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Editorials

Housing trust offers viable possibilities

At first glance, the $50,000 of Affordable Housing Trust Fund money that Blair County is making available to low- to moderate-income property owners to address code violations seems like a significant investment with broad positive potential. However, if you look more closely, you might grasp a different — albeit valid — position, even though the program represents a positive community investment for which county government merits plaudits, not criticism. Consider: The program, dubbed the Code Compliance Repair Assistance Program, will make only a total of 10 grants available if ...

Postal Service must practice better safety

Winding its way through Congress is legislation that would require the U.S. Postal Service to track crashes of vehicles carrying mail. The legislation, which carries the name Mail Traffic Deaths Reporting Act, and which passed the House on May 6, also would punish USPS contractors that fail to report accidents. Additionally, the Postal Service would be required to publish a yearly report focusing on its highway safety record. Are you surprised that the postal agency has not routinely been doing those things? So were many other people of this country when they learned about a Wall ...

Guidelines important for coalition

The biggest challenge facing the Blair County Re-entry Coalition’s new effort geared toward helping soon-to-be released — or just released — local prison inmates find rental housing that fits their needs will be to earn the confidence and trust of landlords trying to decide whether to participate in the program. However, it was not surprising to learn that so far there has not been an outpouring of landlord support on behalf of the program. Likewise, it was not surprising to learn that information about the new program has yet to reach many on the proverbial roster of ...

Don’t ignore terroristic elements

Most people probably do not realize that Altoona and Johnstown have been potential terrorism targets for a long time, not just since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. For example, if Germany and Japan would have been capable of attacking the United States mainland during World War II, these two industrial communities could have been prime targets, because of the nation’s transportation capabilities that Altoona helped make possible and the critical steelmaking capacity that Johnstown provided to the war effort. Consider the important support roles of the two communities during ...

Lawmakers do right on stalking law

As technology continues to change, our laws and our sense of justice must adapt to meet the new technological landscape. One such aspect of that evolution is the use of devices by predators to secretly track the locations of the victims — particularly women — that they are stalking. “Whether it’s a creep at the bar or an angry ex-partner, this is a new avenue that they can use to non-consensually track somebody without their knowledge,” Adam Dodge, CEO of digital safety education company EndTAB and a member of the World Economic Forum’s Digital Justice Advisory Committee, ...

For Norfolk Southern, vote looming large

“Nothing is going to change” is a common message delivered to employees when the ownership of their company changes. While that might be true initially, a new owner eventually makes judgments about ways to improve operations and develops plans and procedures for making those adjustments reality. Sometimes those judgments prove correct and sometimes not. Sometimes those judgments affect employees directly, sometimes not. Nevertheless, new ideas and changes are a reality daily in the business world, whether or not those ideas and changes are built upon new ownership, new ...