Thanks for the stuff, JCB. I will definitely check it out.

Alas, I don't have the time or money to visit the region myself, so I am restricted to online and print resources. I have read enough to know that the Steel Valley was once a vital industrial center and is now one of the most poverty-stricken sections of the Rust Belt. After checking some local news pages and blogs out there and seeing the then-and-now pictures, I got sad and angry about what has happened. The mob of course was a huge curse to the area, extorting money, corrupting labor, corrupting politics, and so on. Part of my father's family are Scotch-Irish from Pittsburgh, by the way.