On October 27, 1948, an air inversion trapped the pollution spewed out by U.S. Steel-owned factories in Donora, Pennsylvania. The Donora Fog killed 20 people and sickened 6000 others. This event was o
One story I was unable to talk about after my computer theft earlier this month was the Philadelphia School Reform Commission cancelling the contract with the city’s teachers unilaterally. It wa
On September 10, 1897, Luzerne County sheriff deputies slaughtered 19 unarmed coal miners striking outside of Hazleton, Pennsylvania. The strikers, primarily German, Polish, Lithuanian, and Slovak imm
Yuengling owner Dick Yuengling, Jr. is an anti-union extremist who thinks Pennsylvania governor Tom Corbett is “a great man,” hates unions, and is leading the Keystone State fight to make
On June 21, 1877, ten alleged members of the Molly Maguires, an Irish secret society blamed for labor radicalism in the anthracite country of Pennsylvania, were executed. The Molly Maguires began in I
If you live a city named Centralia, I recommend moving with all due speed before something terrible happens. Exhibit A: Centralia, Washington, home of the Centralia Massacre of 1919. Exhibit B: Centra
We don’t discuss specific activist campaigns much here and I need to do a better job of it. I’m particularly interested in smaller movements that are doing amazing work to create change. W
A couple of notes as we go forward in this series: 1. I am doing the states in order of joining the union. 2. Some of you are bringing up state-level politicians. That was really interesting to me. I