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Ag challenges are problems for all of us

There seldom is much in-depth publicity about the state of farming across Pennsylvania, including the six-county Southern Alleghenies region, but perhaps now is the right time to delve into that important topic, considering what is happening across this country on the agricultural front. It is a “something” that merits much more than cursory notice and concern. At some point not many decades from now, there might be a need for generous special incentives beyond the current farm subsidies, just to keep large segments of farming alive, staffed and vibrant. The nine words of a Feb. ...

City could be proud trendsetter

A Feb. 21-22 Mirror article reminded readers that the Altoona Redevelopment Authority’s current mission is to provide enough subsidy assistance in the form of free ground, clear titles and site-preparation help to make housing projects worthwhile. Additionally, the authority is on the lookout for partners in that effort. According to Eric Luchansky, Altoona’s community development director, Gov. Josh Shapiro’s new Housing Action Plan calls for increasing the number of housing units in the six-county Southern Alleghenies region (Blair, Bedford, Cambria, Somerset, Huntingdon and ...

RFK Jr.’s vaccine skepticism enters a new phase

The stability of the U.S. vaccine market rests on an obscure $4 billion fund known as the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., long a critic of the fund, now appears intent on dismantling it. Vaccine production can be a fickle business. Unlike other pharmaceutical products, which are designed for the sick, vaccines are meant for healthy people. To meet high safety standards, trials are large and development is costly. But whereas drugmakers typically can price their products to offset such expenses, vaccines are ...

Shift in CEOs shows trend in business

A measure of economic stability oftentimes ­­— but not always — is continuity. But many companies are slamming shut the door regarding continuity, and how that will play out is a big wait-and-see question that will take a few years for an answer to be delivered, or at least a trend to be indicated. One bottom line, though, is that employees of an increasing number of companies are feeling uneasy about what might come next and whether it will be good or bad for them. “Faster CEO turnover at U.S. public companies has put the biggest class of incoming chief executives in years ...

Open talks with railroads important

As a railroad center, Altoona has lived with the prospect of train derailments for much of its history. Having lived with virtually all of the pluses and minuses of that industry for so long, including the knowledge of what their ancestors experienced during their lifetimes, people here go about their routines day in and day out without giving much thought to the dangers “built into” a rail operation in the community. Expressed more simply, people here do not shudder when a “monster” train consisting perhaps of nearly a hundred units is bearing down on their town. People ...

Higher ed deserves real conversation

Sian Leah Beilock, president of Dartmouth College, a private Ivy League research university located in Hanover, N.H., presented a bold assessment of higher education in this country in an opinion article she wrote for the Jan. 26 edition of the Wall Street Journal. No doubt the bold assessment presented by Beilock was not received kindly by many educators across America. Therefore, Beilock’s views should be a starting point for in-depth discussion and debate even in places like the six-county Southern Alleghenies region (Blair, Cambria, Somerset, Bedford, Huntingdon and Fulton ...