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Editorials

City plan leaves lots to ponder

The latest and perhaps final draft of the city’s new comprehensive planning effort contains much to consider: — Much for city residents. — Much for city leaders. — Much for resident business owners and operators. — Much even for non-residents whose business and/or work interests are part of the city’s vital cornerstone. — Much for the education and religious communities. — Much for the various facets of the cultural and historical communities and the miscellaneous interests that make this wonderful city what it is today. However, the central point of the ...

25 years later, Columbine fallout remains

A Mirror article on April 18, 2019, two days shy of the 20th anniversary of the Columbine High School massacre in Littleton, Colo., focused on the emotional toll on police, especially members of a particular SWAT team, who responded to the human carnage that terrible day. “On the 20th anniversary of Columbine,” the article said, “the effects of trauma experienced by law enforcement authorities who respond to school shootings are still largely unknown. Experts say agencies are reluctant to let researchers interview officers and dredge up potentially painful ...

Amtran must always plan ahead

Winter 2023-24 won’t be remembered as having been a harsh one, from Blair County’s perspective. True, it did have its challenging moments but, all considered, Blair can count itself lucky, in terms of snowfall amount, icy temperatures and winter misery in general. Overall, it wasn’t that bad, especially from the standpoint of anyone having to drive a vehicle, no matter winter’s penchant for trickiness, unpredictability and unpleasant surprises. Still, many people here are getting impatient about not yet having had an extended period of bright, sunny, generally springlike ...

British gov’t drawing line on smoking

It’s not just a United States thing; there are smokers around the world who wish they never had taken “that first puff” of a cigarette — for health or other reasons, including the cost of continuing what many call a habit. Regardless, smokers throughout this planet who have access to world news — and who pay attention to what is going on — are likely to be interested in following a story emanating from the halls of British government about an attempt to eventually ban smoking. However, three important questions hang over the U.K. effort to create what already is being ...

Overdoses at prison troubling

The April 12 Mirror article “Five Blair prison inmates overdose” should have done more than raise the eyebrows of those reading it. The article should have been an incentive for those readers to ponder what more can be done to deter smuggling into the prison items that are forbidden — items often referred to as contraband. Some of those readers probably wondered what the Pennsylvania Legislature might be able to do, and whether the legislative delegations of Blair and surrounding counties would be able to build support among their other state governmental colleagues in ...

Rail decision better late than never

It should not have taken the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Railroad Administration two years to make the common-sense ruling against one-person crews for America’s major freight railroads. However, the ruling, having been finalized April 2, is better late than never. The prospect of one-member crews for what have become ever-longer trains — many carrying hazardous cargoes — was a preposterous idea that never should have been proposed. Although railroads disagreed and continue to disagree, the plan was a prescription for tragedy. Railroad communities such as ...