No one needs to be reminded that when a law enforcement officer leaves home for his or her shift, there’s no guarantee he or she will be alive at shift’s end. There are myriad dangers out there. No officer knows what he or she will have to confront, whether in terms of a person wielding ...
Although Blair County Republicans and Democrats will have the important responsibility of selecting two nominees each for seats on the Pennsylvania Superior Court, the main interest in today’s primary election balloting will be offices close to home that no registered voter should regard as ...
It’s impossible to predict whether a fully functional system of high-speed passenger rail service ever will come to this part of Pennsylvania. However, for the Keystone State as a whole and other states in close proximity to the eastern seaboard, it would be great if there were ...
Some Duncansville residents might be troubled over the explanation they’ve been given about the bidding process connected to a $201,000 state Department of Environmental Protection grant. While it is not unheard of for a project to attract bids higher than anticipated, the fact that bids ...
Pennsylvania’s Rainy Day Fund still hasn’t recovered from having been caught in the “storms” of recession and otherwise worsening state finances over much of the past decade. Ten years ago, the fund had a positive balance of $755 million. However, now, due to recession-related ...
Some wars are ignited not because they were planned, but because what could have been contained confrontations blew up in everyone’s faces. That should not — cannot — be permitted to happen between the United States and Iran. Since President Donald Trump pulled this country out of the ...
Contrary to its size, a short-in-length article in the May 3 Mirror was of interest to many people, including those who don’t necessarily pay close attention to what’s happening in the offices of state government and its various departments. The reason for that interest was that, during ...
To varying degrees, lotteries impact the budgets of America’s states. Even if lottery profits are directed primarily toward funding specific programs, like in Pennsylvania, where senior citizen programs benefit, those profits enable states to avoid tapping general fund budgets for that ...
No information has been forthcoming about whether Norfolk Southern’s adoption of what’s being called “precision-scheduled railroading,” or PSR, will impact this railroad city in a negative way. For now, that silence is good news. However, Altoona would prefer an announcement that ...
Washington again is crying “crocodile tears” about the financial condition of Social Security and Medicare. On April 22, the government’s overseers of Medicare and Social Security issued their latest annual report, this one indicating that Medicare is headed toward insolvency by 2026 ...
Former Altoona police Sgt. Matthew S. Starr should consider himself extremely lucky. The sentence meted out in Blair County Court on Tuesday to Starr, who was employed by the Altoona department for 17 years, can only be judged as anemic, considering the charges prompting his arrest. The ...
Whether Amtran can provide cost-effective bus service to Tyrone and/or State College in the future isn’t only going to necessitate a close examination of the current overall need and level of potential ridership. Also necessary will be a detailed look at past service failures involving the ...
“Fraternities just aren’t getting it” was the headline of a Mirror editorial on Nov. 10, 2017. The editorial began: “The senseless death of a Penn State University fraternity pledge in February, reported nationwide, should have made every fraternity and sorority — at every college ...
President Donald Trump revealed two pieces of big news earlier this month — one of them of enormous importance to millions of Americans who do not yet enjoy technology taken for granted by many of their neighbors. Some of those second-class tech citizens live right here in our ...
On this Easter Sunday, as Christians around the world celebrate Jesus Christ’s resurrection, a sense of sorrow also prevails, due to Monday’s devastating fire at the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, described by the Vatican as the symbol of Christianity in France and a great symbol of ...
The proposed fireworks ordinance introduced by Altoona City Council on April 10 is laudable in its intent but might not be enough to avoid a repeat of the dangerous, irresponsible fireworks mayhem that the city experienced last July 4. The city is limited in what new fireworks provisions it ...
Committed Christians believe in an all-powerful God whose majesty and beauty cannot be comprehended, much less matched. Yet on rare occasions, humans are moved to incredible feats of creation as testaments of the depth of their faith. More than 850 years ago, on an island in the Seine River ...
When John Frederick assumes his new role as Antis Township recreation and environmental code director today, he will be bringing with him an opinion that concurs with foresight demonstrated by the Blair County Planning Commission a half-century ago. Back then was when Altoona was beginning to ...
“Health care is a human right, not a privilege,” lectured Sen. Bernie Sanders — even as he unveiled a plan that would deny Americans the right to seek the best health care they can afford. Sanders, the Vermont Independent running for the Democrat nomination for president, previewed his ...
On the landscape of total annual federal spending, the $15 million that two area congressmen are seeking for research into finding a cure for chronic wasting disease would be but a pittance. Congress and the Trump administration would be remiss if they declined to make available — as ...