alleghenyindependent.media/2025/10/26/p... @putpeoplefirst.bsky.social

My write up of the #nokings rally in Johnstown. alleghenyindependent.media/2025/10/19/n...

Covering #NoKings in #Johnstown

#TurningPointUSA in the Alleghenies alleghenyindependent.media/2025/09/28/t...

The Martyrdom of Marat & #CharlieKirk alleghenyindependent.media/2025/09/21/t...

Bardstock and the Cambria Arts and Heritage Festival I recently attended 2 events locally and took some footage: Bardstock on August 23 and the Cambria Arts and Heritage Festival on September 13 and 14. Bardstock was a hastily organized literary festival by the group Poeming through the Dark. The…

Empowering Communities: Put People First! PA Takes a Stand for Healthcare Rights Lyrical Capo attended a recent Put People First healthcare rights meeting to discuss medicaid and food stamp cuts. In the heart of Oakhurst, a beacon of hope shines bright. Put People First! PA (PPF-PA), a member-led…

How Downtown Johnstown Compares to Pennsylvania When looking at the Unmet Need Score (UNS) from the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) data tool, Downtown Johnstown (zip code 15901) had the highest UNS in Pennsylvania of 96.07 out of a possible 100. The UNS is a composite of 33…

Workers over Billionaires Rally: A Call to Community Action Lyrical Capo has written this piece on the Workers over Billionaires Rally in Johnstown on Labor Day. On September 1st, Labor Day, community leaders and citizens alike gathered to express their concerns about economic inequality and…

Other Factor Differences Between Pennsylvania and the Alleghenies Last week I posted on 2 factor analyses of the health resources and services administration's unmet need score map tool for zip codes in the Alleghenies and Pennsylvania as a whole. There were minimal differences between the regions…

Health Factors in Pennsylvania and the Alleghenies I have looked at Unmet Need Scores (UNS) in Pennsylvania and the Alleghenies. The UNS is a composite of dozens of related health, social and economic variables. Teasing apart the relationships among the variables one by one is tricky. There is a…

Unmet Needs in Pennsylvania After looking at the unmet need scores (UNS) in the Alleghenies, I thought that I should backtrack and look at unmet needs in Pennsylvania. There are 1,945 zip codes in the state. As you can see in the image above, some of these cross state lines. One hundred and forty…

Freedom of Speech in this Day and Age Jackie Allison has submitted an article on her concerns about freedom of speech in this current day and age. I placed a 9x12-inch envelope on the counter at the post office. The postal worker jumped into a spiel about hazardous materials, alcohol, explosives,…

Rage Against Unmet Needs Last Saturday I went to the Rage Against the Regime protest in downtown Johnstown. I interviewed some of the participants in the video above. Groups like Indivisible organized the rally. Previously I posted on the unmet need score (UNS) for 708 zip codes in the…

Unmet Need Scores in the Alleghenies I have looked at County Health Rankings variables in Pennsylvania correlating them with Trump's vote at the county level. This time I am looking at the Health Resources and Services Administration Unmet Need Score online tool. This tool provides health data at…

Local Pharmacy Desert: Johnstown, PA – A Community in Crisis As a follow-up to my post on pharmacy deserts in Pennsylvania, Lyrical Capo has written a post on the local pharmacy desert in Johnstown. "When the pharmacy closes, the community suffers." Emphatically, this harsh reality has hit home in…

Bye Bye NPR and Colbert Photo Taken at the Rally to Restore Sanity in 2010 I was surprised by the sudden announcement of the cancellation of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert on May 4 of next year. This was after the announcement that Congress voted to cut funding for National Public Radio (NPR).…

Trump Approval Rating in the Second Term Much has been made of Trump's handling of the Jeffrey Epstein case and the passage of the so called Big Beautiful Bill. Subsequently, It usually takes a week or so before events like these register in the polls. It generally takes a few days to conduct them…

Rite Aid and Pharmacy Deserts On this page we have written about news deserts, food deserts, and legal deserts. Now we can add pharmacy desert to this list. At the end of June, Rite Aid has closed all of its stores in the Johnstown area. The Center for Rural Pennsylvania has published a fact sheet…

Non-Hispanic White Population Predict Trump’s Vote in PA This is the last in the series of County Health Rankings and Trump's Vote in PA. Accordingly, this post looks at the "Percentage of population identifying as non-Hispanic white. The 2025 Annual Data Release used data from 2023 for this…

Census Participation and Trump’s Vote in PA This is the sixth installment in my series on Trump's vote in PA and County Health Rankings (CHR). This post focuses on Census participation at the county level. It is defined as "Percentage of all households that self-responded to the 2020 census (by…

Today in #Johnstown #PA there will be an Amplify your Voice rally in Johnstown Central Park. www.facebook.com/share/p/1LFL...?

Johnstown Pride Fest 2025 Another Johnstown Pride Fest 2025 is in the books. There was a large crowd with no extreme bible beaters but many vendors. I was hoping to table at it but could not get off of work. I came for the last three hours. It was hot just like last year. The event is sponsored by…

Some College % and Trump’s Vote in PA This is the 5th post in my series on County Health Rankings variables and Trump's vote in Pennsylvania. Previously, I posted on the univariate relationship between some college, median income, and Trump's vote in Pennsylvania counties. When I entered these and…

No Kings Rally in Johnstown, PA: A Call for Justice and Humanity An Allegheny Independent Media Exclusive: Lyrical Capo covered the No Kings rally in Johnstown, PA. The rally was planned at the last minute and more than 100 people attended. They didn't have a permit to gather in Central Park so…

Severe Housing Cost Burden and Trump’s Vote in PA This post continues the series on social and health factors associated with Trump's vote in PA. Subsequently, this post will look at counties in Pennsylvania with severe housing cost burden and Trump's vote in that county. County Health Rankings…

No need for Marines at these events. alleghenyindependent.media/2020/06/04/p...

Access to Exercise and Trump’s Vote This is the next post on my series on County Health Rankings and Trump's PA county vote regression model. After the number of unhealthy days and flu vaccination, I will focus on the percentage with access to exercise and Trump's vote. Access to exercise is…

New Hate Group Numbers for Pennsylvania Annually, the Southern Poverty Law Center publishes its year in hate report. This includes their list of hate groups in each state that they are following. Nationally the number that they followed in 2024 is 1,371. This is down from 1,430 in 2023. Adjusting…

Flu Vaccination and Trump’s Vote in PA This is a followup to my post on unhealthy days and Trump's vote in Pennsylvania. There were 7 variables from County Health Rankings. The second variable identified in the model was flu vaccination rates. The relationship between flu vaccination and Trump's…

A Closer Look at the Johnstown Primaries In the election this past Tuesday primary in Pennsylvania there were few surprises as the races were mostly local. Conversely, the exception to this rule is the Democratic primary for mayor of Pittsburgh where Ed Gainey lost to Corey O'Connor. Locally the…

Unhealthy Days as a Predictor of Trump’s Vote In my last post I reported on how median income and the % having at least some college in a county predicted support for Donald Trump in that county in Pennsylvania. These were univariate correlations with Trump's vote. One sociologist I know commented…

100 Days and 2 Opinions Nancy Coleman has written a post on Donald Trump's first 100 days. Recently, we passed the 100-day mark of Donald Trump’s second crack at the Presidency. We at Allegheny Independent Media (AIM) wondered what answers we would get locally if we approached a Democrat and a…

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…

Medicaid Cuts: A Threat to Johnstown’s Most Vulnerable Lyrical Capo has written another post. This time it's on the Defend Medicaid rally held by the group Locals for Good. She details how Medicaid cuts are a threat to Johnstown's most vulnerable. Below is the video she took at the rally. Above is…

Tax Dollars at War: How Palestine’s Struggle Affects Johnstown Lyrical Capo has written this post on the Free Palestine rally in Johnstown on Sunday, April 27. It discusses how Palestine's Struggle affects Johnstown. As a resident of Johnstown, PA, you might not think about the impact of global…

The Impact of Medicaid Cuts in the Alleghenies On April 21, a forum was held at the University of Pittsburgh, Johnstown campus, on the impact of Medicaid cuts in the Alleghenies. The event was sponsored by the group Locals for Good. The Trump administration proposes slashing $880 billion in…

The Bitter Taste of Inequality: Downtown Johnstown’s Food Desert Another post from Lyrical Capo on Downtown Johnstown's Food Desert. The map below shows where it is difficult to get access to healthy foods in the area. We have posted about news deserts and legal deserts. Now it is time to discuss…

Pandemic Life Expectancies for Race in Pennsylvania The 2025 County Health Rankings are out. Their current health model is in the video above. This may be the last time that the rankings are released. This is due to the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's decision to discontinue funding. For this…

Fascism and Anti Fascism in Appalachia As a followup to my last post on legal deserts in Pennsylvania, I also filmed the above workshop on fascism and anti fascism in Appalachia. I filmed it at the 48th annual Appalachian Studies Association conference at Tennessee Tech University in Cookeville,…

Stand with Letter Carriers Rally Lyrical Capo has covered this weekend's Stand with Letter Carriers Rally in Johnstown at the Central Park Gazebo this past Sunday (while I was at the Appalachian Studies Association conference). Her report is below. "Community Unites to Save USPS!" On Sunday, March…