Voter suppression bills aim to dampen turnout

Electricity capacity threatened in plant
closures

Outside line industry effort targets safety

IBEW protests Verizon cable venture

January IEC minutes

NEBF funding notice

North of 49°
Ontario Municipal Workers Win Voice with the IBEW

Au nord du 49° parallèle
Les travailleurs municipaux de l'Ontario gagnent une voix avec la FIOE

Williamsport, Pa. — Mud-splattered Ford
F-150 pick-up trucks equipped with full tool boxes fill the parking lots of nearly every hotel, motel, bar and restaurant in Lycoming County, sporting license plates from across the country. Workers from Arkansas, Texas, Florida and even California are descending on this small Rust Belt town, which within the last two years has become one of the hottest job markets in the country.

Until recently, Williamsport was probably the last place you would move if you were looking for work. Passed over by the tech and housing booms of the early- to mid-aughts, this small town of under 30,000 nestled in the Appalachian Mountains in northern Pennsylvania — best known as the birthplace of Little League Baseball — struggled with high unemployment long before the 2008 crash.

"There just wasn't much happening around here," says Williamsport Local 812 Business Manager Jim Beamer, who said unemployment among his membership had topped 30 percent for as long as he can remember.

But today almost every Local 812 member is off the book, and the town's Chamber of Commerce is boasting more than 70 new businesses — from restaurants to construction contractors — in the last two years alone.

The source of Williamsport's newfound wealth: the Marcellus Shale, a natural gas deposit that runs across the northern section of the Appalachian Mountains from Ohio to New York, an immense supply of domestic energy that has been called America's Saudi Arabia.

Scientists and energy companies had known for years about the deposit, but until now technological limitations made it prohibitively expensive to drill.

Hill & Chilia: A Fickle and Frustrating GOP Field

Wisdom from the
Rearview Mirror;
One More Smartphone Tool;
List of Retirees?

Robert Williams;
John Amodeo;
Daniel Hetzel;
Art Murray

February 2012

In Memory of @PVAddict: Heather Andrews
(1978-2012)