Altoona gets massive tourism boost from Big Boy visit

July 13, 2026

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 ...

Penn State Altoona summer academy brings art to life for students

July 13, 2026

A group of six rising high school sophomores, juniors and seniors are spending this week fully immersed in the visual arts at Penn State Altoona as part of a new summer academy. The program allows students to engage with traditional and digital modes of making art — including drawing, ...

Blair County Federation of Democratic Women set to meet

July 13, 2026

The Blair County Federation of Democratic Women will meet at 6 p.m. Tuesday, July 21, at Perkins Restaurant, 3300 Pleasant Valley Blvd., Altoona. All women who are registered Democrats are welcome to attend. For more information, contact Donna Cohen Dutkovich, president, at 814-330-2351, or Jan McCready, secretary, at 814-943-2570. Meetings are held on the third Tuesday of each month.

Altoona man arrested after high-speed chase in city

July 13, 2026

A city man was taken into custody after allegedly leading state police on a high-speed chase while under the influence. Maynard Macken, 58, was arraigned Sunday by Magisterial District Judge Matthew Dunio on a felony count of fleeing police and single misdemeanor counts of recklessly endangering another person and DUI, as well as 31 summary traffic violations. He was remanded to the Blair County Prison in lieu of $100,000 bail. An officer with state police at Hollidaysburg was driving along Seventh Street in Altoona about 12:44 a.m. Sunday when they saw a silver Jeep SUV accelerating ...

Reynoldsville man’s conviction upheld by Superior Court

July 13, 2026

The Pennsylvania Superior Court has upheld the conviction and prison sentence of a Reynoldsville man who came to the attention of police in May 2023 when he fell asleep at the wheel of his van while parked at a convenience store fuel pump. The Appeals Court stated that Justin Edward Salada, ...

Blair County flood damage meeting today in Tyrone

July 13, 2026

The Blair County Department of Emergency Services is inviting Blair County residents whose properties were damaged in flash flooding July 5 and 6 to a Multi-Agency Resource Center (MARC) event between 2 and 6 p.m. today, Tuesday, July 14, at Church of the Good Shepherd, 1650 Clay Ave., Tyrone, to discuss the possibility of receiving disaster relief. Tyrone, Snyder Township and the city have declared a disaster due to the damage from the storms, according to a news release from the department. The department is working with the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency to bring in ...