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In the news on this date: July 3

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Local history

50 years ago: July 3, 1973

About 20 local groups interested in solid waste production and disposal formed a group called the Blair County Ecology Society. They recommended Blair County form a solid waste authority with member and Altoona teacher Barbara Shepherd as head.

25 years ago: July 3, 1998

A man named Dave Grout walked across a 150-foot bed of burning embers at the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown campus, setting a new record in the Guinness Book of World Records. The record was previously 120 feet.

10 years ago: July 3, 2013

UPMC Altoona acquired a device called a biometric palm scanner to identify a patient who was unconscious when admitted by reading the vein pattern in the palm of his hand.

-- Compiled by Tim Doyle

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