WEBSTER SPRINGS, W.Va.—No sitting president has ever visited here before. So it was a pretty big deal when 14 local high school students in a civics class had President Trump talking to them in their classroom Wednesday, all thanks to a Skype video call that Sen. Joe Manchin was having with them. Senior
The endless fight between Republicans and Democrats seemed to pause last week. The cause: former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz's announcement on "60 Minutes" on Jan. 27 that he is seriously considering a 2020 run for president as a centrist independent. Social media and partisan opinion writers lost their collective minds on that possibility,
BRYAN, Ohio—When the New England Confectionery Co. filed for bankruptcy in Boston last spring, there was such an immediate and deep sense of loss across the country that folks took to local stores and Amazon to claim a piece of yet another what-used-to-be. Necco Wafers, its signature product, had been part of Americana
PITTSBURGH—For nearly a quarter of a century, Amtrak's Capitol Limited route has taken me from my beloved hometown to Washington, D.C. Sometimes for fun, almost always for work, the experience is never the same. And if you are a rail lover, it is always about the experience. There is only one train that
Nine years ago Rick Scott, then a Florida businessman, sat down with a group of self-described jaded Republican strategists to discuss what it would take for him to run for governor. "You are not going to get anywhere with Hispanic voters, but we'll try," said Wes Anderson, founding partner and pollster for OnMessage
There is an irony in the fact that Ron Johnson is the guy who will carry the mantle forward for the Republican Party in Wisconsin. Even he admits that. "I kind of sprang out of the tea party movement and was sort of a grassroots guy," says Sen. Johnson about his entry into
PITTSBURGH—It's just before 7 p.m. on a frigid December night, and already the Allegheny Elks Lodge No. 339 on the city's North Side is filling up quickly—both the long bar and the tables in the adjacent hall. There's a woman collecting for a 50-50 raffle. (You may as well give in; she won't
WEST NEWTON, Pa.—Bloom Brewery is the kind of Main Street business that shut its doors a generation ago when shopping malls lured customers to their mega-buildings with well-lit parking lots, extended hours and everything imaginable under one roof. The brewery, which offers 24 artisanal beers on tap, sits near the Great Allegheny Passage,
BEAVER FALLS, Pa.—Mike Mikus speculates there are a fairly decent number of voters around here who have voted over the past 20 years in turn for Ron Klink, Melissa Hart, Jason Altmire, Mark Critz, Keith Rothfus and Conor Lamb. That is, they've swung their congressional vote from Democratic to Republican to Democratic, and
McCONNELLS MILL, Pa.—Darcelle Slappy says Democrats and Republicans who live in places like this part of Western Pennsylvania are a lot closer than how they're portrayed on TV. "Unlike Washington, we are all just a few notches from each other in either direction," Slappy says. "We have much more that draws us together
