Breaking News

Editorials

Children, not drivers, have right-of-way

Right-thinking people of Pennsylvania have to be wondering whether the study associated with obtaining a driver’s license in this state has begun being regarded as something that doesn’t really matter — that the information presented is part of a lame exercise worthy of being forgotten quickly. Does Pennsylvania really have so many drivers who don’t know what blinking red lights on a school bus mean? Then there’s the obvious follow-up question: Does Pennsylvania really have so many drivers ignorant of the potential costs associated with the illegal practice — in human ...

RFK Jr.’s vision of CDC should alarm Congress

Susan Monarez’s 28-day tenure as the nation’s top public health official was doomed from the start. Her boss, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., wanted her to do two things: champion his dubious anti-vaccine agenda and uphold “gold-standard science” at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Recognizing the conflict, Monarez chose the latter and was fired last month. Monarez’s departure from the CDC highlights a dilemma that any successor will face: Under Kennedy, no serious scientist can hold the job. The risk this vacuum of expertise could pose to Americans’ health and safety ...

Kick off holidays with giving

First thoughts of the end-of-year holiday season emerge for many people as summer gives way to autumn. This year autumn begins on Sept. 22 and, by then, many other residents of this area already will have turned their thoughts away from summer’s hot, sultry days and refocused on the cooler conditions evolving and the beauty of the changing leaves. Mention the phrase “season of sharing” and Christmas comes to mind, as well as something else that has become important here amid all else that the holiday season delivers. That “something else” is the Altoona Mirror’s annual ...

Politics should never have a body count

When we look at our history, it is a timeline where the major marks are often political and frequently violent — and too regularly both. This is not unique to America. It is not a problem of modern history. It is global and timeless. Assassination has changed the face of the world from Ancient Egypt to the Roman Empire to medieval Europe. It first landed in the United States when Abraham Lincoln was shot at Ford’s Theatre in 1865. The most recent example is the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk on Wednesday as he engaged with supporters and opponents at Utah Valley ...

Report fails to offer hope to jobseekers

Americans struggling to make ends meet probably don’t care to know how many billionaires there are in the United States, where most of them reside or how much the size of the “billionaires club” has increased since 2020. Struggling Americans today do want to know the prospects for more and better jobs and their prospects for markedly improving their lives. Unfortunately, it appears that for the “struggling crowd” more disappointment and frustration awaits them, as well as deteriorating confidence in general. It is not what people in this country have been anticipating ...

Audit refusal should not have occurred

It’s good that the troubling development regarding an audit of the Pinecroft Volunteer Fire Company apparently has been put to rest. The stated and voted-upon refusal that was at the center of the issue never should have occurred. Abiding by a promise made years ago should have precluded what occurred. From the get-go, there was nothing wrong with that promise. Back when the Pinecroft fire service promised to have its books audited every five years, the fire company was trying to recover from a theft involving company funds. Fortunately, the crime was uncovered without having ...