Breaking News

Local News

Blair County holds disaster recovery event in Tyrone

TYRONE — A little stream that’s normally a trickle runs by the Catich house on Oak Street in Snyder Township, just beyond the northeast edge of Tyrone. The unnamed stream has never flooded during the nearly 60 years the family has lived there, including when Hurricane Agnes raged in 1972, but on the afternoon of Sunday, July 5, after an hour of torrential rain, the trickle became a river that spilled into the basement entryway of the Catich house, flexed open the bottom of the cellar door, filled the basement 6½-feet deep with water and ruined the house furnace and hot water ...

Pennsylvania Farm Bureau names Nagle as new president

Pennsylvania Farm Bureau Vice President Tommy Nagle will assume the duties of president of the organization after the resignation of current President Chris Hoffman. Hoffman submitted a letter of resignation on Saturday, July 11, citing the acceptance of a new position and that he could not ...

State housing measures advance

The new state budget creates a database of public housing and two housing bills advanced as lawmakers wrapped up the spring legislative session. But no major initiatives to tackle the problem of affordable housing were enacted as part of the budget package. Proposals for a state tax credit for first-time homebuyers and using state bonds to pay for large housing development projects didn’t make it into the budget package. The Pennsylvania Housing Finance Authority (PHFA) is directed by the new Fiscal Code, Senate Bill 146, to maintain a searchable public database of housing financed ...

Pa. retirees to receive pension boost

More than 50,000 retired state workers and teachers will get their first cost-of-living increase in their pension benefits in decades under a provision included in the state budget. The cost-of-living adjustment benefits retirees who left the workforce before 2001, prior to a 2001 law that boosted pension benefits for other state government workers and teachers. On average, the retirees impacted by the change had been getting about $20,000 in benefits a year, according to the Pennsylvania State Education Association. Retirees in the State Employees Retirement System will see an average ...

Fun for the family: Local fair season kicks off Friday

The 165th Clearfield County Fair kicks off the local fair season on Friday, July 17, giving local residents and visitors much to do and see, including platinum selling country artist Gavin Adcock on July 19, Bull Ride Mania on July 22 and truck and tractor pulls on July 23. Powers & Thomas ...

Altoona gets massive tourism boost from Big Boy visit

State College routinely draws 100,000 people several times a year to watch big boys play football for Penn State. Between Wednesday and Saturday last week, Altoona drew about 100,000 people to watch a single Big Boy — the world’s largest operating steam engine — pull into town, pose at Norfolk Southern’s Rose Yard for two days, then travel to the Horseshoe Curve, where it posed again for half an hour before heading west on the NS mainline. The event’s unspooling was smooth as the rails on which the behemoth rolls and the area’s management of the Big Boy visit elicited ...