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Editorials

Why local journalism matters

I kick off every morning by checking the local and regional sports scores in a newsletter emailed to my smartphone by my hometown newspaper. I then scroll through a feed of breaking news. This information matters to my family and me. It is a compilation of Pittsburgh-area news I cannot get anywhere else. But it’s not just about my relationship with local journalism. It is about yours. While I’m filling up on the news of western Pennsylvania, Luzerne County residents are learning more about a home-rule charter and Philadelphians are reading about the death of a beloved Villanova ...

Speed issue not a quick decision

Pennsylvania Act 38 of 2023, which is keeping speed cameras in place in Philadelphia and which expanded their use there, also directed the state Local Government Commission to deliver a report within two years making recommendations about whether and how to allow other municipalities to install the cameras in question. Approval for the photographic devices for widespread use in the Keystone State is not a new issue. The state Legislature has tinkered with the idea for a number of years, but in a way that defied any sense of urgency. There are Pennsylvania residents who wonder whether ...

City budget plan well within reason

Many Altoona residents no doubt feel uneasy about tax implications that ultimately may be tied to the proposed $23 million budget plan unveiled last month by the city council. Particularly for homeowners living on a fixed income and already having difficulty making ends meet, that’s a logical reaction. However, others probably are feeling similar pangs of unease as well, considering the total amount of the proposal. However, the plan in question, whose components are spread out over a half-decade, seem to be within the municipality’s financial capabilities, if pursuit of the ...

Planning, not hope, should drive railroads

In the Altoona-Johnstown area and around other communities in the Norfolk Southern/Amtrak railroad corridor west and east, when something railroad-related is in the news, residents tend to pay attention. For example, in recent years, some major issues attracting considerable public attention were railroads’ efforts to implement one-person freight-train crews; employment reductions at Altoona’s railroad shops; and the derailment of toxic-chemical-carrying rail cars in East Palestine, Ohio, just over the Ohio-Pennsylvania border. Then there was an activist investor campaign ...

Changes must be transparent

Times change, needs change, leaders change, community visions change, attitudes change, and priorities and objectives change. That is what Blair County is experiencing regarding the somewhat controversial effort underway to designate a new tourism and promotion group to replace Explore Altoona, which is being replaced after more than a decade of service. Change is good if it produces the sought-after positive results. Change is good if the planning that went into it looks into the future as well as dealing with the present. Change is good if it is rooted firmly in enhancing the ...

Worn out by candidates, campaigns

Think what you want to think about the reliability of polls. That’s your right. But consider the finding of a Pew Research Center poll and reflect on if — and/or how — it applies to you. The poll in question, which surveyed 8,709 adults in April, found 62% of U.S. adults saying they were worn out by so much coverage of the presidential campaigns being waged and the respective candidates. Of course, having been conducted in April, the poll in question centered on fatigue that was in place months before election coverage escalated after President Joe Biden announced he was ...