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Blair County names new planning director

Blair County Planning Commission members Thursday named Jessica Sheets as the county’s new planning director. Sheets succeeds David McFarland, who resigned April 30 after serving in the position since August 2009. Sheets had been serving as a planning commission board member since her ...

Wings, wheels draw crowd to Ebensburg

EBENSBURG — Despite some gray clouds and the potential for rain, the 22nd annual Wheels and Wings event had a great turnout, according to Danea Koss, the borough’s community development director. This year, there were 17 food vendors lined up on West Sample Street, along with the ...

Altoona Housing Authority executive director set to retire

In 1999, the Altoona Drug and Crime Commission issued a scathing report about the infiltration of drugs and its associated crime in the city, criticizing the Salvation Army Rehabilitation Center and the Right Turn drug rehab center for drawing big-city drug dealers — and to a lesser extent, ...

Bedford County Chamber of Commerce urges exploration for Fourth of July

To combat summertime boredom, the Bedford County Chamber of Commerce released an America250-themed bucket list, featuring 50 local experiences and a Patriotic Wild Goose Chase to celebrate county and national history. Bedford County America250 chair Kellie Goodman Shaffer said that ...

Former Houtzdale inmate loses civil rights lawsuit over hunger strike

A former inmate at the State Correctional Institution in Houtzdale, who engaged in a self-imposed hunger strike — but was upset when officers confiscated commissary food he kept in his cell — has lost his lawsuit against the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections. Eric L. Maple, 46, ...

Data center bills split Shapiro, lawmakers

HARRISBURG — As Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro attempts to thread a needle between attracting data center projects to Pennsylvania and satisfying their critics, members of his own party — and many Republicans — are backing a more aggressive regulatory approach. The split between the governor and other lawmakers could be seen this week in a pair of conflicting bills the Democratic-controlled state House passed. One was Shapiro’s own marquee data center proposal, which aims to incentivize developers to, among other things, be more transparent and reduce environmental impacts by ...