It would be refreshing to hear even one Pennsylvania state lawmaker announce that “I will show up for work at my Harrisburg office every day this summer to protest the lack of a 2017-18 state budget that’s responsible, realistic and in the commonwealth’s best interests for the future ...
This has not been a good stretch for the Altoona Police Department. Last Sunday morning, Officer Erik Stirk, who was off-duty, was stopped at 11:19 a.m. on the 700 block of Sixth Avenue and arrested for driving under the influence. He is expected to be charged with DUI after tests ...
President Donald Trump’s style is, well, different. In many ways he seems determined to redefine the presidency. In doing so he may give his successors new tools to deal with both domestic and foreign policy. Let us hope he recognizes the value of some of the old, well-worn tools, ...
The Mirror’s March 19 editorial began with the message that “there’s a powerful new villain on the drug scene, and talking about it before it claims people here — warning how deadly it is — is preferable to waiting until coroners and other law enforcement officials are counting its ...
No doubt Cuban leaders counted on the United States not to look back after former President Barack Obama reversed longstanding policies toward the communist island in December 2014. But there is a new president in town, and he is right to insist Cuba keep its end of the bargain. For ...
Robert Gordon of Altoona made a good point in the Mirror’s Letters to the Editor column on Saturday. “It has been nearly a month since the primary, and there are still some (candidate campaign) signs up,” he wrote, expressing the correct view that no signs should be littering the ...
Our government should battle Islamic terrorists wherever they are, of course. But when they assault people with whom we Americans have had a long friendship, our obligation becomes especially binding. Most terrorist attacks involve individuals or small groups of murderers. But a small army of ...
People of Pennsylvania don’t pay attention to financial challenges affecting the state of Kansas. After all, this commonwealth has more than enough financial headaches of its own. But it’s a good time for Keystone State residents — and their state lawmakers — to look westward, in ...
Americans will be watching closely as more information emerges about Wednesday’s shooting at an Alexandria, Va., baseball field at which a reported 22 Republican members of Congress were practicing for a charity event. However, citizens of this country will be doing more than waiting for ...
The announcement that Blair County residents might have access to new voting machines a year or two from now is indicative of county officials’ proactive attitude. But sound advice for those county leaders would seem to be that, if there are new machines, they should be put in service for ...
The public firestorm that erupted after Pennsylvania lawmakers granted themselves a big middle-of-the-night pay raise in July 2005 seemed to ensure that, thereafter, important votes would be conducted only during the light of day. But now, just shy of the 12th anniversary of that infamous ...
It’s too bad that only about 30 people showed up for state Rep. John McGinnis’ town hall meeting at the Altoona Area Public Library on June 1. The range of topics McGinnis, R-Altoona, discussed provided an important look inside Pennsylvania state government — and, most importantly, ...
Kirk Dodson, a self-proclaimed “teacher,” recently wrote that he became “shocked and dismayed” at a town hall meeting hosted by Sen. John H. Eichelberger Jr. Dodson referenced “... an affront to all who believe in the foundation upon which our country was built.” I believe in ...
Going forward, the first order of business for members of the Reade Township Municipal Authority should be to end friction and personality conflicts that have eroded the authority’s image and, more importantly, the ability to conduct itself in an organized, professional and productive ...
A $7.50 fee on every deed or mortgage being recorded — approved by the Blair County commissioners on Friday — will be good from one perspective but not so good from several others. On the positive side, the county’s landscape will benefit from having an additional financial resource ...
Any Pennsylvania resident who has watched the state’s financial fortunes worsen over the past decade probably wonders how the owner of the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant near Harrisburg can be so naive to think that the commonwealth is capable of providing financial aid to the ...
Editor’s note: The Mirror published this editorial on high school graduation a few years ago and, with slight modification concerning dates, we’ve been repeating it during graduation season. Another year has quickly passed, and we’ve arrived at the beginning of high school graduation ...
There apparently was a crack, if not a chasm, within the Altoona Area School District’s anti-bullying policies that was allegedly responsible for seventh-grader Wyatt Lansberry’s decision to take his own life. And while it’s troubling to feel impelled to make such an observation, it ...
As Central Pennsylvania joins the rest of the nation today in observing Memorial Day, the most sobering thought in the minds of many people will be that American military personnel still are dying amid the violent unrest in the world. The number of soldier deaths has declined since the United ...
The most daunting question hanging over Pennsylvania’s 2017-18 state budget deliberations is whether, at this time next year, the commonwealth’s fiscal shortfall will be close to or exceeding $4 billion. The shortfall estimate was $3 billion in early February when Gov. Tom Wolf ...