A new report explored ways to reconnect residents of the Appalachian region to employment opportunities.

The report dug into the many barriers to employment Appalachian adults face and identified ways to build career pathways for workers.

Stephen Herzenberg, executive director of the Keystone Research Center and the report's co-author, said it provides some new data on people ages 25 to 54 in the four-state region, including Pennsylvania. He argued the report makes the case for the Keystone State to implement a new national program which would create subsidized employment to boost income and improve quality of life for Appalachian adults.

"By our estimates, a couple hundred thousand folks are disconnected from the workforce," Herzenberg reported. "We need to create a mechanism by which to get them jobs that allow them to support their family, create opportunities for them to move into better jobs over time."

Herzenberg noted the report from the Ohio River Valley Institute highlighted the critical need for more jobs in coal country, where employment has been lost in fossil-fuel extraction, manufacturing and steel.

Herzenberg emphasized it is important for the Keystone State and coal-country Appalachia to target a portion of hiring for government-funded climate and infrastructure projects to long-term unemployed workers, and to women and people of color. He stressed they have often been left out of good jobs on construction and infrastructure work.

"What we can do is use the already existing Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act, use the subsidies for infrastructure and clean energy, and sustainable manufacturing," Herzenberg suggested. "Use that money to make sure that disconnected folks get a fraction of those jobs."

The report found the labor force participation rate for prime-age men has been declining, especially in coal-country Appalachia. Herzenberg reported nationally, 17 out of every 100 prime-age men are not working, and the unemployment results vary for the four Appalachian states.

"In Appalachian Kentucky, twice as big a share of prime-age men are not employed, 34 out of every 100," Herzenberg noted. "In West Virginia, the number is 27, in Appalachian Ohio it's 23, and in Pennsylvania, it's 19."

Herzenberg pointed out if prime-age people in the Appalachian parts of the four states were employed at the same rate as the nation, an estimated 206,000 more people would be working, earning more than $6.4 billion more in wages annually.

Coaches in the Renton School District, just south of Seattle, are organizing with the American Federation of Teachers to fight for what they say are "fair wages" in their first union contract.

Buddy Ryan, head boys track and field coach at Hazen High School, said Renton coaches get paid much less compared with neighboring school districts, which contributes to a 45% turnover rate in coaches from year to year.

"I'm not expecting to go buy a new car off a season of coaching, but I'm not expecting to make minimum wage to be responsible for all these kids," he said. "I think the reality is, a fair wage for a fair day's work is what everybody looks for."

Renton School District has proposed a 2.5% wage increase, far below what the coaches asked for. AFT has said the district has the funds to pay coaches fairly. The district did not respond to a request for comment.

Ryan said the low pay and high turnover rate costs the district more money in training and degrades the quality of the sports programs.

"And then what's the cost to the kids that get a different coach every year? Well, you know what ends up happening? These parents get tired of it and they take their kids to private schools, or they move and transfer them to other schools," he said.

Ryan noted that sports, along with other extracurriculars such as band, are what motivate many kids to keep their grades up in order to participate. He said the district should want to keep the programs strong.

"It's just like when you're a kid at dinner," he said, "and your parents say, 'You've got to eat your vegetables or you don't get dessert.' Well, that dessert is the after-school activities."

Nevada groups concerned about affordability, clean air and health care are speaking out against the "One Big Beautiful Bill Act" recently signed by President Donald Trump.

The new law extends tax cuts from 2017, funded partially by huge cuts to Medicaid and SNAP food benefits.

Dr. Joanne Leovy, steering committee chair for the Nevada Clinicians for Climate Action, noted it also ends the tax credit for electric vehicles on Sept. 30, which drives up the price of an EV by $7,500 while promoting the sales of gas-powered vehicles.

"This bill will dump an extra 2.1 billion tons of climate pollution into the atmosphere over the next decade," Leovy pointed out. "Increasing greenhouse gas emissions by about 7% over prior projections; the equivalent of adding more than 400,000 cars to the road."

The new law also cuts tax credits for rooftop solar and energy efficient home upgrades. Backers said the savings were necessary to fund other administration priorities, such as increased funding for immigration enforcement.

Yolanda Kemp, a member of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 4041, said she worries about job losses in the public sector.

"When states, cities, towns, and schools lose essential federal funding, they will be forced to make cuts to their budgets as well, putting all public services and jobs at risk of being cut," Kemp stressed. "And let me tell you, the 'Big, Beautiful Bill' that is supposed to help hardworking Americans is nothing more than another billionaire giveaway paid for by us."

The change to Medicaid and SNAP are not immediate but will be phased in mostly in 2027 and 2028.


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More than 1,100 caregivers at Portland's Providence St. Vincent Medical Center have voted to unionize, joining the Service Employees International Union Local 49.

Hospital staffers, including certified nursing assistants, cooks, lab assistants, pharmacy techs, environmental workers and patient representatives, will soon begin collective bargaining with management over a new work contract.

Finn McCool, senior food service attendant at Providence St. Vincent Medical Center in Portland, said changes to working conditions in the hospital were a major driver to organize.

"There's a lot that makes St. Vincent a great place to work, but we've also seen just tons of changes over the years around staffing and benefits," McCool explained. "My fellow caregivers really knew that jobs were only going to get harder."

The St. Vincent caregivers will join thousands of other unionized workers at Providence hospitals in Oregon, Washington state and other parts of the country. Providence officials released a statement, recognizing the union and saying they were prepared to work with it toward a new contract.

McCool noted the company made several changes to staffing and work policies without feedback from its employees, with changes to the employees' health care benefits causing a major upheaval.

"It's been a recent change to our health care plan with Aetna switching over, and that was probably a very large reason why a lot of us decided to vote yes," McCool pointed out. "We had our own internal health care system. We changed to a different thing. Co-pays changed. Things were definitely a lot harder with increased deductibles."

McCool stressed political uncertainty, particularly in the government's health care policies, was also a significant concern.

"We're seeing a lot of changes going on with the government with cuts, especially right now," McCool observed. "What threatens us is cuts to Medicare and Medicaid. Our CEO said, 'These cuts are threatening the hospital.'"