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Death penalty must be based on evidence

The death penalty is divisive. Support for and opposition to it is not as easy as political party or position. It is all over the map. There are people with firmly held convictions about crime and law enforcement who draw a line when it comes to capital punishment. There are very mild-­mannered, gentle people who believe vehemently in the biblical justice of an eye for an eye. Regardless of support or opposition, most people would probably agree that it is a complicated question. It is not as easy as checking a box. Capital punishment may be the most nuanced issue in criminal law. ...

City’s success needs new map of resources

With Altoona’s Kress Building now an officially completed component of the city’s downtown renaissance landscape, the city can look back with pride regarding what has been completed so far while continuing to look for new positive targets to pursue. Kress and, before it, the once dilapidated former McCrory Building, are excellent examples of what can be done, without succumbing to time’s — and also, unfortunately, neglect’s — undermining of once-proud structures that were among the dominant central points of when downtowns, not adjacent or not-so-adjacent suburbs, exercised ...

PSU cares more for coaching than campuses

Penn State has firmly held priorities. But are they the ones the university wants people to believe? The football team came into the season with the highest rank it has ever held to start the year; it was No. 2, right behind Texas and ahead of longtime rival Ohio State. After a 2024-25 season that was among the best of the post-Joe Paterno years, it seemed like validation of James Franklin as head coach. In five weeks, that fell apart with a home loss to Oregon. Years of grumbling about losses of big games intensified with calls to can the coach. Two weeks and two losses to unranked ...

Paper checks going way of rotary phone

There are young people today who don’t have a clue what a rotary telephone was all about. They’re even more in the proverbial dark about the former existence of party lines and what they entailed — and what had to be endured — when part of one. Many young people probably can’t fathom a time when cellphones didn’t exist and how people accomplished anything without having one always at the ready. With time comes change, and now a significant change is happening on the federal front. It was a change destined to happen sooner or later and that “sooner” is now. Based on ...

Altoona confronting absenteeism

The goals set for the 2025-26 school year by Altoona Area School District administrators are laudable, indeed. However, now that the goals are in place and have been made available to district residents and others interested in the school system’s goings-on, the challenge, going forward, will revolve around ensuring that highest-priority status is accorded to the right objective, for special attention, while lower-priority objectives are allowed to continue moving forward as well at their own pace. One item especially sticks out among the objectives discussed in a front-page ...

Pennsylvania should follow Minnesota lead

No matter when and/or how Pennsylvania’s budget impasse ends, members of the General Assembly need to exercise an examination of conscience into why they allowed the current fiscal embarrassment to persist for so long — now having passed the three-month mark for a basic budget-preparation responsibility that should have been completed by the June 30 deadline. There are people in this state who believe if lawmakers don’t want to do their job they should resign and presumably allow someone more responsible and responsive — some people would use the word “competent” — to ...