folding and unfolding, arranging and rearranging the piles of colorful St. Patrick's Day T-shirts he has displayed on folding tables outside one of the three sports retail stores he owns. The stores are all large historic buildings with big, shiny, planked hardwood floors, all snuggled in a three-block radius between assorted assemblages of late-19th-century buildings along what is affectionately called "The Strip" or "Strip District."...
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What we lose by closing community department stores (3/11/20)Five years ago, the sad goodbye to an icon began when Macy's decided to close its flagship location in downtown Pittsburgh. The void, alas, still remains. For most of that building's storied 110-plus-year-old life, until Macy's took it 15 years ago, it was Kaufmann's department store: a place where parents, whether they were working-class or well-to-do, took their babies to get fitted for their first pair of shoes; or purchased their communion dress, prom dress, wedding gown, back-to-school clothes; or bought them the sheets, furniture, toasters, pots and pans they needed to start their adult lives.. ...