The once-a-decade collection of information about Americans may well go down in history as the first digital census. Let us hope it also is not recorded as an electronic fiasco. Officials at the U.S. Census Bureau will be utilizing tons of state-of-the-art technology in gathering ...
Altoona taxpayers, as well as taxpayers throughout the rest of Blair County, have good reason to be edgy these days. Since Jan. 31, the financial news emanating from Altoona’s city council chambers and from the county commissioners’ meeting room has been unsettling, not only for the short ...
Pennsylvania is one-third of the way to becoming a more prominent player in the presidential primary nominating process, albeit not until 2024 at the earliest. The Keystone State must not allow this opportunity to fail. With the state Senate having voted unanimously last month to approve a ...
Within just a few days, four police officers — two in New York City and two in Forrest City, Arkansas — were shot by gunmen. A grim fact of life for law enforcement personnel is that, by the time you read this, it may be outdated. Attacks on police officers and sheriff’s deputies have ...
People who have followed developments in the Roman Catholic Church’s clergy sexual abuse scandal over the past several years —many of whom having had their trust, confidence and loyalty tested and shaken by it — have reason now for increased confidence that such a widespread situation ...
Much food for thought — and debate — was offered by President Donald Trump during his State of the Union address last Tuesday evening. Among other things, Trump discussed the strong economy, including achievements such as the lowest unemployment rate for African-Americans on record. ...
There is no need for concern over Gov. Tom Wolf’s proposal to increase spending by roughly $2 billion — to $36.6 billion — in the 2020-21 fiscal year that begins July 1. The budget plan the governor introduced Tuesday is nothing more than a financial foundation on which the Legislature ...
Americans frown on excessive regulations that impose years-long — even decades-long — delays in starting and completing badly needed infrastructure-improvement projects. According to a Jan. 10 Wall Street Journal report, business groups say lengthy mandatory reviews under the National ...
We are told frequently that we ought to be worried about the seas rising because of climate change. But another type of sea — of viruses and bacteria — also is rising. Ought we to be as complacent as we clearly are about it? At this writing, Chinese officials had said the death toll ...
Some Mirror subscribers read articles containing references to the pension plan covering Blair County government workers without giving much thought to the significance of what they have read. However, a Jan. 21 article headlined “Blair seeking pension plan study” contained fodder for ...
Had 22,000 people showed up in Richmond, Virginia, to demand stronger gun control laws, it is a safe bet that proponents of them would have pronounced the crowd to be conclusive proof that most Americans want such restrictions. But when a group estimated at that size demonstrated earlier this ...
In asking AMED to consider adding all or part of their municipality to the ambulance service’s official full-time coverage area, the Reade Township supervisors have made it clear that they recognize the value of having a service of AMED’s caliber ready to respond to their residents’ ...
As surely as Pennsylvania General Assembly legislative sessions come and go, so does the issue of property tax reform. Property tax reform jumped out of its state capital slumber again on Jan. 7 as Senate President Pro Tempore Joseph Scarnati, R-Jefferson, was speaking with ...
On this national holiday honoring his birth, Americans are reflecting anew on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s indelible mark on this nation’s civil rights movement. There will be many references today to his “I Have a Dream” speech given in front of the Lincoln Memorial during the 1963 ...
The laudable anti-Medicaid-fraud initiative announced Monday by Pennsylvania lawmakers would, if enacted, establish a strong framework for ensuring that the money in question is used to benefit people who truly need it and punish those who receive such funds illegally. However, an appropriate ...
Among the good reasons for getting a flu shot is to keep yourself healthy enough to be there for the folks who need you this time of year. That is true in a larger sense when it comes to those in need of donated blood — and there are many more than we may think. According to blood banks, ...
Tyrone Borough Council resolved a minor, albeit nagging, issue by deciding to reinstall five parking meters on Logan Avenue, next to the municipal parking lot just south of the borough building, that the borough removed a few months ago as a convenience to customers of businesses across the ...
Many Blair County taxpayers probably are not happy about the Jan. 7 decision not to reopen the county’s 2020 budget to cut expenses and possibly pare down or eliminate this year’s 3.7 percent real estate tax increase. New Commissioner Amy Webster sought those moves, but her motion failed ...
For the past two fiscal years, Pennsylvania taxpayers have had cause for cautious optimism about the Keystone State’s financial condition for the short and longer terms, going forward. During numerous months of those fiscal years, which run from July 1 through June 30, incoming revenue ...
The saying “you have to spend money to make money” is not new, but it deserves considerable thought by officials of Amtrak going forward, especially regarding places such as Altoona and Johnstown — and other communities like them in Pennsylvania, west and east. A report in the Jan. 2 ...